Railpass simulates a train ride in your browser window using real video footage. Choose from trains from around the world or add some weather to the mix. Sound on for the best ride. https://train.samismith.com
Any typos spotted in this post have just been gifted a VERY BIG and VERY ALIVE rat by their resident little (not so) stray cat, Moopsy. If typos spotted, they'll be giving a completely unrepentant Moopsy a lecture about his life choices.
(Moopsy will be giving the typos love eyes the whole time.)
--
Also, for anyone who wants to read a heartwarming, sassy and very fun novel set in a geek bar, This Is Not A F*cking Romance is out now in print! (Ohh ahh.) Prices in NZ dollars, so much cheaper for other currencies.
I’ve seen some interesting takes on the PHP thing out of the US.
One is from an official saying the US must win the ‘AI race’ as China definitely wouldn’t have told the world about the vulnerability like the NSA did.
The NSA were late to the party, literally days after me. They were also beat by.. Chinese government cyber authorities, who already had an advisory out.
If you're an open source project, non-profit, or other online community who is unsure or struggling with the recent #PHP stuff I might be able to help -- I've been working with @DProofreaders for 20+ years and @gutenberg_org since the spring. I have non-profit rates and would like to help.
See my website and book a free 30-min intro call to discuss your problem. If I can answer your question/solve your problem within that, you'll get your help for free; or DM me here.
Vancouver Aquarium is looking someone to be their otter mascot.
Fediverse, do your thing!
Anyone hiring?
I don't even care what it is anymore. I'll work it to the best of my ability regardless of what it is. I just want to live.
Compliance readiness?
Vulnerability management?
Just plain-old IT?
All of it? I've done most of it.
I just also enjoy affording food, a roof over my head, and not feeling like my life is a step away from homelessness at all times. I don't ask for much.
I now have permission to share something I hoped would be revealed with much more fanfare.
I spent more than 3 years as one of the writers of #MassEffect4
It was one of the greatest privileges & GLORIOUS challenges of my life. I smiled every day. I worked HARD for the fans, every day.
So when I say I am devastated by the end of #MassEffect I REALLY mean it. I don’t know how to express how gutted I truly am.
In New Zealand, the High Court ruled that a puberty blocker ban violates prohibitions on discrimination on the basis of a medical condition.
It stated the ban was "unjustified and disproportionate discrimination."
Trans youth can get care again.
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New Zealand High Court Rules P...
“PHP, Gitlab, Node.js, the Number Four. Being a systems administrator today is more stressful than ever. Today, we’ll take a look at the best types of gin to help you cope with the horrors of the modern Internet, on this edition of ‘The Computer Chronicles.’”
Why the fuck do I care if someone crossed an imaginary line because they heard this country was a land of opportunity? Let them come. Let them work. Let them make America great.
It's already illegal to do crimes. If someone breaks the law, they already broke the law. Alleged "Somali immigrant fraud" is just "fraud".
The only reason to get mouth frothingly upset about immigration, the only reason to blame an entire demographic for an individual's crime is white supremacy.
So today some of the worst people on earth using the most environmentally destructive tools on earth brought down a huge part of the internet by exploiting a potential problem found many years ago in PHP which was previously not practical for anyone to exploit.
It only became "practical" to exploit this problem because "AI" came along to automate the boring and repetitive work required to do so. Absurd amounts of computing power were applied specifically to break into other peoples' websites.
Now the same people who are behind this are trying to pretend that they're heroes for finding an exploit.
"AI uncovers critical vulnerabilities", their headline reads. But the vulnerability was only made to be critical by the very same people as hide behind that headline.
Many thousands of websites are offline, many people are losing money, many thousands of people are working hard to try to patch or work around the problem, many small guys are finding it almost impossible to patch, and we're all supposed to be thankful to OpenAI and others involved ? Nah. Fuck off.
Everything about "AI" involves a lot of externalized costs, but I've still yet to see even a single positive thing that has been achieved by "AI". That has definitely not changed today.
#php2shell #php #fuckai #openai
After we’ve been aware of the fediverse and intending to make a mastodon account for many months, it took us hosting an event about “Reclaiming digital communication spaces” to actually make it happen.
Yesterday and today the 7th “Cross Movement Open Space” took place in #Vienna. The format invites representatives of local CSOs to meet and discuss a topic that’s currently relevant to their work. We’ve been organising it regularly for the past 3 years and this time around we were asking:
How can we strengthen our digital sovereignty?
Should we say goodbye to big tech?
Over two days around 40 participants were discussing, workshoping, discovering and skillsharing around these questions. On the afternoon of day 2 some of the participants offered a “practical tips and tricks for starting your mastodon account”-session. One of our team members was there and got us on here. We are excited to have arrived and very greatful to @cypherhippie and @totientfunction for hyping the #opensocialweb and sharing so much of their wisdom and experience with us :)
picture: the session were we made this account!
#NeuHier #Wien #Zivilgesellschaft #civilsociety #openspace #Vienna
Hello, there might be some of you who follow me (1900 followers!?) that do not know that my main source of income is a newsletter about computers and the internet called The Sizzle. I read all the tech news and filter out the crap, leaving just the interesting bits for you.
I write it (no AI) every day, have done so for over 10 years and 1,300 people pay me $6 a month to read it.
There's a 14-day free trial, no credit card required. All you need is an email address. Paid subscribers get an RSS feed because RSS feeds are the best.
Please try it out - https://thesizzle.com.au
If you're already a subscriber, give this post a boost and reply to it with why you pay for it so other people get some confidence that it's not a scam and I'm a genuine person writing a useful thing they might enjoy!
organize, educate, protest, boycott, resist, build community
and more
and #vote
anyone who proposes actions without voting is saying: "i want to work hard doing good, then i want to see it all washed away by a fascist govt"
voting is not some sort of devotion of eternal romantic love in high holy ideological purity
it's moves on a chess board: "this crappy shit candidate will at least look the other way, while the other will actively seek to destroy me"
strategy. tactics
vote
Are you an in-person or online role playing gamer? If yes, do you know Yarro Studios?
They make fabulous maps, and cool unusual dice, and other gamer stuff. They had a bad year with being swindled, but they're back on track and looking to raise quick cash with the stuff they have in stock. So, everything is 35% off through Monday night (26 Oct) with code WEREBACK35. Every order goes straight to keeping the lights on and getting the last of the backlog out the door.
I don't get anything out of it. I'm just a happy customer 😊 Enjoy!
We are very aware of Cybersecurity this month. Can we stop being quite so aware of it next month maybe?
Hah, I just discovered that our local Shakespeare theater has a discount for people UNDER 35.
happy 85th to this queen, who @susanlbridges and I were SO FREAKIN’ EXCITED to write for in PRINCESSES OF THE DC UNIVERSE (out 3/2/27!)
she gets the first line in the entire book, because when you get to write WONDER WOMAN you do not mess around
art/colors by the phenom Alba Glez!
So BioWare is closing down and Mass Effect's development is ending ...
Anyway fuck Saudi Arabia and fuck EA
Ahem. Happy Birthday @JoBlakely!!!
If you don't follow her, go do it now! She's an incredible artist who cares deeply about her community. Also, one of us cool Toronto fedizens!