Notices by Josh “Yoshi” Vickerson (josh@vickerson.me)

Today I saw elevated activity on a client's server... Checked the logs, getting hammered by AmazonProductDiscoveryBot... cool, cool.

Turns out, Amazon will, in some cases, list companies on their marketplace automatically, without consent, via information gathered using this bot.

In other words - they'll try to automatically become a middleman between you and your customers.

How the fuck is this even legal?

@skinnylatte yeah… I am the former employee 1 at a company that sold for $105 million. I was pushed out for daring to ask questions about how we maintain quality, if we’re actually building things that matter to our customers… you know, basic good business shit.

But because I wasn’t a cheerleader for the private equity overlords I was “difficult” and had to be let go 🤡

Serious question.

Does anyone who works on a mainstream app *actually use said app*?

Like, does anyone who works at Netflix actually use a Netflix app on any platform?

Does anyone who works on Samsung TV software *use* a Samsung TV?

Because these experiences are so universally terrible I cannot fathom working on these products and having any self respect.

It’s just one user hostile decision after another and these products barely work. It’s so fucking embarrassing.

@badnetmask I think SeaFile fits that description

Edit: burn after reading isn’t a feature I don’t think. Share links can expire, however.

https://www.seafile.com/

@strght @dansup came to ask the same thing.

“Generative AI is polluting the information environment such that many people can no longer tell if they’re looking at AI slop or something real, leaving them open to manipulation by bad actors. When they do turn to generative AI for news, the information they receive misrepresents the story 45% of the time, according to the largest study so far on the subject.”

https://disconnect.blog/generative-ai-is-a-societal-disaster/

I've spent the past 15 minutes trying to pick something to quote to entice people to read this essay and I can't choose. The whole thing is that good.

Just go read this:

“The Rise of Whatever” - @eevee

https://eev.ee/blog/2025/07/03/the-rise-of-whatever/

#AI #LLM #GenAI

To anyone out there who’s successfully convinced someone else to switch from a mainstream app / service to a self-hosted / indie / #FOSS alternative:

What worked?

Pitching this kind of switch could become a core part of my business soon. I’d love to know what aspects of such a change have the broadest appeal!

(Boosts much appreciated 🙏)

#AskFedi #AskFediverse #OSS #OpenSource #SelfHosting #Freelancer #IndieDev #IndieDeveloper #PleaseBoost

@dansup even on-device, the generated descriptions are often not helpful to people who rely on them. it’s a very bad look if you claim to care about accessibility.

Idk who needs to hear this, but American Truck Simulator is a fantastic game.

#ATS #VideoGames

A well-reasoned, measured take on Firefox's PPA? Didn't think it was possible here on the Fediverse but happy to have @corbin prove me wrong.

https://www.spacebar.news/mozilla-firefox-privacy-preserving-attribution/

#Firefox #AdTech #Privacy #WebBrowser #Advertising #OSS

Read this month's @servo update and decided it was time to start sponsoring them. The web has already benefitted from their work, and bringing another fully-capable engine to the web will only benefit us all.

This month's update: https://servo.org/blog/2024/05/30/this-month-in-servo/

If anyone else is looking for an open source project to support, Servo is a great choice: https://servo.org/sponsorship/

#FOSS #Servo #WebDev

@aral @cferdinandi As we have explained to you numerous times, turning up in the streets to protest requires a ton of privilege. The risk of losing your job, healthcare and absolutely everything is too high. A majority of Americans are <$1,000 away from bankruptcy. The scale of "taking to the streets” to push reform is unachievable, so we have to find other means. And simply survive in the meantime.

@aral yeah dude, we fucking know that. what is your god damned point?