I am enjoying the hell out of "Picks and Shovels" by @pluralistic and I bet you will, too (full disclosure: I have been grokking computers since the early 1980s, which makes so much of the book's geeky name-dropping resonate with me; and my absolute lack of any knowledge of accounting does not detract from the enjoyment).
Búsquedas recientes
Opciones de búsqueda
Administrado por:
#siliconvalley
23 publicaciones21 participantes6 publicaciones hoy
"In both Washington and in California, a narrative has quickly emerged about Musk’s assault on the federal government: This is what happens when you bring the Silicon Valley playbook to D.C. As Musk’s young lackeys rifle through sensitive databases, conk out in makeshift bedrooms set up in government buildings and gut entire agencies, the implication seems to be that this is how it’s done in tech. And there is obviously a very loud corner of the tech sector that agrees.
But in an industry whose workforce overwhelmingly donated to Democrats, in a region whose voters overwhelmingly backed Kamala Harris, there are also a lot of people in tech who view Musk’s handiwork as not just dangerous, but totally antithetical to running a healthy business, let alone the government.
They’re just increasingly terrified to say that out loud.
“Not everyone in tech is supporting Elon Musk,” Mark said. “It’s just that you don’t hear their side because they’re afraid to speak up.”"
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/04/elon-musk-silicon-valley-fear-00260273
Two visions within Trump world are battling for primacy. Which will win? | Ben Davis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/09/trump-world-two-visions #Electric,hybridandlow-emissioncars #Trumpadministration #Bidenadministration #SiliconValley #Trumptariffs #Project2025 #DonaldTrump #Republicans #USpolitics #Technology #USeconomy #ElonMusk #Tariffs #USnews
The Guardian · Two visions within Trump world are battling for primacy. Which will win?
I’m gonna say it louder for the folks in the back: Mozilla is not what you think it is. Mozilla is not what they say they are. Mozilla is just another for-profit Silicon Valley tech company that has a not-for-profit doing its PR.
#mozilla #BigTech #SiliconValley #bullshit https://eupolicy.social/@ilumium/114306918813909843
EUpolicy.social - A Mastodon server for the EU bubbleJan Penfrat (@ilumium@eupolicy.social)Wow so the #Mozilla engineer disagrees and claims "#GDPR has done a great deal of harm" (I didn't understand his argument why) but now diverted to saying the #browser should be the platform collect all the personal data and then provide it in aggregated form to advertisers.
This would "give control to people while also unlocking the data". 🥱
And all in a sudden, #SurveillanceAdvertising is not a #humanrights issue any more but merely a question of "governance".
Continuó el hilo
For the past several years, I've been arguing with AI advocates about the purpose of the technology they're enamored with. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm aware that there are use cases for so-called AI programs that aren't inherently evil, but when you take a look at the nazi billionaires who're behind the projects to force widespread adoption, their long term plans to establish city-state dictatorships out of the hollowed out core of the nation-state era, and what these guys ultimately do with it, it's pretty clear AI is a fascism machine; just as much as IBM's punch card computers were a genocide machine for the Nazis. It doesn't have to be this way, but this is the way it is.
As such, I can't say I'm shocked that after Elon Musk bought himself a president, the first thing he started doing is using AI purge his political enemies as well as their ideas, sort surveillance data to identify targets for a white nationalist regime, and now spy on federal workers in search of those with insufficient loyalty to God Emperor Trump, the regime, and Musk himself.
Exclusive: Musk's DOGE using AI to snoop on U.S. federal workers, sources say
"Reuters’ interviews with nearly 20 people with knowledge of DOGE’s operations – and an examination of hundreds of pages of court documents from lawsuits challenging DOGE's access to data – highlight its unorthodox usage of AI and other technology in federal government operations.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, some EPA managers were told by Trump appointees that Musk’s team is rolling out AI to monitor workers, including looking for language in communications considered hostile to Trump or Musk, the two people said.
The EPA, which enforces laws such as the Clean Air Act and works to protect the environment, has come under intense scrutiny by the Trump administration. Since January, it has put nearly 600 employees on leave and said it will eliminate 65% of its budget, which could require further staffing reductions.
Trump-appointed officials who had taken up EPA posts told managers that DOGE was using AI to monitor communication apps and software, including Microsoft Teams, which is widely used for virtual calls and chats, said the two sources familiar with these comments. “We have been told they are looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk language,” a third source familiar with the EPA said. Reuters could not independently confirm if the AI was being implemented.
The Trump officials said DOGE would be looking for people whose work did not align with the administration's mission, the first two sources said. “Be careful what you say, what you type and what you do,” a manager said, according to one of the sources."
Naturally the regime and DOGE have denied that they're using AI to conduct "thought" policing inside the federal workforce, but I think given how readily the Trump administration has engaged in clear ideological warfare and suppression against its perceived political enemies, that denial sound a lot like a hollow lie. Speaking broadly however, I can't say I'm surprised at all that this is where a technology like AI and the billionaire nazis who're pushing it, have lead us as a society. There are a near infinite number of things "AI" technology is terrible at, but one thing it does really well is sort through the vast amounts of data and metadata collected as part of our already existing police state panopticon society; in fact, without automation we really wouldn't be able to sift through that amount of data at all with human eyes. AI doesn't have morals, it doesn't have humanity, it doesn't have any sense of what's right and wrong; it presumes the world it's programmed to presume, and engages in the tasks it's purposed to engage in - and billionaire nazi cultists who want to build their own technofeudalist dicatorships are the guys in charge of the coding and tasking of this technology. Whether it's picking out targets for extermination by the IDF during a genocide in Gaza, hunting down student protestors in vast seas of education and immigration data, or spying on federal workers for anti-Musk sentiments, the fact is fascist oppression and violence *can* be automated - particularly if you don't give a fuck about false positives because you're a soulless nazi murderbot.
Stop legitimising Mozilla.
They’re sucking all the oxygen out of the room.
“We’re just another Silicon Valley tech company.” – their then head of public policy to me
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” – Maya Angelou
(Or in this case the second, third, fourth… what are we on? I’ve lost count.)
#mozilla #BigTech #SiliconValley #bullshit https://eupolicy.social/@ilumium/114306753465182268
EUpolicy.social - A Mastodon server for the EU bubbleJan Penfrat (@ilumium@eupolicy.social)At a #Mozilla event in #Brussels this morning about "#privacy-first online #advertising". I am _very_ curious where this weirdest of things Mozilla does is going. 🤔
Speakers: Petra Wikström, policy person at #Schibsted, @rvaneijk@mastodon.nl, @eff@mastodon.social's Svea Windwehr and Mozilla's own Martin Thompson.
#onlineads #SurveillanceAdvertising #TrackingFreeAds #gdpr #dataprotection
Associated Press: Meta’s head of AI research stepping down . “The head of Meta’s artificial intelligence research division said she plans to step down, vacating a high-profile position at a time of intense competition in the development of AI technology. Joelle Pineau, Meta’s vice president for AI research, said Tuesday she is leaving at the end of May after eight years with the company.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/08/associated-press-metas-head-of-ai-research-stepping-down/
ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Associated Press: Meta’s head of AI research stepping down | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
Más de 
ResearchBuzz: Firehose
"Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology" is a series of essays by Ellen Ullman. Many of the stories are from the 1990s but feel prescient. The book is filled with ideas that could be written today, if you modernized a few incidental details. My notes: https://evanhahn.com/life-in-code-book-notes/
evanhahn.com · Notes from "Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology"My notes from a series of Ellen Ullman's personal essays about Silicon Valley.
Looking for moving boxes in the #southbay. Anybody have to spare in #Sunnyvale, #MountainView, #Cupertino ? #siliconvalley
Continuó el hilo
Talking with the folks in the local #vintage / #retrocomputing community, they clued me in that the #ThinkPad #RAID is a steaming pile of 
and not worth the trouble.
Oh well. Thanks for cluing me in
So I swapped out the two testing #NVMe drives I was using and reinstalled the original sticks - to have #windoz10 demanding for the #bitlocker recovery key. 
Well, time to wipe & install #windoz11 then.
Install went fine, only 4 rando #drivers to find for all #devices to be recognized and working.
Using my #CTT scripts to install the majority of applications, then to remove the #spyware #bloatware and other garbage #micro$oft added to #windows11
Then migrate my #data from my other ThinkPad. Welcome to my #sunday #funday
#siliconValley #SillyValley #sanfrancisco #sanfran #sanfranciscocomputers #sanfrancomputers #sanfranciscovintagecomputers #sanfranvintagecomputers #sanfranciscovintagehardware #sanfranvin-tagehardware
#vintagecomputing #vintagecomputint #vintagecomputer #vintagecomputers #vintagecomputalk
#vintagehardware #computerHistory #retro #VCF #vintageComputerFestival
#retrocomputing #retroComputers #WallOfRetro #retroTech #retroTechnology
#nerdsOfVintage #happyNerding
#computer #tech #computerHardware #laptop #laptops
#IBM #thinkpad #thinkpads #VintageThinkPad #X86 #WindowsVista #IBMhardware #lenovoHard-ware #Thinkpadnium
#upcycle #restore #TechnologyRepair #ThinkPadRepair #WasteNotWantNot #Thinkpadnium
#makeShitMonday #showmewhatyougot
Respondió en el hilo
@Catvalente Surely the lesson here is for creators who seek patronage to set up a co-operative money-handling service and stop using services provided by #SiliconValley #VultureCapitalist #Broligarchs, whose sole purpose in life is to rip you off?
"Silicon Valley’s celebration of reading has blended very badly with the worship of power. The problems of the Silicon Valley canon, and increasingly of Silicon Valley itself, reflect the problems of a monoculture, in which people have converged on a particular definition of greatness built around engineering prowess and large-scale social disruption. That highlights some of the possibilities of technology, while occluding others.
Perhaps, instead of remaking America so that it reflects the Silicon Valley ethos, we ought to rebuild Silicon Valley’s internal economy to include some of the diversity and creativity in the society that surrounds it. The engineer’s focus on simplifying and solving problems can be of great value, so long as it is leavened by a deep appreciation of the richness and complexity of the systems that it looks to transform. Without that, it is liable to result in disaster."
Bloomberg · To Understand DOGE, Look to the Tech Industry’s Reading List
TechCrunch: X may soon start selling inactive usernames to Verified Organizations starting at $10K, code reveals. “X’s plan to boost revenue by selling off dormant usernames on its service is starting to shape up. According to recent changes found in X’s web application, the company is setting up a ‘handle inquiry’ process that will allow Verified Organizations — companies and other […]
Later this month, #TechWontSaveUs turns five years old. It’s hard to believe I’ve been making the show for this long!
Over that time I’ve interviewed hundreds of guests to spread critical perspectives on tech far and wide — and I know it’s had an impact.
Ok, I spent yesterday afternoon trying to get #RAID configured on my #lenovo #ThinkPad #P70 - to no success.
I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyCC1NGe8a8&t=36s of the similar #p50 and configuring #RAID which shows the #BIOS interface but my P70's only show the "non-raid physical discs" I do not have an option for RAID volumes. Note I have upgraded the BIOS to the most recent version on lenovo's web site. Any thoughts?
I have attached 2 #screenshots of what the BIOS displays - I'm trying to configure the RAID on the two 512GB #NVMe sticks.
#siliconValley #SillyValley #sanfrancisco #sanfran #sanfranciscocomputers #sanfrancomputers #sanfranciscovintagecomputers #sanfranvintagecomputers #sanfranciscovintagehardware #sanfranvin-tagehardware
#vintagecomputing #vintagecomputint #vintagecomputer #vintagecomputers #vintagecomputalk
#vintagehardware #computerHistory #retro #VCF #vintageComputerFestival
#retrocomputing #retroComputers #WallOfRetro #retroTech #retroTechnology
#nerdsOfVintage #happyNerding
#computer #tech #computerHardware #laptop #laptops
#IBM #thinkpad #thinkpads #VintageThinkPad #X86 #WindowsVista #IBMhardware #lenovoHard-ware #Thinkpadnium
#upcycle #restore #TechnologyRepair #ThinkPadRepair #WasteNotWantNot #Thinkpadnium
#makeShitMonday #showmewhatyougot
■ El poder de los 'broligarcas', los dueños de las tecnológicas que quieren marcar el paso ■ Los millonarios de Silicon Valley hacen cola para cortejar a Trump y se apoyan en la ultraderecha creciente para imponer su egoísta meta: el lucro. Pero las presiones privadas no debe[…]
https://www.huffingtonpost.es/global/el-broligarcaslos-duenos-tecnologicas-quieren-marcar-paso.html?int=MASTODON_WORLD
"Today, it’s increasingly clear that it’s the tech oligarchs — not their algorithmically-steered platforms—who present the greater danger. Their arsenal combines three deadly implements: plutocratic gravity (fortunes so vast they distort reality’s basic physics), oracular authority (their technological visions treated as inevitable prophecy), and platform sovereignty (ownership of the digital intersections where society’s conversation unfolds). Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X), Andreessen’s strategic investments into Substack, Peter Thiel’s courting of Rumble, the conservative YouTube: they’ve colonized both the medium and the message, the system and the lifeworld.
We must update our taxonomies to account for this new species of oligarch-intellectuals. If yesterday’s public intellectual resembled a careful archaeologist methodically excavating cultural artifacts for display in rarefied literary journals, today’s model is the demolition expert, wiring entire societal structures with ideological explosives and detonating them from the safe distance of offshore accounts. They don’t write about the future; they install it, beta-testing theories on unwitting populations in history’s largest unreviewed experiment.
What distinguishes them from previous wealth-encrusted elites isn’t avarice but verbosity—a torrential output that would exhaust even Balzac. Where industrial barons funded think tanks to launder interests into policy papers, our oligarch-intellectuals cut out the middleman. Forget steering the algorithms: oligarch-intellectuals steer the conversation itself – and they do it with philosophical meme-grenades. Dropped at 3 AM on X, they invariably become international headlines by breakfast."
https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/silicon-valleys-new-legislators/
www.theideasletter.orgThe New Legislators of Silicon Valley - The Ideas LetterMorozov describes a newly emerged Silicon Valley class of “oligarch-intellectuals,” billionaire tech elites who combine vast wealth, ideological ambition, and the philosophical pretense to reshape public policy, culture, and even…
»The Brewing #Transatlantic #TechWar: How #SiliconValley Got Entangled in #Geopolitics — and Lost.« https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/brewing-transatlantic-tech-war?eicker.news #tech #media
Foreign Affairs · The Brewing Transatlantic Tech WarHow Silicon Valley got entangled in geopolitics—and lost.
#Facebook #CarelessPeople #politics #SiliconValley
'Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Facebook policy director behind a best-selling memoir about her time at the company, will testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing next week.'
Engadget · 'Careless People' author Sarah Wynn-Williams will testify at a Senate hearing next week
The good news for Marc Andreessen and Silicon Valley accelerationists is that they backed Trump and he won. The bad news for these people is that Trump is also the Decel-in-Chief. Read more at @404media. #Trump #SiliconValley #AndreessenHorowitz #Tariff #Semiconductors #Tech #Technology https://flip.it/Ir39BS
404 Media · Big Tech Backed Trump for Acceleration. They Got a Decel President InsteadEffective accelerationists didn’t just accidentally shoot themselves in the foot. They methodically blew off each of their toes with a .50 caliber sniper rifle.