One of my neighbors thinks they're funny
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smeg
@smeg@assortedflotsam.com
mastodon 4.7.3Armchair intellectual, sometimes philosopher, all-around learning junkie, cybersecurity and sysadmin, parent, and gamer. Everything is political.
A chicken in every pot and free poetry for all.
Admin of assortedflotsam.com
1183 Followers
1463 Following
50 Posts
Joined October 13, 2017
Pronouns:
He/Him/His
Pixelfed:
Location:
Haarlem, The Netherlands
Elite Dangerous:
CMDR Smeggysmeg
Boosted by @stux@mstdn.social
Elephants are born weighing 250 Ibs. They are the biggest babies on earth except for Motorists when one bike lane is added in their city.
#urbanism #bikes #bikecommuting #fuckcars #motonormativity #cars #transportation #trucks #highways #roads #bikelane #bikelanes
Boosted by @joe@f.duriansoftware.com
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia exec says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers
https://fortune.com/2026/04/28/nvidia-executive-cost-of-ai-is-greater-than-cost-of-employees/
#ai #llm #aibubble #labor #labour #swe #claude #chatgpt #anthropic #openai #noai #stopai #fuckai
Anthropic secretly installs spyware when you install Claude Desktop
https://www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/anthropic-spyware/
#claude #ai #llm #privacy #cybersecurity #spyware #fuckai #stopai #dataprivacy #anthropic
Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop
French people really like to speak French and get miffed if you ask them to speak English. But we learned a hack! If you accidentally respond to them in Dutch, they'll quickly ask you to speak English instead!
Boosted by @DataKnightmare@mastodon.xyz
"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." -- Louis Brandeis
#newbrandeis #antitrust #democracy #bigtech #surveillancecapitalism #wealth #wealthconcentration #politics #politicaltheory #autocracy #corporatism #corporatismisfascism #fascism #supremecourt #hipsterantitrust #ftc #regulation #regulatorycapture
2 days with my #Fairphone running #e_os and I can do ALL of my essentials (and more) in life without Google. For the handful of apps trying to send analytics data to Google, it's refreshing to see how the Advanced Privacy is blocking all of those connections.
Folks, it's time to #degoogle Big Tech has exploited us long enough.
#eos #android #google #bigtech #smalltech #foss #keepandroidopen
I've learned that you cannot rent a #bakfiets with the intention to use it for moving. This is very unfortunate.
I have movers scheduled for later this month, but I have some stuff I would prefer to move myself. It's a little over 1km
#moving #carryshitolympics
Replying to
@leanderlindahl@social.folkdata.se I use a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. It's the least tinkery option, has a locked bootloader that passes security checks, and is easily self-repairable.
See how /e/OS protects my device from tracking attempts!
Mobile apps trackers are one of the most impactful threats regarding your privacy and your freedom.
#privacy #tracking #AppTracking #apptrackingprotection #eos #surveillancecapitalism
Replying to
@robin many centre-left politicians and their supporters are still doormats for corporate interests and narratives
@sturmsucht I switched my grandparents to LibreOffice in maybe 2010? My grandfather wrote his attempt at a memoir as a .odt file. I cherish it
Temba, On the Canal
#startrek #trek #memes #startrekmemes #tng #obscurereference #startrektng #linguistics
Most underrated feature of the Wikipedia app: the Places feature that shows you articles based on your map location.
#Wikipedia #travel #travelguide
Replying to
@greensofshade where I used to live in the US, cyclists were explicitly allowed to use sidewalks. Because the city knew that their cycling infrastructure was very incomplete but they still wanted to encourage cycling.
In a city near to there, they banned cyclists on sidewalks. And they complained about cyclists clogging the car roads on their way to the mountain bike trails.
I'm not so upset about jet fuel costs skyrocketing. Flying is an extremely high polluting activity. Conserve the supply for real needs only. Stop leisure flying. Ground all private planes. Business people can use a video call.
I see this price crunch as an incentive to push the energy transition.
Hey #London folks! We're making a family trip to your city this summer, and I'm wondering: are any of the bikeshare services available for (older) children, or a person without a smartphone?
My 11yo kid can probably ride an adult bike with the seat fully down, but he doesn't have a smartphone (nor do we want him to have one). Do any accept a tap-and-pay debit card?
Behind every AI action is hundreds, if not thousands, of human hours. It's a game of smoke and mirrors.
And if you have anyone in your life with AI glasses, expect that everything they're doing is being fed to a corporation who is spying on both of you. Don't spend time with glassholes.
Meta is alo discouraging contractors from telling the truth
Meta in row after workers who say they saw smart glasses users having sex lose jobs
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7yvgy0w6o
If I recall, inability to maintain supply lines is usually a sign of a critical failure to plan a military campaign
US-Iran War: US Troops Given Small Food Portions, Nearly Empty Trays On Warships Deployed In Iran Conflict
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-iran-war-us-troops-given-small-food-portions-nearly-empty-trays-on-warships-deployed-in-iran-conflict-11369665
Private transportation should not be subsidized by the public.
Replying to
@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange then some drone in Finance comes to you with some subscription Excel vbs macro + application that requires so many old Windows dependencies that you want to cry, and of course you can't port that. And that team gets to keep Windows and Office. Then everyone else wants it, too, because they don't want to adapt to anything new, ever.
Replying to
@Strandjunker People will eventually say they were against all of this, but right now I believe the majority are generally in favor of the general thrust of what's happening - even if they object to some particulars.
I lost all faith in my fellow Americans, so I got myself and my family out. It's better than being sent to the camps, when that comes around.
Investors are tired of being duped. This bubble couldn't pop any sooner.
Oracle and OpenAI End Plans to Expand Flagship Data Center
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracle-openai-end-plans-expand-201106441.html
#FuckAI #StopAI #AIBubble #aidatacenter #datacenter #AI #OpenAI #Oracle
MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged
Replying to
@aral@mastodon.ar.al the biggest problem is banking. I have to authorize any online transaction with my bank app - which is a good thing! But my bank app only works on iOS and Google-certified Android - which is a problem with both ecosystems becoming more shitty
At a school district I worked at, a school board member was found to be sexting a student. Your local school board is not composed of academically minded people - they're mostly local business leaders ensuring they get a cut of district contracts.
And a lot of pedophiles.
‘God, you’re hot’ Tennessee school board member says to student during board meeting
https://www.wsmv.com/2026/04/06/god-youre-hot-tennessee-school-board-member-says-student-during-board-meeting/
#education #publiceducation #schoolboard #boardofeducation #k12education #k12 #localgovernment
Replying to
@elilla@transmom.love my spouse likes it, so it's part of my routine learning Dutch, along with 2 in-person private lessons weekly (w/ a book, vocab, and homework), and the practice involved in regular life. We also watch "easy Dutch" news.
We tried Pimsleur content, and it's incomplete and outdated. We've tried some of the other apps, they aren't great.
I mostly use Duolingo for drilling things for memorization.
Does anyone have an opinion of #HereWeGo as a mobile #map app?
I can't believe something owned by a car company would be any good at cycle routing, pedestrian pathing, or public transit.
I've been using a combination of #MagicEarth / Magic Lane that comes natively on /e/ OS, #CoMaps, and NS or a couple other train apps.
#maps #degoogle #navigation
Replying to
@rbreich@masto.ai I really wish this content wasn't just photo reposts from another platform. And I wish it had alt text
Replying to
@mertn@infosec.exchange you can't know what you aren't measuring. But I expect my Pi-hole caught anything my OS didn't
Replying to
@transitous@en.osm.town one of my chief complaints about OSM is that it collects large quantities of extraneous data for a mapping service, relative to the value the item of data may provide.
Entire roadways can be missing and I have to argue with gatekeepers to get them added. But highly superfluous data is enthusiastically embraced
I have 549 sign up requests from a Cloudflare IP.
"Automated protocol deliverability prob"
I have to approve new members, so no harm done, but it's pretty wild
#mastoadmin
De-Googling: My chosen alternatives for leaving Big Tech
My recommended apps and services list for leaving Big Tech and Google. It's possible to have the conveniences of a modern life while leaving behind the vendor lock-in and corporate dystopia being created by Big Tech.
https://thespecter.net/blog/b/4jY
Replying to
@JustinDerrick@mstdn.ca we're staying in a Cotswolds cottage like this in the near future 
Replying to
@c_dan4th I lurk on a couple coworkers, but when you work fully remote, you never meet IRL
Woman Calls Out Doctor Wearing Smart Glasses During Consultation Where She Had To Take Off Her Clothes: 'They Need To Be Banned
https://www.fashiontimes.co.uk/patient-privacy-concerns-meta-smart-glasses-1762492
#smartglasses #meta #metaglasses #pervertglasses #glassholes #privacy #medicine #doctors #medicalethics
Replying to
And we always knew Tulsi Gabbard was compromised by Russia
My spouse was recently asking me what comes next after capitalism. My answer was techno-feudalism or techno-fascism
And here is its manifesto
Palantir posts mini-manifesto "The Technological Republic" denouncing inclusivity and ‘regressive’ cultures
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/19/palantir-posts-mini-manifesto-denouncing-regressive-and-harmful-cultures/
#fascism #techbros #technology #palantir #surveillance #billionaires #tech #bigtech #bigbrother
