akkoma - Link to source

David Rosen, co-founder of SEGA, just died. He was 95 years old.

Wait. He wasn’t Japanese?

That’s right. SEGA started as an American company. The reason SEGA is capitalized is because the original name was Service Games. And the “Service” in that name refers to the American military—its first customer base.

SEGA remained largely American until the 1980s, when David Rosen—along with Japanese business partners—bought the company from its parent, Gulf+Western, which also owned Paramount Pictures.

This initiated one of the most innovative and creative periods in video game history. SEGA produced classics like Space Harrier, OutRun, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, and Virtua Fighter.

For nearly two decades, SEGA was the primary rival to Nintendo, separating itself through speed and attitude.

Along with Atari, it was one of the companies that defined my childhood.

R.I.P., David Rosen. May you enjoy that great arcade in the sky.

theguardian.com/games/2026/jan…


Sega co-founder David Rosen dies aged 95

Rosen, who led Sega from the 1960s into the 90s and who died on Christmas Day, was a hugely important figure in the history of arcade and home gaming
Keith Stuart (The Guardian)

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mastodon - Link to source

Three years ago I bought @juliette an electric kettle for her birthday (because romance is not dead).

Looking for a stainless tank, hidden heating element, and temperature settings, I found the Krups KE07. Bit expensive, but it'll last decades. Right? Button 1 broke after a year. Button 2 today..

Thread in three parts

1. How it broke

2. Why I think you should not buy a Krups / Tefal appliance

3. How to fix it with a 3D printed part

1/x

#enshittification #plannedobsolescence #righttorepair

The Krups KE07. Don't buy this thing if you still can buy something else.
#righttorepair #plannedobsolescence #enshittification @juliette
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source
@bert_hubert I think this can use some extra attention: The .be registry wants to leave AWS and has created an RFP with lots of details of what they need. I think this could be the first sheep over the dam. I hope you can bring extra attention to this and a precedent can be created.
dnsbelgium.be/en/news/dns-belg…

DNS Belgium leaves AWS

DNS Belgium intends to eventually remove its critical infrastructure from AWS and migrate to a European cloud provider.
DNS Belgium
@Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦

mastodon - Link to source

Who approves licenses of subscriptions in a company in the end who buys, like via whose decisions do startups in sv remain afloat or die

When an enterprise buys from a startup, who actually signs off? Trying to understand who the real decision-maker is in the buying process

People who can approve or release budget for recurring software subscriptions inside organizations.

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source
You know I wonder if they even think about what they say. If anyone who talks about me, or the stuff I do knows that it hurts? Since apparently it's not interesting, or useless, or no one understands, or I should just do something else. Yeah title him as nerd and let him do whatever, people don't like nerds blahh blah. You fucking, yes fucking know that it hurts, you don't have to understand it, but you can accept it, you don't have to understand the concept, or even the principle, but the fact that it's a hobby like every other, that you get joy from it, that you don't have to downtalk it and label it as something bad. Cuz it makes me feel bad fucker.
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

Justin Macleod

Obviously I don't know the particulars of your circumstances and your family history, so this advice could be entirely inappropriate, but don't wait for permission. If you wanna help your Grandad, hit him up, like today. Send him an email or phone him or go visit. Hey Grandad heard you want a Smart Phone. What would you most like it for. there are these options. Not an overwhelm of information, just enough to show your knowledge and will to help.
in reply to Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

Justin Macleod

The key part of my post, which got buried in the implementation, is don't wait for permission or approval. Don't wait to be allocated the task. Allocate it to yourself. Volunteer! Why am I saying this? Because I've discovered over the past couple of years that I have spent too much of my life waiting for my ideas to be signed off on rather than just going ahead and making them happen.

Jonathan reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

Justin Macleod

I've lived too much of my life, not for other people as such, not in their service, but to their schedules, fitting in with their expectations, what they approve of, what they permit me to do. By doing that, I automatically make myself subordinate to them rather than on an equal footing. Be on an equal footing. You have skills. You don't need other people's permission to use them.

Jonathan reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

Justin Macleod

It's your life. they're your skills. It's your desire to help. Stepping forward means that yes you are putting yourself out there for rejection, for people to prefer someone else's advice and yes that will be mega mega hard if you're anything like me, but don't wait for life to happen to you...happen to it! You don't need to be told it's okay to do something, that you are considered worthy. Go for it.

mastodon - Link to source
I love my family. My father is dissatisfied cuz I finally do something for the security of my mom and manage her Bitwarden. He says the normal apple passwords app is enough. I quote his conversation to my mom: "Why do you even let him do that nerd shit, there is the apple passwords application which stores all your pass keys." With my mom going on about how she didn't even know what passkeys are, and that she's glad someone is at least doing something and explaining stuff. And may I mention that she forgot her Apple ID password, and Apple does not offer the same recovery methods as Bitwarden, such as backups through the API I can easily manage, etc. But yeah right, the apple passwords app without backups will just be fine for someone who recently locked themselves out of their half life. Holy shit I can't stand naive idiots, but yeahr right I'm the shitty nerd bitch, for using a proper password manager, fuck off man.
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to daniel:// stenberg://

mastodon - Link to source

mormund

Would it be an option to add a small submission fee? That is of course unfair to researchers from developing countries. But $5 should dissuade the AI slop at least a little, I'd imagine.

Not sure if there was already a discussion in another thread about what could be done. Apologies if I have missed that.

Either way this current asymmetry of effort to report vs. effort to check is not sustainable. Thanks for putting up with it so far.

mastodon - Link to source

I've just seen the following comment posted on Lemmy, and I'm reeling at the spiciness of their take. It feels like genuine bravery to straight up admit this in public:

"Dredd (2012) was a technically proficient, but ultimately mediocre piece of uncritical copaganda action schlock, and a vastly inferior film to Judge Dredd (1995). i will die on this hill."

Just...astonishing.

mastodon - Link to source
I want to speak about how we speak to each other. Mostly because I am as guilty as anyone else of generalising, and I suspect that even as my very intelligent American friends know that when I shit talk about “Americans”, I don’t necessarily mean them. It still stings on a visceral level - especially if they are fighting like hell personally to try and get their mad king out of power. 1/
in reply to Madeleine Morris

mastodon - Link to source

Madeleine Morris

Meanwhile, what a lot of Americans - even very well intentioned ones - probably cannot conceive of is that the rest of the world experiences the effects of American power as monolithic. We never get the opportunity to vote in your elections, but we pay in insecurity and financially when a terrible American president is elected.

When your president threatens other nations, we don’t (and can’t) stop to specify ‘not all Americans’. That is absurd - because we don’t experience you individually 2/

mastodon - Link to source

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.

mastodon - Link to source

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…


Die Linke: Anne Roth kehrt als Referentin für Digitalpolitik zurück

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

friendica - Link to source

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…


Getting off US tech: a guide - by Paris Marx - Disconnect

I’m in the process of dropping US tech services. Here’s how I did it, and options you should consider.
Paris Marx (Disconnect)
#USA

mastodon - Link to source

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…


Med-Mastodon - The Future

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)
#MedMastodon @Masto.host
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

hometown - Link to source

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-…

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board Votes to Dissolve Organization in Act of Responsible Stewardship to Protect the Future of Public Media

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
#NPR #pbs #cpb

pleroma - Link to source

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

mastodon - Link to source

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

#foss #opensource #nextcloud #EU #js #php #jobs #softwaredevelopment #hiring #getfedihired #WFH #hr #careers
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

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.

#cdnpoli


A digital infrastructure plan | CCPA

Asserting digital sovereignty means mapping out the real world of digital infrastructure and understanding which parts are for public intervention
Bianca Wylie (CCPA)
#cdnpoli

mastodon - Link to source

If the allyship isn’t on this level… I dont want it, and you are not doing enough.

techcrunch.com/2026/01/05/hack…


Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference | TechCrunch

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)
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source

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


Debunking the AI food delivery hoax that fooled Reddit

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 4.5
Casey Newton (Platformer)
#AI #journalism
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

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mastodon - Link to source

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.

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

2026-01-05 16:25:11

iceshrimp.net - Link to source

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

Sam's Stuff - The State of Modern AI Text To Speech Systems for Screen Reader Users

stuff.interfree.ca
in reply to Amber Hinds

iceshrimp.net - Link to source

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

To be fair to your step dad, Karen and Lee, the popular Australian voices found on most GPS devices, as well as on IOS, originally developed by Scansoft, later purchased by Nuance, then transferred to Cerence Automotive, before finally getting owned by Microsoft, are some of the nicest text to speech voices ever made for casual listening. Largely this is due to whomever was in charge of recording and curating the data back in 2002. They did an excellent job editing and aligning the recordings for use with the concatenative synthesis technology that was available at the time, resulting in the Australian voices sounding noticeably better than all of the other English options, even though they all used the same underlying methods. The fact the data capture was so high quality has meant that as technology and training methods improve, those voices have continued to remain a step ahead. The female version of the voice your father is almost certainly using is based on this woman: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Jacobsen
If all of my favourite, fast and efficient voices were ripped away from me, those Australian voices are probably what I'd revert to. They're not as fast as I would like, but at least they're clear and accurate. Your step dad has good taste.

Australian singer, Siri voice

Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
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