@Coolmccool@mastodon.au
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

Coolmccool

@Coolmccool@mastodon.au

Born in N. Ireland, now living in Australia. Into bush camping - see https://slowcamping.com.au/ and a new holistic view of how we integrate with our natural environment. Professional human-centred designer, service designer (MA Design Futures).

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

Coolmccool, to journalism
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@gerrymcgovern I deleted 79,125 'promotional' emails from my Gmail account yesterday.

Didn't think I really needed them.
Didn't think they were useful.

Why do I get so many of these completely useless messages?
Why is so much time and energy expended on these hopeless things that most people completely ignore?
And why should we keep storing them, year after year?

What a terrible waste.

Coolmccool, to auspol
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

Right-wing Australian billionaire and money-bag climate change denier Gina Reinhart apparently doesn't want people to see her portrait by the Indigenous artist Vincent Namatjira in the National Gallery.

So it would be just awful if people share this article and her portrait.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/15/gina-rinehart-demands-national-gallery-of-australia-remove-her-portrait.

Personally, I think it's great - and might make a very attractive t-shirt?

historyofpunkrock, to punk
@historyofpunkrock@sfba.social avatar

Two years ago today
In memory Chris Bailey, Australian singer, songwriter, musician and co-founder of punk rock band the Saints.

Chris Bailey died in Haarlem on 9 April 2022, aged 65

Photo by Gus Stewart

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@historyofpunkrock Chris Bailey of the Saints, and as a mark of respect 'I'm Stranded' is my record of the week, this week and every other week.

https://youtu.be/S2Lt8F5unhM?si=xaNeTifvltehBGKs

Coolmccool, to Facebook
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

What is on my mind? Censorship, that's what's on my mind. The Australian political weekly Green Left has been "unpublished" by , leaving tens of thousands of their followers out in the cold. The crime that inspired this censorship? An interview with Palestinian activist Leila Khaled.

AccessNow, which defends the “digital rights of people and communities at risk” reports that Meta is “systematically silencing the voices of both Palestinians and those advocating for Palestinians’ rights” through arbitrary content removals, suspension of prominent Palestinian and Palestine-related accounts, restrictions on pro-Palestinian users and content, shadow-banning, discriminatory content moderation policies, inconsistent and discriminatory rule enforcement.

This reminds me so much of my own homeland when Sinn Fein activists were silenced - literally, as it was illegal to broadcast their voices - by the British government in the 1980s. It didn't work. It just kept the war pot boiling.

Peace demands true freedom of speech. When Sinn Fein were allowed to speak, dialogue began, and the peace process was allowed to begin.

I'll have to admit that I've always loathed , right from the start, and have refused to use it. However, I know that billions of other folk do use it - and they have the right to hear the voices of the Palestinians, just as the Palestinians have every right to be heard.

You may or may not agree with the politics of Green Left, but everyone should question whether a corporation such as Meta / Facebook should have the power to silence the voice of a nation.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/beat-facebook-ban-green-left

AndyPaciorekArt, to movies
@AndyPaciorekArt@mastodon.social avatar

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@AndyPaciorekArt One of the very best... the villain is so super creepy.

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@AndyPaciorekArt William Talman - also excellent in The Armored Car Robbery ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_Car_Robbery ) a super tough heist movie. Well worth watching. And available free on the Internet Archive.

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@AndyPaciorekArt https://archive.org/details/armoredcarrobbery1950_201909

Coolmccool, to auspol
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

Critically endangered sawfish and the rare river shark are facing the highest fishing pressure in a decade in Northern Territory waters. Take action now: https://nwmd.io/s/email/ZBI4BDLEH_ftRWWnK7I=/r

#auspol #press #australia #nature #sharks #fish #ecology #extinction #endangered

historyofpunkrock, to random
@historyofpunkrock@sfba.social avatar

46 years ago today
Ari Up of The Slits whacks a skinhead disrupting their gig at the Thames Polytechnic in Calderwood Street, Woolwich.

Taken on March 4, 1978 when The Slits played the venue alongside Penetration and Buzzcocks

📸 Ray Stevenson

image/jpeg

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@historyofpunkrock Ari was a definite legend.

But how cool were the bouncers, who continued to calmly smoke their ciggies, while ejecting this here young gentleman.

Coolmccool, to ai
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

Again @pluralistic brings clarity to the fog of that we are completely drowned in. He highlights the REAL danger and some of the cases he highlights are shocking:

"Nearly 1,000 British postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud by Horizon, the faulty AI fraud-hunting system that Fujitsu provided to the Royal Mail. They had their lives ruined by this faulty AI, many went to prison, and at least four of the AI’s victims killed themselves."

Similar to the horrors of Australia's own ghastly tragedy.

If you are going to read one article today, read this: https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-02-27-ai-conspiracies-epistemological-collapse-eabfefa6b2e8

Coolmccool, to australia
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I see that today, 's The Australian has a special comedy 🤣 section on the front page:

CindyWeinstein, (edited ) to random
@CindyWeinstein@zirk.us avatar

Superb sign posted by @wigbert. Love this line: "As Librarians, we're not here to judge, we're here to help." Amen.

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@CindyWeinstein @wigbert I love libraries. They can really help change people's lives for the better.

historyofpunkrock, to punk
@historyofpunkrock@sfba.social avatar

Happy Birthday to John "Jake" Burns, singer, guitarist and frontman of Northern Ireland punk rock band Stiff Little Fingers, born on this day in 1958, Belfast.

Photo by Steve Rapport

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@historyofpunkrock Happy Birthday to Jake, from my own part of the world - Norn Iron.
Saw SLF live back in Armagh many years ago, an absolutely magical gig:

https://medium.com/outlaw-blues/stiff-little-fingers-it-was-a-great-gig-so-it-was-a9ef016c68a7

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

I think all employer's correspondence in the form of email, slack, texts, calls should cease after 6 p.m. There should be an off switch at every company that kills it until the next day.

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@StillIRise1963 Either: correspondence outside of working hours (which could be flexible) should cease; OR workers should be paid for those hours they are expected to be literally, 'on call.'

Employers can't expect people to sell their free time for no payment.

slevelt, to vinyl
@slevelt@hcommons.social avatar

found for £1.50 in a charity shop, and absolutely one of my favourite records in my tiny collection - Nancy Wilson’s Today, Tomorrow, Forever. 🎶 @vinylrecords

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@slevelt @vinylrecords Great find! And what a wonderful cover, too.

Coolmccool, to UX
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@pluralistic brilliantly clarifying our modern world for us, as usual:

We’re nowhere near the point where an AI can do your job, but we’re well past the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job.

https://doctorow.medium.com/i-assure-you-an-ai-didnt-write-a-terrible-george-carlin-routine-83d447bfbd72

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@specwill @pluralistic 'Contrepeneurs' - that could be the word of 2024.

(Although I sort of feel I need to say it in a fake French accent.)

aardrian, to random
@aardrian@toot.cafe avatar

Whenever an org says it wants to use ‘AI’ for a better customer experience, it is almost certainly lying.

Customers are not clamoring for shitty chat bots that extend the time to get to a real human. Customers are not asking for LLM-authored SEO-driven FAQ pages. Customers are not asking for yet more hero images of people with extra fingers.

The org is likely only interested in using ‘AI’ to reduce effort, save money, cut staff.

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@EMR @aardrian Ahem. Just about to have a go at trying to get the compensation we're owed for a cancelled flight. I'll keep your sentiments in mind (cough).

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Reminder that no one should buy a printer from HP, ever: https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/hps_ceo_spells_it_out/

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@dangillmor Recently bought an Epson 2811 THAT YOU JUST FILL WITH CHEAP BOTTLES OF INK. Works great. Good quality too.

I have been waiting a very long time for a printer like this.

So much better than my previous Canon printer which demanded tiny, super expensive cartridges, and which was always throwing hissy fits, wanting to get itself replaced.

Coolmccool, to vinyl
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

Would appreciate any help in identifying this Chinese Pathe 78rpm recording from the late 1930s. Catalogue number is 3500 and it is not listed on Discogs. ☹️

@vinylrecords @TheVinylApe

Chinese Pathe 78rpm recording from the late 1930s.

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@gw6kwm @vinylrecords @TheVinylApe Thank you, that's super helpful!

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@ProfundumPhoto @vinylrecords @TheVinylApe This is really helpful, actually. I'll use this information to list the recording on Discogs. Thank you!

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@ProfundumPhoto @vinylrecords @TheVinylApe Thanks again!

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@ProfundumPhoto @vinylrecords @TheVinylApe Thanks for your help on this. More detective work reveals that this was actually the 'B' side. The 'A' side 'Rose, Rose, I Love You' was actually an enormous hit, and this is Yao Lee's first recording of it, from 1940!

'A' side pictured.

The song was later covered by Frankie Laine and was a big hit in the states, too.

Happy Lunar New Year!

historyofpunkrock, to punk
@historyofpunkrock@sfba.social avatar

Happy Birthday to Christian Emmerich aka Blixa Bargeld, German musician who has been a member of the groups Einstürzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and ANBB, born on this day in 1959, Berlin

📸 Bernd Kühn

Coolmccool,
@Coolmccool@mastodon.au avatar

@historyofpunkrock Saw Einstürzende Neubauten in the early 80's at the Acklam Hall, on the Portobello Rd in London. The Acklam Hall was actually underneath the infamous Westway motorway which the Clash sang about.

It was a great, really chaotic, gig.

It was a Friday night, I recall, and I had been working on a building site all week, so I was ready to blow off some steam. When the band started up on stage with their Kango industrial drills I jumped up and gave them a wee hand, showed them how to do it properly! Blixa didn't know WTF was going on.*

An absolutely ferocious noise, it was.

*note that this could also be interpreted as acting like a total eejit. Sorry, Blixa.

(Edit) Photos and an account of the gig here: https://seelebrenntarchive.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/einsturzende-neubauten-london-aug-19-1983/

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