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Aral Balkan
aral@mastodon-ar-al.mostr.pub
npub1nk5e...mz64
Social oncologist. I make small things. Unapologetically anti-genocide. Warning: May not fit your taxonomy. From Gaza? If you need to get verified, please go here: https://gaza-verified.org/join/ Want to donate to people in Gaza? Please see https://gaza-verified.org/donate/ My posts are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 🍉🌻 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ #SmallWeb #SmallTech #web #tech #privacy #humanRights #personhood #democracy #aral #fedi22 #searchable
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Glad to hear Apple has killed its plans to implement privacy-destroying on-device scan and snitch into its devices (although it will make autocrats like Erdoğan unhappy to hear it because they likely had plans for it).
WIRED
Apple’s Decision to Kill Its CSAM Photo-Scanning Tool Sparks Fresh Controversy
Child safety group Heat Initiative plans to launch a campaign pressing Apple on child sexual abuse material scanning and user reporting. The compan...
 Here’s what I wrote about it at the time:
Aral Balkan
Apple is trying to redefine what it means to violate your privacy. We must not let it.
Violation of privacy by proxy is still violation of privacy.
 Remember that end-to-end encryption is moot if the ends are already compromised. #apple #privacy #security #encryption #e2ee #humanRights
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
What am I doing? Why, voting to help decide @npub1kzk9...k9tq policy as a member. (Wait a minute, you can’t do that on GitHub? How odd… sounds a bit autocratic to me…) ;) Seriously, though, check out
Codeberg.org
Codeberg.org
Codeberg is a non-profit community-led organization that aims to help free and open source projects prosper by giving them a safe and friendly home.
 – they’re doing everything right. There are alternatives and if we want them to survive, we must support them. #codeberg #git #scm #github #tech #dev #versionControl image
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
It would appear that “former Tory MP Antoinette Sandbach has threatened the University of Cambridge with legal action after a historian named her as a descendant of merchants who enslaved his ancestors.”
the Guardian
Ex-Tory MP threatens to sue Cambridge University over slavery research
Student says he has been pressured to remove a reference to Antoinette Sandbach, a descendant of a slave merchant
 Oh, my… It would be a damn shame if more people knew of this so please do not boost this post. #AntoinetteSandbach #SamuelSandbach #Sandbach #british #slavery #britain #slaveOwners #tories #tory #conservatives #uk #cambridge #colonialists #colonialism
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Ran into this basic JavaScript scope gotcha today. Just goes to show, you could be programming in a language for years and still get tripped up by some of the simplest issues.
Cookie monster!
 #JavaScript #scope #web #dev
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Oh ffs, why do I even look into these things? I think I’m being harsh and then it’s always worse than I thought: FairPhone has taken venture capital. https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Crowd-Notification.pdf They’ve been invested in by, among others, Invest-NL (currently three exits, all IPOs¹) and Quadia (also three exits, all acquisitions²). I would just like it if for once – fucking once – it wasn’t just about making money. *sigh* ¹ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/invest-nl/recent_investments ² https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/quadia/recent_investments #VentureCapital #VC #FairPhone
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Be yourself… you’ll attract the kind of people who you actually want to be around.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
The latest VC-funded startup: We might be a scorpion but we promise we won’t sting you. Look, we’ve even painted pink hearts on our stinger! Folks: Aww, hello cute new scorpion! I’ve been stung by every other scorpion that said the same thing but I think the smartest I can do right now is to pet you and hope this time will be different.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
The only thing worse than capitalism is capitalists.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Everyday there are at least a half a dozen posts that I want to boost but won’t because the images on them don’t have descriptions (“alt-text”) so they exclude people who use screen readers to experience the fediverse. If I have time, I’ll write/extract the text from an image and reply to the thread. But most times, I just have to favourite and move on. So come on folks, make it easier for me to boost your stuff and do the right thing by enabling everyone to experience your images and videos.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
“How ChatGPT might be able to help the world’s poorest and the organisations that work with them” – United Nations University
inkl
How ChatGPT might be able to help the world's poorest and the organisations that work with them
ChatGPT has been touted as a tool that is going to revolutionise the workplace and home. AI systems like it have the potential to enhance productiv...
 I see the United Nations continues to be the favoured PR agency for Silicon Valley. #UN #UnitedNations #SiliconValley #BigTech #SurveillanceCapitalism #PR #neoliberalism #corporatocracy #AI #ChatGPT #academiaWashing
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Does anyone else here have a Onewheel? And if so, does it nosedive when you’re staying pretty much stationary? Maybe more so when you’re staying stationary on an incline? Not a huge deal but I’d love to know if it’s expected behaviour or whether I should try and get mine serviced. #onewheel
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Whenever you see the words “ads”, “cryptocurrency”, “blockchain”, “web 3”, or “AI”, just replace them with “farts” and you’ll know whether you want them or not. “Can the fediverse survive without farts?” Yes, perfectly well. “Will farts replace people?” I hope not. “The European Commission embraces farts.” That’s unfortunate. “This new startup wants to improve your life with farts.” I’m good, thanks. #SiliconValley #BigTech #farts #buzzword #bullshit #ads #adtech #blockchain #ai #web3
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
When it comes to anything a corporation says or does – as with politicians – it’s PR unless proven otherwise.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
Greta Thunberg pulls out of event due to its links with the fossil fuel industry.¹ Meanwhile, tech folks who see nothing wrong with surveillance capitalists like Google, Facebook, etc., sponsoring privacy events: “We’re absolutely perplexed… what does any of this mean?”
Aral Balkan
I was wrong about Google and Facebook: there’s nothing wrong with them (so say we all)
It’s always difficult admitting you’re wrong. But sometimes, it’s exactly what you have to do in the face of overwhelming evidence to the con...
 #greenWashing #privacyWashing #institutionalCorruption #climate #surveillanceCapitalism #BigOil #BigTech ¹
Greta Thunberg pulls out of Edinburgh Book Festival over 'greenwashing'
The climate activist says she cannot attend an event that is sponsored by a firm with links to fossil fuels.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
In response to the popular “checking you’re not a robot” pop-up, I implemented a “checking you’re not a douchebag corporation” pop-up and now I can’t log in to anything.
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Aral Balkan 2 years ago
FOSS is political or it is bullshit. (With apologies to Flavia Dzodan.) #foss #freeSoftware #freedom #activism #politics #technology
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