Notices by Dave Rahardja (drahardja@sfba.social)

Congratulations to the #AmazonTeamsters in DCK6 #SanFrancisco #sfba for officially forming a union!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCpBNtZMYiA/

https://teamster.org/2024/10/amazon-warehouse-workers-in-san-francisco-join-teamsters-union/

#unionize #unionStrong #solidarity #teamsters

@evan 🤷 OK then.

@evan Yeah, I still don’t get how it specifically applies to the Fediverse. We have the W3C as the governance (or at least standards) body for the protocol. What would a “governance organization” of the Fediverse do?

@evan What does governance mean here?

If you own any kind of car with an electronic door release, PLEASE read the manual and learn where the emergency mechanical release is. Tesla Model Y’s front door release is an unmarked tab in front of the window controls. Its rear door release is inconveniently hidden under a panel in the door pocket. You will probably not find these unless you read the manual.

Having said that, these designs are awful and they have killed multiple people. I always point to the Porsche Taycan as the best design in this department: to open the door electronically, pull on the door handle. To open it mechanically, pull on the door handle HARDER. This is the way. https://universeodon.com/@TomWellborn/113472607330092688

@eribosot Engineers have long complained about the “MBA syndrome”—the idea that an MBA can solve any problem by applying textbook business principles, which usually destroys any semblance of craftsmanship, fun, or quality-of-life differentiators in their products, and ruins company morale. Little do they (we) know that we have the same blind spot.

@cstross @Remittancegirl Occam’s Razor says it’s just shitbags.

“when your service is on the brink of being shut down by its investors, who demand that you compromise on privacy, or integrity, or quality, in some relatively small way, are you really going to stand on principle? What about all the users who won't be harmed by the compromise, but will have their communities and online lives shattered if you shut down the company? What about all the workers who trusted you, whose family finances will be critically imperilled if you don't compromise, just a little. What about the "ecosystem" partners who've bet on your service, building plug-ins, add-ons and services that make your product better? What about their employees and their employees' families?”

“Bluesky and enshittification” by @pluralistic

#enshittification #startupCulture

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yourself-to-a-federated-mast

Oh look, another anti-democratic and violent bullshitter trying to ruin the election. I’m so tired of these unpatriotic thugs. https://www.wired.com/story/constitutional-sheriffs-disrupt-election/

Mongolian. Heavy. Metal.

#music #throatSinging #heavyMetal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZUr0BEfE

Bezos did it. #WashingtonPost #billionaires

“Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports”

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/25/jeff-bezos-killed-washington-post-endorsement-of-kamala-harris-.html

Sounds totally legit and not #moneyLaundering at all

#tesla #bitcoin #crypto

“Tesla moves $765 million in Bitcoin to unknown wallets, putting Musk’s crypto plans in the spotlight”

https://fortune.com/2024/10/16/tesla-moves-765-million-in-bitcoin-to-unknown-wallets-putting-musks-crypto-plans-in-the-spotlight/

“The problem — the real human cost — is that by mythologizing these men, by putting them on a pedestal, we allow them to alter the terms of reality. Generative AI's destructive, larcenous growth exists in large part because people buy Sam Altman's shit, and because they believe that he's somebody special, a genius operator that can do the impossible, which in turn helps them platform his half-truths and outright lies.

Mark Zuckerberg has weathered the storm of his decaying services and the horrifying things that Meta does on a daily basis because people still want him to be some sort of Silicon Valley hero, and he will continue to accumulate wealth and power while actively harming both his products and society at large as long as we keep treating him as such.”

https://www.wheresyoured.at/rockstars/

On this #IndigenousPeoplesDay, we come together to say #FuckColumbus.

https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2021/10/11/8-myths-and-atrocities-christopher-columbus-and-columbus-day/6092483001/

@grvsmth @gregdavis @avdi The sealion appears again!

@FlashMobOfOne I know it’s difficult to deal with humans sometimes, but hoping for a humanoid servant who obeys your whims leads to a very dark place.

We already live among robots; machines that autonomously relieve us of tedious chores have existed for more than a century. We lived among robots when James Watt sold steam engines that milled wheat tirelessly all day. Our cars have lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and automatic headlights. At home, we have washing machines, rice cookers, thermostats, and automatic floor sweepers. In factories, robots make and assemble everything from ramen noodles to automobiles. Robots are already everywhere.

But none of these robots look like *people*; and that’s for a good reason: their shape is dictated by their purpose. They are optimized to do *one or two jobs very well and economically*, and as every generation of robots get better at what they do, their shapes become more optimized for their intended jobs.

So why do a certain class of folks continue to lust after a future of robots that look like humans?

#robots #FridayDevAdvice

Blog post form: https://www.humancode.us/2024/10/11/robots-should-not-look-like-people.html

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Look, if you want to make a robot that cooks fried rice faster and more cheaply than a human, you wouldn’t make one that looks like a human who manipulates woks and spatulas; you’d make a big box into which you pour ingredients, and invent simplified mechanisms that do the job. But if you want to make a robot that *directly devalues the worth of a human cook*, you’d make one that looks like the human cook. After all, a human cook could plausibly claim that their food has a special touch that the big industrial box cannot replicate; but they can’t make the same claim against a robot that uses the same implements and methods they use to make their products.

#robots #FridayDevAdvice

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While humans are fantastic generalists, we are not very good at any repetitive chore. Human-shaped robots will not only inherit our flexibility, but also our limitations. Our lanky, limbed bodies evolved to satisfy evolutionary pressures that robots aren’t subject to, so why bother making robots that are constrained to the human form, teetering on two tiny feet, doomed to never be very good at any task in particular?

I believe the reason is simple: *because humanoid robots devalue human labor.* By inserting robots into environments meant for humans, you directly displace human labor.

#robots #FridayDevAdvice

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Proponents of humanoid robots often hawk a Utopia in which every poor and middle-class household has a humanoid servant that frees them from tedium. But this sort of relief has been a promise of *every* technology of automation for several generations, and last I checked, workers have not become more wealthy and leisurely at all. In fact, the majority of the fruits of productivity borne by automation has so far accrued to the very wealthy, and very little to the poor. There’s no reason to believe this time it will be different.

#robots #FridayDevAdvice

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