Orion Ussner kidder
OrionKidder@mas.to
<p>English prof at FDU Vancouver, specializing in composition and comics scholarship. Dad, nerd, writer of SF/F fiction (see me on writing.exchange).</p>
Posts
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Post #4456448
"AI" is a normal technology. It's an algorithm that does a handful of things quite well and a dumptruck of things very poorly. The "AI" industry is vile. Its goal is to convince your boss to "fire you and replace you with a chatbot that can't do your job" (@pluralistic@mamot.fr), and it will happily destroy the economy and egg on environmental destruction to do it. #AI #LLM #capitalism #labour #labor
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Post #4316521
I think I said this already, but it&#39;s bizarre to me that people are now talking about the Republican Party as if they&#39;ll simply be defeated in the next election, and things will go back to normal. #politics #USPol #Republicans #TheRepublicanParty
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Post #4284250
I had a conversation with a colleague who's partner is in VFX. Said partner gets asked pretty frequently by clients to have "no AI!" in the production process, and his answer is: That's not really possible. #AI #VFX #LLM
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Post #4257092
I think I'm done with Batman. The vigilante fantasy parallels the cop-as-enforcer fantasy where they're in a "war" (as in this trailer). There are literal cop seminars where they preach that there are wolves in sheeps' clothing (criminals), sheepdogs (cops), and sheep (everyone else). It's the ideological angle on the problem with policing. They think they're at war with *us*. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeAuNll34dg
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Post #4215171
@liquor_american@universeodon.com @MissConstrue@mefi.social The anti-communist propaganda is very powerful. On an airplane, I one spoke for twenty minutes once with an American about what a nightmare healthcare is there and how much he'd love the Canadian system, so I said, "Yeah, socialism works!" He literally went stiff, and said, "Well, let's not go there..." Like dude, what do you think we've been talking about?
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Post #4167594
RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116997210062423037 This articulates the exact problem I've had with this tech since the beginning. This tech is useful only if you're already an expert in whatever you're asking it about. If you're not, you have no idea if the answer it gives you is grammatical gibberish. To put that in businesspeak, you have zero quality assurance.
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Post #4047730
This is the future of leftist political organizing. Learn from the Black Panthers and the trade unionists: making people's lives better is *how* you organize them and mobilize them. @katabu@newsie.social #politics #USpol #organize #solidarity #MutualAid #TradeUnions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRhtI1SrxGw
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Post #4045822
People will say you have no expectation of privacy in public, and that is true, but it's not what we're actually talking about. For the VAST majority of human history, we had no expectation of being *recorded*. It's only the last few decades that that was even possible. Our laws need to catch up. #privacy #politics #data
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Post #3843390
I don't know who needs to hear this, but #Linux is political. You personally might not be into it for the politics, which is fine I guess, but anything that pushes back against America's global tech monopoly is a political project. It can't not be. Just saying. #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #Linux #Debian #Gnome
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Post #2153738
I tried a back stroke at the pool for the first time today. My shoulders are sore. My sides are shore. I constantly splashed water in my own face. I&#39;ll get better. :) #exercise #health #swimming
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Post #2153737
Saw a video, today, of 3D-printed #LapDock for a smart phone: portable monitor, chonky battery, USB-C for the phone to be a &quot;side monitor.&quot; #computers #SmartPhones
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Post #2153735
This moment, where we&#39;re expected to treat transphobes like they&#39;re merely taking a position in a live, social/political debate... I cannot express to you emphatically enough that it&#39;s EXACTLY the same as homophobes in the 90s/2000s. It was bullshit then. It&#39;s bullshit now. No quarter for bigots. #transphobia #homophobia #politics
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Post #2153731
The sequence in #DareDevil S02E03 where he &quot;listens&quot; his way into the prison based on a blindfolded person&#39;s observations is just the right level of ridiculous for a superhero show. Pretty good &quot;oner&quot; fight sequence, too, although boy is it ever obvious where they hid the cuts! #MarveLCinematicUniverse #MCU #TV
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Post #1902602
RE: https://social.mondoweiss.net/@mondoweiss/116461598221135598 Many years ago, I had a Jewish roommate, and she told me about taking a trip to Israel and, when she was leaving, being grilled by the border official. &quot;Why don&#39;t you want to stay?&quot; &quot;I&#39;m Canadian.&quot; &quot;But you could stay.&quot; &quot;I don&#39;t want to. I&#39;m Canadian. I&#39;m going home.&quot;
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Post #1850128
Regarding #TheYearOfTheLinuxLaptop: WIndows is becoming increasingly odious as Linux distros are decreasingly frustrating, and a LOT of people are hopping from one to the other as they cross over. #Writing #Writers #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #AmWriting #Scriberspace
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Post #1850127
Goddammit, I had just somewhat gotten over my seething desire to buy a Framework laptop, and they came out with one that looks even cooler. #computers #RightToRepair #Framework
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Post #995733
I thought this was obvious, but: The US president openly threatening war crimes against the people of Iran is *far* more significant than him saying &quot;fuck.&quot; The fact that &quot;fuck&quot; is more bothersome than war crimes *to the media class* is, itself, a sign of their unfitness for the job at hand. #Trump #USPol #POTUS #politics #Iran #WarCrimes #media #news #journalism
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Post #994850
God job, you human testicles, you *empowered* the government of Iran by *brutalizing* its civilian population. #Iran #America #politics #USPol
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Post #962476
Title says it all. I 1000% agree with this: &quot;Racism Makes You Stupid.&quot; https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TPx76MfQXAI Prejudice and privilege in general make you stupid. I&#39;m not joking when I say us abled* cis/het white men need to put in the work to overcome that deficit, knowing we can&#39;t ever fully shed it. It is what is, my literal dudes. #racism #Trump #prejudice #privilege #JamelleBouie
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Post #957580
We had my sister-in-law&#39;s boyfriend to our house yesterday, who is from #Iran, and my kids were making coloured eggs. He pointed out that they do that in Iran, too, for #Nowruz, and now I *must* find out if these practices are related! Nowruz is an *ancient* holiday, and #Easter is an old #pagan word for a very #Christian holiday, but &quot;Easter&quot; for many people is eggs and bunnies (ie, #RitesOfSpring), so this stuff could ALL be related. #history #AncientWorld #religion
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Post #777604
Heard myself say something smart today. The inverse of the male gaze, where women on film are presented as sexual objects to be looked at by presumed-straight male audiences, is not to ogle shirtless men. The inverse of the male gaze is when films treat women like people. #film #MaleGaze #FemaleGaze #objectification #feminism #FilmTheory
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Post #656308
Guys! [panting] Guys! Guys! [wiping sweat off my forehead] Garnets make natural dodecahedrons!!
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Post #487134
I bought a refurbished #Thinkpad T14 when I switched to Linux, and aside from one *serious* problem when I first got it, it&#39;s been smooth sailing for the most part. I read other people&#39;s struggles with Linux, and I finally realize *why* all the websites said, &quot;JFC, just get a Thinkpad!!&quot; #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource #Linux #Debian #Gnome
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Post #480045
For anyone using #Scrivener on #Linux via #Lutris (ie, #Wine), the recent upgrade to 0.5.22 *broke* your installation. I have learned of a fix for the DPI problem, which is one of the three issues. DPI is now stuck at 96, which is unreadable on a modern monitor. To fix this: - go to Wine options in the left-hand menu - toggled &quot;Advanced&quot; - scroll down to &quot;DPI&quot; - toggle &quot;Enable DPI Scaling&quot; - set DPI to 240 (or whatever) #OpenSource #FO...
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Post #73084
@TheConversationUS@newsie.social "AI" companies are desperate to get student hooked on their product, and that means *deskilling* them, which is the opposite of education.