Hey, the Python Software Foundation (the people who make the Python programming language and the standard interpreter for it) just took a big hit to support those of us being targeted by hate.
If you're in a position to do so, maybe consider giving them a donation for being apparently one of the few tech organizations that have our back: psfmember.org/civicrm/contribu… (if you want to verify the link it's the donate button on python.org/)
I almost cried given how many brands and organizations turn their back on us when they're not even standing to lose money.#FOSS #LGBTQIA #TransRights #Trans
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/N…
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python.org/sponsors/applicatio…The PSF has withdrawn $1.5 million proposal to US government grant program
In January 2025, the PSF submitted a proposal to the US government National Science Foundation under the Safety, Security, and Privacy of Op...Python Software Foundation Blog
juliadream likes this.
Dear god my life is cursed with technology right now...
Brand new bullshit issue: my android phone refuses to accept that the wifi is connected to the internet, I can open up pingtools and confirm the dns and ping work fine, even check the URLs it uses to check access and those are fine...
But it won't accept that it's connected and as such tells all the apps there's no connection... despite it being confirmed as working.
This morning I had intermittent network issues on my phone, but my laptop has been fine all day... and now my laptop is still fine but I'm getting this nonsense with my phone...
uuuuugggghhh
Suggestion, seeing someone on youtube talk about adding an anti-ai logo on their product:
Someone needs to set up a non-profit org to just to have these logos be a reliable thing.
For those unaware, a lot of certification logos are not governmental, they're organizations licensing the logos (in many cases for free) and defending their usage via trademark law.
Basic gist of the process:
* You design a logo
* You establish the terms under which the logo can be used (ie. has a basic audit trail to prove that no AI was used)
* You trademark the logo
* You advertise the certification
* You start suing people who misuse the logo
It's not a nothing process... but it just takes time (paperwork, court cases, but also just accepting and dealing with reports) and money (money primarily for registration and legal fees)
If someone does do this, I honestly suggest multiple marks for best effect:
* No AI - everything is generated by them from scratch
* Best Faith No AI - you may have used stock images or the like and as such can't guarantee they didn't use AI
* AI assisted - as much as people complain, it helps to have because it increases adoption and recognition, basically they can prove that all important bits of the content are human created (ie. maybe they used AI for a texture or a background in images, or they wrote most of the text but used AI to fill in small portions)
* AI edited - provably human generated content, but then it was fed through AI to modify it (ie. hand drawn art cleaned up and colored, or written text that used AI literally as an editor)
* AI content, while there's all sorts of ethical debate, many who use AI do believe it should be labeled. And a recognizable label of such could help with recognition of the no AI label
And then a sort of secondary mark for those who pay this org to proactively verify the work (good way to generate funds for the lawsuits against those who falsely label)
#AI
spiegelmama reshared this.
Resharing, I've arrived I'm (kinda) set up in the apartment.
But now what's short of the goal here is going to be debt I have to pick up.
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Whelp, server is back online with only one tiny hitch... for some reason my router (OpenWRT) isn't sharing IPv6 addresses and I've literally changed nothing in the move...
So going to have to chew on that for a while...
Heads up that this account (and whole server) is going dark for the next week.
Tomorrow morning shutting down the server for the move, will be back the 22nd or 23rd.
Sharing this story from @Cory Doctorow because it's so much of what I've been saying.
Shipping a model that runs badly – that needs more data-centers and energy to run – is a way to convince investors that it's doing something really advanced (after all, look how much compute and energy it's consuming!).
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@Dan Shuman @Cory Doctorow The whole article points out that AI itself isn't useless, just that it's being used inefficiently.
Basically like having 20-30 people doing the job of 1 person just because it looks impressive to have that many people on the payroll.
It doesn't mean the 1 person job isn't any good, just that a lot of resources are being wasted that don't have to be.
AAAAAAAAAH!
... slightest hint of possible bad news and I fucking spiraled into a panic attack...
Nothing bad actually happened... other than the panic attack which has me completely wrecked...
Twitchy, on the edge of tears and a complete fucking nightmare storm of emotions...
😭😭😭😭😭
Reinstate the LNER Train guard sacked for saying Free Palestine
I just signed this important petition on Organise, please can you add your name?
Reinstate the LNER Train guard sacked for saying Free Palestine!
organise.network/s/fe74b1102d1…
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Reinstate the LNER Train guard sacked for saying Free Palestine
I just signed this important petition on Organise, please can you add your name?
Reinstate the LNER Train guard sacked for saying Free Palestine!
organise.network/s/fe74b1102d1…
#palestine reshared this.
I swear... dealing with someone making an anti-AI rant that is so clueless and bordering on incoherent that a low power LLM could do a better job...
Really makes me lose some faith in humanity...
I really wish people had a better ability to grasp nuance instead of blunt "AI evil" or "AI good"... we're fucked.
Mutual Aid Request (no cw because apparently some systems hide hashtag posts that have cws?)
gofundme.com/f/assist-a-jewish…
I'm on the last leg of preparing, apartment is nearly finalized and booking travel arrangements.
Unfortunately that's pretty much everything that's been donated so far by itself.
I can't do a flight mostly because my cat can't safely fly, and to a lesser degree to keep at least some of my things.
My current car can't survive the trip and the option we settled on is I'm going to rent a car and my beloved sister Chelsie is going to drive me up, then take a flight back.
We've got a wonderful friend covering hotel stays, but even then a flight and a cross country car rental is over $1000 combined... that's before we even get to gas.
I also still need some more funds for gas and deposits (because of credit issues my current place took a bond instead of a deposit, so I get nothing back, I almost didn't get an apartment at all because of those issues), plus any setup fees for utilities that come up.
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When I'm past my move and once I have enough headspace to handle the frustrating conversion period... I think it's time for me to switch my phone to a secure ROM.
Things are getting bad enough that my baseline trust is quickly disappearing (baseline in the sense of "it's not in their interests to do this... yet").
I think when I have the space to handle the setup I'm going to switch my Pixel 8 over to Graphene, especially since their Google Play sandbox will allow me to continue accessing things like my banking app without giving Google total control over my phone...
For anyone thinking the setup is not a big deal, I'm constantly on the verge of tears and/or meltdown right now with the stress of moving cross country away from the people I love for safety...
I don't think I can commit to the frustration of spending so much time re-setting up apps, little oopsies here and there where I lose and have to recreate data, adjusting workflows, etc etc...
Like TTRPGS? Like supporting people who are trying to get back on their feet? How about prestigious names who are also leftist?
Friend of mine just released the FREE quickstart for their new RPG.
Want more reason to dive in and give it a try? This is Malix Nystul... a name that might sound vaguely familiar to those who played 2nd and 3rd edition D&D as dozens of spells bore his name (before 4th genericized all of them). The Archwizard Nystul in Greyhawk is named after him.
So do my wonderful friend a solid and download this, every download helps him out even if you're not spending any money!
drivethrurpg.com/en/product/50…
Basic gist: the NSA, FBI, etc are now actively targeting anyone expressing leftist sentiments or even just being pro-trans rights even if they haven't committed a crime.
It directs them to "investigate, prosecute, and disrupt", again regardless of whether we've committed a crime.
truthout.org/articles/national…
National Security Directive Declares War on Those Who Don’t Support Trump Agenda | Truthout
The directive labels common beliefs such as “anti-capitalist” opinions as terrorism “indicators.”…Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales (Truthout)
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@PedestrianError Jailing us isn't the only thing they can do, this is mostly going to target shutting down civil rights organizations, media organizations that share dissenting views, protest organizers.
For smaller individuals it'll be things like cutting government benefits, pressuring our employers to fire us, pressuring our landlords to evict us.
It's important that people be prepared for the outcomes of their speech so they can be strategic about it. Speak where it matters.
I'm willfully open because I'm a trans-woman, I'm high up on the list of targets to punish regardless so there's little I can do to make it worse.
And be careful with "they can't jail all of us"... the nazis already answered that problem and it's likely the US is going to do the same in the future...
CW: mutual aid, escaping texas
An update on my request for help. It looks like the move is set, just got to get some final numbers for budgeting. At this point every little bit helps drastically in making sure I don't run face first into another roadblock.
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To be honest, this is something I see constantly around the fediverse of people shooting themselves in the foot over high minded ideals, choosing the sacrifice the now for an ideal future that won't happen because they're sacrificing it.
Favorite example here is the people that complain about corporate networks but then get angry at and shutdown anyone trying to make it easier for people to leave those networks.
Heads up, if you live in the US and say "fascism is bad" then you're now legally a terrorist...
whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/202…
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Designates Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House
DESIGNATING ANTIFA AS A DOMESTIC TERRORIST ORGANIZATION: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Order to designate Antifa as a domestic terroristThe White House
Someone was making the "rapture pet insurance" joke (which entertainingly enough such businesses do exist and aren't scams)...
But it randomly made me think of a business idea that I think would be incredible:
Death and Incapacitance Pet Insurance
Basic gist is it's a digital dead-man's switch service, you routinely check in to establish you're still there taking care of your pet. If you stop checking in, then someone reaches out, if they can't get ahold of you they come out and take care of your pet.
One thing I've been worried about for ages is what will happen to Lizzie if something happens to me... With how isolated I am most of the time, it could easily be days or weeks before someone came around to check on her... she could easily die of starvation or dehydration before anyone even knew I was dead.
... It honestly terrifies me.
So the idea of a service with someone in the area who has a copy of my key, and if I stop responding they'll come out, make sure she has adequate food and water for a while, notify family, and eventually take her to a foster or shelter if no family can take her (it'd be truly awful, but it'd be better than her just dying slowly as no-one cares for her).
It strikes me that it would be a pretty easy business to make profitable given that it would so rarely be used. Most customers would never use it given that we typically outlive our pets.
It would just need a retainer paid out to contractors in the area to handle check ins if the automatic check in fails, then if they have to go take care of a pet they get a reasonable payout for the work involved. (If someone just uses it as a sitter for a vacation then they get a significant bill)
Being disabled without any answers, tools to management, and watching it slowly degenerate is... truly awful...
I don't talk about it much because it does little good and usually it's best to just not think about it as much as possible...
I have no diagnosis, no real clue even what is going on... but over the course of two decades my muscles have gotten stiffer and stiffer. It takes more and more effort to move every muscle in my body as time passes, and the muscles move less and less... they even stretch less and less, my range of motion is drastically reduced...
And it hurts... literally constantly all the time... every muscle is constantly strained, and my legs are the worst of the bunch, but I don't know if I can say any muscle is really excluded...
It hurts when sitting, laying down, standing... just existing hurts because there is no position that puts my muscles at rest anymore...
And it's so damn exhausting... even typing this right now I feel it in my fingers...
And I have no idea how bad it's going to get, just that it's still getting worse... I have to wonder if it'll eventually end up in paralysis... (even worse, is it affecting muscular organs like my heart and lungs?)
I've got no idea what it is, and absolutely nothing to address the pain or exhaustion...
And worse yet, pain management isn't a lack of access right now... it's a lack of anything functioning because my body doesn't really respond properly to pain medication.
I have to turn up my apartment temperature as high as I can tolerate to just loosen up my muscles a little bit, and I still have to throw an electric blanket over my legs often, regardless of my sensory issues...
... and that's not even the only thing wrong with me...
just going to say I can't believe this book has fucked me up... a trans magical girl story should not have me processing so much self-worth and self-hate trauma... this was supposed to be lighthearted comfort read dammit...
content warnings: big big trauma feels, parental emotional abuse (low detail), internalized transphobia, very mild external transphobia (one character intentionally misgenders), some suicidal ideation, and abuse of power by a mental health professional
Add this to the pile of ideas I'm unlikely to ever make, not because it's super hard but just because I'm so constantly exhausted and out of spoons... steal away if you want to make it:
There's basically the "big server" problem on the fediverse, where a super large open registration server has so many people on it you don't want to block it and lose all those people... but it inherently is less effectively moderated. Or even on smaller instances there's so many cases of "this wouldn't be acceptable on my instance, but isn't bad enough to defederate a whole instance over".
It's manageable, but has limitations that get worse as the network grows. It's even one of the concerns people have with bridges and corporate platforms adding support (ie. bluesky and threads respectively).
But there's an idea in Bluesky I kinda like that feels like it could be tweaked and imported over here. Which is subscribable moderation.
I'm not proposing just subscribing to all sorts of block lists from strangers, but a way of having shared moderation that people can team up on.
Basic idea I had was an open source platform (so others can run it for both redundancy and cutting down on smaller censorship disputes). On that platform, someone can create and become the admin of a moderation group. Then they can invite other people to that group as moderators (or in the case of private groups, members).
Then basically have auditable moderation lists made by the groups (showing which moderator took which action and when... especially good for undoing things if problems arise, but also for checking the list before you import an update), then server admins and users can follow a list and subscribe/import it.
Was even thinking this could be improved with things like public reporting, where reporting it to the server would send the report to all lists that haven't already blocked them (servers could even share this between eachother easily enough). Additionally admins could piggyback their list off of others (basically lists that are less restrictive than yours, so you might pull from "We only block Nazis" because you know anyone they're blocking isn't going to be in question).
#FediMeta #Meta #Ideas #Idea #Suggestion #Suggestions #Moderation
Shannon Prickett reshared this.
Yea, part of the AP protocol is you have to tell the server of the user you are blocking. When you unblock you have to also tell the server as well. If those messages are not processed correctly the block isn't lifted.
Now normally, you'd just manually block and unblock again to send a fresh message. But when you are dealing with lists there are UX challenges there. How do you communicate to the user that a block/unblock didn't go through and they need to retry? Or do you just keep retrying with exponential backoff? None of this is insurmountable, but distributed networks are hard 😅
Oh and there is some disagreement over what a standards-compliant server should do about Block messages
socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/…
The Block activity, how's that supposed to work?
I’m now at the point where I’m satisfied with my main features and almost ready to make my first release. Though in order to be a feasible fediverse server, I need to implement some sort of user blocking. So here goes.SocialHub
@ראַף 🟣 I definitely agree that there isn't an explicit subscription option, and that's entirely down to toolkits on the instance side imo.
I imagined manual imports, but with convenient links for those who might want to build tools to automate those imports. Maybe an option to also email updates as a way to notify, but that's kinda secondary imo.
I just pictured along the lines of:
example.com/modlists/Punch-All… for raw importable blocklist
example.com/modlists/Punch-All… for a simple history that shows the blocklist stuff, plus add/remove, who, and when.
Then others can build tools to handle much of it, (like on friendica it would take barely any effort to write such a tool for server admins).
And basically just take unix methodology for the tools that import into other instances, focus on providing the list and a separate tool can be used to automate it.
Note: Also posted to Facebook, so some of this is worded carefully and using stories and references to avoid getting censored.
Something that comes to mind every time a high profile death like this happens...
And to be clear, this isn't a condemnation, but food for thought:
In Judaism there's a relevant lesson, that we're guided not to celebrate death but to celebrate the diminishment of evil.
It's such a tiny difference, but I think it does make worlds of difference in our lives and in how we behave down the line.
I'll spare the talks of faith or divine judgement, but I'll speak to the practical effects I think are in play.
The risk in celebrating the death itself is that you start finding joy in the death of those you see as wrong or evil... and that joy can turn into a lowering of standards, in finding excuses to celebrate death. Eventually you start saying "But that man was evil so it's a good thing he died".
But what does it mean to celebrate the diminishment of evil? It means seeing what harm they would have done, and celebrating the end of that harm.
It's not enough to just say "there's one less bigot and evil person in the world", it's to ask how many lives do you think will be spared from harm?
The reason my celebration at this will be muted is because I honestly don't know if his voice was unique enough, or that it will take any time at all for him to be replaced and echoed.
It's not as simple as the United Healthcare death, where there was an immediate (but unfortunately temporary) change, that for a while after people got healthcare that would have otherwise been denied... without a doubt, many lives were saved.
In cases like this I especially think back to the story in my faith of the drowning of the Pharaoh's army in the Sea of Reeds. To the fact that a single soldier's death would have done little to diminish evil on it's own... but that single soldier's death is a necessary part of the greater whole that greatly diminishes evil.
I'm really broken and miserable right now...
Everything is just too much, every minute feels like an incredible struggle both physically and mentally...
To start, I'm disabled, not that the government cares. My ADHD is really bad, especially when I'm exhausted and/or stressed (which is all the time), it's beyond incredibly difficult to start tasks let alone focus on them...
After that is my physical issues, of which there's little even figured out because the healthcare system is hell... I'm in constant pain, especially in my legs, moving or not. But when I move, every muscle has more and more over the years started to feel less and less flexible. My range of motion is shot, and every single movement takes more and more effort. (last suggestion from a doctor right before she left the practice, and I have no idea if it's at all accurate is she was thinking it might be fibromyalgia).
I'm not even sure if it's just an extension of that or something else, but I'm also constantly exhausted no matter how much rest I've had.
... and that's my fucking baseline...
I'm trans, not only in the US but in fucking Texas... so I'm dealing with all this government bigotry increasingly bearing down on me... and the knowledge that it's only a matter of time before they start arresting us just for existing.
I'm barely afloat financially, just short of a living wage... but after so long in poverty and so many instances of getting financially screwed I'm pretty much drowning in debt... Worst of all is the $5k a previous apartment complex wants because I was living with a sibling who had an emotional crisis, to the point of being institutionalized, and I have to leave because I couldn't remotely maintain the place by myself.
Thanks to the support of kind strangers and the people who love me I've got plans to get out of Texas to Washington state to be someplace safer... but the prospect is still incredibly difficult and painful because it means leaving behind the people I love and my support network...
The raw stress of all of this has me to the point where it's a major accomplishment to just do the fucking laundry...
Oh, and get this... the apartment complex I was looking at rejected my application because of that aforementioned landlord demanding $5k from me... because of course our lovely society thinks someone who has to leave a place because of poverty just miraculously has many times the rent to just hand over while they still try and find a place to live...
I've been crying and sobbing for weeks... even before this rejection...
And before anyone mentions: roommates just don't work out... I have only ever had one house where things have been remotely comfortable and stable with other people. Most of all because my mix of disabilities and autism causing conflicts with people... I can only really live alone it seems. (Those same problems that have made me struggle with employment my entire life)
... I'm just so tired of clinging on to life by my fingernails... I don't want riches and luxury... I just want to fucking exist...
I honestly wish giving up was an option on days like this...
I could probably use some words of encouragement right now... I don't even know if I'm able to process them... but I need something...
With the nonsense about gup.pe getting hijacked, honestly has me thinking again about secondary tools for the network...
Bright spot is that they probably can't imitate the server, as far as I understand it AP has keys for the servers to prevent that (which is also part of why you can't readily swap platforms, want to run something different you need to use a different domain).
Still, it has me thinking about maybe some secondary registry to track instance information. Maybe make these sort of events less disruptive.
This is entirely off the cuff idea, so think of this as spaghetti at the wall:
I was just imagining a signed file on servers that gave extended, non-platform specific, meta for the server, kinda like robots.txt.
I was just thinking information like:
* My IP is static, so if the IP changes without an updated signed file, then it's not safe (or it's dynamic, so don't worry if it changes)
* Remember my nameservers and do the same if the nameservers change
* Here's a moderator email for reporting posts (because the system mastodon has for sending reports to other servers is non-standard and not universal... I have to find moderator emails on about pages when I need to report something...)
* Maybe some tags if someone wants to make non-platform specific server directories
* Some flags like robots for nicer more compliant services, like bridges allowed/denied
And then maybe a dns middle-man service to toss on your server that checks these things periodically. So if something happens like with gup.pe there's a notice to admins and maybe it doesn't get cut off immediately, maybe letting admins give some final notices in more permanent situations.
Arcanasphere (Andrew Arcana)
in reply to Shiri Bailem • • •Shiri Bailem
in reply to Arcanasphere (Andrew Arcana) • •