Bill O’Luanaigh

@[email protected]
189 Followers
1.2K Following
378 Posts

"Ask not for whom the modem screams, the modem screams for you"

Reformed Digital Utopian. Bought the late 80's and 90's tech hype. Sorely regretting that purchase. A better internet is possible but we need better people making it.

Not big on fascists or tech bros but that may be redundant.

PoliticsNot down with fascist bullshit
Bill O’Luanaigh3d ago
Charles Gaba ✡️3d ago
So today… —The worlds largest natural gas deposit was set on fire —Trump demanded $200 billion more for his batshit war —Serious talk of U.S. boots on the ground —Netanyahu went full-bore End Days Expansionist for Evangelical extremists —Gas over $5/gallon Sleep well, everyone!
Bill O’LuanaighDec 28
geoff martinOct 20, 2024

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
- Frank Herbert, Dune (1966)

#ai

Show threadBill O’LuanaighDec 28
@azabaro @thomasfuchs I hadn’t followed the storyline at Apple that closely. Maybe Dye can figure out how to get legs on the avatars in the Metaverse? 🦵
Bill O’LuanaighDec 28
@thomasfuchs iOS 26 is clear evidence of this. What a nightmare.
Bill O’LuanaighJun 27, 2025
Steve HermanJun 26, 2025
DoD and NOAA ending access to real time satellite microwave data that weather forecasters consider crucial for determining how quickly hurricanes intensify. https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/messages/2025/06/MSG_20250625_1735.html https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/messages/2025/06/MSG_20250625_1735.html
Show threadBill O’LuanaighFeb 14, 2025
@randahl thank you. Really. Even those of us who knew it would be bad have been shocked by the extremity of what’s happening. It’s a multi-front blitzkrieg and it has been exhausting. We’ve never lived up to our ideals but we’ve never drifted this far either. Keep a light on for us.
Bill O’LuanaighFeb 14, 2025
Randahl FinkFeb 14, 2025

Several US citizens have written posts to me expressing a sense of self-blame because of what is happening, as if the entire American people is to blame.

Every European I talk to understand that the US is a complex nation with many different political cultures.

We laugh when an ignorant person from the US thinks that Italy and Denmark are just regions in one country called “Europe”, and we pride ourselves of not viewing Americans that way.

Please let that stigma go.
https://mstdn.social/@DebR/113997379003820911

PNW Deb (@[email protected])

@[email protected] And that is a stain on all of us Americans. I feel like my heart has been ripped from my chest and they are planning on stomping on it. 😭

Mastodon 🐘
Bill O’LuanaighNov 30, 2024
Merlin's Wisdom ProjectNov 23, 2024
Anxiety has a way of encouraging you to obsess about a horrible thing your brain just made up. Next time this happens, try to relax and instead just gently acknowledge that sometimes your brain makes up horrible things. Believing these things and obsessing about them is ultimately optional.
Bill O’LuanaighNov 29, 2024
@thegibson “Veilid: own the wires” reminds me of ethos of the early 90s internet. Nice to see it alive and kicking here on Mastodon.
Bill O’LuanaighNov 29, 2024
Renee DiRestaNov 29, 2024
5 years ago yesterday I wrote an essay arguing that institutions were thinking about online media, insurgencies, & manipulation campaigns all wrong. Fighting the last war.

The Digital Maginot line, I called it. It went viral then.

Here it is on its anniversary. It unfortunately held up very well and describes the evolution of state actors, domestic trolls, and incentives:
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/11/28/the-digital-maginot-line/
The Digital Maginot Line