Sasha Akhavi @sakhavi@social.cleverlibre.org
Reasonably happy almost all the time, somehow. Extremely lucky father & husband; 20+ year software veteran / exec now studying the software industry as Ph.D @York University Science and Technology Studies. Blog at https://sakhavi.wordpress.com
Joined Oct 2022
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
You're doing a conference in Florida?
You truly represent the apotheosis of "Agile".
For reals, yo.
You're cool with your 3,000 person venue where no one who isn't a cishet white salesperson/john man is welcome?
Jesus fucking Christ.
I was already estranged, I freely admit it, But this is beyond the pale.
Fuck the Agile fucking Alliance. They aren't what we wanted, they never have been.
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
@agilealliance I don't give a fuck about your sunk fucking cost.
Apologize, and eat the cost.
You're committing a sin you'll never come back from.
Your one chance, and it's slim, is to just admit that you made a mistake, ask for forgiveness, and move forward.
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
YES! Some attention on Turnitin's flawed AI detection technology.
Don't forget that Turnitin forced this technology on its customers. Schools had no way to turn it off themselves and few schools were granted an opt out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/02/turnitin-ai-cheating-detector-accuracy/
I wonder if the feeling that guy had, about that night being a good good night, panned out.
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
uspol, anger
They don't *want* schooling to succeed, beyond what's required to be one of their laborers.
Their worst fucking nightmare is an educated populace.
And of all the things they don't want you to know, the most important? History.
Because history tells us, time and again:
1) In general, what-is-now and what-must-be are two different things
2) In specific, it is possible to remove both the chain and the chain-holder.
They want "inevitability".
"[A]n adviser to #Zelensky said Moscow residents deserved whatever came at them"
"[R]esidents of Russia’s capital experienced direct consequences of their nation’s hostilities for the first time."
NOPE. These are civilians. Noncombatants. Targeting them on purpose is a war crime when #Russia does it to Ukraine and a war crime when it's done to Russians. #Ukraine denies responsibility, so, fine, but simultaneously saying they "deserve" it forfeits all moral authority. F*** that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/30/moscow-drones-kyiv-russia-counteroffensive/
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
Can we talk about the phrase "top AI researchers" and how it devalues the expertise of anyone whose primary focus isn't on the internals of the systems themselves?
Started reading this piece thinking, “Well, that’s one thing I would totally do if I had millions of dollars.” Ended up thinking “I hate all these artists.”
From: @jamesshore
https://mastodon.online/@jamesshore/110455683671448245
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
When your business model relies on theft and you don't like proposed regulations that would expose that theft ... that's a pretty good sign the regulations are on the right track.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/25/23737116/openai-ai-regulation-eu-ai-act-cease-operating
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
📢NEW ARTICLE!!!
In which I connect Charles Babbage & his 19th c. blueprints for digital computation to industrial labor control & the creation of a regime of denigrated, disciplined "free" labor.
All of which has its roots in plantation slavery. 1/
https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/origin-stories-plantations-computers-and-industrial-control/
It would be really good to get a definition of “knowing Thai” means in this context. Is it the ability to relate Thai words to pictures, past experiences, words in other languages? Is that how we’d know if a machine actually “learned Thai?” Is it sth else?
From: @jeffjarvis
https://mastodon.social/@jeffjarvis/110430928766253954
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
"The ruling attracted widespread criticism from industry representatives, who said it creates legal uncertainty for many companies who commonly transfer data across international waters."
What uncertainty? It's now certain that what Meta did broke European privacy laws. What you mean is that it creates a *problem* for companies who have come to rely on doing this now clearly illegal thing. #meta #privacy #europeanunion
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/22/meta-fined-eu-facebook-data-privacy/
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
The most important social media question for academics right now is: how are we going to create networking opportunities for junior scholars as Twitter declines?
That's why I'm so impressed with #AoIR , the Association of Internet Researchers, who are offering scholars a Mastodon account as part of membership at https://aoir.social/about
Reasonably happy almost all the time, somehow. Extremely lucky father & husband; 20+ year software veteran / exec now studying the software industry as Ph.D @York University Science and Technology Studies. Blog at https://sakhavi.wordpress.com
Joined Oct 2022
