mastodon - Link to source
"I have directed the Department of Defense to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and the United States will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its defense against Russian forces." - President Biden in response to Russia's latest air attacks whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/s…

Statement from President Joe Biden on Russia’s Overnight Aerial Attacks against | The White House

In the early hours of Christmas, Russia launched waves of missiles and drones against Ukrainian cities and critical energy infrastructure. The purpose of
The White House

mastodon - Link to source
Louis Armstrong reads ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas (his final commercial recording). “This is Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, talking to all the kids from all over the world at Christmastime.” kottke.org/24/12/louis-armstro…

Louis Armstrong Reads ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas

While poking around for Christmas music, I found this little-known recording of Louis Armstrong reading ‘Twas The Night Be
kottke.org

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

We really got the computer-human relationship all wrong: it should be a model of consent, rather than about restraining bolts, governor modules, or the Three Laws of Robotics

I was thinking about this excellent speech by Martha Wells on her Murderbot diaries being stories of bodily autonomy and slavery, and about the fantastic video on The Tragedy of Droids in Star Wars by Pop Culture Detective.
marthawells.dreamwidth.org/649…
youtube.com/watch?v=WD2UrB7zep…

Martha Wells spells out how wrong the Three Laws of Robotics are in stipulating a subservient relationships for robots to sacrifice themselves on behalf of humans, built around fears or assumptions that robots would inherently act to harm humans (or not act to save humans) and that therefore robots should put humans before themselves.

#ThreeLawsOfRobotics
#MurderbotDiaries
#ArtificialIntelligence #Al


The Tragedy of Droids in Star Wars

It’s not a Star Wars story unless there’s a lovable droid stealing the spotlight but, when you really stop and think about it, there’s also something profoun...
YouTube
#Al #artificialintelligence #threelawsofrobotics #MurderBotDiaries

mastodon - Link to source

Wikipedia is a problem for Musk/Trump. Not, as Musk says, because it's "woke." Because it's one of our last reliable tethers to a consensus reality. Therefore, an antidote to disinformation.

It's not making anyone money. It's not enshittified. Of course it's not perfect—it's an endeavor of imperfect cooperating humans. But it needs protection and support.

newsweek.com/elon-musk-takes-a…

#wikipedia


Elon Musk Takes Aim at Wikipedia

The billionaire has become one of the most prominent supporters of President-elect Donald Trump.
James Bickerton (Newsweek)
#wikipedia

reshared this

friendica - Link to source

@RaccoonForFriendica new version 0.4.0-beta01 available for testing!

Changelog:
- feat: add "Distraction free" post layout;
- feat: add "Compact" post layout;
- feat: implement post dislike action;
- fix: retrieve post source for editing even for plain text;
- chore: translations update;
- chore: update dependencies.

Moreover, let me wish everyone happy holidays and remember to #livefasteattrash on Christmas and New Year's Eve.

A special and heartfelt acknowledgement goes to all the contributors of the #raccoonforfriendica project, people who helped with code, translations, bug reports, ideas for improvements, design, roadmap and in many other ways. Remember that this wouldn't have been the same without your contributions, and the fact that people who don't know each other (and don't even speak the same language) can meet and create something together is one of the best things of the free and open source model.

Hope we can continue in this direction next year. Thank you everyone, you are awesome ❤️🦝🎄

#friendica #friendicadev #androidapp #androiddev #fediverseapp #raccoonforfriendica #kotlin #multiplatform #kmp #compose #cmp #opensource #procyonproject

#friendica #opensource #kotlin #androiddev #Compose #raccoonforfriendica #androidapp #multiplatform #friendicadev #CMP #kmp #FediverseApp #livefasteattrash #procyonproject @RaccoonForFriendica
This entry was edited (1 year ago)

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

2024 was a banner year for Matrix, from Matrix 2.0 progress and Trust & Safety improvements, to operationalizing open governance and hosting the first Matrix Conference.

We can't wait to see what 2025 brings! From all of us to you, merry merry and a happy new year ✨

matrix.org/blog/2024/12/25/the…


The Matrix Holiday Special 2024

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications
Matthew Hodgson (matrix.org)

mastodon - Link to source
30 years ago today, Compuserve and Unisys tried to give themselves a Christmas gift at the Internet's expense, by charging a $5,000 royalty for using GIF images. #retrocomputing dfarq.homeip.net/cashing-in-on…

Cashing in on GIF by charging royalties - The Silicon Underground

On December 24, 1994, Compuserve and Unisys announced plans to charge royalties on GIF, the graphics format. The backlash was tremendous.
Dave Farquhar (The Silicon Underground)
#retrocomputing

hometown - Link to source
It’s hard to overemphasize just what a bombshell this was for the webcomic scene in the late 90s/early 00s. Comics had been using GIF even for non-animated strips, and major comics started spearheading anti-GIF campaigns and teaching people how to switch to PNG.
ioc.exchange/@siliconundergro/…

Silicon Underground (Dave F) (@siliconundergro@ioc.exchange)

30 years ago today, Compuserve and Unisys tried to give themselves a Christmas gift at the Internet's expense, by charging a $5,000 royalty for using GIF images. #retrocomputing https://dfarq.homeip.net/cashing-in-on-gif-by-charging-royalties/
IOC.exchange
This entry was edited (1 year ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Interesting article in The Atlantic summarising some recent research suggesting that Walmart makes the communities it operates in poorer than if it had never been there at all.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…


The Walmart Effect

New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer—even taking into account its famous low prices.
Rogé Karma (The Atlantic)
This entry was edited (1 year ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, wherever you may be ✨🎄

Joyeux Noël!
Frohe Weihnachten!
¡Feliz Navidad!
Buon Natale!
Feliz Natal!
Весела Коледа!
Veselé Vánoce!
Glædelig jul!
Häid jõule!
Καλά Χριστούγεννα!
Nollaig shona!
Sretan Božić!
Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!
Džiaugsmingų šv. Kalėdų!
Kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket!
Il-Milied it-Tajjeb!
Vrolijk kerstfeest!
Wesołych Świąt!
Crăciun fericit!
Veselé Vianoce!
Vesel božič!
God Jul!
Hyvää joulua!

A festive Christmas-themed graphic with a red background. The image features 12 postage stamp illustrations arranged in a grid. The stamps represent various holiday traditions across Europe: a decorated Christmas tree, a white dove against a starry night, mistletoe tied with a ribbon, crossed candy canes, a blue Christmas sweater with red and white patterns, a stocking with holly leaves, a bunch of grapes, a green triangular bell with a red star, Christmas cookies (a star, a tree, and a snowman), a broom with stars, a green wreath with red accents, and a festive dinner plate with a fork and knife. Each stamp also features one star of the EU emblem. In the centre, "Merry Christmas" is written in white script. At the bottom, the logo of the European Commission appears in white.

mastodon - Link to source

“Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account”
mediaite.com/news/elon-musk-is…

That’s silly. Why subscribe when he could buy it outright?

(And then bring his same success with Twitter and run it into the ground.)

Elon Musk Subscribes to Virulently Racist X Account

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, is a paid subscriber to a virulently racist X account.
Isaac Schorr (Mediaite)
⇧