cabbage
@cabbage@piefed.social
- Comment on Mastodon CEO steps down as the social network restructures 5 hours ago:
What I hate about it is that this unwillingness to be in a position of power is so correlated with actually being suited for it.
- Comment on Mastodon CEO steps down as the social network restructures 7 hours ago:
I also recommend reading Eugen Rochko’s own post about it, as Andy Piper linked to as well.
- Comment on Mastodon CEO steps down as the social network restructures 7 hours ago:
I love and hate how Eugen starts this whole project, leads it into being something truly unique and wonderful that directly challenges some of the most evil and wealthy people on the planet, sets up institutional guardrails to make sure it will not be corrupted by any one individual gone mad with power, gives away his position after 10 years once he’s sure the organization is in good hands, and then concludes in reflection that he does not “have the right personality” for running a project like this.
I hope it has not been to hard for him, and that he’ll look back at it all as a positive experience in spite of the negative interactions. I don’t think any sane person has a personality that is “right” for the kind of abuse public figures receive on the internet. But from the perspective of Mastodon and the Fediverse, it seems pretty clear that he was exactly the right type of personality for the job—including by stepping down when the time felt right.
- Comment on Artist sneaks AI-generated print into National Museum Cardiff gallery 6 days ago:
I wouldn’t say art is subject to facts in this way. Some of us enjoy art that is produced through skill and intention rather than some idiot shitting in a jar. The meta debate is just one incredibly lame branch of art that incompetent snobs manically jerk off to while outbidding each other for a fucking banana.
Of course, context matters for interpretation. Guernica is a more meaningful piece with the background of civil war; dadaism only makes sense in opposition to fascism. But both depend on skill and intent to become impressive, not merely the meta context of positioning in art history.
I hate this discussion and I hate that by interacting with it some idiot in a beret will tell me “AHA! So it did provoke you!!”, as if they were making a point or ever had an original thought in their lives.
Opposition to this bullshit is not a problem of the “tech world”, it’s a problem of the art world having obsessed over the same idiotic joke for a hundred years because it’s harder to appreciate something that contains genuine intent and talent than it is to pretend like you understand the genius of stapling a piece of crap to the wall of a gallery.
- Comment on The Economist on using phrenology for hiring and lending decisions: "Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic" […] "For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing" 6 days ago:
Oh yeah. This is not an attack on mediocre white men—I’m one of them. We just have to learn to get over ourselves.
- Comment on The Economist on using phrenology for hiring and lending decisions: "Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic" […] "For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing" 1 week ago:
Whatever it takes to keep hiring mediocre white men, I guess.
- Comment on Artist sneaks AI-generated print into National Museum Cardiff gallery 1 week ago:
I hate the debate over “what is art”. Honestly I think the best answer I could give to the question is “something that was ruined by a bunch of idiots asking ‘what is art’”.
That said, and not wanting to go into that discussion, calling this guy an “artist” seems like a mockery. He’s not an artist, he’s just some idiot with double sided tape.
- Comment on Is Kagy web browser worth it? 2 weeks ago:
Well, yeah, they’re run by a corporation, which I guess means they need to show infinite growth to return value to stockholders. If so they can keep growing on subscriptions for a while, but eventually they’ll turn on their customers. So fair enough.
I think that’s part of my problem with them honestly. They seem to always want to grow and do more, but I would rather have seen them focus on search and make the subscription more affordable. But as they need growth I guess that’s not possible.
- Comment on Is Kagy web browser worth it? 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, this is not the case as they run on a subscription-based model.
I used Kagi for a while. I stopped because it’s prohibitively expensive, and rather than prioritizing lowering prices they kept giving me AI features I did not want at all - hell, it’s the kind of shit I was paying to get away from. Mix direct support for Russian companies into the mix, and you have an expensive AI fueled multi-purpose web monstrosity that supports war crimes. No thanks.
Their search results were good though. I wouldn’t mind supporting
- Comment on How Google Tracks and Scans Everything on Your Android Device 2 weeks ago:
There are some user friendly Android based alternatives out there, since it’s based on open source. Personally I’m running a device with /e/OS, which you can either install yourself or buy a phone with it pre-installed. There are also some other user friendly options out there such as the Volla Phone.
But yeah, iOS is probably a better bet than stock Android, as Apple has a history of being abusive towards their customers in other ways than by selling their data. But crucially both Google and Apple are American companies, so you should avoid depending on their cloud services to whatever degree possible. There’s no such thing as safe data if it is stored by an American company.
- Comment on OpenAI signs $38 billion compute deal with Amazon, partnering with cloud leader for first time 2 weeks ago:
If these assholes get bailed out by American tax payers when this shit crashes and burns I’m gonna get real mad.
Well, I’m pretty angry about everything happening in the US already, come to think of it. Oh well. I guess it’ll all just crash and burn.
- Comment on During the lead up to the Holocaust did the N... regime just kidnap people who they even thought were Jews? Kind of like ICE is doing to citizens today? 2 weeks ago:
Historically death camps tend to start out as mere camps, but then suddenly they are full of people who are deemed unwanted anyway and keeping them alive is expensive so why bother anyway.
On its current trajectory there’s no US camp that shouldn’t be expected to turn into a death camp. And as others have pointed out, thousands “missing” from a huge, poorly managed camp in the middle of a swamp is worrying to say the least.
Americans today are like Germans in the 30s, watching the trains roll by.
- Comment on Inside Israel’s deal with Google and Amazon 2 weeks ago:
The reporting goes pretty hard:
‘No restrictions’ and a secret ‘wink’: Inside Israel’s deal with Google, Amazon
To secure the lucrative Project Nimbus contract, the tech giants agreed to disregard their own terms of service and sidestep legal orders by tipping Israel off if a foreign court demands its data, a joint investigation reveals.May this be a reminder to degoogle your phone and boycott amazon.
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 2 weeks ago:
I’d say the Clash were simultaneously highly mainstream and true to the spirit of punk. Dead Kennedys as well, albeit slightly less mainstream.
Honestly I’d say there’s a lot of punk bands that enjoyed something close to mainstream success without being sellouts.
- Comment on Where is modern Punk? 2 weeks ago:
I’d say he’s imitating the 60s more than the 70s, but he writes some good tunes nevertheless. :)
- Comment on ‘There isn’t really another choice:’ Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS 3 weeks ago:
Yeah. I’m the nerdiest person I know—I’m not gonna try to convince people to use something I struggle to understand myself. Signal is good because it does not feel like a compromise, and the advantages are easy to explain. Matrix I wouldn’t even know how to sign up for myself, as much as I would love to see the entire internet run on decentralized technology.
I am sure it’s not so difficult and that I could find a good instance and figure it out if I sank some time into it, but that’s really not the point here. The point is that me doing that would be worthless as I still couldn’t convince anyone else to join, and nobody I am interested in talking to is currently on there. (In other words: this post is not me asking for help to sign up for Matrix)
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Yup, Signal is down. The one centralized service I’m still rooting for I guess. Disappointed they’re running on AWS.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Seems like a fair bet that Amazon Web Services is having some problems?
I really love that the commercial internet runs on like three service providers. Would love to see it crash and burn.
- Comment on Why aren't there that many forks of VS Code that isn't AI-related? 5 weeks ago:
I write scientific articles with inline R code in Latex (using knitr), so I need syntax highlighting that jumps between two different languages within the document as well as spell checking and advanced (non AI) grammar tools for the text documents. Also I want something that looks kinda minimalistic and neat as a wiring interface - there is more writing than coding involved.
I’m sure there’s some wizard somewhere who can do everything I need in Emacs, but I’m not terribly sophisticated. I just want something that works. Sadly, as much as I try to avoid anything Microsoft, VS Codium is the only thing I’ve found that fits my needs in a good way.
- Comment on Instagram wants me to make content — I just want to post a photo 5 weeks ago:
First mover problem. You can be both places, whenever you promote your content you can link to both places. That way if Instagram ever breaks for good you are not left with nothing.
- Comment on Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses 5 weeks ago:
MicroG makes most things work, so it’s not much compromise in my experience. :)
I use /e/OS which has access to apps from the Play Store, so that I still have my banking apps and stuff. I think streaming apps should work just fine.
- Comment on Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses 5 weeks ago:
…offline support?
- Comment on Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses 5 weeks ago:
I realize I’m not entirely free yet, but I sleep better ever since I changed to a non-Google Android ROM. Also because the path to proper mobile Linux feels shorter now.
Anyone still on Google Android: Look into making the change. It’s worth it.
And if not, at least start getting your apps from F-droid whenever possible.
- Comment on Mastodon: Our ideas about Packs 5 weeks ago:
I guess in a way that’s what it offers, just that instead of an algorithm it’s human curated. Mastodon is a lot about boosts, so following someone doesn’t mean just following them, but also being subjected to whatever they boost (unless you silence their boosts of course). So if you’re interested in pottery and you follow a pottery starter pack, chances are that feed will end up a curated channel of pottery content.
The great thing is that it has quality control and cannot be abused the same way algorithmic feeds always end up being. The funky thing is, of course, that you also end up being exposed to everything else those people are interested in. But I think that’s part of what makes Mastodon feels so nice.
- Comment on Italy poll finds 15% see attacks on Jewish people as 'justifiable' 1 month ago:
- Comment on What happened near Spokane in BeaconDB? 1 month ago:
There’s a similar weird thing going on just north of Trondheim in the middle of Norway (and the middle of nowhere, really). I have no idea what it’s about.
- Comment on Israel Illegally Boards Humanitarian Flotilla Heading to Gaza 1 month ago:
I don’t think Israel can recover from this.
- Comment on Colombia Expels Remaining Israeli Diplomats Amid Gaza Aid Tensions 1 month ago:
Great. Make sure this becomes a diplomatic incident of major proportions. Gustavo Petro and Pedro Sánchez are the only world leaders I would somewhat trust to have a spine at this point, the rest need to have their arms twisted like the Italian unions are currently hard at work with.
- Comment on Israel Illegally Boards Humanitarian Flotilla Heading to Gaza 1 month ago:
Currently, 11 ships are not yet registered as intercepted, not counting the legal support vessels. The ship Mikeno made it into Gaza territorial waters before contact was lost. In general updates are scarce, so it’s hard to know what is going on - Mikeno also went a long time without updates over night before it suddenly appeared less than 20 km from Gaza.
10 ships are assumed intercepted. 21 are confirmed intercepted.
Fuck Israel and their genocide.
https://globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/ - Comment on I'm looking for a Lemmy post on a website that "would give your CISO a heart attack". In essense it was a specific URL forwarding service but had a very dubious URLs 1 month ago:
… /etc/X11/xorg.conf…