What better way could there be to resist?
Remote
Vasily "Vaz" Différence
@stragu@mastodon.indie.host
mastodon 4.6.8💚 I like the weird, the absurd, the kind, the beautiful. Nature, the Commons, open research, citizen science, éducation populaire, RStats, maps, active transport, bushcare, guitar.
Awkward middle-aged teenager working in (open research) software training.
Living in Meanjin on stolen Turrbal / Jagera land.
BIPOC + trans lives matter.
🚫: fash, racists, terves, antivax, NFT / cryptocoins / "AI"-pushers, bootlickers.
1194 Followers
1411 Following
50 Posts
Joined April 10, 2017
Pronouns:
he / him / his
Teaching (via work):
Blog (newly active):
Music (rather dormant):
I just can't believe that developers and users of "AI" meeting transcription tools think it's OK to have such plugins being launched into a meeting by one person without having prior approval from other participants or the organisers. And then put the responsibility on other attendees to opt out from it.
It's absolutely wild to me.
#privacy #AI #consent
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Happy #olympicGames everyone. It's 2026 and we're still kicking First Nations people off their land. History repeating to build a stadium we don't need. For a two-week event in 2032.
Fuck the Olympic Games, fuck Queensland Police, fuck the Queensland Government, fuck BCC and fuck GIICA.
13/?
#racism #colonialism #australia #meanjin #magandjin #brisbane #bne #qld #queensland #barrambin
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@MacNaBracha@mastodon.scot seems that happened at the beginning of 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/28/swift-bricks-to-be-installed-in-all-new-buildings-in-scotland-after-holyrood-backs-ruling
Great news.
#shareGoodNewsToo #birds
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@catsalad@infosec.exchange check out what @adapalmer@wandering.shop shares under the hashtag "shareGoodNewsToo"
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@futzle@old.mermaid.town great word but I use it in jest
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@Jeroen89 I looked at the image without reading the text and at first understood it as "this is what regeneration can look like", with baseline at the top and what could be in a few decades at the bottom.
Join your local bushcare / bush regeneration / land care / ecological restoration group. ✊💚
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@teledyn@mstdn.ca ugh I just went down a rabbithole because I'm avoiding doing what I'm supposed to do and apparently that text was originally posted by Guri Singh on X, but the account was suspended: https://x.com/heygurisingh/status/2059251382960734593
And the reason it was suspended... was undisclosed AI use on that post, according to this: https://piunikaweb.com/2026/05/28/x-suspend-accounts-ai-replies/
Which was based on Pangram considering it AI-generated. AI-detection is shoddy, but I can see why people suspected it. It's just a classic 2026 AI mess, really.
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@teledyn@mstdn.ca Anyway, I really need to actually read Timnit et al.'s paper because it's obviously important and relevant and I love what DAIR is doing. It's just funny/horrifying how much of an entangled AI mess the Internet is becoming, where some AI critique is itself AI-generated for cheap clout (because it is justifiably popular) and detected (or not) by more AI-based tools. Blergh.
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@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online distrowatch has an "old computers" category, and sorts distros by popularity, so should give you a few good hits to start with:
https://distrowatch.com/search-mobile.php?ostype=All&category=Old+Computers&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simpleresults
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@confuseacat@mastodon.social @teledyn@mstdn.ca who the hell knows. Could have just been an excuse to remove a post that goes against Musk's AI-accelerationist tendencies. 🤷
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@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu that's great. Now make sure it's varied, local species, planned to reverse fragmentation of habitat, and increases the vegetated area, preferably taking space away from car infrastructure. But also: ratchet up environmental protections instead of weakening them for wasteful, destructive, extractivist tech infrastructure.
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@getthebrief@mastodon.social anyone wondering about the channel shared above, this is in their video descriptions:
"Every video is researched, written, and produced by AI"
Yet another example of slop channel grifting on the growing anti-AI sentiment.
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@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online the debian/ubuntu-based @Emmabuntus@framapiaf.org is specifically made for giving a second life to older computers, so might be a good bet!
#upcycling #permacomputing #linux
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@pikesley@mastodon.me.uk "We do expect daily use of AI by every individual in the company and we are launching AI acceleration programs to support every role as part of our transformation."
Wow. Yuck.
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@sknob@mamot.fr c'est un trésor national, Marion Montaigne. Y'a bien une douzaine de fossiles inutiles qu'on pourrait pelleter en dehors du panthéon pour lui préparer la place qu'elle mérite déjà.
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@Mastodon such a nice article / interview! Thanks for your important work, @Tzipporah and @Yehuda ! 💚💚💚
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@NatureMC@mastodon.online @futurebird@sauropods.win @doomsdayrs@cyberpunk.lol ha, didn't know about that project! Here's the website:
https://www.eu-searchperspective.com/
Looks like they like to use the AI marketing buzzwords though. This is their "product"
https://staan.ai/
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@chu @beandreams motorists should also be careful because cyclists might wear sharp, pointy rings that could scratch their car when they get a bit too close.
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@artificial3d@mastodon.art congrats, well done to all involved! 🙌 😍
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@ErikJonker@mastodon.social @ElenLeFoll@fediscience.org I object to the inevitability you paint. But looking at your recommendation to "just be very critical about applications, evaluate rigorously and objectively": can you please share resources that help potential users of these technologies do exactly that, in particular in academia? You sound like you've assembled a sturdy toolbox to achieve that.
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@jukkan@mstdn.social hey @libreoffice@fosstodon.org , you might be interested 😄👆
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@louisedrulhe bravo ! Ça a l'air super :)
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@Unixbigot
« A spokesperson said they had conducted their own testing which "identified no issues of this nature" »
"No issue" as in... "no instance of malicious use of the security hole that we have been able to record" ?
Lol
Australia's Gas Giveaway
See how much we're all missing out on letting the fossil fuel industry get away with minimal taxes.
Sign the petition to tax gas properly.
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@Binder impossible to not visualise.
Do they produce a slow, low-pitched clap?
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@david for a "city" challenge, it certainly isn't a great pick.
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FYI, if you are putting in a comment, and are editing it outside the browser, looks like it has a limit of 4000 characters. So don't get carried away, keep it brief and condensed, and keep an eye on those characters so you don't have to go through lots of culling.
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@TimWardCam @feliwilcke @libreoffice that's a shame. Sounds a lot like a profile corruption. Of course, do whatever works for you, but in case you wanted to figure it out, my recommendation would be to try using a brand new profile: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile
Queer Fest 2026
UQ's St Lucia campus
13th of May, 10 am - 3 pm
Free, open to all
Support queer artists!
https://events.humanitix.com/queer-fest-2026 (no need to register, just rock up)
City Nature Challenge starts today (24th of April) and runs until Monday.
Let's go, #Meanjin / #Magandjin / #Brisbane !
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-brisbane
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@mike@social.chinwag.org that's the Vietnamese take on it! That shop would make me buy my first "Chiko roll".
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@Aisyk@mastodon.social @Looping@anticapitalist.party @ZoidbergForPresident@kolektiva.social et Chromium fait la même ou pas ?
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@FluentInFinance@mastodon.social a source from back in January, for the people weird enough to appreciate sources:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260120000333.htm
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Here is what councillor Seal Chong Wah wrote about it all back in February:
https://www.sealchongwah.com/council_loses_vic_park
"For thousands of years before European settlement, Barrambin was home to the largest and longest used First Nations camps in Brisbane, with up to 1,000 people living here at different times of the year, their camps positioned along ridges above waterholes where the breezes carried stories and songs. [...] Some of the trees remaining on this site are between 200 and 700 years."
Replying to on mastodon.indie.host
I count at least 30 cops surrounding the embassy and camp. We're bunched up in the middle.
12/?
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@simon@en.osm.town hey great news! I had been wondering about that apparent stagnation period when presenting about OSM. Will update my slides! 🤗
Amazing finalists in this year's Picture of the Year! Feast your eyes, and vote before the 2nd of May if you are eligible.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons%3APicture_of_the_Year/2025/Gallery/Finalists
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@Jyoti@mas.to bahaha, what a great story. Good on her. Wondering if Frodo got jealous.
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@TimWardCam @libreoffice What exactly is the issue with the latest update? Which version and OS? Do you know of a bug report that describes the problem, or have you reported one?
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@nuwagaba2@mastodon.social that's so kind of you to offer that! Unfortunately, I don't think I'll find time at the moment to organise that, and also I don't want to give you too much extra work, you're busy enough! It's great to see photos, but I just thought a quick video to give a panoramic view of the place with some comments would be nice for all the followers to get a better sense of what the place looks like 😃
I didn't realise the land you purchased was separate to the gardens you've showed us before.
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@nuwagaba2@mastodon.social so great to hear, congratulations on the purchase!
Would you be able to share a video tour of the farm? I'd love to get a better idea of how you organised the space!
Also, I'm sure many here would love to hear more about the techniques you use to grow food successfully, and what you learn in the process.
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@amdg2@diaspodon.fr j'ai reçu tellement de résumés IA de réunions et je crois bien que j'en ai jamais lu un seul. Je suis juste pas intéressé du tout.
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the "longest standing active, youth-run climate organisation in the world", needs our help to keep going.
Donations are currently matched up to $100k total.
https://emergencyappeal2026.raiselysite.com/
Learn more about their work here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gKQsIF-34LBf3qpctyZ79AeBvqDHxgDS/view?pli=1
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@kennethspringer@infosec.exchange @thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io
"Be interesting to see if the content surpasses that on a human"
How do you measure that AI-generated material "surpasses" it's meatspace counterpart? When it has all been trained on things created by humans? When does it go beyond jack-of-all-trades mimicry? Honest question.
And by using "imagined with AI", do you mean to say you see in AI tools and their associated LLMs the ability to imagine things just like humans would?