Is there a term for feeling productive through working on tools that will (might) make you more productive?
It's not procrastination, per se, because I am achieving something. But it's not ticking anything off of the to do list.
Basically, I'm describing Arnold Rimmer spending so much time devising a revision planner for taking his engineer's exam, that he doesn't actually do any revision. But it still *feels* productive.
🚨 BREAKING: Microsoft just renamed Office to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app"
All users are now "AI users"
And this will lead to higher prices: tuta.com/blog/microsoft-365-pr…
Starting July 2026, Microsoft plans a huge price hike for Microsoft 365 of up to 16.7%. Time to look for replacements.Tuta
I love *checks notes* using Microsoft 365 Copilot on my Copliot Plus PC with built-in Copilot with Windows 11
(shhhhhhh I use linux)
My employer just slopped up my laptop remotely last night. I wonder which of my coworkers will get AI psychosis first.
I suspect it'll be the old guy with the yellow "Don't Tread on Me" water bottle.
Und a propos Wikipedia: Möchte nicht jemand bei mir dazu schreiben, dass ich wieder Referentin bei der Linksfraktion bin?
Ich bin ja brav und fasse den Eintrag nicht an.
background.tagesspiegel.de/dig…
Lesen Sie die neuesten Informationen zum Thema "Anne Roth kehrt als Referentin für Digitalpolitik zurück" aus unserem Tagesspiegel Briefing Digitalisierung & KI.Tagesspiegel Background, Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH
Kompletní návod jak se zbavit v IT službách #USA
V tom blogpostu je snad vše, včetně uvedení odkud která služba je. To nemůžu a nechci nechat zapadnout, je vidět, že v tom je kus práce
disconnect.blog/getting-off-us…
I’m in the process of dropping US tech services. Here’s how I did it, and options you should consider.Paris Marx (Disconnect)
Okay #MedMastodon folks - The instance is now back up and running I'm pleased to share. Things might take a moment to catch-up and I have sent out an announcement so hopefully anyone that had accounts that doesn't see this will get the e-mail ping letting them know everything is currently back online.
I will post a bit more about the plan in the near future but the long story short is nothing is planned to change that folks will see, the main goal for me is to get the site up and running, catch up on the activities that look to be outstanding and get a plan together for migrating everything onto new infrastructure.
Also a huge shoutout to @mastohost who have been excellent at keeping the server "Paused" effectively without deleting data even when there was no confirmed migration path and a real big thanks to Nick for being willing to transfer the server and keep the community running!
EDIT - Blog post with details: blog.atlas-media.co.uk/2026/01…
Details on the recent take over to the running of med-mastodon.com and what the future for the site holds.Ryan Wild (ATLAS Media Group Ltd. Blog)
I am literally in tears right now. I weep for the country we could have been.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s board of directors voted to dissolve the organization, officials announced Monday, ending the 58-year-old agency that distributed federal funds to #NPR, #PBS and more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations.
This formalizes the shutdown after Republicans in Congress rescinded $1.1 billion in funding because of Trump’s tantrum demand.
Created by Congress through the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, #CPB served as a middleman between taxpayers and public media, distributing most of its appropriations directly to local stations. The funding was particularly crucial for small and rural stations, especially those in areas where internet isn’t. Most of them will be forced to close.
Tax the rich, or eat them, one of the two.
cpb.org/pressroom/corporation-…
Washington, D.C. (January 5, 2026) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, announced today that its Board of Direct…Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Tamas G reshared this.
I gave KDE Plasma 6 a really good try. It's great for people used to a "Windows" like interface but I really hate having to constantly resize, move, and arrange the windows.
So, back to i3wm.. which will stay out of my way and let me get on with the tasks I do.
Negatives about online shopping options as an American:
Amazon: might get a counterfeit
Temu: might get a fake (filled with rocks, 1MB flash stick)
eBay: seller might be a person pretending to be a company
Etsy: seller might be a company pretending to be a person
Big Corp Retailer Website: it's just junk from China
Nextcloud has ambitious growth goals for 2026. A lot of new remote positions are open now:
- Engineers (#PHP, #JS)
- Marketing
- Sales and Sales Engineers
- #HR (Germany)
➡️ Apply & share: nextcloud.com/jobs/
Boosts appreciated 🙏
#OpenSource #GetFediHired #FOSS #SoftwareDevelopment #Careers #Jobs #Hiring #Nextcloud #EU #WFH
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RedditForBlind is a desktop application designed for screen-reader users to browse Reddit quickly and efficiently.www.redditforblind.org
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A digital infrastructure plan - The latest from Bianca Wylie for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
"The path we’re on instead is techno-solutionism: the cheapest, straightest line governments can choose towards efficiency and savings, and the most impoverished innovation strategy possible for a young country with every opportunity to do differently."
policyalternatives.ca/news-res…
Bianca is so cool.
Asserting digital sovereignty means mapping out the real world of digital infrastructure and understanding which parts are for public interventionBianca Wylie (CCPA)
If the allyship isn’t on this level… I dont want it, and you are not doing enough.
techcrunch.com/2026/01/05/hack…
A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacist websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (TechCrunch)
: Notebook updates and enterprise tools also inbound from IT giantAvram Piltch (The Register)
A spontaneous reboot means that once again I have to use the Web Inspector to remove that undismissable dialog from @element
Quality UX engineering as this has been since before they also fucked up the UI for the channels/chats.
Over the weekend, did you see the much-shared story on Reddit by a supposed whistleblower?
It started like this: "I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it. I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore."
Well, it was a fake.
platformer.news/fake-uber-eats…
#journalism #AI
A “whistleblower” tried to corroborate his viral post with AI-generated evidence. This is how I caught him. PLUS: Grok's image-generation crisis, and the rapture over Claude Opus 4.5Casey Newton (Platformer)
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RE: fed.interfree.ca/notes/ah4xrew…
Interesting commentary on the differences in voice preferences by screen reader users and typical sighted users. My step dad has his Apple Maps voice set to an Australian man because it's "nicer" to listen to and he enjoys the dialect differences (car park vs parking lot). Such a different approach from the efficiency screen reader users typically want.
The State of Modern AI Text To Speech Systems for Screen Reader Users: The past year has seen an explosion in new text to speech engines based on neural networks, large language models, and machine learning. But has any of this advancement offered anything to those using screen readers? stuff.interfree.ca/2026/01/05/ai-tts-for-screenreaders.html#ai#tts#llm#accessibility#a11y#screenreaders
A hacker known as Martha Root broke in and deleted three white supremacist websites at the end of a talk during the annual hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (TechCrunch)
BREAKING: After 58 years, Trump dissolves the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB served as the primary funder for PBS, NPR and local TV and radio stations. Now it is no more.
Meanwhile, billionaires continue to buy up major legacy media to prevent criticism of Trump.
My human rights newsletter remains unapologetic in fact-checked research and justice-centered writing. No required paid sub. Never a paywall. Join us: lets-address-this-with-qasim-r…
A deep dive into the human rights issues affecting humanity. Pulling from my experience as a human rights lawyer—I bring the receipts to disentangle fact from fiction and advance the fight for universLet's Address This with Qasim Rashid
Looking through a README in a repo on GitHub, it said it was inspired by an earlier project. The earlier project sounded like it would meet my requirements better, so I clicked on it and...
... it was my own project. An incomplete one from eight years ago.
Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit
platformer.news/fake-uber-eats…
Turns out a Reddit anonymous post was a hoax. And fortunately there are still reporters that fact check.
A “whistleblower” tried to corroborate his viral post with AI-generated evidence. This is how I caught him. PLUS: Grok's image-generation crisis, and the rapture over Claude Opus 4.5Casey Newton (Platformer)
A “whistleblower” tried to corroborate his viral post with AI-generated evidence. This is how I caught him. PLUS: Grok's image-generation crisis, and the rapture over Claude Opus 4.5Casey Newton (Platformer)
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Join Liam and Alyssa for the first podcast of 2026. Learn about Guide dog schools, strange city names, and find out what the Ervens are looking forward to in the new year.Liam's Live Streams
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Completely different topic, so ripping this quote out of the context from the article I just boosted:
"I wonder how much Venezuelan sensitive information was in fact stored on Google/Microsoft services and accessed by the US military to prepare their recent strike."
This is indeed a pretty interesting question to ponder. And if you're, say, Greenland, maybe consider your use of US cloud services...
I should state for the record that I think LLMs and other forms of AI have some valid and worthwhile uses, and that *none* of them should be tied to big tech or capitalism.
See things like:
- accessibility
- some types of research
- spell-check and predictive keyboards
- spam/scam filtering
Things would be very different if Harris was president. Democratic voters would be defending her attacks on other countries instead of opposing attacks by Trump.
Just like how they were out to brunch when Biden was increasing the military budget, financing genocide, attacking civil liberties, and killing hundreds of thousands of people when he switched to Trump's Covid strategy to please short term business interests.
Other's People Music returned from its very brief EOY hiatus with some groovy new tunes! Leftfield hip hop, singer-songwriter art pop, demented soundscapes, lo-fi electronic nostalgia & a post-rock concept album about ants. Enjoy!
CV/resume generator for academics and engineers, YAML to PDF - rendercv/rendercvGitHub
So I'm going to NAM in a few weeks. I got a hotel room with a spa tub in it for the occasion, because I am a boujee bitch. There was an option during the booking to request braille signage, which I thought was pretty spiffy, so I selected it.
I just got a call from them to inform me that the braille signage is only available for the accessible rooms. Naturally the accessible rooms are just the regular rooms and don't have the upgraded tub. So So I decided to just keep things as is and do without the signage (as I have done my entire life)
How annoyed should I be about this?
@vitallie @miki I did enjoy it! The food is great, it's very walkable, the trains are solid and everyone I met was super nice. I think of moving there sometimes. But then I would have to learn dutch ;)
I think this is just a case where the ADA has succesfully bullied everyone in the US to do the right thing, which is good. I make a point of mentioning it when I stay in hotels (not that I think it will matter, but, you know, you gotta say something)
Andre Louis
in reply to DJDarren • • •