Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

Bonopoly: A U2 themed version of Monopoly where the streets have no name.

If you know anyone who is planning on not voting because ‘it won’t make a difference’, explain to them how public funds are allocated to opposition parties (so-called Short money). £38.75 for every 200 votes gained by the party. Every vote counts!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Money

“Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone | MIT Technology Review”

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/01/1084189/making-an-image-with-generative-ai-uses-as-much-energy-as-charging-your-phone/

> Luccioni says she hopes the research will encourage people to be choosier about when they use generative AI and opt for more specialized, less carbon-intensive models where possible. 

'Use smaller, more specialised models' was literally one of the main recommendations I put in my book a year ago 😎

When you live in a country, where the dictator can never be wrong, the only ones left to blame are the citizens.

So now that Putin has killed so many young men, that birth rates are dropping catastrophically, Russian Deputy Minister of Justice Vsevolod Vukolov reports, that new laws will make it illegal for women not to have children.

Do try to keep up, Republicans — you are so much behind the forefront of the dystopian nightmare.

This perked me right up 😆

"This is the American story of the past 4 decades: accumulate tech debt, merge to monopoly, exponentially compound your tech debt by combining barely functional IT systems. Every corporate behemoth is locked in a race between the eventual discovery of its irreparable structural defects and its ability to become so enmeshed in our lives that we have to assume the costs of fixing those defects. It's a contest between 'too rotten to stand' and 'too big to care'" @pluralistic https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/28/dealer-management-software/#antonin-scalia-stole-your-car

I knew Brewdog was a shitty company but I didn’t know they ran actual Nazi bars. https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jun/27/brewdog-sacks-asian-woman-over-reaction-to-edl-members-meeting-in-bar

I understand the impulse to get angry at creators who use AI.

I do.

But you'll achieve more by spending the same energy actively sharing and promoting creators who don't.

@LaF0rge Interesting read (I've only skimmed it so far) - but I think it downplays the subversive role played by UCL and Kent University who provided Internet access over x25 - allowing institutions who were obliged to buy x25 to tunnel TCP/IP over it and connect to the wider internet via leased lines from those institutions to the USA.

Kent went so far as to offer service to commercial research partners for a fee. (1986 perhaps?)

Seven changes for a better constitution?

Some interesting proposals from some good people.

By me.

At Substack:
https://emptycity.substack.com/p/seven-changes-for-a-better-constitution

At my personal blog:
https://davidallengreen.com/2024/06/seven-changes-for-a-better-constitution-some-interesting-proposals-from-some-good-people/

@adhdeanasl

Parents: Kids are more depressed these days, i wonder why?

Kids: You destroyed the economy for us, the earth is literally dying, we are going to work until we die and on top of that the Nazis are back.

Parents: It's those pesky Necco Wafers