Nick @internic@qoto.org

Prompting claude with "Act as a surly and annoyed academic reviewer who is highly experienced at reviewing academic papers in computer science, please read the attached paper, and give us a terse assessment of the quality...." gives a really good surly academic impression.

#HigherEd #Universities #Libraries #AcademicPublishing #Elsevier #OpenAccess: "How are MIT's academics getting by without Elsevier in the stacks? Just fine. If someone at MIT needs access to an Elsevier paper, they can usually access it by asking the researchers to email it to them, or by downloading it from the researcher's site or a prepress archive. When that fails, there's interlibrary loan, whereby other libraries will send articles to MIT's libraries within a day or two. For more pressing needs, the library buys access to individual papers through an on-demand service.

This is how things were predicted to go. The libraries used their own circulation data and the webservice Unsub to figure out what they were likely to lose by dropping Elsevier – it wasn't much!"

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/16/the-public-sphere/#not-the-elsevier

NASA put out a fun series of posters called GALAXY OF HORRORS. Here are some of my favorites.

"Take a tour of some of the most terrifying and mind-blowing destinations in our galaxy … and beyond. After a visit to these nightmare worlds, you may never want to leave Earth again! You can also download our free posters – based on real NASA science – if you dare."

Get them all here:

https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/immersive/galaxy-of-horrors/

(1/n)

Friend: What do you play games on?
Me: I play games on a switch!

#meme #shitpost #networking #tech #infosec

I'm sitting down with a cup of tea and live blogging my read through of the https://fediverse-governance.github.io/ by @kissane and @darius . First glance and this is a beast of a study covering everything from moderation, to governance, to interrelations between servers. Looks like they took a primarily interview approach here. I heard this study was going on as I was stepping into the Organizing Circle of social.coop so I'm excited to see what they found! 1/n #FediPapers2024

So to connect my new thermostat to its native app I had to buy a MicroSD card the correct side, format it with the correct size partition fat32, downgrade the firmware three years, connect it to WiFi, then upgrade it again so it could talk to the furnace.

The tech press continues to miss the biggest iOS anti-trust thrust: browsers. The press, that is, with the exception of The Register:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/24/apple_eu_browser_defaults/

The solar radiometer knows best 🌞

Wanted to go cycling this afternoon, but stepped outside to find that it was 32ºC.

Err, no thanks 🥵

It promises to be cooler tomorrow 😬🤞

Thread:

I've conducted several informal experiments over the last few weeks about alt text for #photos as described by humans and as provided by #AI systems.

#LLMS, despite providing plethora of details when describing images, still miss the nuances of what the photos contain. Human #descriptions certainly continue to be better at conveying context.

#blind #accessibility #a11y #photography #images #photos

During the first few weeks of Loops, I want to find and assemble a team of creators who want to pursue monetization in a way that works for our platform, for example: monthly subscriptions.

To build a real and sustainable alternative to TikTok will require monetization, and together with the fediverse communities voice, I think we can chart a healthy way forward that puts a majority of compensation in the hands of creators.

#loops #creators #LoopsFund

@sundogplanets
Also, "Starlink satellites now maneuver 275 times per day to avoid space objects."

All commendable, but what is the quantifiable risk of a collision due to some system failure, additional satellite deployments and additional constellations?

https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-50000-collision-avoidance-maneuvers-space-safety

I did a calculation yesterday that made me want to scream. If you look at the *current* density of satellites in 1km altitude bins in Low Earth Orbit, and assume they are travelling at circular velocities (generally true), then Starlink satellites pass within <1km of each other EVERY 30 SECONDS.

At Starlink altitudes, everything is travelling at 7 km/second, so <1 km close approaches are terrifyingly close. Every 30 seconds. WHY.

PSA: Walgreens and CVS are allowing people to schedule for both the mpox and new COVID vaccines starting next week and there are lots of times available. Get it! 💉

@Riedl

Weyland-Yutani considered forcing its victims into binding arbitration like Disney, but abandoned the idea as too unethical.

So I got in the DMs and said "you two really need microphones in front of the conversations you're already having, so what if I helped you with planning and editing?”

To my gratitude, @grimalkina and @analog_ashley were open to this zany notion and now you get to listen.

Highlights:

- Ashley's badass approach to delivering programming education for biology students

- Cat's life-changing courage in a grad school stats class

https://www.changetechnically.fyi/2396236/15626760-you-can-do-it-too

Alabama man has pleaded guilty to detonating a shrapnel-filled bomb outside the state attorney general’s office. https://www.al.com/news/2024/08/irondale-man-pleads-guilty-to-detonating-shrapnel-filled-bomb-outside-alabama-ags-office.html

One of my old astronomy professors always said that if you're going to be an astronomer, make sure that you're good at drawing circles.

I think of that every single time I badly draw a circle.

New major release! #LibreOffice 24.8 is the private, free office suite which includes:

✅ Handy "Quick find" deck in the Sidebar
✅ New spreadsheet functions, including XLOOKUP
✅ Better presentation templates

...plus many other new features, fixes and compatibility improvements. Find out more and download it: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/08/22/libreoffice-248/ #foss #opensource #news

It's happening! My book about Mastodon and the fediverse is now entering the production phase!

My editor at Oxford is asking what sort of cover image I would like. Any suggestions? Boosts appreciated!

More about the book here:

https://fossacademic.tech/2024/02/11/Move-Slowy-Preview.html

#fediverse #mastodon #bookstodon