Olives @olives@qoto.org

https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/12/veilid_privacy_data/ What are your thoughts on Veilid? It appears to have some novel elements to it.

"Free software is the anti junk food part of tech."

Lol.

Uh, free as in freedom, not free as in paying nothing (although, it's usually that too).

Some web browser developers used to go on about how great AVIF would be.

But, I'm not understanding how it's better than just using a PNG or a JPG. It isn't more efficient, I've tested that myself.

I don't think it's inherently bad, all things being equal, but neither do I see a real advantage to anyone who isn't a web browser developer implementing an image algorithm. I guess it might be more free.

Surprisingly enough, I'm actually encountering .avif images in the wild (and they're compatible with, it seems, precisely nothing except for my web browser).

A dark anime which I liked a fair bit was Hell Girl or Jigoku Shoujo. Tales of vengeance...?

It's a good one to try out. #anime

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/cacc0b40-c3a4-473b-86cc-11863c0b3f30 By the way, the United Kingdom passed something just like the "don't say gay" bill a few decades ago (it was later repealed).

It's practical effects were worse than you might think.

Who knows, maybe the fediverse "experiment" can offer up possible ideas here on how to offer a different kind of user experience (without Uncle Sam coming in to whip someone).

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/californias-sb-680-social-media-addiction-bill-heading-for-a-first-amendment-collision/
It's not hard to think of problems with this. We've been kicking these same balls on this side of the court for quite some time.

1) It chills expression with rather vague terms for very questionable gains.

2) Large platforms are not going to engage in thoughtful policy making.

They're presumably going to do things which reduce perceived liability, even if it makes things less safe for some demographics.

3) The fact that they're making such vague demands should clue you into the reality that they probably don't really understand what they're asking for either. That is a recipe for bad policy.

4) This whole thing has a smell of moral panic to it.

5) It's not really worth living in a sterile environment for this. People have rights and some problem which might exist to some limited extent is not going to outweigh that.

Someone writes a bunch of code and the zeroes and ones literally fly out of the mobile phones and computers and make magic happen. Also, I think one episode is literally named Hello World, lol.

Modern Magic Made Simple. An old, and maybe a bit obscure, #anime where you can cast magic spells by writing computer programs.

I feel sorry for the teacher in Kodomo no Jikan, lol.

Even in how Jack Dorsey proudly described Twitter, it sounded like the Borg, lol.