@salixsericea@mastodon.social
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

salixsericea

@salixsericea@mastodon.social

Six countries, nine lives. Not good at doing a bio. Comments on the reality show of life. May contain traces of nuts.
🇫🇷, 🇩🇪, 🇮🇪, 🇮🇹, 🇬🇧, 🇺🇸

❤️ experts and kind humans

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

greendesignek, to random
@greendesignek@mstdn.social avatar

I think that Biden has an even bigger problem than the fact that he keeps giving taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel to kill Palestinian kids: it's the recognition by many people that the reason for doing so is to appease the actually in charge of our country. That , not city leadership, are directing police to suppress free speech. That's not .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/business-leaders-chat-group-eric-adams-columbia-protesters/

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@greendesignek
I gasped when I got to: "Some members also offered to pay for private investigators to assist New York police in handling the protests, the chat log shows — an offer a member of the group reported in the chat that Adams accepted."

Thank you for surfacing this!
Happy Friday.

PadraigOCinneide, to random
@PadraigOCinneide@mastodon.social avatar

Our lawnmower's battery charger stopped working over the weekend. $200 for a new one, which is like 1/3 of a lawnmower. Ugh.

I ordered the weird screwdriver to open the case for $7, watched a 20 min YouTube with someone debugging a similar model. I was able to take it apart and solder back together a component that had come loose. 💅 It's been up and working for 20 minutes with no explosions or even bad smells.

Being willing to attempt to repair stuff is such a superpower. YouTube is amazing. ✌🏻

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@PadraigOCinneide Not mechanically minded self took apart a Kitchen Aid mixer, cleaned out 40 yr old grease, put food grade grease in, reassembled with no parts left over, :-). Changed brushes. Because Youtube.

Thank you for the good news post of the day!

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

I told y'all, cops don't do what you think they do.🤷🏿‍♂️

Black folk know this from lived experience. Some white folk only learn this when they go to report a theft or sexual assault and find out that the $11B/year NYPD are not equipped to handle that.

15K NYC bikes stolen a year!

https://www.404media.co/nypd-bike-lock-chain-kryptonite-columbia-university-protests/

1/n

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@jollyorc @mekkaokereke I remember a report in the San Francisco Chronicle some 20 years ago about a delegation of the German feds (BKA) visiting California. The reporter was amused by a German very politely inquiring if the budget figure on a slide was the correct figure because it was unfathomably large by comparison.
Happy Friday!

salixsericea, to random
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

Elderly woman of 80+ recently received a parking ticket from Arizona, one state over from Southern California.

I don't understand, I haven't been to Arizona for at least 40 years, she explained.

Looked at the ticket again. The year on the slip is 1985.

Someone is digitizing old paper records.

At least they didn't do the very American doubling, then tripling the amount and adding big interest as soon as you miss a deadline by a day.

Gargron, to random
@Gargron@mastodon.social avatar

Oh, today is my 8th anniversary of working on Mastodon. I was 23 when I started, finishing my last year of university, still living at my parent's place. I had no idea what I was getting myself into or that it would consume the next 8 years of my life almost completely.

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@Gargron Enjoy the ride! It's often better not to know what one gets oneself into, 😉.
Thank you for doing this.

salixsericea, to incarcerated
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

Oh, boy, the #FBI executed a search warrant on the federal women's #prison in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The news report that the new warden is gone. Which comes after the previous one was convicted of sexually abusing prisoners.

Just another reminder how f***ed up our "justice" system is.

No, sending in the FBI does not change it. Abuse has been going on there for decades.

#SFBayArea

axbom, to random
@axbom@axbom.me avatar

We are at a stage in human history where huge trust is placed in statistical machines, that are unpredictable and easily manipulated, for important business – and personal – decisions.

Blown away when people respond to screenshots of failed responses with screenshots of successful responses, as if the tool has "learned" the correct response.

As if it can't just as easily provide an incorrect response again.

It's unsettling to me that people don't understand how the tools work, yet decide to trust them because the language reminds them of their own language.

When this bubble bursts it will be very painful for a great many people, in many different ways.

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@jamesravey @axbom Thank you!

I've considered asking people if they would use an LLM if it was connected to a machine that would drop a hammer on your foot without you ever knowing when that would happen. 😉.

Wishing both of you a great weekend.

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@axbom @jamesravey
It's more an expression of utter despair.

But seriously, I am glad that you, Dr. Ravenscroft and some others are out there as voices of sanity.

fj, to random
@fj@mastodon.social avatar

Big day for French Tech with the announcement of the Renault R5 EV as well as the Large Mistral Model.

I asked Mistral about what options a french car should come up with and it did think of the R5's "porte-baguette”, and has a few more suggestions for Renault.

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

salixsericea,
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

@fj Good fun. I like the no, you wait until after arrival to break out the bottle of wine vibe, 😉.

Now I have to go and get suggestions for American cars. Gun compartment, brown paper bag holder...? Who knows.

Might also ask it to suggest a new award for awkward product names and hope it suggests "Cringey."

Happy Monday!

salixsericea, to Bulgaria
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

Nice #NATO you've got there. Would be a shame if something happened to it.

--- Mar-a-Lago mob boss

salixsericea, to oklahoma
@salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

"#Oklahoma asks teachers to return up to $50,000 in bonuses the state says were paid in error"

Turns out the total amount of money paid 'in error' for over 500 teachers recruited with the program is under $ 290 000.

That's a rounding error in the state's education budget.

https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-teacher-bonus-clawback-walters-cdd78068c3efc4b22b01cf86d54bfacb

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    @lzg OMG, 😉. Floor to ceiling white tiles is a design that is, how can I say this, 'not typically' associated with a nice shower/bathroom.

    salixsericea, to HR
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    Want to know how the #US #military helped to undermine Americans' feeling that no health insurance/ruinous costs, zero paid vacation time, zero maternity leave are God given freedoms?

    I worked in #HR at one of the outposts of the #empire. One of our jobs was to familiarize US mil and civilian supervisors with the labor laws of the host country.

    The effects on 20-something junior US personnel from some backwater state were nothing but stunning.

    ...🧵

    salixsericea, to norcal
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    Yes, a String Cheese Incident occurred last night at or around Miss's Brown's Tea House. The jams were fantastic. The cheese crackers were as cute as ever.

    This happens more frequently than one might think. But they always find their way home:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGChKhPzA8U

    Happy New Year!

    [Decided against pulling some strings to "work" the night at the Oakland FOX but decided to just enjoy The Cheese, 😉.]

    #SFBayArea #NewYear #music

    Noupside, to random
    @Noupside@saturation.social avatar

    The annual Christmas tradition in which I am kicked out of the gift wrapping room by my spouse because I am “phoning it in” and there are gaps in the seams of my wrapping. 🫥

    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    @Noupside Sloppy gift wrapping is better according to this scientific research.
    Happy Holidays!
    https://flipboard.com/@conversationus/conversation-us-pc8ciek1z/-/a-DAJeO4MxQYyI8rrK-MLR9A%3Aa%3A2015697237-%2F0

    salixsericea, to languagelearning
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    I laughed out loud when I saw the name: .

    Q: Why are you laughing?

    A: It's and means 'badly made' or 'messed up'.

    There are lots of versions but the one you could call spinach-ravioli-gone-wrong from Bon Appetit is delicious and perfectly illustrates the name.

    https://www.bonappetit.com/story/malfatti

    salixsericea, to california
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    It was surprisingly hard to get used to being able to grow vegetables and fruit all year round in our corner of , but we are making progress.

    Right now, six heads of are maturing in raised beds right next to and mandarins. , , and sprouts are adjacent to blooming and other herbs.

    Jag Singh's channel helps with handy reminders: https://www.youtube.com/@DaisyCreekFarms

    Also, see his intro about fake million views videos!

    cdarwin, to random
    @cdarwin@c.im avatar

    The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you've already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations.
    Inkjet printers were always a sleazy business, but once these printers got directly connected to the internet, companies like HP started pushing out "security updates" that modified your printer to make it reject the third-party ink you'd paid for:
    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer
    Now, this scam wouldn't work if you could just put things back the way they were before the "update," which is where the DRM comes in.

    A thicket of IP laws make reverse-engineering DRM-encumbered products into a felony.
    Combine always-on network access with indiscriminate criminalization of user modification, and the enshittification will follow, as surely as night follows day.
    @pluralistic
    https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/

    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    @cdarwin @pluralistic At least five years before the security update issue, HP "regionalized" their ink cartridges in the same way as movie DVDs.
    This meant that the exact same HP printer model in, for example, Europe and the US would only work with HP Europe or HP US encoded cartridges respectively.

    salixsericea, to llm
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    Obscure take of the day:

    A Large Language Moodel (#LLM) in #AI is simply the triumph of the oft maligned linked list, where the links are obscure statistical clumps of numbers instead of plain pointers to the next list element.

    #LinkedList

    fj, (edited ) to random
    @fj@mastodon.social avatar

    Catching up with some ex-Signal colleagues recently, I was amazed that Signal is over 50 people now when we were just a handful at launch!

    But that's still really lean when you compare it to some other messaging apps where it's already a significant milestone for a senior engineer to rewrite a settings menu in a year ...

    https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/signal-meta-google-too-big-18496594.php

    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    @fj ...or get yelled at by your manager if you deliver it in a week, 😉.

    Thank you for having helped start Signal, and have a great weekend.

    salixsericea, to environment
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    Every single #utility company in this country: "“Customers do not fund #lobbying expenditures,....”

    And no follow-up by journalist with "who does then?"

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/21/new-orleans-climate-carbon-emissions

    #electricity #gas #environment

    axbom, to random
    @axbom@axbom.me avatar

    I truly didn't think this would finally happen in a significant way, but some companies are actually paying good money for me to come and tell them to behave and treat people better.

    While I get into a lot of "how", the next step is obviously "do".

    One step at a time…

    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    @axbom Congratulations!

    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    @axbom You are very welcome. Will you share any juicy questions/comments with your friendly Mastodon followers, 😉?

    salixsericea, to Podcast
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    The #podcast with slides (!) "Well There's Your Problem", Episode 43: #LasVegas Loop.

    It's a tunnel with taxis in it. Silicon Valley's answer to actual, proven mass transportation.

    Also, in true Silicon Valley fashion, not #ADA compliant.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWvagC5ccyY

    #MassTransit

    salixsericea, to place
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    Who of us is not enthralled by names?

    There is mystique, lost history, and lots of WTF?

    " " in - yes, , - is one of the latter. Zero palms, no harbor, and the village is just a patch of mobile homes adjoining a busy freeway.

    Though an all time fave is Court if you know that it was renamed from Gay Court.

    ...🧵

    salixsericea,
    @salixsericea@mastodon.social avatar

    participants in the failed 20 July 1944 coup who were rounded up and brutally murdered by the regime.

    So, the city named every single street in a new development after these individuals.

    Which promptly caused the residents to refer to that part of the city collectively as 'execution village'.

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