aasatru

aasatru , 2 days ago

I have a pretty comfy saddle, and if it's too bumpy I prefer cycling standing up anyway. Don't really get why people insist so much on sitting down all the time.

aasatru , 2 days ago

In my city cycling is faster even if you're not stuck in traffic because you can take one way streets and shortcuts. During rush hour it's not even comparable.

aasatru , 2 days ago

I'm just here because I hate capitalists.

I also hate stalinists, so the joke is on me I guess.

aasatru , 6 days ago

It's not reasonable, but it is understandable. This is why FOSS is the only viable alternative for sustainable computing.

aasatru , 10 days ago

Seems like a community that has it's natural home at programming.dev.

aasatru , 10 days ago

There's a genocide going on with what appears to be more or less the full support of the countries that make up the defence union my country is a part of.

There's war in Europe.

I find those topics worthy of discussion, and any social media where this is not actively discussed seems to me to be a smokescreen more than anything.

Of course tragic realities like the genocide we are complacent in, climate change, war in Europe, Russian propaganda and the rise of the far right is going to be actively discussed. It concerns more or less everyone who uses this platform, and they are the most important issues of our time. It's not about negativity, it's about coming to terms with reality and seeking to understand it.

That said, the communities I follow are largely apolitical stuff that interests me. Woodworking, knitting, gardening, owls, art, and the Fediverse. With the exception of /m/[email protected] and /m/[email protected], I let the political stuff come through the cracks rather than actively following it.

I also have a Piefed account on which I follow news communities but actively filter out Trump and Musk. I can see how Amercians still feel the need to talk about these men, but at the end of the day they're just fascist attention whores.

aasatru , 10 days ago

My favourite type of posts is the ones by people signed up in one instance, posting in a community hosted by another instance about how they don't understand how they are supposed to make use of federation. And then often still not getting it when people from all over the web tell them that they already are.

It makes sense though - federation is sold as a feature for users, but when done right the users should hardly notice it at all. So of course people end up a bit confused.

aasatru , 12 days ago

Well, it does make sense, doesn't it?

What we're interested in is not the number of users, but the trends: whether the number is increasing or decreasing over time. Starting the axis at 0 would not be useful in this regard, as the trend would be almost completely obscured.

aasatru , 12 days ago

At some point recognisability is also worth something. I can immediately read this graph, I understand it, it's good.

Occasionally it's used in a confusing way where people assume it starts at zero despite it not being the case, and sometimes intentionally so. But that's just the case here.

aasatru , 14 days ago

It varies everywhere, even from state to state in the US.

The US system is kind of broken - they ask you to vote for way too many things. Where I'm from I just vote for a party - I basically say "yeah, the green party are cool", and then the party decides who to put in which position should they get enough votes. I can give a +1 to candidates I like personally, but I don't have to.

In the US you might be asked to vote for school boards, a sheriff, and a bunch of weird positions. There's no realistic chance you'll make an informed decision for all of them.

Sadly, it's very important you still vote, because the republicans are using this broken system to fill these positions with far-right lunatics. So basically seek out information as much as you can, but at the end of the day just vote for whichever Democrat is on the ballot whenever in doubt. They're not guaranteed to be good - in fact they're likely to be pretty bad - but they're pretty much guaranteed to be the lesser of two evils.

Still might vary though - local politics are weird, and there are no rules set in stones. Some places you still have decent republicans on the local level (or so I've heard).

aasatru , 19 days ago

How bad is it when you end up cycling into a pit like this, potentially at some speed? Has the water made the soil soft in the road leading the front wheel potentially getting stuck and throwing you off, or will you most likely cycle through with a significant splash and be on your way?

I guess a huge part of it might be the problem of not being able to see so well what's under the water, in case the road has been damaged?

aasatru , 20 days ago

Fascinating how the federated Bluesky spam came from Nostr. Dorsey's lovechild vomiting crap all over his disowned brainchild. Clearly he bet on the right horse.

aasatru , 22 days ago

I could read the full article, not sure what's going on.

Anyway, the journalist is writing about the Verge and 404 Media, and the more general potential benefits for the industry. There's nothing about Digiday.com following the same path.

It's a nice write-up. The main things I learned is that the Verge is transitioning to WordPress, and 404 is using Ghost. Both hope to activate the ActivityPub capabilities of these platforms when they're ready - the Verge when it finishes transitioning, 404 when Ghost implants AP support.

aasatru , 22 days ago

I guess the rules of the instance you're posting from always apply, in addition to the rules of the instance you're posting in. If you're posting stuff that's not tolerated by your instance it will probably kick you out, no matter which communities you post in. :)

aasatru , 22 days ago

Yeah, it runs like a charm on my T14s. No that I've tried much else.

aasatru , 24 days ago

I was paying for Kagi until recently, but they keep working on functionality I'm not interested in rather than lowering their prices. Other than that it was a fine experience, but too pricey, and the argument that that's the cost of running a search engine doesn't hold when they choose to develop all kinds of extra stuff.

I wish I liked SearXNG better, but the results are sadly not that great for me.

aasatru , 24 days ago

I think there's a lot of us who would ideally want to avoid both Microsoft and Google, and now that Bing is having problems it's more relevant than ever. I don't really see how the comment is braggy or patronising.

That said, I'm not comfortable using Brave either. I wish Mozilla or the Internet Archive would launch a search engine. Maybe both in cooperation. Then again, it would require Mozilla to bite the hand that feeds it.

aasatru , 23 days ago

Yeah, fair enough. I read the post more favourably, as a "at least my alternative is still working well for me", but then also being aware that every time Brave is mentioned someone jumps on and reminds everyone that the CEO is a jerk, so it saves us the time by addressing it right away.

Both interpretations are valid I guess. :)

aasatru , 24 days ago

Is it possible that I miss out on valuable insights by immediately dismissing the opinions of anyone who refers to machine learning as AI?

Sure.

Will I stop doing it?

Sure as hell not.

aasatru , 23 days ago

Artificial intelligence. There's nothing intelligent going on in an LLM model. There's learning, but not intelligence.

The people objecting to the use of the term AI to describe computerized parrots are the people who think intelligence still matters as a concept.

aasatru , 25 days ago

Spain has been rallying for this for months! They're pulling their weight in this issue.

aasatru , 24 days ago (edited 24 days ago)

Norwegians are generally leaning pro-Palestine.

In a recent survey, 46% of Norwegians responded that they have more sympathy with Palestinians, whereas only 12% have more sympathy with Israelis. 32% responded that their sympathy with Palestinians has increased in light of recent events.

I can imagine several reasons why Norway is so different from for example Germany and France in this regard.

One is that we have a pretty well-organized civil society, including an organized Jewish community that is actively outspoken about Israeli extremism. My impression is that leading voices in the Mosaic community in Norway are frequently outspoken on the side of humanity.

Another reason is of course that we are still bitter about the collapse of the Oslo Accords. There's simply no question Israel were the ones who killed it.

Even before this, Israel might have had less goodwill in Norway following the Lillehammer affair where Mossad murdered some random waiter who was on his way home from the cinema with his pregnant wife. One of the agents involved in placing 13 bullets in Ahmed Bouchikhi has since stated that they knew they were shooting the wrong man.

More importantly however, it probably relates to the story we tell ourselves as a nation.

We're in all likelihood prouder of our war efforts than most of Europe, and certainly more than pro-Israeli countries like Germany and France. A lot of us (myself included) have family members who helped Jews flee the country following the occupation, at the risk of death penalty should they get caught.

The author of our national anthem took active part in the Dreyfus affair, among other things writing in a French newspaper that the French government was the "most shameless of any civilized people".

Other important national poets dedicated their lives to giving Jews right to statehood, wrote poems urging people to wake the fuck up to the horrors of nazism, or died bombing Berlin.

These people, among others, make up the core of what we consider Norwegian national identity. As a result the average Norwegian might be less afraid of criticizing Israel than the average German (or French), as we consider ourselves to be firmly footed on the right side of history.

Of course, history is more complicated than that. A lot of us will simply not read Hamsun, and never mind that Jews had to be allowed into the Kingdom in the first place. History is complicated, but the stories we choose to tell and the ways we choose to frame them matters a lot.

Also, Norwegians are pretty left-leaning, and we put a lot of effort promoting ourselves as a peace nation. Probably doesn't hurt either.

aasatru , 24 days ago

The vikings got a bit of a bad reputation, probably in large part because they were not too popular amongst munks in England (who were avid writers). Sure, there was raping and plundering, but not necessarily so much worse than other peoples, and there was also trade and coexistence. We had particularly close relations to Scotland, and England is hardly in the position to accuse anyone else of plundering! ;)

Fun fact about the word viking: It literally means someone from a "vik", which is contemporary Norwegian for a cove. More traditionally, it's a dwelling by the coast, which explains the many -wich-towns in northern UK: The vikings would settle, usually for salt supplies, and name the place something ending with -vik.

So a Viking is not a job description as much as someone dwelling by the sea!

aasatru , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

I think a good approach could be to think about how you could reach users of different platforms.

A lot of Mastodon users follow hashtags, so including relevant hashtags (#accessibility and #blind seem like good starting points) might be a good idea. Tagging groups, such as @accessibility, might also help.

I think Kbin/Mbin might be better suited for this than Lemmy, as it integrates better with other federated networks. You can follow microbloggers and boost content, which in turn makes them likely to follow you back and creates a community beyond which Lemmy community you choose to post in. Your Mastodon followers will see your posts, but it won't matter to them which community you post it in.

It's hard for content to make the jump from Lemmy to Mastodon as Lemmy does not make itself discoverable, but as soon as content reaches Mastodon users nothing stops them from interacting with it (by boosting or replying).

Sadly Kbin.social lacks sufficiently active moderation these days, so you might be better off with an mbin instance. I also have no idea how accessible Mbin is to blind users.

Edit: I over-emphasized the point about reaching a broader audience. If you want to discuss a narrow topic but you don't want most ActivityPub users to see it because you don't value their input, I guess Lemmy is as good as it gets.

aasatru , 1 month ago

Well, imagine you meet a guy travelling through the US. He's wearing lederhosen, has a freaking feather in his hat, and speaks with a heavy German accent. You ask where he's from, and he says he's American/Italian, as his maternal grandfather was born in the US and his grandmother on his father's side is Italian. However, this is his first time outside of Germany, and he speaks no Italian and hardly any English.

This is what Americans tend to look like to Europeans.

aasatru , 1 month ago

If anything, this proves that forking Mastodon is a great idea. Not because any useful software would come out of it, but it would distract some of the annoying armchair managers out there.

The biggest problem with Mastodon isn't the lack of feature X or the presence of feature Y; it's those exact assholes, draining the energy and enthusiasm from anything that crosses their path while scaring away anyone looking for a meaningful conversation.

I hate to break it to you, but if you genuinely think you've figured it all out, chances are you're a fucking moron.

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

Creds and copyright Alex Kent over at Twitter. He also posted a picture of Fedorova's arrest, with her press credentials at full display.

The context is, of course, the ongoing anti genocide protests.

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

You're better off, the comment section is full of bootlickers anyway.

Here's the tweet:

#NYPD knocking down and arresting credentialed journalist Olga Fedorova in New York, NY on May 8, 2024.

There are two attached images. The second photo should be accessible through the link even without signing in, but I attach it here for good measure.

aasatru OP , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

It's just two images, I've posted the second one here. :)

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

Oh bother - I tried the direct link to the post, apparently that's for my eyes only. Fixed it now, thanks for pointing it out! :)

aasatru OP , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Here's their website. I'm not entirely sure what makes people working for them deserving of being beaten up by cops, but I'm sure people with more time on their hands than me can come up with something.

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

I don't see how the outlet she represents is relevant at all. The cops shouldn't be violently arresting peaceful protesters, and they should not be violently arresting people with press credentials for pointing their camera in what they consider to be the wrong direction.

She has NYC press credentials, she's press. It doesn't matter that she's not from your personal favourite newspaper.

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

Also sounds like an Ukrainian national.

Or an American one.

What a headache! I'm sure the cops asked her politely to clarify before brutally arresting her. :)

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

I'm not entirely sure how hashtags render in Lemmy, but I added that one because I think fundamentally it's what the picture is about: Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, press freedom, freedom from arbitrary violence.

Of course it's a case of freedom being infringed upon, but I nevertheless think it's a central thematic.

aasatru OP , 1 month ago

City of New York, independent press.

Not exactly subtle either.

aasatru , 1 month ago

This. Conservatives tend to themselves be the victims of a failed system, hating them for failing to address it in a useful manner is hardly constructive. I reserve my hatred for billionaires.

aasatru , 1 month ago

There are experts around here.

aasatru , 1 month ago

Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia is a solid philosophical foundation for a lot of right wing thought. If you want to engage further you can follow up with Michael Otsuka's critique in Self-Ownership and Equality: A Lockean Reconciliation.

Nozick provides an underpinning for what many think of as traditional conservative American values, without basing it in Christianity.

Then of course there's the Chicago school of economics (Friedman et al), which is just a somewhat naive and more it less completely discredited take on how the economy works. It's fundamental for understanding American politics the previous half century, but their ideas are not really worth interacting with unless you're particularly interested in economics. It's not like the idiot politicians who push it in front of them understand the theories either.

Thsee theories is not far right; there's no salvaging the far right, and their ideological basis is mostly just bigotry. You could read Ayn Rand to try to understand which hole these idiots crawled from. Or better, don't waste your time.

aasatru , 1 month ago

Yeah, you're probably right it's worth reading if you want to understand the American right. I just don't think Atlas Shrugged is anywhere near as interesting as Anarchy, State and Utopia from a history of ideas perspective, but that might not be the relevant dimension. :)

aasatru , 1 month ago

I guess technically that's neither romance nor a scam. Still messed up in more ways than one.

aasatru , 1 month ago

I have posted some pictures I've taken from hikes, and check in now and then when I feel like posting something or looking at pictures.

My experience is very different from what other people here seem to report. I am just posting into the void, I have posted 11 pictures to date, and I never linked the account to anything or told anyone about it. Still I have more than 50 followers, only from people who stumbled over my content and decided to follow. I'm only following half of that number, so it's not a politeness thing.

I've also gotten a few comments, though mostly people just click like and/or boost. It seems every time I post something I gain at least a follower or two.

So overall I'm pretty impressed by PixlFed. If you have something to share it's a good platform to do so. And there's nice landscape photography on there, at least.

aasatru , 1 month ago

PieFed is also a nice project, though it doesn't do microblogging so it's more of a Lemmy alternative.

I guess the whole point here is that people come from different platforms - I'm not sure it makes too much sense to include the platform in the community name at all. General names like 'AskFedi' or AskAround' would make a lot more sense in my book. I don't really care all that much which software a community is hosted on.

aasatru , 1 month ago

Also it's a bigger market of lawyers, so probably easier and cheaper to get high quality legal help against bullshit like this.

aasatru , 1 month ago

I think it is a pretty major issue. A single-user instance shouldn't need more than 100 GB. The internet is too bloated, which is a democratic problem as well as an environmental one.

It's of some importance for the Fediverse in particular, as we want to have a system of many independent instances with low running costs and minimal environmental footprints. A bloated piece of software running on one centralized server is different from it running on thousands of decentralized ones, and higher running costs means that instances are more likely to disappear rendering the network more fragile.

Of course it's not the biggest problem out there, but I think it's important enough that it should be a priority.

aasatru , 1 month ago

They should have been giving their money to Bridgy Fed, which is working to bridge the actual content of social media rather than the app APIs.

Well, actually, I would much rather Bridgy remains independent from Dorsey's blood money. Bluesky should just enable federation on a large scale so that it'll actually be possible to build services around it. Right now they cap federated instances at ten users, which is a complete joke.

aasatru , 1 month ago

I remember checking out Lemmy in December 2022, it was barely even a proof of concept. Now it's a whole ecosystem.

it's incredible how far it has gotten in a short time. And while commercial platforms will only get worse with time, open source platforms will only get better. Growth might not always be a linear process, but I'm feeling optimistic. :)