FoxQuirk 🦊 @quirk@computerfairi.es

So true

#meme #Mastodon #Fediverse

I'd go a step further: if something has no commercial value, preventing people from using, sharing, modifying, or expressing it should be illegal.

Not just copyrighted things. Also any DRM protecting something no longer for sale or that doesn't receive updates or support.

Locked bootloader on a ten year old phone? Illegal. Locked down jtag pins and bootrom on an always-online device after the services are turned down? Illegal. Class action suits up the wazoo.

It should be illegal to withhold from the commons.

Change in Guidance on Committing Lockfiles | Rust Blog

https://blog.rust-lang.org/2023/08/29/committing-lockfiles.html

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://blog.rust-lang.org/2023/08/29/committing-lockfiles.html

#programming #rustlang

In the latest installment of "Tech bros won't save us, but they will kill some of us": https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-bias-self-driving-software.html
"Autonomous vehicle software used to detect pedestrians is unable to correctly identify dark-skinned individuals as often as those who are light-skinned […]
tested eight AI-based pedestrian detectors utilized by self-driving car manufacturers. They found a 7.5% disparity in accuracy between lighter and darker subjects."
Study: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.02935
#AI #autonomousCars #blackMastodon

some people who make programming easier

(who am I missing?)

I was the victim of an extremely clever card fraud/social engineering hack.

Well, partly a victim since I managed to stop it.

I was called by my bank, as they wanted to “verify some suspect transactions on my account”.

Then things got weird…

🧵

It’s not even 8 AM and I’ve already been subjected to psychic violence (code reviews):

$optionIds = array_values(explode(',', str_replace(['"', '[', ']'], '', $option)));

#php

@split when I was in high school, several math websites were blocked for "prohibited educational content" and if that doesn't perfectly describe the US education system ​

i still think this is the funniest block reason my school has ever set

Old web aficionados, do I have a website for you:
http://logiclrd.cx/

This one from Logic Lord (copyright 1997) has all the hallmarks of the old web but the important thing is this astounding paragraph on the front page:

"This homepage used to be hosted on my own WWW server called mIRC-WWW. The server is programmed entirely in mIRC code, supports binary files, and partially supports CGIs. A screenshot is available here. The script makes use of the advanced features of mIRC v5.8, which adds, starting with version 5.3, over the previous version with picture windows, custom sockets, millisecond timers, and much more. Version 5.5 also adds support for user dialogs, so now you can create forms like you can with Visual Basic or VC++'s resource editor."

A whole-ass web server written in an #IRC client. There's even a screenshot of it in action. Just incredible stuff. I'm so glad this is still online.

there is just no excuse for using chatgpt and its ilk. simply none. do not use it. do not accept its usage. punish your friends who use it. it is a product of vile exploitation and the producer of limitless abject nonsense. do not use it.

free software? aye comrade, and food should be free as well! and housing, and the hospital, and the library and post office too. ah, but why are these things not gratis? that is a dangerous question, isn’t it? why when there is more food than even all of us could eat, is there poverty all around us? do not limit your query to the business of software, comrade, for the villains of this play have a far greater span than your meager discipline.

fool that you are, who imagines there can exist an aloofness called freedom! what liberty can there be for a people that only lives altogether, that depends on each other from beginning to end? what you call freedom is only the leniency your neighbor can afford, and it is only through the wise stewardship of the many and their plenitude that such leniency can take any shape whatsoever. your freedom has been a figment from the start; even your brightest dreams of it are but befuddled estrangement

dunking values like freedom and liberty in the trash, wearing booty shorts that read RECIPROCAL OBLIGATION

We no longer live in the age of Lost Media. We live in the age of Active Erasure by corporations who have the means to preserve it but the financial impetus to destroy it. #LostMedia #ActiveErasure #HBOMax #wbdiscovery #wb #Max #Disney #DisneyPlus #Google

this video about putting (a game very similar to) Minecraft on (a modern variant of) the TI-84 is fantastic. the detail they went into on how they optimised the rendering is really cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj9CiMO66xk