⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️ @falken@social.cleverlibre.org

I see Zac Goldsmith has suddenly remembered he cares about the environment and thus needs to resign on principle.

Weird that he did it straight after being told he needed to apologise for allegedly trying to undermine the enquiry into Boris Johnson.

Probably just a coincidence.

The attack on encryption is an attack on democracy in the digital age. That is why at @digitalcourage we have co-signed the letter against the disproportionate surveillance measures of the UK online safety bill, together with @edri, @openrightsgroup and many more:
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/publications/open-letter-protect-encrypted-messaging/
Read about it at the BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66028773
#StopScanningMe #OnlineSafetyBill #ChstkontrolleStoppen #Chatkontrolle

@cstross “That’ll teach me to just cut and paste runes from Spelloverflow…”

Congratulations to Danny Mason and all at Reach Lasers on their incredible laser installation at the Arcadia stage at Glastonbury. I’m so happy that my new laser show software Liberation ran flawlessly throughout the 4 day event that featured The Chemical Brothers, Floating Points, Daphni, Dubkasm, Skepta, Skream, and Plastician.

#Arcadia #Glastonbury #spider #festival #glasto #glasto23 #glastonbury23 #arcadiaspider #LiberationLasers #lasershow #stagedesign #outdoorshow

New blog entry: Pass or Fail: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/06/pass-or-fail.html

@cstross

I am amused to see that the author’s collection of INTERCAL resources includes an article you wrote about it back in 1992. http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/intercal/iarticle.html

@neil It's hard to imagine any plan working that requires a random Mastodon instance admin to successfully sue Meta over breach of their terms of use, which Meta never explicitly agreed to.

I'm not saying it's impossible that they'd be in the right, legally speaking. I'm saying the amount of legal fees involved would be utterly unworkable.

#russia

Its not a Rebellion...

It's a "Special Disagreement"

If Putin needs advice on how to stop an armed column advancing on his capital, he could ask the Ukrainians.

I asked ChatGPT about primes ending in 2 to make it prove a point and it proved the point far better than I could have hoped for.

Please do not be a fool who trusts ChatGPT with anything outside your field of expertise, and even then double or triple check what it tells you if you must use it.

"Rich people should have to pay for their search and rescue operations!" is such a terrible take for many reasons:

Firstly - it says that S&R should fundamentally be chargeable. Imagine if container ship owners started deciding captains weren't allowed to make a distress call without referring back to the company because it would cost money. Or if small boat owners delayed a mayday call for half an hour because they'd get a bill. People would die.

Secondly - there is an obligation under international law for countries to participate in search and rescue and to provide assistance to vessels in need. The primary purpose of this is not saving property - it's saving lives.

Thirdly - if a rescue has to occur due to a vessel's owner or operators being grossly negligent or incompetent or any other number of things, this can already result in legal action by regulators and massive fines.

Fourthly - just because some European countries are trying to sidestep their obligations in respect of refugee boats in distress doesn't mean everyone else should. This is Europe's problem, not that of Canada or the US or even the company. If anything I hope it reminds them of the fundamental principle that assistance should be offered without fear or favour whenever life is in danger.

Fifth - Yes, this rescue is costing an absolute fortune. But even if they find the submersible a week too late (or even never) the amount of training, experience and data this operation will provide is enormous. That experience will get folded back into future regulations and future operating practices and will almost certainly save lives in future.

Basically - Nobody doesn't "deserve" to be left to die because they're rich or unpopular or because you don't like their politics. Saving lives at sea is the sole priority, because that is what a civilised society does and that is what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea requires.

If you really think there should be value judgements involved you're right in there with the right-wing arseholes who think the RNLI should let refugees drown or that the Italians should do the same because they find it inconvenient.

I know there are people reading this who work for major companies still advertising on Twitter (Apple, Google, and Amazon at least), so: two days before the SF Trans March, Elon is making it even more explicit that Twitter is a transphobic platform. You have the ability to influence the behaviour of your employers. Maybe do that?

Also, I think we need to stop referring to the US as an 'advanced' country when they continue to use mm/dd date formats and imperial measurements.

"The Jamstack Book" I wrote with @remotesynth is 45% off today!

http://mng.bz/WrEx

You know, the older I get, the more I think about Charles Stross's Laundry Series and how in it, computer science and applied demonology are the same subject, and older experts in this joint field tend to develop spongey brains from accidentally summoning tiny demons in their head.

I'm just saying "your brain doesn't work because your knowledge of programming has caused interdimensional energy beings to manifest in your grey matter" keeps making more and more sense as time goes on.