#internet data

[internetdataandfilereadersreadup]

INTERNET DATA AND FILE READERS READ UP

[shyflops]

[probablyasocialecologist]

Fifty per cent of web users are running ad blockers. Zero per cent of app users are running ad blockers, because adding a blocker to an app requires that you first remove its encryption, and that’s a felony. (Jay Freeman, the American businessman and engineer, calls this “felony contempt of business-model”.) So when someone in a boardroom says, “Let’s make our ads 20 per cent more obnoxious and get a 2 per cent revenue increase,” no one objects that this might prompt users to google, “How do I block ads?” After all, the answer is, you can’t. Indeed, it’s more likely that someone in that boardroom will say, “Let’s make our ads 100 per cent more obnoxious and get a 10 per cent revenue increase.” (This is why every company wants you to install an app instead of using its website.) There’s no reason that gig workers who are facing algorithmic wage discrimination couldn’t install a counter-app that co-ordinated among all the Uber drivers to reject all jobs unless they reach a certain pay threshold. No reason except felony contempt of business model, the threat that the toolsmiths who built that counter-app would go broke or land in prison, for violating DMCA 1201, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trademark, copyright, patent, contract, trade secrecy, nondisclosure and noncompete or, in other words, “IP law”. IP isn’t just short for intellectual property. It’s a euphemism for “a law that lets me reach beyond the walls of my company and control the conduct of my critics, competitors and customers”. And “app” is just a euphemism for “a web page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to mod it, to protect the labour, consumer and privacy rights of its user”.

[blackkatdraws2]

[Toon x Mobster] Sir toon and his loyal men.

This comes WAAYY way after Gavriel and Jack's relationship really takes off.

The other members were initially very against Gavriel and Jack's relationship, Gavriel Huffman included. However, Jack is eventually able to earn the respect of the other mobsters after proving himself able to protect both their boss [Gavriel] and the other members of their group, time and time again.

They swore to do him favors and other errands as a compensation for his benevolence. Jack himself didn't mean for this to happen, he just didn't want anyone to get hurt and his kind heart has won the group over in turn.

[snarkspawn]

I really enjoy playing through tnp again like hi it's been a while

[hussyknee]

I do not have the words to articulate my level of rage about this. We need to start killing and eating tech bros.

[frogshunnedshadows]

Circa early 1993 behind the scenes photos from the filming of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[would-you-punt-them]

Websites that demand you give them extremely private information to "verify your age"

[strawberryteabunny]

my suitcase for a week in Rome 🏛

[stargir1z]

byung chul han, vita contemplativa

[cloudemojisworld]

[ahb-writes]

(from The Mitchells vs. the Machines, 2021)

[and-her-saints]

St. Michael Archangel by me!!!

[probablyasocialecologist]

Each time you search for something like “how many rocks should I eat” and Google’s AI “snapshot” tells you “at least one small rock per day,” you’re consuming approximately three watt-hours of electricity, according to Alex de Vries, the founder of Digiconomist, a research company exploring the unintended consequences of digital trends. That’s ten times the power consumption of a traditional Google search, and roughly equivalent to the amount of power used when talking for an hour on a home phone. (Remember those?) Collectively, De Vries calculates that adding AI-generated answers to all Google searches could easily consume as much electricity as the country of Ireland.

[...]

This insatiable hunger for power is slowing the transition to green energy. When the owner of two coal-fired power plants in Maryland filed plans to close last year, PJM asked them to keep running till at least 2028 to ensure grid reliability. Meanwhile, AI is also being used to actively increase fossil fuel production. Shell, for example, has aggressively deployed AI to find and produce deep-sea oil. “The truth is that these AI models are contributing in a significant way to climate change, in both direct and indirect ways,” says Tom McBrien, counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a digital policy watchdog. Even before Google’s AI integration this spring, the average internet user’s digital activity generated 229 kilograms of carbon dioxide a year. That means the world’s current internet use already accounts for about 40 percent of the per capita carbon budget needed to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

20 June 2024

[victusinveritas]