Computers are often presented as general purpose tools for thought, creativity, communication or other sorts of human flourishing. And for many of us who work with them, computers are intrinsically interesting puzzle boxes.
But it's important to remember their historical origins and continuing role as practical tools of control. Specifically in two domains: financial and military. Computers aren't being misused or corrupted when you see them employed by accountants and generals. Those are the people who paid for the very first models. Those have always been the primary customers. The rest of us are the strangers misusing their tools.
i think the difference is that, previously, before IBM, leadership understood the need for the clones to exist (despite hating their existence), and that ultimately the clones did drive tangible value (and sales as I outlined above) for RH.
now IBM wishes to manage RH licensing as if it were software for a mainframe. this mentality will kill whatever is left in the product.
US government officials have relied too heavily on social media to pass along emergency alerts rather than improving what were once robust stand-alone systems.
These systems still exist and reach the vast majority of Americans (NOAA weather radio is the main one), but the technology is severely outdated because they’ve just twiddled their thumbs and were comfortable with social media because it was easy.
A developer says Twitter appears to be DDoSing itself due to a bug in Twitter's web app, which could be tied to Elon Musk's emergency blocks and rate limits (Andy Baio/Waxy.org)
https://waxy.org/2023/07/twitter-bug-causes-self-ddos-possibly-causing-elon-musks-emergency-blocks-and-rate-limits-its-amateur-hour/
http://www.techmeme.com/230701/p13#a230701p13
An "amateur hour" Javascript bug is self-DDOSing Twitter, sending infinite requests from users related to — or possibly even causing — Elon Musk's "temporary emergency measures" to stop web scraping.
I was today years old when I learned that there may be a relationship between pollen counts and viral respiratory infections. Pollen impairs the immune response to viruses, and viruses may also be able to hitchhike deep into the airways on pollen grains. High pollen concentrations in March 2020 may have facilitated the spread of COVID during the first pandemic wave 🤧