Notices by Tim Bray (timbray@cosocial.ca)

I’m a paying customer of 404 Media, but I can’t bring myself to read more than the first couple of sentences of their recent “AI Slop” and “Brainrot” stories: https://www.404media.co/tag/ai/

It is beyond belief how terrible people can be. And how eager Big Tech is to facilitate them.

Very hard to avoid burn-it-all-down-and-sow-the-ruins-with-salt thinking.

#genAI

It has been said that the Fediverse in general is a progressive bubble and I think that assertion is fair-ish. Certainly true of me and I think somewhat true of our coop-owned #CoSocialCa instance.

So, let me introduce our own @mpjgregoire , an actual Canadian Conservative on CoSocial who, unlike certain other of our Tories, has never emitted the slightest stench of MAGA, at least that I’ve noticed: https://cosocial.ca/@mpjgregoire/114213512761645455

#CDNpoli

There are a lot of Canadians who don’t want to visit the US just now. But if you have to, I would strongly advise going by air, because US CBP is in the airport in Canada. So they can still arbitrarily refuse entry because you voted Liberal or your name is Nadia or whatever, but they can’t throw you into detention without recourse, which they definitely can at the highway crossings, and seem to be doing more of.

#USpol

From a scholarships person at a well-known US University: “They’re telling me to take down the minority scholarships. I’m trying to resist.” Someone notes that in these situations, if left with no alternative, HTTP status code 451 (Unavailable for legal reasons) may be appropriate.

#USpol

In which an unpaid open-source maintainer gets help from companies using the software to attack a particularly complex and ugly bug: https://blog.hartwork.org/posts/expat-2-7-0-released/

Good on Sebastian and on the companies that stepped up!

Also, recursion is often bad.

#oss

Substantial layoff at Google this morning, locations around the world. IT and helpdesk hit hard. To be fair, they’re hard-pressed, last quarter’s earnings a mere $26.54B, that’s a narrow 27.51% profit margin.

#google

I suppose everyone else already knew this, but it turns out that the “Leopards eating people’s faces” meme has historical roots; Here’s a Roman-empire mosaic from what is now Tunisia, said to be of a leopard eating a condemned man’s face.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/hsynex/a_roman_mosaic_depicting_a_leopard_eating_the/

Saw a post somewhere that the 18F victims should get together and form a consulting company. There will demand for there services to put together what the DOGE wizards break…

https://18f.org

Dropped by Xitter so you don’t have to. Zelensky got messages of support from the leaders of: Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia, Austria, Canada, Romania, Denmark, Croatia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the EU, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Czechia, Lithuania, Moldova, Spain, Poland (so far).

Fash-friendly Italians notably absent. Hey Britain, what say?

#ukraine

I already boosted this, but I want to add more emphasis. I think every Canadian citizen of the Fediverse ought to sign this petition to get the Government of Canada off Xitter: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5359

Could anyone who has any Canadian followers please boost or just re-post it yourself? This matters.

#cnpoli #fediverse

Not quite what I had in mind while working on getting HTTP 451 blessed, but appropriate:
https://aphyr.com/posts/379-geoblocking-the-uk-with-debian-nginx

I suppose most people have seen this: https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb

Follow-up question: Anyone out there with hands-on experience for de-DRM-ing downloaded books on MacOS? There seem to be a few tools out there, all a little on the sketchy side. I could do this on Linux if the tools are better there.

These stories about US AID, if true, are making me sick. This is the kind of evil that will be written down in history books with weighty commentary advising the reader not to try to understand it, because it’s inexplicable and unforgivable.

#USpol

@atomicpoet @tsadilas Also, there's a technology problem that makes the attackers invisible. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/07/30/Invisible-Attackers

Just discovered the Fediverse’s best hashtag: #asstodon

I’m in. Here are some lovely beasts at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Dorset, which is a first-rate tourist spot if you get anywhere near.

Authors Guild Launches “Human Authored” Certification to Preserve Authenticity in Literature: https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-launches-human-authored-certification-to-preserve-authenticity-in-literature/

(there’s an echo in here)

Wow, Krugman slams the door behind him, much respect. https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times

Jeepers. Out of the blue, from Adobe, notice that. my Photography apps monthly subscription is going up by a freaking 53.88%. On the one hand, I love Lightroom. On the other, this is also the same company that recently recommended canceling your next photo shoot because AI will make the pictures. I don’t even mind paying for software by subscription, but this feels super abusive. Investigating options…

#adobe

Progressives need to the face the fact that they’re in a minority, that the ways they explain their positions are failing, and that that failure is their problem, not their audience’s. Here’s my rant on how to explain better: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/01/22/In-The-Minority

#USpol #cdnpoli

This is the best thing anyone has turned up in response to my “is 4K really beneficial?” post. Would *really* like to hear confirmation (or otherwise) from an Apple insider who knows what’s really actually going on.

https://mastodon.social/@elharo/113868028426076482