Wander
@wander@twnc.org
You're absolutely right – this actually *isn't* a place of honor.
* I thought esteemed deeds were commemorated here, but that was wrong.
* The message wasn't about treasure, it was about danger. That's on me.
* I won't sugarcoat it – the danger is still present, and now it's in your body.
over the last few years ive been puzzled at a lot of the stuff i've seen come out of mozilla. there's just like, very little explanation for all the unforced errors and cringe messaging and like, weirdly just doing exactly the wrong thing in bizarre and novel ways and not even profiting from it. something about that "join the rebel alliance of better AI" thing has finally brought me clarity. perhaps they're just really stupid
it's a weird moment, where i guess you spend years or decades having an "implicit respect", that is, that you assume by default the people who make/represent/control the thing you like must know what they're doing, and then something reveals that maybe it's not true, and never was. it's pretty hard to actually break that kind of unquestioned trust. but by god, they're trying
@jk
As a decades long Firefox user who's seen all their screwups, my take is that the mozilla team today are feckless cowards who are too dumb and cowardly to see the gaping market gap that needs filling: a humanist browser that doesn't ride the bullshit stochastic parrot hype train.
They have also in their history soared to great heights and fallen to great lows and are terrified of revenue loss.
They must return to their roots to survive IMHO.
@jk it's worse than stupid, they're a *corporation*. This means whoever their leadership is, they're pulled from the ranks of "corporate leadership" who fundamentally don't give a shit about anything and are highly incentivized by the structure of how corporations work to seek growth at all costs.
It's not that they have particularly stupid people in charge, they didn't get unlucky, this is a corporation working the way corporations are designed to work.
@jk @kevingranade this.
Nonprofit corporations not exempt, especially when funded by large/corporate donors.
Basically bureaucracy has an incentive to perpetuate and increase itself until you have a whole class of i.e. insurance execs and hospital management and university adminstration taking all the money away from both students and teachers, patients and doctors. And shareholders on top of that.
@wilbr @kevingranade i've gone back and forth throughout my life on "people and their individual values and behavior are at fault" vs "no, incentives and the structure of the system are to blame!" and so on. after a couple decades of deliberation, ive settled on "inadequate systems nurture inadequate people who nurture inadequate systems" or perhaps "it takes two to tango"
@wilbr @jk yes! I'm not saying the people making these decisions at Mozilla aren't stupid! They absolutely are, these are incredibly dumb unforced errors! But they are dumb unforced errors that the decision makers are not going to feel any meaningful repercussions for.
The way corporations work reinforces this idiocy instead of discouraging it. You can get lucky and have people who care for a while, but ultimately by being incorporated you have stacked the deck against long term success.
@jk I think they have orders from their overlords at Google to actively sabotage Firefox so there will be only one browser (engine) left.
@aerique https://mastodon.social/@jk/111749535910951398 ive thought this for a while. i am 15% sure that it is true
in reply to »the aggravating thing about firefox isn't it being less successful or less financially viable or less technically advanced compared to its competitors or whatever. its the weird, unforced errors. inexplicable, unless google handed a couple of firefox devs a bitcoin or two and a copy of the CIA's Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944)
@jk one unignorable fact is that, culturally and literally (for many of their workers), Mozilla is still in Silicon Valley. their employees have friends who work at the other more openly profit-maximizing tech companies in the area and as a result most of the ideas in their heads come more and less directly from people like Marc Andreessen. they're living inside the monster.
The Pope weighs in (very eloquently) on AI https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/communications/documents/20260124-messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html
@TechConnectify Haven't watched the video yet, but have you ever considered uploading your videos to #peertube? I think if anyone has an audience that would carry over pretty well to Peertube it's you. And one of the biggest issues with Peertube at the moment is a lack of high quality content and creators.
@TechConnectify ah, solar. The amazing technology to save the planet, turned into a grift by business bros.
EDIT: OMG THIS VIDEO IS SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE!
This is one of the most important youtube videos I have ever seen. I'm sharing this with everyone I can!
Thank you so much for this video! Thank you!
EDIT 2: Lots of people are liking this reply so let me urge you to make donations and or subscribe to Technology Connections on youtube. This is easily one of the best channels on that platform and he deserves every single dollar he gets. Seriously, just pick a video on something you were never interested in and he'll make you interested.
@TechConnectify Oh, my favorite YouTuber who sits in the front of my socks with a great video again! (About 50% through and need to make a break for Formula E in a minute.)
Thanks for all you do, this is great!
@TechConnectify this is so good, so well argued, so laser-targeted both rhetorically and culturally at the victims of the fascist disinformation machine that the petrochemical industry has constructed, that about halfway through I stopped feeling like "yeah! right on!" and started feeling more like "Gosh I hope Exxon doesn't try to assassinate him."
This is *amazing* work, stay safe out there.
@TechConnectify that last 30 minutes is an absolutely amazing coda to an already great video! Thank you for standing up and speaking the truth.
@TechConnectify what a powerful statement in the post credit part!
As we have finally the technology to mitigate the climate disaster, fascism is back again, threatening everything. And this not just in the USA.
@TechConnectify This is a powerful (pun intended) video. It makes me sad seeing history repeating itself, specifically as a German.
I hope your fellow YouTube colleagues chime in to use their reach as well.
@TechConnectify I watched about half of this while eating lunch. I gotta say, not only is this one of your best videos ever, this is the clearest explanation of the renewables value proposition I have ever heard.
@TechConnectify Dude its so nice to see sane Americans and be reminded that they are just victims of really nasty minority.
@TechConnectify That was a very nice summary about all the economics of renewable energy, and a very personal comment on the end. Thanks for making and sharing it.
Please *be* explicitly political, the deafening silence about these issues with many of your fellow content creators is really irritating.
I (from Germany) share your sentiments, and here in Europe we're probably not far behind the US in the degradation of the political system. :-(
@TechConnectify In regards of your closing statement, you are still too nice about it. Whatever ICE has become resembles the Sturmabteilung which became quite powerful in German in the mid 1920s. It's paramilitary terrorising journalists, opposition and people deemed unworthy.
I'm not certain, if peaceful resistance is going to suffice.
And please get yourself solar cells on your roof. That is an opportunity for multiple videos and rants against dongled inverters and similar bullshit.
Thanks:)
@TechConnectify
The technology stuff in this video was awesome, as usual.
The rest was.. well.. even better!
@TechConnectify omg someone using math and basic common sense to discuss renewable energy - immediate follow!
If anyone wants to dive deeper into the land use/biofuels discussion, Oxford just recently published a good analysis
TLDR - if we put solar on the land currently used for biofuels, we would have enough electricity for ALL vehicles to be electric
Biofuels for transport is straight nonsense
https://ourworldindata.org/biofuel-land-solar-electric-vehicles
@TechConnectify Just watched it, thanks for all the effort, this gives me hope and strength to keep on. There must be more people that share this values
@TechConnectify I was gonna make a joke about I hope he explains the refrigeration cycle again but that last 30 minutes was everything I could ask for
@TechConnectify one of my key takeaways from the video, aside from what already is stated in the video itself,, is how easily i am personally affected by propaganda and how important keeping my own voice alive is.
for a while now, i felt it was rather useless to put my own views out, and i would stay content thinking/knowing that i am right. and that's one thing a well crafted propaganda intends to achieve, to put enough noise out that people start thinking that they can't change anything.
your videos inspire me to see things more clearly, to not ignore things because i am used to them, and as a consequence to make more informed decisions. and today i was able to see how easy it was to steer me away from some obvious truth.
great video, as usual.
@TechConnectify Simply wonderful. Your analysis and prose are both so well crafted. Thank you for all you do.
@TechConnectify Amazing video. Absolute aces all around. Some meandering thoughts:
1- The starting discussion around Midwestern values around frugality and investing wisely kept echoing as a corollary of the Vimes Boots Theory of Socieoeconomic Unfairness that I expected it to get mentioned. I'm assuming you know what that is, but that leads right into my next thought...
2- Building off your statement "I kind of already assumed everyone knew what we were trying to do", plainly stating assumptions is one of the most useful tools for solving problems I have found in the past ten years. My day job is supporting some niche technology infrastructure, and when I get pulled into a problem it's because things are seriously, seriously weird. I've had multiple occasions where I've "walked the stack" out loud, and someone else chimed in to correct some component of pile which led to figuring out what was wrong and how to solve it.
I think there's a more advanced theory of mind issue around understanding and addressing the inherent assumptions other people make. I have no idea how that realization will help make better videos, but I'm excited to see it happen.
2a- While I agree that there's a massive capitalist interest in misleading people, my gut says the bigger challenge is people just... not reexamining assumptions that are years or decades out-of-date. Either because it's cognitively expensive (taking time and mental focus off of day-to-day work, which is also an opportunity capitalist interests are happy to exploit), or because they straight up lack the tools to approach the subject. Maybe that's wrong, and fraud/deception are really the impetus behind wasting time and money on disposable energy.
But I really think the Overestimate Short Term & Underestimate Long Term problem does a lot more heavy lifting in that regard. Humans in survival mode (as so many of us have been for the past 10-40 years) need to focus on the short term, and thinking about the long term is an unaffordable luxury.
3- Tangentially related to cognitive expense/load, I process information better with my eyes than my ears. Showing more of the math when you were running the numbers would have made that easier for me to grasp and process.
Yes, Excel is one of my most-used applications of all time. How did you know?
4- There was a dark, gallows laugh when you talked about the First Amendment rights and the press being declared enemies of the people as Donald Trump is racistly arresting four black journalists. (I'm not laughing because it's funny, I'm laughing because it's an easier emotional outlet than crying)
5- We've lost so much from caring too much about what billionaires and cult leaders say, and caring too little for our own neighbors. I don't know how we solve the big problem. I'll do my part with my skills, like the repair café I'm volunteering at next weekend. We need to build more, better fucking community, damnit.
(sorry for spammy edit/reposting. markdown is being an asshole with list formating)
@TechConnectify
Great video. You changed my mind on many of the concerns with solar panels I've had before. I have some nitpicks about the details, and some of the arguments don't apply to my country which is quite a bit smaller than US, but overall I'm pretty optimistic about solar now.
Thank you!
As for the second part of the video:
Yikes, it does look terrifying.
I hope y'all can turn this around. Good luck!
@TechConnectify hello, your video is a masterpiece. Thanks for making it.
YES your video made a lot sense to me, it made me realize how SO MUCH BETTER solar energy is. I would say I knew it, but you presentation made it become so clear that it made a click in my mind. I'll take more actions in this direction.
@TechConnectify Straight-up came here to share this after watching it just now.
I was moved to tears. Thank you.
@TechConnectify Sir, your videos are a constant source of enlightenment and entertainment.
This went somewhere I was not expecting but found inspiring and I hope your fellow countrymen heed your words.
@TechConnectify This was excellent. I almost stood up and clapped at the end, but my cat would have looked at me funny.
I already knew most of the information in this video, but I liked the way he organized it to make comparisons between renewable and consumable energy. A lot of food for thought.
@TechConnectify I just watched it.
Good work.
It makes me sad that you (and my friends in the US) have to endure this. Yes: liberty and justice for all!
@TechConnectify First I saw Luke Miani. Now Alec. Wow! Much respect to you guys. That takes some courage. I understand your frustration. You should not be silent in light of fascism. I wish the best for all of you. I hope it’s the beginning of real change for the good. Greetings from Spain. 🇪🇸
@TechConnectify by the way: even if you don’t have the money or space for roof top solar, you can still do #pluginpv!
@TechConnectify Outstanding. I nearly cried at a few points during the last 15 or so minutes.
Thank you.
@TechConnectify Thanks, Alec. I was drawing with you on the background but once you got to the second part, after the fake ending, I had to stop and look up to you. And even not being American, I think all on your message is somehow valid everywhere. You are brave, and you are right. Paraphrasing Terry Pratchett, thanks for converting your anger into militant decency.
TL;DW
how does the solar panel and battery deterioration affect the calculations? The panels might las 25 years but definitely they don't stay as efficient.
Leszek [singular masculine/masculine animate/animate neutral depending on the grammar of your language] » 🔓
@makdaam@chaos.social
@TechConnectify It's really refreshing to see a US youtuber addressing what's going on outside their windows with a call to action to his fellow citizens.
The solar part was cool too.
@TechConnectify other tech youtuber from the rustbelt/south will condemn the pedo in chief & his regime right? Right?. Like the one on Mastodon who had an issue with Mamdani's inauguration banning rPi/flipper zero devices yet has no issue with banning of women's right for their own bodily autonomy... Doubt it.
@TechConnectify thanks for doing this. I’m glad for both the first part, and the part that we wish you didn’t need to do, because we should’ve all been holding everyone accountable sooner.
@TechConnectify This is really great content all around. I support solar and wind (and tangentially work in the industry) and this is the most clear description of WHY it is better. Thank you.
@TechConnectify Heck yeah, I was looking forward to this ever since the last patreon announcement! Thank you for your amazing videos!
@TechConnectify That was _magnificent_. Best post-credits piece ever. Thanks for the excellent educational content pre-credits also.
@TechConnectify You’re using (coining) the term “disposable energy” — I also like “rental energy”
The age of rental energy is over. We are becoming energy landlords.
@TechConnectify
This video is a great example of why YouTube remains valuable despite its problematic corporate ownership. Now you just need a condensed version for the people who can't manage the (gulp) feature-film-length runtime.
@TechConnectify I still think it's absolutely crazy how cheap solar panels are
I got my 500w panels, new and unused, for 50-60 a piece, without buying in bulk.
That's cheaper than standard plywood. It's literally CHEAPER to build a house out of SOLAR PANELS than it is to build out of low grade PLYWOOD.
They've gone up a little bit in price since but not much, you can still get 500w panels for around 70 euros a piece, example here: https://www.solar-outlet.nl/zonnepanelen/
@TechConnectify Just happened onto this on YT, had no idea you're here.
Making great points throughout the entire video there and it's nice to see people active in ostensibly far-removed fields to find such clear words.
@TechConnectify The first 3/4 or whatever was mostly stuff I kind of knew - not the specific figures and examples you give - exactly how much more energy would be available just from converting fields growing corn for ethanol fuel into solar fields, for example.
And then the second part. Fantastic. Blistering. Thank you and from Canada I wish you and all Americans of good conscience success and safety.
@TechConnectify that was fucking great. I wish half of the influencers had the conviction you do to put their neck out. I still think a distressingly large amount of democrats are really just smiling fascist and that's why they continue to vote for and fund trump's stuff, but you may be right on voting lesser evil just one more time.
Keep being dangerous and loud.
@TechConnectify I was skipping over this one in my YT feed (I prefer <15min videos) but the comments in this thread have convinced me to watch it next chance I get.
@TechConnectify I'm glad to see intelligent Americans react to to USA government's actions on its own citizens, a small sample of what it subjected the rest of the world to for decades.
@TechConnectify Thank you for this.
For anyone who wants a link to specifically the partisan politics part, it starts at t=4602s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM&t=4602s
@TechConnectify seeing all the "haven't watched it all yet but pretty great so far" comments...
Hrrrrrnnnnnghhhh...WATCH TO THE END! 
@TechConnectify Fantastic video! Thank you for being open and honest about the messed up politics occurring in the country too!
@TechConnectify I've followed your channel for a while now and I have to say that this is probably your best video so far! From a European perspective it makes me very happy to hear people speak out about what's happening in your country. Thank you!
@TechConnectify mate this might be your magnum opus and you didn’t even mention the refrigeration cycle ONCE
@TechConnectify I need you to know every time I put on your videos, my fiance says "Oh is that dishwasher man? I recognise his dulcet tones".
@TechConnectify holy shit it is so good to hear this from you. I feel like your politics have always been so clear but hearing you say these things so clearly is still like the opposite of gaslighting. It feels so obvious to me how bad things are getting, and hearing someone whose other opinions I trust saying this with their full chest is lifegiving. Thank you.
@TechConnectify I am a longtime follower who also always felt a special connection. Not only because of the interest in technology but because I also own a NeXT shirt (and the computer with which it came).
You open so many people’s eyes. This time it’s more important than ever. Even if it seems long, every minute of the video should be watched. All the way.
@TechConnectify During the energy crisis of the 70s Sweden went all-in on nuclear. During that period, home owners were told/incentivised (unsure) that they should also throw out their oil/coal/wood furnaces and go all-electric since it was and was going to be _so_ much cheaper. We built out a lot of electrical direct heating back then.
This has given us an amazing situation now. We're already big on heat pumps, giving us 4-5 times better efficiency compared to direct heating, and going solar is just to hook it all up since everyting is already electric.
@TechConnectify Thank you so much for this video. It gave me a bit of faith back into Americans.
Let's not forget, everything happening in the US, is also coming to Europe.
@TechConnectify Absolutely brilliant and insightful commentary, both the economics and the politics. Well said.
@TechConnectify So a few clarifications nobody will ever read: 1. Hydrocarbons are dead trees which are renewed but very slowly. The tree is the best solar panel with integrated battery. Just takes say 100.000 years to renew. 2. You cannot replace organic energy with metal energy, because you cannot create metal from scratch without coal, oil and gas; and recycling it is only partly a solution. 3. Nuclear (and fusion) is just boiling the planet with atoms instead. 4. The real problem is food.
@TechConnectify Couldn't do 90 minutes, but plenty of great info. Realistically, if communities don't push their local officials to reserve a chunk of land for solar, instead of selling it off to developers for AI or PUDs, then residents are stuck having to pay the costs individually to privatized money hungry utility companies and opportunists slinging panels.
Separate the grid into a residential circuit (solar) public owned utility and commercial circuit (whatever the fuck they want) privatized utility and the cost won't be so prohibitive for the average person. When the community needs more energy it buys it from the private circuit, when it has more, it sells it back. Individuals all doing this on their own, negates the very benefit of living/participating in a community.
@TechConnectify Finally got to watch it (okay, half way in but still) - this is a brilliant rundown of the facts. Very, very well done!
/e: Okay, I did not expect that ending. That part was no less brilliant than the techical part. Stay strong over there and take care! ✊
@TechConnectify I was curious how a one-and-a-half hour video about solar panels is on track to hit a million views within the first day.
Now I know.
@TechConnectify I just finished watching all the way to the very end of this video. I have a lot of thoughts, but at least the instance I am on has a character limit.
TLDR: I think this is a great video that is very informative and brings up a lot of good points especially at the end.
About the partisan political section in my experience there is a lot of dehumanization and not trying to have empathy for other people going on. I will do my best to get the people I know to think about others.
@TechConnectify this is your best video yet. The most important, too. Good job, Alec! Nay, brilliant job!
@TechConnectify
Man, I thought the first part of this video was good, but wait until you watch the second part (the very long outro). 👍
@TechConnectify I was wondering why this was half an hour longer than usual and god did I get my answer.
@TechConnectify Alec, thank you for this. Very strong and clear points. Came for the solar, stayed for the politics (I know, directly connected). It's the pinacle of 8 years watching Technology Connections videos. Trully well done 👏
I love (I mean, really love) every single TC video. They are all great, all good, all fantastic.
This one is the very BEST of all of your videos.
Every. Single. Word.
Simply.
Thank you.
@TechConnectify
look, I'm just a limey watching in horror at what's going on over there.
I wish was I there to give you all a hug. you'll get through this and when the time comes I hope there's repercussions for those involved.
I'm sorry that you're going through it though.
@TechConnectify
I don't know if you saw, but ProPublica wrote up the story of how oil companies bought up a local Ohio newspaper and used it to print lies about solar: https://www.propublica.org/article/ohio-mount-vernon-frasier-solar-fossil-fuel-metric-media
In case anyone needs further proof of how dirty the fight has been.
@TechConnectify
Wow, thank you so much for this video! You could have just continued doing your usual "techy" videos and not loose a significant amount of subscribers but you decided to speak up instead. It is just admirable. 
@TechConnectify US #solarpanel prices are absurd:
🇺🇸 A palette of 36 no-name panels is 5.600 USD or 4.724,16 EUR in the United States.
🇩🇪 You get a similar palette of 36 500 Wp panels in Germany for 2.423,90 USD or 2.044 EUR that’s half the price!
😲🥝🌓
@TechConnectify Democrats just voted to continue funding DHS. Democrats have demonatrated they don't care about Palestinians and nor do they care about you.
and yes, the lithium only has to be mined once, but where is the mine? not your back yard! it will come from further colonial expansion.
@TechConnectify Found the time to watch today. Absolutely your best work, even before the call to action at the end.
@TechConnectify The. Best. Video. Ever.
Thank you for putting it out there! Especially the part after the fake ending. Super important for everyone to watch and get educated!
@TechConnectify
Jesus Christ! When you said you'd be surprised what way this video would turn, you weren't kidding.
You turned off comments (kind of naturally) on your YT but I've been watching for years unsubscribed.
I love your channel and will keep watching (unless you bring your politics into it).
+
+
@TechConnectify Thanks so much for making this great video! First, I was not sure I would watch it comletely b/c it appeared a bit long but every minute was worth it! 😃
@TechConnectify
de: wie immer brilliant. traurig, dass es die letzten 30 minuten geben muss aber es ist gut, dass es sie gibt.
en: brilliant as usual. it is sad that those last 30min have to exist but it is good they do.
@TechConnectify Invaluably important video. Thank you so much for that! I really hope it reaches the hearts and minds of as many people as possible.
@TechConnectify Great video (and rant at the end!).
Panels are very cheap, but a decent charge controller and inverter isn't, and apparently inverters don't last forever - I've only had mine for a few years, so it's too early to tell how reliable they are.
Replacing inverters may be a "running cost" of the system if you have to use AC.
For that reason, I have been trying to find as many DC-powered products as possible, but it's quite hard to find non-IT appliances.
The only real DC kitchen devices you can get a fridges.
There are NO DC-powered cooking equipment.
The most powerful DC kettle I have found is 24V and 300W, which isn't great.
Everything else is just low power, small equipment.
Someone in the US is trying to make a battery-powered electric oven, so people can use them on 120V systems.
I bet it is phenomenally expensive!
@TechConnectify “you can’t take a lithium atom and turn it into iron”. Why the hate for late-stage stellar fusion? Just imagine if we had small electronics powered by silicon fusion…
@TechConnectify i was a bit surprised you called out Sean Casten. Valid, but without watching closely I'd assumed he was about as solid as they get
@TechConnectify I love your videos! This one was amazing. Also, I'm not in the US but fuck Trump and the republicans.
It seems pretty clear, at the end you consider the US to be in the early stages of fascism.
Have you thought about writing anything explaining this?
@TechConnectify I am not completely through your video but have an interesting videolink to the recycling problem.
It's completely in German but it shows a process to completely separate all layers of a solar panel to get pure materials for new panels.
Or on yt
@TechConnectify This may be your best video yet, certainly the best not on dishwashers or christmas lights.
Dropping this here: https://beige.party/@beadsland/115994684716790502
(Responding to: "Did this video make sense to you?")
@TechConnectify This was amazingly well researched and put together, like most of your videos.
Hopefully this will get some people to understand the importance of moving on from fossil fuels many instances.
I came for the video and stayed for the amazing rallying cry during the latter part.
Keep up the amazing research and thank you for speaking out, though it's unfortunate that you felt like you had to.
@TechConnectify
Just wanted to say, watched most of this video, absolutely loved it. Like I already knew most of this stuff, but even more than the bit of added detail, the way that you framed it, the explanation you gave, and the fact that you even said at the end "I'm saying this because this way convinces people."
...I am definitely going to be using this exact way of framing the issue way more often, probably with the added fact that acquiring oil has required a lot of warfare, so we are literally just asking that the money going into warfare and environmental response get put into long-term energy-security instead.
@TechConnectify Some of my fav yt comments on this video:
> When it's so bad, even your[e] favorite dishwasher influencer has to speak up:
> This is the most angry someone could ever possibly be when holding a solar panel
> "There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man."
@TechConnectify Oh my, I've finally got to watch this video. I'm glad you did it. It's great, it's rebellious and has anger in it. Any sane person should be felling angry about is happening in your country right now.
As you say, everyone has to speak about it. Everything is political, only those that abuse politics for their own benefits are the one that wants you out of it.
@TechConnectify thanks so much for the video, particularly the lather half.
I do feel the need to comment on the section on photovoltaics recycling though.
I'm far from an expert on this, but I do have the privilege of research proposals in this field crossing my desk every now and then and having occasional contact with the wonderful people at Fraunhofer ISE, among others.
For everything except the aluminium frame, recycling is significantly complicated by the fact that the adhesive used is a resin which can't easily be molten/dissolved. Right now the state of the art is to just shred the glass with everything adhered to it and use it as concrete fill.
The one exception ist that there's a bit of a scramble to capture the silver contained in the solder of panels manufactured during the first boom years of photovoltaics which are starting to age out, but as I understand that comes at the cost of wasting the other materials.
Theres lots of cool research in this field: how to manufacture for recycling, how to melt the cells and electrolyze the impurities out if the silicon, etc.
But were still pretty far away from having anything like a circular economy for photovoltaics.
@TechConnectify I have been following you for many years but only ubtil now did I feel the urge and need to reach out and say something. I truly admire what you said and the way you stand up for others.
@TechConnectify please everyone watch this important video. It's highly political at the end. A must watch.
@TechConnectify Just want to thank you for your "You are being misled about renewable energy technology." YT video. You are providing a valuable service. Peace and love!
@TechConnectify So I finally got a chance to watch this and…wow, I’ll just say 💯 on the ending, and I have nothing but respect for you being willing to go all out like that.
I really appreciate pushing the perspective of “one and done” for every gallon of fuel we burn.
One thing I wanted to note, while ICE engines (not those guys 😂) burn fuel with near 100% efficiency, my understanding is a car motor actually loses something around 80% of that energy through heat, so it’s even WORSE.
I feel can't find the right words to formulate a comment that would express my sympathies towards you, your cause and your way or fighting for that cause, in an adequate way. I'll try anyway.
As a European, I'd be honored if you moved here, but you're probably too much of a Midwesterner to let Trump take your country from you. You remind me of what I imagine Bernie Sanders would be like if he was 50 years younger and did a "I don't need a comment, I need you to vote!" video.
@TechConnectify thankyou for your amazing videos. Hearing other people say the things I have been thinking is so incredibly validating. I truly appreciate you.
A recent cartoon for @newscientist.com@bsky.brid.gy. p.s. my new book of science cartoons, ‘Physics for Cats’ is out now. Links at www.tomgauld.com
Dear #FOSDEM people. There is a massive #pixelfed server now in Europe: https://pixelfed.com open for everyone (just people, no organsations).
Hosted from the Netherlands under Dutch law and funded by the @fediversity project.
Please enter a human reason when onboarding (due to AI slop we must do that).
Do join and boost please. 🙏🏻
So what happens when the fediversity project is over? The server has a long-term perspective?
@rriemann @fediversity we will sustain it for at least 5 years
@koen @fediversity that's a good start. Is it a non-profit backing it? Have you considered using domains other than from the US?
@rriemann @fediversity it is backed by oid.foundation
@koen @rriemann @fediversity is there a donation link or something to support?
@bloodymirova @rriemann @fediversity
there is not yet. All costs are covered by the @EUCommission @fediversity project for now, so don't worry about it right now.
@koen @bloodymirova @fediversity @EUCommission
Dear Koen,
The idea is great but I am still worried about the project governance. You say it is owned by https://oid.foundation/ but this page is basically empty. No statutes, no address, no names.
https://pixelfed.com/site/privacy doesn't name any controller or a DPO contact.
Where can I find more information on the @ngi #fediversity grant?
@fediversity also, please have patience to allow us to review all applications, our moderation team is at Fosdem too. 😎
24-48 hours! That is something the Americans are better with: don’t check anything but a valid credit card…
@koen @fediversity heel tof! Kunnen jullie ook DNSSEC inschakelen voor pixelfed.com (na FOSDEM 😉). Zie https://internet.nl/site/pixelfed.com/3726854/
@wouterkobes @fediversity @internet_nl wij werken hier samen met dansup, we gaan daar nog eens naar kijken.
@koen @fediversity @internet_nl ❤️! Zou helemaal mooi zijn als op termijn Cloudflare 🇺🇲 daar ook tussenuit kan!
@wouterkobes @fediversity @internet_nl
Ook helemaal mee eens. Kun je dat nog een keer in het engels typen en dan Dansup taggen? 🙏
That’s really cool, but massive servers are antithetical to the intended structure of the fediverse.
Ideally, what we should be seeing is the growth of multiple smaller communities rather than a very large one. Each community can deal with moderation in the more manageable way at least that’s my expectation
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @fediversity we fully agree. There is a threshold and balance to getting things going and general acceptance.
We offer Pixelfed.com as an onboarding platform for normal users. Which is also why we do not allow organizations.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @koen @fediversity please note that ”massive” here is just a word. the instance seems to have 655 total users and 139 active users. that makes it a small-mid instance, not a massive one
of course that could change soon if the plan is to become massive. but in the meantime let's just look behind the words before we use them, okay?
Fair enough, I think, however then did the emphasis should be still on creating a broad spectrum of what I prefer to call communities rather than servers.
It’s more human. The foremost focus should be on distributed in the fediverse
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @Stoori @fediversity
and with this too we fully agree. Would you like to 'manage' the non-technical part of such a community/server? We can take care of the technical part from the @fediversity project.
@koen @fediversity Why does the info state that it is governed by the laws of Canada?
@retech @fediversity that is incorrect we will have a look at the terms on Monday, it’s probably a result of an upgrade of the software.
@koen @fediversity
"just people, no organsations" uit nieuwsgierigheid. Waarom geen organisaties Koen?
@Artbbq @fediversity omdat we die graag voorzien van een (betaalde) eigen instance. Pixelfed.com is voor het onboarded van individuele mensen.
Dat helpt ook tegen de ver-add-ding en ver-bot-ting van het platform. Er wordt alleen gepost door echte mensen.
@koen @fediversity doesn't the .com TLD mean a bit of a vulnerability to US control?
Indeed the .tld domain was not our first choice. But is is very short and @dansup had it available, so we chose to use it.
We might start some more 'themed' pixelfed servers as part of the @fediversity project with the .eu domainname, but at least you can now try out pixelfed.com while your data is being governed by a Dutch foundation that has Privacy and democratic values at the core of it's existance.
@koen yeah, this sounds nice. is it you who is responsible? @fediversity
This server has been setup as part of the
@fediversity project in collaboration with @dansup who also supplies the pixelfed.com domainname.
@koen @fediversity wanted to sign up and it threw me out because at the end it tells me my user name is invalid. Tja. I don't want to go through all that sign up again. It is not user friendly, if you are not showing at once, when a form field input is not valid.
agreed. The signup process can be improved. Would you be so kind as to provide me with some more detail in private?
@koen no need to do it in private: just do the checking process for every field when one jumps to the next field. So people see at once, oh, my name as a character in it, that isn't allowed, like mine: energisch_ - it isn't allowed according to those rules to have a special character at the end of the name.
What happened: I filled out all forms, added my lengthy reason for joining and wanted to submit the form. Then the error message came. When I wanted to go back to change my name
@fediversity
@koen everything was gone. I would have to fill out everything again, not knowing, if my next 'mistake' will again have the same results.
That's rather frustrating.
Flash or mark in red every field of the form when there is an error at once, so people can remedy that at once. A lot less frustration.
# FOSDEM #Fediverse #Privacy
Does the Pixelfed software protect user privacy? Does it encrypt user data? Is private messaging, if this is a feature, end to end encrypted?
The Pixelfed software is an 'outward bound' service. It is meant for 'public facing' expression with pictures.
The software does it's best to protect your privacy in a sense that your e-mail address is not publicly viewable.
There is no private messaging, Pixelfed is not a messaging server, we recommend #Matrix for that, which is end to end encrypted.
If you want to know more search for ActivityPub and private messages.
@koen Beetje lullig, misschien, maar waarom een .com domein voor een Europese server? .com is immers een toplevel domein dat door de VS wordt beheerd...
@ronald48
Het is .com omdat Daniel die beschikbaar had.
Zoals ik in een van de andere vragen in dit draadje al typte: er komen misschien nog meer thema based servers bij, die krijgen dan waarschijnlijk een .eu domeinnnaam.
There is a team of about 5 people that checks the new submissions for a few things:
1. is this a real human
2. is this not an organization
3. does this person not impersonate anyone
If the answer to those questions is yes the account is approved.
The rest of the moderation is based on people reporting to us that something is not according to the rules, after which we will check if that is so and take appropriate action.
@koen registered! Thanks!
@koen are there issues with the instance? I get random errors like this one. Let me know if there’s an admin account I should follow.
@koen @fediversity @dansup this is awesome!! It would be great if DNSSEC could be enabled. And perhaps it is possible to move away from the centralized Cloudflare 🇺🇸 at some point? See also https://internet.nl/site/pixelfed.com/3728351/ @internet_nl
@wouterkobes @koen @fediversity @dansup @internet_nl
Yes, it would indeed be better to use EU nameservers e.g. from Procolix. Or if the latter is for some reason not feasible, check out https://european-alternatives.eu/category/managed-dns-providers for options.
@koen @fediversity https://procolix.social/@koen/115988836688145517
I'm a naturist and sometimes I may have video/photos depicting flashes of simple nudity. I don't think Dutch law has any problems with that, but US (and some other jurisdictions) would. Is that considered unacceptable?
Wander boostedDear #FOSDEM people. There is a massive #pixelfed server now in Europe: https://pixelfed.com open for everyone (just people, no organsations).
Hosted from the Netherlands under Dutch law and funded by the @fediversity project.
Please enter a human reason when onboarding (due to AI slop we must do that).
Do join and boost please. 🙏🏻
@Scubyw @fediversity nudity is fine. We do recommend to put those behind a content warning (some people are afraid of bodies or just like them better covered in cloth). Actual porn (depictions of copulating people) we do not recommend and if that is all an account posts we consider that account non-human (or in dire need of therapy).
We do take a strong stand against depictions that glorify violence (against both humans and animals). And there we make exceptions for activism (again with content warnings).
So the answer is: yes and etiquette is delicate and complex. Please be excellent to each other.
Portable mini server! 👀 When plugged in, it hosts a tiny website available to anyone in network reach.
Thank you @kazc / @actinomy for the workshop and @ooooo for hosting us at t_cyberhol. Had lots of fun!
https://codeberg.org/actinomy/server-charms-workshop.git
OMG. -froot bug resurfaced. https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2026/q1/89
I see the headlines, "10 years old bug".
My friends, this bug is older. Much older. Not this particular instance, but it is a classical mistake to make. It's a command line injection when calling the login executable.
Some people point to CVE-2007-0882. Solaris had that, almost 20 years ago.
But it's even older than that. It's so old it predates the CVE system. I don't remember exact dates, but we popped Linux and AIX boxes with that, mid 90s.
But it is *even older* than that. Have a look at System V R4, ©1990, getty calling login with unsanitized input:
But how deep does the rabbit hole go? When was this bug introduced?
Getty called login with user input since the dawn of time (UNIX V2, 1972):
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V2/cmd/getty.s
But this predates command line arguments in login:
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V2/cmd/login.s
So, when did this particular command line feature of login appear?
In the BSD universe, -f was introduced with POSIX compatibilitiy in 4.3BSD-Reno:
But someone paid attention and filtered out user names starting with - in getty:
RCS timestamp says 6/29/1990, so same age as SysV R4.
The original 4.3BSD (1986) doesn't filter the user name:
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4.3BSD/usr/src/etc/getty/main.c
And it does have a -r option in login:
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4.3BSD/usr/src/bin/login.c
Exploitable? No idea, argv processing might be a problem. I'll find out another day.
In conclusion: bug existed since 1990, it's so easy to make when implementing POSIX that it keeps resurfacing, and at least one person in Berkeley knew since day 0.
Do you remember using telnet?
| yes: | 128 |
| no/wtf is telnet: | 12 |
De website van DigiD is voortaan ook beschikbaar in de taal Papiamentu. De DigiD app en Check ID app waren al beschikbaar in Papiamentu.
✅ Nu ook de website is vertaald, is DigiD vrijwel volledig in eigen taal beschikbaar voor alle inwoners van Bonaire, Sint-Eustatius en Saba. Namelijk in het Nederlands, Engels en Papiamentu.
Meer informatie lees je op: https://www.logius.nl/actueel/digid-website-vanaf-nu-beschikbaar-papiamentu
Out of curiosity: trying to find out how well-known root beer is outside North America
| From NA, have tasted root beer: | 89 |
| From NA, haven't tasted root beer: | 1 |
| Not from NA, have tasted root beer: | 98 |
| Not from NA, haven't tasted root beer: | 110 |
Closed
@rygorous I've had root beer by accident in the US when a drive-thru got my order wrong and it was fucking disgusting, especially when I wasn't expecting it.
@pervognsen @rygorous Something like that for me too. Tried it once, didn't like it.
@Humus @pervognsen I mean, to me the association is always "tastes like cough syrup", but as a kid I _liked_ the taste of cough syrup, so...
@rygorous @Humus @pervognsen The association is probably because in the UK and some european countries they flavor toothpaste and some medicines with the same flavoring as root beer (sarsaparilla w/ either artificial sassafras or de-saffroled sassafras, originally sassafras but that's banned here), in the US mint is generally used for that instead so we don't have that association with that flavor = medicine.
@pervognsen @rygorous I know it from a visit to the US in the late 90s, kinda okay-ish IMHO, just a sacrilege to call it 'beer'. Just noticed it last week again in my local 'supermarket' in south-east Germany near the cola and lemonade brands, no idea how much they're actually seeling though.
@floooh @pervognsen beer is just the "brewed" part.
personally, ginger beer >> root beer >> malzbier though. Malzbier is not _awful_, but I'll pass. Root beer is to me a pretty average kind of soda - not the best, not the worst. Ginger beer is really good
@rygorous @floooh @pervognsen
Do our get Bundaberg ginger beer now in Germany?
I'm used to it because ya Australian, but I've seen it appearing everywhere in Warsaw.
@pervognsen @rygorous this is probably why Guybrush could use it to defeat Lechuck.
@mk @pervognsen I don't know man, I mean root beer can kill ghosts, but say Mountain Dew can kill live human beings and needs someone stocking true resurrection to fully bring you back
@rygorous I tried it once when American friends visited us in Sweden and I thought the kids would probably like it
@rygorous i liked to feed it to visiting foreigners to troll them, but the last time i did my visitor really liked it and then was sad to discover you can't get good root beer in europe, and now it feels too mean for a prank
@rygorous For years I thought it was the same as "ginger beer" (which I'm a big fan of) but apparently it isn't?
I'd love to try it but I never like my drinks sweet so I don't have high hopes.
@rygorous as a kid when I used to see root beer referenced in US things I always assumed it was just another name for ginger beer (the only root I knew that they made drinks out of)
Edit: I voted “have not tried” because I’ve never technically drunk any - I sniffed a bottle once and it smelled so bad I didn’t want to try it
@rygorous I think it needs a follow up to find out if the root beer was had in NA, or only tried it because of NA tv and movies
@rygorous A problem is many (both NA and non-NA!) will assume you mean "ginger beer" but it is not the same.
See also the confusion about what "cider" is. In NA it's just another word for apple juice, and typically does not contain significant alcohol unless it's "hard cider".
@rygorous TIL: Root beer is a double misnomer, it is not beer, but they also took the root out because it is poisonous.
@rygorous I bought imported root beer two weeks ago to find out what the hell it tastes like. Shocked and dismayed
@rygorous I'm from the UK and have memories of Pizza Hut doing Root Beer Floats in the 90s. I know Asda sell "Tropical Sun" and you used to be able to get (fairly recently) A&W from the supermarkets, but it seems to be disappearing again. Quite like it myself. (Now tempted to order from https://AmericanSoda.co.uk - but A&W, IBC, Barq or Poppi...)
@rygorous From what I've read, it's basically the same thing (or similar) as Sarsaparilla, which I've had many times here in Australia. But I've never had a true US "root beer" so it may taste very different.
@rygorous Root beer, Twizzlers, Pop Tarts, and Combos (cheese filled pretzels) are my go-to introduction to America.
@rygorous If you want an unknown root beer from America, I can recommend some Zevia root beers. They're quite nice, without refined sugars (they use stevia).
For other root beers outside of NA, I can't speak on that, as I hadn't had any from outside.
@msokiovt Not at all, I'm just trying to validate my intuition that root beer is mostly a North America thing
@rygorous
When I was little, our next door neighbors were a kindly Mennonite couple who brewed their own root beer once a year, then hand bottled and stored it in their cellar. It was much less sweet and less strongly sassafras flavored than any commercial root beer—tart and refreshing. A summer treat even a little kid could enjoy.
Here’s one modern homemade root beer guide:
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Root-Beer
@rygorous and if you have tasted root beer, have you *really* tasted root beer, or just a lab-synthesized artificial flavoring for corn syrup?
Current mood: Leslie Lamport once defined a distributed system as one in which the failure of a computer you didn't know existed can prevent you from getting anything done.
omg I'm reading this dumb twitter article but can't continue because I'm laughing too hard at this diagram. Like, using this as a definition of an intelligent system then crashing into the fucking rocks because you don't know wtf a lighthouse is.
God bless people who do stuff like getting in touch with the US patent office and putting the source code for the 1998 furby on archive.org
What does your capslock key do?
| capslock: | 0 |
| extra ctrl: | 0 |
| escape: | 0 |
| something else: | 0 |
| what??: | 0 |
@alexr "extra" ctrl implies that I haven't mapped the key labeled ctrl to something else
@alexr this also implies I have not built custom keyboards that have ctrl in the correct place, and have no caps lock
@ricci I had a VT220 at one point; there was no need to build a custom keyboard.
@alexr oh look what I have in my office
@ricci holy cow that's beautiful! You built it?
@alexr Yup it's a dactyl manuform: https://github.com/abstracthat/dactyl-manuform
I customized, it, "compiled" the STL for the shell, 3d printed it, hand soldered it (there is no PCB under there), customized the firmware on it, and type on it every day at work
@alexr @mos_8502 I voted something else because for me capslock is both an extra ctrl and, if tapped, pops up a text based dynamic menu for fast access to various sorts of things.
(I love the dynamic menu side but it is extremely non-trivial to set up; you really have to customize what's in it for what you do frequently and want fast keyboard access to.)
poll: when you started using Git, did you start using collaboration features right away to work with other people, or did you just use Git by yourself?
| I just used Git by myself: | 846 |
| I was working with others: | 663 |
| Other: | 20 |
@b0rk I voted 'other' because I started using git by using it to clone and follow upstream repositories of source for things I was interested in. Technically this was sort of 'working with others', in that I needed to know about cloning and pulling and some degree of reconciling local changes on pulls¹, but it wasn't fully working with others. My first significant Git usage was on my own solo projects.
¹ I started out not committing my local changes, which turned out to be a bad idea.
@b0rk this result is fascinating and comes as a huge surprise to me!!
@gnomon I wonder if this is biased by the nature of the Fediverse, in that we probably have a lot of self-starters as opposed to people who started Git at work. Or maybe "I had better build up some experience with this Git thing for my resume" is a not-uncommon behavior? I dunno, I'm way out of the market.
(I don't think people are getting much exposure to Git/etc in university courses, although I might be out of touch there too.)
@cks I have some friends¹ who are involved with The Carpentries²: I don't get the impression that a large fraction of the learners are undergrads but I think they might be, and certainly a lot of them are involved academically.
I _think_ a lot of undergrads learn just enough git to clone example repos, commit changed code, and push back upstream? That's the knowledge I see most often, anyhow.
¹: @jakobpunkt , @gvwilson
i have some code that needs to turn these people back into wolves. will librewolf do the job
If you put the Apple icons in reverse it looks like the portfolio of someone getting really really good at icon design
Do you use middle-click paste?
| Yes!: | 89 |
| No, my Mac only has 1 button.: | 20 |
| No, I use Ctrl+V.: | 62 |
| No, I type stuff again.: | 3 |
See it with your lying ears: https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/ears/
@lcamtuf
This was delightful. It reminded me of a project I recently thought of which was to find the right filter to change a recording of conversation into the unintelligible "guardian chatter" from A Handmaid's Tale. I'd use it to confuse ICE agents during protests. 😇
#abolishice
❄️ Het sneeuwdek van afgelopen week.
📏 Elke dag om 9:00 uur (in de winter en 10:00 uur in de zomer) meten de ruim 300 vrijwillige neerslagwaarnemers van het KNMI hoeveel neerslag er is gevallen, deze dagen is dat sneeuw. Dankzij hun metingen krijgen we beter inzicht in de verdeling van de neerslag in Nederland.
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 0%
@year_progress
I think your illustration is inaccurate, the year is new yes, but it’s made up of the old year so it’s always a crapshoot or a coin toss .
@year_progress 100% = 0% is kinda philosophical haha, believe they both send at 00:00 so the end is simultaneously the start... And vice versa.