Latest XKCD is FAR TOO REALISTIC https://xkcd.com/2797/
Thread:
Years ago I worked as a tech advisor for NGOs, and alongside one client I ended up present at some meetings of ministers, and watched a press conference Tony Blair did. It was astonishing.
I won't bore you with details of the campaign I was part of, but Blair had a statement about a thing relating to it.
Around 60 journalists all wanted to ask about other things.
absolutely fucking inexcusable that a TECHNICAL REFERENCE, perhaps among the MOST-USED IN THE WORLD, would staple on a gibberish machine without ever once considering "hmm what if it says things that are wrong"
@bloor ouch
@lightweight I feel your pain. Email causes us more support issues than anything else. We had to relent with our transactional emails and corporate ones, using AWS SES and Google Workspace :/ we just couldn't keep operating without emails getting through. MS recently blocked a whole /24, for a handful of spam emails sent from a single IP address - that was marked in RIPE DB as being in a /28, but nope, block the whole /24.
Google and Microsoft are breaking email for their own selfish reasons - to force everyone to use their services if they hope to have email delivered to anyone using those dominant platforms. http://www.igregious.com/2023/03/gmail-is-breaking-email.html Seems undeniable that they are actively trying to kill independent email providers in order to surveil all people who use email (and profit from selling the results to other capitalist dregs).
@neil Not to mention hacking of illicit sites and exfiltration of stored photos and official ID documentation leading to a surge in extortion and fraud…
Musk
<< To put it bluntly: if our space overlords behave this way on Earth with governments looking over their shoulders, how will they behave off-world with little possibility of oversight or redress? >>
Denver last year offered subsidies for buying electric bikes
Their first 600 were snapped up in 10 minutes. Demand was *huge*
Denver ended up issuing over 4,700 (about 2,300 of which went to low-income residents)
Research shows it reduced car-miles driven in the city by 100K a week
My takeaway?
We should have ebike subsidies *everywhere*, and *now*. Cheaper than electric car subsidies, and arguably even more catalytic
My essay: https://clivethompson.medium.com/its-time-to-subsidize-e-bikes-900a862b8e76
"Friend" link https://clivethompson.medium.com/its-time-to-subsidize-e-bikes-900a862b8e76?sk=dea9f07c0dab4be831ee50a197360f95
Superstition, data collection, metadata
With folklore, folks used to be cautious about what to do with hair and nail clippings. As those could give a witch or sorcerer power over you.
We have this now with our electronic clippings, we give our clippings to social networks and that gives a whole heap of power to them and to the buyers of that data who can then analyse it.
There's an analogy for you. 😏
Dad, husband, chief geek, MD & tea-boy
@kdaweb & @BackoopsUK, community volunteer, sometime photographer, Scout leader. Lover of technology.