Notices by Mitch Wagner (mitchw@mastodon.social), page 2

@sjvn Until this year I thought Automattic was great and Matt was a wonderful person and now I think he's gone nuts and he's taking Automattic and the Wordpress ecosystem down with him.

@sjvn Until this WP Engine incident, I had enormous respect for him. I thought he was the one good centimillionaire. Now, I see Automattic as a company that it simply not safe to do business with.

I don't mean this for ethical or principled reasons. I mean, they're a company that cannot be relied on.

I don't use WP but I use Day One for journaling, and I was considering Pocket Casts for podcasts but decided I don't want to waste time on a product when I have no faith in the company.

@sjvn I am at this point seriously reconsidering using *any* Automattic software.

Since I upgraded to Apple Intelligence a couple of days ago, it has twice started talking to me while I’m wearing my AirPods and conversing with an actual person. I was on a videoconference with my boss’s boss this afternoon, and the AirPods started talking and would not shut up. This is highly annoying at best and it potentially made me look like an idiot in front of someone who signs my paycheck. Utter failure on the part of Apple product design; I am highly dissatisfied.

@cstross I liked Teresa Nielsen Hayden's advice for generating story ideas: Find an online list of sf/fantasy cliches and mix two together. For example, alien invasion and elfs/dragons.

Kennedy’s lawyer has asked the FDA to revoke approval of the polio vaccine. A suicide cult is being put in charge of US health policy. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hE4.HGLa.dMZ9ORHCDjpZ&smid=url-share

JOB INTERVIEWER: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
ME:

In Japan, takkyu-bin services conveniently forward your luggage to your destination. h/t @pluralistic https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-japanese-luggage-forwarding-edition-20b

"November 1942. "Neffsville, Pennsylvania. Serving the turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in the home of Earle Landis." Photo by Marjory Collins, Office of War Information." https://www.shorpy.com/node/27606

Harpercollins wants authors to sign away AI training rights https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/18/rights-without-power/

" … giving more rights to a creative worker who has no bargaining power is like giving your bullied schoolkid more lunch money. No matter how much lunch money you give that kid, the bullies will take it and your kid will remain hungry. To get your kid lunch, you have to clear the bullies away from the gate."

— Cory Doctorow @pluralistic

From a friend, who adds: "And before you ask who will do all the work once the mass deportations have occurred, remember that the private prison population increased 47% between 2000 and 2016 alone, and that in November, Californians rejected Prop 6 which would have banned forced prison labor."

"You can get into a lot of trouble by assuming that rich people know what they're doing." — @pluralistic https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/

A secret parachute in the FBI's possession may have finally solved D.B. Cooper's identity. "The children of a D.B. Cooper suspect handed over new evidence to the FBI because they think their dad was the culprit. A parachute long hidden on family property in North Carolina is said to match the type used in the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history."

Why'd the suspect hang on to the evidence, though?

Via @violetblue
— thanks!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/secret-parachute-fbi-possession-may-201700706.html?guccounter=1

Boulder, Colorado police are investigating 14 illegally placed, official-looking traffic signs with explicit safety messages like “DON’T KILL ANY KIDS TODAY” and “PUT DOWN THE PHONE BITCH" https://www.cpr.org/2024/11/21/boulder-explicit-traffic-safety-signs/

@cstross What is "continental cheese"? Is that cheese that's wearing a beret?

From a New Zealand local newspaper: “Police responding to reports of a racist flag being flown from a Wānaka property found the home was instead flying the colours of the Klingon Empire from Star Trek." https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/wanaka/racist-flag-w%C4%81naka-actually-klingon-insignia

Stephen King quit Twitter and joined Threads. His last tweet: “I’m leaving Twitter. Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic. Follow me on Threads, if you like.” Here he is on Threads. https://www.threads.net/@stephenking

Trump will use Xi Xinping's "anti-corruption" playbook — @pluralistic https://mitchw.blog/2024/11/13/trump-will-use.html

Outstanding post from Cory Doctorow @pluralistic calling for a general strike in 2028

"Trump is a scab, the Dems need unions, and the Dems are not faithful friends to unions. Harris campaign advisor – her brother-in-law Tony West – is Uber's chief legal officer ... The fact that when the eminently guillotineable union-buster Howard Schultz tries to win a presidential nomination he does so in the Democratic party speaks volumes."

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/11/rip-jane-mcalevey

Why Cory Doctorow @pluralistic doesn't use Bluesky: "I will never again devote my energies to building up an audience on a platform whose management can sever my relationship to that audience at will."

....

"Bluesky lacks the one federated feature that is absolutely necessary for me to trust it: the ability to leave Bluesky and go to another host and continue to talk to the people I've entered into community with there."

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact