David Gerard

your #1 source for absurdist true crime

I toot as I please

Public Key

npub1kevc88qr3vplw2rzurrcusgxmjqtwhrwjftutcnfp5jg3ws5vkdqnprc3j

NIP-05 Address

davidgerard_at_circumstances.run@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqstvkvrnspckqlh9p3wp3uwgyrdeq9ht3hfy479uf5s6fyghg2xtxsf55kre

Author Public Key

npub1kevc88qr3vplw2rzurrcusgxmjqtwhrwjftutcnfp5jg3ws5vkdqnprc3j

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Last Notes

2024-06-28 13:32:09

Writing advice:
writing is bad. you should stop. be free now.

2024-06-28 09:46:02

- reply

@npub1yhj…3h3t which one?

2024-06-26 12:57:01

Pivot to AI: Rabbit put the R1’s secret keys on the device and now your data has leaked
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/06/26/rabbit-put-the-r1s-secret-keys-on-the-device-and-now-your-data-has-leaked/

2024-06-24 12:55:20

we are launched! https://pivot-to-ai.com/
looking to do a post a day i think
sign up for the email!
EDIT: yes yes i know Dark Mode isn't changing title colours, diving in now EDIT 2: or the *entire sidebar* wtf

2024-06-22 09:37:11

https://survey.adobe.com/jfe/form/SV_4Hfb49upjuZCcl0
Adobe is running a survey on generative AI in its products. Be sure to tell them what you think!

2024-06-20 19:34:56

the only correct action to take on climate change is to vote harder and nothing else

2024-06-19 13:46:18

twitter wants to get into payments. this requires submitting lots of documents to states - public documents. it turns out twitter is losing money hand over fist as advertisers leave - "generated $1.48 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2023, down almost 40% from the same period in 2022, before Musk bought the company. It lost $456 million in the first quarter of 2023." https://archive.ph/M3aMT

2024-06-19 12:55:51

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/643/386/412/373/091/original/4ddf8be66543db7f.png

2024-06-18 18:40:31

Google Gemini tried to kill me
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1diljf2/google_gemini_tried_to_kill_me/
"I followed these steps, but just so happened to check on my mason jar 3-4 days in and saw tiny carbonation bubbles rapidly rising throughout ... I had just grew a botulism culture"

2024-06-18 17:12:20

one reason twitter is Like That
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/638/724/119/967/899/original/2ec1ccb3306ef62a.png

2024-06-18 16:40:07

here's literally an Effective Altruist lamenting how jawdroppingly racist the rationalist sphere is
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/MHenxzydsNgRzSMHY/my-experience-at-the-controversial-manifest-2024
i did tell you so
EDIT: look, we *tried* to invite nice people as well as the huge racists we knew were huge racists when we invited them. What? Exclude the racists? But they're so *interesting!* https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/34pz6ni3muwPnenLS/why-so-many-racists-at-manifest

2024-06-17 20:58:09

https://old.reddit.com/r/cybertruck/comments/1dgvmpo/warning_for_geico_cybertruck/
> I was about to place my order for the Cybertruck. Geico now has Cybertruck on their “do not insure” list along with special edition Lamborghinis, Bugattis etc. For those who are currently using Geico, I am being told that when the 6-month renewal comes up, Geico will not offer renewal for the Cybertruck.
> Just passing the message along to those who might be affected by this.

2024-06-17 12:33:39

"Microsoft is even adding AI to the Notepad app on Windows 11"
jesus fucking shitwank
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft-is-working-bringing-ai-to-the-notepad-app-on-windows-11

2024-06-17 10:43:26

"A tradwife drops a racist slur: Why the right's trolling economy made Lilly Gaddis' rise inevitable"
"Cashing in as a "cancel culture" martyr is getting harder, so attention addicts have to get more extreme"
the reason these people are never happy with conservative social networks and *need* to shit all over everywhere else
https://www.salon.com/2024/06/17/a-tradwife-drops-a-slur-why-the-rights-trolling-economy-made-lilly-gaddis-rise-inevitable/

2024-06-17 08:15:33

How to get your stuff repaired when the retailer and manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court
(Australia specifically, check local laws)
https://blog.simonrumble.com/how-to-get-your-stuff-repaired-when-the-retailer-and-manufacturer-dont-wanna-take-em-to-court

2024-06-17 07:50:43

https://x.com/TheLincoln/status/1802480142498898334
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/630/863/441/770/798/original/63a333ada2d05242.png

2024-06-16 20:59:58

Lightcone, hosts of the rationalists' totally not race science convention, fall afoul of the FTX bankruptcy. Whoops.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/16/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-eugenics-scientific-racism

2024-06-12 21:02:26

The Australian Securities Exchange CHESS blockchain: seven years of sunk cost fallacy
Enterprise blockchain never made any sense. A slow data store was never going to magically make your business or bureaucracy more efficient. Because magic doesn’t happen.
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/06/12/the-australian-securities-exchange-chess-blockchain-seven-years-of-sunk-cost-fallacy/

2024-06-12 08:34:14

congrats to BI on another immaculate totally-not-nazi dox, which has many totally-not-nazis from bitcoinland up in arms. Why, *anyone* who spends their time being extremely into batshit insane Nazis and writing about how they think their social network needs Nazis could be doxxed - *anyone!*
https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-fiatjaf-nostr-donation-2024-6

2024-06-11 19:54:23

closed source software is generally dogshit
internal company software is dogshit squared
open source has at least the concept of shame if you present dogshit

2024-06-11 18:53:01

my workplace supplies suitable productivity equipment
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/599/494/811/189/839/original/db33c5919f0d6e27.png

2024-05-31 08:04:04

crime is now illegal. because of woke.

2024-05-30 21:16:45

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/532/113/419/106/629/original/8845ad42901bf842.png

2024-05-26 10:20:10

got a Red Hat guy in my mentions claiming that their AI initiative will "democratise" AI and this is good.
Current question commenters are waiting on: LLMs so far are used for massive copyright violation, so please provide the full list of the training data (the source code) for their models. If they can't provide this, clarify why not.

2024-05-25 13:59:05

good news about all the AI shit they're trying to force us to use:
* runs at a MASSIVE loss
* doesn't fucking work
* *can't* fucking work
* not going to work next year either
and best of all:
* the next thing is going to waste even more money and be even more fucking useless

2024-05-25 13:03:43

fucking Red Hat is doing fucking AI chatbots https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/what-rhel-ai-guide-open-source-way-doing-ai apparently with *more than a little* controversy amongst staff. Looks like an IBM push from above.

2024-05-24 22:25:33

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/498/407/666/057/428/original/780e2ff57ca4053b.png

2024-05-24 20:12:05

The Spectator is now warning aging Tories to stay away from crypto https://archive.is/GPQpp

2024-05-24 18:47:33

i know it's anecdote and likely biased by my circles, but i'm seeing a remarkable number of people who are finally so pissed off by Microsoft's AI nonsense in Windows 11 that they're asking about Linux in 2024
what are you seeing in this regard?

2024-05-24 08:04:44

the best Linux distro for beginners is OpenBSD

2024-05-23 13:52:59

Masks work.
That's it. That's the science. Masks work. Tell everyone.
https://theconversation.com/masks-work-our-comprehensive-review-has-found-229658

2024-05-22 10:27:49

- reply

@npub15zu…s7lx my psychic powers tell me that if he can possibly find a way to try again, he will

2024-05-21 12:18:52

‘Millionaires tax’ has already generated $1.8 billion this year for Massachusetts, blowing past projections
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/20/metro/millionaires-tax-massachusetts-generated-18-billion/
WHO'DA THUNK YOU COULD JUST TAX THE RICH AND IT WOULD JUST WORK

2024-05-21 07:55:48

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/478/003/980/184/327/original/e43404b03baaf107.png

2024-05-17 07:12:18

you had ONE JOB
(from the Ed Zitron discord. I tried it myself and the first *four* were videos)
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/455/180/828/457/697/original/64ad875d2c9be376.png

2024-05-16 22:19:21

warning from Alejandra Caraballo over on bsky:
> Anti trans BMJ journalist Jennifer Block is attempting to talk to trans people about planned parenthood and HRT access. Do not speak to her. Her goal is ending access at planned parenthood.
pass it on
the Cass Report will be for the BMJ what Andrew Wakefield was for the Lancet

2024-05-16 21:36:28

Professional game dev on Linux
"it’s been like 10 years since I last looked at any of this, and I really don’t care for this hard pivot to pushing AI into Windows that Microsoft is rolling out, so I figured it was time to check in on the state of Linux."
https://brodybrooks.com/posts/2024-linuxgamedev/

2024-05-10 21:51:29

Jack Dorsey, Bluesky, decentralised social networks and the very common crowd
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/05/10/jack-dorsey-bluesky-decentralised-social-networks-and-the-very-common-crowd/
“I could easily get him to pay me $125,000 for a jug of something called Diarrhea Water in the understanding that it would ‘detoxify his beard.'”
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/418/999/219/637/691/original/6097ed20a098a783.jpg

2024-05-08 12:58:09

how are our friends the Effective Altruists doing? well, their totally not a castle that they bought with the FTX donations of stolen customer money just showed up on Rightmove this morning
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147720158#/?channel=RES_BUY

2024-05-08 08:03:24

playing "welcome to the pleasure dome" again after like 39 years. bloated excess at the time and it hasn't improved with age. should have been a 40-minute single LP and not a 64-minute double. i should not be thinking "yes yes get on with it."
cut "Pleasuredome" down to a tight 8 minutes. record 2 is basically surplus, fold in the least worst tracks. done.
god you can tell they had totally run out of ideas by side four and they still only managed 64 minutes. what is this "the only star in heaven" shit, jfc holly

2024-05-07 10:24:42

- reply

@npub150t…ravx they're currently trying on "Greens full of antisemitism"

2024-05-06 18:39:18

The New York Times is a reactionary rag these days because the executive editor feels that activism went too far in 2020 and he explicitly sees his job as winding that back.
so expect continued deliberate malice from the NYT going forward
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/05/2024/joe-kahn-the-newsroom-is-not-a-safe-space
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/395/599/171/403/765/original/7307e2ef189c8be7.png

2024-05-06 18:33:29

- reply

@npub198t…hasj may just have been my local PO, but they consistently never ever picked up parcels. After the third one I wasn't inclined to try again.

2024-05-06 09:58:02

"EBITDA" is an accounting acronym for "Made Up Shit That Isn't Comparable Across Companies And They're Trying To Snow You Because Their GAAP Numbers Suck".
https://amycastor.com/2024/05/05/coinbase-q1-2024-earnings-number-go-up-with-a-bit-of-juicing/

2024-05-03 07:16:38

for all your life size cardboard cutout Sam Bankman-Fried needs https://standeestore.com/products/copy-of-aaron-judge-ny-yankees-70-tall-cardboard-cutout-standee-party-decor-67
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/375/927/717/096/072/original/29f92dc9361222b2.png

2024-05-02 21:48:10

a late-season call back to one of early season buttcoin's favourite characters, the libertarian who suddenly decides he knows more about tax law than his own goddamn lawyers
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/05/02/regulatory-clarity-roger-ver-tax-charges-cz-sentenced-avi-eisenberg-convicted-and-charged-again-crypto-mixers-go-down/
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/373/691/940/641/459/original/430059344071257a.jpeg

2024-04-30 16:01:40

"The extent of the dysfunction at The Intercept is not publicly known in part because, for all management’s problems, they are very good at one thing: structuring hush money payments."
why Ken Klippenstein just quit the Intercept. Subscribe to him if you can.
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/why-im-resigning-from-the-intercept

2024-04-29 19:30:00

oh dear lord, Open AI is in for a world of hurt:
"ChatGPT provides false information about people, and OpenAI can’t correct it"
this is by a European
https://noyb.eu/en/chatgpt-provides-false-information-about-people-and-openai-cant-correct-it

2024-04-29 10:17:57

"There never was a $600 hammer," said Steven Kelman, public policy professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. It was, he said, "an accounting artifact."
https://www.govexec.com/federal-news/1998/12/the-myth-of-the-600-hammer/5271/

2024-04-26 22:48:11

shitload of maintainers are leaving NixOS because the founder hooked Nix up with an ICE contractor
"This orphans a bunch of long tail packages, but hopefully someone who loves the idea of hunting migrants with Nix-powered surveillance can take over."
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/307064

2024-04-26 08:01:03

Google responds to Ed Zitron's claims, sort of. Ed fires back with *yet more* evidence of Google's bad behaviour:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/in-response-to-google/
the Hacker News response does not yet have a question mark on the end: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40164393

2024-04-25 20:22:02

PROBLEM: I need to block IPs DDOSing us with expensive queries to Apache 2.4 serving some PHP with mod_fpm.
mod_evasive would be perfect, except it doesn't work with X-Forwarded-For.
Suggestions?
(no, "use nginx" or similar is not a happener here)

2024-04-24 21:21:35

Christopher Harborne defamation suit: WSJ motion to dismiss, Bitfinex/Tether, Bank of America, Sackville Bank
by Amy Castor and David Gerard
The key thing that does in Harborne's claim is that the allegedly defamatory statement appears to be, er, provably true.
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/04/24/christopher-harborne-defamation-suit-wsj-motion-to-dismiss-bitfinex-tether-bank-of-america-sackville-bank/

2024-04-21 21:25:08

told you the AI grifters were running out of uncontaminated data and the hallucinations are getting worse https://apnews.com/article/meta-ai-assistant-llama3-large-language-models-llm-229b386ebfbdc23f0e9245a68f7eb2d0

2024-04-21 19:49:56

wikipedia: "Salman's vision for the city incorporates some technologies that do not currently exist, such as flying cars, robot maids, dinosaur robots, and a giant artificial moon.[101]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neom

2024-04-21 18:19:24

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/310/585/956/751/075/original/f60eb12063b05906.png

2024-04-20 18:25:22

"The AI bros don't realize that the worst thing that could happen to kill the AI hype is everyone having to use it" -- Holylol

2024-04-20 16:08:15

Jacob Silverman: "Who was on Elon Musk’s Twitter transition team in fall 2022? Thanks to a tip, I found a list of 91 names of transition-team members subpoenaed in a lawsuit by ex-Twitter employees."
https://www.jacobsilverman.com/p/who-was-on-elon-musks-twitter-transition

2024-04-19 18:30:32

the MOST IMPORTANT thing YOU NEED TO KNOW about the BITCOIN HALVING -
is that this is 100% a promotional meme and that is its only impact in the market: it's for getting the word "bitcoin" into the news
https://amycastor.com/2024/02/21/the-halvening-is-coming-what-this-means-for-bitcoin/

2024-04-18 15:37:21

well, bugger me. he's cracked it!
https://bsky.app/profile/drnerdlove.bsky.social/post/3kqft5pfddh2e
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/292/961/378/374/282/original/6db8e9c572f895e8.png

2024-04-14 20:55:51

there are so many AI use cases!!
* spam
* bias laundering
* replacing employees with a machine that can't do the job
* abrogation of responsibility for failure to the machine
* spam

2024-04-12 09:16:27

The whole internet loves Kagi, a lovely paid search engine that can find things! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the CEO is an unhinged narcissist who will harangue you in email
https://hackers.town/@lori/112255132348604770

2024-04-11 22:52:39

Pivot to AI: Hallucinations worsen as the money runs out
Remember when AI had *proper* hallucinations? Eyeballs! Spurious dogs!
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/04/11/pivot-to-ai-hallucinations-worsen-as-the-money-runs-out/
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/255/037/217/669/937/original/bf77b0103dc28aea.jpg

2024-04-11 18:56:44

"PS: If you were wondering what they're using to train GPT-5, well, now you know." https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2024-April/225407.html

2024-04-10 20:39:44

open source developers must be barred by law from naming anything, ever
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/248/845/199/367/201/original/2a91f7a85f50fe9f.png

2024-04-09 08:43:37

good to see Unity Calliper-Warcrimes watching the pennies
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/240/371/831/177/333/original/ef540dbe39c97ca4.png

2024-04-08 12:01:12

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2024/they-ban-products-dont-they/
"Tech punditry keeps harping on the notion that nobody has ever successfully banned “scientific progress”, but LLMs and generative models are not “progress”. They’re products and we ban those all the time."

2024-04-08 10:05:50

- reply

@npub1psd…9sr7 Belinda Caliper-Warcrimes

2024-04-06 14:17:45

- reply

@npub19lt…qfjk
!! In London?!

2024-04-05 18:06:48

so Facebook is still trying REALLY HARD to suppress this story about Facebook
https://kansasreflector.com/2024/04/04/when-facebook-fails-local-media-matters-even-more-for-our-planets-future/
and even this story about the story!
https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/facebook-kansas-reflector-links-banned
my links to the story and to the second story both got auto-deleted

2024-04-04 09:12:51

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/212/177/366/434/623/original/030b03613b1cd41b.png

2024-04-03 22:10:31

https://www.404media.co/xz-backdoor-bullying-in-open-source-software-is-a-massive-security-vulnerability/
tolerating huge fucking assholes in tech is a security attack surface

2024-04-03 21:42:18

the great thing about crypto and sex work is that even the sex workers who are thoroughgoing coiners say it's unusable dogshit in practice, in the crypto mags https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2023/09/19/the-truth-about-crypto-and-sex-work/

2024-04-03 21:23:26

Vortax: a fake scam AI company. Just like the old ICO days!
The AI scam cycle is at the stage where there’s money in creating companies that don't exist.
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/04/03/vortax-a-fake-scam-ai-company-just-like-the-old-ico-days/

2024-04-03 14:26:46

https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/207/749/695/389/389/original/e31c210115e96752.png

2024-03-26 13:50:50

Tether shareholder Christopher Harborne’s suit against the Wall Street Journal and threats to blogs
by Amy Castor and David Gerard
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/03/26/tether-shareholder-christopher-harbornes-suit-against-the-wall-street-journal-and-threats-to-blogs/

2024-03-23 21:34:04

lol the tankies who develop Lemmy are gonna start their own Wikipedia, with vodka and Stakhanovs
https://ibis.wiki/article/Announcing_Ibis,_the_federated_Wikipedia_Alternative@ibis.wiki
this is like a journey back through time for me. in 2007, Wikipedia hit the mainstream. i was the volunteer press guy in the UK at the time.
every crank was busy starting their own alternate wikipedia which would *reveal the truth*!! most of them were more than a little like this.
none of these alternate wikis gained any traction, despite their deep philosophical mission statements.
there was another wave of these things in the crypto scam era. these brought you the idea of a shitty wikipedia but this time with a shitcoin.
the lemmywiki says: "journalist Helen Buyniski has collected much more information about the the rot in Wikipedia."
Buyniski writes for RT. here is her expose: https://archive.is/AQWWE
> Authors and public figures in fields as diverse as Complementary and Alternative Medicine and progressive politics (including Deepak Chopra, Rupert Sheldrake, Gary Null, John Pilger, and George Galloway) have complained of persistent negative coverage on Wikipedia
tankies gonna tank
in other news, we have discovered that the lemmy devs are also likely to be extremely difficult to work with purely as open source devs, see thread: https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/112140121439435203 so we're weighing up running a patch set. i'll do a big publicity seeking thing if @npub18ct…5u29 decides he has the requisite copious free time (because I'm sure not doing the technical shit, but boy am i good at cheerleading). i'll keep you all updated.

2024-03-23 20:01:45

mastodon is for people who have opinions on their preferred linux distribution, threads is for people who find that question disturbing and threatening

2024-03-22 09:44:24

'The messianic bent of the latest AI bubble has a lot to do with people noting that "something I don't know how to do" includes both "drawing a cool picture" and "inventing perpetual motion", and concluding that if a big model can do one, a bigger model must surely be able to do the other.' - Soliipsody https://bsky.app/profile/solipsodist.bsky.social/post/3kobmczcpg42a

2024-03-19 22:29:01

Bitcoin goes up, so it must come down. What goes into the price of BTC?
by Amy Castor and David Gerard
https://amycastor.com/2024/03/19/bitcoin-goes-up-so-it-must-come-down-what-goes-into-the-price-of-btc/
Bitcoin has set yet another new all-time high — $73,835 on Coinbase BTC-USD on March 14. This means bitcoin is good now! All our past objections are resolved. Going forward, we only deal in Finances U Desire.
The number is up, but the market is still super-thin. BitMEX BTC-USDT had a flash crash on Monday evening to just $8,900.
We’re not in a bubble. We’re in a balloon, one being pumped full of hot air. It’s fun going up — but the trip down can be very quick.
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/124/711/100/425/179/original/0e14e6f719513a8d.jpg

2024-03-16 22:47:25

anyway, it's good to know that every Bitcoin holder bought in 2009 for the cost of some CPU electricity and sold at over $70,000, with no exceptions

2024-03-15 08:45:57

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/got-1-min-the-mystery-of-the-tesla-crushed-by-an-olmec-head/
about the Olmec head crushing a Tesla - it's an installation by artist Chavis Mármol
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/098/825/463/927/877/original/302efce79d1e766e.png

2024-03-14 16:19:29

DELETE YOUR GLASSDOOR
https://cellio.dreamwidth.org/2024/03/12/glassdoor-violates-privacy.html
"Glassdoor now requires your real name and will add it to older accounts without your consent if they learn it, and your only option is to delete your account. They do not care that this puts people at risk with their employers."

2024-03-12 11:00:59

it turns out people are still fucking a whole lot, and a lot more people behave bisexually than self-label as bisexual
excellent work by globohomo
https://www.them.us/story/ten-percent-americans-bisexual-behavior

2024-03-12 00:32:46

Spanish Twitter has discovered this and is going nuts cos they had no idea the Ecce Homo fresco disaster was a meme outside Spain. getting to exercise my important Spanish shitposting skills. "no sé lo que dices, es la foto original enviada desde el palacio de kénsington"
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/079/897/874/802/383/original/23032bb66ae49550.png

2024-03-11 15:03:00

Hi my name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Nakamoto and I have long ebony black hair (that's how I got my name) with Objectivist streaks and helpful tips that reaches my mid-back and icy rational eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Vitalik Buterin (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Satoshi Nakamoto but I wish I was because he's a major fucking hottie, allegedly. I'm a Bitcoiner but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also an anarcho-capitalist, and I go to a magic school called Ethereum in Zug, Switzerland where I'm in the seventh year (I'm seventeen). I'm a Libertarian (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love the Ron Paul forums and I buy all my ideas from there. For example today I was wearing dark markets with matching escrow around it and a black leather iPad cover, grey weed logo bag and black combat boots. I was wearing no makeup, none of that clown paint. I was walking outside Mom's basement. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of banksters stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

2024-03-07 16:10:21

https://twitter.com/FreyaHolmer/status/1765680355657359585
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/112/055/275/007/000/179/original/cce42b008b22d3cd.png

2024-03-04 08:36:26

- reply

@npub1vqm…ccpx if you look you'll see this is a discussion from over a year ago, but they only just noticed it
the consensus at Wikipedia on AI is "kill it the moment you see it, delete, blacklist, destroy" which is about right

2024-03-03 20:13:23

https://web.archive.org/web/20240301170542/https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a46975496/behind-f1-velvet-curtain/
or https://archive.is/xM3rL
well that sure disappeared quickly. even the reprint on Yahoo News got taken down.
"If you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1 race."

2024-03-01 23:30:24

https://petergabriel.bandcamp.com/music
Peter Gabriel's complete catalogue, from 1977 to the present, is up on Bandcamp

2024-03-01 08:48:11

Signal will be hiding your phone number going forward. https://signal.org/blog/phone-number-privacy-usernames/

2024-02-24 00:08:55

this is extremely important and needs to be pointed out more:
most of the AI shit doesn't even fucking work.
it doesn't have to work to sell, of course. might even help sell.
but we need a lot more talking about the fact that this garbage is completely fucking fraudulent.

2024-02-23 00:33:50

may i recommend ConnectBot, an ssh client for Android that I got from the F-Droid store. Just ssh'ed into my laptop from my phone to unstick a rogue app. Simple and obvious.

2024-02-22 10:00:30

who'da think leftist infighting would turn out to be praxis
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/111/974/547/020/861/381/original/3ac636f6d4d2c8ae.png

2024-02-21 23:36:18

The ‘halvening’ is coming — what this means for bitcoin
by Amy Castor and David Gerard
To understand the “halvening,” you need to know about two things:
1. The practical problems for bitcoin miners when half their income suddenly vanishes;
2. A whole mythology of inane gibberish.
https://amycastor.com/2024/02/21/the-halvening-is-coming-what-this-means-for-bitcoin/

2024-02-19 09:47:08

#fediblock mastodon-ero.xyz and cmm.fyi, massive spam output

2024-02-06 17:40:50

blockchain technology is STUPENDOUSLY REAL WORLD USEFUL FOR
1. thing nobody actually wanted or cared about
3. if they ever did, a non-blockchain implementation would already exist and be vastly superior
3. scams

2024-02-03 21:23:00

Crypto collapse: FTX is liquidating and getting an examiner, Tether’s Q4 attestation, more ETFs coming
by Amy Castor and David Gerard
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2024/02/03/crypto-collapse-ftx-is-liquidating-and-getting-an-examiner-tethers-q4-attestation-more-etfs-coming/
* Goooood-byeeeeeee, FTX
* FTX gets an examiner
* Other FTX fun
* Tether files more unverified numbers
* Larry David is always right about these things
https://circumstances.run/system/media_attachments/files/111/869/670/437/346/151/original/afd614069af0a5b0.jpg

2023-07-04 18:44:23

this is an excellent summary of the real-life problems - moderation, discoverability, searchability - of a future federated Bluesky AT Protocol network from @npub14d7…dm4s
https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/110552684614320107
see also
https://github.com/bluesky-social/proposals/issues/18
https://github.com/bluesky-social/proposals/issues/19
i particularly like the observation that the functions people *want* from social media - moderation, discoverability, search - just straight-up require centralisation.
Decentralisation has its virtues, such as the fediverse ticking along mostly fine while Twitter and Bluesky pooped themselves on Saturday. But for usability for non-nerds, decentralisation is a harsh antifeature - see Mastodon. You can't search your fuckin' friends, I mean wtf, FUNCTION NUMBER ONE on a new network!
Any eventual atproto network will naturally centralise on a big graph server, 'cos otherwise you don't get search or discoverability.
there isn't as yet a central repository of critiques. also the protocol isn't finished yet, there's a lotta vaporware and handwaving.
actual Trust & Safety people of considerable experience, e.g. Yoel Roth from Twitter and Denise from Dreamwidth and formerly of LiveJournal, spent many futile hours posting at length to the company CEO and devs on how Bluesky's plans would make essential moderation functions literally impossible.
even if Bluesky gave a hoot about doing moderation properly, which doesn't seem to occur to them. they seem literally incapable of understanding the question.
some of the devs are getting to understand the problems. because Bluesky pressed them into service to do moderation personally. they understood there was a problem here once they saw some shit.
but basically Bluesky wrote a moderation white paper and fell in love with it, and they are impervious to any idea they didn't think of themselves, or the history of thirty years of internet social media.
like, when you get to "let's make block lists public!" why the fuck are you doing something that obviously stupid? "well the white paper requires it" i mean.
there is no one weird trick to technically scale moderation. you have to do the fucking moderation. with people.
that's *fine* for now - there is no network. bsky.app is a fun single-node server to be on. 200k users, high quality queer shitposters, great userbase!
but it's important to keep in mind that it's *run* by rationalist neoreactionary-leaning blockchain bros who have shown an unfortunate tendency in practice to defend their neo-nazi friends from being kicked off for death threats against minorities.
the technical details are secondary, even if you approach them with an unwarranted assumption of good faith. because atproto was designed with bad assumptions by idiots. it's a historical fact that Jack Dorsey's driving motivation was to make a network nazis couldn't be permanently banned from. that's what he funded these people to do, and the tech is just details at that point.
on Mastodon, Bluesky would have been fediblocked by now just for its nazi coddling.
btw i will definitely be calling Bluesky's wizard white paper idea "compostable moderation" from now on