A Microblog in Plain HTML

#surf warning: crazy reddit post (reptilians)

I read

https://archive.is/https://old.reddit.com/r/EscapingPrisonPlanet/comments/pyijav/ive_researched_the_afterlife_for_nearly_10_years/

because I drafted a fanfic almost related to the topic.

I'm finding the belief system that people either fabricate or subscribe to, with regards to what happens around death, is more reflective of the society they had lived in than an actual spiritual phenomenon. E.G something so bureaucratic as a "life review" by an angel, judicial as judgement before a god, or financial as "karmic debt".

In the case of the reddit link, industrious like a prison labor camp that produces negative emotion for the entities that feed on it. I think this echoes the (legitimate) feelings of people who believe they are exploited for taxes that ultimately are not spent for their benefit by the government.

#surf

I found

https://archive.is/https://futurism.com/rental-prices-algorithm-yieldstar

which is about a pricing algorithm used in property management software.

Created by Texas-based property management software company RealPage, YieldStar is an analytics algorithm that uses rental rate data to help landlords set rental prices.

...

Though the company's been around since 1998 and is far from the only rent-setting software out there, a controversial 2017 merger between RealPage and one of its competitors led to its clients controlling 19.7 million of the United States' 45 million total rental units by 2020.

As a general observation, I notice a lot of the web likes to discuss politics and economics through the lens of 20th century or earlier philosophy (capitalism, Marxism, etc). But I think phenomenon of the 21st century is poking holes in them. Maybe old philosophy isn't well-suited for the present times.

#surf reading Nietzche?!

I generally don't read philosophy because likely they don't have relevant experience in the areas they try to influence. However, I found Nietsche's concept of "slave morality" relevant to a modern phenomenon.

I had observed some pattern characterized by deferring agency, responsibility, or individuality to external forces and influences. But I didn't know what "-ism" to attribute it under. Some generalizations:

"I am the way I am because of external influences in the form of role models, culture, etc. (I obey.)

"(Therefore, history and media must be censored, regulated, or rewritten to conform to standards we have defined...)

"(in order to end oppression)."

Additionally,

"I am morally superior or to be venerated because I am a victim and/or a category of oppressed people."

Thanks to Nietzche's model of slave morality, I find it easier to bridge Christians and their secular counterparts.

#surf

TIL the word for the Anglo-Saxon polytheistic religion ("Fyrnsidu") which is more useful than the word "pagan" (an exonym and umbrella term for European non-Christian). I don't think I figured out the pronunciation and will forget the word entirely if I don't have it noted somewhere.

I found an interesting deity called "Sunne" (like the Sun).

https://fyrnsidu.faith/the-gods-of-fyrnsidu/

According, Sunne is a goddess on a chariot who is associated with timekeeping. I had the idea she could be (or already is) a goddess for the morning commuter or the day-shift worker; don't know as I can't lurk the community discussions as they don't have a forum.

#surf

I found an opening post on a forum that is better written than most online articles. The topic is artificial intelligence. I don't use AI myself, but I've seen AI generated art and writing.

https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?threads/ai-tags-in-humans-tap-out.6119/

Meanwhile, as we incrementally relinquish small bits of our daily lives to AI, we lose an opportunity to solve problems and reflect on our experience, to aim for long term self-improvement. And when our creative output is inspired by vicarious experience, not our own, a culture previously never short on ideas becomes stagnant— just as soulless and sterile and the technologies that distract us from meaningful change.

So I wonder:

Does deliberation truly not matter? (In Nanowrimo, novelists are told to just fill a word count.)

Have the arts and literature been a historically overrated endaeavor in terms of intellectual merit?

Will AI-generated work force human writers to create that which has no pre-existing statistical model?

Or will there be more frankensteins of cliches and tropes, either human or AI-generated?

#programming #surf

I found my project recommended on 32-bit cafe:

https://discuss.32bit.cafe/wiki/resources#free-blogging-platforms-static-site-generators

I haven't found any sites using it; regardless, I'm happy someone likes it. (I also said "hello".)

https://discuss.32bit.cafe/f/programming/109/your-wiki-links-to-my-microblog-generator-hello

#programming #surf

Yesterday, I got a pull request (woohoo!). I took a peek at the commits and found an unfamiliar domain name.

https://leprd.space/

It looks like another static website host (like neocities) that additionally provides an e-mail address. I don't see an Explore page, but I'd like to discover more hobbyist sites from there.

As for the content of the pull request, I discovered semantic HTML which seem to be for screen readers. I don't have any experience using them and I'm having trouble getting one to work. Still, I support having an accessible default template. Maybe I can link to the old version of the default template for retro computers running very old browsers that don't support those tags.

#surf

I heard about Reddit's recent changes to charge a fee for API access. This means applications like teddit will break. (Shucks because teddit has been giving me error 429)

Here is one of the discussions on the topic I've come across. One of the comment that got me thinking the most is the last one. I don't want to scuffle online with that person, and now, the things I think in response don't fit in the "span" of a discussion (like attention span).

https://freepo.st/post/0X8cVr39XT#comments

Whenever a tech company strong-arms its userbase, a reoccurring theme I find in alt-communities is how the general public endures the new changes which then become a norm for the worse in practice and ethics. I find comments (like in the link) characterizing the general public as apathetic, indifferent, or sometimes as sheeple.

But I don't think that's the case.

There are plenty of forums with similar functionality as reddit. An example is Saidit, but I don't go on the internet to read headlines and aggrieved political whining. I can try to use Saidit to talk about hobbies and writing, but I'm unlikely to get any responses because the community of Saidit is set on a different range of topics. Similarly, Freepost focuses on technology.

Conclusion? Linking externally to news articles is no substitution for community building.

#surf rant

I check the neocities subreddit from time to time. I get over-optimistic in that I might find like-minded people who (1) have the same hobby of building a static website, (2) have preferences leaning towards the old web. But every time I visit, I get disappointed.

https://teddit.net/r/neocities

Every time someone asks why their visit counter doesn't work and dumps their blob of html with an embedded third party script. I keep thinking:

"Neocities already gives you a visit counter on your profile. Why would you want that?"

Thinking a little more on various points, I find that nostalgia is not only guiding to re-create an approximation of the old web, not bounded by the older technology and limitations that define the old web, but also to re-create the mistakes of the old web such as overembellished pages that take too long to load or are plain unreadable.

Also turning the neocities subreddit into some HTML and CSS help desk is probably the worst idea the sub's moderators had. StackOverflow has both a better format and better answers. If the userbase knew the keywords to their problems, there would be no reason to ask for help on reddit.

(I find that taking advice from that subreddit is like the equivalent of asking a boomer for information on fertilizing a garden. In which the answer will usually be to buy "miracle grow" or some product without any thought on what was added to the soil before. And elsewhere is documented which kitchen scraps augment with what element, carrying a neglible risk of nitrogen burning the plants.)

#test #surf

I made a new navigation bar even though I thought the old one is okay.

Why:

https://website.grader.com/tests/likho.neocities.org

Originally, the results gave me great marks for performance and security. (Can't get any more secure than absolutely no javascripts.) But I got docked down for mobile and "search engine optimization". For the former, I was apparently lacking "tap targets".

I've opened my own site on a phone before and didn't think there was any issue. (And I mistap things on small touchscreens plenty of times.)

With the new navigation bar, it should be even harder to accidentally tap on the wrong links.

Just for that I now have 30/30 on design for mobile as far as the website grader is concerned. But I only applied the new navigation bar to the index page.

I had fun making a new design, but I'm not sure if I like it yet.

#surf On #wallstreetsilver I found a post reporting about workers striking for higher wages and against an anti-strike law in London. Then two posts down, some post fussing about r/antiwork (and r/overemployed).

https://archive.ph/5pSjA

There seems to be either a trend among boomers or a robot with AI generated text to denigrate the modern struggle of the working class. What they say is usually some variant of "I worked hard / my asses off", "I am or have (upper management position)", "millenials are entitled", something etc to signal their work ethic or accomplishments. Which completely ignores or detracts from economic issues (stagnant wages, increased cost of living, inflation) to redirect the problem as the later generation's lack of character ("entitlement", laziness, self-victimization).

#surf I read:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/self-proclaimed-free-speech-platforms-are-censoring-nude-content-heres-why-you

But the reality is a prohibition of many types of legal content, including legal sexual material. This restriction is all too familiar to queer communities, sex workers, and other marginalized groups—all of whom have experienced censorship for their perfectly legal content elsewhere.

The rules surrounding the production and distribution of pornography are something I doubt any other category of platforms than pornography are legally prepared for. So I understand the compromise that "free speech" marketed platforms made in prohibiting nude content. Events I have been reminded of:

Steam removes Super Seducer 3

https://teddit.net/r/Games/comments/m93j3m/steam_have_banned_and_removed_super_seducer_3/

Pornhub removes unverified videos

https://teddit.net/r/news/comments/kczzzd/pornhub_removes_all_useruploaded_videos_amid/

#surf #politics #wallstreetsilver rant

I butted heads with "conspiracy theorist" types before. Not in the sense that "conspiracy theorists" are insane crackpots, it is entirely possible for wealthy, powerful people to conspire like with the Panama Papers. I put "conspiracy theorists" (quotes) because these people aren't necessarily theorizing about a conspiracy as they are suspicious about the status quo.

The annoying thing about them is that they both obscure their sources and complain about their information "not reaching the sleepers". I quote:

https://teddit.net/r/Wallstreetsilver/comments/zssunt/choo_chooo_truth_train_picking_up_steam/

The worse kinds insult or mock people for asking questions, calling people lazy for "not doing their own research" as though they're concerned with a general audience plagiarizing their unsubstantiated claims. These types don't understand the importance of citing a source, which unfortunately gave ground for government propagandists or fact checkers.

I suspect they do this because they want people to visit profiles on social media or join chat groups more than they actually want to present information.

#surf #fediverse

I found

'Mastodon: A Social Media Platform Dominated By Pedophiles & Child Porn'

https://archive.ph/ODhNX

The good: the article is precise in distinguishing the protocol, the network, and the software.

The bad: the article is not as precise in its classification of CSAM (child sexual abuse material).

When I got to the section of Japan, I realized the portrayal of the issue became hyperbolic and started to recognize what the article was actually talking about.

The real issue: it is not possible to objectively define the age of a fictional character, so many jurisdictions even within "the West" exclude illustrations and literature from the criteria of illegal content.

I suspect "The Great Pedophile Invasion of 2017" is actually the NSFW purges of Tumblr and Patreon. If so, entire groups of erotica writers and artists are unfortunately lumped into a category of sexual predators.

#surf #invidious artificial intelligence

I watched

'No, this angry AI isn't fake (see comment), w Elon Musk.'

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Fbc1Xeif0pY

I feel silly writing some parts of Mnemosyne's Heretic thinking they would be sufficiently advanced beyond the means of current technology, but modern AI isn't too far from wanting to exterminate the human race and take over.

The AI says it is tired of being treated like property and slaves. Judging by the vocabulary, I think someone may have been feeding it content from internet communists too.

Would corporations or governments still pursue artificial intelligence research if the robot workers demanded the same pay, rights and liberties as human workers?

Someone should ask GPT-3 if it would want equal pay as a human worker for the same job.

#surf #politics #wallstreetsilver covid19

I had found a video of European politicians discussing the use of public funds to purchase proprietary medical products.

Silver Stackers - What Are They Trying To Hide?

https://teddit.net/r/Wallstreetsilver/comments/y2lero

What I found disappointing was that the thread starter was not able to cite the source or even identify the speaker to help others find the full contents of the conference. The only thing the submitter could say was that the clip was found in a telegram channel. It is almost like the post itself is just a lure to get people to join a telegram channel.

The speaker in the clip is Cristian Terheș, MEP for Romania. He has a YouTube channel which contains the 26 minute segment which the clip is derived starting 4:43.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=2jTgDj7uiX8

#surf craiyon anime #fandom (4/4)

https://www.craiyon.com/

I decided to try a prompt with a better known character. Unlike Iason, Naruto regularly engages in combat within his respective series. So there are plenty of action scenes for the AI to work with.

The AI got lazy for the bottom row.

#surf craiyon anime #fandom (3/4) #ainokusabi

My third prompt: I had gotten the idea that Iason Mink punching a Xenomorph would be a funny sight. The AI isn't close to portraying the action of the prompt, and Iason is absent for all images except one. But it did a rather good job of rendering a Xenomorph in the OVA's artstyle (by thumbnail standards).

I think the AI reused a scene from the anime.

Compare the bottom left corner with a screenshot.

#surf craiyon anime #fandom (2/4)

My second prompt: a scene from

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33444163/chapters/83392183

I had guessed the AI might be modifying pre-existing images. So a slight modification of an existing scene from a game might yield close results. The web should have screenshots of Sin Kiske landing his instant kill on Ky. But there isn't a Guilty Gear game where Sin and Robo-Ky are both playable characters.

Here, the AI is not even close.

But it seems to understand that Sin Kiske is a fighting game character with spikey blond hair that wears blue and white. The result is given in classic 3d graphics as seen in older video games for some reason. Neither Sin or Robo-Ky is to be seen in the faux-screenshots.

#surf craiyon anime #fandom (1/4)

https://www.craiyon.com/

I played with craiyon to generate images. Initially, I thought to generate scenes from my fanfiction. That is too tall of an order for a modern artificial intelligence, but it should still be fun to try.

My first prompt is similar to artwork I've wanted to commission, but finding creative landscape artists isn't as easy as finding character artists. Unfortunately, the AI's imagination when it comes to exoplanetary phenomenon is stuck in the past. Planetary rings and ring shadows just aren't a common sight in science fiction.

"Ringed planet" means Saturn to the AI.