Cyndi Lauper delivered a powerful call to action during her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Look at us: We are a community of light. Don't forget that, in case it gets really dark." Photo by Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for RRHOF

the onion, too, believes in a thing called love

Melbourne: ever helpful

The Australian Government makes more money from HECS repayments than it does from the PRRT. ‘Norway taxes its fossil fuel industry and gives their kids free higher education… we subsidise our fossil fuel industry and we charge our kids a fortune to go to uni.’ @richarddenniss.bsky.social #auspol

Discord said late on Friday that hackers stole users' government-issued IDs (passports and driver's licenses) from one of its customer support databases. I wrote a few words about the risks of age verification laws, and why collecting people's government IDs is bad for security and privacy.

It's literally the last good web site.

Did I mention my second talk from #PyConAU about Free Software's unwillingness to think about consequences and how we might have learned a small amout from labour organising (and how corporates certainly have)? It's a good one! You should watch it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsbU...

Just had a lovely and engaging time at Pycon AU this year in Melbourne. Looks like we are heading to Brisbane next year. Registration is already open 2026.pycon.org.au

I know we call a lot of things Nazi shit these days but this is pure Nazi shit. "Don't show the Fuhrer in an unflattering light!!!"

Excellent op-ed by #CSIRO Chair @mingylong.bsky.social and Deputy CEO, Professor Elanor Huntington on #SovereignAI and the double bind of #data and #AI. The more business uses foreign-owned #LLMs such as ChatGPT and Claude, the more training data we're giving them. www.afr.com/technology/a...

Have you read @karenhao.bsky.social's book #EmpireOfAI? Interested in the cult of personality of Sam Altman? In #Melbourne? Come see Karen Hao in conversation with @kobotic.bsky.social this Friday night at #RMIT, presented by @readingsbooks.bsky.social. Free! www.readings.com.au/events/karen...

Today, @anthropic.com announced they will train their #AI on chats and code sessions *unless* you opt out. What's behind this change? As @connieloizos.bsky.social points out in this @techcrunch.com article, it's all about the #data. 1/5 techcrunch.com/2025/08/28/a...

The stakes are difficult to overstate. Data center building is the foundation of AI advancement, and spending on new centers now displaces consumer spending in terms of impact to U.S. GDP—that’s concerning since consumer spending is generally two-thirds of the pie. apple.news/AhIFHsal6SAu...

If you're still thinking about #PyConAU in Melbourne this September, I have a discount voucher to make it a bit (10%) easier. There's also speaker codes out there! Price includes food during the day, and chatting with lovely folks. IKNOWCAITE5-PWDKGMXL5VEQ9KPM pretix.eu/pyconau/2025...

[extremely on-mushrooms voice] hear me out. what if we destroy capitalism by feminizing having money

Beloit, WI revitalized its waterfront and chose this way to celebrate it: by bringing to life Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

Possibly important to remember for context here that Peter Dutton is a multi-millionnaire property developer.

Think this is coming from a good place but misses the point a bit. Nobody would care if ai was used for this. But ai as currently exists would do an awful job , mislabel things and now you have an information divide and quality divide between those with visual disabilities and those without

melburnians: what kind of weather will we have today? melbourne: yes

Me: Dr. Salk your vaccine will save so many children! Salk: Well thank God Me: Of course they will grow up Salk: Well I hope so Me: And get old Salk: I guess? Me: And eventually vote for lunatics who will try to stop your vaccine Salk: what now Me: And leave NATO Salk: shit

I mean, kinda? I know you’ve seen Aaron Chen irl and he is... not a tall man. I am so happy he’s becoming quite the star now. For those who didn't catch the news in all the boomer sookage, “Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee” has been renewed for 2025. Hurrah!

Folks, I don't know, maybe there are some decent billionaires out there, but if there are they are sure keeping their heads down in this era we're going through right about now

You can use the Chrome extension Sky Follower Bridge (chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sky-f... ) to help you find your Twitter followers here on Bluesky -- that's a much better method than using follow-farm hashtags!

Hey siri, how’s that housing crisis going?

I desperately wish this team had been around when I was in the UK about a decade ago 😭😭😭

I passed my genetic engineering exam with flying koalas.

So you may have heard of PyCon AU and how awesome it is. If you want to _experience_ how awesome it is, here's a link for 5% off a ticket: pretix.eu/pyconau/2024... More information at 2024.pycon.org.au