This is glorious.The best time to burn a bridge is when you never, ever want to cross it again. #genai (Edit: This is a notice explaining why somebody is shutting down a long-running project to measure word frequencies.) https://github.com/rspeer/wordfreq/blob/master/SUNSET.md
@inthehands@nightdream For anybody interested in this, I think Loewen's book "Sundown Towns" is very much worth reading. The way he weaves together hard census data with history and anecdote really changed my understanding of America.
Does anybody need a terrabyte of historical ship movement data that I'm about to delete? It's from aishub.net, circa 2016-2023. I'm done with the project I was collecting it for, but thought I'd check in case anybody else wants it. Yours for the cost of getting it out of AWS.
@inthehands That's where I've got to as well, but it can be a long road. Trauma takes time in safety to heal. With so many loud Christian voices lining up behind state enforced harm right now, safety can be hard to find. Nothing wrong with asking for generosity, but I hope nobody's expecting it. @suzannealdrich
I've been staying out of the discussion over Biden's candidacy, and I probably still will. But I wanted to express my gratitude for him defeating Trump last time, and for a term that was more productive than many, me included, expected. His deep contrast as a person and a leader to Trump was a huge relief, and I'm thankful for it.
So I'm moving permanently across the country. I could happily keep my 415 phone number, or I could switch and get a local one. For people who have tried either path in the last few years, any thoughts?
Jack Dorsey is a world-class fool. Is this the sort of brain rot you get from being a billionaire surrounded by yes men? Or was he always somebody who seemed, as my grandfather would put it, like he was kicked in the head by a butterfly? https://www.piratewires.com/p/interview-with-jack-dorsey-mike-solana
I am soon moving to Chicago, which is generally great, but it looks like my only ISP option is Comcast, which is not. Do people have tips on what plan to choose and tricks to wrangle what seems like an adversarial relationship? I'll be working from home doing programmer things.
@mekkaokereke One thing that strikes me here is how little white people ever hear that testimony directly. Twitter was the first time I heard the frank, unmediated thoughts from a wide variety of black people. Over time it really changed my perception of many things about American society. But I had to seek it out.
@mmasnick Glad to hear it, but I think that pivot is too quick. I think it's an open question whether protocols can solve for systemic harms. Looking at the history of email, the web, and the cryptocurrency world, I'd say the track record is at best decidedly mixed.
I think people are missing something with Bluesky's "consumer choice" model of moderation. A lot of harmful content has harm beyond *you* seeing it. 1/
I have real trouble getting my head around the way we nearly eliminated flu season for a year and now we're right back to accepting tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths per year. Same with Covid, of course. How many other lives could we save with modest change?
@cstross My sympathies! This is a pernicious problem in tech. For years I volunteered helping people learn methods where they would pay attention to actual people and actual needs. But as things like WeWork and FTX show, doing it right is often not only beside the point, but an obstacle to getting stupid rich. It's like expecting a prosperity gospel preacher to care about being a good person. @lilithsaintcrow
@thomasfuchs I count at least 5 waves of "stereoscopic 3D is a game changer" innovation going back to the 1850s. Every time so far it evaporates.
My theory is that it's a combination of the wow/novelty factor plus the idea that 3D has to be lots better. Always ignoring that it's cumbersome and that human brains don't need to use two eyes to reconstruct depth.
@cstross As a fellow middle-aged cis white male, I have a theory. I've been wondering how the "ZOMG GAI is almost here" crowd sees things so differently than me. I suspect many of them, mostly cis white men, pay no attention to the actual humanity of the people around them, especially those they see as lesser/subordinate. So when they see ChatGPT as nearly human, that's because it's about as complex as their understanding of their wives, girlfriends, and employees.
Chicago-area writer, software developer, runner, and nerd wrangler. Very interested in online community and reducing the harm of tech. Creator of @sfships. Formerly on Twitter at https://twitter.com/williampietri