Wiredfire

the-independent.comBBC licence fee to be extended with ‘YouTube tax’Exclusive: A government white paper set to be published before Christmas is expected to include plans to extend the licence fee to cover YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Disney Plus

Burnham’s government: “we want to help you with your cost of living“ also Burnham’s governmeny: www.the-independent.com/news/uk/poli...

Wiredfire reposted

mstdn.socialWiredfire (@wiredfire@mstdn.social)3.29K Posts, 459 Following, 525 Followers ·

Occasional reminder: I’m more active on Mastodon. Bluesky is alright but it in practise it doesn’t really solve many of the issues that lead to Twitter becoming.. well that. Truly decentralised platform solve a lot more of them. mstdn.social/@wiredfire

mstdn.socialWiredfire (@wiredfire@mstdn.social)3.29K Posts, 459 Following, 525 Followers ·

bne.socialJoshua Byrd :mastodon: (@phocks@bne.social)Shout out to this project. "Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restricti...

14 Sept

@leedsbookclub.bsky.social This feels relevant to your interests ^_^ bne.social/@phocks/1172...

gamesradar.comSony lawyers argue that nobody is stupid enough to believe they actually own digital games, because then only one person could buy GTA 6PlayStation believes "reasonable consumers would not be misled" by its current disclosures

2 Sept

Repeat once again: if buying isn’t owning then piracy isn’t stealing. www.gamesradar.com/games/sony-l...

2 Sept

Just finished Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. Really enjoyed that. Looking forward to reading more of Murderbot’s exploits. But first: Red Dwaf Titan. #books

31 Aug

Consider this my annual note of ire regarding the obscene volume of Leeds carnival. It's utterly moronic that it rolls around on a bank holiday weekend but it's always chosen to be on the Monday instead of something obvious like the Saturday or Sunday. Something something bellends.

bbc.co.ukAndy Burnham says he will not vote on assisted dying unlike StarmerBurnham has called for all views to be respected as MPs vote in two weeks on legalising assisted dying in England and Wales.

28 Aug

And thereby robbing his constituents a voice on the matter. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

25 Aug

I’m not entirely convinced that cider followed by a very little rum on a work night is one of my more wise moves. Fortunately I can justify it with the age-old cry: FOR SCIENCE!

21 Aug

this also applies incredibly to the home office “hey, don’t rape people” leaflet they’re handing to asylum seekers 😂

Wiredfire@wiredfire.spacecookies.co.uk

Cobra meeting moments before someone suggested using the "WARNING NUCLEAR ATTACK!" messaging system to warn against BBQs..

16 Aug

Data centres are, in general, a necessity for the modern Internet to function. They are not, in themselves, problematic. But like all things in excess they are deeply unhealthy. Especially when their purposes are flippant and unnecessary.

16 Aug

Has me back to imagining how awesome it would have been is a truly totally decentralised web could have manifested itself and become both sustainable and The Norm.

Cobra meeting moments before someone suggested using the "WARNING NUCLEAR ATTACK!" messaging system to warn against BBQs..

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Also the message will be utterly ineffective. Anyone dumb enough to not realise the risk of fire sources right now isn't going to listen to a government message.

So Burnham has essentially used this system as a "hey look at me, I'm doing something!" tool. Explain to me again, Andy, how you're meant to be different to other politicians? I'd expect this from Ralph Wiggum, not the "King of the North".

Cobra meeting moments before someone suggested using the "WARNING NUCLEAR ATTACK!" messaging system to warn against BBQs..

(yes I'm aware it's more serious than that but it wasn't a warranted use of the "the end is coming!" alert system for a few reasons. This was political gesturing

Also a massively dick move to do it at what is bedtime for millions of kids. This message could absolutely have waited until tomorrow morning.

13 Aug

Bluesky IS just like twitter. It’s on the same path. Right now it feels a bit like early twitter did but it's quickly showing signs of the same challenges that ultimately leave it vulnerable to the same endpoint. Actually decentralised platforms are far less vulnerable to this.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social

Someone told me "Bluesky is just like Twitter." I argued that was untrue on the basis that last time I had a Twitter account most times I got a new follower their bio said "single & looking for fun" & here when I get a new follower it tends to say something like "professor of rare moths".

share.googlePBS broadcaster loses access to 50TB of data comprising 70 years of TV history after contracted cloud storage vendor goes defunct — public TV channel sues Iron Mountain data center, which hosts archiv...This wouldn't have been an issue if the organization bought a $1,000 NAS and populated it with a few hard drives.

13 Aug

Another case of assuming something in “the cloud“ is a sufficient backup solution. It’s not. Cloud storage can be *a* great backup solution but only alongside redundant copies and backups.

Stephanie Flynn@stephanieflynn.bsky.social

What a nightmare PBS broadcaster loses access to 50TB of data comprising 70 years of TV history after contracted cloud storage vendor goes defunct — public TV channel sues Iron Mountain data center, which hosts archival materials, to ensure preservation | Tom's Hardware share.google/ExvNkuiN1bIl...

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James Ball

@jamesrball.com

13 Aug

Posting false information about election candidates is one of the last remaining forms of criminal libel in the UK, fwiw. If your algorithm/AI is bad enough that it isn't immune to this kind of fuck up, it is not ready for deployment! Turn it the fuck off!

This post is unavailable.

@countbinface.bsky.social

12 Aug

Clacton. You know what to do. Make your vote Count.

Wiredfire reposted

Count Binface

12 Aug

Okay Clacton. Let’s go.

Does anyone know where I can find some solar eclipse glasses in the UK in time for the partial eclipse on Wednesday evening? Amazon doesn’t have anything that’ll arrive quickly enough.

Wait, Monday tomorrow? AGAIN? Bet Count Binface wouldn’t stand for this nonsense.

What I hear when I see small businesses listin justifying their use of AI posters: “Small business is important but hard, except for graphics folk, their small business can so jump“

Or Heaven forbid they learn a new skill and use one of the many, many, absurdly easy to use design tools or apps out there to make something that looks like their business instead of looking exactly like everyone else.

7 Aug

Absolutely loved the unexpected Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference in @aptshadow.bsky.social ’s Service Model 😍 Very near the end of the book and it’s been brilliant read.

When AI companies with literally billions of dollars at their disposal can't even get their AI models to work as intended without going rogue how is it that their corporate customers somehow think they're different and will mAgIcAlLy reap benefits of AI models that miraculously do what they want?

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I'd rant about this on LinkedIn too but more senior people at my employer would see it and "have words" with me. Well that and that my LinkedIn profile apparently got flagged as "suspicious" and now I can't access it without submitting a government ID to them.

Which I absolutely will not do partly because, for my own opsec, I don't use my "official" name on LinkedIn so wouldn't line up with the docs and partly because ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY NOT.

All the while they're shelling out vast sums of money to pay for these not-fit-for-purpose systems, then get pissy with their staff like *they're* the problem when they don't suddenly get massive efficiency gains. It's literally insane. The sooner the bubble burst the better.

Then we can get on with all the CEOs nursing their bruised egos for falling for this crap and get on with getting stuff done again.

Wiredfire reposted

Monsters

I object to today not being Friday.

gamespot.comEA Has Officially Been Sold, And What Comes Next Could Be PainfulIt's a done deal. But what happens next?

"We're entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition.“ By this statement we can as ascertain that EA believes that homosexuality should be illegal as should being trans. www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-... #gaming

Clarification: by this we can assotciate that homosexuals should be put to death. How is this not the headline in the reporting?

gamespot.comEA Has Officially Been Sold, And What Comes Next Could Be PainfulIt's a done deal. But what happens next?

EA have been a crap games company for a long, so saying I’ll not buy their wares again isn’t saying much, but this is a deeply unsavoury position for them to take

I’m pretty looking forward to the new Hard House Euphoria mix album. Think their marketing could do more to make it clear that it’s a fully new DJ mix album and not a re-issue of the 2000 classic CD but it looks good! #edm #hardhouse #Music

bbc.co.ukPolanski says guillotine re-post was mistake but refuses to apologiseThe Green leader re-posted a photo of a man wearing a guillotine t-shirt and the name Nigel.

29 July

Polanski rage-baits on social media without thinking, which suggests he would be problematic in a position of power (acting without thinking or habing fully understood something) and refusing to apologise just comes off as arrogant and entitled. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

29 July

“he said he would not apologise for an "inadvertent mistake"” Absolutely not the attitude I want in a politician.

bbc.co.ukReform UK reporting Green leader Zack Polanski to police over Instagram postThe post included a photo of a man wearing a top featuring the name "Nigel" alongside an image of a guillotine.

27 July

Careless “mistakes” like this by the Greens massively undermines their credibility, gives Reform an edge to pick at, and makes Polanski continue to look just like all the other whiney whinging moaning point-scoring politicians. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #ukpol

27 July

I wanted to believe in the Greens but they’re.. kinda awful. Which suuuuucks as their core ideals are sensible but their promise to do politics differently is clearly rollocks. #ukpol

25 July

Many social media platforms have an algorithm problem. However, all social media platforms have a People problem.

25 July

Hard to take a Prime Minister deposit whose online posting is restricted to monolithic toxicity platforms. I appreciate here is, functionality, also monolithic and rapidly on the path to terminal toxicity but still better than the Other Places for now.

25 July

Though why almost all politicians are sleeping on the control that a fediverse presence can give them evades me. (Not really, they're just not actually interested in things like understanding how the platforms they depend upon actually work 🫥😑)

24 July

Remember when the Greens were about their own message rather than not-being-the-other-people? They’re losing their edge. Burnham has them rattled. thats probably not a good thing.

The Green Party of England & Wales@greenparty.org.uk

Andy Burnham seems to have lost his voice on Gaza. Time to speak up. End arms sales to Israel.

23 July

Might go back to my old 2nd gen iPhone SE while I’m figuring the fuller digital detox. or rather I would if porting over the messaging archives wouldn’t devour too much of it’s meagre 64gb storage 🤔