My first TGR interview, with AI ethicist Mathana - also the last episode of the year https://youtu.be/ax308Bi5ht0?si=0FvT2b3XKFpUQcoU

On Australia's social media ban for under-16s: The downsides of the age-restricted internet are obvious, but at this point I just think we all need to wait and see whether it works at all https://youtu.be/Qf4uVSFwyOE #australia #censorship #socialmedia #vpns

Four new models from Mistral today - all Apache 2 licensed, all vision-capable, and one of them is a 3GB model that can run in a web browser and answer questions about things it can see through the webcam! https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/2/introducing-mistral-3/

Apple's AI chief is out. Now what? https://youtu.be/sEavJC9yxJA #ai #apple

Europe's gutting of its privacy rules would be yet another self-defeating capitulation to Trump. Instead, Europe should be ensuring that it can break free of American Big Tech. https://youtu.be/T4rC8x7WBf0 #digitalomnibus #gdpr #trump

RE: https://curia.social-network.europa.eu/@Curia/115575569881815247 Haha guess what: the European Court of Justice today confirmed #amazon is indeed a very large online platform under the #digitalservicesact. Who would have guessed.

Thanks @Gargron for allowing us to do this the pure non-profit and FOSS way by saying no to earlier offers, some of which would have given you more than 10x the payout. I have been inspired by your vision about this project from the moment I met you 5+ years ago. It takes a lot of courage and […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mellifluousbox/115569628119692379 Mastodon subtweets Bluesky

Hi! Today is my first official day as the Executive Director of Mastodon, replacing @[email protected] as CEO. I joined the Mastodon team more than 5 years ago, mostly working for Mastodon in the evenings on top of a 120% day job. I was the driving force behind the incorporation of the […]

My summary of the bad stuff inside the European Commission's leaked, GDPR-gutting "Digital Omnibus" proposal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkbHsS83Vw4

Battle stations! https://youtu.be/KkbHsS83Vw4 #gdpr #digitalomnibus #privacy

Europe needs to muster the political courage to not only build "tech sovereignty" but to wield it as a threat. Fortunately, pervasive enshittification has made achieving that more viable than it's been for decades — though nobody says it will be easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPaZsq7nzUY

In this week's Tech Gets Real: Why the AI bubble is your problem too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_GmWIs5ss

First dog on the moon knocks it out of the park! “AI pie chart makers” 💯% Full comic strip https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/oct/17/ai-you-cannot-escape-it-and-now-the-internet-claims-many-people-dont-even-care-what-is-going-on

This week's TGR is about how AI slop could mess up society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Q6mvGYckw

This week's TGR is about how AI slop could mess up society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Q6mvGYckw

Why yes I did buy a guitar today

This week’s TGR is about AI’s limits - please share with anyone who needs reminding! https://youtube.com/watch?v=UNCG52ZcMKo&si=VuevYfZWGld4E3YN

Apparently you can make me watch and share a 12 minute product advert if you hire Matt Berry and Jemaine Clement for it and let them loose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbO1z13WP8o

I've started adding references to my Tech Gets Real episodes on YouTube, in the description. That seems to be a good way to do it there, but I wish there was a way to do it for audio-only podcasts. Perhaps if I set up a TGR website and put the references there, then direct listeners to visit? […]

The latest episode of Tech Gets Real is mostly about biased AI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRt-s7SJAxE #data #ai #discrimination #migration #recruitment

🚨 So I'm becoming a podcaster/YouTuber! The show's called Tech Gets Real and its all about staying in control in the AI era. This is for regular people - no jargon; short episodes - so please share with anyone who could benefit! Episode 1 is all about how honest we should be with AIs […]

🚨 So I'm becoming a podcaster/YouTuber! The show's called Tech Gets Real and its all about staying in control in the AI era. This is for regular people - no jargon; short episodes - so please share with anyone who could benefit! Episode 1 is all about how honest we should be with AIs […]

Heart Slows is the first of my band's songs to clear the 1,000-listens threshold on Spotify, and quite quickly too. I know that's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it warms my heart, as did the Instagram message from a fan (!) who wanted to know my guitar rig […]

[celebrity death] Robert Redford is dead. My first thought was about the celebration of the movie #hackers yesterday. I know, I know -- Redford isn't in that. No, Redford was in the vastly superior hacking movie Sneakers, which is by far my favorite movie depicting #socialengineering. If you […]

New music from The Board! https://open.spotify.com/track/0FDtzcLsMPyQvw4P1P3rXJ?si=5414d27a256f42fe

The curse of encryption export controls continues to strike, weakening critical infrastructure around the world… https://www.wired.com/story/encryption-made-for-police-and-military-radios-may-be-easily-cracked-researchers-find/

DW - Police have arrested three suspected Reichsbürger members accused of plotting to violently overthrow Germany's constitutional order. https://www.dw.com/en/bavarian-police-arrest-far-right-reichsb%C3%BCrger-suspects/a-73554963

I've been doing some writing for The Register https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/06/trump_tsmc_300b/ Feels good to be writing for a techie audience again!

Amazing AI story from my vice-principal sister-in-law: GEMA, Germany’s monopolistic music collecting society, demands hundreds of euros for tracks played at the graduation ceremony… so the graduating students now just generate music about their class instead. Hardly representing musicians’ rights!

OH: “Someone just pointed out that Peter Thiel is an anagram for The Reptile”

My band has some #newmusic! The Bathe EP is out today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPV_ueFSYWA #alternative #rock #berlin #indie

Want some #newmusic? My band, The Board, has a new track out today called Forward Together. Enjoy! https://open.spotify.com/track/0dXtNXkDFoiQfAujvs2kqA?si=b456f850470245b7 #alternative #rock

I don't usually explain my lyrics but this new song we're releasing today is about a guy who falls down the online rabbithole and ends up being tempted by fascism and really I think this is quite an opportune moment to release it […]

I'm going to build a simple new website for my band. Which company (I'm in Germany) offers the best cheap WordPress hosting?

My band, The Board, has new music coming out next month! It's an EP of five tracks - we'll release one each Friday in November - and you can pre-save the first single here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/theboard/the-leader #alternative #altrock #rock #newmusic #berlin

Use AI or else https://fortune.com/2024/07/17/interpublic-group-ceo-philippe-krakowsky-non-optional-ai-adoption-ad-industry-brainstorm-tech/

I'm reading up on solid-state batteries and every damn time I read the word "electrolytes" I think of Idiocracy

Oh Quora. The lead item in its latest email digest is someone confidently giving an egregiously wrong answer to a question about Intel, and it’s followed by a photo of someone who has been tortured and raped in jail, with the poster asking “What do you think of this?”