Sylvain Miermont @miermont@qoto.org

This is a big deal:

The W3C, founded in 1994 by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, has quit X and declared the fediverse to be their primary social media channel. Follow them at: @w3c

The future of the open web is .. the open web.

The 23andMe hack is a nightmare. 23andMe is a nightmare. Genetic databases are a nightmare. Don't do this to yourself and don't do it to your family members:

https://www.404media.co/23andme-hack-christmas-gift/

We found that the PLC code actually contained logic that would lock up the train with bogus error codes after some date, or if the train wasn't running for a given time. One version of the controller actually contained GPS coordinates to contain the behaviour to third party workshops.

It was also possible to unlock the trains by pressing a key combination in the cabin controls. None of this was documented.

2/4

I can finally reveal some research I've been involved with over the past year or so.

We (@redford, @mrtick and I) have reverse engineered the PLC code of NEWAG Impuls EMUs. These trains were locking up for arbitrary reasons after being serviced at third-party workshops. The manufacturer argued that this was because of malpractice by these workshops, and that they should be serviced by them instead of third parti
es.

1/4

My version of the character Ada from "Ada & Zangemann", a Creative Commons license (BY-SA) book for children and a funny story about Free/Libre and Open-Source. It's written by Matthias Kirschner and illustrated by Sandra Brandstätter. It is great to see new characters in the Free Culture, especially because Ada is so cool. 💜
You can find it printed in English, French, German, Italian → https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann/

#krita #MastoArt #FreeCulture
#CreativeCommons #fsfe

A decade ago, a tribe of JS partisans took the web by the reigns, forked HTML and JS syntax, and yeeted useland abstractions into the critical path because "a better user experience".

This was premised on the idea that CPUs and networks would get faster the way their top-end phones did.

They could not have been more wrong.

JS-first web development has been a planetary-scale exercise in the rich making life harder for those less well off.

https://httparchive.org/reports/state-of-javascript#bytesJs

https://infrequently.org/2022/12/performance-baseline-2023/

Compared to 10 years ago, in terms of being able to find useful content, do Google search results feel better or worse to you?

IMPORTANT: Whether or not people bike-ride in winter isn’t determined by winter weather or temperatures.

Should I repeat that?

Bike-riding in winter IS determined by whether there’s a safe, protected bike infrastructure network, and smart snow clearance.

WATCH, via @notjustbikes
https://www.google.com/search?q=winter%20cycling%20finland&tbm=&shem=rime&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:cced4ea0,vid:Uhx-26GfCBU,st:0

An example of quirks of technology and meeting needs that expand to outsize levels, then disappear, then need to be historically recognized: The new book LAN PARTY, coming in 2024.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0500026955/

35/n Another lovely term to look out for at #COP28 is UAE’s “Oil Demand Sustainability Programme #ODSP - essentially a plan to drive UP the use of #FossilFuels in #Africa, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy. Thank you @ariadne
for drawing our attention to this! As Ariadne says, it is just like what was done with #tobacco - now that smoking is curtailed in Global North, Indonesia is the smoking capital of the world; that’s the market now.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/27/revealed-saudi-arabia-plan-poor-countries-oil

As I put it last year in my blunt advice to Irish cities, “Your goal SHOULDN’T be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with a million electric vehicles. It should be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with 250K electric vehicles. The main answer HAS to be FEWER cars."

FOSS events organisers of the world, unite and put your event on // foss.events:

https://foss.events/new-event

On this occasion, read how to reuse existing entries and save yourself a lot of time: https://foss.events/about.html#contributing

@jamesbritt They are both ideas from science fiction which we are not convinced our generally possible, so people just capitalized on the names to make a quick buck

The use the term "artificial intelligence" for stuff like chatGPT and LLMs is like how people use the name "hoverboards" for things that ride on the ground and do not in fact hover.

Reverse GitHub Copilot, it doesn't write any code for you, instead it asks you to explain your code with non-specific questions and through the rubber duck effect this causes you to notice bugs and/or realize yourself how to proceed with coding. On the inside it is literally just Eliza (1964)

Without decarbonising heating we cannot meet the climate goals:

Home heating makes up a large share of carbon emissions in most European countries.

Graph created by Aira using IPCC data.

Published originally by Henry Dreyfuss Associates between 1974 and 1981 and reissued by IA Collaborative in 2017, Humanscale is a quick reference guide for everyone who designs for the human body.
#Infographics #GraphicDesign #Ergonomics

When people say: “COVID is here to stay” it just sounds like people are throwing in the towel? Like, to me it makes as much sense as if people were to look into our water supply and said: “Cholera is here to stay.”

What do they even mean? Just like we can filter water, we can filter air. This is a thing we know how to do, is relatively inexpensive, and if subsidized would likely pay itself back in productivity gains alone. It really shouldn’t be that hard.

If you ever wanted to see a truly appalling type of extreme #greenwashing, look at this case from Lufthansa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-OpFjC5-A Surely the bamboo cutlery on Lufthansa airplanes is going to REALLY cut emissions fast!

Only 10% of the clean hydrogen capacity planned by 2030 has identified a buyer. We have huge and unrealistic hydrogen targets and an industry over promising on scalability and price. What is lacking is a demand driver for sectors where clean hydrogen is desperately needed.

https://about.bnef.com/blog/hydrogen-offtake-is-tiny-but-growing/