@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

njsg

@njsg@social.sdf.org

#TrainGeek who tries to write computer code. Interests may include #RetroComputing, #ComputingHistory and #UNIX. 100% asbestos-free.

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KathyReid, to stackoverflow
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Like many other technologists, I gave my time and expertise for free to #StackOverflow because the content was licensed CC-BY-SA - meaning that it was a public good. It brought me joy to help people figure out why their #ASR code wasn't working, or assist with a #CUDA bug.

Now that a deal has been struck with #OpenAI to scrape all the questions and answers in Stack Overflow, to train #GenerativeAI models, like #LLMs, without attribution to authors (as required under the CC-BY-SA license under which Stack Overflow content is licensed), to be sold back to us (the SA clause requires derivative works to be shared under the same license), I have issued a Data Deletion request to Stack Overflow to disassociate my username from my Stack Overflow username, and am closing my account, just like I did with Reddit, Inc.

https://policies.stackoverflow.co/data-request/

The data I helped create is going to be bundled in an #LLM and sold back to me.

In a single move, Stack Overflow has alienated its community - which is also its main source of competitive advantage, in exchange for token lucre.

Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow's former instantiation, used to fulfill a psychological contract - help others out when you can, for the expectation that others may in turn assist you in the future. Now it's not an exchange, it's #enshittification.

Programmers now join artists and copywriters, whose works have been snaffled up to create #GenAI solutions.

The silver lining I see is that once OpenAI creates LLMs that generate code - like Microsoft has done with Copilot on GitHub - where will they go to get help with the bugs that the generative AI models introduce, particularly, given the recent GitClear report, of the "downward pressure on code quality" caused by these tools?

While this is just one more example of #enshittification, it's also a salient lesson for #DevRel folks - if your community is your source of advantage, don't upset them.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@KathyReid So what they're doing with data deletion requests is just deleting the PII in the attribution? They're not deleting the content?

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@KathyReid According to the ToS, they don't own the content. They are licensed the content (under CC BY-SA, now 4.0), but authors retain copyright ownership.

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

ceci n'est pas une bannière

#StreetFurniture #Recursion #Torino

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@TonyJWells @pluralistic
Here's a slight variation of that theme: a bilingual sign for a hospital, left side has the Finnish descriptions, the right side has "the same in Swedish" in Swedish.

http://web.archive.org/web/20131109031849im_/http://www.seiska.fi/images/upload/cms/files/admin/kyltti_625jpg.jpg

(From http://web.archive.org/web/20131108023711/http://www.seiska.fi/Viihdeuutiset/Kaikkien-aikojen-kylttimoka-Malmin-sairaalan-seinassa-kuva/1022661)

dillo, to usenet
@dillo@fosstodon.org avatar

Playing with a #NNTP plugin for #Dillo to read #Usenet messages. Posting may be doable too.

CC @yeti

The rest of the message.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@yeti @dillo /me again wonders why #MastodonWebUI stopped linkifying news: addresses

Sure, I can copy and paste in another tab, but this is still a downgrade from the previous behaviour...

(Sorry for the OT)

#NetNews

jdkiser, to linux
@jdkiser@social.sdf.org avatar

23 years later, Antitrust is still a great movie. Featuring Gnome desktop and all the anti-Microsoft sentiment from the 90's. We all wanted to be Milo.

Up next: Hackers.

What are some other movies to watch?

#linux #movies #hackers #antitrust #unix #opensource #fyp #gnome #nurv

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@jdkiser At the risk of being off the mark for the sort of movie you're looking for:

WarGames. Also, Jurassic Park for the SGI workstation scene.

Methylcobalamin, to usenet
@Methylcobalamin@mastodon.social avatar

comp.os.linux.misc has been overrun with spam. At least as it is viewed on the web via Google Groups.

It had one of the best crowds for solving Linux issues.

Does anyone know if that crowed migrated somewhere else?

#GoogleGroups #Usenet #Comp.Os.Linux.Misc #Linux

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@Methylcobalamin People are still on comp.os.linux.misc, it is active. Spam was being injected via Google's servers, and some news servers either had more elaborate filtering in place, or just rejected anything from Google, making this and other affected groups usable.

Currently, #GoogleGroups is not getting any new content because when an internal ticket about the spam was escalated enough, the decision was apparently to cut the feed instead of fixing the spam problem.

#USENET #NetNews

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@Methylcobalamin
#GoogleGroups should still(*) have the messages up to the cut-off date, but it might be hard to browse the archive of affected groups because of all the spam.

(*) At least until it gets flagged for having spam and Google blocks it because it has spam — yes, Google blocks groups for having spam that was injected via Google, it has happened before, there are still groups affected by it, and probably will happen again until somebody finally fixes some internal process...

#USENET

rysiek, to fediverse
@rysiek@mstdn.social avatar

Happy seventh anniversary of "Six reasons Mastodon won't survive" to all who celebrate:
https://mashable.com/article/mastodon-wont-survive

#Fediverse #Mastodon

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@rysiek Has anyone done a parody of this, with email instead of mastodon?

"The email app does not show me a list of email domains to choose from, probably because I don't think anyone knows just how many email domains are out there."

"If you can't find people by name, how can you send them an email?"

amoroso, to retrocomputing
@amoroso@fosstodon.org avatar

In a retrocomputing newsletter I subscribe to I read this announcement of a new community resource:

"I’ve created a new FaceBook group ..."

My heart sank at the thought of freely shared knowledge buried in increasingly locked silos. I prefer resources like Retrocomputing Forum which I recently joined:

https://retrocomputingforum.com

It's on the open web and runs an open source platform. But aside from the tech stack it's a great community with great discussions.

#retrocomputing #community

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@amoroso Sadly, it is discourse. Which means I can't scroll in the browser I use without Javascript (I do have a bookmarklet for that, though).

Some deployments of discourse reportedly blank themselves with javascript enabled. This one doesn't do that, but is also not scrollable with Javascript enabled :-\

Still better than facebook, of course.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@elb @amoroso I'm afraid I don't have anything to mention or suggest, as I don't use any discourse forum for writing (just have the bad experience of having to disable the CSS overflow rule (almost?) every time I follow a link that leads to something on a discourse instance).

I don't even know whether disabling that CSS rule (or making it be loaded with javascript, so that it does not break without javascript) is something that can be changed easily or not.

mjgardner, (edited ) to mastodon
@mjgardner@social.sdf.org avatar

I think I need to find a new #Mastodon home server. The frequent HTTP 500 Internal Server Errors from #SDF’s https://social.sdf.org are beginning to feel disruptive.

And yes, I’m paid in.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@mjgardner Last time, a few weeks ago, it went away when the announcement was changeed to read this has three servers (I think it was four before?), and yes, it's back again and strongly erroring. Same behaviour: 500, 404, 40 notifications, and the "something wrong" page.

I fear something might be bad again, hardware or software. It might be time for me to finally post to bboard as I said I would do in https://social.sdf.org/@phf/112112259634649198

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

The organizers of this career-day panel I agreed to do want my linkedin and a headshot they can use for publicity purposes.

Am I the only one who doesn't have headshots or a linkedin account? I don't like careers enough to have cultivated either of those things.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@MLE_online You're definitely not the only one without a Linkedin account. I refuse to set up an account with a business that at one point was spamming me insistently, without me even having ever had an account there.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@MLE_online Also, if they did not let you know about that early enough, I'd be a bit frustrated, that's the kind of thing they should state early if it's not optional.

But, of course, if they have the "everyone's on linkedin" mindset, they'll not see the issue with that.

Codeberg, (edited ) to random
@Codeberg@social.anoxinon.de avatar

We will be having scheduled downtime today around 18.00 CET (17.00 UTC).

Read all about it: https://status.codeberg.eu/status/codeberg

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@Codeberg Is one of these timezones wrong? I gather 17:00 is the UTC time?

pwaring, (edited ) to email
@pwaring@fosstodon.org avatar

Does anyone know if there's a way in Thunderbird to either:

  1. Compose replies in the same format (HTML or plain text) as the original message.

  2. Compose replies in HTML or plain text depending on the recipient.

Problem: I have clients who want plain text emails and others who want HTML.

(I know you can send HTML + plain text, but that causes problems for some clients depending on their email software - I can't do anything about this).

#thunderbird #email

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@pwaring SeaMonkey has some options for 2., although I'm not used to using these: in the address book I can, for a given contact, set whether the recipient prefers HTML or plain text. I couldn't send unformatted text as HTML but that's probably because I have a separate setting set not to use HTML unless needed.

But I have no idea if this is still available in Thunderbird. Does its address book show such an option somewhere in contact cards?

njsg, to random
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

#CloudFlare is again having trouble working on browsers other than the few they mainly target.

Now did they just decide not to support anything else in "Turnstile" (which is a departure from "Browser Integrity Check", which IIRC had fallbacks), or are they again requiring that all requests include headers only some browsers send?

Affects at least #SeaMonkey and #PaleMoon, and isn't so easy to debug given the minified and changing JS of turnstile (likely intended, but doesn't help here...).

njsg, to trains
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@trains Lisbon's Oriente station sometimes gets mentioned because of its palm tree design.

If it is mentioned by people who have actually used it, it may include a comment about how that design offers little protection against rain and wind.

Recently, the situation evolved: now it "rains" a bit everywhere. Yes, in the floors below too. Even in the Lisbon Metro station.

Tomorrow and friday there'll be a sales/support strike, partly because of this.

https://fectrans.pt/index.php/sectores/geral-5/4038-chove-na-estacao
#comboiosdeportugal

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@trains Elsewhere, the news that there would be a strike was met with some comments that only one union did not cancel the strike and that some reparation works will take place soon. I have no information on that (and the rail operator also did not mention any of this in their announcement about the upcoming strike), but I do know for sure that there is a problem and it "rains" even under layers of concrete.

The CP announcement (so far only in portuguese):
https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/pt/consultar-horarios/avisos/greve-gac

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

Do you have several/all ascii codepoints memorized or are you a normal person?

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@whitequark What's your mnemonic for non-UNIX MacOS?

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

As of I'm not sure when but it must be pretty recent, Mastodon.social no longer shows a "Follows you" tag on profiles. If someone follows you but you don't follow them the follow button says "Follow back" and if they follow you and you follow them the button says "Mutual". I do not like this. I very, very, very much do not like this.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@mcc sigh I think it's sadly not the only thing that's not well designed. I'm writing this and the "discard" button to cancel this reply is the "X" cross on the top right corner of your post. Why is the discard button not in the box with my reply? (And why is it a cross and not a regular button saying "Cancel"/"Discard"?)

If "Mutual" were a label, I would find it more acceptable, but it's a button!?

(#MastodonWebUI in v4.2.1 here, still with "Follows you")

pixelambacht, to random
@pixelambacht@typo.social avatar

Is anybody still using Usenet for text posts?

With peeps talking about a "revival of the old web" lately, I wonder if anyone is returning to Usenet. It's littered with binaries and spam, but still, somewhere small communities must still thrive?

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@pixelambacht (late response, but in case it still interests you:)

For many years now, I've been using text-only news servers, so I don't see binaries (but maybe some servers filter these differently?). Spam got worse in the second half of 2023 but Google was to blame for that and they disconnected Groups from USENET a couple weeks ago.

And yes, some people are still using it, although it will of course depend on the group. An example: alt.folklore.computers is active :-)

#USENET #NetworkNews

amoroso, to usenet
@amoroso@fosstodon.org avatar

From The rise and fall of Usenet:

"In many ways, Usenet is a warning about how social networks can go bad. All the same, problems we see today on social networks appeared first on Usenet."

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-usenet-how-the-original-social-media-platform-came-to-be/

#usenet #retrocomputing

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@amoroso This article seems to try to portray the situation the same way #Google did in their announcement: ignoring how Google is the SPAM problem.

«With Google dropping support [...], Usenet is now left without another major entry gate.»

Well, to be accurate it should say «with google dropping support [...], #Usenet is now left without the major entry gate for SPAM.»

SPAM wasn't much of a nuisance until some weeks ago, and the SPAM that's pouring now comes from Google Groups.

kyonshi, to usenet
@kyonshi@dice.camp avatar

so what's new on #usenet, dum dee dum dee d...

oh.

that is new.

#google

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@kyonshi so they amended the banner to say Feb 22 instead of Feb 15? I was wondering why there were two different dates.

rafa_font, to milan
@rafa_font@mastodon.online avatar

Good morning, Mastodon!

My breakfast and I say hello aboard the high-speed train from Brussels to Strasbourg, first leg of today's journey.

This is the plan:

  • Reach in less than 4h
  • From Strasbourg to there are hourly trains
  • Once in Basel I should reach and then and , I have a ticket for the route, not for any particular train
  • Depending on the time I reach Milan, a regional or high speed to .

More info to follow. We move!

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@rafa_font @trains A tidbit just in case someone is interested, the photo of the Sud Express+Lusitânia consist at Portugal (St. Apolónia) is almost surely of a slightly different service on January 2013. Usually hauled by an electric locomotive (at least within Portugal, I think Spain had an unelectrified stretch), that one was being hauled by a diesel one because it had to use the mostly unelectrified Western Line, as its usual route had been interrupted by a collision from a double SPAD.

mjgardner, (edited ) to threads
@mjgardner@social.sdf.org avatar

So yeah, I’m on #Threads. Let’s see what happens once the waves of FOMO signups die down. https://threads.net/@mjgardner

Honestly, I don’t want another #SocialMedia app. I hope they open the #fediverse spigot soon.

njsg,
@njsg@social.sdf.org avatar

@mjgardner One thing that worries me in this is: the fate of the #threads hashtag. I guess this will now become one of its meanings.

I wonder if it could have been #FBThreads, #MetaThreads or the like (*) instead. But too late for that, I guess? I think it's being widely used now.

(*) (or actually looks at bottom right edge of [#MastodonWebUI]: #ThreadsAPP?)

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