What is Hackers' Pub?

Das Netzwerk Verbraucherforschung hatte mich 2024 zum Vortrag über Luxuskonsum geladen:

Angesichts der globalen Polykrisen müssen wir Luxus neu definieren, konsumfrei + für alle:

Schöne Landschaft, Biodiversität, saubere Luft, sauberes Wasser, Ruhe, Sicherheit, das wäre Luxus.

Imagine having to actually say this shit:

The measles vaccine prevents children from getting the measles.

It's 2026 and we've all resorted to speaking to each other as if we're all suffering from severe cognitive impairment.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-the-kakistocracy-became-a-quackistocracy

i haven't read hacker news yet this year and it feels great

i guess spending time in spaces where people are speaking in a normal human way to each other is good actually

The AI bubble will burst immediately after it permanently destroys the consumer electronics market

生成AIが手がけた音楽の学習元を特定する技術を開発　ソニー、開発元への対価要求に活用 - 産経ニュース https://www.sankei.com/article/20260216-ARFF5HB2YBMGVAJVRO76TPMXF4/

＞ソニーグループが、人工知能（AI）が手がけた音楽の学習元となる楽曲を特定する技術を開発したことが16日、分かった。音楽業界では生成AIの活用が広がり、AIによる著作物の無断学習が問題視されている。ソニーは新技術の活用により、曲の使用に伴う対価をAIの開発元に要求できるようになり、収益を音楽制作者に配分しやすくなるとしている

いいぞ、どんどんやろう　​​

#fedibird

You know that “stop forcing AI into fucking everything” graphic that went around on here?

I bought the t-shirt. I get a lot of compliments on it.

The only negative response was from a friend who works for McKinsey. She read out the “everyone hates it” and said, “do they really, though?” as we stood near the check-in table for an event, and three people in line turned around and said, “YES!”

@evanEvan Prodromou @dansup The number of developers and communities who've been pushed out of the Fedi because of this elitist mentality should be alarming to any builder in this space. Are we ever going to learn to do better, or are we going to continue pushing more people away?

The vibes aren't good, Evan, and I really hope you're aware of that, because vibes make or break a community.

Imagine having to actually say this shit:

The measles vaccine prevents children from getting the measles.

It's 2026 and we've all resorted to speaking to each other as if we're all suffering from severe cognitive impairment.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/how-the-kakistocracy-became-a-quackistocracy

it's easy to go "oh it's just like uber and they'll raise prices eventually" or "oh it's just california ideology" or "some of these firms are run by fascists so they all are" but reality is more complex than that. and that complexity matters

❄️ If you’ve seen the Winter Update news this week, come get the full walkthrough live. We’ll cover:

✅ workload connectivity
✅ performance
✅ compliance/auditability
✅ securing AI systems
✅ integrations

📅 Feb 19 🕐 1pm ET / 10am PT
https://tailscale.com/events-webinars/tailscale-winter-update-2026/?utm_source=Mastodon&utm_medium=owned-social&utm_campaign=tailscale-winter-update-2026

OH: Unbeaufsichtigten Kindern wird NixOS auf den Laptop installiert!

#mucccleaks

@dansup @quillmatiqAnuj Ahooja

I think there is a lot to applaud in the ATProto community in terms of the growing openness, the standardization of part of the stack, and the great work engaging third-party developers.

@dansup @quillmatiqAnuj Ahooja

Pushing a separate protocol has undoubtedly hurt the entire distributed social networking movement. It was done intentionally.

It shouldn't have worked. ActivityPub should have been more widespread by the time that ATProto launched, so that a competing protocol would have no chance to split the network.

But we weren't, and it did. It's at least partially our fault that a house-brand protocol has been such a serious threat.

@LoginBonusログインボーナスbot ログボ

now like you can think that you shouldn't believe them, etc, or that this position is taken in a non-serious way... but that's a very different kind of thing!

OH: Unbeaufsichtigten Kindern wird NixOS auf den Laptop installiert!

#mucccleaks

Meow #cat

Jack Dorsey skipped ActivityPub, built AtProto, lost Twitter, funded Bluesky, watched it become a company with VCs and a board, said it was "repeating all the mistakes," left, and now funds Nostr.

The fediverse is the only one in this story that never needed a billionaire to survive.

And it never will. 🔥

Tesla 'Robotaxi' adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month – 4x worse than humans

Link: https://electrek.co/2026/02/17/tesla-robotaxi-adds-5-more-crashes-austin-month-4x-worse-than-humans/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051546

Stephen Colbert says CBS forbid interview of Democrat because of FCC threat

Link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/stephen-colbert-says-cbs-forbid-interview-of-democrat-because-of-fcc-threat/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051793

The fediverse is anti-capitalist. The fediverse is anarchist praxis. The fediverse is not a protocol. The fediverse caries an ideology of communal care and mutual aid for our fellow humans. The fediverse should never be neutral on ideology. The tools we are building provide infrastructure for communication but they also shape that communication.

Britannica Online, 1994; via 'Using the World Wide Web', a 1994 book by William Eager

#Australia’s Social Media Ban Is Isolating Kids With Disabilities—Just Like Critics Warned - https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/17/australias-social-media-ban-is-isolating-kids-with-disabilities-just-like-critics-warned/

#Australia’s Social Media Ban Is Isolating Kids With Disabilities—Just Like Critics Warned - https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/17/australias-social-media-ban-is-isolating-kids-with-disabilities-just-like-critics-warned/

pronouncing RSS as Arse

I love finding quality apps without any upselling, enshitification, or bullshit whatsoever: https://www.wired.com/story/fairscan-simple-app-for-scanning-documents-on-android/

I’m not Filipino, but I felt like one today when I ate spaghetti and rice together.

Russia's economy has entered the death zone

Link: https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/02/16/russias-economy-has-entered-the-death-zone
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051603

This account has a website full of tips and step-by-step guides about how to use Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse:

➡️ https://fedi.tips <-------- Click here to open the website

The entire site is written in ordinary non-technical language, aimed at a general audience. There's a section at the top with quick links to the most essential stuff, and a complete list of guides below that.

If you can't find the answers you want on the site, ask me and I'll try to help directly.

I personally believe the most logical, and long-term sustainable solution with the most control to the "Android becoming more closed" threat, is to fund and support @postmarketOS and alike initiatives.

a fully decentralised solution developed by the whole FOSS ecosystem together is infinitely better than depending on the whims and generosity of big tech companies.

And, they still get to support the ecosystem by committing Linux/etc patches upstream, it just has better power balance in the end.

Das Netzwerk Verbraucherforschung hatte mich 2024 zum Vortrag über Luxuskonsum geladen:

Angesichts der globalen Polykrisen müssen wir Luxus neu definieren, konsumfrei + für alle:

Schöne Landschaft, Biodiversität, saubere Luft, sauberes Wasser, Ruhe, Sicherheit, das wäre Luxus.

Lmao.

I’ve watched this about a thousand times and now you can, too. This is my anthrm for this decade.

Year of the Honse

Gentoo on Codeberg

Link: https://www.gentoo.org/news/2026/02/16/codeberg.html
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47050067

Lmao.

had a dream about an absolutely mad taxi app called "payback". it was wild west themed, and the driver and rider photos were set up like wanted posters. it was also ridiculously expensive, where you had to pay whenever the driver got more details about your location, and for reasons i can't recall, the driver sometimes had to pay you. we paid $33 and the driver paid us $12.50.

the driver got to where we were but couldn't see our precise location. we had to send photos of our location and send them to him in a "hot or cold" type thing. eventually he got really pissed at us and cancelled.

at that point, we were offered the titular "payback" options. twice per day, you can "swipe" from a driver. you take $10 that they were owed and get $5 of it back and the company pockets the rest. you can also "strike" once a week, and the driver would lose all their pay that they'd earned so far for the day (you wouldn't get any of it though) and they'd be "struck out" for the next 24 hours and barred from driving.

I’ve watched this about a thousand times and now you can, too. This is my anthrm for this decade.

We have provided stickers to minions who will be at Team Cymru's RISE USA conference in San Francisco this week. Keep an eye out for free GAYINT stickers around the con! #GAYINT #ThreatIntel #Stickers #TeamCymru #RISEUSA #RISEUSA2026

1/2 Two new blog pieces. In which I have opinions about GenAI and open-source: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/02/16/GenAI-and-OSS-opinion

#GenAI #opensource

Kinda excited about the rumored form factor of the foldable iPhone – hope the camera doesn't end up too compromised though…

Going pretty good so far

Is there a website that promotes tech jobs at companies that don't use AI?

I'm not looking for work right now. However, I know a few people who are, and they don't want to work for someone who forces them to use GenAI, either for code, for infrastructure management, or for writing documentation.

For them, the prospect of working in tech in 2026 is just bleak.

#AskFedi

Lateral climbing

Cell complex -- something you get when your friend can afford the newest version of the iPhone and you can't.

Also: an object in a category which is obtained by successively “gluing cells” via pushouts.

to better protect your security, we will send you a code 3 minutes after it has expired

TokioConf 2026 approaches! https://www.tokioconf.com/

It's in Portland, April 20-22, I won't be there but if you can, you should be!

I'm going to be deleting all of my posts here before too long (just doing house cleaning).

I'll back up some of the bigger posts to a federated blog and then boost them afterwards.

I used to delete posts every three months (rolling) but havent been good about that.

Anyhoo, pull what you can use if you like.