Sven Slootweg (soft-deprecated) @joepie91@pixie.town

A new study from Sweden 🇸🇪 suggests that mild COVID-19 can cause several years of "brain fog"

https://www.gp.se/nyheter/sverige/risk-for-flera-ar-av-hjarndimma-efter-mild-covid.f60cbaf7-0ec9-432f-8626-4311a9e2bddd?access=unknown

via: https://twitter.com/killedbyproxy/status/1751280158814715934

Half the U.S. can't afford rent.

But the economy is doing 'better'.

Something is wrong here.

I think this, a discussion of the parallels between "AI" and "crypto", is a good take. I want to dig into the bit on "AI" being different because it has practical use.

"AI" is a marketing term. There's the stuff that was mainly called "ML" up until 2021 or so, which definitely has practical uses. E.g., if you're running a social network and need to help humans find the toxic stuff, ML can help.

But in the last few years there's a wave of hype mainly around the large language models, LLMs, and the large text-to-image models. So things like ChatGPT and DALL-E. It's really not clear to me those have much more practical use than crypto. Certainly not over their costs. 1/

https://sfba.social/@misc@mastodon.social/111754701923644674

Many folks here probably already know this, but it's worth repeating, because I think it's one of the most crucial yet overlooked things about political campaigning:

Always demand *twice* what you're looking to get. People will generally treat 'campaigning for change' like a negotiation, and they will (unfortunately) usually not accept rational arguments by themselves.

If you demand the outcome you want, then your campaign is basically guaranteed to fail; you will get something that's inbetween your demands and the status quo. Doesn't matter how reasonable your demands are, you will not get them.

The purpose of asking for twice what you want is to make the reasonable ask actually *look* reasonable to people, by framing it on a broader spectrum of possibilities.

(If necessary, delegate the "demanding twice what you want" to a separate organization that you can afford to 'burn', so that your main organization looks like the reasonable party.)

Yes, it sucks that this is necessary.

the year is 2050. GTK is still preparing the move to version 4, and has collaborated with the FBI to assassinate anyone who mentions the filepicker thumbnail bug. qt stil has an open source version, but it requires you to have create an account with a valid email address and physical address, and limits applications to only containing one window.

microsoft is still "transitioning away from winforms" to the Multiversal Windows Platform, For Real You Guys, We're Doing It Platform. iOS desktop (formerly macOS) has deprecated all system widgets in favour of the cloud. google has created an artificial intelligence to randomly create and deprecate new GUI frameworks, rendering it essentially impossible for anybody but them to create android apps with "native GUIs".

the only usable framework is electron, but everybody hates it because bloat.

as people struggle to find a desktop ui framework that hasn't been bogged down into uselessness by licensing issues or lack of features, a saviour emerges from the heavens: java swing

#meme

On the reach of and ubiquity of white supremacy:

My partner is white, but she also does a lot of work trying to dismantle, teach about, and vocalize/ verbalize the existence and effects of white supremacy, cultural imperialism, and colonialism while teaching younger generations of culinary students in the US (in California, which is relatively more liberal and relatively better educated than many other US states). Also the majority of her students are young adults, and people of color, often in community with various other forms of marginalization.

So as you might expect, she talks and teaches about social justice and antiracism a lot. It's also a pedagogical priority at the college where she teaches.

A few days ago, a student asked why albacore tuna tends to be more expensive than other kinds of canned tuna in US markets. Because my partner is always attributing disparities in demand and economy to the white supremacy, she did so again, with no real basis, sort of jokingly.

But later she researched it and it really is because of white supremacist cultural expectations. And this actually applies to other food products that are "lighter" in color, with a more "refined" or "subtle" taste. In the US, these characteristics are strongly economically tied to white supremacy.

As I watch X openly support Nazis, Google search displaying explicitly incorrect information and misinformation, and the continued march towards a lack of foresight or accountability in tech I must reiterate that technology is and forever will be a political force.

"The rich stole all your shit. Don't give em your empathy too"
Seen in London, Ontario

Maybe some of my followers can help me with this #question.

I remember reading about Chinese diaspora labour organisations, some sort of mutual aid society type thing, or proto-unions. However, though I remember they had a name, I forgot what it was and I'm finding it impossible to google for it. Anyone knows?

@tommythorn @darkling @NanoRaptor An ex-cofounder of mine from a previous company had his house catch fire.

Including a server containing a ton of irreplaceable data belonging to a client that was super paranoid and had an NDA clause mandating all data be stored on premises (his house since it was a tiny startup).

Luckily he had fiber with fast upload.

The client ssh'd *into the burning building* and managed to save most of the data before power was lost. Talk about a close save.

Love this toothpaste label - let's roll it out across all products

hoe ijs meteen in damp omgezet wordt, dat vind ik subliem.

More spacey space vibes 🤓

#mastoArt #creativeToots #art #b3d #blender #conceptart