Dave T-W @davoloid@social.cleverlibre.org

Hi, we're a tech startup run by libertarian Silicon Valley tech bros.

We're not a newspaper, we're a content portal.
We're not a taxi service, we're a ride sharing app.
We're not a pay TV service, we're a streaming platform.
We're not a department store, we're an e-commerce marketplace.
We're not a financial services firm, we're crypto.
We're not a space agency, we're a group of visionaries who are totally going to Mars next year.
We're not a copywriting and graphic design agency, we're a large language model generative AI platform.

Oh sure, we compete against those established businesses. We basically provide the same goods and services.

But we're totally not those things. At least from a legal and PR standpoint.

And that means all the laws and regulations that have built up over the decades around those industries don't apply to us.

Things like consumer protections, privacy protections, minimum wage laws, local content requirements, safety regulations, environmental protections... They totally don't apply to us.

Even copyright laws — as long as we're talking about everyone else's intellectual property.

We're going to move fast and break things — and then externalise the costs of the things we break.

We've also raised several billion in VC funding, and we'll sell our products below cost — even give them away for free for a time — until we run our competition out of the market.

Once we have a near monopoly, we'll enshitify the hell out of our service and jack up prices.

You won't believe what you agreed to in our terms of service agreement.

We may also be secretly hoarding your personal information. We know who you are, we know where you work, we know where you live. But you can trust us.

By the time the regulators and the general public catch on to what we're doing, we will have well and truly moved on to our next grift.

By the way, don't forget to check out our latest innovation. It's the Uber of toothpaste!

#startup #business #tech #technology @technology

The correct takeaway for Labour re Uxbridge is that the Conservatives cynically exploited ULEZ, a policy they started, a policy to save lives, a policy that impacts a tiny number of polluting vehicles for gain and Labour's campaign failed to point this out.

Labour need to understand, the Conservatives will do anything, lie, cheat and more to win.

Labour need to be robust in calling out the lies and support policies that improve the environment and save lives.

This was very obviously a waste of my time, but I saw someone describe it as MySpaceX last night before I drifted off to sleep, and this got lodged in my head. Better to get these things out I think.

#Twitter #BirdSite #X #satire #spoof #rebrand #Musk

❤️🇮🇹 #Italy will help with the restoration of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Odesa destroyed by the occupiers, - Prime Minister Meloni

@TechnicallyRon@Twitter.com:

"I took 1 star reviews of #Barbie from furious men on letterboxd and put them on the posters because it makes the film seem ever cooler."

That last one has to be a guy who doesn't understand why he is so attracted to the Kens.

#Feminist #PinkAcidTrip #Gay #AlienatingDangerousAndPerverse

https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/1683058689224179712

1. History is not there for you to like or dislike.
2. History is there for you to learn from it.
3. History offends you? Even better. Then you are less likely to repeat it.

Please read this out loud, then read it again. Then teach it to your children and grandchildren.

After much fiddling with Outlook permissions, we have finally managed to email some 50 schools to invite them to #UCLChemAirPoll for autumn round of measurements. If you know of a (preferably Inner London) primary school that would like to participate in an air pollution measurement project, tell them to get in touch with us. We'd love to learn with them! https://uclchemairpoll.wordpress.com/

Latest comic on the writers' and actors' strikes being called "disruptive"

#labor #unions #wga #sagaftra #strike #work #jobs #economy #inequality #writers #actors #hollywood

This is a credible proposal for DRM for websites in general. It would enable unbeatable adblock-blocking. It would prevent user customization for not just convenience but also accessibility.

I do not say this lightly: Enabling the forfeiture of control over the browsing experience is a fundamentally evil idea that must be rejected now, as it has been in the past, and we must remain vigilant against its reemergence in the future.

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/blob/main/explainer.md

"#Oppenheimer is 600 pounds of 70mm #IMAX film, and it wouldn’t work so well on-screen if it weren’t for a 21-year-old #PDA." #RetroTech

Here’s why 70mm IMAX movies like Oppenheimer need a #PalmPilot to work - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/23801118/imax-movie-palm-pilot-oppenheimer

Wow, this is big: Igor #Strelkov / #Girkin detained and charged with extremism in Russia
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66265892
He has a lot to answer for in how the #Ukraine war started in 2014 - a former officer (likely of #GRU background) occupied #Sloviansk in the #Donbas with a couple of dozen men and started the armed conflict, with #Russia 's covert then overt support
And mainly he was behind the shooting down of #MH17 - convicted by a Durch court

Yesterday, German news channel Deutsche Welle (dw.com) published a new documentary on YouTube: "Poverty in Britain - Why are millions of Brits so broke?". It's a 42 minute piece documenting the state of things in Britain today.

Here's the thing:
The URL is https://youtu.be/BK68yyrKUOA - except that if you are trying to watch it from the UK, you're faced with this message: "Video unavailable"

I am currently outside the UK, which is how I got to see this film. If you have access to a VPN, use it.

In a field of 17 candidates, I came 8th. And for the second time in three years, I beat UKIP and Piers Corbyn in a democratic election. If that’s not a sign of hope, nothing is.