June 2020
222 tweets
It's Dekalb opposite the end of South Portland.
That a nonprofit working from publicly available information was able to find 97 sites on which Google is profiting from Covid-19 disinformation tells you everything you need to know about how committed Google is to fixing that problem.
Quoting a tweet by @TTP_updates ↗
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Yes, but somehow Google is still perceived as a pro democracy company. You hear about Facebook employees fretting over publishing violent racism but nothing from the googlers bankrolling it all.
Indeed, all under the guise of "neutrality". It's very disappointing.
Are unobservables discernible?
French reddit is having a field day covering the US the way US media covers the world. (via @MaxGendler)
reddit.com/r/france/comme…
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You mean specifically with these data sources? No, I haven't, but I can ask around!
Is the cfp deadline also extended?
OK, thanks! I actually had an idea I wanted to submit so I'd like to make sure that I don't miss the chance 😁
Great news, congrats!
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Haha, that is the most Google thing. Why would you even consider that people might want to leave?
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Yes, we completely give a damn. You should try caring about someone other than yourself for a try, @ShurrieP, it's not as hard as you think.
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Thoughts and prayers for all the Google employees currently expressing very serious concern in internal discussion groups and then doing nothing whatsoever about it.
Quoting a tweet by @JuddLegum ↗
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It's likely not an official communication. The Twitter handle is wrong (and now taken).
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I don't think it's official...
Quoting a tweet by @NYCGovCuomo ↗
That's very generous of you, sir!
It would be hilarious to investigate but I'm pretty sure we'll never know!
I don't think any browser currently shipping has DNT on by default. If the header is there, it was user enabled.
I'm confused 😁 Why does CPRA make it optional?
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This quote is particularly good. "We offer Incognito in Chrome to make it look like we care about your privacy, but if you paid attention you'd have noticed we never said we stopped tracking you! Lol, users, amirite?!"
nytimes.com/2020/06/02/tec…
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That text actually makes sense to me! It seems to make opting out provisions optional if you support DNT and allows for some form of consent. (The latter is worrying in that it seems to repeat GDPR mistakes in trying to save notice and choice, but that's a separate issue.)
I'm not sure how strong the outing is, it's not like people read footer material much.
Yes, I understand the intent and I like the simplicity compared to other notice regimes, but I think that few enough people actually see it that given a choice between that and something that suppresses sells I'd take the latter.
Having said that I'm pretty happy with the OAG taking both 😁 Their description of how DNT triggers a DNS is a bit buggy but I can live with it.
Ah, now I get it. Thanks. This leads to a weird situation. Companies will go with the button because DNT levels are much higher than opt out rates (especially in apps). But if DNT support is mandated (which seems possible) then no one will do the button.
Completely agreed, thanks for all the explanation!
Just found out that you could now set up monthly donations to @themarkup, and so I subscribed (of sorts)!
I have to say I’m loving the Solitaire animation :)
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Head to themarkup.org/donate and support them if you can — the world needs as much of this kind of dedicated, smart, and independent tech investigation as it can get.
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Do you know if videos will be available by any chance?
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This is exactly true. The Times is constantly used as a reference in policy reports, and rarely do they differentiate OpEds. This will normalise violence as a policy option.
Airing debates is valuable; acting as the useful idiots of totalitarianism less so.
Quoting a tweet by @elongreen ↗
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I don't believe that there are rules for others and different rules for ourselves.
I believe Facebook should take down posts inciting violence.
I believe @nytopinion should take down articles inciting violence.
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I know, I saw that. Not surprised!
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Thank you! My team spends a lot of time working on tech ethics. It's hard to do our jobs if the org we do it for recklessly and needlessly endangers others...
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Can't disagree with that!
I don't believe that there are rules for others and different rules for ourselves. I believe Facebook should take down posts inciting violence. I believe @nytopinion should take down articles inciting violence.♥ 53↺ 13
I don’t need psychological safety. I need to work for an organisation with the wherewithal to tell the difference between publishing a variety of opinions and being a mouthpiece for intimidation and disinformation.
If the mission is fake, then the money’s much better in tech.
Quoting a tweet by @bariweiss ↗
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I will add that @bariweiss's thread shows no interest in finding out the facts of the situation. It's all just a pretext to shoehorn reality into some convenient preexisting position. With respect, that's not opinion writing, it's just a rant.
Fact check:
Quoting a tweet by @TimHerrera ↗
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The Onion has a pretty damn good imagination but sometimes it just can't compete with the real thing.
I am engaging in a virtual walk out from @nytimes today with 300+ other non-editorial coworkers in solidarity with our Black colleagues.✊
You can read our full statement here: nytimes.github.io/nyt-solidarity/
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Employees are still joining the walk out as we speak. We have just passed 400.
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Of course! We owe nothing less.
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Ah, that's a shame! If you have an article that goes with I would love to hear more.
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Thank you! Looking forward to it 🙂
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Thank you both! Big hugs and let's swap many a beer and cocktail in times not too distant! 🤗
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Thank you!
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I did leave my home office and step outside, that counts for something these days!
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I'm in awe with my colleagues' dedication to integrity. Particularly with the younger ones' maturity in political discussion and organising.
Whoever thinks this generation is somehow weak doesn't know what's about to hit them.
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We will!
We owe it!
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Thank you both for the kind words. I don't think that we could do any less.
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That looks more like the kind of cat cleanup I'm familiar with: start poking at the thing, drag it a bit, lose interest.
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If you're wondering what "It's not chemical" might mean of pepper spray, @SMBCComics has you covered.
smbc-comics.com/?id=3324
Quoting a tweet by @atrupar ↗
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Clearly way too much for this time of day.
This is an outstanding thread. Stepping away from everything that is burning to look at the ongoing revolution.
Quoting a tweet by @RebeccaSpang ↗
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Clearly it must be pepper-flavoured positronium.
Ha, that's amazing!
Aram makes many excellent points about why targeted advertising is structurally discriminatory and unethical (my words, not making him say that bit).
Quoting a tweet by @Chronotope ↗
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People forget this but when Big Tech & programmatic adtech people talk about "funding publishers" what they mean by publishers encompasses an endless series of fake sites, fake apps, and hate & conspiracy pushers.
Somehow they never share numbers as to how much of that's legit.
Quoting a tweet by @nandoodles ↗
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I have no idea, maybe? It's true they might not have been careful.
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These are pandemic times, Jason, we have to keep it simple.
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I'm worried about pairing with shirts.
I would normally go with some type of bright shirt, possibly floral.
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Hahaha 😂
How far are you from Bethesda? I'm sure they'd be happy to work on your hair too!
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That's my concern, I sort of don't want to commit to a colour so I can pair with shirts well.
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Let me see about availabilities and choices of colour!
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Boulevardier! Such a great choice of word!
I love the idea of saying that the silver is a dye! 😂 It's totally a dye, wink-wink.
What comes to mind for fish would be greasy hair and yesterday’s newspaper?
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Laugh while you can, my friend.
Can you fade from blue to red without going through purple? I’ve kind of promised @torgo that was his territory.
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Quality GIFing, there.
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Art?
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Note: works great on cats, too.
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Hahaha, oh dear, I haven't done that in, what, a decade? Might be time to bring it back!
Thank you 🤗 For reference, this is the American Girl Doll blue hair extension.
Wish I were half that cool!
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Isn't everything?
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It works better for her though!
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Can’t disagree! ;-)
Il va me falloir un nouveau nom, genre Crinière Étincellante.
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C’était un plaisir, merci beaucoup!
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Ouch!
I need to try the red.
I know, right! It’s in honour of dear departed friend Kip Hampton who made wearing a fez all the rage at open source conferences.
You are the sweetest, Ori 😘
Yes! And apparently it works, too.
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I’m larger than a wasp and frankly I’d take a few steps back.
I wonder if it might make them look bigger, or if it signals a healthy, well-coordinated hive that would be able to strike back, or something like that.
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What is that cited in?
This is a very, very good thread about statues. I'm not sure we ever listen to historians quite enough.
Quoting a tweet by @BretDevereaux ↗
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Uniquement parce que les français aiment à se complaire dans l'illusion qu'ils n'ont pas un problème de racisme débordant.
Thanks! Checking it out now.
Same, haven’t seen it but the account was gone already.
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It might be interesting to contrast with Haldane (bactra.org/Daedalus.html) or Russell (marxists.org/reference/subj…).
Their octonion stan pieces are good too.
Same! They manage to convey some of the meaning such that I feel I'm getting a glimpse of the path not taken.
And there I was thinking you were into historical reenactment!
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The stars make the greasy hair shinier, I like it.
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Heh! I read the Guardian article you shared about adult diagnosis of ADHD and it felt so familiar I decided to do something about it. I've now been staring at a phone number for two months or so...
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Technically, yes.
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Yes, I should really stop staring at that phone number and actually call it...
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I'm kind of jealous 😁
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This is of course totally harmless and why would you want to break the business model of the internet?
Quoting a tweet by @al___ng ↗
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Waaat. I remember this airing in France, but I think it was always the first half of season one and it's not even clear if they showed the episodes in order.
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I'll never understand that logic. I was never a big TV watcher, but way back one of my exes used to watch Buffy in France and it made no sense whatsoever. It's only much later when friends convinced me to actually watch it that I gathered they'd been broadcasting in random order.
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I guess it's thinking from back before they had arcs. You pick episodes that had strong ratings for days you can make a killing on, show the weak ones against the football finals or whatnot?
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Am I reading this right that Google will demonetise YouTube?
Quoting a tweet by @NewsFromGoogle ↗
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Oh, glad I'm not the only one baffled. I keep seeing promoted tweets with videos that have a preroll with someone else's video ad...
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Facebook adds option for people least susceptible to disinformation to opt out of it.
This is from their privacy playbook: there is literally no problem big enough that you can't blame on your users if you've made an option for it.
Quoting a tweet by @MikeIsaac ↗
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Would love to hear more!
I love that word! I need to find out how to pronounce it so I can speak it too :-D #NonNativeProblems
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Folle théorie, Rubin, folle théorie.
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I'm with you on the initial distinction, but I'm unconvinced about your targeting argument.
If you run a sub business, you're user-aligned. This should incentivise you to keep your subscribers safe, avoiding the moral hazards of 230 (and in line with legislative intent).
If you run an ad business, you want volume and time spent. The rage clickers will engage 10x so that you're better off catering to them than trying to help those getting hurt, who are less likely to have disposable income anyway and so are inherently less valuable.
You also don't need data, at least not in the manner that it's traded now, to do targeting. There are plenty of contextual proxies. Some of us are big enough to do that entirely first party, too.
I would go for a different distinction: you get 230 protection when people pay you (a fair price) to publish. When you pay them, or just relay them, then you're a publisher.
Same effect, avoids issues with mixed business models.
Either that, or a "who pays" protection as outlined downthread. If advertiser are paying you, you get 230 protection from their ads!
Regexp will work the same on more than one machine.
🍿🍿🍿
I have several issues with app stores (on both platforms) but if we only get one thing out of this I hope it is support for web apps in iOS. Forcing people into the app store when superior distribution methods are possible is quite problematic.
Quoting a tweet by @dinabass ↗
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Collectively, they probably phone home more often than you breathe!
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No offence but I think we'd all benefit from less of that attitude. Privacy and apps are two aspects of a modern browser, as things stand today you're both holding the web back. I look forward to that changing both ways.
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Tweets are counted in characters and Unicode, strictly if whimsically speaking, is not necessarily bounded. They initially expected 16 bits but then extended it. I don't recall if utf8 could encode beyond the astral planes, but it could be updated to if not!
Yes, and Firefox too!
Timing matters, though. I hope iOS doesn't open up before identity is debundled from Chrome, AMP/SXG get dropped, and all threats to the open Web in that vein. The iOS blockade has issues but it's also strategic for those of us trying to stay independent.
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I don't think it's about what I don't like so much as - indeed - about what increases competition. The iOS policy harms competition between browsers and for app platforms, Chrome harms competition in the ad and identity spaces.
"What kinda fruit juice you want, honey? We got all the kinds: red, green, blue, or purple."
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Duh, the red of course!
Pandemic exhaustion is a thing. I knew I was tired, I hadn't realised I was so tired I would pack toothpaste thinking it was sunscreen.
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I almost tried that!
Eww, yeah, that's nasty.
Exactly.
Not gone very far but yes, we can indeed have a socially distanced long weekend!
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I'm sure it works. Also smells good!
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I can't completely make it out, is that Anatomy of Melancholy?
I don't dislike it, but it's very much overused and overrated. The worst is restaurants that have deserts all of which involve chocolate. Boring AF.
This is beautiful. nytimes.com/2020/06/21/sty…
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FB does data quality now?
It should be required reading before you're allowed to put anything on the Internet.
And if what you want to put on the Internet is some grand plan to "make things better for the people" you get to read it twice.
Quoting a tweet by @mraginsky ↗
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I would have though they would know about xkcd.com/936/. Asking for casing and numbers is something I’ve come to expect from enterprise software.
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There is never a good reason to use this type of pattern, even when you don’t have 2FA :)
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Je pense que l’interdiction par défaut n’est pas forcément la mauvaise approche pour la fête de la musique…
Oui, je comprends bien ton point de vue, mais si on ne peut plus dire du mal gratuitement de la fête de la musique où va-t-on?
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Ça me parait bien, mais soyons clair uniquement pour la fête de la musique.
C’est le moment de poser vos écrans et d’aller lire un livre pour se reposer mes petits :-*
Eeedddd!!!1 Now I have to reset it.
hunter2
Is this the same signal as for click attribution?
Nice!
Quality tweet.
The bag is deeper than that. Is there... Is there another cat underneath?
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It's good to see Google trying to catch up on privacy. This is small, but it might be the first step that isn't useless (privacy settings!) or some distant state (Chrome)?
Killing Ad IDs or ceasing to force themselves as third-party data controllers would signify more, though.
Quoting a tweet by @sundarpichai ↗
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As I said, it’s small :) I want to encourage small steps, Google is the uncontested worst privacy offender, we have to celebrate that they’re moving to a bit better.
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Oh, it completely is.
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I don't think that there's a cure, but exercice and doing unrelated things (so your brain can fallow) helps.
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Having a retention period is a privacy practice. This is a super long blog post to announce something that pretty much everyone has been doing, but hey, they're new to this.
Oh yeah. I mean, the whole thing is full of holes. But it smells of "we have to do something".
That doesn't make much sense? Also the fact that they are thinking about this in terms of "the Privacy Sandbox" instead of actual technology isn't promising.
The Sandbox is just a random set of largely unrelated stuff thrown together. Discussing specific solutions makes sense (including those not from Google), rather than discussing a branding exercice.
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The @iab had 20 years to fix the privacy problems they were creating. They never had the vision or leadership to think beyond strip-mining for short-term profit.
Trade bodies rarely die gracefully when they become irrelevant. Let's see how they'll manage this phase.
Quoting a tweet by @joejerome ↗
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Congratulations Californians and @caprivacyorg for getting #CPRA on the ballot in November!
Quoting a tweet by @thezedwards ↗
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A few months after moving here my bank just shut down my account. They were missing some obscure paper but didn't think to tell me. Of course it was right before rent was due and while I was travelling.
American banks are bad even by bank standards.
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Yeah, I didn’t think banks could suck more than in France — how wrong I was!
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Any tips on befriending crows? There's one here that seems unafraid. Should I just give it a cracker?
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I haven’t actually watched that!
You know what, that’s actually a really good idea. I have a few choice philosophy books to offer up!
It’s a bit like that but with just one crow that stole my pasta. I want to become friends instead.
Yeah, they came to the HTML WG to ask us to poke holes in the security model of iframes. That didn’t go well :-D
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Cool! That’s easy enough :)
Nice crossover to the IAB thread right there!
Ooooh, I like that. I can do both!
And there I was with my crass offerings of food. Of course they’re more sophisticated than that!
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Not understanding opportunity and not knowing that you’re going to hit a wall is pretty much a lack of vision in my book!
Wow, that’s quite the adventure!
Crows can actually fend off red-tailed hawks pretty effectively. They do this thing called “mobbing” in which they take turns diving at it and boxing it down. I saw that outside my place in Brooklyn, I felt really sorry for the hawk.
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That’s super cool! It looks like food and shiny things are the two big recommendations. I hope I can do as well!
Hahaha, that seems awesome. The one that’s visiting here clearly isn’t dumb, and it’s big. I’m pretty sure it’s an adult.
I know! Looking for games to play with them is a good idea :)
Peanuts and shiny things. I think I’m getting good at crow marketing.
Thank you!
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The internet, it does not disappoint!
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*b-dum-tschhhhhh*
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OK, I really want to know 😁
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Are you saying that's another similarity to an OKR process? 🤭
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Capitalist corporations are all centrally planned economies, it's one of the weird things in the world 😁
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Loving it so far!
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Aaaaaaaaaaand the longest school year in living memory comes to a close.
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Thanks a lot! Not staring is like for cats, I can do that. I'll get some peanuts and see where it goes!
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Some previous pandemics have led to hygienic changes, I wonder if we're going to see broad adoption of novel germicidal techniques.
lesswrong.com/posts/L8KGSDch…
Sigh. And to say I was hoping to write that paper!
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He didn't say April which year.
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Thank you.
Any recommendations for a source of t-shirts that are interesting/different, not yet more jokes, and decent quality?
Promising, thanks!
I'm not that great a designer 😸
Thanks for the tip!
Ça se confirme: l'avenir de la gauche est au vert.
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In that compensation range, I only know of tech companies with meaningless missions.
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That's been my working theory. It won't die off (AOL's still around!) but it will be sold off for some billions as an ads/data company, probably to an ISP. The question is when. I used to have 2025, but it could come faster.
It's not that valuable, behavioural data has a shelf life because, well, people change. For old people it's probably useful longer, but yeah then they die.
Also for what it's worth both Apple and Mozilla helped work on these APIs and raised concerns as early as 2009.
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There is that debate. It’s a difficult debate. No one has produced anything even remotely resembling a decisive argument either way in twenty years.
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Honestly, I haven’t seen any recent indication that these APIs can be provided without fingerprinting. There was a permissions & consent workshop last year but it didn’t yield that much progress.
I chaired the Device APIs WG, and before that the Web APIs WG. I’ve worked on this problem for Vodafone, Canon, Samsung.
I don’t know man, look it up maybe?
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Sure, the two models are different. You don’t want the Web to be curated the way app stores are (no matter how imperfect and perhaps hypocritical that curation may be).
I’m not saying it doesn’t suck. But the security & privacy have to work.
People who understand what a binary or system permissions are are not the relevant constituency.
Stay shocked! Just because it's everywhere doesn't mean it's how it should be!
Quoting a tweet by @swodinsky ↗
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You can sustain shock with very little disbelief if you have sufficient vengeful wrath.
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Exactly. We need more than shock precisely because it’s not sustainable. But we cannot let ourselves get inured to this level of risk and inequality. Not before burning it to the ground.
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