Notices by Mark T. Tomczak (mark@mastodon.fixermark.com), page 2

... the funny thing is, I know enough about how the search core is built to make an educated guess at how this happened.

Search core farms the query out to (possibly dozens of) completely independent software engines to answer the query. Those engines have their own backing datastores and they don't synchronize to each other; it's necessary they don't to make search fast. So it's entirely possible that the Top Stories core is pulling data that is more recent while the AI Overview core has built its information off of an older search result cache (and possibly hot-cached this answer before the NYT confirmed the death when the news broke locally / on social media). Google, as an institution, leans on the tradeoff "eventual consistency is good enough," so this kind of bug is seen as a predictable side-effect of the chosen tradeoffs.

Does that make us feel better?

No, nor should it. Get your shit together, Google.

#Google #search #AI #fail

sigh Get your shit together, Google.

#google #ai #fail

@tek This is one of those situations where it's real important to get context. Here's the lawyers' call to action (https://www.morningstar.com/news/globe-newswire/9504764/unitedhealth-class-action-alert-bragar-eagel-squire-pc-reminds-investors-that-a-class-action-lawsuit-has-been-filed-against-unitedhealth-group-incorporated-and-encourages-investors-to-contact-the-firm).

Things to remember:

1. This is ambulance-chasing. A law firm decided that this is a good time to kick a piñata full of money. And they probably aren't wrong! But their statements don't directly reflect the beliefs of any class-members; it's court rhetoric.

2. In context, the suit isn't saying UHC's previous tactics were good; it's saying the previous tactics were bad, but the only remedy the law gives this class is against possible unrealistic projections after circumstances changed. As far as the law is concerned: if a bunch of investors signed on to get money from Satan, and then that bet didn't pay off? Fuck 'em. The only recourse this lawyer can try to craft from whole cloth is that strategy should have paid off, and UHG knew it wasn't going to pay off after their CEO was murdered, and they weren't honest about their knowledge that the reality on the ground is different. It's deeply cynical writing to illicit an effect in the courtroom (and a hail-mary of a try at that).

The entire idea that either UHG was executing on anti-consumer practices or that statements after their CEO died were materially false or misleading is just the plaintiff's theory.

(And to be clear: I think UHG is a bunch of assholes. But if we're going to bust out guillotines over the writing of a sociopathic ambulance-chaser we've somewhat lost the thread. This is "first thing we do, kill all the lawyers" rabble-rousing).

@dalias @lauren Yeah, and therein lies the rub... Annihilation would be somewhat disastrous (I don't think anyone would take seriously the proposal "We're going to eliminate Chrome tomorrow", or the same for Gmail, search, etc)... And at least in the US we don't generally have enough faith in the executive to operate any of this as a public utility (experts from Google et. al. had to go to the feds to bail out the implementation of healthcare.gov, not the other way around).

@lauren As much as breaking up Google is probably some kind of good idea... Yeah, this is the issue, isn't it?

We don't trust Google with our data... And we trust everyone else much, much less.

@thomasfuchs Just an anecdote, but: I liked the clips I saw of Murderbot on YouTube but wasn't about to go buy an Apple TV subscription because we are already drowning in subscription services.

... so I picked up the first book. And the next. And the next. This is the most pleasure-reading I've done in years, and it utterly displaced doom-scrolling for awhile. Pretty sure I've now spent more on ebooks than I would have spent on six months of AppleTV.

Martha Wells. "The Murderbot Diaries." A++ would recommend.

@schratze I refuse to entertain this "no sexy tech writer costumes" slander from the demographic that is allowed to rock librarian's glasses, starched-collar shirts under sweaters, and thigh-highs with skirts any time their hearts desire. 😉

@jwcph @lauren Authentication and online identity are too fundamentally tied to email to make this a practical suggestion for most users.

If I switch my email providers right now, I literally cannot pay my mortgage.

@GottaLaff Digital Services Tax on American tech companies?

Good.

If we're gonna have this stupid fight anyway, hit America where the pocketbook is.

Anti-suffrage poster from 1912, artist Laura E. Foster.

This screams "make me into a meme."

General Fediverse question.

Sooner or later, the Fediverse will hit the point where somebody's individual node in their closet is the primary posting source for incredibly popular high bandwidth content, like a primary source news clip. As currently architected, the system will hug that data to death when individuals who do not have accounts on an equivalent fediverse server go requesting that content (and possibly also when 100 nodes of the given service go requesting the content).

Are there any projects to do content distribution networks or other multiplexed and more local caching for fediverse content? What would that even look like?

#fediverse

@sun I'd actually like to see that law. I think it might be the one about "Don't use the home addresses of jurors or cops in their line of duty to intimidate," but I'm not quite sure.

I'm not pro-doxxing, but it'd be news to me if they made it illegal for us ordinary plebes.

@WarnerCrocker I am legit pausing to ask myself if King of the Hill would fit this criteria.

@Moriel "Not that I'm surprised that they are taken," pondered Susan, "only that it's you doing the taking. We have a Death of Rats and a Death of Cats... Why not a Death of Names?"

Her grandfather regarded her with a stare that went on for aeons, which was really the only kind he had so in this context was the closest kind to affection.

YOU OF ALL PEOPLE UNDERSTAND: NAMES HAVE POWER. THEY CAN HEAL. THEY CAN HURT. AND WHEN A NAME'S TIME HAS COME, I SEE TO IT PERSONALLY TO ASSURE IT IS DONE. #MicroFic #DiscWorld

@glitzersachen @screwtape In my case? Actually yes. ;)

I mean, I do suspend it from time-to-time. But broadly speaking, I have three emacs instances I care about on the daily:

1. An instance on my corporate laptop (stays up all the time, preserves state when the laptop sleeps)

2. An instance on the headless developer machine I remote into (stays up all the time, only reboots when that machine reboots, which is "When IT forces me to, they can take my developer session from my cold, dead hands...")

3. An instance on my personal hack-about laptop, which I suspend when I'm not using but otherwise stays up perpetually until the laptop takes a full restart, which is when I'm forced to (see (2)).

@WarnerCrocker Ugh, I hate to suggest it, because it feels like victimizing the vulnerable, but poetic justice is quietly whispering in my ear "The people who keep voting for him would take the other side of the bet..."

@WarnerCrocker Hmmm.... When you think a business will go down, you can short its stock.

How does one "short" Trump's largesse? if there were a way to do so, one could rig it so every time he has a big-brain moment, his enemies profit.

@WarnerCrocker That feels like a vulnerable way to be, but I'm not seeing yet how to exploit the vulnerability.

"You truly are a member of America's Greatest Generation."

"Thanks, it's the trauma!"

(... this post inspired by Bea Arthur's military service. Semper Fi, Staff Sergeant Arthur.)

@evan Oh, absolutely. Americans do not know how it feels to be occupied; haven't had it happen since 1812.

I can't guarantee we wouldn't bite back like a rabid dog, but I can guarantee it would fuck with our identity fiercely to have a foreign sovereignty holding our soil.