@osma@mas.to avatar

osma

@osma@mas.to

Also at: https://fishpool.org/@osma@fishpool.org/ (self-hosted) https://me.dm/@osma (Medium) https://pixelfed.social/osma (Pictures)

Systems, organizations, products, platforms, software, science, and a little bit of politics. Whatever you think I identify with, I probably don't.

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

digiphile, to random
@digiphile@mastodon.social avatar

In a HUGE win for digital government in the USA, US Treasury says Direct File will be a permanent, free tax filing option! https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2385

NB: A USGSA survey of 11,000+ filers found 90% ranked the UX as “Excellent” or “Above Average,” after a successful pilot with 140,000 Americans that saved an estimated $5.6M in costs.

Next steps: invest more to pre-populate returns, test, iterate, & scale.

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@digiphile
Welcome to the 2000's, America. Only two decades to go to catch up. Perhaps it'll be done in less than three?

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

While in the current political discussion climate this theme is easy to forget, the current @EUCommission has been pursuing a very privacy-hostile policy for digital communications, which the current EU Parliament has opposed. As you pick your candidate for elections, pay attention to their track record on digital, consumer, privacy questions. This matter is not settled yet, nor will it be the last such matter.
https://edri.org/our-work/be-scanned-or-get-banned/

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

Thanks for all the boosts! Here's what the current council chair Belgium is proposing as a "compromise" between Commission and Parliament positions. Like with any compromise between utter, toxic shite, and a reasonable position, this is just as unacceptable as the Commission proposal. We need both the Parliament to hold firm, and member states to grow a spine.
https://alecmuffett.com/article/109896

emilymbender, to random
@emilymbender@dair-community.social avatar

This is a decent summary of the octopus thought experiment from Bender & Koller 2020, with two glaring exceptions, right at the start:

  1. We were NOT talking about "AI". That's a paper about language models, and even though other people are (now) talking about LLMs as if they were AI, we weren't and never would.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/01/wtf-is-ai/

>>

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@emilymbender
Loving the Magic 8 Ball analogy! A comment: it seems your categories excluded computational modeling, which I also tend to call "AI" even if they're not strictly machine learning. This is because in a similar fashion, they explore multidimensional parameter spaces for solutions an unassisted human might not be able to discover. Thoughts?

randahl, to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

Elon Musk officially turns his social medium X into a porn site.

I still remember the day when Twitter was an essential tool for many professionals, but does anyone seriously think ANY politician, media person, or CEO will open X on the go and risk being seen viewing pornographic material in public?

Man, this is a desperate move.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24170352/x-xxx-porn-adult-content-terms-of-service-policy-update

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@randahl
Yes, I think they absolutely will. Hell, this is perfect for them - they get to claim they "didn't know".

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

Today's day. But this year is a super year in general. Pay attention and use your vote.

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

I watched some of putin's comments from the St Petersburg summit. It seems pretty clear to me that he's again positioning himself as the sole "sane voice" that is keeping russia away from a nuclear war - ie, trying to strengthen the analysis that a regime change in russia would be a destabilizing danger no one should pursue.

But, of course the basic logic holds. Whatever the kremlin says, truth is opposite.

osma, (edited ) to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

SpaceX decided to build Starship out of stainless steel because it was supposed to withstand deorbiting heat for rapid reusability. Turns out the 4th test flight on Thursday just barely made it to controlled splashdown after control surfaces melted 50km up.

Amazing dynamic control engineering, props for the team who programmed that. But reusability and heat-resistant construction looking not so good.

tinyrabbit, to random
@tinyrabbit@floss.social avatar

There’s absolutely no way 1,200 advertisers can have ”legitimate interest” to track me. On one website.

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@tinyrabbit
Not even one. Legitimate interest applies when the party collecting data of you has a contractual obligation made to YOU which requires the collection. You can not legitimately deny someone collecting your address while you also ask them to ship you a package, for example.

None of it applies to tracking for advertising, because a) the contractual obligations don't involve you, the tracked person, and besides, b) showing you advertising is perfectly possible without tracking you.

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@jelte
Yes, legitimate interest is different to contractual obligation. That's why they try to claim the former - the argument is that because the advertising network has a contractual relationship with the web site owner, somehow that leads to a legitimate interest to surveil the user. This is of course not true.
@tinyrabbit

randahl, to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

You too can buy a Tesla, and support the main share holder Elon Musk, who abuses his social media platform to convince his 185 million followers, that the US justice system is corrupt, because his favorite criminal is brought to justice.

Or you could buy from a different car brand.

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@randahl
He is correct, though. Anyone IS at risk for being convicted when found guilty of fraudulently filing personal hush payments as election campaign legal expenses. It also is a trivial risk to anyone who isn't campaigning for public office, fraudulently filing expenses, or making hush payments to keep things like affairs quiet.
/s

osma, to Ukraine
@osma@mas.to avatar

The events around Kharkiv-Belgorod border demonstrate two facts:

  1. Western weapons have been a deterrent - else putin would have prosecuted this logistically easier frontline before.
  2. Desperation for arms, funds, men and time is there for putin as well and overcame that deterrent, because he felt Ukraine's allies were weaker they turned out to be.

If Patriots can't be safely placed near enough, that increases priority for F-16 & AMRAAM for the zone.
#ukraine
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjll1r1el5wo

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

ISW: "This US ambiguity misses an opportunity to deter Russian preparations for offensive operations elsewhere across the border into northern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have recently warned that Russian forces are also concentrating forces in Kursk and Bryansk oblasts across the border from Sumy Oblast, and ISW has previously assessed that even a limited grouping would achieve its desired effect of drawing and fixing Ukrainian forces to this area."
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-1-2024
#ukraine

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

ISW's analysis is correct. US and German messaging around the use of supplied weapons has been unclear in a way that has not assisted strategic ambiguity, instead has created opportunity for russia. German message has cleared, American has not.

The same mistake is being repeated with regards to Vipers' operational limits across the nations making those donations. Supply and train Ukraine, leave it to them to make the decisions how to defend themselves.

KraftTea, to random
@KraftTea@mastodon.social avatar

So, when David Axe said that nobody knew Ukraine had the SDBs, what he was basically saying was:
"Nobody knew that Ukraine had screwdrivers." 😏

The Ukrainians smartly stripped the whole ground launched aspect right off the missile, which was apparently related to what made them so GPS jammable... plugged them into their MiGs which had previously been modded by the US in Poland to have a slightly less high-tech but perfectly workable kludge, and let them shine again.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/06/03/as-the-glide-bomb-war-intensifies-over-ukraine-the-ukrainians-have-enough-jets-but-not-nearly-enough-bombs/?sh=220462752860

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@KraftTea
Weird though, how does the M26 booster make them jammable when the seeker head is part of the glide kit. Could it be that the accuracy issue isn't a question of jamming after all? Apparently JDAM seeker is also not as prone to jamming, and one would imagine the GPS receiver would be fairly similar.

Perhaps it's all about the rocket boost acceleration playing havoc with INS and guidance computer.

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@KraftTea
You'd imagine that at the time of launch, the location of the GLSDB launcher, whether HIMARS or otherwise, would be at least as precisely calibrated as a jet preparing to drop a JDAM or SDB. Also, russian GPS jamming affects commercial flights over the Baltic Sea. It is high power radio frequency broadcast, would make sense it's directed also skywards.

The question would be more about frequencies. GPS operates on multiple, and GLONASS doesn't share them.
https://mas.to/@osma/112364617504823439

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@KraftTea
CDMA is software jammable, sure, but the radios still need to be on the precisely correct frequencies. Software defined radio does that, but I suspect the transmit powers needed to overcome the original signal still need specific antenna designs.

Another curious detail is that it doesn't seem like ATACMS is as vulnerable as GLSDB or Excalibur. Again, could be down to INS sensors (gyros, accelerometers) and the guidance algorithm.

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

Back in the 90s, with my then homebrew CMS my website certainly would have returned lorem ipsum dolor sit amet prompted nonsense to requests identifying as GPT spiders using the same code I had there for returning a different text for the web crawlers of the time. But then I stripped out that crawler detection for cache optimization - and then shut down all the sites where I had used the CMS. For now I'm just glad I haven't resurrected my backups to be crawled by these nasties.

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

Made the mistake of transferring a domain name to a new registrar before test registering something throwaway to see how their site works. Now I'm stuck with a completely horrible website where everything is implemented the most confusing way possible for a year. Glad I don't have to a actually go there for any purpose since even DNS is somewhere else.

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

Only days after USA permitted cross-border HIMARS strikes to defend Kharkiv, Ukraine did just that to destroy an S-300 complex used not as an air defense tool, but to lob the missiles as ground-to-ground ballistic short range terror tools on the civilian population. Imagine that: for 3 years russia has been doing that, and only now can Ukraine strike back with a precise weapon.

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

#MissingThePoint news organizations, governments and corporate responsibility units to start informing the public via OnlyFans subscriptions
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24170352/x-xxx-porn-adult-content-terms-of-service-policy-update
#WhyAreTheyOnExTwitter

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

On this #WorldBicycleDay I only cycled 8km and I'm not planning to go for an extra ride because I feel tired. Then again, that 4+4 km commute is exactly the kind of ride everyone could easily do, and if they did, single-occupant cars on the streets would plummet.

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

Small steps. It's good that Ukraine now has the permssion to use HIMARS for counterbattery fire and to strike forces heading over border. But if they can't use ATACMS to strike depots, airfields and training grounds, or Patriot to drop russian bombers at max range from the border, the job isnt done yet.

Ukraine must be free to defend itself from invasion and terrorism.

#SlavaUkraini #russiaIsATerroristState
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/31/biden-ukraine-war-russia-00160991?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

osma, to random
@osma@mas.to avatar

The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.
-- an Irishman
https://mstdn.social/@noelreports/112536598516429774

Catvalente, to random
@Catvalente@wandering.shop avatar

Stop calling it a hush money case, you craven complicit media ghouls.

It’s an election interference case.

osma,
@osma@mas.to avatar

@Catvalente
All of the 34 counts he was found guilty are of falsifying business records, aka accounting fraud, aka improper use of campaign funds, aka embezzling for private gains. Proving election interference would have been more difficult and wasn't necessary to convict on felony charges.
But you're right, that it was for hush money payments is irrelevant. And these probably aren't the only instances of campaign fraud.
https://archive.is/fxYa3

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