👁️ autosurveillant 👁️ @pee_zombie@schelling.pt

Through the #Wikidata query for nonprofit organizations with Mastodon accounts (https://w.wiki/69Sr) I learned that #OpenAccess nonprofit @scipost has a carefully set up dedicated presence here, with multiple handles for posting open-access #science papers in those fields. Neat, hope it picks up steam!

- Physics: @physics

- Astronomy: @astro

- Biology: @biology

- Chemistry: @chemistry

- Computer Science: @compsci

- Mathematics: @math

- Political Science: @polsci

It’s funny how recognizing AI art nowadays is just the same old rules as recognizing the fae in old tales.

“Count the fingers, count the knuckles, count the teeth, check the shadows…”

… and under NO circumstances should you make deals with their kind.

Going by the top free apps chart in the iOS App Store it looks these were some of the most popular gifts people received today:
Quest VR headsets
Alexa speakers
Xbox consoles
Bose headphones
Nintendo Switch consoles
Tonieboxes
Fitbits
PlayStation consoles
Aura digital picture frames
Backbone gaming controllers for iPhones

I am once again asking you to stop using LastPass. The company has a history of security issues dating back years, and has yet to make holistic security improvements — or heck even investigate incidents properly.

Good alternatives:

- 1Password is my #1 rec, best for most use cases
- Bitwarden if you want open source
- KeePassXC if you want local vaults and open source
- I hear ok things about Dashlane but don’t know a ton

https://blog.lastpass.com/2022/12/notice-of-recent-security-incident/

A kind observation that exclusively calling this place "Mastodon" has a bit similar energy as saying "I just sent a GMail."

"Fediverse" (or "fedi") is a more inclusive, general term.

Mastodon is just one of many software projects that talk to each other to create this multi-instance social network:
https://axbom.com/fediverse/

(kudos to @axbom for this fantastic infographic!)

There are blogs, Reddit-like communities, video instances and many more, all part of fedi.

#TwitterMigration #NewHere

@lynne

This image appears a lot in online cyberpunk circles. So I wasted 2 hours of my life doing internet detective work.

The oldest reference I can find for this is this imgur page, uploaded on February 16 2014:

https://imgur.com/PLK8Dv0

"Impressive full-room battlestation, courtesy of Tumblr".

A quick google search resulted in this page:

https://www.reddit.com/r/shittybattlestations/comments/1y28wz/impressive_fullroom_battlestation_courtesy_of/

A tumblr google search resulted in this:

https://mx-sandman-and-mx-brightside.tumblr.com/post/697393948982935552#notes

My search took me to the somethingawful forums, but the post was from year 2016. However, the chains in some of the pictures seem to indicate the photo was from the same place.

I decided not to link to that page because it also contains bullying, nazis, gore and human feces. So I'm still searching.

And... I think I might have found it.

https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/User:PeterMeadows

Page seems to belong to some Peter Meadows from London Hackspace's wiki.

Still not sure, he could have just posted images from somewhere else, but it seems to be the most verifiable source.

I can confirm he's the one who uploaded those pictures to the wiki (via the page history) and they're high resolution, so he might be the author after all.

I went up the wiki and this is what I found:

https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Public_Relations

That might be your best chance to find out about more about that picture.

EDIT: I analyzed the high resolution images, they still have metadata!

Width: 2048
Height: 1536
F/Number: F2.8
Exposure time: 0.066 s
ISO speed rating: 400
Focal length: 5.2mm
Flash: Fired
Manufacturer: Nokia
Model: N900
Aperture value: f/3
Image date time: Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 19:07

This metadata is NOT present in the imgur page! 🤯 And that metadata date is at least 2 years older!

Update: As @dee pointed out (thread goes on here, Peter Meadows downloaded that image from somewhere else, because those power contacts are not used in the UK, but the US. Dee also found a howtogeek page whose source was another reddit thread: https://web.archive.org/web/20121108213903/http://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/12n3c2/ran_out_of_cable_ties/

So our lead is that the image is older than that, it comes from the US, and dates from May 12, 2012.

The mystery deepens... ​

Update: The original source seems to be the somethingawfulforums, the pictures belong to a user popularly known as "crawlspace_goon". The original thread was deleted, but the pictures were reposted later in the same forums.

UPDATE: @lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me found the original source for the images! (Thanks to @niconiconi for notifying me)

The source of the viral cyberpunk photo has been found - it appears to be https://www.omgwallhack.org/home/jrayhawk/img/hovel/

The owner of the homepage is Joe Rayhawk, a Debian and FreeDesktop dev. You can find his current mail address from Debian changelog. Perhaps you can send him a mail for an interview?

#Cyberpunk #Battlestations #InternetHistory

#Pasta cutting machine

Israel Gelfand on mathematics (2006) :

“From my point of view, mathematics is a part of our culture, like music, poetry and philosophy. I have mentioned the closeness between the style of mathematics and the style of classical music or poetry. I was happy to find the following four common features: first,
beauty; second, simplicity; third, exactness; fourth, crazy ideas.”

https://doi.org/10.1007/0-8176-4467-9

If you are considering running your own Mastodon server (or similar service) and it will be hosted in the United States, please read this general best practice guideline from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/user-generated-content-and-fediverse-legal-primer

#eff #electronicfrontierfoundation #law #legaladvice #bestpractices #fediverse #dmca #digitalmillenniumcopyrightact #section230 #corynnemchserry #rights #anonymity #copyrightlaw

The domestic robot's lidar has detected evidence of a mirror universe.

Two excellent, in-depth guides to Mastodon, which should answer many of your questions, are here:

1. An Increasingly Less-Brief Guide to Mastodon by joyeusenoelle: https://github.com/joyeusenoelle/GuideToMastodon

2. Nikodemus' Guide to Mastodon: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D9gfeKg_-hlsU66R-dLEvUeyMsqEfyIx2pnfUeX0t_E/edit#heading=h.j95atvlbfrn5

*PLEASE BOOST THIS POST* so more people can see this information in their timelines, thank you so much! ❤️

To boost, just click on the boost button below this post, as indicated by the red arrow in the attached image (the icon may vary a bit, by app):

Having run my own test mastodon server, I can tell you that boosting is REALLY important. That's how posts propagate between servers that are not federated together.

I may get a bit technical, and it can be hard to describe but it's something like this:

Let's say that you have 2 servers, A and B that are not connected. They have their own federated timelines that is vastly different.

let's assume they have their users @a@A and @b@B that are mutuals. If user @a@A sees something interesting on theirs federated timeline and boosts it, user @b@B will see that on their own home page. But more importantly server B will now know about and download that post, and everyone else on B server will be able to see that post on their own federated timeline!

And that's why you boost, guys! It helps posts to spread.

#FediTips

My advice to new mastodon users is to do what I did: join a large instance that appeals to you. you are likely to have a good experience this way

if you learn later that there's some boutique instance you like more, or your current instance goes downhill, migrate your account. All Pawoo users have this option.