Stores trying to sell "Tech essentials" on Black Friday, when thanks to #enshittification, the real tech essentials are:

- Slop blocker
- Ad blocker
- Distraction/dark-pattern filter
- Tracker blocker
- Malware/phishing detection
- Spam filter
- OS debloat/jailbreak
- Encryption
- FOSS alternative frontend
- DRM remover

#tech #blackfriday

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Rethinking where language comes from: Framework reveals complex interplay of biology and culture

by Max Planck Society

phys.org/news/2025-11-rethinki…

#books #culture #biology #language

Finally, after some months of refining, the "Incremental System Rethought" RFC is out!

This RFC has been through 6 full drafts, 1 conference, 5 months of design and a closed project goal. Go roast it.

github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull…

#rust #foss #programming #opensource

Sometimes the Best Accessibility Fix is a Usability Fix: "Accessibility gains often come from fixing ordinary UX friction points that already frustrate people who don’t have disabilities (yet)." #a11y buttondown.com/access-ability/…
#a11y
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

I love it. Succinct, and yet still complete. It's like a crash course to the slightly less-informed about what not to do whenever you're connecting two computers or dabbling with command line.

Explaining stuff like this takes a lot of patience, which you undoubtedly have in ample supply, and were all better off for it. Thank you!

This entry was edited (1 month ago)

Kia, you're kidding yourselves if you think this makes any difference.

Also quite disappointing apps can just read USB debugging state without any permission :/

Not like it matters, it's one tap to turn it off temporarily. But this does nothing except feed my idea that the official Kia app (play.google.com/store/apps/det…) is made by people who have no clue what they're doing.

Dictionary and word aficionados out there:
Do you think buying the Kindle version of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 12th Edition, which was released a few days ago, is worth it? Has anyone seen the Kindle version? For example, are all the headwords accessible through the Table of Contents? I’m thinking about buying it, converting it to EPUB, and using it in the Paperback reading app. But the Kindle version costs about 30 dollars, and if the Table of Contents and the headings for the entries aren’t well structured, it might not be worth it.
amazon.com/Merriam-Websters-Co…

For those in my bubble that don't have it yet: store.steampowered.com/app/552… Vermintide 2 is currently available for free (to keep) on Steam for 2 more days, it's a rather neat co-op multiplayer FPS hack-and slay, and it has hundreds of cute little rattos in it. Enjoy.

Some initial thoughts about Dramatized Dungeon Crawler Carl: Ellie sounds too young. If you read the book and even in the drama, Carl points out that she's 99, and she sure doesn't sound it. Honestly Agatha sounds like Ellie should, but that's just me. Cascadia doesn't sound anything like I thought, I'm interested in how they show how her character develops in later seasons. I'm glad they allowed Jeff hayes to voice Doughnut, but why did they have an actress meow? They could have gotten cat sounds from any library they had access to, but it adds a touch of something, I suppose. Some of the female leads are played by the same person and you can tell, as well as some of the male roles. Overall the sound design is awesome, and extremely detailed in places where you wouldn't think, particularly when it comes to Princess Doughnut and how she moves. I love the little musical backing tracks under the achievements. I also enjoy the commercials in between scenes, as if we're watching as a viewer of the crawl, plus there's some content that you don't see in the book which is cool. I'm glad I gave this another chance. The preview on the website doesn't do this thing justice and makes it sound like a low-budget graphic audio knockoff. When I first heard the sample, it kind of gave me Katniss Chronicles vibes. I've still got a lot to go but will report back once I'm done.
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in reply to MariahL

the mixing is absolutely awful on those. I have no idea what happened there. They had a Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon immersive audio and that one was excellent, so I had really high hopes for the DCC one. Sadly, I never finished the DCC audio because comparatively it was just so bad. The voices sound super thin and extremely compressed, no idea what happened with the constant weird inconsistent panning, it's just a mess. :(

Random pointless memory time:

In the very early morning hours of Christmas eve 1998, I was tuning around the dial of an old Panasonic shortwave radio, and stopped on the BBC. At the end of a program, a continuity announcer showed up to give a website URL.

Two things struck me about this.

1: I hadn't really heard that on shortwave radio before at this point. To me, shortwave and the Internet were these two totally different worlds that couldn't, and shouldn't intercept. How dare someone give out a URL on shortwave... or something like that, with the appropriate amount of sarcasm attached.

2: The continuity guy's accent wasn't the typical RP English so heavily favored by the BBC, not that I really knew anything about that, being an uneducated American. Notice how I spell the word "favored"?
Anyway, his accent was very much Yorkshire, and quite obvious about it, which really made him stand out. I figured the regular guy was probably on holiday, and the janitor took the job for a couple of hours, because nobody else was around.
I also doubt there is any actual truth to that.

Because of my very odd form of synesthesia, completely at random, that BBC continuity announcer from 1998 will show up just to very slowly say "dot c o, dot u k" at me. Nothing else. And then he'll go away again for a week or five, or maybe a few years. Maybe he'll be back in twelve minutes and thirteen seconds. You never know when "dot c o dot u k" guy will show up, and that's the only thing he ever says.

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Looking for suggestions;
- 10yo wants to get into "coding", I am a poor teacher
- "coding classes"/clubs no longer seem to exist, at least in Hobart, anymore
- online classes seem risky, don't know if they will be as inviting as something hands on with other kids and live discussion
- we had looked into a programmable robot, to make things a bit real and interactive; one I was looking to buy (Sphero SPRK+) seemed ideal, but it has been discontinued and the new model is 2x the price

Anyone have any tips on things to investigate?

in reply to Pietervdvn

@pietervdvn yeah I think she is at the point of being bored with what Scratch can do - I have found some other good environments using Lua or Python, haven't quite managed to get her far in them myself.

And yeah, coderdojo seems to be a thing that *used* to exist here, but I can't see any evidence it still does (I admit, possibly all this stuff is on Facebook now which I don't use 😐)

RE: jawns.club/@karschsp/115587483…

First #deGoogle, then #GoEuropean, now #NoAI

And #Tuta ticks all the boxes. Just saying. 😉

in reply to Tuta

would be nice if you stopped accepting greed-incentivizing tyrant-enriching cr*ptocurrency pyramid schemes as well.

arscyni.cc/file/crypto_cult_sc… #CryptoCultScience #ButtCoin

This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to MissConstrue

So, I went and signed up for an account to see their UX at backstabbr.com/

I didn't go so far as to start a game, because I don't know what it is, but the intro pages are non cluttered and seem like they would be easy for a screen reader to navigate. I say that as a sighted person though, my apologies if I'm overestimating how the techs interact.

Krásné dobré ráno mí zmrzlí mastodoňané! 🙋‍♀️🐶🐈
Byli jsme vítat nový den. Herdek tam je zima! Na teploměr jsem se podívala až při návratu domů. Mínus osm. Krásné. Já si říkala, že se ten led pod Lordem Archibaldem neprolomil.😂 Apropo, 😁 Lord Archibald. Ráno byl obléknut do svého apartního svetříku. Ano bystrý pozorovateli. Je to přesně TEN, který nosil jako malé štěně. A byl mu tenkrát akorát.....Eeeeee.... Stále je mu akorát.... Eeee.....tedy....tolik naposledy k jeho štěněcí obezitě......
Vy si dávejte pozor! Některé svetry prochází zvláštním vytahováním a smršťováním. Podle potřeby. 😁😇
#dobre_rano
#dobréRáno

Time for me to get dogpiled: I do not see the problem with AI image descriptions. I see a lot of negativity from blind people who I have a ton of respect for saying that it's exclusionary and shitty, but like...I use them when I post photos on Mastodon so people aren't completely clueless. Not putting any description at all because I'm *blind* and unable to describe my own images feels more exclusionary than using a machine that you know isn't perfect, but still at least gets the point across. I do agree that generally speaking, we should not normalize humans using AI image descriptions instead of writing alt text, but come on guys. All things can be overused, but that doesn't mean they're entirely pointless.

"What is the relationship of science and technology to human history, and how have Marxists conceptualized this problematic within historical materialism? The work of Boris Hessen represents one of the most sophisticated attempts to apply a materialist analysis to the history of science—specifically, how the economic needs of early capitalism influenced what we now think of as modern science and the Scientific Revolution. In this blog, I explore how Hessen pursues his analysis in his seminal essay “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Principia” (henceforth referred to as “Newton’s Roots”).

While Hessen did not develop the first Marxist analysis of science, Hessen’s approach was one of the first truly systematic attempts. Moreover, his work helps us see past the often oversimplified division between “Western Marxism” and Soviet thought, revealing a productive tension in international Marxism through attempts to apply historical materialism in understanding science, technology, and nature under capitalist society.

In the same vein, Henryk Grossman makes the connection between science and capitalist society explicit in his work with the Institute of Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung, or IfS)—several of Grossmann’s articles were published in the IfS’s journal Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung (ZfS). Grossmann was in fact one of the first defenders of Hessen’s work against critics such as George. N. Clark, Richard S. Westfall, etc. as these critics fundamentally misunderstood Hessen’s theses, and, by extension, Grossmann’s own formulation of the relation between science and capitalist society. While both reached similar conclusions independently, and Grossmann’s work is introduced at points, I focus on Hessen’s formulation here."

ctwgwebsite.github.io/blog/202…

#Marxism #Science #Newton #HistoricalMaterialism #STS #Capitalism

in reply to Jachym Cepicky

@jackc podle popisu to je to, co hledáš, ale já mám doma Solax, takže nechci dávat autoritativní rady ohledně nastavení Goodwe.
Nicméně tohle pomůže jen do určité míry. Pak je to o tom se podívat, jestli máš spotřebu v domě vyváženou mezi fázemi.
Bohužel patříme mezi asi tři země v Evropě, které měří po fázích a ne součtově, takže to na rozdíl od zbytku Evropy musíme řešit.
in reply to Ars Technica

That's nothing new.
1️⃣ People buy antivirus software and install updates on their laptops, but never care about the router device, the gateway to the internet which is silently online 24/7
2️⃣ Manufacturers only provide one or two updates fixing some user facing features and done. No further security fixes.

That's why I am glad for #Turris. An open router running Linux, the OS I understand and that I use on all my PCs, laptops and servers (and soon phone I hope). With long software support. The first Turris I got is from 2015 and it still gets updates to the newest OpenWRT. ❤️

#Joke #Humour

I had a call from a scammer the other day

Me: “Hello.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Hello. This is Bob Bobson from Microsoft Support. We are seeing a lot of virus activity from your device.”

Me: “Oh no. My device? Are you sure?”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Oh yes, we have many reports.”

Me: “Oh jeez. How can I fix it?”>;
NOT-Microsoft support: “It’s OK sir. We can help you right now. Are you in front of your device sir?”

Me: “Yes. I was just about to use it. I’m glad you called.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes sir, we are going to help you. Can you please push the Start button?”

Me: “I think it's already on.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Okay, sir. Now you want to click on Control Panel.”

Me: “I don’t see that.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Do you see a bunch of information above the Start button?”

Me: “Yes.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “That is your Control Panel.”

Me: “Wow, I didn’t realize it had a name.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes sir, now press on Internet Options.”

Me: “Yeah, I definitely don’t see any Internet options. I don’t think I purchased that feature. This is just a cheap one.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “They all have the Internet sir. Press the Start button again.”

Me: “OK, it’s the same as before.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “That’s OK sir. We are going to restart your device. Can you please turn it off?”

Me: “Ummm…I don’t know how. I’ve never turned it off. Since I bought it, it just kind of stays on all the time.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “There must be an off button on your device. How do you stop it when it’s running?”

Me: “In those cases, I usually press the big button.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “OK sir. Please press that button.”

Me: “Ok.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Is your device off?”

Me: “No. The door popped open.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Door? Is there a disc inside the door?”

Me: “No, there’s a burrito.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Why is there a burrito in your computer?”

Me: “Computer? I thought you said this was microwave support.”

Good news: the router that came with my new fibre internet seems to have a somewhat accessible web interface. The bad news: it doesn't look like it has a lot of advanced functions, such as IP assignment for connected devices. However, I’m hoping that it'll be smart enough to give the NAS the same IP Address, even if it goes down and then comes back up again. I guess I'll find out sooner or later.