Desikn ⛄ @desikn@mastodon.social

Meta.

but seriously, somewhere between 2000 and 2019 the IT industry seamlessly transitioned from

"we provide precision engineering tools, your data is yours, you should not need to trust us or anyone, mathematics is your guarantee, crypto 4 ever. "

to

"give us your data. all of it. give. no secrets. hold nothing back. in return we will... train AIs on it.. and provide unspecified 'services'... for someone, who may be you... that can change at any time... and we are funded by, uh. Look, a unicorn!"

If you're building for people; build things that they can own, not rent.

Allow them to be nomadic with their data. Don't lock them in.

I was wrong about Google and Facebook: there’s nothing wrong with them (so say we all)

https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

It’s always difficult admitting you’re wrong. But sometimes you have to in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. So, today, I admit that I was wrong about Google, Facebook, & surveillance capitalism in general being toxic for our human rights and democracy … it simply cannot be true given how they are endorsed by some of the most well-respected organisations in the world.

Want to help Mastodon grow?

Frame a picture of the Mastodon logo, put it on your or someone else's grandma's coffee table among all the photos of your relatives! Your grandma won't notice it there, but all your aunts and uncles will be curious. They'll wonder who is this new relative?

In an attempt to research this weird looking new relative, they will stumbled upon the register page, and if there's anything your aunt and uncle is good at, it's signing up to random webpages. Bam! 💥 New user!

Google and Facebook releasing all these (objectively amazing) #opensource #machinelearning tools is shrewd in so many levels: Signals engineering strength, buys developer good will, trains potential employees, calms people down about the "scary AI", diverts attention from the real issue of private data feeding the algos...

Reportedly, in Tokyo, local gangs have started using drones to transport drugs across the city.

In response, the police are using net-carrying drones to try to capture these packets mid-air.

The gangs are counter-attacking with their own net-drones to try and drop police drones.

In a statement with the Tokyo police, they say they "Haven't had this much fun in years"

Happy GNU Year everybody!

This is why I love #openstreetmaps / #osm.

This is the power of #opensource and humans.

In 2019, I'm completely muting and/or unfollowing one-way crossposters. It feels disingenuous (to me) that people pipe info in here that they'd never interact with for the sake of "duplicity".

We're halfway between the Year 2000 bug and the Year 2038 bug.

(Happy New Year everyone!)

#35C3

"there is no AI, it's just privileged people's choices" ~ Le RESET #Feminist hackerspace

"Feminist perspectives" panel at #35c3

Can we not make the default response from a lot of people on the left to Facebook shitting on privacy to be "nationalise tech companies", I don't want the state with a detailed list of everybody I know, every book I read, every place I've been and every dumb thing I've said k thnx

@mntmn pretty ;)
here is my own caseputer, from 2011,
with a 6 core AMD and 3 video card for (up to 6) multi-screen video performances ... (it still works well - but has no battery system ;) )

me: This user interface is easy to use, intuitive and will survive the test of time.

my users: