Today, February 12, is loyal beagle Gromit's birthday. Happy birthday, Gromit! (The Wrong Trousers, 1993)
#Movies #Film #Cinemastodon #Letterboxd #Gromit #TheWrongTrousers #WallaceAndGromit #StopMotion #Claymation
@dacig
It's important to remember we're going about 30km/s along with the Earth in order to stay in orbit (or else we would already be falling into the Sun).
To hit the Sun, you have to go all the way to zero, or 30 km/s ΔV. To escape you need to increase to 30√2 km/s -- or about 13km/s extra. Less than half as much!
OpenAGPS is a project to create a open-source assisted-GNSS service, compatible with existing GNSS systems.openagps.net
Interesting experience... I have not done a Friendica only presentation for some time. During the recent years it was mostly introductions to the Fediverse or more topic orientated talks / workshops. First iteration of the slides for the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM (Saturday 15:30 to 16h) is done 🚀
There are definitely many real-world issues and problems where we could benefit from significantly more quantitative (and mathematical) analysis and thinking than we do currently. But, at the same time, there are certain dimensions of our modern society where we overcorrected for this, and allowed quantitative reasoning to dominate at the expense of other important modes of thought, or to be deployed in a highly imbalanced fashion.
As anyone who has encountered a word problem in their high school math classes knows, the first step in quantitative reasoning is to assign numerically precise metrics as proxies for one's goals, parameters, and variables. Most of our wants and needs are quite qualitative in nature: happiness, comfort, security, companionship, and the like. But these are too fuzzy to be optimized and analyzed by the mathematics of quantitative reasoning. Which, to oversimplify things, leaves us with basically two options: either use more qualitative modes of thinking, such as "gut feelings", emotional responses, or drawing on past experiences of similar situations, accepting any cognitive biases that result from doing so; or to create quantitative proxies for these goals, and then optimize those proxies in a more dispassionate (and hopefully more objective) fashion. (1/5)
The ongoing process of "enshittification" in corporations and other institutions can also be viewed through this lens. Companies (and other complex organizations) have gained access to increasingly sophisticated metrics to measure their user activity, and now have the technology to optimize those metrics for their own benefit (in the near-term, at least). Initially, this sort of optimization can add value for both the provider and consumer of the service; but the majority of their customer base are not playing the optimization "game", and many would have initially signed up for an experience that was more qualitative and less optimized, and containing more of the intangible benefits that even the most advanced metrics fail to capture.
So, are metrics good or bad for individuals and communities? It is a very complex question. In some areas, we are under-using metrics; in others, we are over-using them; and in yet other areas, they are being deployed in too imbalanced a fashion to be beneficial in the long term. Perhaps what we need is more of a discussion of meta-goals and meta-metrics: not just how to pursue a goal or to optimize a metric, but to try to analyze (both qualitatively and quantitatively) how similar or distinct these two objectives actually are, and to locate a stable balance between them that can be broadly accepted within the community in question. (5/5)
@KStahl Very interesting discussion! Thanks for sharing.
I don't think companies act against their interest when sacrificing consumer satisfaction, though. I think that these companies have realized they can offer the least satisfying product possible that maximizes their gains by reducing satisfaction that is cost-inducing (e.g., improving product quality) and monetizing satisfaction that is not (e.g,. choosing your airplane seat). This strategy appears to be economically viable, unfortunately, and there's a whole system in play to protect it and show it as optimal (mostly by erasing losses of "irrational" i.e., qualitatively defined goods like comfort).
In principle, an efficient and liquid market does provide precisely this dimension reduction (and is one of the key distinctions between an economic system and a physical system). If one possesses a multidimensional vector of various goods and services, then by trading in such a market, one can exchange this vector for other vectors. If one makes the (sometimes justifiable) assumption that the efficient frontier of such exchanges forms a differentiable hypersurface around one's current state vector, then the normal to that hypersurface naturally determines the "price" of each good, and one can then measure (marginal) increase or decrease in one's effective wealth (modulo this efficient market) by the one-dimensional metric of taking the dot product with this state vector.
But for goods that are illiquid or only available in inefficient markets in which arbitrage opportunities exist, then this dimension reduction is no longer available, and price becomes a much more complicated notion (for instance, there can be non-trivial spreads between bid and ask prices). In particular, problems can arise when some goods are priced in a liquid fashion, but others (e.g., environmental goods such as clean air and water) are not; then optimizing value using market prices can lead to one sacrificing illiquid goods for liquid ones in a non-beneficial fashion.
@SylviaFysica - on a vaguely related note, I'm enjoying some ideas in Will Storr's book "Status Games", which posits that after satisfying some basic needs we're primarily motivatived by the search for status, which he loosely divides into:
• Dominance games: Status is imposed by force or fear.
• Virtue games: Status is awarded for moral behaviour and adherence to group norms.
• Success/competence games: Status is given for skill, talent, or achievement.
I think he'd claim the quest for money is, once basic needs are satisfied, largely a proxy for status - so, maybe some sort of mixture of a success game (money as a way of demonstrating success) and dominance game (money as a means to achieving dominance).
As with all pop psychology/sociology, there's lots of criticize about this, but I think a lot of economics could use a bit more attention to the underlying psychological/sociological aspects. More here:
decentred.co.uk/status-and-vir…
Will Storr's book The Status Game , explores the role of status in human behaviour and society. It examines the universal nature of status games, the differentRob Watson (Decentered Media)
@SylviaFysica
I recently learned about the fallacy of the average pilot, which somehow eluded my awareness until then!
Collapsing complex multidimensional systems into single dimensional metrics is almost certainly always a bad idea. The representational volume of defined ranges over the space will occupy an exponentially smaller volume of the total space as the dimensionality of the space grows linearly. It follows that the inverse is true: a single metric can capture only an exponentially vanishing proportion of the total variance of the system as the dimensionality grows linearly.
mastodon.gamedev.place/@demofo…
As time goes on, i am more and more convinced i am neurodirevergent, but it's unclear in what way. (My wife is an educational psychologist and agrees with this). Then again, i think just like the "there's no average pilot" story (https://www.Gamedev Mastodon
Hey there! A friend of mine built this, care to take a look?:
Show HN: Acorn, a theorem prover with built-in AI
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…
Reminds me of a quote:
"Given the opportunity, gamers will optimize the fun out of your game."
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, professor! Another banger post, as usual.
Tre settimane fa dormiva sul pavimento di cemento di una cella iraniana, sapendo di poterci rimanere mesi o anni. Ora è libera e a Kyiv e ha già pubblicato la migliore intervista a #Zelensky che abbia letto o visto in tre anni su un media italiano, che ə compagnə della mozione #colpadellaNato farebbero bene a leggersi invece di farsi indottrinare dalle troll farm paranaziste russe su Telegram.
#CeciliaSala #Ucraina #Russia #Putin #Nato #Merkel
ilfoglio.it/esteri/2025/01/25/…
unpaywalled: bin.disroot.org/?6fe881aa473e8…
[EDIT]Qui il video integrale dell'intervista, sottotitolata in italiano: youtube.com/watch?v=8X3_rAXSXu…
Il presidente ucraino ci parla delle sue speranze sulla presidenza americana, ci spiega cosa vuol dire “non commettere più gli errori del passato” e fa l’elenco di tutto ciò che è necessario per un accordo.Il Foglio
YouTuber f4mi tells you how to poison AI video scrapers with ‘.аss’ subtitles
pivot-to-ai.com/2025/01/23/you…
Tech YouTuber f4mi discovered her videos were being scraped by bots for ChatGPT-generated spam videos with robotic voices and repeating stock footage with a mangled version of her content. So she d…Pivot to AI
If you can't be bothered to use a CW (Content Warning) for #USpol, or for #Trump, #MAGA, #fascists, then please take the briefest second and use a hashtag. I mean, it is literally just one extra character.
At a minimum, please use #uspol as a hashtag for US stuff.
Please use real names for the people you have issues with- Dolt45, 45/47, Orange Julius, Tangerine Toddler, etc... nobody is going to be able to filter those out. Some people are either going to be materially harmed by this person, their administration, and/or their followers- or they have been. Or they don't live in the US and really don't want to see this right now.
So, use names people can filter against, and please consider that some people have had enough USian trauma for today.
Winner, 2008 Otto Gründler Book Prize, The Medieval InstituteWinner, 2008 Otto Gründler Book Prize, The Medieval InstituteNotorious for his cleverness and daring, John Hawkwood was the most feared mercenary in early Renaissance Italy.www.press.jhu.edu
In the first book systematically to give evidence of co…Goodreads
If history remembers Lucrezia Borgia at all, it is as a…Goodreads
In Inventing the Renaissance, acclaimed historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on what makes this epoch so captivating.Ada Palmer
“AI slop” doesn’t cover it. It’s more like “I stepped in a pile of hot AI poop again.” Literally, if you look closer at the illustration.
I was searching for “fire heat radiation.” When a slightly promising article started going over the same basics of conduction, convection, and radiation for the third time, I got suspicious and looked closer at the illustrations. “Hot poop” indeed.
Brought to you by firecarry dot com, “A Trusted Source for Fire Education” 🤡
Didn’t expect this to be the cause of every problem, huhlabyrinth.zone
Hey! Confy 0.8.0 has been released!
In this release :
Updated screenshots on official home page:
confy.kirgroup.net/
and in your nearest appstream-enabled appstore!
I would like to thank everyone who helped with code, tickets, distro packaging and general moral support :)
If you want to contribute, jump in the dev mailing list at lists.sr.ht/~fabrixxm/confy-de… or open a ticket at todo.sr.ht/~fabrixxm/confy
(and you don't even need to create an account on sourcehut, just send an email to ~fabrixxm/confy-dev (a) lists.sr.ht or ~fabrixxm/confy (a) todo.sr.ht )
Navigate conference schedules, mark favourite talks, get reminded when talks are coming up. Works offline, ready for mobilekirgroup.net
«Claudia de Breij: This cartoon by Ann Telnaes was rejected by the Washington Post, the newspaper purchased by Jeff Bezos.
The creator has resigned because she believes that free press is a prerequisite for democracy. What if we spread this cartoon _en masse_ today?»
mastodon.nl/@SandraDeHaan/1137…
Attached: 1 image Claudia de Breij: Deze cartoon van Ann Telnaes werd geweigerd door de Washington Post, de krant die gekocht is door Jeff Bezos. De maker heeft ontslag genomen omdat ze vindt dat vrije pers een voorwaarde is voor de democratie.Mastodon.nl door Stichting Activityclub
@ArnimRanthoron Um. I think you are misinterpreting the image, both misreading what is shown and also missing important details.
* The "big man" is a depiction of Donald Trump. His obesity is exaggerated.
* The size reflects power and status (of being president elect), and not that it's a statue, I think.
* Trump is depicted with tiny hands.
* Mickey is _genuflecting_ not dead.
* The figures offering moneybags are paying tribute.
* Two of them are recognisably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. The other _may_ be Tim Cook.
* There is another figure not offering tribute, the one with lipstick; it may be J D Vance or Matt Gaetz. (I am not American and don't pay that much attention to its political figures.)
* Mickey is not the only figure in colour; Bezos' jacket is blue.
Page-per-day calendar generator for Remarkable tablet - osresearch/pdfcalGitHub
Page-per-day calendar generator for Remarkable tablet - osresearch/pdfcalGitHub
Scientists managed to film how a black hole absorbs matter.
#quantum #physics #blackhole #actuallyautistic
"This is literally a DDoS on the entire internet.
"I am so tired."
pod.geraspora.de/posts/1734216…
Excerpt from a message I just posted in a #diaspora team internal forum category. The context here is that I recently get pinged by slowness/load spikes on the diaspora* project web infrastructure (Discourse, Wiki, the project website, ...Geraspora*
Dal Corriere di Bologna.
Di Federica Nannetti.
È successo un po’ di tutto nel 2024 di Roberto Mantovani, taxista conosciuto anche come Red Sox e nel tempo diventato amato e al contempo odiato per la sua battaglia alla trasparenza del settore: la cacciata da Cotabo e la conseguente riorganizzazione del lavoro con non poche ripercussioni economiche, l’imbrattamento della sua auto con simboli razzisti e misogini, poi trasformato in una raccolta fondi per la Casa delle donne per non subire violenza, la pubblicazione di un libro che molti colleghi «vorrebbero cadesse nel dimenticatoio». Eppure lui non ha mai rinunciato e mai rinuncerà ai suoi valori; rifarebbe tutto per filo e per segno. E a metà gennaio presenterà ufficialmente la nuova grafica del taxi, rimesso a nuovo dopo gli atti vandalici, dedicata al centro antiviolenza e al contrasto alla violenza contro le donne.
Roberto Mantovani, come è andata la raccolta fondi?
«Benissimo. Entro il 30 dicembre consegnerò l’assegno alla Casa delle donne. La nuova grafica del taxi, che verrà presentata a metà gennaio, è già tutta pagata e grazie alle donazioni sono avanzati oltre 20 mila euro netti per la Casa. Un evento spiacevole lo si è riusciti a trasformare in un bel gesto: tantissime persone, molte da fuori Bologna o regione, hanno donato, sentendo la Casa delle donne come un patrimonio di Bologna ma anche dell’intero Paese. Forse anche nella speranza di avere centri simili ovunque».
Come sarà la nuova grafica?
«Il messaggio sarà immutato, dunque dedicato alla Casa delle donne e al contrasto alla violenza di genere e ai femminicidi. Ma sarà molto diversa e rinnovata; ha anche visto la partecipazione di un artista, Mauro Biani, che ha donato, gratuitamente, alcuni suoi disegni».
Il 2024 è stato anche l’anno della cacciata da Cotabo.
«Sono rimasto scottato, deluso da molte persone, colleghi, sindacalisti. Quando mi ridono in faccia, ai posteggi, dicendomi di avermi battuto… rimango deluso dalla prepotenza e dalla sfacciataggine».
Ci sono state ripercussioni negative?
«Soprattutto economiche, perché le cifre incassate prima adesso sono impossibili. Ora ho la prova materiale, tecnica, di un guadagno nettamente inferiore, come prima l’avevo di altre cifre. Senza chiamate, vado direttamente in aeroporto, in stazione e in piazza Maggiore, con molti chilometri a vuoto e una perdita di almeno il 40%. In ogni caso sono orgoglioso di quello che sono e di quello che ho fatto. Rifarei tutto: guadagno meno ma sono più contento; e non avrei mai potuto fare finta di nulla».
Molti colleghi l’hanno attaccata per le sue battaglie sul pos e sulla trasparenza, ma quest’anno sono stati sul piede di guerra anche per l’introduzione di nuove licenze da parte del Comune. Cosa ne pensa?
«Hanno continuato a raccontare la “balla” del numero di taxisti sufficiente, quando tutti hanno sempre saputo della necessità di licenze in più. Un atteggiamento egoistico, un mentire alla cittadinanza, che ha diritto a un servizio pubblico. L’ultimo sciopero dei taxisti di Bologna è stato fallimentare».
Quest’anno ha anche pubblicato un libro, edito da Garzanti.
«Una grande soddisfazione, soprattutto per quanto sono riuscito a tirare fuori. Abbiamo però notato come tutti i taxisti d’Italia siano stati zitti sul libro, come se tutte le cooperative avessero emanato un ordine a non parlarne. Mai nessuno, da maggio a ora, ha nominato o citato il libro, che evidentemente si ha la necessità di far dimenticare. Forse c’è paura delle tante verità contenute all’interno, a partire dagli incassi: verità che non possono negare o confutare, perché ci sono le prove. Di conseguenza tutto deve essere dimenticato».
dubito che i taxisti aderiscano ai sindacati di lavoratori dipendenti.
non sono dipendenti, sono piccoli proprietari di licenze, che si associano liberamente in cooperative che non sono altro che moderne corporazioni.
My colleague Julius
by Ploum
ploum.net/2024-12-23-julius-en…
<- I haven't met anyone this bad, but it's a parody; even so, my strong feeling is that such people constitute the bulk of management and marketing at tech companies.
@tgent_fens I may be a STEM graduate but I've studied some humanities. The story is as much in the interpretation, as in the writer's intention.
But I've posted @ploum blog posts before. His English is superb but it's not his first language.
I think he did not mean Julius was an AI. I think Julius was meant as a human throughout. I've met and worked with many people like this: working as specialists in a field where they do not in fact know what the thing that they're specialists in *IS*.
The AI comes in at the end and it's called AI.
The intention here, IMHO, is:
1. There are people who are totally incompetent but who look and sound good, and management tends to love that.
(1a: this is partly because management often has zero understanding of what the menial workers actually *do*.)
2. Julii can and do thrive and prosper despite doing nothing useful.
3. Julii succeed by forcing colleagues to do _more_ work.
4. The setup up many organisational hierarchies encourages this. It is common. Some of the workers know, but management does not.
(5. Julii may not even know that they are useless. They may even think that they are doing good work.)
6. A few smart managers may know this but do not know the real cost.
7. "AI" is the new automated Julii. It will thrive & make workers' lives worse.
How to Build an Electrically Heated Table?
solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024…
With once again great illustrations by @marieverdeil
This manual explains how to assemble an electrically heated and insulated table that keeps you toasty warm in a cold space.LOW←TECH MAGAZINE
Kowloon Walled City: Heterotopia in a Space of Disappearance
mascontext.com/issues/trace/ko…
«
The Kowloon Walled City is known by many as the informal settlement that once existed seemingly out of place within modern Hong Kong. […] It was often considered an anomaly… »
Essay by Matthew Hung with photography by Greg Girard.MAS Context