Raccoon🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈

That moment when u realize you haven't had a primary #computer with #Windows in a whole year...

#Linux

Shout out to #Resonite for going above and beyond with the native #Linux support: really cool to be in completely tech-unrelated sessions and noticed that more than half the users are on Linux. I was even at a meetup a couple weeks ago where there were like a dozen people and everyone was on Linux.

Shout out to #Envision, #WiVRn, #Monado, and #ALVR too: I see a lot of Linux users using Resonite's #VR support, which is also more developed than most actual VR-focused applications, which wouldn't be possible without those. Seriously, if you have a headset, and you've never tried Resonite in VR mode, you've gotta see it.

Just wanted to say, former #FedChairman #JeromePowell is a hero, and I don't think people appreciate his heroism enough.

The job of the #FederalReserve is to prevent bank-runs, #debt crises, and #inflation, by manipulating the money supply, and it's set up the way it is to ensure it's run by calm hands and not panicky #investors and #politicians with ulterior motives. People genuinely do not realize how much it protects us.

Jerome #Powell protected us from #Trump, under threat of violence and the reality legal attacks that are still attempting to put him in prison. #Trump demanded for years that he lower interest rates so he could have a quarter with more spending, which would've sent the #US #economy into long term #HyperInflation, making food and housing way more unaffordable than they are now, and had global ramifications that would last decades.

He protected us from that.

No matter what other disagreements we have with him, we can say for a fact that Jerome Powell did his duty, for the #American people, under threat. And for that, he will always be a hero.

#USpol #heroism #ChecksAndBalances

I gave #JamesTalarico a $5 and some in-person campaigning, and I'll be giving #AngieNixon or #AlexVindman and whoever is running for #Florida governor another $5 when the Florida Primaries are over.

Remember, $5 isn't a lot, but small donations do add up, especially for the Democrat Party which doesn't get as much billionaire funding as the Republican Party, and knowing some basic talking points to just have a conversation with people you know can go a long way.

#USpol #election

All this talk about #Linux #malware / #spyware / #ransomware in the news is making #Linux itself sound unsafe, so I guess I'll post some info. First of all, only #AUR (Arch User Repository) is affected, meaning only #Arch users need to worry, and only if they have downloaded updates for the specific abandoned packages in the past month or so when the attack began. Everyone on non-Arch distributions is safe, everyone on #Cachy, #SteamOS, and #Endeavor who isn't actively using AUR is safe, only people who actively downloaded recent versions of specific packages from this specific repository are affected.

Linux is still Safe for virtually all users.

Ironically, #Microsoft may be partially to blame for this, as a chunk of the issue is #GitHub projects being taken over, and the amount of Vibecode slop that's overwhelming the people who normally check for this.

But remember, AUR is not some niche or abandoned project: there are hundreds of experts all around the world - from NATO governments to megacorporations to major #OpenSource leaders - actively trying to mitigate and solve this problem from every angle. It will be handled eventually, and we'll come out more resilient for it.

In the meantime, if you're on Arch... Just don't bulk-update your AUR packages. Run #Pacman and #Flatpak's System Update, and don't mess with AUR unless you need something from it, and look it over when you do, which should be standard behavior anyway.

You should already have an #Antivirus setup, like ClamAV, but also, someone made a script which checks if you have anything from the list of known packages too...
https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Kidev/85756c3dcad3623ca5604a8135bafd14/raw/8672469f7f6400b11143ccad57296a85886b4226/check_aur_infected.sh

#OpenSource #Cybersecurity

""As [#Trump's] Approval Rating goes down, willingness to stand up to him goes up."
- #DavidBrooks, #Republican commentator, on the recent shift in the #US #Congress and #Senate.

Keep picking at him, keep raising skepticism, keep pulling the people off the fence. We are winning, even if slowly.

#USpol #democracy #resist

Random thought...

I feel like a #Pcie5 #NVME #SSD could be worth the investment, just for the #OperatingSystem (be it #Linux and its Libraries/Swap or #Windows) and other main-load programs like #Steam and #Firefox (or another #WebBrowser), but the cheapest ones are nearly $200 and they're all at least 1TB... I wonder if we will see cheaper quarter-TB ones in the next couple years, because that feels like it'd be a good way to utilize the PCIe5 NVME slot in my fancy motherboard...

...or I could be wrong: it has been pointed out that PCIe5 drive speeds are mainly only useful for sequential reads, as lookup times create latency comparable to PCIe4, and that makes up the majority of read-time for smaller files. Maybe that can be improved? Maybe Linux distros will implement something that makes core libs load as big blocks? Or we'll have a way to speed up common lookups on the #OS side?

If possible, it'd be good for keeping current-gen #computers relevant over the next decade.

#ComputerHardare #technology

Bit of an off-the-wall connection, but the point of #Scifi IS to explore ideas through a lens of fiction...

I've been watching #StarTrek #Enterprise lately, with episodes like "Dear Doctor", "#Cogenitor", "North Star", and "Observer Effect" going into the realm of "why we don't interfere with other cultures, no matter what".

I've also been watching the #IranWar, with absurd projections of impossibly wishful scenarios of an instant transition to pro-US democracy with the low-cost application of a few hundred bombs, contrasted with the reality of an #Iran now galvanized against "#TheWest" by the completely unprovoked and sudden attack by the #US and #Israel alone against the will of all allies.

I don't think even Crazy Captain Archer would approve, and it seems to me like most of us should've learned this lesson the hard way by 2004, to the point where scifi writers were putting it on UPN.

#USpol #war #ENT

#HotTake: the #AppleVision / #AppleVisionPro is failing because the market for high-end #VR Headsets is already oversaturated, and virtually all other players have an established library of #apps and uses, and proven compatibility with either #SteamLink / #WiVRn or #Monado and whatever Windows uses for #PCVR. Even with the #iOS compatibility, you just don't have a reason to buy a $1000+ headset just to hold a virtual #iPad / #iPhone when you likely already own a real one, and unlike cheaper headsets it just doesn't offer many experiences that the average user is going to pay that for.

A new headset line would take way more than #Apple seems willing to invest, especially this late in #VirtualReality #technology's cycle.

That said, there's definitely still a market for something cheap and easy, like a "Quest Lite", something that is made to hook to a lower-end #gaming computer's GPU and run stuff like tracking and reprojection locally, but doesn't necessarily have the power for anything substantial.

#Moderation Alert:

ali525-q.hf.space seems to be made entirely for someone to repeatedly spam a claim that they are a Palestinian requesting money. Users, keep in mind that this is a very easy #scam as there is no way for moderation to confirm that these people are who they say they are, and it is unlikely.

Fellow #FediMods, feel free to check this instance, and correct me if I missed something, but as of now, I have suspended the instance as a spam vector and will be putting it on the next release of the public blocklist.

Because it's in the #news lately with a couple things, in case anyone doesn't understand...

The reason why #prosecutors (and on some level #defense #lawyers) are not supposed to have ulterior motivations for or against any of the involved parties is because, while they are supposed to argue the case to the best of their ability, their primary obligation is to the #law and the #judicial process. A prosecutor is not, for example, supposed to find ways to get around the #defendent's right to defend themself, especially not by witholding evidence as the #DA did in the Rust movie set shooting accident case. Yes, there is oversight, and yes, there are consequences including being disbarred, but the first line of defense against misconduct is that lawyers are supposed to avoid getting themselves into cases where they might be tempted to break the law.

Yes, they break this all the time, but this is how it's supposed to work.

If you see something about a #prosecutor being biased against a defendent, that's why.

Seeing history repeat itself, wanted to encourage everyone on the #fediverse to take a few minutes to do something that might be VERY useful in a couple weeks.

A few years ago, and there was a massive influx onto #Mastodon. Those of us who had already been here did what we could to help new people get started, expanding our presence and creating invite links. It was also very helpful that a lot of people made early on, and linked them to friends, even though they didn't have anyone already here, which helped overcome the #NetworkEffect that deters people from joining.

#Discord is now creating a new exodus: they are forcing a large chunk of the user base to #dox themselves in order to maintain full access.

Other #OpenSource services, like #Matrix and #Fluxer seam positioned to be the new alternative people run to.

There's still time to be an early adopter and get their Network populated. Go make accounts, send them to your friends, be ready for one to take off.

Let's do this. ✊

https://fluxer.app/

A couple quotes #ElonMusk doesn't want you to "misinterpret" from his emails to #Epstein...

“What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”

"Do you have any parties planned? I’ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what l’m looking for."

...this was in 2012, when it was well known he'd been convicted of trafficking vulnerable underaged girls to these things.

I don't see what there is to misinterpret.

https://gizmodo.com/dont-you-dare-misinterpret-elon-musks-epstein-emails-just-the-facts-are-bad-enough-2000715313

#EpsteinFiles #EpsteinEmails #Elon #SexTrafficking #USPol

#Misinformation #PSA:
Claim going around that #Ukraine fed false #intel to #Trump which he then shared with #Putin. According to #KyivPost, this is unfounded and denied by the involved parties, and was traced to a former French intelligence worker. This doesn't mean it's FALSE, just that it's unsubstantiated: we will find out in time if this is true.

Remember, the point of misinformation isn't to make you believe, it's to divide and keep us from talking about true and actionable things.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/68368

#PCBuilding #PSA: there is no rule against drilling holes in your #computer case.

Like seriously, if you have a decent cylinder drill, and you have one of those cases that has a panel on both sides for cable management, you have the option to drill out a few holes for things like header cables, so you can route them back there quickly and not stretch them over the top of where your components are supposed to be.

Just make sure that...
- you do this outside or somewhere the mess won't be a problem: there will be metal shavings everywhere.
- none of the components are inside the case when you do this
- you aren't hitting the case electronics or a necessary piece of support
- you thoroughly clean it afterwards because there will be metal shavings everywhere

Building your own tower is easy and fun, just remember #AlwaysBuyAMD.

#computers #hardware #ComputerHardware

#Micron's decision to un-diversify their #RAM sales, and exclusively pursue sales the current #AI growth instead of the home, #gaming, and commercial #PC market is a dangerous move. I predict that when the #AIbubble pops, they will find themselves in a bad position to compete with #Hynix and #Ssmsung, which are still marketing their chips to non-AI end users, and not putting massive investments to keep up with the current demand.

It's also (obviously) very bad for the average person, regardless of what they use #computers for, that this is happening.

Will the short term profits outweigh the sudden loss of sales once the #bubble pops? No idea. But this kind of wild speculation-driven chaos in the #markets is exactly the reason support for #capitalism is at an all time low, as #afforfability worsens throughout the developed world due to #hyperfinancialization of basic goods.

#economics #economy #hardware

I think we're seeing the final major iterations of #VirtualReality Controllers, and #VR #technology is about to hit that maturity point where there isn't much else to do beyond making what's there better.

Unless someone comes up with a groundbreaking new way to do input with them, #VRControllers will condense to buttons / sticks that you attach to your hands (either literally just half a #gamepad on a strap or harnesses for your fingers that push back) and cameras on the headset and in the room do #FingerTracking, #FullbodyTracking, and #FaceTracking. In other words, the designs where you actually hold controllers or attach extensive trackers to your body are kind of dead, aside from maybe #SlimeVR being marketed for a while longer as a way to improve that tracking and compensate for occlusion issues.

After that, attaching stuff to your body will be all about #haptic feedback, like a #HapticVest or a #gigglepuck.

The rest will be #software for #VRExperiences like #Resonite and #VRChat.

> "Democrat Leadership considering Ranked Choice Primaries for 2028."

DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT

https://www.axios.com/2025/11/24/democrats-ranked-choice-voting-2028-primaries

#USpol #democracy #RankedChoice #voting

For reference, I recently banned a bot on TechHub that was supposedly posting "Insider Reports" from the #Russian military about how "The Ukranian Nazis are being routed and the war will be over soon", along with numerous videos of them defeating the #Ukranian Military in skirmishes, and the Russian people lining up and cheering about how great the soldiers and Putin are for fighting this war.

Yes, they have their own version of that pro-#Ukraine stuff we see on here.

It looked like everything from these sources had been the "Beginning of the End" for the multiple years since the main invasion began. Obviously, that was inaccurate.

Being able to win skirmishes or post heartwarming stories doesn't make you right. Facts and reality do. Obviously, the facts here are that Putin is a dictator attacking a democracy (however flawed), and we NEED to stop him, but that will take a lot of time and effort.

Don't let easy-to-swallow #propaganda suck you into complacency.

Feeling dumb that I just did it on a form I can't edit, so I'm going to say it out loud...

Remember to refer to it it as "#Putinist" or "#PutinRegime", rather than saying things that imply it's somehow #Russia itself, to make sure that we are making clear that our grievance is not with the #Russian people, that peace with Russia itself is very possible, and that we know that the average Russian is not our enemy.

They want to portray it as Russia versus "The West", when the real fight here is between #Putin and those of us who believe in #peace and #democracy.

- TechHub Moderation

With #MatthewMcconaughey talking about it on #HowardStern, and apparently #JennetteMcCurdy (#iCarly) weighing in again having written the book "I'm Glad My Mom Died", I see people once again talking about going #NoContact, #LowContact, or #GreyRock with #parents, as in, shutting them out of your life and avoiding ever speaking to them again.

If that doesn't sound like a thing you'd ever want to do, you probably had an actual relationship with both your parents beyond #abuse.

I'm glad you did, but we didn't.

For some, it's a long and painful process, which becomes liberating at the end, as we cut a source of lasting pain and ongoing harm out of our lives. For others, it's as easy as just not calling on the phone, because understand this: a lot of #AbusiveParents don't care.

And that's something to remember here too: if you think this is hurtful to the parent, maybe it is, and that returned-hurt can even be part of healing. But for the majority? It doesn't hurt them, because they don't actually care.

Taking a moment to remember John Wesley Hyatt, the inventor of the first major #synthetic #ivory, patented 1869, among other things like #InjectionMolding, which allowed him to make consumer goods which would normally use ivory, but were far cheaper, more durable, and had far less variation than the real stuff.

This man is sometimes credited with single handedly driving down demand for real ivory across the board, and later other products, as his own spread the idea that synthetic materials could be significantly better than natural ones.

While it wasn't anyone's intention at the time, his work saved the lives of countless #elephants, and likely other animals later on, as more things which animals were killed specifically for were replaced by synthetic things.

Sometimes, just solving the problem of doing a thing differently can have massive effects.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hyatt

#JohnWesleyHyatt #invention #science #industry

So right now, in #Florida, I'd say we need to get a few #BallotMeasures in place in the next year so we can amend the #Constitution in 2026...

- State Officials may not use state funds or resources for political campaigns, including those against ballot measures or other changes to law.

- The Right to Amend the Constitution of Florida through Ballot Measures shall not be abridged.

- Donations to State Level Political Campaigns shall be limited to Florida Residents, and capped at no more than the payment of 2000 hours at the state minimum wage.

- Any person convicted of Child Sex Trafficking shall be barred from running for or holding any public office in Florida.

We are basically going to need this now, seeing as the governor is aggressively going after our ability to vote things in...

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/01/21/desantis-florida-petition-amendment-ballot-initiative-change-signature/

#USPol #Democracy

Food For Thought on permissive #GunControl #Law in the modern #US. Going back as far as history records, carrying weapons was heavily regulated inside of cities, often to the point where even carrying #swords within the walls of a #Medieval settlement was only allowed for officials.

US #OpenCarry laws, and perhaps even licensed #ConcealedCarry, would be considered radical until the last century.

Perhaps we should rethink that.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTKNIR-vBDs

#weapons #guns #history

Sudden and interesting #FantasyRace / #FantasySpecies lore from my #DarkFantasy setting...

#Elves, all of whom are afflicted with the Frailty, are constantly worried about disease, but not from #Goblins, because goblins have their own culture of cleanliness and are so different they don't harbor many communicable pathogens. It's #Dwergs they worry about, because aversion to sun and water means poor hygiene and natural resistance makes them asymptomatic carries of human-infecting pathogens.

Oh and the irony with that?

#PlausibleDeniability is used by #corporations, like #UnitedHealthcare, to lower risk and liability for their actions, making themselves harder to go after, both in court and the media, and lowering the amounts people can get out of payouts from inevitable lawsuits.... Basically, the kind of thing they have been doing for the past few decades which led to this act of violence being perpetrated.

Like, this really shows that, in what could potentially be an era of violence reentering protest against corporate-control of government and society, it is still very possible for a lone activist to carry out this sort of "#IncitementByAction" without being immediately identified.

And while it's probably better to do protest actions publicly than to hide, there are a couple of benefits to doing so. As an unknown shooter, this guy was basically representative of no group or person, simply a generic individual for people to speculate on and debate. As someone with plausible deniability, even if he was caught, he could just stay silent during the trial... Which would benefit his cause by forcing the prosecution to discuss the motive, and allow the defense to respond by pointing out how many people have that motive and why, forcing the entire issue to be brought up in a court case for the act that was carried out.

So...

Yeah, #PlausibleDeniability might be very useful for an activist who may be arrested.

#News out of #Nintendo's #patent #lawsuit against #PocketPair, alleging the #GameMechanics of #Palworld are too similar to #Pokemon.

We now know the main #patents, all filed in #Japan earlier this year after PalWorld's release...

(Reminder that #IAmNotALawyer)

No. 7493117 involves #collision and #pathfinding, and seems to be mostly related to trainer battles and entering battle by throwing one Pokemon at another. It's not clear to me how this is novel or unique enough for a lawsuit.

No. 7528390 involves player characters mounting creatures and riding them around. As Pokemon is far from the only, first, or even a game with this mechanic for more than a few years, I don't see how they can claim this.

No. 7545191 is the #PokeBall thing, which #PalBalls are very similar to, so much I was surprised they did that at the game's release (#Bugsnax at least used a non-spherical trap), but again, I'm not sure how this is unique or innovative enough for a lawsuit.

#Gaming #GameDev

Wrote a #blog post on #FimFiction, trying to get my fellow #American #bronies and #pegasisters out to vote in our own best interests.

Give it a read if you have any questions about this election.

https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1055399/my-fellow-americans-why-you-need-to-go-vote-in-this-election

#PSA
Getting out ahead of some #Misinformation...

#Jews do not control the #weather.

There is no known device that can engage in "#CloudTheft" to cause #drought.

There is no "#JewMagic" controlling the #hurricanes to hit states where Harris is campaigning.

#Israel does not have a squad of pegasus ponies controlling the skies.

This is basic #meterology and #climatology, and is the very well understood and long-predicted result of #GlobalWarming / #ClimateChange, which is a fully-understood phenomenon, and was warned about in the 70s and 80s, where reports predicted the conditions we are seeing now at the time we are seeing them, well before any of the current people were in power.

There is no group controlling the weather, Jewish or otherwise. The people claiming that are using Jews as a #scapegoat, which is neither new nor based in any sort of reality.

- TechHub #Moderation

After having conversations with quite a few Trump supporters, seeing a common theme that a lot of them really don't like #marginalized groups being allowed to vote, I'm noticing there has been a pretty strong uptick in messaging out of conservative / #authoritarian #propaganda sources like #HillsdaleCollege specifically talking about "the importance of the #ElectoralCollege." and to a lesser extent about preserving the #TwoParty system...

I think they are seeing the same thing I'm seeing: we are reaching a critical point of people being sick of the two-party system and all the other anti-#democracy systems in the #US government.

Once again, this election is a mandate on democracy itself, and I think we could get rid of the Electoral College in the next 4 years, and make a major dent in the two-party system by the end of the decade.

That alone is reason not to give up on democracy, and GO VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS.

#USpol

#Nintendo's propensity to #lawsuits raises a question: should we still think of them as a "fun and friendly" toy company? Clearly, they've been less innovative in recent years, and eager to crush potential competition with #legal action. We have to wonder how much these companies are stifling #innovation within the #gaming industry by rushing out new #GameMechanics, filing a #patent or #trademark, then sitting on these already built systems and making repeated reskins of the last game, if anything, while threatening anyone who makes anything too popular with similar mechanics.

We need to reconsider #PatentLaw, and we need to reconsider Nintendo's reputation as a game company as opposed to a lawfirm.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/nintendo-s-lawsuit-against-palworld-isn-t-just-bad-for-the-industry-it-s-bad-for-nintendo/

Thinking more about #Nintendo's #PalWorld #lawsuit, which claims that many of the mechanics, such as the #PalBall, are too similar to #Pokemon's mechanics, like the #PokeBall.

Wondering if it would be a good idea for #PocketPair to take a cue from #BugSnax, and replace the "ball" with a cyllindrical "trap". Perhaps they can take inspiration from #GhostBusters, and have some sort of energy based trap which opens at the top and sucks the magic monsters in. They should definitely be leaning hard into the #MonsterCollecting genre's roots of #Yokai, #Spirit entities, and #mythological #cryptids.

They might be able to avoid some damages if they lose this or have to settle in a few years by just changing up a few aesthetics, and I think the game itself would benefit from this: I personally think the Pal Ball looks odd and out of place as a mechanic, like it's just there to copy Pokemon.

Then again, changing things might be an admission of guilt? I'm not a lawyer.

#IANAL #law #legal

I think it needs to be pointed out that #JDVance agreeing to the statement that raising grandchildren is "the whole purpose of a #PostMenopausalFemale" isn't merely #sexist, it shows a level of poor judgment and lack of touch with the majority of Americans that make him completely unfit for office.

What kind of moron would say something like that?

Not one you'd want an 80-year-old heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. (Granted, said 80-year-old has never exactly been considered intelligent or in touch with anyone)

#USpol #Trump #politics

Interesting, so apparently the #CTO of #Cloudstrike is #GeorgeKurtz, the same CTO who oversaw the fiasco about 10 years ago when #McAfee #antivirus was falsely flagging a crucial system file within #Windows, and apparently he had been bragging about just how fast they were getting these updates out... Despite the fact that the updates in question included code that ran inside of kernel space at startup, meaning if they didn't run properly on any system that system would crash before it could even get to the login screen.

So clearly we know that there was some bad management involved, and while it was definitely not the fault of just one person, this offers us some insight into what the #management problem was: a focus on speed over carefulness, in a situation where a broad range of critical infrastructure could be crashed if a mistake was made.

"Move fast and break things" indeed...

https://cxotoday.com/news-analysis/microsoft-cloudstrike-lessons-from-history/

#InfoSec #Cybersec #CyberSecurity #MoveFastAndBreakThings

Feeling like @TechConnectify after explaining to my roommate how the #WashingMachine dispenses whatever's in the #FabricSoftener dispenser (vinegar for me) using #CentripetalForce during the spin-drying cycle, and just appreciating how #WashingMachines are basically just a giant rotary mechanisms inside water basins.

Fascinating how so much of the modern #engineering that saves so much time and effort in our daily lives is just simple mechanisms put together in clever ways.

For those who missed the #News, #CNN interviewed #DakotaAdams, son of jailed #OathKeepers member #StewartRhodes.

TLDR on this, he says his father is a dangerous clinical narcissist who founded the group under false-pretenses in the hope of gaining power. He is running for local office as a #Democrat in the 2024 #Election, on a platform of anti-corruption and liberty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybvlbI7PP0

#USpol

Messed around with #Spoutible for the first time today after seeing their CEO, #ChristopherBouzy (#cbouzy), mention Mastodon on Birdsite...

First thing I noticed was that the interface has a lot more random symbols for navigation. The post button is a water droplet, and there's whales and stuff that I don't remember what they do.

Scrolling through the timelines, it was basically a few ads and a lot of Democrats posting about being Democrats. I also saw, for the first time ever, people arguing vehemently AGAINST a maximum voting age, because I guess they would be cut off by it, and seeing as the suggestion is like 65 or 70 years old, I can only assume that they are at least in their '60s...

So that's my impression, that it's elderly Democrats.

I did notice that they let you hide reposts (echoes), which is nice, and they let you hide their algorithmic feed (splashback), which is also nice.

Still don't see any reason to use this for-profit #SocialNetwork over Mastodon though...

I find it I'm using that #PeerTube is in that weird primordial state that sites like #YouTube and #Napster experienced in their early days, were you log in and it immediately starts offering you #pirated #movies that are still in theaters.

Obviously, things don't stay this way once they get to mainstream, partially because it's a barrier itself. It's a bit harder to regulate or go after stuff getting posted there though, especially since it's non-profit and decentralized, so I'm not sure what that's going to look like if it ever takes off as more than a video-hub for the microblogging side of the #fediverse.

Decided to start reading up on "#ProjectLiberty", #billionaire #FrankMcCourt's plan to "save the internet!" or whatever, seeing as he's running ads...

Setting aside the untrustworthiness of lone billionaires, their megalomaniacal goals, and their grandiosely named political initiatives, I don't quite understand these goals, or how #McCourt "plans" to "fix" the supposed "problems" he's pointing to. We know #Twitter and #Facebook are bad, and we know why: this isn't new ground he's treading.

Part of me also thinks if one of these billionaires wants to put their money where their mouth is, they could always put it behind an actual project that might actually improve the way social media is done, like #Fediverse. I feel like even a tiny bit of this money thrown behind some server funds and #Mastodon code bounties could be a game-changer.

Then again, I have my doubts that this is actually about supporting the common good and not some self-righteous political goal...

Today is #AnthroBirdAppreciationDay, so I'll be posting about the #anthro #birds of my #DarkFantasy setting, the #Harpy / #Harpies.

Time for a #Fantasy #WorldBuilding #Lore thread!

@hydrox
Several, and it's gone through a few different ones over the years. Currently, it uses #AI21's #Jurassic models, and #GPTNeo, all retrained on the kind of output they're trying to get it to do, a chunk of which was (as far as I understand) written in-house for optimal output.