Links 17/12/2023: China Ban on Apple’s iPhone and a Moment of Madness in Threads
Contents
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Leftovers
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New York Times ☛ Merle Goldman, a Leading Expert on Communist China, Dies at 92
A lifelong academic, she stood apart in her ability to communicate her insights about the country to nonacademic readers.
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Kev Quirk ☛ A Moment of Madness
In a moment of madness I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I decided to sign up for Threads. Problem is, I don’t have an Instagram account (I didn't realise one was required).
…and so, still wanting to sign up and test it out, I signed up for Instagram. I entered a disposable email address, fake name, and date of birth. Immediately my account was suspended for no apparent reason. There was, however, and option to appeal. So I smashed that appeal button to within an inch of its life.
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Patrick Cloke: Matrix Intentional Mentions explained
Previously I have written about how push rules generate notifications and how read receipts mark notificiations as read in the Matrix protocol. This article is about a change that I instigated to improve when a “mention” (or “ping”) notification is created. (This is a “highlight” notification in the Matrix specification.)
This was part of the work I did at Element to reduce unintentional pings. I preferred thinking of it in the positive — that we should only generate a mention on purpose, hence “intentional” mentions. MSC3952 details the technical protocol changes, but this serves as a bit of a higher-level overview (some of this content is copied from the MSC).
This blog post assumes that default push rules are enabled, these can be heavily modified, disabled, etc. but that is ignored in this post.
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Patrick Cloke: Matrix Presence
I put together some notes on presence when implementing multi-device support for presence in Synapse, maybe this is helpful to others! This is a combination of information from the specification, as well as some information about how Synapse works.
These notes are true as of the v1.9 of the Matrix spec and also cover some Matrix spec changes which may or may not have been merged since.
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CS Monitor ☛ ‘Small stories’ add up to big impact
The new year is a time for taking stock, reflecting on the past 12 months, and making plans for the future.
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CS Monitor ☛ ‘One of the best jobs in the world’
In the almost four decades that I’ve been a photographer for the Monitor, I’ve never known exactly where photo assignments will take me.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Repairing An HP Power Supply
One of the interesting things about living in modern times is that a confluence of the Internet and rapid changes in the electronics industry means that test gear that used to be astronomically priced is now super affordable. Especially if, like [Frankie Mashockie], you can do a little repair work. He picked up an HP6038A power supply for $50. We couldn’t find the original list price, but even refurbs from “professional” sources go for around $800. However, the $50 price came with a “for parts” disclaimer.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia rushes to deliver modified Hey Hi (AI) GPU chips to China customers, allegedly places 'Super Hot Run' priority order with TSMC
Nvidia places urgent orders with TSMC to make Hey Hi (AI) GPUs destined for China.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Kingston and Lexar parent company teams up to address Chinese memory market amidst US sanctions
In response to ongoing U.S.-China tensions, Kingston teams up with Longsys.
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Hackaday ☛ Mods Turn Junk UPS Into A Long-Endurance Beast
If you’ve got a so-called uninterruptible power supply (UPS) on your system, you’re probably painfully aware that the “uninterruptible” part has some pretty serious limits. Most consumer units are designed to provide power during a black out only long enough to gracefully shut down your system. But with a few hacks like these, you can stretch that time out and turn it into a long-endurance UPS.
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Hackaday ☛ Inside Electronic Gain Control
Normally, if you want to control the gain of an amplifier, you’ll use a variable resistor. You know, like a volume control. But what if you want to control the amplifier’s gain with a voltage? [Engineering Prof] explains a circuit that can do this using a pair of op amps and a pair of matched JFETs.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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New York Times ☛ Lead Levels in Children’s Applesauce May Be Traced to Cinnamon Additive
The F.D.A. is investigating the sources of cinnamon and other ingredients produced outside the U.S. as the possible cause of lead poisoning in dozens of children. Advocates are urging mandatory testing of lead in food.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘I am food for bedbugs!’ Poor Hongkongers suffer in silence as city strives to halt imported infestations
A tiny brown pest, measuring no more than four millimetres, has triggered panic in Hong Kong in recent weeks, with authorities handing out warning leaflets at the airport following well-publicised bedbug outbreaks in the UK, France and South Korea.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Techdirt ☛ Sports Illustrated Owner Fires CEO, COO After Bungled ‘AI’ Adoption
Last month, Sports Illustrated found itself at the center of a firestorm after it was busted using fake computer-generated authors and (shitty) computer-generated content — without telling employees and readers. The scandal came shortly after Gannett (which likely owns whatever’s left of your hometown newspaper) was busted doing the exact same thing.
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The Straits Times ☛ China’s ban on Apple’s iPhone accelerates: Bloomberg News
More Chinese agencies have asked their staff to not bring Fashion Company Apple iPhones to work.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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France24 ☛ Iran executes 'Mossad agent' convicted of spying for Israel
Iran on Saturday executed a man who was sentenced to death after being convicted of working with Israel's intelligence services, the judiciary said.
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RFERL ☛ Iran Reports Execution Of Alleged Mossad Agent
Iran's official IRNA news agency says an alleged agent of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad was executed in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province on December 16, without naming the individual or detailing the allegations.
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Defence/Aggression
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RFA ☛ Myanmar-China trade halted amid fierce fighting in Shan state
Figures indicate losses of $500 million at two border gates since the end of October.
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JURIST ☛ China announces mediated ceasefire in Myanmar conflict near countries’ shared border
China’s government announced that it has mediated a short-term ceasefire to the conflict between the Myanmar junta and armed groups from ethnic minorities in the northern regions near the Chinese border.
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France24 ☛ Myanmar's Three Brotherhood Alliance seizes town from military despite China-backed ceasefire
Ethnic minority fighters battling Myanmar's junta said Saturday they seized a trading hub in Shan state, days after China said it had mediated a temporary ceasefire.
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Meduza ☛ The shoes and the death camp Poet and musician Grzegorz Kwiatkowski confronts Poland’s politics of memory — Meduza
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RFA ☛ Video shows destruction of Uyghur home
Local officials say the demolition was part of an effort to make room for an energy company’s operations.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ US warns China against Taiwan election interference
Washington, United States The United States on Friday warned China not to interfere in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential elections, urging “responsible behavior on all sides.” The lead-up to the self-ruled island’s January 13 poll is being closely watched — including by policymakers in Beijing and Washington — as it could determine the future of Taiwan’s relations with […]
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YLE ☛ New evidence of a massive Stone Age gravefield in northern Finland
The 6,500 year-old burial site may be the largest ever discovered in the Nordic region.
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YLE ☛ Shooting suspect and victim remanded into custody in Helsinki
Police suspect both the shooter and his victim of several crimes, and both were remanded into custody.
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New York Times ☛ Israel Knew Hamas’s Money Source Years Before Oct. 7 Attacks
Agents worried as millions poured in. Hamas bought weapons and plotted an attack. The authorities now say the money helped lay the groundwork for the Oct. 7 assault on Israel.
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea delegation in China for talks: Report
Both countries discussed boosting strategic cooperation and bilateral relations.
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New York Times ☛ In Israel, Jake Sullivan Denies Talk of a Rift Over Gaza War
“We’re not here to tell anybody, ‘You must do X, you must do Y,’” the national security adviser said. His visit came as the Israeli military said it had accidentally killed three Israeli hostages.
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New York Times ☛ Private Gun Ownership in Israel Spikes After Hamas Attacks
In a country already bristling with armed soldiers and reservists, a new sense of insecurity is pushing civilians to seek more personal weapons.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Atlantic Council ☛ A security strategy for the Black Sea
This report outlines the strategic setting, regional challenges and threats, key planning assumptions, risk and risk mitigation, and finally DIME (diplomatic, informational, military, and economic) based recommendations for enhancing security and stability in the Black Sea region.
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RFERL ☛ Europe Must Rearm As New Threats Loom, German Defense Minister Says
Europe must race to ensure it can better defend itself as new military threats could emerge by the end of the decade even as the focus of security ally the United States shifts toward the Indo-Pacfic, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.
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Environment
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Reason ☛ The Next Kids Climate Case: Genesis B. v. EPA
Another climate change lawsuit filed on behalf of children, this time against the Environmental Protection Agency.
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The Straits Times ☛ Organisers of deadly 2021 China ultramarathon sentenced to jail
Five individuals involved in planning the event were issued jail terms ranging from three years to 5½ years.
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YLE ☛ Slippery roads in store as warm air hits Finland this weekend
Skies are set to clear up on Sunday, but milder temperatures and Saturday's precipitation will cause poor driving conditions.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Freezing temperatures in northern China trigger alert as experts warn of extreme weather risks amid climate change
China on Saturday issued a low-temperature alert, warning the mercury could drop to historic lows in some areas of the country, one day after President Pooh-tin Jinping urged “all-out efforts” to ensure safety.
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The Straits Times ☛ Freezing temperatures in northern China trigger alert
The freezing weather comes on the heels of this winter’s first snowfall in Beijing.
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Energy/Transportation
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The Straits Times ☛ China shows off its C919 passenger jet with fly-by of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour
The jet was flown around the harbour in two loops and went as low as 213m.
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Latvia ☛ Photos: Latvia's new electric trains welcome passengers
The first passengers rode on the new Skoda electric trains on Friday, December 15, after years of delays in the purchase of the trains.
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Wildlife/Nature
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CS Monitor ☛ Healing a river with eddies of trust
California’s new plan to decrease the water it draws from the Colorado River rests on selfless gestures for the common good.
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Finance
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New Yorker ☛ The Federal Reserve Is Trying to Catch Up with Falling Inflation
With price increases having greatly moderated, Jay Powell and his colleagues are trying to stick a “soft landing” for the economy.
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RFA ☛ Chinese economy shows some life amid 'difficulties and challenges'
Analysts say Pooh-tin Jinping's hands-on management of the economy is part of the problem.
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YLE ☛ Finland's editors' association pressing government for change in tax law
Finnish media managers are worried that burdening journalists with paying legal aid taxes could adversely affect freedom of speech.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New York Times ☛ Senators Hold Up 43 Biden Diplomatic Nominees as Crises Roil World
The State Department says the monthslong blockade has damaged U.S. national security. Several Republican senators have objected to advancing the slate of nominees.
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France24 ☛ Macron urges 'intelligent compromise' over immigration legislation
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for an "intelligent compromise" over a controversial immigration bill as his government battles a political crisis following the rejection of the flagship legislation in parliament.
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MIT Technology Review ☛ Eric Schmidt has a 6-point plan for fighting election misinformation
The coming year will be one of seismic political shifts. Over 4 billion people will head to the polls in countries including the United States, Taiwan, India, and Indonesia, making 2024 the biggest election year in history. And election campaigns are using artificial intelligence in novel ways.
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The Straits Times ☛ US-China science pact renewal ‘not a given’: US envoy
The US-China Science and Technology Agreement in 1979 was the first accord between the countries.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Reason ☛ Failed Candidate's Lawsuit Against Anti-Defamation League Thrown Out
Today's decision by Magistrate Judge Jill Morris in McClanahan v. Anti-Defamation League (W.D. Mo.), rejects plaintiff's libel claim; here's an excerpt: Plaintiff, a recent political candidate in Missouri, initiated this lawsuit contesting an article entitled "ADL Researchers Identify Failed Extremist Candidates in Missouri and North Carolina," that was published on ADL's website on August 16 [...]
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Reason ☛ D.C. Circuit Rejects First Amendment Lawsuit over AG's Memorandum About Threats to Schools
From Saline Parents v. Garland, decided today by the D.C. Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Harry Edwards, joined by Judges Neomi Rao and Florence Pan: On October 4, 2021, the Attorney General … issued a one-page memorandum … to various units in the Department of Justice … [...]
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Reason ☛ Harvard Panel on Campus Free Speech
Now available for viewing on C-Span
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Reason ☛ This NRA Supreme Court Case Has Big Implications for Porn
The ACLU will represent the gun rights group in a case with widespread relevance for free speech.
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New York Times ☛ Giuliani Ordered to Pay $148 Million to Election Workers in Defamation Trial
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, wrongfully accused by Rudolph W. Giuliani of having tried to steal votes from Donald J. Trump in Georgia, were awarded the damages by a federal court in Washington.
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JURIST ☛ US jury orders Rudy Giuliani to pay $148M in defamation case
A US federal jury Friday ordered former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pay $148M in damages to Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Mossin after accusing the two women of tampering with Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Reason ☛ Colorado Cops Falsely Arrested Him for a DUI. Now, He's Getting a $400,000 Settlement.
In 2020, Harris Elias was arrested for driving drunk, even though tests showed he was completely sober. After filing a lawsuit, he's now getting a hefty settlement payout.
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JURIST ☛ Police file terrorism charges against India Parliament security breach suspects
Indian police on Thursday levelled terrorism charges against four people accused of setting off smoke cans in and around India’s lower house of Parliament, according to local media.
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Patents
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Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ USPTO Stands Firm that Patent Term Adjustment Creates Double Patenting Risk
It is OTDP week at Patently-O. The USPTO recently filed its response to Cellect’s en banc petition. In the case, the Federal Circuit affirmed a PTAB finding that Cellect’s patent monopoly claims are invalid for obviousness-type double patenting (OTDP). See In re Cellect, LLC, 81 F.4th 1216 (Fed. Cir. 2023). The USPTO argues that the panel’s decision properly applied precedent and OTDP principles. Cellect USPTO Response to En Banc Petition.
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Unified Patents ☛ $8,000 for S3G Technologies software modifying patents prior art
Unified Patents added four new PATROLL contests, each with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on the list below. The patents are owned by S3G Technology LLC, an NPE. The patents generally relate to a computerized system for efficiently modifying remote software. The patents have been asserted against Foursquare, TripAdvisor, HTC, Acer, ASUSTek, and Samsung.
The contests will expire on February 12, 2024. Please visit PATROLL for more information or click on each link below.
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Unified Patents ☛ SLS Manager Tech router patent monopoly challenged
On December 14, 2023, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 9,763,084, owned and asserted by SLS Manager Technologies LLC, an NPE and AiPi Solutions entity. The '084 patent monopoly is generally directed to a session router that selects a server to process a location request.
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Software Patents
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Unified Patents ☛ Helios MPEG-DASH patent monopoly challenged
On December 14, 2023, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination proceeding against U.S. Patent 10,362,130, owned and asserted by Helios Streaming LLC, an NPE and entity of Ideahub, Inc. The ‘130 patent monopoly is relevant to systems that are compliant with the MPEG-DASH standard; its claims are directed to providing adaptive HTTP streaming services using metadata of media content to ensure smooth playback.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ Declining to Apply the Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents, TTAB Reverses Section 2(d) Refusal of "EVERYDAY HEROES" Over "HEROES COTIDIANOS"
The Board tossed out a Section 2(d) refusal of the mark EVERYDAY HEROES for musical recordings and for musical production and entertainment services," finding no likelihood of confusion with the registered mark HEROES COTIDIANOS for downloadable television programs and television entertainment services. Applicant provided the English translation of HEROES COTIDIANOS as "Everyday Heroes." The Board observed that, "perhaps not surprisingly, this case turns in part on the Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents." Stardust Music Productions, LLC, Serial No. 90804879 (December 13, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Michael B. Adlin).
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Copyrights
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Techdirt ☛ In A Couple Of Weeks Mickey Will Be Free*; And Our Public Domain Game Jam Will Be Open
It’s that time… Get ready for the Gaming Like It’s 1928! public domain game jam! The game jam, like all our public domain game jams, runs from January 1st through January 31st, and we’re eager to see what kinds of games, both digital and analog, you’ll make by building on newly public domain works. As always we’ll have awards in six different categories: best analog game, best digital game, best adaptation, best visuals, best remix, and best deep cut.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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Madness 👂
I went to see the band, Madness. It was at a big arena. They were good, and I enjoyed it, but I was left dissatisfied.
It was crazy loud. I had ear plugs, but the bass was shaking my chest even though we were near the back. From where we were sitting the band members were visible but tiny. Good thing we could see them on the many-screened backdrop. Someone had gone to a lot of effort to make visual effects for the backdrop, which was quite impressive but not what I was there for: it felt like well made visual filler. By about half way through I was thirsty, but to get out of the middle of the crowd and come back with a drink seemed like a lot of hard work.
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Servant, you know it ain't easy
I don't believe in such a thing as convincing others. That they are *other* to begin with implies a conceptuality chasm unbridgeable by aspects of reality (called "individuals") that are separate by definition.
So why do I bother writing?
Not to convince, but as an invitation for already like-minded others to play.
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Job Woes
The car is fairly messed up. The accelerator just intermittently stops working, which is not great! When it is working, I can be cruising at a consistent speed and the RPMs suddenly go up to 5000 just to maintain. Yikes-a-roni.
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stream X
I feel encumbered by manic twisted sugarflies burning glistening retina help under the skin. sink in sink in sink into the skin. exploding every second and feeling like one moment at a time is impossible, it's no way to live, not really. the things that happened and are happening and will happen are too different. it's too linear. and it's not anything to write home about. not anything about which to write home. my strange obsession with prepositions persists. my strange alienation. the mystery of all that is. why does anything exist. how does it.
I was looking into my daughter's eyes and her pupils dilated. I marveled at this biological technology. what divine design made this possible? what drives evolution? what does it maximize? what does it want from us and our meager flesh? when will it end and when will it become clear?
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Isolation
The day before one of my culture’s biggest celebrations, when family is supposed to be all together and shit, I realized I’m just... utterly alone.
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Technology and Free Software
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The Internet is for Threads and Instagram
We have created all this internet technology, have laid glassfiber cables across the world, built server farms and data centers, crazy Kubernetes clusters, containers and self-healing services. Elon Musk shoots thousands of Starlink satellites into the orbit... (exaggerating)
To deliver photos of Instagram stars across the globe - along with loads of social media, porn, consumer goods, material presents because Christmas, etc.
Imagine a 20-something girl, slender figure, 1 to 2 hours of make up, who positions herself in front of her "made for Intagram" lighting and camera equipment and shoots photos. So artificial - and their bodies and figures and make-up say nothing really. They could be advertising for some leggings, for some makeup, whatever.
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Perhaps USENET is more my kind of smol?
installing the "slrn" newsreader (I wanted 'trn', but building it quickly became more work than I could abide..), and messing with configuring it per my liking.
And I'll be... it works - including posting!
Next step is investigating newsgroups to see if any are "up my alley".
The goal is to find a place where subject matters intersected with participants intersected with ongoing reply interaction lead to a non-empty set.
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Programming
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Further Concurrent Logic Programming
I have made some minor changes to KLIC, although I have no plans to maintain a fork and am just waiting to contribute back upstream.. It is a perfectly capable language, but has raised some more philosophical questions.
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Starting a new brev project
Brev has doesn’t have any boiler plate. I just open a project-name.brev file and start hacking. Now that I am using git more, I’ve started making a folder for it first, project-name/project-name.brev. And then I hack away.
I have a shell script that when compiling adds the (import brev mdg) to the top automatically. So I don’t even need to put that in the file.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.