Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

Firefly Bookstore is going to try out being on Mastodon. We hope to connect with you here! #Mastodon #kutztown #books #bookstore #pennsylvania

1/2 If you lived on one of the 5 outer planets orbiting the star TOI-178, you could call your friends on another planet and celebrate #NewYear together, as their orbits are in resonance.

They follow a 18:9:6:4:3 resonance chain: for every 18 orbital revolutions of the first planet (the 2nd from the star), the next one does 9, the next one 6 and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WevvRG9ysY

📽️ ESO/L. Calçada

#astrodon #astronomy #space #science

People are pushing back on the overly-centralized social media platforms, and this year it led to an explosion of exciting projects in decentralization. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/taking-back-web-decentralization-2023-review

Three women who served in the Trump White House, speaking on an ABC News program, warn against a possible second Trump term, with one of them saying it could mean "the end of American democracy as we know it." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/former-trump-white-house-insiders-call-2nd-term/story?id=105998679

the two way to mom

This December, if there’s one tech New Year’s resolution I’d encourage you to have, it’s switching to the only remaining ethical web browser, Firefox. According to recent posts on social media, Firefox’s market share is slipping. We should not let that happen. There are two main reasons why switching is important.

1. Privacy

Firefox is the only major browser not built by a company that makes money from advertising and/or selling your personal data. There’s been a lot of talk about websites tracking users using cookies, fingerprinting and other nefarious technologies that hurt your privacy. But owning the browser puts Google, Apple and Microsoft in a position where they don’t even need those tricks. We need to use browsers that are independent, and right now that means Firefox.

2. Browser engine monopoly

Wikipedia lists four browser engines as being “active”. Browser engines are the bits that take a web page’s code and display it on your screen. Ideally, they conform to the official W3C standards, and display all elements as it describes. If that’s the case, web developers can easily write sites that work on all browsers. No proprietary vendor lock-in nonsense, just glorious open standards at work.

It’s happened before

In the early 2000’s, Internet Explorer had a massive 95% market share. This meant that many sites were only developed for use with IE. They’d use experimental features that IE supported, in favor of things from the official HTML standard. This was a very bad situation, which hindered the development of the World Wide Web.

Currenty, Chrome, Safari and Edge all use variations of the closely related Webkit and Blink engines. If we want to avoid another browser engine monopoly, we need to support Firefox, and its “Gecko” engine.

Firefox is actually really good

If Firefox would be a bad browser, I would not recommend you to switch. It’s fast, has a nice user interface, and feels every bit as modern and elegant as its competition. I’ve been using it as my main browser for a couple of years now, on Linux, Windows, MacOS and Android. As a web developer, I usually have at least three browsers open, but when I go look something up on the web, I pick Firefox.

So please, help save the web by using the best browser out there. It’s an easy thing to do, and it makes a big difference.

https://roytanck.com/2023/12/23/in-2024-please-switch-to-firefox/

#Firefox #privacy

People forget that a bipartisan House majority impeached Trump for his crimes, and a bipartisan Senate majority (57-43) voted to convict him. He skated only because conviction requires two-thirds.

Blackrock Summit, Shenandoah National Park.

If you weren't able to watch it live,
Roger's lecture on Tor censorship attempts in Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan at #C37C3 is now available to stream online: https://media.ccc.de/v/37c3-12040-tor_censorship_attempts_in_russia_iran_turkmenistan#t=59

The funny thing about LLMs is they’re not good for knowledge work because they sometimes make up stuff that doesn’t exist and they’re not good for creative work because they sometimes make up stuff that does exist.

@torre @textfiles @pluralistic explains well the difference between copyright and trademark on this matter here https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/

I just realised: enshittification is going to be the next new word in the 2024 Collins dictionary.

#enshittification

As someone coming off a decade of working there, I can tell you with some confidence that “you should use Firefox despite Mozilla’s leadership” is far more true and has been true far longer than you realize.

But you should also understand that original market-share vs ceo salary meme is a creation of Brendan Eich, presumably born of a grudge, and notably elided his tenure as CTO, during which the worst of that decline happened.

@alsaaas @whalecoiner I totally agree. Yet, the CEO we're talking about is not the one of the Mozilla that is asking for donations. More than that, when people don't donate, it increases the dependency of the "Mozilla we love" on the "Mozilla we hate" and, in the end, serves a further raise of this CEO's salary.

A cat video highlighted a big year for lasers in space

NASA has invested more than $700 million in testing laser communications in space.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/12/a-cat-video-highlighted-a-big-year-for-lasers-in-space/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

My friends are learning about my current obsession with tuning systems, and starting to ask questions I don't know the answers to.

Last night Michael Fourman asked: if harmonies coming from simple fractions are so natural, do any bird or whale songs feature such harmonies?

So I looked around. It turns out an Australian bird called the pied butcherbird has long been a favorite of many composers! Jean-Michel Maujean figured out the frequency ratios that appear in the songs of this bird. He found the 4 most common ratios are close to

0.607, 0.745, 0.815, and 1.34

He notes that

0.607 is close to going down a major sixth (3/5),
0.745 is close to going down a major third (3/4),
1.34 is close to going up a perfect fourth (4/3),
0.815 is kinda close to going down a major third (4/5).

His work looks good - but he shouldn't have bothered comparing the ratios to 12-tone or 18-tone equal temperament. Equal temperament is a system developed for keyboard instruments in the late 1700s. It would be amazing if the birds used this!

Maujean also has a nice review of the literature on harmonies in bird songs, so I should dig into it:

• Jean-Michel Maujean, Analysing Intonation of the Pied Butcherbird, https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1526/

But I get the feeling that *most* birds don't sing with frequency ratios that are simple fractions. What's up with these birds?

The wait is finally over. From 2024, USB-C will be the common standard for electronic devices in the EU – and we have already seen the impact!

It means
🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras
⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology
🔄Reduced e-waste

One charger to rule them all.

Now, a reality.

Learn more about the #EUCommonCharger here: https://europa.eu/!hwjj3G

#SingleMarket #DigitalEU

My end of the year post on optimism this year has a slightly different tone, in which I explain how my tech optimism differs from Marc Andreessens, and I see his more as pessimistic cynicism, not optimism. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/29/new-years-message-moving-fast-and-breaking-things-is-the-opposite-of-tech-optimism/

US residents: If you haven't ordered your free COVID tests through USPS in the last five or six weeks, you're eligible for four more per household. It takes about a minute to fill out the online form, and USPS delivers them to your mailbox.

Testing is a great way to keep friends, family, and coworkers safe.

https://special.usps.com/testkits