Notices by Prof. Catherine Flick (catherineflick@mastodon.me.uk), page 3

Took down the Christmas decorations, will take the lights down tomorrow. Always sad to take the lights down as they’re lovely and cheery in a dark winter

mastodon.me.uk friends, we’ve temporarily limited mastodon.social due to a spam wave. You’ll still be able to interact with your friends etc from there, but it should pause unsolicited messages. I’ll review in the morning unless I get some sort of all clear before then (or another admin does).

@goatsarah @stokel haha they did!! And thank goodness

Another piece on #Grok that I was quoted in! Always nice to see Ross Anderson pop up too, I started down this whole ethics and computing thing writing my ugrad dissertation on trusted computing after reading his paper on it back in the early 2000s!

Thanks @stokel for your fine work as always!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90998360/grok-openai-model-collapse

@babe @aral I was even talking about how he made it sound like our electric car! And they still lectured! 😂😂😂 I mean I’ve been the sort of account tech people follow and RT for a long time so I’m kinda used to it, just find it funny these days. At least it’s better than death threats

@babe @aral ah yes like that time I posted a funny anecdote about my 1yo and a toy car and got lectured about how he should be playing with toy bikes because cars are bad for the environment

He just operates in a completely different world, doesn’t he? (Cloud Cuckoo Land) https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/angelo-carusone-responds-elon-musks-legal-threat-over-media-matters-reporting

My 1 year old son has just started making noises when he plays with cars. He doesn’t say “brrrrm” or similar, he says “eeeee”. We own electric cars.

Think of it, a future where cars, buses, trucks, tractors go “eeeee” instead of “brrrrrm” in the minds of children.

#ElectricVehicles

@tante I've heard of PhD students submitting LLM-written abstracts for conferences and I'm like really??? How does this benefit you??

@tante They should still be learning how to pitch their work for conferences rather than relying on LLMs to do it for them. The PhD is a training exercise for academia (warts and all), writing these sorts of things is part of that training.

Same, buddy, same.

@forteller because it’s currently for patreon subscribers only :) hence no link in my post!

New Folding Ideas video on meme stocks is the most comprehensive explanation of the meme stock cult I’ve heard. Instead of the second coming of Christ they’re waiting for the Mother of all Short Squeezes. It’s absolutely bananas. 2.5h of meticulously researched and well presented information well worth your time to watch.

Look I’d love to get a new #RaspberryPi5 - I love playing with this sort of tech. I have a few older ones kicking around still too! But I won’t be buying one because I don’t like to support a company that belittles people for taking an ethical stance against hiring known surveillance police to help support that particular market. It was dismissive, exclusionary, and pushing minority groups out of making spaces. And they still don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.

@Npars01 yeah, so this (especially 2) takes time to filter back up the chain, cost benefit analyses etc. I mean I'm no social media marketer expert but I know it's even taking ages for universities to move off twitter too - and they really should be at the forefront. They want to "wait and see" and "see which platform wins" etc. before making a shift. It's not so easy to shift the momentum (I don't disagree with what you say though! just that it takes a lot to steer these ships)

@Npars01 So it's not about whether "fascism is useful" - that doesn't even really cross their minds. It's about "where can we keep doing the thing that helped us sell stuff" and there isn't a good place for that yet. I'm not saying this is a good excuse but it's an explanation of why & I kinda get it. Hence my post, which shows that Twitter isn't even good at the thing they think it's good for. That's how to get them to move somewhere else (but still, where?)

@Npars01 I mean I don't disagree but I think you'll find it just takes a lot of momentum to shift them elsewhere. Also the questions they're asking is where would they go? Mastodon isn't very welcoming to brands. Threads maybe but it's dead, apparently. So they stick with the devil they know. It's not an easy move to make.

PSA to people still posting on Twitter: Twitter no longer shows replies or threads to non-logged-in users - just the individual tweets you link to. It also doesn't show profiles with all your recent tweets. I'm not sure this is widely known, especially for those in charge of brands etc. It really cuts down on the usefulness of Twitter IMO.

This is all the wrong way around. We should be protecting front line workers who are least likely to be able to afford to pay for a vaccine privately, especially if it’s £100! These are the people who will a) feel they have to work even if they’re unwell, and b) be in contact with more (and more vulnerable) people to potentially spread it. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/17/covid-booster-jabs-approved-for-sale-to-uk-public

Oh and as the cherry on the cake, exhibit B https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/17/23836440/nft-creator-royalty-fees-are-dead-opensea-optional