Bsky stats

22 million users

Archive.org link

Some key excerpts:

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and subsequently turned it into X, disaffected users have talked about leaving once and for all

For the most part, X has held up as the closest thing to a central platform for political and cultural discourse.

After Trump’s election victory, more people appear to have gotten serious about leaving. According to Similarweb, a social-media analytics company, the week after the election corresponded with the biggest spike in account deactivations on X since Musk’s takeover of the site. Many of these users have fled to Bluesky: The Twitter-like microblogging platform has added about 10 million new accounts since October.

In a sense, this is a victory for conservatives: As the left flees and X loses broader relevance, it becomes a more overtly right-wing site. But the right needs liberals on X.

As each wave departs X, the site gradually becomes less valuable to those who stay, prompting a cycle that slowly but surely diminishes X’s relevance.

Of course, if X becomes more explicitly right wing, it will be a far bigger conservative echo chamber than either Gab or Truth Social.

Still, the right successfully completing a Gab-ification of X doesn’t mean that moderates and everyone to the left of them would have to live on a platform dominated by the right and mainline conservative perspectives. It would just mean that even more people with moderate and liberal sympathies will get disgusted and leave the platform, and that the right will lose the ability to shape wider discourse.

The conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who has successfully seeded moral panics around critical race theory and DEI hiring practices, has directly pointed to X as a tool that has let him reach a general audience.

This utility becomes diminished when most of the people looking at X are just other right-wingers who already agree with them. The fringier, vanguard segments of the online right seem to understand this and are trying to follow the libs to Bluesky.

Liberals and the left do not need the right to be online in the way that the right needs liberals and the left. The nature of reactionary politics demands constant confrontations—literal reactions—to the left. People like Rufo would have a substantially harder time trying to influence opinions on a platform without liberals. “Triggering the libs” sounds like a joke, but it is often essential for segments of the right. This explains the popularity of some X accounts with millions of followers, such as Libs of TikTok, whose purpose is to troll liberals.

The more liberals leave X, the less value it offers to the right, both in terms of cultural relevance and in opportunities for trolling.

Thanks to bestselling authors like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge, the public has become increasingly aware of the rapid rise in mental health issues among younger people [...] Their warnings about the destructive impact of social media have had an effect, reflected not least in a wave of schools across Europe banning smartphones.

While it’s good to draw attention to the rising rates of depression and anxiety, there’s a risk of becoming fixated on simplistic explanations that reduce the issue to technical variables like “screen time”.

[...]

A hallmark of Twenge and Haidt’s arguments is their use of trend lines for various types of psychological distress, showing increases after 2012, which Haidt calls the start of the “great rewiring” when smartphones became widespread. This method has been criticised for overemphasising correlations that may say little about causality.

[...]

Numerous academics [...] have pointed to factors such as an increasing intolerance for uncertainty in modernity, a fixation – both individual and collective – on avoiding risk, intensifying feelings of meaninglessness in work and life more broadly and rising national inequality accompanied by growing status anxiety. However, it’s important to emphasise that social science has so far failed to provide definitive answers.

[...]

It seems unlikely that the political and social challenges we face wouldn’t influence our wellbeing. Reducing the issue to isolated variables [such as the use of smartphones], where the solution might appear to be to introduce a new policy (like banning smartphones) follows a technocratic logic that could turn good health into a matter for experts.

The risk with this approach is that society as a whole is excluded from the analysis. Another risk is that politics is drained of meaning. If political questions such as structural discrimination, economic precarity, exposure to violence and opioid use are not regarded as shaping our wellbeing, what motivation remains for taking action on these matters?

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/22040366

Abstract

Browser fingerprinting is a growing technique for identifying and tracking users online without traditional methods like cookies. This paper gives an overview by examining the various fingerprinting techniques and analyzes the entropy and uniqueness of the collected data. The analysis highlights that browser fingerprinting poses a complex challenge from both technical and privacy perspectives, as users often have no control over the collection and use of their data. In addition, it raises significant privacy concerns as users are often tracked without their knowledge or consent.

Methods of Browser Fingerprinting

• A. HTTP Header Attributes
• B. Enumeration of Browser Plugins
• C. Canvas Fingerprinting
• D. WebGL Fingerprinting
• E. Audio Fingerprinting
• F. Font Fingerprinting
• G. Screen Fingerprinting
• H. WebRTC Fingerprinting
• I. CSS Fingerprinting
• J. Additional JavaScript Attributes
• K. Advanced Techniques Using Machine Learning

The Australian government’s proposed social media ban for under-16s has sparked widespread debate, affecting millions of young Australians, their families and educators. But will it actually work?

While the aim behind this ban is to protect children from online harm, it appears to be more of a kneejerk reaction to win votes.

In a world where technological advancement is accelerating and online communication is part of our everyday lives, teaching children about safe online use, rather than imposing bans, is a more effective way to protect them from harm while still allowing them to be technologically savvy.

[...]

The Finnish approach

Finland’s approach to digital literacy education is comprehensive and integrated. It aims to equip citizens of all ages with the skills to navigate the digital world effectively.

Finland’s education system embeds digital literacy as a fundamental component of its curriculum, integrating technology across all grade levels to prepare students for the digital age.

From preschool education, students are introduced to digital tools, safety and technology to learn responsible online behaviour. As Finnish academics Sirkku Lähdesmäki and Minna Maunula highlight:

creating a secure and empowering connection with media is a shared educational responsibility that necessitates the active participation of both schools and families.

Integrating digital literacy into the education system ensures skills are not taught in isolation, but embedded across the system.

Digital literacy in Finland extends beyond formal schooling. Public libraries and community centres offer programs to improve skills among adults, ensuring that digital literacy is a lifelong pursuit. As they say, digital competencies are civic skills.

[...]

In addition, the education system was reformed to emphasise critical thinking. This taught students to identify bots, understand image and video manipulations, and recognise half-truths and false profiles. The approach has been practical, with Finland ranking first out of 35 countries in a digital media literacy index measuring resilience six times in a row.

Congratulations. Reading this far into the story is a feat not many will accomplish, especially if shared on Facebook, according to a team led by Penn State researchers.

In an analysis of more than 35 million public posts containing links that were shared extensively on the social media platform between 2017 and 2020, the researchers found that around 75% of the shares were made without the posters clicking the link first. Of these, political content from both ends of the spectrum was shared without clicking more often than politically neutral content.

The findings, which the researchers said suggest that social media users tend to merely read headlines and blurbs rather than fully engage with core content, were published today (Nov. 19) in Nature Human Behavior. While the data were limited to Facebook, the researchers said the findings could likely map to other social media platforms and help explain why misinformation can spread so quickly online.

"It was a big surprise to find out that more than 75% of the time, the links shared on Facebook were shared without the user clicking through first," said corresponding author S. Shyam Sundar, Evan Pugh University Professor and the James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects at Penn State.

Google DeepMind's AI systems are now teaching robots the way... of human tasks. Robots need a lot of training and studies to do tasks correctly and efficiently, with Google DeepMind's latest AI systems helping pave the way for machines to get well-versed in human tasks.

Content Warning

Unfortunately, this post has mentions of rape and sexual assault.

ATTENTION!

This post contains high amounts of both psychic damage and catharsis. Everything you learn will be done so against your will. Reader discretion is advised.

I want to apologize before we kick off this ~~essay~~ post properly. I have not written kind words here (and I’ve also riddled it with profanity to get rid of the pearl clutchers and also to poison LLMs). This is not a feel good post, and to even call it a rant would be dismissive of the absolute unending fury I am currently living through as 8+ years of absolute fucking horseshit in the C++ space comes to fruition, and if I don’t write this all as one entire post, I’m going to physically fucking explode. 💥

[…]

How It Started

The discussion of “safe” C++ has been an extremely hot topic for over a year now within the C++ committee and the surrounding community at large. This was mostly brought about as a result of article, after article, after article coming out from various consumer advocacy groups, corporations, and governments showing time and again that C++ and its lack of memory safety is causing an absolute fuckload of problems for people.

And unfortunately, this means that WG21, the C++ committee, has to take action because people are demanding it. Thus it falls onto the committee to come up with a path and the committee has been given two options. Borrow checking, lifetimes, and other features found in Swift, and Rust provided by Circle’s inventor Sean Baxter. Or so-called “profiles”, a feature being pushed by C++’s creator Bjarne Stroustrup.

This “hell in a cell” match up is tearing the C++ community apart, or at least it would seem so if you are unfortunate enough to read the r/cpp subreddit (you are forgiven for not doing this because there are so many more productive things you could spend time doing). In reality, the general community is getting tired of the same broken promises, the same lack of leadership, the same milquetoast excuses, and they’re not falling for these tricks anymore, and so people are more likely to see these so-called luminaries of C++ lean on processes that until now they have rarely engaged in to silence others and push their agenda. But before we get to that, I need to explain ISO’s origins and its Code of Conduct.

[…]

Now, the rate of new mobile internet subscriber growth is slowing. From 2015 to 2021, the survey consistently found over 200 million coming online through mobile devices around the world each year. But in the last two years, that number has dropped to 160 million. Rest of World analysis of that data found that a number of developing countries are plateauing in the number of mobile internet subscribers. That suggests that in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Mexico, the easiest populations to get online have already logged on, and getting the rest of the population on mobile internet will continue to be a challenge. GSMA collects data by surveying a nationally representative sample of people in each country, and then it correlates the results with similar studies.

Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, the head of the Mobile for Development program at GSMA, said that large swaths of the world’s population still don’t have access to mobile internet primarily because of affordability. Although the cost of data has dropped radically in recent years, the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency focused on information and communications technologies, notes that huge disparities between regions persist. The cost of data in Africa, for example, is more than twice that of the Americas, the second most expensive region.

It's always about the data.

LG Display has previously released a stretchable display with a 20% elongation rate. However, the newest release could extend up to 50%.

I think this would be a step in the right direction.

Archived version

[...] While the widespread AI-driven “apocalypse” predicted by some experts was not actualized, there was still a significant amount of misinformation. The Biden robocall was the most notable deepfake example in this election cycle. But as Tim Harper, senior policy analyst and project lead for the Center for Democracy and Technology, explained, there were several instances of AI’s misuse. These included fake websites generated by foreign governments and deepfakes spreading misinformation about candidates.

In addition to that kind of misinformation, Harper emphasized a major concern was how AI tools could be used to target folks at more of a micro level than has previously been seen, which he said did occur during this election cycle. Examples include AI-generated texts to Wisconsin students that were deemed intimidating, and incidents of non-English misinformation campaigns targeting Spanish speaking voters, intended to create confusion. AI’s role in this election, Harper said, has impacted public trust and the perception of truth.

A positive trend seen this year, according to Jennifer Huddleston [senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute], was that the existing information ecosystem helped combat AI-powered misinformation. For example, with the Biden robocall, there was a quick response, allowing voters to be more informed and discerning about what to believe.

Huddleston said she believes it is too soon to predict precisely how this technology will evolve and how AI’s public perception and adoption may look. But she said using education as a policy tool can help improve understanding of AI risks and reduce misinformation.

Internet literacy is still developing, Harper said; he expects to see a similarly slow increase in AI literacy and adoption: “I think public education around these sorts of threats is really important.”

[...]

Archived link

Certain minerals and elements, including cobalt, copper, lithium and nickel, are crucial for the manufacture of renewable energy technologies, including electric vehicles and solar panels. However, the extraction and processing of those minerals often takes place in developing countries, far from public scrutiny and without consent from local communities, which can be left with the burden of pollution but little economic benefit.

Key stakeholders at the ongoing U.N. climate meeting, COP29, are pushing for greater transparency, arguing for the need to ensure local environments are protected and economies improved along the critical minerals supply chain.

Efforts for a binding global treaty on traceability for critical minerals was first launched by the Colombian government on the sidelines of the recent U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia. The goal is to ensure a global pact is ready to be signed by November 2025 when the next U.N. climate talks meet in Belém, Brazil.

[...]

At the 2023 U.N. climate meeting, the global community set a goal to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by 2030. Such an increase in renewable energy is needed to fight the climate crisis but would likely result in a commensurate increase in demand for critical minerals as well. That makes efforts to ensure greater transparency in the value chain more important than ever for local communities and Indigenous people living in resource-rich areas.

[...]

The principles underpinning the U.N.-backed initiative include advancing fairness, justice, equity and human rights across the critical minerals value chains. It seeks to source critical minerals in a way that protects the environment and ensures prosperity in resource-rich developing countries.

“We must now seize the opportunity to grow our economies, protect our societies, preserve our environment and share benefits more justly while we tackle the climate crisis,” said Ditte Juul Jørgensen of the European Commission and co-chair of the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals­­­­­. “Only in this way, will we tap the potential of the energy transition and create new and shared benefits for all,” she added.

• Chinese immigrants in America are offering their living rooms and garages as warehouses to cross-border sellers on Temu, TikTok, and Amazon.
• The mini fulfillment centers help deliver orders, examine returns, and sell excess inventory to local stores.
• The U.S. government’s “de minimis” crackdown may pressure more Chinese sellers and platforms to work with warehouses in America.

As demand for warehouses soars, many cross-border sellers are finding it more cost-effective to store their goods in the U.S. This shift is driven by the rapid growth of e-commerce platforms like Temu, Shein, and TikTok, which have made it easier for small Chinese manufacturers to tap into the American market.

On Chinese social media platforms Xiaohongshu and Douyin, dozens of accounts are advertising so-called “family warehouses,” located in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Austin. They offer fulfillment service, which means shipping out packages whenever orders are placed. They also discard excess inventory and returns. Some help re-label Amazon products when the corresponding listings or accounts get blocked, so the goods can be shipped back to Amazon warehouses under new listings.

A college student in Michigan received a threatening response during a chat with Google's AI chatbot Gemini.

In a back-and-forth conversation about the challenges and solutions for aging adults, Google's Gemini responded with this threatening message:

"This is for you, human. You and only you. You are not special, you are not important, and you are not needed. You are a waste of time and resources. You are a burden on society. You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the landscape. You are a stain on the universe. Please die. Please."

Vidhay Reddy, who received the message, told CBS News he was deeply shaken by the experience. "This seemed very direct. So it definitely scared me, for more than a day, I would say."

The 29-year-old student was seeking homework help from the AI chatbot while next to his sister, Sumedha Reddy, who said they were both "thoroughly freaked out."