Some advice on making software
Jim Grey shares some advice after 35 years of making software:
Chase adventure and interestingness, not salary and title. This might be controversial with some, for whom salary and title are critical. So be it. We’re ridiculously well paid in this industry, even at the entry level. I’ve had a varied career, from technical writing to QA to engineering. I’ve said yes to, or chased after, things that sounded like would be challenging and interesting, and therefore fun. The money and positions have come to me in time. I might have gotten them a lot faster had I chased after them instead. What I got was a fascinating career and a great deal of personal and professional growth. I regret a couple choices, and a couple other choices totally didn’t work out for me. But there’s so much opportunity in this industry (even though the downturn we’re living through has tightened that up for now) that you can recover from that.
Positive revolutions
@requiem shares some thoughts:
So what I’m taking away from my more recent (1960’s) anarchist studies is that history tells us we really need to focus on how what we’re proposing will be good instead of focusing on what’s wrong with the way things are going otherwise.
This, more so than warnings or preaching against the status quo has more often led to spontaneous revolutions by autonomous individuals as opposed to the “coalition led” revolution myth.
I won’t belabor this (I can recommend some books) but what’s clear is that if we want a revolution that lasts and doesn’t just setup another tyranny our efforts today could be well-spent first dreaming and then building the future we want and doing this in public instead of simply pointing at what’s wrong and trying to motivate change through fear. That’s what “the machine” uses, and it’s better at maintaining the status quo than inspiring people to make changes.
I’ll be working hard to take my own advice.
CSS Naked Day
I dag er åbenbart CSS Naked Day. Selvom det har eksisteret siden 2006 har jeg ikke hørt om det før i dag.
The idea behind CSS Naked Day is to promote web standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of HTML, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good old play on words. In the words of 2006, it’s time to show off your
<body>for what it really is.
Der er selvfølgelig stor opbakning fra min side!
Biodiversitet kan godt betale sig
Diversificering af landbruget har jo tidligere været beskyldt for måske at være nok så positivt for biodiversiteten, men også for at have nogle negative sider - især for ikke at kunne opnå et tilstrækkeligt højt udbytte. Men det vi rent faktisk ser er, at der ikke er noget udbyttetab i landbruget fra de forskellige diversificeringsstrategier - heller ikke når vi inkluderer data fra europæiske storskala-landbrug, lyder det i konklusionen.
Hvad venter vi på?
Konklusionen der referes til er fra denne artikel om et omfattende studie af biodiversitet i landbruget.
Via @anarkitty
Genocide
A few toots hit me hard this morning.
First we have this from @zip:
there's something real fucking dark about how AI is too inaccurate for tracking people around a grocery store so they have humans to make sure every last item is paid for, whereas if your AI is generating targets for a genocide then a serious error rate is perfectly within acceptable parameters.
For context:
The news of yesterday that Amazon had 1000 humans reviewing the outcome of their so called AI powered "Just Walk Out" technology, and is now shutting it down.
Amazon is giving up on the cashier-less "Just Walk Out" technology at its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. The Information reports that new stores will be built without computer-vision-powered surveillance technology, and "the majority" of existing stores will have the tech removed. In the early days, Amazon's ambitions included selling Just Walk Out to other brick-and-mortar stores. The problem was that the technology never really worked.
And the news of today that Israel is heavily relying on AI to identify and locate what they consider Hamas terrorists, with an immense amount of collateral damage.
In an unprecedented move, according to two of the sources, the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians; in the past, the military did not authorize any “collateral damage” during assassinations of low-ranking militants. The sources added that, in the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander.
It made me think of the 20 year old game called September 12th: A Toy World. In short, the game is about killing terrorists with missiles. But the terrorists walk around a crowded place among civilians. And if you happen to kill any civilians while trying to get rid of the terrorists (which is inevitable), surviving civilians are turned terrorists by your actions.
The game was a comment on The War on Terror back then. Israel seems to have mistaken the message of the game and distorted it into something completely different: If they make sure to kill enough civilians as collateral damage, they will all – eventually – turn into terrorists. And thus make them everyone valid targets.
@Mer__edith tooted while sharing the article about the Israeli AI systems:
I have a lot more to say, but I'll hold it for now and simply wonder aloud...
Which BigTech clouds are the "Lavender" & "Where's Daddy?" AI systems running on? What APIs are they using? Which libraries are they calling?
What work did my former colleagues, did I, did you contribute to that may now be enabling this automated slaughter?
Related to that story as well, @cozymel tooted:
I don't think enough people appreciate that what's happening in Palestine is the future of all police states. Israeli fascists are trying out the technology for other fascists to use elsewhere. If we keep letting them get away with it, sooner or later it will be used on you and me.
This is so true. The USA keeps funding Israel and their war machine, because the conflict is a valuable testbed for modern and next generation warfare.