Ben Taylor @VoxDei@qoto.org
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
@paulrickards I could imagine coming across that in a computer game and going "Pffft. They don't work like that. Who wrote this?" 😆
@helenczerski So, uh... Is a giant swathe of south-central Africa/Madagascar on fire without being in the news, or is that just the satellites being confused by local farmers burning or something.
Ben Taylor
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CrowdStrike broke Debian and Rocky Linux months ago, but no one noticed
https://www.neowin.net/news/crowdstrike-broke-debian-and-rocky-linux-months-ago-but-no-one-noticed/
Ben Taylor
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Ben Taylor
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The new Railways Bill absolutely does not fuck about.
Expiring franchises cannot be extended or awarded, except to companies fully owned by the government, or jointly owned by the governments of the UK and either Scotland or Wales.
Franchise expires? Public operator. No retender.
Franchise goes bankrupt or hands it back? Public operator. No retender.
That's going to cause some potential short-term fuckery by the TOCs. But its not like they were investing for the future of the railways anyway
@_thegeoff Well that's an interesting question. If the monarchy were to be abolished, is the King's successor his now-disinherited son, or is it the head of state of the new republic?
Ben Taylor
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“Meta’s plans to ingest its users’ data, posts and pictures will impact more than 50 million Instagram and Facebook users in the UK. It’s not acceptable that the company are making a half hearted attempt to enable people to opt out rather than give their consent to such intrusive data processing.
We urge the Information Commissioner's Office (UK) to investigate thoroughly and stop them once and for all."
🗣️ @marianods, ORG Legal and Policy Officer
Ben Taylor
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So this, from Firefox, is fucking toxic: https://mstdn.social/@Lokjo/112772496939724214
You might be aware Chrome— a browser made by an ad company— has been trying to claw back the limitations recently placed on ad networks by the death of third-party cookies, and added new features that gather and report data directly to ad networks. You'd know this because Chrome displayed a popup.
If you're a Firefox user, what you probably don't know is Firefox added this feature and *has already turned it on without asking you*
@johnzajac I mean, I understand the impulse, but how, exactly? To do what you say, their choices are:
a) Pack the court. Great, except the other side will do it too when they next get in, and in three elections' time there will be twenty or thirty justices.
b) Get an amendment through. Not bloody likely when a third to a half of the country is cheering this court on for doing all the things they couldn't achieve democratically.
c) Rip up the constitution and throw existing justices out. This triggers civil war.
Only other option is to live with it.
@sbisson Never mind, found it now!
@sbisson Great idea but where's your information from? I was looking for a story but can't see anything about it?
Ben Taylor
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Scientists identify a ‘sugar world’ beyond Neptune
https://physicsworld.com/a/scientists-identify-a-sugar-world-beyond-neptune/
The surface of a Kuiper Belt object called Arrokoth is rich in glucose, ribose and other sweet molecules
Ben Taylor
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@cstross What the hell am I reading... This is amazing. As a set piece of hyperbolic polemic, it leaves nothing to be desired. I can't stop shedding tears for the tory non-entities who will lose their cherished rights such as... checks notes... ministerial cars and special advisors.
@medigoth I remember after Jan 6th reading an article by an ex-Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka. I forget the detail, but the take-home quote was "You got coup'd". Basically IIRC he was saying something similar had happened in Sri Lanka, and it took some time for the fallout to become clear. He was suggesting that just because the coup "failed" on Jan 6th didn't mean that the US had escaped. Turns out he was right.
@cstross Ah. The old "Halt and Catch Fuhrer" problem.
@cstross It was The Atrocity Archives that first sold me on your writing. If that feels like a long time ago for me I suspect it feels like a lot longer for you!
@dr2chase @cstross Yeah, though my understanding was that they wanted democracy, but that wasn't the same as wanting to do what the people wanted (hence the electoral college. It doesn't surprise me at all if they looked at new-fangled mechanisms that might give "too much democracy" and rejected them in favour of something tried and tested like FPTP.
@cstross Well, maybe. But most people don't want to vote for Nazis, so alternatively maybe if the Tories make themselves unelectable and stay there, then if Labour *also* makes themselves unelectable does it open space (even in our FPTP monstrosity) for a third party? Greens or Lib Dems or even a splinter party from Labour or the Tories.
Wait, *now* the Tories work out that you don't win elections by pandering to your own extreme wing? Reform are doing well not because anybody likes them but because the Tories have demonstrated themselves to be so fundamentally unserious about governing that those Tory voters who can't stand Labour have nowhere else to go.
Ben Taylor
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Amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II
Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza Strip since last October, exceeding World War II bombings in **Dresden, Hamburg, London combined**, according to rights monitor. #Gaza
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
