"Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate."
https://futurism.com/future-society/college-critical-thinking-ai
Today is Digital Independence Day!
Why trust your sports data to a closed ecosystem when there's an open alternative?
FitPub is a free, federated alternative to platforms like Strava, Ride with GPS, and Komoot. Your data belongs to you, the source code is open, and the platform is part of the Fediverse.
Take a small step toward digital independence today:
Follow the project on Mastodon:
@fitpub
I'm a parent with a 9-month old baby looking to chat with other parents. Can you recommend fedi accounts of parents with younger children who talk about parenting? (There may be many silent parents on here.)
Bonus points if they ride bikes / avoid cars, are passionate about climate justice, are COVID conscious / interested in public health, or concerned about LLMs & surveillance capitalism (all relatively common on fedi no doubt, despite conditions in the outside world).
Of course, another advantage to houseplant books from the 70s over modern internet searching is that you can find out how to prune and divide a monstera without having to deal with ads, clearly AI-generated (but still badly written) blog posts, pop-up subscription demands, and auto-play videos.
I've been using Vivaldi for quite a while now and have no plans to go anywhere else. It's not 100% open source, but open source where it matters (mainly the UI features are proprietary): The browser wars aren't about search anymore — here are the best alternatives to Chrome and Safari | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/03/as-the-browser-wars-heat-up-here-are-the-hottest-alternatives-to-chrome-and-safari-in-2026/
Instagram plant influencers think they’re clever, but they’ve got nothing on houseplant books from the 70s
[Source: House Plants for the Purple Thumb, by Maggie Baylis, 1973]
Now that we’ve tipped the climate into a never ending spiral of rising temperatures, what can we invent to use up all their fresh water, so we can wipe out the humans and take over their planet? - Alien Lizard People probably
I don’t know if he’s keeping watch or if he considers himself among equals.
#Caturday #CatsOfMastodon #CatsOfFediverse #Cats #SiberianCats #Knold
I have an anti-ai 13yo who had his first taste of digital logic in school this past year, and he wants to start building some things in Roblox or Minecraft so I would like to find something that has plans that are explained, show how it works, etc. Building small well explained circuits. YT has videos, but most seem to be "dig this and put this here" videos with the "how" but not the "why"
1/2
The other #AskFedi is for a decent entry-level technical computer history book in the 14-17 yo range. I kind of want something that covers from Ada to today. Interested more in broad than deep so we can zoom in on aspects he finds interesting.
We have talked a bit about Turing and human computers and modern stuff, but so many gaps. It's all gap.
So, looking for 1) intro digital design projects book or video creator 2) computer history book recs
For early teen
2/2
@cstross
Americans reading BBC news are probably frantically clicking this button as we speak.
Rainy Lake, along the border between the United States and Canada.
📷 https://www.earthcam.com/usa/minnesota/internationalfalls/?cam=rainylake
🗺️ https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=48.860939&mlon=-93.574463#map=12/48.860939/-93.574463
RE: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/116834222130883504
As long as Ford is reversing bad decisions, they should bring back the affordable small sedans and hatchbacks they discontinued a few years ago.
My neighbors left this fabulous plant on the curb with a FREE sign. It’s mine now. (Cat for scale)
I just fired up my Brother laser printer from 2015 for the first time in AT LEAST a year, added it to my work laptop, and printed three documents. This is one of the best tech purchases I’ve ever made. It was $65 at Office Depot. It takes any compatible cartridge, no questions asked. It just works. (Also, I had forgotten that it has duplex printing!!!)
If you work in a school district and want to get a sense of how the tech used in your district works, reach out!
I'm working with some folks on answering some foundational questions around privacy and security implications of commonly used edtech.
Details on the program here: https://a4l.org/introducing-the-data-observations-do-program-technical-testing-built-by-the-community/
And the core of what we use is here: https://codeberg.org/funnymonkey/hopscotch
This week’s #ThursdayFiveList theme is #HereComesTheRain — songs about rain or storms.
Don’t Rain on My Parade — Barbra Streisand, from Funny Girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbs3aAxha70
Soon It’s Gonna Rain — from The Fantasticks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNaSDoUpvg
Come Rain or Come Shine — sung by Bette Midler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3BEsiRUW1I
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head - sung by B. J. Thomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sySlY1XKlhM
Singing in the Rain / Umbrella — Tom Holland’s performance on Lip Synch Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brq-exSvB7Q
(OK, that last one may be a bit of a cheat, but I couldn't resist.)