friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Phil Stracchino [DEFUNCT]

2018-10-30 21:44:25


The Hubble telescope is back in service and doing science again.

Kepler, unfortunately, is dead.

No, not Johannes Kepler. He died in 1630. The Kepler Space Telescope named after him. Nine and a half years into its planned five-year mission, after discovering 2,681 confirmed exoplanets and many more "possibles", it has finally run out of fuel for its maneuvering/positioning thrusters. 94 million miles from Earth, there's not a hope of a refueling mission.

Kepler, we salute you. It's time to rest now.

abcnews.go.com/Technology/wire…

#space #science

#Science #space

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Any EU friends know of any resources?

Another country slides towards far-right autocracy.

Goldkin

2018-10-28 23:56:43


This is a long shot, but if anyone here knows how to seek expedited immigration or asylum from Brazil into the EU, that information is urgently needed by friends of mine.

Capsule version: they have credible fear or persecution and harm under Bolsonaro, and any information that can get them out of harms way as they try to flee would be incredibly valuable right now.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Some #goodnews for the Friday.

“My new employer is a home repair services company based in Florida,” Mr. Watson said later, “and I do feature development that had once been outsourced to India. I get to work from home. My 3-year-old asks me to get her juice as if I had nothing better to do.” He chuckled. “But it’s such a blessing. These mountains hug me, and my family is my rock. I thought I’d be forced to leave, and maybe one day I’ll have to. But why would I ever want to?”
#goodnews

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Absolutely this.

Death by paperwork and administration.

Noam Bergman

2018-09-14 12:56:35


Bullshit #Jobs: A Theory by David #Graeber – the myth of #capitalist #efficiency (#book #review)


In 1930, John Maynard #Keynes predicted that technological advances would enable us to work a 15-hour week. Yet we seem to be busier than ever before. Those #workers who actually do stuff are burdened with increasing workloads, while box-tickers and bean-counters multiply.

In an age that supremely prizes capitalist efficiency, the proliferation of pointless jobs is a puzzle. Why are employers in the public and private sector alike behaving like the bureaucracies of the old Soviet Union, shelling out wages to workers they don’t seem to need? Since bullshit jobs make no economic sense, Graeber argues, their function must be political. A population kept busy with make-work is less likely to revolt.

Yet as he notes, people are not inherently lazy: we #work not just to pay the bills but because we want to contribute something meaningful to society. The psychological effect of spending our days on tasks we secretly believe don’t need to be performed is profoundly damaging, “a scar across our collective soul”.

As well as documenting personal misery, this book is a portrait of a society that has forgotten what it is for. Our economies have become “vast engines for producing nonsense”. Utopian ideals have been abandoned on all sides, replaced by praise for “hardworking families”. The rightwing injunction to “get a job!” is mirrored by the leftwing demand for “more jobs!”

#capitalism

#book #capitalism #workers #Keynes #work #jobs #capitalist #Graeber #efficiency #review)
in reply to JB Carroll

diaspora - Link to source

randygalbraith

Hi @JB Carroll. At work I often talk about the need to "feed the beast." That is, if one is going to work in a large corporate setting it certain you'll encounter low-value paper work. For example, lets create a time tracking system that captures productive work vs overhead. Then lets shoot for 80% productive work. Then let's reward those who achieve that goal or more. Well... don't be surprised that you'll hit 80% or more, especially if one feels their employment is threatened. However, I don't see this in overly cynical terms. Humans are social creatures who interact in groups, as those groups get larger and larger, dysfunction seems inevitable. For us worker bees I think the best we can do is keep pushing towards what we know has value, while "feeding the beast." Software that is more efficient, more functional and less defective is good it has value. So shoot for that, while setting aside some time to rest passwords, run through required training, filling time sheets, contribute to meetings and documents, etc. Cheers, -Randy
@JB Carroll
in reply to randygalbraith

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

JB Carroll

It's certainly a constant struggle to define what is "value-added" and what isn't. Sometimes people at my employer develop these reporting systems thinking they are going to help, when it's really less efficient than one we were using for years already, and still have to use daily.

I think a lot of these things get developed because they don't take the time to listen to the grunts as to what would actually help them in their day-to-day. As it turns out, many times that means simply investing in the employee by upgrading equipment or hiring more people for the hands-on work.

We lament often about how we spend $5000 in labor hours chasing down paper and justifications for a $50 purchase. I think if they just had some trust in the front-line employees, large businesses could save quite a bit of money.

in reply to JB Carroll

diaspora - Link to source

randygalbraith

That's my point about the 80% target. If you build a reporting system to capture those % values and then insist such is an important target to hit, well don't be surprised if you start hitting those numbers. Now I'm not suggesting people are going to intentionally enter bad information, but as soon as you have a subjective element and a "goal" that must be reached, then it will "magically" happen. The real truth of course is the information being collected is biased by the goal itself. These sort of biases are hard to fight against. When Columbia was on orbit, there was a bias in the system to classify the foam strike as a "turn-around" event, rather than a safety-of-flight. Extremely sadly ironic of course, because these designations were built into the system following Challenger. However if one went down the safety-of-flight path and it turned out to not be so serious, that would have impacted the space station build out schedule. And that was oh so important. But was it really? Clearly it wasn't, because once Columbia was lost the ISS build out schedule was updated, lengthened and employed Russia space crafts.

I now believe one of the responsibilities of older leaf-node engineers, such as myself, is to get better at communication. To calming layout in non-technical terms the options and consequences before management. Then stand back and let them make the choice. Once the choice is made, dig in and try to make it as successful as possible.

It is tough of course. And to see the $5000 to $50 waste is frustrating to watch. Sometimes though if we can't influence that, we just need to be content to focus our energy where we can.

Cheers,
-Randy

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Coralproject Talk
Has anyone gotten #coralproject 's Talk #comment server to work? I've tried downloading their #docker images to get into the admin install area but I'm always greeted by a blank screen. I have a feeling it's a permission issue somewhere. The devs are nice but a little slow in responding. Just throwing it out to the #federation and #fediverse in case anyone has that experience.
#docker #federation #fediverse #coralproject #comment

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

NYT is killing it today.

"Fake change isn’t evil; it’s milquetoast. It is change the powerful can tolerate. It’s the shoes or socks or tote bag you bought which promised to change the world. It’s that one awesome charter school — not equally funded public schools for all. It is Lean In Circles to empower women — not universal preschool. It is impact investing — not the closing of the carried-interest loophole."

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

S/O to @randygalbraith and @Alyson for being really decent people with excellent commentary on the #federation , a place where you don't necessarily have to have those qualities. :-)

#FederationChallenge


mwpdx

2018-08-22 01:21:11


BOOST THE #federationchallenge

Ok, throwing this into place. Play along.

Thank one follower for being an awesome human being. If you are thanked, PAY IT FORWARD.

Let love and respect be our language! Let's keep it going!

#federation #FederationChallenge @alysonsee (D*) @randygalbraith
in reply to JB Carroll

diaspora - Link to source

randygalbraith

Thank you so much @JB Carroll for the kind words! I too have enjoyed following posts by @Alyson. Let me push a shout out to @Adam Hunt. I enjoy seeing his sailing picture from the "old country" (Canada). In this post I am using the list produced by typing the "at" sign -- hopefully it posts correctly. Cheers, -Randy
@JB Carroll @Adam Hunt @alysonsee (D*)
Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

JB Carroll

The question is whether those tax cuts are going to useful reinvestment (i.e.to the bottom 90% who would likely spend it into the economy) or idling in an offshore tax haven. These cuts will do little to affect aggregate demand.

Though, with the US economy going into overheating territory, that's probably a good thing at the moment. We just won't have the funds when we need them (during the next recession).

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

bleepingcomputer_unofficial

2018-08-07 17:41:11


Let's Encrypt Is Now Officially Trusted by All Major Root Certificate Authorities


Let's Encrypt announced yesterday that they are now directly trusted by
all major root authorities including those from Microsoft, Google,
Apple, Mozilla, Oracle, and Blackberry. With this announcement, Let's
Encrypt is now directly trusted by all major browsers and operating
systems. [...]

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

The Onion Daily News

2018-08-01 23:33:22


Facebook Identifies Dozens Of Suspicious Accounts Seemingly Enjoying Time On Website


MENLO PARK, CA—Finally homing in on a lead in their ongoing investigation into potentially fraudulent accounts, Facebook reported Wednesday the identification of dozens of suspicious accounts belonging to people who seem to enjoy their time on the website. “We discovered a small but significant number of registered… Read more...

Read more at: theonion.com/facebook-identifi…

#humor #satire #news #theonion

#news #Humor #Satire #theonion

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

"Among social psychology’s fundamental lessons is that people are profoundly affected by what other people think. In their desire to be upstanding members of their political tribe, people are pulled toward embracing the stances of their peers and loath to publicly disagree with them.

As a result, the actual degree of political polarization on climate change belief and support for climate policy is considerably less than people think it is. Environmental activists often seek to increase support for climate policy by convincing skeptics about the reality and urgency of climate change. But our studies suggest that climate policy gridlock is largely about exaggerating disagreement for the sake of disagreement."

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

JERBS!!!!!

Erik Moeller

2018-07-25 22:45:07


Hi folks! My employer, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, looking for an Associate Site Reliability Engineer, which is a fancy-ish way to say "keep websites running and automate all the things" :)

- Open to junior/entry-level
- Open to remote work in American time zones
- Mentoring included
- You get paid to help protect freedoms that are under imminent threat.

Great role if you're looking to start a career in infrastructure work with mission focus. Questions? DM! :)

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

But muh free speech!

PSA. I've been getting a lot of nazi posts in my feed lately, complaining that pods are banning them for their hate speech. Again, they complain under the guise of #freespeech.

Pods are not governments! They are privately held entities and admins can do what they wish with banning users. You're free to spew hate speech on some other media (or whatever), but that doesn't mean anyone here has to host your BS online or listen to what you say.

</thread>
</rant>

via xkcd:

#freespeech

diaspora - Link to source

randygalbraith

Hi Adam,

[I believe in the US your laws are currently a little conflicted, and will be sorted out in due time. This baker case is fairly high profile and it sounds like the reason the state decision was overturned was due to the state penalizing the baker due to religious beliefs, which really doesn’t say anything about whether the baker should be forced to treat people equally or not.
In Canada, we have the charter of rights and freedoms, and it’s pretty clearly spelled out that one can not discriminate on such terms, so religion or not, you don’t get to tell people to take a hike out of your business based on them being gay, or of a particular skin colour, or gender, etc. However, it would still be entirely appropriate to kick someone out of your business for hate speech, libel, or any other of a number of things that are against the law.]

I wanted to comment on this earlier, but didn't have the time. The NPR story on why the Colorado decision is "narrow" and not likely to pro-discrimination to become the norm:

npr.org/2018/06/04/605003519/s…

I'm Canadian by birth, but became a US citizen in 2010. The first amendment here is a bit different than how the Canadian Charter protects free speech and freedom of religion, but runs along the same line of thought. In this case one of the justices said the case had been compromised "by the comments of one of seven commissioners at a public hearing — comments that Kennedy said disparaged Phillips' faith as "despicable" and comparable to comments made by those who sought to justify slavery on religious grounds."

I think it would be almost certain that in most States a gay couple could walk into a bake shop and buy an already made cake or design and expect to complete the transaction without discrimination. And if they ran into discrimination would find the law on their side. Where it could get more difficult is if they asked the baker for a custom design and wording, perhaps something like "God Loves Gays." The first amendment protects the right of someone to remain silent. Apple recently referenced that in regards to the FBI request for them to author a program to break into an iPhone the FBI had in evidence.

Cheers,
-Randy

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Important reminder. I bet Facebook would look like a jumbled mess to new users without help, compared to any of the open source offerings I've seen.

crows call me breadlady

2018-07-22 17:19:26


twitter et al are « easy to use » now because we have been using them for years and years.

have you ever seen someone use twitter or facebook for the very first time? it’s fucking confounding.

« what am i supposed to do »
« following? why would i do that? »
« why can’t i get to your uncle’s photos »

usability isn’t a secret UX sauce. it’s years of acclimation and the formation of communities that can bootstrap that acclimation for each other.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

"Mr. Huang points out that the established tech industry is mainly funding the most immediately applicable technologies. “Life science and software get a lot of money,” he said.

More speculative technologies that don’t offer any obvious payoff aren’t as lucky. “Everything else is underfunded,” Mr. Huang said, noting that as a percentage of the overall economy, federal spending on research and development has fallen since the 1970s."

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

What a great article. Sums up many of the challenges regarding decentralization. I also like it's discussion of a modern corporation as a "Slow AI" designed to do one thing at the expense of everything else: generate profit. This explains why modern large internet companies probably won't ever change their business model. It goes against their slow AI and to do differently for such large businesses would be too costly and difficult.

If that's how slow AIs operate, I shudder to think about what actual AI will do once it's integrated fully into business decisions.

Resist 2_Create

2018-07-11 17:43:33


This excerpt makes me act after having considered to distance my communication from corporately developed social networking sites (i.e., #Facebook) learning from my research.

"Facebook has 1.37*109 daily users, so it is about 22,800 times bigger than Diaspora. Even assuming Diaspora was as good as Facebook, an impossible goal for a small group of Eben Moglen's students, no-one had any idea how to motivate the other 99.996% of Facebook users to abandon the network where all their friends were and restart building their social graph from scratch. The fact that after 6 years Diaspora has 60K active users is impressive for an open source project, but it is orders of magnitude away from the scale needed to be a threat to Facebook. We can see this because Facebook hasn't bothered to react to it."

This quotation from Rosenthal's blog blog.dshr.org/2018/01/it-isnt-… makes me both discontent and dissatisfied with how powerless most users succumb to media conglomerates and states. #politicaleconomyofcommunication #decentralisation #onlineprivacy #surveillance #civilsociety #newhere

#newhere #Surveillance #Facebook) #politicaleconomyofcommunication #decentralisation #onlineprivacy #civilsociety
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