Biggles @Biggles@qoto.org

This just went live: The John Scalzi Humble Bundle! Get a whole bunch of my books really cheap - and support the literacy charity First Book, which provides books and literary resources to kids in need. A perfect way to stock up on my eBooks. Please feel free to share around!

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/john-scalzis-interdependency-old-mans-war-and-more-tor-books

via @Biggles, I must agree entirely with his assessment that this is the most random, wonderful, insane video I've seen in literally years. Maybe ever. Everything from the narrator's voice, to the background music, to the topic, to the interactions with other people, to the script ... it's all just incredibly delightful, reminiscent of the weirdest parts of the Internet from like 20 years ago. A++++, would watch again. https://youtu.be/VGhcSupkNs8

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/sketchbook/is-my-toddler-a-stochastic-parrot

@hal_pomeranz well said, that man.
It is also taking focus and funding away from ML that has real uses for so many things.

I’ve been in the Computer Science field long enough to have seen multiple rounds of the AI hype machine. It’s always snake oil, smoke and mirrors. It never even approaches what a reasonable person would consider to be a thinking machine.

What it really turns out to be is an elaborate “pump and dump” scheme where early investors push the hype, knowing it’s all BS. Once a sufficient number of rubes jump on the bandwagon, the early investors cash out at a profit and leave the gullible behind to absorb the losses when people eventually realize that there is no value anywhere in the AI companies.

Oopsie! There went your retirement plans!

Do not be fooled by this chicanery.

The folks at wiz.io put together a really good paper on #k8s security. Check it out: https://www.wiz.io/blog/key-takeaways-from-the-wiz-2023-kubernetes-security-report #infosec

@NovemberMan @scalzi
Hard agree. Yubikeys are as good, but they come without all the privacy invasion.

ICQ vs Teams. So very true. I'm probably going to have to get a new work computer with days of reconfig cos so much is not saved properly in our profiles cos Teams just Cannot Cope and is eating 97% of the RAM constantly even when not in a video call.

Image now ALT texted. I thought it was described but re-seeing my boost in timeline the image wasn't described, so can only assume I was having a stupid last night and you get this post instead.

IT in a nutshell 😂

I have the best conversations with my mom. I try my best at a translation of the call I just had with her:

phone ringing
Me: Hello m...
Her: Eʟᴅᴇʀ Sᴘᴀᴡɴ.
Me: ...
Me: Yᴇs Gʀᴀɴᴅ Mᴀᴛʀɪᴀʀᴄʜ.
Her: I sʜᴀʟʟ sᴜᴍᴍᴏɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ ᴘᴀʀᴛᴀᴋᴇ ɪɴ ꜰᴇᴀsᴛɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴄʀɪꜰɪᴄᴇs ʟᴀɪᴅ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ᴜs ᴛʜɪs ᴅᴀʏ ᴏꜰ sᴜɴ. Wɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴇᴇᴅ ᴍʏ sᴜᴍᴍᴏɴs?
Me: checks calendar
Me: Tʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀs ᴀʟɪɢɴ, ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴍᴇ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ. I sʜᴀʟʟ ᴍᴀɴɪꜰᴇsᴛ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏᴜʀᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ 12ᴛʜ ʜᴏᴜʀ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜɴ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇs ɪᴛsᴇʟꜰ ɪɴᴠɪɴᴄɪʙʟᴇ.
Her: Tʜᴜs ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀᴅs ᴀʀᴇ sᴘᴏᴋᴇɴ, ᴛʜᴜs ɪᴛ sʜᴀʟʟ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ.
Me: Great, see you on sunday.
Her: Try to be punctual.

I always refer to her when people ask me "why are you like this?".

🖼️ 🎨 🤖

Total Replay v5.0.1 is out. It features 484 Apple II games (182 new since v4), all playable from a single bootable 32MB hard disk image.

https://archive.org/details/TotalReplay

Code & changelog: https://github.com/a2-4am/4cade/releases/tag/v5.0.1

Thanks to @a2_qkumba, @txgx42, @helix_nrg, Andrew Roughan, Frank M., Kris Kennaway, @ladyailuros, and everyone else who contributed to this project in the past four years.

#AppleII #retrocomputing

Apple shortly introduces a much-needed feature for iMessage for users with a high degree of risk of having their communications intercepted or other parties impersonated: Contact Key Verification. At its heart, it's a way to shift the end-to-end trust in iMessages from Apple’s central servers to each party’s copy of Messages on their devices. I explain in short, medium, and long versions. @TidBITS https://tidbits.com/2023/11/08/upcoming-contact-key-verification-feature-promises-secure-identity-verification-for-imessage/ The feature should arrive in iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, and watchOS 10.2.

Wizard Replay lets you play "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord," "Knight of Diamonds," and "Legacy of Llylgamyn," and several unauthorized third-party scenarios, all from the comfort of your ProDOS hard drive. It features integrated WizPlus for character editing, integrated scenario backup & restore, modern bug fixes from <https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/proving-grounds-v3/>, and of course zero copy protection.

https://archive.org/details/WizardReplay

Thanks to @a2_qkumba for everything.

#AppleII

Notes on #picotron's filesystem:

https://www.lexaloffle.com/dl/docs/picotron_filesystem.html

Pretending here the answer isn't "you had a 3x engineer and made then work like they were a 20x engineer and this burnt them out in like two years and now they're doing woodworking in a log cabin on the top of a mountain in Montana and if you mention computers to them, they'll shoot you in the face"

Earth's rotation visualized in a stunning timelapse that follows a fixed point in the sky.

Video credit: Martin Giraud
Watch the full 4K original on Martin's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZH1vS45oW4

Ice Cubes is now available as a proper macOS application! If you had the iOS app installed on your mac, you can remove it and install this one instead.

This is the first version. A lot of macOS-specific features will be added in the future!

https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/ice-cubes-for-mastodon/id6444915884?l=en-GB