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We hear a lot about Facebook as a platform for manipulation - using machine learning to bypass our critical faculties and trick us into believing things that are bad for us - but the real show is in Facebook's ability to target, not manipulate.
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More from Cory Doctorow #BLM
Inside: Stop saying "it's not censorship if it's not the government"; Trump's swamp gators find corporate refuge; and more!
Archived at: https://t.co/7JMcAbaULj
#Pluralistic
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Monday night, I'll be helping William Gibson launch the paperback edition of his novel AGENCY at a Strand Bookstore videoconference. Come say hi!
https://t.co/k3fvBdqOK0
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Stop saying "it's not censorship if it's not the government": I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
https://t.co/7I0MpCTez5
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If you think "It's not censorship unless the government does it," I want to change your mind.
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 24, 2021
It's absolutely true that the First Amendment only prohibits government action to suppress speech based on its content, but the First Amendment is not the last word on censorship.
1/ pic.twitter.com/ycbLLDhtrd
Trump's swamp gators find corporate refuge: The Swamped project.
https://t.co/MUJyIOr2iw
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Have you seen the stories about how Trump administration officials and staffers for Ted Cruz are finding that no one in the private sector will hire them because they are forever tainted by their former bosses' disgraceful behavior?
— Cory Doctorow #BLM (@doctorow) January 24, 2021
They're bullshit.https://t.co/XvYDPpR9yd
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#15yrsago A-Hole bill would make a secret technology into the law of the land https://t.co/57bJaM1Byr
#15yrsago Hollywood’s MP loses the election — hit the road, Sam! https://t.co/12ssYpV46B
#15yrsago How William Gibson discovered science fiction https://t.co/MYR0go37nW
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More from Machine learning
Here’s a list of my favorites resources if you’re learning to code in 2021.
👇
1. freeCodeCamp.
I’d suggest picking one of the projects in the curriculum to tackle and then completing the lessons on syntax when you get stuck. This way you know *why* you’re learning what you’re learning, and you're building things
2. https://t.co/7XC50GlIaa is a hidden gem. Things I love about it:
1) You can see the most upvoted solutions so you can read really good code
2) You can ask questions in the discussion section if you're stuck, and people often answer. Free
3. https://t.co/V9gcXqqLN6 and https://t.co/KbEYGL21iE
On stackoverflow you can find answers to almost every problem you encounter. On GitHub you can read so much great code. You can build so much just from using these two resources and a blank text editor.
4. https://t.co/xX2J00fSrT @eggheadio specifically for frontend dev.
Their tutorials are designed to maximize your time, so you never feel overwhelmed by a 14-hour course. Also, the amount of prep they put into making great courses is unlike any other online course I've seen.
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If everyone was holding bitcoin on the old x86 in their parents basement, we would be finding a price bottom. The problem is the risk is all pooled at a few brokerages and a network of rotten exchanges with counter party risk that makes AIG circa 2008 look like a good credit.
— Greg Wester (@gwestr) November 25, 2018
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details): https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha
I've read it so you needn't!
Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.
The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.
Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.