It's finally new #WhatsApp app day on Windows for me. If you were thinking I would buck the trend by saying it's not all that bad, then I would have to seriously ask whether you've ever read any of my posts at all.
@cachondo I suspect a not insignificant number of those minutes have been spent hearing "For more options, press left or right arrow key to access context menu," over, and over, and over, and over again, and then a bit more.
Constantine ending persecution of Christians in 313 AD was really good. The previous policy of persecution under Diocletian was terrible. These are facts.
But, one can't help but lament the shift in Christianity as the faith transformed from being a deliberate rejection of the world to a path of ease and power. This is still true today as politicians and others misuse the name of Christ for their own ends.
We've just released Matrix spec v1.17 (hopefully our last release before v2.0!) including a few new MSCs and some exciting usability improvements for the spec website!
Our so called "leaders" can bring in hate laws, but laws don't create hate, they haven't stopped people killing each other. Ignorance develops/creates hate. Let's spend money on education which develops what MLKjr called "beloved community". This would be a good step towards creating the partnership culture we need so much. #universaleducation
I've been on mastodon a few times over the years but this is the first time I've created an account with the intent of actually interacting. And I'd like to start by making everyone here hate me by sharing a clearly unpopular opinion and say: I... Like using AI. And I hope I can win some of you over as well.
Now don't get me wrong, I see the damage, I hate the people causing it, but I would ask, if we gave up on every new piece of technology that wasn't immediately as good as its predecessor, where would we be? We would never have invested in electric cars, or hell, vehicles at all. We wouldn't dare to building anything for fear our initial prototype couldn't compete with a refined legacy standard.
Many of the people on this platform are the people who actually can affect change. We're programmers, hackers, network engineers, the ones who actually get to do something. But instead of finding solutions, trying to make things better, so many are burying their head in the sand and hoping the world doesn't change around them. And I hate to say it but it won't work.
The world is changing, technology is changing, but we have the ability and knowledge to build the alternative. We're the ones who can challege big AI, and implement solutions built by people, outside of data centers, and in the control of people. As a person who has to implement these solutions for businesses, open source, local and edge applications are where I want to see this technology, not in a datacenter thats destroying a community.
I've done a lot over the years to push for open source technology, more than most can say they have. I didn't sit in a bubble and wait for the world to adopt the tools I want them to use, I climbed the ranks as from an IT professional to a sysadmin, a network engineer, and finally someone who actually has a say. And then I deployed those technologies for people. I gave end users linux, I chose proxmox over esxi, I deployed open source office suites instead of just paying for microsoft office because "that's what you do", even when it made my job harder.
I look at the landscape today in tech and I see an opportunity for us as open source devs and builders to shape things before they take place. To take the place of big AI in communities and businesses before it gains a foothold. And it hurts a bit to see businesses and organizations I've loved and followed for so long digging themselves a grave and praying it will all go away while the people like me have to keep helping businesses use chatgpt and gemini trash without good alternatives. Thank you for your attention, I'll be taking hate mail in the comments below.
Local AI wastes more power than AI that runs in a datacenter.
For LLMs to be as economical and power-efficient as possible, you need to keep your GPUs as highly utilized as you can, preferrably during all hours of the day. For big models, you also want to have as many of those GPUs as you can in one cluster, within limits of course.
THe thing about LLMs is that, unlike let's say Netflix, they require very little bandwidth and are relatively tolerant of latency. This means that there's little disadvantage (beyond the political implications) of running your model at the other end of the world. Unless you're a global organization with offices everywhere, if you buy your own GPUs, those GPUs will likely sit idle beyond 9-to-5. This won't be the case if you rent capacity from a global provider, as that provider can rent the same GPUs to somebody located in a different timezone when you're not using them.
@miki I think there's something to be said beyond the overall global power impact and efficiency in this exact moment and a case to be made for the local impact on communities where these centers are as well as the trajectory we choose to develop in. There's also a case to be made which I firmly believe that perhaps we don't need the largest, most capable model for every task. We don't necessarily need the power of chatGPT to answer every person's inquiry about whether its skynet, we just need to focus on shifting resources to improving the accessibility and functionality provided by smaller models for tasks that many people need. There are also hidden costs to carrying traffic across the world. Infrastructure from one point to another has to travel through the electrical grids of various geographical areas, some more efficient than others. But this is just my perspective, and there's definitely a lot of data that hasn't been collected yet because its a rapidly evolving field so it will be curious to see how perspective shifts as approaches develop.
You don't realize how much not a cost bandwidth is when it comes to AI. One Netflix movie (despite all the layers of CDNs) will probably offset your Chat GPT use for a year (napkin math).
I think you have a point re: community impact, but due to how much of a non-concern bandwidth is, we have a really great opportunity to build AI datacenters very close to green energy sources (or build green energy sources closer to AI datacenters). THis includes things like geothermal. If eveybody is running their own AI, they'll use whatever power they have.
This is one of a very few industries that a) uses insane amounts of energy, and b) the energy can be used at the other end of the world from where the product user is, with 0 loss to the user experience.
THis is why some people are putting AI GPUs in abandoned crypto mines. All you need for them is stable (but not necessarily fast) internet access, some space, a lot of cheap power and a lot of cooling. Those are the same conditions as are needed for crypto mining.
Bei meinem Vortrag auf dem 38c3 habe ich gezeigt, dass die deutsche Zweigstelle der International Association of Accessibility Professionals peinliche & falsche Übersetzungen, die den Sinn einer Prüfungs-Aufgabe für eine Zertifizierung entstellen, veröffentlicht hat.
Sie haben danach noch sehr lange rumgeeiert und mich der Lüge bezichtigt, obwohl der Beweis direkt auf der Folie war und ich auch mehreren (!) IAAP-Mitgliedern gegenüber die entsprechende Quelle gezeigt habe.
Ende vom Lied: Es hat sich niemals irgendwer dafür bedankt, dass ich einem Verein, den ich ablehne, so sehr geholfen hab, seine Professionalität zu wahren.
Etwas später dieses Jahr teilte mir eine Person aus der Bubble mit, man wolle sich noch bei mir melden und mir auch einen Gutschein für eine Zertifizierung ausstellen.
Sie schließt ganz zentral die meisten Neurodivergenzen, Seh- und Körperbehinderungen aus, es gibt keine Instanz bei der man sich über das Nicht-gewähren von Nachteilsausgleichen durch die beaufsichtigende Person beschweren kann.
- Für die Prüfung sollten Sie nach Möglichkeit Ihren eigenen Laptop mitbringen, da nur so die Nutzung Ihrer assistiven Technologien sichergestellt werden kann. Bitte beachten Sie, dass die vor Ort bereitgestellten Computer keine assistiven Technologien oder sonstige Software enthalten.
- Wenn Sie assistive Technologien mit Audioausgabe (z. B. Screenreader) verwenden, ist die Nutzung von Kopfhörern zwingend erforderlich
Wie ists mit lauten Braillezeilen oder belüfteten Hilfsmitteln? Was, wenn ich auch eine Hörbehinderung habe, die die Nutzung von Kopfhörern unmöglich macht? Was ist, wenn ich Schaltersteuerungen benutzen muss oder Spracheingabe, und dadurch erheblich langsamer bin? Was, wenn ich ADHS oder Autismus habe und mich in einem Raum mit anderen Prüflingen nicht konzentrieren kann?
Tja, dann ist das Angebot der internationalen Vereinigung der Barrierefreiheitsspezialist*innen für dich unzugänglich.
There must be a vanishingly small percentage of people who manage to go from installing some software (or buying a car or anything) to finding your email somewhere in the list of credits and deciding to email you for help. The fact you keep getting these shows just how widely and by so many people curl must be used!
WTF can imagine their cli/gui displaying errors from underneath curl… Yet cannot get how curl license/contact can be first thing rookies are able to access before theirs ??? !!!
No ... to je tak nějak můj standart.... každý měsíc 312 a víc 😎 🤗 nějak si na ty hračky co si pořád kupuju musím vydělat .... Teď zrovna zkouším MacBook Air s M1 silikonem ... a s těmi 16Gb ram to je lepší než starý 16" MacBook pro s i9 a 32Gb ram .... Myslím že si asi koupím repasovanou 16" PRO verzi s M1 PRO čipem .... ten MacBook mne baví 😍
In a past life, I did an internet radio show, called "Things and Stuff", where much of my time was spent messing with buttons, sliders and knobs, talking about and demonstrating weird things, and playing music.
On December 23, 2017, I did one of only two pre-recorded shows in the 14 years that Things and Stuff existed, this being that year's Christmas-themed show.
Should you care to throw a bunch of Christmas things at your face, including a look back at recordings of somewhat incriminating Perdue family Christmases from every year between 1986 and 2017, except for 1997, as presented by me and another me (who doesn't talk to themselves every now and then), you can do so, at least until I get around to removing all the 2016 through 2019 archives from the place they are currently being hosted.
Now, if that's not incentive, I don't know what is.
@jaybird110127 Yeah, I did, but Metric Day itself wasn't mentioned, because this wasn't a live show, so you couldn't possibly have called in and sung us all a bunch of Metric Day carols.
We can't put enough gratitude in the character limit for everything our community has helped us do this year, so we wrote a recap blog. Thank you everyone who made this all happen! 💙 🙌
I'm listening with the wife, but we're only half way through the first book so far. Finding time is hard with the baby.
It's weird how I've actually read well over 4 million words of fanfiction, but actually only read the original series 3 times (once as a first read, again for me to log on my goodreads, and a third time with my daughter. She's listened to all the audiobooks many times, but I read them all to her myself when she was younger. She's looking forward to the new TV series next year. I imagine these full cast recordings are bringing the stories to another generation, too.
New #screenReader verbosity settings for messages are now widely available in #Slack, under the #accessibility category of preferences. You can now control which parts of messages are spoken and in what order.
As part of this change, you'll also find that recent replies in threads now have relative timestamps (e.g. "just now" or "2 minutes ago") instead of absolute ones. This update brings the screen reader experience in line with the visual interface, with absolute timestamps still being used outside of threads.
If you have suggestions or run into problems, please use the /feedback command and mention that you use a screen reader. Alternatively I'm also happy to pass along any issues if I can reproduce them.
Sabe o que me chama a atenção? Jogos como Mario 64 e Zelda Ocarina of Time serem jogos que não possuem nem 100mb e ainda assim terem impacto por décadas. E tem gente levando essas tecnologias limitadas aos extremos e isso me fascina.
a china podia inundar o mercado com memoria e ssd agora, aproveitando que o cartel sul coreano de chips tá inflando artificialmente os preços com a ajuda da industria de IA. mete uma produção dobrada, toma o controle do mercado e fode com samsung e sk hynix
Outro interesse especial meu: produção de música. Queria ter tempo (e dinheiro) para mexer com MIDI, presets, vsts, trackers e DAWs. Acho um mundo tão legal
buenas, já mexi um pouco com produção uns anos atrás pra gravar umas composições próprias, hoje estou parado mas talvez volte uma hora dessas. Você tem alguma formação musical? Eu me formei em piano clássico.
The true strength lies in the careful combination of these tools into multi-layered, living systems—creating the conditions not just for protection, but for long-term flourishing.
Der Solarboom in China ist so massiv. Das Land monopolisiert so viele Schlüsseltechnologien für sich. Man könnte meinen Xi Jinping wäre Kinderbuchautor.
Oh how strange, I wake up and Slack now reads message timestamps as "(X) ago" instead of the direct time? I wonder if they now made this a setting in terms of how timestamps are announced to accessibility, hmm.
That is now the case in threads, mirroring the visual display that's had relative timestamps for years. In channels and DMs outside of threads, they'll still be absolute.
That change probably does mean you now have the new screen reader verbosity settings available though.
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I want to post something snarky about the fact that I've just encountered three different errors on three different apps that all said some form of "Oops, something went wrong! Try again", but my snarkogen reserves are not high enough to come up with something sufficiently snarky, and I no longer know if it's because they've been drained from too much snark or because this issue pisses me off so much that no amount of snark is sufficient.
STOP IT. FUCKING STOP IT. IT'S NOT CUTE. IT'S NOT ENDEARING JUST BECAUSE YOU ADD "OOPS" AND A LITTLE EXCLAMATION MARK. IT'S ONE MORE STEP TO TREATING THE USER LIKE A SUBNORMAL DUMBASS AND NOBODY LIKES THAT. IT REMOVES ANY TINY AMOUNT OF AGENCY I MIGHT HAVE OVER HOW TO FIX IT OR AT LEAST WHO TO ASSIGN RESPONSIBILITY TO. I CANNOT FUCKING REPORT AN ERROR IN A HELPFUL WAY BECAUSE EVERYTHING I CAN FUCKING SAY IS"IT DOES NOT WORK". FUCKING STOP IT.
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So much this. I feel it would be an interesting study if someone designed two versions of an app, one with useful feedback and another with overly friendly feedback. It would be nice to know what users actually prefer, rather than designing for the lowest common denominator.
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@datajake1999 I honestly don't even think that this is overly friendly. Unless we mean stereotypically midwestern friendly, in which politeness and friendliness is often inversely proportional to how much they want you to fuck off and disappear.
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Overly friendly probably wasn't the right term, however I feel that many modern user interface design trends have become less formal, Discord anyone? Another example is when finishing Windows updates, the consumer versions of Windows 11 say you are 98% there, and the IoT versions say 98% complete.
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@datajake1999 Huh. I had no idea the messages differed. To Microsoft's credit even if the messages are now more friendly they still typically give you a code. Like I recall when windows update had an error it gave me one of those messages, saying we'll try again, all that stuff, followed by "This may help. <0x blablabla>." So I could still Google it. The issue turned out to be so cursed Windows update literarly reinstalled most of windows by downloading something called the windows repair edition as an update which says a lot about modern Windows, but hey. It gave me a code.
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@pitermach @datajake1999 The worst ones are the companies that do give you a code, but it's the code for this particular occurrence of the error in their customer support logs, not for the error class itself.
Please be advised that all employees planning to dash through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh, going over the fields and laughing all the way are required to undergo a Risk Assessment addressing the safety of open sleighs. The assessment must also consider whether it is appropriate to use only one horse for such a venture, particularly where there are multiple passengers. Please note that permission must also be obtained in writing from landowners before their fields may be entered. To avoid offending those not participating in celebrations, we request that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered a noise nuisance. Benches, stools and orthopaedic chairs are now available for collection by any shepherds planning or required to watch their flocks at night. While provision has also been made for remote monitoring of flocks by CCTV cameras from a centrally heated shepherd observation hut, all facility users are reminded that an emergency response plan must be submitted to account for known risks to the flocks. The angel of the Lord is additionally reminded that prior to shining his/her glory all around s/he must confirm that all shepherds are wearing appropriate Personal Protective Equipment to account for the harmful effects of UVA, UVB and the overwhelming effects of Glory Following last year’s well publicised case, everyone is advised that legislation prohibits any comment with regard to the redness of any part of Mr. R. Reindeer. Further to this, exclusion of Mr. R Reindeer from reindeer games will be considered discriminatory and disciplinary action will be taken against those found guilty of this offence. While it is acknowledged that gift-bearing is commonly practised in various parts of the world, particularly the Orient, everyone is reminded that the bearing of gifts is subject to Hospitality Guidelines and all gifts must be registered. This applies regardless of the individual, even royal personages. It is particularly noted that direct gifts of currency or gold are specifically precluded under provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Further, caution is advised regarding other common gifts, such as aromatic resins that may initiate allergic reactions. Finally, for those involved in the recent case of the infant found tucked up in a manger without any crib for a bed, Social Services have been advised and will be arriving shortly. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas – be safe out there.......
Na blogu @iurecz vyšel náš přistup k mobilům, technologiím a obrazovkám obecně. Zkusili jsme dát radu jak to udělat na Androidu pro někoho s non-IT backgroundem. Ty technikálie kolem de-googled Androidu atd nejsou ve skutečnosti to zásadní. Díky @hynekolog za spolupráci.
Řada rodičů řeší, jak děti bezpečně doprovodit do digitálního světa. Pro někoho může být řešením oddálení koupě chytrého mobilu či pořízení tzv. hloupého mobilu. Lze ale také nastavit telefon do jakéhosi polochytrého módu.
Thank you for your continued support! Mona 7.1 is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
In addition to new alternate app icons and improvements based on first-day user feedback, starting in Mona 7.1, Mona Ultra (supports Family Sharing; works on iPhone/iPad/Mac) is also available to Mona Pro users for just 30 USD as a one-time purchase (limited-time offer).
If you have Mona Pro Max, you can also purchase Mona Ultra for just 20 USD (limited-time offer).
Mein Gastbeitrag ist heute in der WELT (Debatte) erschienen: „Eingliederungshilfe: Doch, wir müssen uns persönliche Assistenz auch künftig leisten!“
Ich schreibe das nicht als abstrakte Position, sondern aus der Praxis: Ich arbeite im Bundesarchiv, bin (kleiner) Unternehmer und ehrenamtlich engagiert. Das funktioniert nur, weil persönliche Assistenz mir die Handgriffe ersetzt, die mein Körper nicht leisten kann – 24/7 im Schichtsystem. Nicht als „Luxus“, sondern als Voraussetzung dafür, überhaupt Verantwortung zu übernehmen und produktiv Teil dieser Gesellschaft zu sein.
Im Text geht es u. a. um drei Punkte: • warum 24/7-Assistenz in der Realität Sicherheit und Selbstständigkeit bedeutet – nicht Komfort • warum die Alternative häufig Heim/Institution oder Überlastung von Angehörigen heißt (und oft teurer ist) • warum die Bürokratie rund um mehrere Kostenträger, Nachweise und Verordnungen selbst ein Kosten- und Kraftfresser ist – und was man daran besser machen könnte, ohne Transparenz zu opfern
Ich freue mich über eine sachliche Diskussion – gern auch kontrovers, aber fair.
Eine persönliche Assistenz für Behinderte ist kein Luxus, den sich der Sozialstaat nicht mehr leisten kann – sagt unser Gastautor, dessen Arbeitsalltag ohne Unterstützung „24/7“ nicht möglich wäre.
Berlin, 18 December 2025 – LibreOffice 25.8.4, the fourth minor update to the free office suite developed by volunteers for personal productivity in office environments on Windows, MacOS and Linux, is now available from the download page.
I use the flatpack on Linux Mint, and it updated automatically. There are dozens of little things like this that make both Linux & LibreOffice so convenient and hassle free.
This post is a good example of why truth and factuality same thing. This is the most viscerally true thing I’ve read in a long while, but the degree to which it’s factual or not is largely irrelevant. It feels like a kick in the gut nonetheless
(It is tagged as ‘non-fiction, so it probably is factual)
“The Colonization of Confidence., Sightless Scribbles”
https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/
> The Tech Bros haven't invented the term, but they have automated the process.
Guess what, btw, I haven't been contacted regarding my work time tomorrow until now. My taxi isn't informed yet, and I have now proactively messaged the responsible person. I'd love to just stay at home if I don't get an answer, but sadly this is my fucking job and I don't need even more trouble.
My vocational school class is going to the cinema next Friday, actually, not even just the class, several other classes from the school. Our English teacher was (apparently) able to select a movie from the catalog. But, guess what, oh no how sad, the film has no audio description, but but, we even asked the cinema, so sorry, we need to find an alternative for you. The alternative is that while my classmates to whom I already am separated thanks to several other factors of my disability enjoy themselves next Friday, I'll be sitting at the office (being given the time to work on school stuff), and of course I don't have to stay the full time. You know I'm not even angry, this was totally no surprise to me but it's so fucking ridiculous.
Ich hätte gerne mal Feedback von Menschen mit #Sehbehinderung oder #Seheinschränkung: Mir ist gestern das erste Mal begegnet, dass die im wissenschaftl. Kontext übliche Bezeichnung Double/Single #Blind Review, bzw. "verblindet" (also dass nur eine Partei den Namen der anderen kennt, oder keine:r von beiden) offensive sei, weil #ablesimus. Wie seht ihr das? Gibt es dazu einen Diskurs/Literatur? Ich finde das Argument nachvollziehbar, ist mir nur bisher noch nicht begegnet. #PeerReview
Every time there's news from Mozilla we see a lot of takes around here along the lines of: they're clueless, their heads are in the sand, they don't know their userbase.
Alternative interpretation: We're looking at another case very much like Bluesky - a corporation with somewhat-openwashed branding which knows exactly who their userbase is, hates it, and wants a different one.
The rationale is clear enough; the browser is just a massive opportunity for datamining. The "AI" startups can only dream of controlling a browser with even the marketshare of Firefox. In that light, it's no use having a userbase of technically competent, privacy-aware dissidents who can work around the extractive dark patterns. Let's face it people, we're not profitable to surveillance capitalism
Das Vitamin C haltige Mark schmeckt schön fruchtig.
Borris
in reply to James Scholes • • •Sean Randall
in reply to James Scholes • • •James Scholes
in reply to Sean Randall • • •Sean Randall
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