dkellner @dkellner@social.coop

Today in "Cyberpunk is a warning, not a suggestion" news, Amazon has released a landlord edition of its Alexa surveillance speaker that can be forced upon tenants.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/09/amazons-alexa-for-landlords-is-a-privacy-nightmare-waiting-to-happen/

Here's Amazon's pitch: Landlord Alexa "makes it easy for property managers to set up and manage Alexa-powered smart home experiences throughout their buildings."

Satire is dead. Poe's Law rules all.

1/

I think it goes to show how immature our field is, when software engineers can work for decades without learning how to make their apps usable by blind or otherwise disabled people. Imagine if architects designed buildings without wheelchair ramps, or if civil engineers designed crosswalks without grooves or curb cuts.

They used to! And it was super dangerous! But now there are regulations forcing the engineers to figure this stuff out. I imagine accessibility will be the same in the future.

"Come on," someone calls, "the night is young!"
The Night shakes Her head. No, She is old. She was always old. There is no terror, no surprise, no joy She hasn't seen.
She walks hidden paths, lonely streets, silent hallways. Always moving.
The Night is alive; She is always alive.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

@lamnatos just reminded me of the best video on the state of programming I've seen. If you haven't seen The Future of Programming by Bret Victor, 30min. Funny, and painful.
https://vimeo.com/71278954

As I've heard them say on fedi: "Please scream in your heart."
https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=889394605

recursive programming

Are you just clicking "OK" on cookie walls whenever you want to read a website? Here are #3 facts you should know.
(Thread & just a short English version from my German article: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/cookies-werber-und-sammler-1.4958294)

This is Deinococcus radiodurans. These bacteria may be the toughest organisms in the world, surviving dehydration, cold, acid, and vacuum, and withstanding more radiation than probably any other living thing.

Some scientists have considered using them as a way of storing data to survive an apocalypse. In 2003, researchers encoded the song It's A Small World into DNA, engineered it into D. radiodurans, and managed to retrieve it without errors 100 generations later.

https://twitter.com/vrandezo/status/1278748469423861761

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https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/July_2020_announcement

Denny Vrandečić to lead the Abstract Wikipedia peoject at the Wikimedia Foundation.

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https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia

Abstract Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2020-04-26/In_focus

Multilingual Wikipedia

¡Nice! In my #fdroid workshops I promote #Streetcomplete as a brilliant app for beginners and experts that you can use to contribute to @openstreetmap while enjoying a geocaching-like adventure at the same time. And that my only feature request would be some gamification e.g. with "awards" or "achievements" to motivate even more people to contribute.

Now I realise this has been implemented since version 19 \°/

Thank you Tobias Zwick!
#IloveFS #osm #openstreetmap

The first live performance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house in Barcelona, newly reopened after coronavirus lockdowns. A string quartet gave a performance of Puccini’s Crisantemi to an audience of 2292 plants. As you can see from the pictures, it was a full house, because plants have excellent taste, obviously. The plants were later adopted by healthcare workers.

Silbo Gomero is an entirely whistled language spoken by 22,000 residents of the Canary Islands. “Speakers” of the language can communicate up to 2 miles apart.

Rare photo of mother wrench feeding her hatchlings in the wild. Breathtaking

Die "digital souveräne Schule" ist möglich! #BigBlueButton Infrastruktur für Schulen in BaWü wird angenommen. Tag 1 ca. 840 User:innen, Tag 2 ca. 1.400 User:innen. Wir sind schon auf Morgen gespannt!

"Digital sovereign school" is possible! #BigBlueButton infrastructure for schools in BaWü is well received. Day 1 about 840 users:inside, day 2 about 1.400 users:inside. Looking forward to tomorrow!

@kuketzblog @digitalcourage #DigitalSouveräneSchule #DigitalSovereignSchool #Netzpolitik

Wir haben jetzt mit einer Durchstreichung transparent gemacht, was sich an unserer Einschätzung des #Coronavirus-#Tracing-Projekts @PeppPt@twitter.com geändert hat: https://digitalcourage.de/blog/2020/corona-app-einordnung-digitalcourage

#PEPPPT #DP3T #CoronaTracing /c

"Okay, here's the scenario. You are a crew member on a starship."
"Cool."
"Space travel is slow, you'll be stuck with your crewmates a long time."
"So we must get along."
"Yes. Communicate, listen, share limited resources."
"I can do that. What's the starship called?"
"Earth."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Long ago, dragons rose up against the gods. After a long war, the dragons were defeated.
As punishment, the dragons were split, literally, and spread across the world. Their diminished selves seek their lost parts.
Once the right nine lives of cats meet, they'll reform a dragon.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories