@Archivist@social.linux.pizzaJust like Batman, there are some problems I can only solve at night, like bringing my late books back to the public library or fixing those 6 tickets that have been on the tracker all day.
ADHD makes me into the programmer version of Batman. I call him Batman but less cool
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsIt's been a long time since I got a spam call. I've literally started wondering whether I somehow fell off their databases, or just managed to block the numbers used by all popular call centers. But where did spammers get my phone number?
My top suspicion is shopping online. Buying stuff with delivery to the parcel machine requires giving the #phone number, and this means that the shopping platform, the vendor, the delivery company, and most likely some SaaS software used by the vendor got my number — and every single one of them could make some side money by selling my PII.
Then, there are medical facilities. We all know how safe our data is with them (e.g. #Facebook on their phones, and give them full access to the contacts. I've done a small experiment back in the day. I've had a pseudonymous fb account, practically unused, no personal data. One day I've added my phone number to it. Should anyone be surprised that almost immediately I've gotten suggestions to connect with people, whom I could only be linked to via the fact that they had my phone number?
There are actually two problems there. One is that they were processing my phone number without my consent. The other, more important one is that they effectively doxxed me. My "contacts" have gotten a suggestion to connect to my pseudonymous account. You can imagine how severe consequences this could have for people with serious issues.
For a long time, I've considered changing my phone number, getting off the databases. The problem is that, to say it bluntly, the only way to leaking it, is to keep it in a drawer. The moment I give my phone number to the members of my family, it goes straight to Facebook, and there's nothing I can do with it — neither by friendly request, nor by threat. Here's the modern world for you.
#privacy
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.pageiMESA: Incremental Distributed Optimization for Collaborative Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
Daniel McGann, Michael Kaess
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.07371
@jake4480@c.im"Intelligence" is a strange, subjective and often unnecessary concept #science
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialRe https://aus.social/@kate/112628561587625023
I think part of the issue (besides racism & sexism; those are the biggest problems here) is that people have *different* models of what posting is like. My model has always been "yelling in a public square, which has very different norms than "chatting in a pub." I saw this as the main distinction between Twitter & Facebook back in 2007 or so. However, as social media has morphed from a fringe curiosity to something omnipresent, it probably makes more sense to follow the pub norms by default.
Also, regardless of norms, white men specifically need to learn to respond better to mild social pushback (myself included). Structures of hierarchy including kyrarchy & white supremacism teach that we can demand attention, answers, respect, and deference, even when we give none of those things, plus they intentionally baggage us with a parcel of myths that has us unconsciously enforcing hierarchies beyond the conscious shit we pull.
"Admins are almost exclusively white geeks" is a problem that contributes here, and it's one almost any open-source federated thing will have, but just because it's a better problem than "admins are at the whim of one billionaire and actively encourage thr worst in us for profit," doesn't mean it's not a problem that deserves both technical & social attention.
@cjhearn@mastodonapp.ukUrgh, I was (semi-)joking about getting a decent new #laptop last week then, a day later, my current 4-yr-old one started showing battery problems - thrice dropping from ~60% to 0, and HP diagnostics saying battery was "weak". Compatible replacement arrived today and wouldn't recharge after being depleted - diagnostics on that says it has a blown fuse, so back to OEM one. Additionally, the M.2 SSD says it's at 88% wear.
Maybe I should just get that new laptop after all!
@beaware@social.beaware.liveLong post about my time on Nostr and how it compares to ActivityPub
So, after spending about 2 months on Nostr, I've decided to leave my account dormant there and come back to Fediverse as my "one true platform".
Let's do a postmortem.
What is Nostr?
Nostr is a protocol, much like ActivityPub or ATProto, but tries to solve problems that these platforms haven't.
The major difference is, your account is yours. There are "relays" there that are similar to instances here. However, unlike here, the relays don't always have a website attached and they don't "host" your account exclusively. Each relay you are a part of, has a copy of your profile and if you get "banned" from a relay, you just remove that relay from your connection and keep posting like normal.
There's many different things that Nostr can do, like microblogging, chat, streaming, communities similar to reddit, etc.
One of the other big features is that you can pay creators directly with the use of Bitcoin Lightning which I thought is a pretty neat idea. Though, with the amount of scammers in the crypto space, nobody wants to touch it anymore.
All of these things seemed good to me and I enjoyed engaging with the different systems. My issue, however, isn't with how the protocol is built, it's with the low engagement numbers.
Over my 2 months there, I've gained about 65 followers. Compared to Fediverse, that's REALLY low. Especially considering that there's only about 10% of followers that will engage with any post.
I'd even tried making exclusive Nostr themed content AND giving away Bitcoin Lightning (free money, anyone?) and only got a handful of interactions on each post.
It's good technology if you don't mind having to block stuff you don't want to see consistently. (Which I don't mind) But if the regular user doesn't get much out of the platform, they have no reason to put into the platform and that's pretty much where I'm at.
Fediverse continues to be the best social media platform for engagement. There are censorship issues here. (If you're banned by the biggest instances, you're pretty screwed) However, I don't have those problems.🤷
It was a good experiment nonetheless.
#Fediverse #Nostr #SocialMedia #ATproto #ActivityPub
