Reach for the Stars @antares@qoto.org

Weekly summary report:

Monday = Dumpster fire express, how may I fuck you?

Tuesday = controlled fuckery dept, how many are dead?

Wednesday = Fuck-around-and find-out line 3, which way you wanna go?

Thursday/tonight - controlled chaos command center, what it do?

Friday = my one day off.

I'm curious if there is any sense of whether #mastodon has or is developing a generational identity?

Anecdotal or data-driven takes welcome, but as a start, indicate your #generation below and boost. Discussion of the assumptions behind this welcomed!

(I had to lump older generations in with boomers because evidently surveys are limited to four choices.) #generation #GenX #genz #millenials #Boomers

A Book Acknowledgment

Wooo JWST spectroscopic confirmation of galaxies at redshifts greater than 12! (Translation: really really distant galaxies, for sure.) https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.04480

Computer science pioneer and United States Navy rear admiral Grace Hopper was born #OTD in 1906.

As far as I’m aware, she is the only person who has both a supercomputer and a US Navy destroyer named after her.

Image: Computer History Museum

Three degrees, dozens of bylines, years of therapy, countless assurances from friends and mentors.

And no one has done more to cure me of my imposter complex than Elon Musk.

Anyone want to suggest me some good resources on anti-racism work that are especially for primary schools?
I’m doing work on myself, but what’s the best way to tackle my institution? I’m tired and sad today and I want to turn it into action. When I speak out, I want my voice to work harder. #DecoloniseSchools #antiracism #edutooter
And I will Google, but if you’ve got any strong recommendations: thank you

There's a specific vendor, that I won't name (yet), who is being very hostile to hobbyists. They refuse to put their datasheets online (It's "proprietary" 🙄 ), and when you contact them like their web site says, they won't even speak to you (other than to brush you off then ghost you) unless you're a big company ready to buy a large quantity of parts.

I already bought your parts, I just need the full data sheet, people!

@admitsWrongIfProven

Its rather ironic, I am absolutely polarizing in the fedi. The irony is that in real life almost everyone I've met sees me as a mediator. Two people who are in the heat of an argument I can often get to calm down, talk it out and make up.

The very fact that is polarizing on the fedi speaks volumes I suppose.

@Pat @EubieDrew @ufoi

#people #silos #culture #PeoplePoll

Can you describe who these people are and what they are famous for?

(click each one that you know)

> While I appreciate what you are trying to do here, I think one of the beauties of the "fediverse" is that instances are self moderating.

UFoI doesn't take over moderation for instances.

> I think that small instances are the best way to go and keep mastodon safe and friendly organically.

Reality is that neither you or I can’t force all instances to be small instances. I can say that the value of UFoI is massive to small instances.

As a small instance operator, I can tell you that smaller instances are constantly at threat of being defederated by larger instances if we don't do what they say. If one of them labels us as anything; who do other instances trust more? The 10-person instance or the instance with 10,000 people?

If the larger instance says that an instance has some hugely offensive problem, and you choose to not block that instance, well now it looks like you're in support of that thing. That instance now says you're that thing too because you didn't defederate and they're going to defederate you too.

Now, perhaps some of these are true, and some of these are just personal gripes between people. What the UFoI helps us establish is a set of minimal standards to adhere to for federation that most of the Western world can at least work within (I would expect very restrictive regimes would have problems with it). It establishes evidence requirements so that instances can’t be just defederated over personal issues if they’re a UFoI member.

For larger instances, this sort of thing also helps against inter large-instance issues for similar reasons, but also having a clear process and standard to work within reduces the amount of headache trying to just maintain a service.

As far as I can tell, basically ChatGPT is what you get when you ask a supercomputer to get really good at mansplaining. High confidence, low accuracy. Good discussion here: https://stratechery.com/2022/ai-homework/

France, with half of its 56 nuclear reactors out for maintenance, is planning rolling blackouts this winter.

Texas faced blackouts because its gas plants froze.

California faced them. India does, too.

The common denominator: reliability takes investment, planning, and smart regulation.

Someone just said this and I think I'm going to tattoo it on my arm:

"Don't give up, but don't waste time. "

Everyone knew Ye would reoffend & shouldn't get his Twitter account back. But the Star of David/swastika image that got him resuspended isn't ILLEGAL "incitement to violence." It's not even close. Despite his free speech ambitions, Musk chose to remove lawful-but-awful content