Ragnell

Landlords are using AI to screen their tenants, heightening errors and discrimination.

The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con

The new era of tech seems to be built on superstitious behaviour

Okay, so right now government agencies, schools, and small business often use Facebook or Twitter for their web presence rather than start their own websites. For a few days there, while Twitter had the login-wall up and was rate-limiting, we had some serious problems wtih Amber Alerts, weather notices, safety notices and other announcements from US government entities. It looked like the government would be forced to start hiring web admins and setting up RSS Feeds and Mastodon servers to get the word out.

But now Threads is here, and they can just as easily as they were on Twitter outsource their web presence for free. They can just make Threads accounts for these public safety and security announcements.

Schools and small businesses can do the same thing, have instantly better reach than on Mastodon, and never have to worry about ActivityPub at all. All of these people remain in the Metagarden, and worst of all, we're forced to federate to them because public safety info is there.

This will significantly slow the growth of the Fediverse.

Now, a lot of stuff has gone to pasture or become rare because of EEE... forums, personal blogs, IRC and stuff. But Linux is still going strong. So maybe there's enough of us counterculture sorts to keep the Fediverse active and independent. But even so, Threads can very easily kill any growth beyond that AND force us to federate or at least have alternate accounts to view these necessary services.

I do not have a solution, but I think this is an aspect of the problem that hasn't been focused on. We talk about mass defederation to save ourselves and list all these frivolous things like celebrities and journalist twitters (while assuming we have the full news feed) without taking the incredibly important government-run accounts into the conversation. Because defederating from the account that posts Amber Alerts is not a simple choice.

And one of the things that got people back in the day with BBSes, IRCs, forums...etc.. was that they were in school and that was the computer culture at school. Now the computer culture at school is Facebook, and will be Threads. All we have to offer is an ad-free experience, and a knowledge/cost curve to any institutions that are choosing between running their own server and just endorsing the use of Meta's products. This will slow down growth. It may well stop it.

Alef Aeronautics' 'Model A' has a driving range of 200 miles and a flight range of 110 miles. The company plans to start delivering cars by late 2025.

Google Reader was supposed to be much more than a tool for nerds. But it never got the chance.

Simple versus question. No wrong answers. What happens in Godzilla vs Superman. No-Prize if someone finds an actual published example.

There's a BIRDING community?! subscribes

This is an article by Cat Valente during the Twitter Migration, discussing the cycle of enschittification and the history of social media.

We found it very perceptive and helpful when leaving Twitter, and I think people leaving Reddit may feel the same.