https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

For someone who is not on the inside of any social media companies, this was very educational. I’ve avoided TikTok – not out of any particular compuction to avoid it, just that I don’t care enough to be exposed to endless 30 seconds blurbs.

It also explains the behavior of other social media companies.

Long, but good, read.

https://www.wundertech.net/how-to-setup-pi-hole-on-a-synology-nas-two-methods/

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-replicate-secrets-aws-secrets-manager-multiple-regions/

You know how people talk about the ‘good old days’? This is what they’re talking about. I would argue that while it’s an amazing bit of engineering, it’s got nothing on our systems today that have over a billion transistors on something the size of your thumbnail.

We needed the ‘good old days’ to get where we are, but I definitely don’t want to go back!

http://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html

Having recently learned about Pharmacy Benefit Managers and their role as middlemen, I wondered how in the world things got to this place.

It looks like the government may actually be doing something about this one, and the consolidation of power in various industries.

Great blog post by Matt Stover on this: https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/torpedoes-in-the-water

You’d never know it by some of the press out there, but…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/06/biden-is-approving-more-oil-gas-drilling-permits-public-lands-than-trump-analysis-finds/

Why This Computer Scientist Says All Cryptocurrency Should “Die in a Fire” ❧ Current Affairs

I’ve been doing it for quite a while, and after the first 10lbs, there hasn’t been much improvement. Turns out, it doesn’t work the same for everyone. Who knew!?

A frustrating article: Why Being Anti-Science Is Now Part Of Many Rural Americans’ Identity | FiveThirtyEight

At the end of the day, science is about repeatable experiments and pushing humanity’s knowledge forward. To be of the belief that your opinion is more valid than scientific results is just a disappointing view of the world.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who make a lot of money by encouraging this, leaving the world a worse place than where it started.