Geek Stuff category archive
Artificial? Maybe. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Steve Wozniak is no longer fan of Elon Musk or Teslas. From SFGate:
Follow the link for context.
Twits Own Twitter 0
The crazy just keeps getting crazier.
Stray Thought 0
I do not think it an understatement to suggest that “social” media provides incentives that encourage persons to draw attention to themselves with statements of questionable veracity.
To put it another way, “social” media rewards liars for lying.
Geeking Out 0
I do likes me my purty pictures.
That’s Mageia Linux v. 8 with the Fluxbox window manager.
Kidnapped! 0
Michael Liedtke tells of his experience with a driverless cab in San Francisco.
Aside:
Ii am–er–let’s just say–highly skeptical that self-driving cars will be a thing.
Twits Own Twitter 0
Microsoft is pulling back from Twitter, and Elon Musk is not taking it gracefully. A writer at Techdirt pulls no punches:
This is why Twitter is failing. Elon Musk himself is a liability. He’s the one driving advertisers and partners away.
Follow the link for Exhibits A to ZZ.
Geeking Out 0
Mageia v. 8 with the Fluxbox window manager. Xclock is in the upper right and GkrellM in the lower right. The wallpaper is from my collection.
The Twitter Fails 0
Rebecca Watson dissects the deception buried in Elon Musk’s and Matt Taibbi’s “Twitter Files.”
. . . or you can read the transcript.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Hardly. 0
At The Roanoke Times, Dan Casey offers a case study in real stupid.
Artificial Covert Intelligence 0
At Psychology Today Blogs Steven Hassan, who has spent four decades studying the use of “undue influence” in cults, politics, and relationships, explores the darker potential of AI. A snippet:
We already know that “social” media isn’t.
In view of the “golly gosh gee whiz” attitude with which many are greeting the AI/ChatGPT hype, I think his piece is worth a look.
Geeking Out 0
Updating a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM) of Manjaro Linux. In the background is another VM of Slackware Linux (the oldest still-maintained Linus distro). The VMs are running on Mageia Linux with the Fluxbox window manager.
Twits Own Twitter 0
Katharine Trendacosta, writing at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, takes a look at Elon Musk’s stewardship sewership of Twitter. A snippet:
Follow the link for her reasoning.
Aside:
As I may have mentioned, about the time of Twitter’s creation, I heard an interview with one of its founders on my local NPR station (WHYY in Philly at the time–I forget who was the interviewer and who was being interviewed); the person who was being interviewed droned on and on about how this new thing was going to contribute to the discourse.
The interview convinced me to have nothing whatsoever to do with Twitter, and I’ve never regretted that. But I have also watched as Twitter became a go-to outlet for many of moment. I have watched as (far too) many persons came to rely on it for news, information, and commentary. And I will concede that, before Musk at least, Twitter as an organization did not seem to have an agenda other than to grow itself; it bumbled and it fumbled, but it usually tried–with mixed results–to get it right.
(In a larger context, I have become convinced that “social” media isn’t. It amplifies asinine and drowns out dutiful, magnifies mendacity and disrespects data, as its secret algorithms suck users down labyrinthine rabbit holes of hate and hostility so as to “attract eyeballs” amd “foster engagement.”)
Still, it’s a shame to watch Musk mangle something that had risen at least to the level of mediocre.
Licensed To Lurk, Licensed To Leak 0
In episode 438 of the Going Linux podcast, Larry and Bill parse the Windows 10/11 EULA (End User Licensing Agreement) so you don’t have to.
Aside:
There’s a reason these documents are generally written at about the 17th grade level.
They want you not to read them.