Skip Navigation
The anti-AI sentiment in the free software communities is concerning.
  • Luddites were not as opposed to new technology as you say it here. They were mainly concerned about what technology would do to whom.

    A helpful history right here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown

  • AI Can Tell Your Political Affiliation Just by Looking at Your Face, Researchers Find
  • We demonstrate that political orientation can be predicted from neutral facial images by both humans and algorithms, even when factors like age, gender, and ethnicity are accounted for. This indicates a connection between political leanings and inherent facial characteristics, which are largely beyond an individual’s control. Our findings underscore the urgency for scholars, the public, and policymakers to recognize and address the potential risks of facial recognition technology to personal privacy.

    "peer-reviewed" bullshit.

  • NSFW Removed Deleted
    XXX
  • I call it TED. Temporary Employee Discount. Don't forget to ring your TED. Always.

  • How many floors are under an apartment on the second floor? (No basement)
  • It would be more complex if the US didn’t believe in 13th floor story and UK did. Even though both would have 14th floor on the same level from the ground, there is a lot that would be missed if you only elevated straight from the parking basement to your 14th floor.

  • Yemeni women become mobile phone technicians to curb sextortion
  • Images could as well be copies of immigration documents for secretive efforts to run away from abusive family relationships or financial details for whatever plans or projects.

  • JellyBox - Music player for Jellyfin
  • Findroid/Finamp? Quite robust.

    Link: https://github.com/jmshrv/finamp

  • Belly buttons
  • Retired mouth and bum.

  • How often had I overlooked women's contributions ?
  • Swahili. If you want to translate “she/he went to the river”, you say “Alienda mtoni” which collapses she/he into the subject A- (Alienda) to mean “the person”. You always need context to use a gendered word (like mwanamke for woman) otherwise general conversation does not foreground it. There is literally no word for he/she in Swahili, as far as I know.

  • How often had I overlooked women's contributions ?
  • Same here. My native langauge is not gendered and I rarely associate “man” in academic spaces with “gender” category. I usually need more info to tilt to gender in discussions.

  • Donald Trump Is Not as Popular as Everyone Thinks
  • The 2020 Primary felt like high strategy game. I don’t know much about Américan politics but I do remember seeing Bernie Sanders continue the 2016 momentum only for Biden to pick up in South Carolina. The orchestration they did to keep primary candidates in to weaken Bernie while working for Biden felt to me less a Biden thing and more of Biden as a chess-piece. He was not the force behind it. His familiarity and seemingly calm demeanor appealed to most voters compared to the erratic image of Trump. But deep down there was a feeling of “screw you Bernie”. Luckily for Dems, that is not a fault line Republicans are exploiting.

  • Deleted
    ...
  • Still fair point. The grind is in placing the new reimplementation of federated link aggregator in opposition to Lemmy as if they are competing, and sadly to trash Lemmy and its developers.

  • Deleted
    ...
  • And if they develop a good tool, that is also fine. The more the merrier. But I think their resources may have served more people if they were not duplicating effort and rather contributed into existing work. To each their own.

  • Deleted
    ...
  • Something feels off with this post. It comes off as “we are better than Lemmy” as if there is any competition and awards to be won. To say Lemmy’s development is “toxic” and this project is “more inclusive and less toxic” without backing it up with evidence is unfair.

  • Ancient Egyptians Celebrated the Feast of Drunkenness with Blood-Red Beer
    www.atlasobscura.com Ancient Egyptians Celebrated the Feast of Drunkenness with Blood-Red Beer

    One of history's earliest mixed drinks was made to appease a ferocious goddess.

    Ancient Egyptians Celebrated the Feast of Drunkenness with Blood-Red Beer

    > To halt the carnage, the sun god resorted to trickery. One version of the story recounts that Ra flooded a field of barley and allowed it to ferment, while another claims he simply poured out 7,000 jars of beer. In either case, Ra cleverly dyed the beer crimson using red ochre, a type of edible clay rich in iron oxide. > > “When Hathor arrived, she started drinking what she thought was blood,” Goldsmith says. After guzzling the better part of a field of beer, the goddess became too drunk to continue her murder spree and took a nap, thus saving humanity.

    3
    In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders killings and arrests to crush rebels

    > “I used to believe in the reform agenda of Abiy, I really wanted to be part of the transition,” the judge said. “At first I justified the behaviour of the security forces and thought it was linked to a particular moment, but at some point I realised the problem was systemic. Everyone who disagreed with the Koree Nageenyaa would be removed."

    1
    Lurkers be like
  • indistinct chatter

  • BBC: Extending our Mastodon social media trial
  • I like the testing and hopefully they will share more detailed research findings in the next 6months. Especially on content moderation knowing they have decades of experience on this.

  • Lemmy the software will be 5 years soon (Feb 14)
  • The unsang heroes who brought in wisdom and competency! 🤟

  • Lemmy the software will be 5 years soon (Feb 14)
  • Dess should tell us why Valentines. Probably a missed date and vented out on AGPL-3 legendary code. If true, long live heartbreaks!

  • From Hashtags to Hush-Tags: The Tug of War Over Social Media in Conflict Zones - The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
    timep.org From Hashtags to Hush-Tags: The Tug of War Over Social Media in Conflict Zones - The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy

    The removal of victims' online content in conflict zones such as Gaza and Syria plays in favor of regimes committing atrocities. And social media platforms are not passive bystanders in this censorship.

    From Hashtags to Hush-Tags: The Tug of War Over Social Media in Conflict Zones - The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy

    > The digital memory of civilians and marginalized communities has become a crucial resource for documenting and writing about conflict, atrocities, and people; ultimately contributing to long-term transitional justice.

    0
    Lemmy the software will be 5 years soon (Feb 14)
    github.com Initial commit · LemmyNet/lemmy@8ece275

    🐀 A link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Contribute to LemmyNet/lemmy development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Initial commit · LemmyNet/lemmy@8ece275

    cross-posted from: https://baraza.africa/post/1144422

    > The first commit was on Feb 14 2019. Amazing what @dessalines@lemmy.ml and the team have managed to build, attracting a great community along. > >

    6
    main @lemmy.ml Mwalimu @baraza.africa
    Lemmy the software will be 5 years soon (Feb 14)
    github.com Initial commit · LemmyNet/lemmy@8ece275

    🐀 A link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Contribute to LemmyNet/lemmy development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Initial commit · LemmyNet/lemmy@8ece275

    The first commit was on Feb 14 2019. Amazing what @dessalines@lemmy.ml and the team have managed to build, attracting a great community along.

    0
    China’s Tesla-beating EV maker BYD has carmakers around the world ‘in a state of shock’ over its prices
  • I once read that the failure of British industrial policy to engage labour as a long term competitive edge instead of a dispensable short term concern saw Germany overtake British car makers. Germany dealt with labour strikes more comprehensively by engaging labour in policy structures. Like including Labour representatives in boardrooms.

    I wonder how this may reflect on Chinese / Western competitiveness.

    Found the piece: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23406467

  • Which software was ahead of its time?
  • Avafind.

    Searching for almost anything was so much easy. Such a powerful tool that disappeared. Its performance 20 years ago was better than Finder is today. At least from my experience.

  • Which software was ahead of its time?
  • Used to be the first thing we installed on phones and PCs. Opera was blazing fast on basic phones as far back as 2008sh.

  • Tunnels once connected Egypt and Gaza. Here's what they looked like 10 years ago

    MARTIN: There's a report that the military was using artificial intelligence to try to map these tunnels. Do you have any sense of how that would work?

    AL-SIRHID: I mean, I know that they're using AI to make their bombing maps. That's what I read about. I am skeptical of any claim of technology being developed to find tunnels. Because, listen, tunnels have been everywhere. There's tunnels at the U.S.-Mexico border. There's no technology to detect them. There's tunnels at the DMZ between North and South Korea. Tunnels were used in the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam during the American war.

    I've had a Google alert for over 10 years for any time tunnels come in the news, and every couple of months or so, a new city discovers tunnels underneath them. So all this to say that tunnels are literally underground and secretive. Anybody who claims to have any accurate information about the current tunnel system will be not telling you the truth. I don't know where they are. Ordinary Gazans don't know where they are. So the tunnels that are being used now as combat tunnels are deeply, deeply secretive.

    MARTIN: That was the Palestinian American scholar and writer who publishes under the pen name Bint al-Sirhid.

    13
    UK Rwanda migrant scheme declared unlawful

    > we conclude that the Court of Appeal was correct to reverse the decision of the Divisional Court, and was entitled to find that there are substantial grounds for believing that the removal of the claimants to Rwanda would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment by reason of refoulement. It was accordingly correct to hold that the Secretary of State’s policy is unlawful.

    0
    Whose interest does the Kenyan seeds law protect?
    conservationatheart.wordpress.com Whose interest does the Kenyan seeds law protect?

    Seed is the source of life. It is critical in food production, nutrition, agricultural development, rural livelihoods and agrobiodiversity. Farmers across the globe have saved and exchanged indigen…

    Whose interest does the Kenyan seeds law protect?

    > It is therefore right to say that the Kenyan government and its respective seed policies undervalues farmer managed seed systems. Smallholder farmers in Kenya account for 80% of the farming population yet they are actively discouraged from farming by state agricultural policy that promotes commercial seed provision and modernisation of agriculture. Farmer seed systems provide equal access to seeds to farmers regardless of their economic status. Which begs the question: Why should policy support be geared towards formal seed systems when informal seed systems are currently supporting agricultural production?

    0
    Israel-Gaza war: Why is Africa divided on supporting Palestine?
    www.aljazeera.com Israel-Gaza war: Why is Africa divided on supporting Palestine?

    Israel has made deep inroads into a continent traditionally sympathetic to Palestine. But its gains have limits too.

    Israel-Gaza war: Why is Africa divided on supporting Palestine?
    0
    Senegal cracks down on Europe refugee boats: Will others follow?
    www.aljazeera.com Senegal cracks down on Europe refugee boats: Will others follow?

    The West African nation’s navy is stopping refugee boats at record rates. But who does that help — other than Europe?

    Senegal cracks down on Europe refugee boats: Will others follow?

    > “The truth is there might never be a sustainable way to address migration, but African countries need to work better to increase legal pathways within Africa,” Oucho said. “Perhaps West Africans could move to East Africa where I’m from to share fishing expertise and vice versa. When people move they bring challenges but they also bring talents.”

    0
    Haitians Denounce U.N. Vote to Deploy U.S.-Backed Kenyan-Led Troops
    www.democracynow.org Haitians Denounce U.N. Vote to Deploy U.S.-Backed Kenyan-Led Troops

    The United Nations Security Council has approved an international armed force to address spiraling gang violence in Haiti, where street battles have paralyzed the capital Port-au-Prince since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The U.N. mission, which came at the repeated request o...

    Haitians Denounce U.N. Vote to Deploy U.S.-Backed Kenyan-Led Troops
    0
    An Ethiopian Month Packed with Holidays: Mawlid, Meskel and Irreecha

    > The difference between the established religions indicated above the Irreecha festival is that the former came from outside the country, Orthodox Christianity back in the 4th century and Islam in the 7th, wd while the Waqa belief system is entirely indigenous, created and nurtured by the common people whose lives depend on this very belief system.

    0
    Building the South-South Feminist Archive: An Interview with Ghiwa Sayegh of Kohl Journal
    africanarguments.org Building the South-South Feminist Archive: An Interview with Ghiwa Sayegh of Kohl Journal | African Arguments

    Building the South-South Feminist Archive: An Interview with Ghiwa Sayegh of Kohl Journal

    Building the South-South Feminist Archive: An Interview with Ghiwa Sayegh of Kohl Journal | African Arguments

    > This woman, as Win observes, is often reminded that development work is about aiding the resource-poor and that her own experiences of patriarchy and oppression are not relevant to this narrative. In the meantime, if she happens to work in the development field, her ‘legitimacy’ is only realised in her role as mediator, connecting grassroots women and issues to the language and practice of international development.

    0
    Breaking the silence on NGOs in Africa – a review

    > The Intellectuals go on to diagnose several key symptoms felt by the NGO-ization of Kenyan movements. Telling the story of Bunge La Mwananchi (The Peoples Parliament) in the early 1990s, Kinuthia Ndungu explains how the movement became a shadow of its original self as NGOs capitalized on poor members’ material conditions and turned them into ‘guns for hire’ by mobilizing them to join activities and demonstrations – whatever the cause – in exchange for monetary reimbursements. This is but one way how NGOs create a culture of dependency within a movement, making it challenging for grassroots leaders to organize activities without adequate finances and payments to those supporting a cause. Reliance on NGO resource support – in the form of staff time, printed materials, computers, etc. – can influence movement dependence, which can experience severe strain when donor funds shift to other alliances or causes. Additionally, movements that accept NGO resource and advocacy support often become softer in their critique of NGO positionality, dismissing the historical relationship between imperialism and NGOs.

    0
    BLASTPASS: NSO Group iPhone Zero-Click, Zero-Day Exploit Captured in the Wild
    citizenlab.ca BLASTPASS: NSO Group iPhone Zero-Click, Zero-Day Exploit Captured in the Wild - The Citizen Lab

    Citizen Lab found an actively exploited zero-click vulnerability being used to deliver NSO Group’s Pegasus mercenary spyware while checking the device of an individual employed by a Washington DC-based civil society organization with international offices. We refer to the exploit chain as BLAST...

    BLASTPASS: NSO Group iPhone Zero-Click, Zero-Day Exploit Captured in the Wild - The Citizen Lab

    > We refer to the exploit chain as BLASTPASS. The exploit chain was capable of compromising iPhones running the latest version of iOS (16.6) without any interaction from the victim.

    11
    Can Kenya Bring Order to Haiti? Doubts Are Swirling.
    www.nytimes.com Can Kenya Bring Order to Haiti? Doubts Are Swirling.

    The African country has volunteered to send forces to Haiti as its security crisis spirals out of control. But the plan is facing pushback.

    Can Kenya Bring Order to Haiti? Doubts Are Swirling.

    Archived url: https://archive.ph/F51u6

    > Ms. Charlier voiced doubt that the Kenyan-led force would be large enough to make headway against the gangs, which are thought to control roughly 80 percent of the capital. The plan calls for the deployment 1,000 Kenyan police officers and several hundred officers or soldiers from Caribbean countries.

    > “Fighting the gangs will require going into shantytowns, hillsides, terrain that you need to know very well,” said Ms. Charlier. She said that money going to an outside force would be better spent on strengthening Haiti’s own depleted police forces.

    0
    Levin, Ben Gvir said to suggest moving Eritrean migrants to tony north Tel Aviv
    www.timesofisrael.com Levin, Ben Gvir said to suggest moving Eritrean migrants to tony north Tel Aviv

    After rioting in city's south, justice and national security ministers tout plan to forcibly relocate asylum seekers to wealthier, and left-leaning, neighborhoods

    Levin, Ben Gvir said to suggest moving Eritrean migrants to tony north Tel Aviv

    > Netanyahu argued that migration from African countries constituted “a real threat to Israel’s character and future as a Jewish and democratic state.” > > The Israeli right largely rejects African migrants’ claims of asylum-seeking and routinely refers to all migrants, regardless of motives and circumstances, as “infiltrators.”

    0
    Lagos, Glimpsed from Seven Vantages
    www.newyorker.com Lagos, Glimpsed from Seven Vantages

    The latest iteration of “New Photography,” at MOMA, situates contemporary life in the Nigerian city as a constant but lively negotiation between the violence of history and the demands of the present.

    Lagos, Glimpsed from Seven Vantages

    Archived copy: https://archive.ph/vw0p9

    > Selections from Karl Ohiri’s ongoing series “Archive of Becoming” take a similar interest in reconciling past and present. For the series, Ohiri printed digital images from negatives discarded by commercial photo studios in Lagos; the resulting images, blooming with lichen-like discolorations, bear the traces of a bygone era of analog photography and record the lives of everyday citizens, transformed now by the gaze of history.

    0
    Gabon military officers claim power, say election lacked credibility
    www.aljazeera.com Gabon President Bongo detained in coup attempt after winning third term

    Television announcement comes shortly after incumbent Ali Bongo is declared president for a third term.

    Gabon President Bongo detained in coup attempt after winning third term

    >A group of senior military officers have appeared on television in Gabon claiming they have taken power because elections held over the weekend were not credible.

    >The officers said in the Wednesday broadcast they had cancelled the elections, dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders.

    >They said they represented all security and defence forces of Gabon.

    >The announcement came shortly after the state election body said President Ali Bongo had won a third term in office in Saturday’s disputed elections.

    0
    The Japanese developers of Puck-Man changed the name to Pac-Man when porting it to North America to avoid a scenario where the "P" in Puck Man would be changed to an "F", forming an obscene name.

    > Eyeing the game's success in Japan, Namco initialized plans to bring the game to the international market, particularly the United States.[26] Before showing the game to distributors, Namco America made a number of changes, such as altering the names of the ghosts.[26] The biggest of these was the game's title; executives at Namco were worried that vandals would change the "P" in Puck Man to an "F", forming an obscene name.[12][33] Masaya Nakamura chose to rename it to Pac-Man, as he felt it was closer to the game's original Japanese title of Pakkuman.[12] In Europe, the game was released under both titles, Pac-Man and Puck Man.[34]

    Source: Wikipedia

    3
    mwalimu Mwalimu @baraza.africa
    Posts 39
    Comments 74
    Moderates