Don Thompson @guardeddon@social.cleverlibre.org
Long career in telecoms, aerospace & IT. Adept at troubleshooting & problem resolution.
Fascinated by the milieu.
Pic: JFK 22L over the captain's shoulder.
Joined Nov 2022
Don Thompson
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Interesting announcement at #FOSDEM. The folks working on matrix (open source multiple messaging app) just announced that they’ve been working with WhatsApp to implement cross platform messaging.
This is because it’s mandated by the European Digital Markets Act.
Deadline for this to happen is March 7th (i think), when we see what is actually possible. Can a kind soul share a link to a helpful summary where I can learn more?
@nav @bloor - that’s the one I had in mind (without being able to recall its name)
Don Thompson
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@bloor https://www.suncalc.org/ will give you the angles you need. Do you know the heights of the trees? (Or maybe you could fiddle with suncalc to work it out if you can get the date of the google imagery)
@bloor Google Earth gives mth/yr to satellite imagery (historical data & timeline). The Bellingcat guys have used shadow calculators, they have been coded, perhaps an OSINT ‘how-to’ guide would help?
Don Thompson
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Manuscript for Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch. In the British library.
Don Thompson
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I'd like to make contact with someone who knows about pedestrian navigation for the visually impaired. Can anyone intro me? If not pls boost to your networks
Don Thompson
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My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.
Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our global video archive.
There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.
What happens if that archival footage becomes unprofitable?
#tech #technology #Google #enshittification #youtube #video @technology #capitalism
@neil
Three, £5mth.
Ah, didn’t pick up that it’s ‘business’…
Thank you.
@neil
Would you have a link for that deal? Can’t find it.
Don Thompson
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Finding Geospatial Accounts on Mastodon
Besides following hashtags, such as #GISChat, #QGIS, #FOSS4G, and #OSGeo, curating good lists is probably the best way to stay up to date with geospatial developments. To get you started (or to potentially enrich your existing lists), I thought I'd share my Geospatial and SpatialDataScience lists with you. And the best thing: you don't need to go through all the >150 entries manually!
http://anitagraser.com/2024/02/03/finding-geospatial-accounts-on-mastodon/
Don Thompson
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Can’t wait!
I’ll be talking on the crypto wars, the surveillance biz model, & how in the late 90s we won strong encryption but lost privacy. What does this history tell us about defending core privacy infra like Signal from attack now? & how do we avoid the mistakes of the 90s?
https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss2024/keynote-meredith-whittaker/
@TheSnoopySnoop
All with your P1000, no additional lenses/multipliers?
@bloor
I see what you did there!
Took a second before I recognised what I used to call ‘Ivory Tower South’.
@failedLyndonLaRouchite @pauloldhamsnp
‘Scots’ might be preferred.
Perhaps Jack’s messages would illuminate other aspects of his party’s attitude to the SNP?
Don Thompson
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Why the House of Lords can and should delay the Rwanda Bill
Using the Parliament Acts, peers can force the House of Commons to think again
This is an argument why they should do so in this case
By me, at Prospect
@simevidas
This is how all web site user experience testing should be performed.
Don Thompson
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24 seconds to view the product images on Amazon’s website
Earlier this month I finally retired my Motorola G4 that served me well for testing web performance for over half a decade. The new device that I got is the Nokia C02 (view specs). In terms of CPU and RAM, it’s the lowest-end Android smartphone I could find that was released by a mainstream brand in 2023. According to Speedometer, it’s about 25% slower than the 2016 Motorola G4. Yes, slower.
Did I go too low? I…
Don Thompson
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"Matt, tracking on the web, it's just how it is. If we get rid of it so many companies will die off."
There were companies before tracking tech. There was advertising before tracking tech.
Tracking tech is just how they can pay the least, to get the most. It's not a right. It's not a given. It's not required.
How did it work before? You made good products and the stuff that was most popular rose to the top.
Ban tracking tech. Hamstring predatory and scammy products that survive on targeting.
Don Thompson
boosted
Douglas Allchin, Jonathan Osborne, and I have a new paper out about teaching science in this age of online misinformation.
The idea is simple: we tell people to trust the science, but we rarely teach students about the social processes that make it trustworthy.
Long career in telecoms, aerospace & IT. Adept at troubleshooting & problem resolution.
Fascinated by the milieu.
Pic: JFK 22L over the captain's shoulder.
Joined Nov 2022
