Geek Stuff category archive
Geeking Out 0
Listening to Ten Years Later with the QMMP media player on Ubuntu MATE under the Fluxbox window manager. Dolphin is shaded–that is, rolled up into the title bar (you can’t do that on Windows). Xclock is in the upper right and GKrellM with the Glass (that is, transparent) theme, so it’s hard to see in this screenshot, in the lower right. The wallpaper is from my collection.
Twits off Twitter 0
Charles Blow reports that, anticipating the effects of Muskrat love, he severely cut back on his Twitter usage last spring. He says that withdrawal was difficult, but that
Follow the link to learn more of his experience.
And, remember, “social” media isn’t.
The Crypto Con, One More Time 0
Writing in the Portland Press-Herald, Adam Lee unveils a new cryptocurrency based on a renewable resource.
The currency is going to be based on how many poops our dogs take in our yard per day.
Follow the link for details.
The Crypto Con 0
Rebecca Watson digs into NFTs. She is less than impressed with what she finds.
Of, if you’d rather read, there’s a transcript.
The Crypto Con 0
Emma and the crew talk with a caller about the con. (The relevant portion of the clip starts about !:15 mark after a short discussion about China and Taiwan. Short commercial at the end.)
Excerpt:
The companies have huge market caps based on nothing.
Muskrat Love 0
The Los Angeles Times’s Matt Pearce takes a long and thoughtful look at chaos agent Elon Musk’s stewardship (or perhaps that sever-ship) of Twitter. A snippet:
In a related vein, the EFF offers some guidance to those who might be interested in an alternative to Twitter.
Twits off Twitter 0
In case you are a Twitter user turned off by the Muskrat love, I gather that a number of persons are turning to Mastodon.
If you are interested in Mastodon, you may find the EFF’s article about privacy and security on Mastadon useful.
Twits Own Twitter 0
Above the Law’s Chris Williams discerns a madness in the method.
The Crypto Con 0
Bloomberg columnist Allison Schrager muses on the implications of the crypto crash. A snippet (emphasis added):
Barnum was wrong. There’s not one born every minute.
There’s one born every second.
The Crypto Con 0
El Reg explains non-fungible tokens for dummies.
H/T to Harry Shearer for featuring this on Le Show.
Twits Own Twitter 0
Sam and his crew discuss the most fragile ego of them all.
Afterthought:
If Elon Musk destroys Twitter, as seems quite likely at this point, he will have quite inadvertently performed a positive public service.
Twits Own Twitter 0
I have a sneaking suspicion that Musk is in well over his head on this venture. (The discussion on Tuesday’s Bob Cesca Show certainly gave some hints of reasons for optimism.)
Image via Job’s Anger.
The New Gilded Age, It’s All about the Algorithm Dept. 0
At the San Francisco Chronicle, Amos Toh describes how exploitation of workers is baked into the snaring economy. He starts by recounting the experience of one person who drives for Lyft, but doesn’t stop there. A nugget:
(snip)
Algorithms that dispatch jobs to gig workers and manage how they are paid can be gamified in ways that compromise their livelihoods and well-being.
Exploitation is exploitation, be it empowered by whip or by algorithm.
Geeking Out 0
I do loves me my wallpaper collection.
Once, a long time ago, I visited that site.
Oh, by the way, that’s Mageia v. 8 with the Fluxbox window manager. Xclock is in the upper right, GKrellM in the lower right.
No Place To Hide from the Dragnet 0
The EFF reports on a California court’s decision to disallow evidence from a “geofence” warrant.* The report also discusses Google’s procedure for responding to such warrants and notes that this is one of several rulings questioning such warrants.
Here’s one bit from the article; follow the link to read the rest.
Me, I keep “location services” turned off on my phone unless I have a positive need, which is almost never, because I know how to read a map. Remember maps?
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*Briefly, a geofence warrant is issued to the corporate surveillance state–all those companies that track the location of our phones or other devices so they can “improve your online experience”–to find out who was in the vicinity of a crime. The police then go through the list to pick out and pursue possible suspects.