Angus McIntyre @angusm@mastodon.social

I’ve been wondering what I needed to do to get my Instagram account restored, because going through their appeals process generated nothing but silence. Now I know.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/instagram-reinstated-sex-facebook-employees

#instagram #dowhatyagottado

These days, if you say you went to a big public event full of white Boomers wearing characteristic red hats, people get the wrong idea.

But anyway, Devo were magnificent last night, and I'm really glad I went.

#music #devo #deevolution #arewenotmen #shows #nyc

SFWA has honored Petra Mayer with a posthumous Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award.

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099620004/nprs-petra-mayer-nebula-science-fiction-award

#sff

Twitter's auto-moderation is pure horror.

I operate multiple Twitter accounts: a few popular parody accounts, a handful of pet projects, and -- until a while ago -- a personal account.

For Twitter's algorithm, Multiple Accounts = Bad. Intermittently it goes on a rampage, locking & suspending everything it can find. And I get to spend days trying to convince Twitter Support – for whom The Algorithm is Never Wrong – that I'm not a bad actor, account by account.

I'm tired. Musk is welcome to it.

This list of "8 Ways Social Media Distorts Our Realities" is sobering reading.

What's interesting is that most of the ways seem to be directly linked to the profit motive -- the pernicious effects arise from the infamous 'algorithm' (really, algorithms) created by social media business owners to increase engagement and the effectiveness of advertising. Non-commercialized social media (like Mastodon) might not be AS bad.

https://mailchi.mp/humanetech.com/8-ways-social-media-distorts-our-realities

#socialmedia #wearealldoomed

What is the point of two-step password entry, where you enter username and password on separate screens? To me, this looks like a pure antipattern, because it offers no discernible benefits and conflicts with password managers.

Yet it's spreading everywhere, so someone must think it's a good idea. Why?

#antipatterns #ux #uxfail

Google's #AI is not strong on irony. When my friend texted me that he was "still testing positive [and] looking forward to another weekend trapped in one room", Google cheerfully suggested that I might like to reply with "That's great news!" or "Sounds like fun!"

The cat wants you all to know that he didn't choose the plastic bag-licking life, the plastic bag-licking life chose him.

When Elon Musk takes over Twitter, do you think he’ll rename it Mutter, so that we don’t forget who’s in charge?

#twitter #elonmusk #mutter

Anyone looking at my order history might legitimately wonder if the cat has access to my credit card.

Are fans of Elon Musk Muskovites?

My ESPHole doesn’t know how to spell “nice”.

#nah

Oh, @pixelfed looks neat. I have been day-dreaming about how to make a distributed photo-sharing service based on RSS feeds - but this might be a nice alternative.

I have the feeling that the Fediverse is beginning to take off, something that excites me considerably more than all the Web3 bullshit flying around.

#fediverse #photosharing #pixelfed

I couldn't resist trying out the ESPHole ad blocker recommended by @pluralistic. It's pretty sweet and very easy to set up, although it doesn't seem to block as many ads as I might expect. Perhaps it only kills the worst of the worst?

Still, it's nice to visit a site and watch your "Nah!" count go up.

https://learn.adafruit.com/esphole-ad-blocker

#nah #adblockers #esphole

My cousin has written a beautiful, thoughtful meditation on the death of his brother last year.

https://lithub.com/a-quiet-reply-to-a-life-cut-short-after-a-profound-loss-how-to-honor-the-dead/

Andy McCluskey of OMD at Brooklyn Steel, 29 April 2020.

#music #omd #nyc #synthpop #concertphotos

According to eBay, there is such a thing as "tactical" shoe laces.

Excuse you, but if they don't come with a steel wire core, so that I can garrote a motherfucker with them, improvise a daring zip-line escape, and use them as a radio antenna in case of necessity, they are not actually "tactical".

They're just sage-green.

This article by @eff suggests that Twitter's new owner may decide to eliminate pseudonymous accounts from the service.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/twitter-has-new-owner-heres-what-he-should-do

This will -- among other things -- put an end to a number of popular parody accounts, including some that I run.

I guess that's just one of the "nice things" that we can't have if the new broom sweeps as clean as it threatens to.

On the other hand, Devin Nunes will probably be pleased not to be harassed by wayward bovines any more.

#freespeech #moo

It takes a very particular kind of mind to look at the flood of health and political misinformation that we've seen on social media over the last few years and think "Yes! What we need is more of that!"