At Vivaldi we continue to make choices that are different from our competitors. We have chosen to not integrate AI or crypto, but instead we integrate a wealth of other features, based on the wishes of our users. We are a European company with most of the team based in Norway and Iceland, a few […]

A popular TikTok channel featuring an "Aboriginal man" presenting animal facts has been exposed as an AI forgery. AI is Iggy Azalea on an industrial scale: "The self-described “Bush Legend” on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram is growing in popularity. "These short and sharp videos feature an […]

Parts of my LinkedIn have lit up again talking about Eh, the Canadian social network. I see no indication that it is part of any federation thinking so yet another closed off place that by definition will try and become a single closed destination. Canadian or not […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Student: Teacher I pasted the error message into chatgpt and then copied everything it told me back into my code and it still doesn't work. Me: The error suggests you are calling the function wrong. Them: Yeah, why didn't chat fix that? Me: Maybe you (as a programming student) need to think […]

When you die, Anubis weighs your heart against the social media posts made about your death. If it's mostly the meme about the Grim Reaper's claw machine, then you are unworthy and the Goddess Ammit devours your soul.

Interesting, Mastodon/fediverse as a teaching/learning tool. "In the second week of the course, students were asked to compare the moderation policies of one mainstream social media site and a Mastodon instance of their choosing, other than our class instance." […]

Hello #YEG! Join us at MacEwan University on February 11, 1 to 3 pm, for a book launch and panel. @rwg Robert W. Gehl, Move Slowly and Build Bridges. https://libcal.macewan.ca/event/3981088 #Edmonton #Free #MacEwanUniversity #Alberta @chad

Pardon me, world, but I have just GOT to share a tip I received from a local cheese nerd. Parmesan rinds, usually discarded after the cheese fan has ground away all the shreddable product, can be microwaved to puff them up like a deep-fried pastry. The result is that the inedibly hard […]

Vocal critics of the Silicon Valley ideology and the venture capital business model who are not on the fedi are suspect. #socialweb

Every time.

I think they become anxious when their code isn't working the same as what I have up on the projector and they want to get it fixed RIGHT AWAY so they won't fall behind. Then when one of them starts calling out they all do it. I may take some time to explain this. This never happens when I'm […]

Someone keeps dropping anti-vaccine, anti-Indigenous, anti-democracy papers at community centres. Did my duty and recycled the whole pile. If you’re walking past a community centre, take a sec to check the trash your neighbours are being exposed to! #topoli

Watching a bit of Wargames (1983) today. Good thing we don't put computers in charge right.. oh, wait. haha, oh, sadness... #wargames #movies #computers #ml https://tubitv.com/movies/604500/wargames

IT’S THE #WATER, STUPID making a separate thread to this: https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/115866471452808920 because a lot of y’all are under the impression people in #iran are rioting to live in Fuck-Yeah-Capitalist-USA Iran. NO. the “econonic turmoil” in Iran is about #climatecrisis: the […]

Something strangely absent from the X/CSAM discourse has been the fact that this is clearly a strategic recruitment tool to bring *young men and teenage boys* to the platform (and thus to expose them to the whole Muskofascist worldview and social network). It’s a 14-yo boy’s fantasy come true.

While Netflix Sicily Express is obviously a silly comedy it does have some great political commentary in it. #TV #comedy

Every country on Earth needs dollars to buy oil. This lets America print unlimited money while other countries work for it. It funds the military. The welfare state. The deficit spending. The petrodollar is more important to US hegemony than aircraft carriers.

🧵Let's go back to 1974 and the deal Kissinger made with Saudi Arabia. That's what's going on here with Venezuela. Not drugs. Not terrorism. Not democracy. It's about the petrodollar system that has kept America the dominant economic power for 50 years and Venezuela a threat to the end of it.

In 2018, Venezuela announced it would "free itself from the dollar." They started accepting yuan, euros, rubles, anything but dollars for oil.

Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The largest on Earth. More than Saudi Arabia. 20% of the entire world's oil. But here's the part that matters: Venezuela was actively selling that oil in Chinese yuan. Not dollars.

BC Hydro has a programme you can sign up for called "Peak Saver". They've gamified reducing power at peak times by sending out challenges with a small reward, $3, in the last one I saw. These nudges are really working for me. I went all in yesterday to make sure I reduced usage of our home by […]

RE: https://mas.to/@kissane/115771219606234540 A thoughtful consideration of thoughtfulness. With earthquakes and tsunamis. Recommended.

Found this bit of happiness on reddit this morning. Enjoy. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1q7duls/the_rhinoceros_gently_plays_with_the_muntjac/ #rhino #muntjac #animals #playing

Just came across this, on the final narration of the Twilight Zone episode The Obsolete Man (in which Burgess Meredith plays a librarian on trial in an authoritarian state), and Rod Sterling’s final narration definitively hits hard right now.

Proud papa moment. My daughter did an art work about food insecurity and fund raising for food banks. While showing at the local museum/gallery she also got this months cover on the local arts/entertainment zine. #reddeer #Alberta #FoodSecurity #art

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Viss/115850518356022453 https://www.platformer.news/fake-uber-eats-whisleblower-hoax-debunked/ this is the link to Caseys story. I'm pretty confident the whole angle here was market manipulation

One thing I remember about learning history in school was that Malaysian kids during my time were taught about the tactics of colonisers like Britain. At that time my dad was annoyed that we were taught politics, but now that I look back, I think that's why I can see through the press releases […]

Okay, I finally got around to putting a bit of content on: https://uselinuxinstead.com/ to send to people who say shit like "You Should “Just” Use Linux Instead!" Feel free to PR additional reasons, wordsmithing, style stuff, whatever. I actually turned on notifications this time to watch it […]

As I think about my next term teaching tomorrow obviously I must reflect a bit on the student feedback from last term. My semi-chaotic ADHD storytelling seems to lose some of them (unsurprising) and while the excitement for tech seems to be sticking the complaints suggest I'm not quite getting […]

You don't hate journalists enough. You think you do but you don't:

Cat towers x 5 NO Cat beds x lost count NO Beds, Chairs NO Scratchy carpet in dusty ceiling area next to cold intake vent YES #cats #catsofmastodon

My niece comes to the U.S. most years from Europe to visit her grandfather. This year she was stopped at the airport, taken into an interrogation room, accused of being a prostitute, had her phone taken and scanned, and released. You know, in case you were wondering why tourism to the U.S. is […]

What’s your favorite movie about a deranged opera enthusiast who drags a steamboat over an Amazon jungle mountain?

Today is Digital Independence Day, a German initiative to move more and more away from Big Tech in 2026. Let's reclaim our independence! https://di.day/

We've spent a lot of time since we launched on International Repair Day to bring tons of new features and improvements to @therepairapp. I hope that your #newyearsresolution will be to try and repair one thing. Please DM me if you end up using The Repair App. All feedback is welcome. It's […]

Me over here with my 3d printer making a downloaded fidget toy and my programming.. typity typity.. Look mom I do stuff. My wife: I don't like how this cabinet sliding garbage drawer works so I'm getting my tools and cutting it open and repositioning everything. And yes, they are all her tools […]

AI models don’t really 'get' the BSDs. As a result, they often provide incomplete, imprecise, or flat-out wrong answers by defaulting to Linux paradigms. When it comes to illumos-based systems, they just completely lose the plot. This is becoming a serious issue for the BSDs and illumos […]

My friend Brad Bazemore KK4PWJ wanted a totally free — **zero cost, 100% open source** — comprehensive US Amateur Radio study app. His day job is in testing, and he _really knows his stuff_. So he built Open Ham Prep. I'm _super grateful_ for […] [Original post on social.makerforums.info]

You can do it (I commented this on LinkedIn)

They are already trying to use this tech to "find the ring leaders of antifa" Because these kind of people are very invested in the idea that even their enemies (who hate hierarchies) must still have them. There must be a man somewhere at the center of it all. There must be an organization […]

After Stranger Things S05 I've got some Moby I'd like to die rolling around my head, and then I watched the WHAM doc, so now my ear worms keep toggling between the songs and whoa is that whiplash. #strangerthings #wham #earworm #music

While annoying my wife my daughters and I were discussing the words GOAT and BAE. We were considering that in english the seemingly better sounding order is GOAT BAE not BAE GOAT and remain fascinated by the 'rules' of language that make one sound more sensible. We could be wrong but one […]

The best of 2025 : Accountabiility.

As our American friends celebrate Public Domain Day, we in Canada have no such luck, and won't for most of our remaining boomer/genx lifetimes. "Back on January 1, 2022, the copyright-protected works of authors or creators (I will use the term “authors” to cover all creators) who died in 1971 […]

"Customers like the ease of use, taste, and included accessories of the pest control device." An AI summary on a Victor bait station product my wife noticed on Amazon.

Not that many people here will need it, but as an indicator it's interesting: In case you're looking for an alternative New Year resolution, Denmark has a new people's movement: Danmark skifter, Denmark switches, which aims to help people regain focus, change their social media habits and get […]

Louis Rossmann is horrified that there are now paywalls on wheelchairs and we should all be horrified with him. He explains how a hacker has circumvented and unlocked these features. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yWcXPDJQ7k

Everything that is happening to America and the much of the world was foreseen by some prescient thinkers. If you didn’t read them back then, please read them now. It’s important to be aware that all this was done to us by design.

Oh man. The algos are algo'ing again... Apparently when one buys an ergonomic back support/bed wedge pillow to keep head and shoulders elevated because GERD and apnea are a horrid mix ... Amazon is well aware of the *other* common uses of wedge pillows and just starts spamming in the blatant […]

Online content and shopping algorithms always were pretty lame, and so-called AI has just magnified that. Canadian Tire: no, I cannot locate any "tires" in our catalogue, but here are 384 random assorted things that use those letters in some combination somewhere in the name. Staples/BestBuy […]