Aral Balkan - Nostr Hypermedia

Aral Balkan

aral@mastodon-ar-al.mostr.pub

npub1nk5e...mz64

Social oncologist. I make small things. Unapologetically anti-genocide. 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

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

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

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

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

I might have just ordered a mechanical keyboard… made of Lego! Ridiculously excited. :awesome:

You can find the single parts here: click Base/Full Kit: The Base Kit (Barbone) includes everything you need EXCEPT switches and keycaps. The ...

#KitAdam #keyboard #lego

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

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

When it comes to anything a corporation says or does – as with politicians – it’s PR unless proven otherwise.

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?”

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.

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.

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

You want ethical alternatives? Let’s build a campus where folks can work on them without worrying about how to exist day-to-day (or fund their early-stage development like VC does for surveillance capitalism). The extent of what public funding is doing today is “Oh, looks like you’ve got some alternative functional, let’s pay you to add Feature X to it.” Better than nothing? Sure. Best we can do? Not by a longshot.

The Future of Internet Regulation at the European Parliament

A brief write-up of my talk at the EU Parliament last week with embedded videos of my talk and a link to my slides.

#EU #tech #alternatives #notForProfit #commonGood

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

We’re looking to buy a place in #Ireland (because renting here is nigh on impossible these days) so I approached a mortgage broker and they just got back to me with this gem: “Bank of Ireland will not consider your mortgage application because you run a not-for-profit.” How bloody lovely. Congratulations on creating a system that rewards the worst of the worst and fucks over those striving to work for the common good. I, for one, won’t be shedding a tear should it burn to the ground. #boi

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

“Hungary’s largest bookseller has started wrapping books that feature LGBTQ+ characters in plastic to prevent customers from opening them in stores after it was taken over by a private foundation with close ties to Viktor Orbán. … Two years ago, the government passed a widely criticised law banning … the promotion and display of homosexuality and gender reassignment”

Hungarian bookseller wraps LGBTQ+ books in plastic to stop people reading them

Libri bows to pressure to comply with ‘child protection’ law after takeover by foundation linked to PM

Fascism is alive and well and living in Europe. #fascism #bigotry #europe #eu #hungary #orban #lgbtq

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

Stop anthropomorphising billionaires.

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

Never forget that a billionaire, statistically speaking, has more in common with other billionaires than anyone else in the world. It’s about as exclusive as exclusive clubs go. A billionaire is a billionaire first and foremost and then whatever else they may be. What I’m trying to say is, no billionaire is your friend.

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

This is fine.

Twitter traffic is 'tanking' as Meta's Threads hits 100 million users

User traffic on Twitter has slowed since the launch of Threads, which has already surpassed 100 million sign-ups since its debut last week.

#twitter #threads

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

FOSS is political or it is bullshit. (With apologies to Flavia Dzodan.) #foss #freeSoftware #freedom #activism #politics #technology

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

It feels timely today to repost something I wrote almost a decade ago: How Web 2.0 killed the Internet

Aral Balkan — How Web 2.0 killed the Internet

#web2 #PeopleFarming #SurveillanceCapitalism #open #apis #openWashing #developers #web #dev #google #facebook #twitter #SiliconValley #BigTech

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

Hello, new folks from Twitter, - Welcome to the fediverse! - If you’ve joined mastodon.social because it was the default option on the app, please look to move to a smaller instance so mastodon.social doesn’t grow to become Twitter 2.0. (You can use

Mastodon instances

to find a new instance or ask folks on here for suggestions.) - Please add alternate text to your images so people who use screen readers can join in too. (https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-content-images) #TwitterMigration #mastodon #fediverse

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

They were never your tweets.

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

No, you don’t understand, I’m only in the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party so I can change it from the inside.

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

Me: await nagivator.clipboard.writeText(text) Browser: nagivator is not defined Me: What? Of course navigator IS defined! What‘s wrong with you? Browser: nagivator is not defined Me: Oh. 🤦‍♂️ #web #dev #javascript #js

Aral Balkan 2 years ago

When wolves say to sheep “Can’t we all just get along?”, it’s not because they want to be friends but because they prefer obedient prey.

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