thanksforallthefish

@thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Right to Repair Gains Traction as John Deere Faces Trial⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  f the federal government set up a replacement program though, and shipped all the JD machinery to Ukraine where hackers know how to modify the software, everyone but JD would win.

  Funny you should mention Ukraine, a decade ago (iirc) Ukraine hackers cracked the JD interface and started making available a tool for farmers to manage their own tractors - John Deere sued

  vice.com/…/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their…

  …medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-t…

  Although I suspect you already knew that :-)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Right to Repair Gains Traction as John Deere Faces Trial⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  But help me understand how it’s possible that our “free market” is enabling this, unless it’s just a controlled market charading as free?

  • There are very few markets in the US that actually achieve Adam Smith’s “perfect market” (perfect competition)

  • The more expensive the individual item, the harder it is for there to be competition (costs of standing up factories, distribution and support, low volumes of sales etc), it’s extremely expensive to set up in opposition to John Deere

  • There are other market statuses other than “controlled” and “free” - the vast majority of US markets are Oligopolies (few sellers many buyers). Processed / packaged foods for example - 99% of market volume is done by a couple of players.

  • A century ago there were many farm machinery manufacturers - the individual machines were less expensive in real terms, and the complexity much lower. A virtual monopoly (one very large and a few smaller players) has formed through insufficient regulation to protect competition - the big ones gobble up the small and competition gradually dwindles

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Women-only tower block in Acton to open next summer⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Next TERF media beat up coming in 3…2…1…

  And here comes JK Rowling at a gallop, absolutely frothing at the mouth

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Conceived in secrecy and born in haste, Aukus (submarine deal) is on its last legs.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yep, those are the subs in question. A poor substitution at the time when it would have cost less just to swap to the French nuclear subs they initially offered

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Conceived in secrecy and born in haste, Aukus (submarine deal) is on its last legs.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s interesting. I hadn’t noticed that. It’s entirely possible, but then that would have been during the Biden era so all bets are off with the Fanta Felon in office

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Conceived in secrecy and born in haste, Aukus (submarine deal) is on its last legs.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yep, unless the Brits can pull a rabbit out of a hat.

  At least he gets to blame Morrison, and Macron already called Scummo a liar to his face so there will be some sympathy (albeit along with a lot of schadenfreude)

  The French have been getting a lot of “I told you so” in in the last 6 months, particularly the “have your own MIC don’t rely on the yanks”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anthony Albanese says footage of Australian journalist being shot by LA police is ‘horrific’⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  They (CIA) couped Whitlam for trying to regain control over Pine Gap, nothing to do with mining, that was just Rudd (and I’m pretty sure the CIA was uninvolved in that knifing, that was just naked ambition over coming morals).

• Conceived in secrecy and born in haste, Aukus (submarine deal) is on its last legs.www.theguardian.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨australia@aussie.zone⁩ | ⁨17⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An earnest question about the AI/LLM hate⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Hello, recent Reddit convert here and I’m loving it. You even inspired me to figure out how to fully dump Windows and install LineageOS.

  I am truly impressed that you managed to replace a desktop operating system with a mobile os that doesn’t even come in an X86 variant (Lineage that is is, I’m aware android has been ported).

  I smell bovine faeces. Or are you, in fact, an LLM ?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  "The foreign policy expert, a longtime Russia watcher, said she had first made a similar warning in 2015, in a revised version of a book she wrote about the Russian president "

  I think in fairness that if she has been warning us for 10 years she’s entitled to a little bit of “I told you so” now that it is bleedingly obvious

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s an entire german state cutting off 800k p.a of MS revenue. That’s not piecemeal is it ?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Schleswig Holstein (sp?) are doing so, ditto Openhagen and Aarhaus (DK) and I believe France are looking into it

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  <sigh> I used to be one of those sysadmins, and the short answer is appropriate risk management, better network controls a locked down OS and immediate action to push out the patches for serious issues.

  I quite frankly detest M$ but keeping your pc patched isn’t propaganda.

  If you know enough to manage the risk (including proper network firewalls and good internet hygiene) then sure, keep going for a while. Zero days aren’t daily, they’re a handful per year.

  On the other hand if you have no clue about ITSec then you genuinely need to upgrade asap because you’re metaphorically running around with your genitals exposed.

  Your comment leads me to suggest you probably dont have the skills to do an appropriate risk assessment.

  But you do you. I’m not your Dad

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New fuel cell could enable electric aviation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So here comes alkaline rain to replace the acid rain we got rid of 40 years ago. Genius idea. Not

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨public services of an entire german state switches from Microsoft to open source (Libreoffice, Linux, Nextcloud, Thunderbird)⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yep still exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft announces new Windows changes in response to the EU's (DMA) Digital Markets Act for EEA users, including Edge not prompting users to set it as the default unless opened⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No more security patches. That should be dead to you if you don’t want to host thousands of parasitic bots & malwares

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wild camping on Dartmoor backed by Supreme Court⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I confess I remain confused as to the actual status of the land.

  Is it “commons” ie owned by all who wish to use it, or is it private land owned by a single individual ?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Massive’ increase in pensioner shoplifters in past year⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Well spotted, yes indeed

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Massive’ increase in pensioner shoplifters in past year⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Food retailers have seen a “massive” increase in pensioner shoplifters over the last year, a security firm has said

  While I am sympathetic to anyone who has to shoplift to eat, I’d suggest a little skepticism after noting two things:

  One the time period (almost exactly lines up with the period that Labour has been in power) and,

  Two the source - the Telegraph is nicknamed the Torygraph for a reason…they are the mouth piece for the conservative party and make no bones about it.

  I’m no fan of the Blue Tories - Sir Keir would comfortably fit into the Conservative party of a decade ago (before their heads exploded) - I’m quite disappointed in their performance. But I’d counsel a little caution on taking what smells strongly of a propaganda piece at face value

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Users aren’t likely to point out a bot when the rules explicitly prevent them from doing that.

  In fact one user commented that he had his comment calling out one of the bots as a bot deleted by mods for breaking that rule

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You may wish to reword. The unspecified “they” reads like you think Meta have strict ethical rules. Lol.

  Meta have no ethics whatsoever, and yes I assume you meant universities have strict rules however the approval of this study marks even that as questionable

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  While that is indeed what was reported, we and the researchers will never know if the posters with shifted opinions were human or in fact also AI bots.

  The whole thing is dodgy for lack of controls, this isn’t science it’s marketing

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Washington’s Right to Repair Bill Heads to the Governor⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s not only quite defeatist it’s not really true. Everything can be reverse engineered, obviously in some cases it’s not economical, but John Deere tractors and their obnoxious lockdowns are a classic case of where this leads to genuine value for people. JD robbing the farmers of the ability to perform simple repairs and charging huge bucks to do them ends up with costs on your grocery bill. This bill doesn’t directly impact that I don’t believe but it’s the simplest clearest example of why this is important.

  This is brilliant news - we’re all better off for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Washington’s Right to Repair Bill Heads to the Governor⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Great news. About time something good happened politically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Moving servers and rack equipment⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Nice, glad it worked for you

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Moving servers and rack equipment⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair enough - racks in entirety/untouched dramatically reduces the risk of not being able to get stuff back up because of miscabling or missed cabling. I could see that approach being sensible if you’re moving across town.

  I personally wouldnt if moving between cities, YMMV of course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Moving servers and rack equipment⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been in charge of relocating several data centres.

  We tore everything down, servers out of racks etc.

  All servers, fabric switches drive arrays etc were individually wrapped in bubble wrap then the heavy removalists cloth then into the large metal moving boxes (1500mmx1500mmx1500mm roughly) before being stacked so they couldn’t move around, followed by ratchet straps securing groups of kit together.

  All this was done by professional removalists - no reason you can’t do it though.

  Basically the principle is flexible padding (bubble wrap) to allow for movement close to the device without impacting it, heavy shock absorbing material (the felt), then put into a robust container (metal box) so limiting impact risk.

  I’d strongly recommend NOT to leave them in the rack - a couple of screws vibrate loose and then that device drops onto the one below it, bounces up and down through the journey and wrecks them both.

  If it’s a mile up the road, sure, you’ll probably be fine and get away with it, multiple hours on the road ? It’s not surviving it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla Board Opened Search for a CEO to Succeed Elon Musk⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This won’t actually work, but you can’t blame them for considering it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla Board Opened Search for a CEO to Succeed Elon Musk⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  it requires near-90% approval of all non-musk held voting shares to make ‘major’ changes like ousting a board member or ceo.

  No, you’re thinking of News Corp and Murdoch’s shenanigans.

  Tesla has a standard structure. He doesn’t own a majority of shares, but he does own a significatn percentage and investors aligned with him combined have enough for him not to be at any significant risk.

  The directors however have a fiduciary duty to act in the interests of all shareholders, so going through the motions of considering a replacement ticks that box.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The year housing turned toxic was captured in a talkback chat with PM⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you’re making the group then your call, but the name sounds too sunny & positive to anyone who doesn’t have context to hear the irony.

  Also housing crisis is what it’s referred to in many places internationally.