ceoln @ceoln@qoto.org

After the report about the Girl Scout mom getting booted from Radio City Music Hall, I spent the last two days reporting out the use of facial recognition technology by the Madison Square Garden empire to keep hundreds of lawyers that work for firms that have sued it from attending concerts, sporting events and shows. It is a radical use of the technology by a private company and I am truly shocked by how forthright MSG is about its real-world block list. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/nyregion/madison-square-garden-facial-recognition.html

But important to note the class is now basically every single adult in America. Basically for $2-3 each, Facebook got to expose our personal data to thousands of apps, build what was a trillion dollar platform, and importantly enrich and avoid liability for its leadership. 2/5

Facebook posted overnight what would be “the largest [settlement] ever achieved in a data privacy lawsuit” and “the most Facebook has ever paid.” $725mil seems large but coupled with Zuck’s SEC deposition transcript just revealed this week, it protects Zuckerberg (again). 1/5

✧{ Frankenstein Day 50: Letter 1, Line 48 }✧
˚.*
Your affectionate brother,
R. Walton
¸⋆。

I spent more time diving into archives today. Letters and words may be dancing before my eyes right now, but it was so worth it. The archivist turned me on to another dataset and gave me the perfect phrase. Just off the top of her head. I don’t know if I’m spending too much time there or not enough. I went for a fun fact and ended up with information that I haven’t seen published yet. I love archival research because every piece helps create a bigger picture that’s never going to be complete.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #warlords #aeroplane #spaceflight #WWII #future #culottes #kulaks #War #moon #PeaceGas #BiologicalWarfare #pompous

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Things to Come (1936)

H. G. Wells wrote The Shape of Things to Come in 1933 when he predicted WWII and many other events and inventions that would come true. He even predicted that men would wear culotte miniskirts and shave their legs. (Actually, predicting WWII wasn’t that extraordinary of a feat, everybody saw it coming.)

This big-budget British-made adaptation is one of the classics of science fiction. The story covers the future from 1940 to 2036. I think it comes across as pompous and bombastic, but apparently audiences at the time liked it.

This film is available for free download and is in the public domain, even though the Supreme Court says it isn't.

I’ll include more in this thread under a spoiler warning…

- - -
(Note: This gif clip is silent, but the film is a talkie.)

Re-watched #Hamilton. Just outstanding performances.

If you use **online password managers** it may be worth taking another look at the risks.

LastPass has been breeched:

Lost include:

🔓 personal information and related metadata (in the clear I think):
- company names
- end-user names
- billing addresses
- email addresses
- telephone numbers
- IP addresses customers used to access LastPass services.

🔓 Back ups of all data for some customers, "customer vault data":
* website URLs
* encrypted website usernames
* encrypted passwords
* encrypted secure notes
* encrypted form-filled data.

Do you want to **reconsider** your password and security systems?

For more see: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/lastpass-says-hackers-have-obtained-vault-data-and-a-wealth-of-customer-info/

I grew up on the banks of the Suwannee in a very rural Dixie County, FL. Dixie County is a real place. It only sounds like a Faulknerian construct. I share short "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"-like stories now on how the bookish might pass time in that Southern Gothic setting. Record myself reading them as Spoken Word albums. Self publish books via Amazon. https://ruralgloom.neocities.org/ I live and work in Jacksonville, FL. #introduction #WritingCommunity #writing #SpokenWord #SouthernGothic #RuralGloom #FlashMemoir

A video (3m43s) of me reading at the main yearly writer event here. I do have a Southern Accent but it is tricky for many define. Mostly I grew up in a remote north Florida swamp and then read a lot of books. #video #writing #reading #SpokenWord #florida #jacksonville #JaxByJax #SouthernAccent #SouthernGothic #FlashMemoir

"Out Of The Ditch"

A 90s trip to visit a friend in Homosassa Springs, Florida ended early giving me time to walk around town as I waited for my ride. I saw what is left out of tourism brochures as I was hit in the ass by a bottle tossed from a moving truck. I crawled out of the ditch with a bruise extending from lower back to knee and caught a ride to a concert. The blood of 10,000 rednecks runs through my veins. We're all pretty good at suffering. #writing #FlashMemoir #florida #comics @comics @ComicContext

Hi! I'm a little late to introducing myself, but happy to be here! I've been a journalist in Nevada for more than two decades. I joined ProPublica's southwest office about 18 months ago as the government accountability reporter. I love to uncover what the powerful don't want you to know! Tips? Send them my way! Anjeanette.Damon@ProPublica.org or Signal: 775-303-8857. #introductions #journalism #journalist #southwest #nevada

I’m profoundly offended by Megachurches. Build God a Megahomeless shelter and stop being fake Christians.

So, I'm finding out the hard way that if you start a new Mastodon server, nobody can find you.

This is a shameless request for some boosts so some of the bigger instances see me.

#mastodon #twittermigration #mastodonserver #findme #helpimtrappedinawell #imlonely

New post:

https://www.harihareswara.net/posts/2022/speech-to-text-with-whisper-how-i-use-it-why/

I've started regularly using OpenAI's #Whisper to make transcripts and captions/subtitles, and am writing to share how, and why, and my reflections on the ethics of using it.

A lot of HOWTO in here, but the last section dives into @simon's #ML #machinelearning #AI vegan analogy in a way you might find interesting even if Whisper isn't your thing.

💅

PHOTO BLOG: Earlier this month, a storm chaser from the Netherlands took a wonderful photo showing several textbook ice halos, including a 46-degree halo, a 22-degree halo with parhelion (sun dogs), and an upper tangent arc. https://www.accuweather.com/en/leisure-recreation/live-news/weather-permitting-photo-blog/933860

I see #Tumblr hopping on the #Fediverse train with its recent announcement that they are actively working towards Fediverse integration.

Tumblr, as of late, is going through a bit of a revival. At the helm is its new CEO, Matt #Mullenweg. Mullenweg is also the CEO of #Automattic and founder of #WordPress. Through his leadership he is revitalizing the platform, not only addressing long standing issues but launching new features. (🧵👇)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tumblr-yes-coming-fediverse-tod-maffin

I don’t understand how you get any kind of engagement on #Tumblr? I thought hashtags would work and liking other people’s posts and following them, but practically the only people engaging are spam bots.