 Thesis: #ActivityPub is not (primarily) a decentralized social networking protocol. Instead, ActivityPub is a social networking **interop** protocol. Accordingly, it doesn't (primarily) function to create a new, decentralized social network, like other protocols say they do, but it serves to **connect social networks and websites** to each other. Trip down memory lane. The first online banking I did was via BTX in Germany. (I don’t think there was anything similar to btx or the French Minitel in the US) Took me a while but yes! Ad targeting based on data collection does no better than random targeting according to several new studies. This is consistent with our own research based on many data requests under the CCPA. Indeed the same person is often categorized as low income and high income at the same time, for example. There are still people who ask for your username and password at some other site to log into their's. I had thought that anti-pattern died out ~ 15 years ago.  @j12t when you block third party scripts long enough you forget how the other half lives @j12t the only place I’ve seen that lately is, unfortunately, linking bank accounts. Some places still let you do it the old way, with the routing and account numbers and the two tiny transfers, which can only connect a single account and only for EFTs. Very few do federated access where they redirect to the other bank for you to grant specific permissions. Mostly they demand credentials that give them total control over all of your accounts  I always had thought the Russian-spy-couple with passports from South America and kids who didn’t know was more of Soviet-era fiction than reality. But it is real and still going on! California has a few wildfires going on, in case you have heard. The biggest has already burned almost 400,000 acres of land. That is 625 square miles (or 1,600 km²), or a square of 25 miles (or 40 km) on one side. The active fire line they are trying to defend is apparently 200 miles (320km) long. It's only 24% contained. The magnitude of these numbers is really hard to comprehend. I've been around long enough that I never expect my software to work. (Well, I don't expect other people's software to work either.) It's such a nice gift when it actually does work, on the first try.
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 @lmorchard I am actually convinced this was intentional...(I encountered it signing up for Kofi...)  @lmorchard those tigers all look like someone has done tiger face painting on them at a children's party. Interesting how some map apps give you a choice of 1) fastest route vs 2) fewer turns and such, but I have never seen things such as 3) produces less noise for people living along the road or 4) most scenic route, or very importantly 5) least energy spent for the trip. CrowdStrike is being sued by shareholders who claim its inadequate testing and rollout processes defrauded them as the stock price has now since tanked 32% since their disastrous update. Someone is channeling @matt_levine “inadequate testing is securities fraud”  @carnage4life @matt_levine I wish them all the best in trying to tame the tech industry's shoddy work practices. Why do websites make you fill in your e-mail address again when asking for a password reset, after you just typed it in attempting to log in? Moving accounts from one Mastodon instance to another is actually surprisingly straightforward. The largest time consumer? DNS setup with a new domain, as always. Not having swap space from the get-go for this server ... that was a mistake! Fixed ... much better! |
Gregory's Server
Like the "inter-net" isn't really a networking protocol like Ethernet, and Token Ring etc., but one that connects them into something larger.
So ActivityPub is the "inter-protocol" between the social networks that exist on, say, mastodon.social, flipboard, and Threads
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Your thoughts?