@dymaxion @cstross DIY 3D printed gamer PCs with questionable parts of unknown origin!so yeah basically

@cstross And in the meantime said mad scientist sits back and watches quietly from afar as the world tears itself apart, smug smile on his ostensibly benign countenance.

In 20/20 hindsight, I should have paid more attention to the drop in traffic to my blog (both views and comments posted) since January 2024, and noted Google's de-emphasizing blogs in favour of extruded text product, and realized: if you suppress public speech via small private media (blogs) you're implicitly boosting the reach of centrally controlled platforms.This is censorship with American characteristics.The fix, as they say, is in.

@ploum @cstross I may have missed or misinterpreted that when I read it, but where does it say that everyone is dead and civilization has collapsed? There are cities; they've just transitioned to low-energy tech and economy. The robots even left peacefully.(I didn't particularly like the book, but I don't see the dystopian backdrop in it.)

@grease What's really needed is a sequence:1. Trump loses, conclusively, next Tuesday.2. Putin dies. At this point, a rescue package for the Russian people is vital to prevent this whole mess recurring 20 years downthe line.3. Harris leans on Netanyahu VERY HARD INDEED. (Better still: Netanyahu dies.)4. A coordinated crackdown on the fossil fuel lobby, worldwide, to disrupt their pro-carbon astroturf campaigns.5. A ramp-down of US/China tensions: ideally wait out Xi (he's not young).

Footnote about Nazis and their targets:You might think you're safe.But … they start with their political rivals, and the trans, then the rest of the LGBT+. Then it's on to "auslanders"—folks who aren't the pale patriarchal penis people. Women get beaten back into the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant to make soldiers for the fatherland. Jews, blacks, asians, indians, hispanics, EVERY minority—even though collectively we're the majority. Finally they eat their own.I repeat: NOBODY IS SAFE.

@cstross Wolff claims he had these recordings since 2017 but for whatever reason he decided to NOT mention them until now? That's a bit weird, to put it mildly.

@michaelormsby @cstross @tuban_muzuru The Economist had an extended essay on this a few months ago. I've found a non pay walled version here. Interesting read.https://archive.is/ak34k

REMINDER FOR NON-BRITS:Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of the Consertive party, is a woman of colour.But she's also: — a climate change denialist— denies institutional racism exists— a militant transphobe who wants to strip transgender people of civil rights — believes the British Empire was beneficial to its colonies— opposes marriage equality... She's the most right-wing leader the party's ever had.(TLDR: She's the antithesis of Kamala Harris.)https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/nov/02/tory-leadership-election-results-live-kemi-badenoch-robert-jenrick-new-conservative-leader

@simonbp @HighlandLawyer @abstractcode @cstross It's funny how all the alternative histories seem like they would be better than the current one.

@cstross Why are you so desperate for a new Ipad that you'd travel to Belgium for one rather than wait a week?

@san_der @cstross I need to ruin her career.(sorry, that's hopepunk not horror)

@cstross Same for Thiel and Sacks. So they're trying to do it at second-hand.

@cstross Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens sure is a story like that

Apropos the folks saying that the Prosperity Gospel offers you everything Satan offered Christ …I'd like to note (as a not-ever-Christian) that Satanism as constructed in Christian culture is simply a Christian heresy that posits the other side winning.So everything the evangelicals accuse Satanic cults of is projection of their own wish-fulfilment fantasies.

@cstross Congratulations. You've beaten me to it

@cstross The IT operations version: "Gaze not into the Abyss, lest someone decides you're now the Abyss domain expert and forces you to continue staring into the damned thing".

"… X is not an important gateway for business users to reach end users."https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/113316593914664643

My previous rule of thumb, "with the right it's ALWAYS projection", needs a corollary: "with the right, it's ALSO always animal cruelty".I am not delighted by this new insight. Brr.https://mastodon.social/@br00t4c/113312173272828246

@cstross But did Clarence Thomas admit to placing a pubic hair at the osmium lid of the demon's sarcophagus?