Mastodawn

There is nothing special about “age” as a differentiator. It’s just a data point, a condition and a branch. And if a system exists that can start from some condition of your identity and decide that you don’t get to use a computer today - meaning, talk to your friends or employer or read the news or get medical information or, you know, _participate in society_, then that system can use _any_ data to make that decision. Age, gender, race, credit rating, anything about you and anyone like you.

Benno

20h ago

mhoye 2d ago

Age verification is a deliberate attack on system sovereignty, both for individuals and countries. There’s no “age verifcation”, there is only “identity verification that includes age”, and the system doing that verification is not just a privacy-invasive user tracking system but a remotely controlled off switch for anyone of any age.

Benno

1d ago

Graydon 1d ago

I keep using the word "enclosure".

"Enclosure" mostly refers to land enclosures; a process to remove small-holders to allow "more profitable" (to the large landowner; the small-holders go from being OK to somewhere between dead and destitute) use of the land. (The profit is meant to excuse the practice.)

What this means more generally is that enclosure is the act of creating capital property; society enforces a sole claim of ownership, which in turn creates charging rent to use the thing.

This is, at least to me, the argument for limitarianism. ("nobody gets really rich; the variable prosperity remains bounded by the returns of your single life, not anyone else's.")

It's also an explanation; things are terrible right now because the oligarchy is panicking. The incumbent basis of power (fossil carbon) is ending, and they're scrambling for a replacement (owning the panopticon) before the Time of Angry Weather really gets here and the scale of incumbent failure becomes inescapable.

Benno

1d ago

Nanoraptor Jan 3

It's so fascinating to see the changes in one company's logo over the years.

@darth I have only BSD computers that I use as "daily drivers": A laptop and a tower, both running FreeBSD.

In addition I run NetBSD on every computer I own that can run it, from an old 486slc2 and am Am586 via a Nintendo Wii to a couple of dual Pentium Pro machines. All but the 486slc2 are equipped with full GUI and set up so I can do Real Work(TM) from them.

I have my laptop full of BSD stickers, Once - and there are witnesses - I was in an Irish pub here in Oslo, and one of the waitresses who had walked past our table a few times stopped, looked me in the eyes and asked "Are you running BSD on that thing or are you just bragging with those stickers?"

Turns out she used to be a network engineer in Cambridge.

Benno

1d ago

UKSP 2d ago

Postdoctoral position in Solar Wind Physics at Durham University

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in the Solar Physics group at the University of Durham, focusing on the solar wind and its links to the lower solar atmosphere. The project will investigate how magnetic switchbacks are formed as they propagate within the solar wind, and how they are linked to events such as coronal jets in the low solar atmosphere.

https://uksolphys.org/jobs/postdoctoral-position-in-solar-wind-physics-at-durham-university/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social