This is a linkblog written by Dante.
By 'linkblog' I mean this is a blog consisting of links to other sites or posts that I find interesting, noteworthy, or generally of interest. Occasionally I'll include my own thoughts on the links as well. You can subscribe by RSS to get all posts including commentary, or get daily, weekly, or even monthly updates if that is more your speed.
All links include comments sections, and you're welcome to leave your thoughts as well.
You can find my main blog here.
Productivity made everyday life a legitimate trade-union concern. Once domestic conditions entered that remit, however, women could make claims that exceeded the goal of increasing labor output.
Really remarkable article analyzing the pathways of feminist societal change through the history of the Soviet Union, up until its final days in the 1980s.
What last month clarified for me is that we are not engaged in the normal to and fro of politics, we are in a hybrid conflict against a loosely-defined but very much unified set of forces: tech corporations, fossil fuels, and international fascism arrayed together. They can be fought, and they can be beaten, but it falls on all of us to understand that this is a conflict and there are sides.
Excellent writing on AI and fascism from Bruno.
I wanted to write this specifically to say to other people in this position: No, you're not insane. We are living through a horrific break in human history, and we are going to watch people fail to recognize the battle lines being drawn or simply fail a basic decency check. We are watching a mass betrayal of humanistic values unfold before our eyes. It is natural to be shocked and disgusted.
Welcome to compend. On here, you can review anything that has a Wikipedia article.
Truly genius website idea.
We explore the modern history of putting big guns on wheels, then dive into the history of Chad and its border dispute with Libya to learn how a humble pickup truck became a quintessential weapon of war.
Fantastic podcast episode. This isn't brought up in the episode directly, but given who I am, I am sooooooooo struck by how similar the introduction of the Hilux Technical in the Chad/Libya conflict is to the Byzantine/Muslim wars of the 700s.
it's a very similar paradigm -- one military built on slow moving, heavy armor is completely blindsided by a new army built on fast moving light cavalry. In both cases it's the army that is able to move faster and shoot further (not to mention "can melt back into the environment") that matters MUCH more than the army that has stronger shields.
T.E. Lawrence is also not brought up in this episode but this feels absolutely in line with his wartime observations about How To Win. I feel like I am Understanding War Theory more now.
We cannot assume that Windows will collapse under its own mediocrity; if that were true it would have happened decades ago. We must kill Windows. We must cut it out from our lives like a tumor; we must systematically consider what we need from it and seek to construct alternatives with purpose.
Install linux! Doesn't have to be on your Main Computer. Just give it a shot on some smaller device you got lying around. I'm not joking when I say that I have had more Fun On Computers since i started using linux on my laptop two years ago and I have no regrets. Just try it out! Windows fucking sucks ass!
In Linux there is no adware out the gate, no Copilot, no news tickers to disable in the Start menu. There are no dark patterns attempting to trick you into some thoroughly mediocre service that is, optimistically, fourth best in its category. You do not have to look up how to disable OneDrive in Linux. The right click does not have a submenu where they hide all the useful stuff that was in Windows 10. Installing the OS doesn’t require you to search for your Microsoft login or buy a cheap gray market product key from a country where the software doesn’t cost like $120 retail (although at this point Microsoft is basically begging people to keep using Windows 11).
In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Alexey Sakhnin to discuss the history of Russia/Ukraine relations. Given the current events, this is an important topic for us to understand the historical context of.
This is a bit older now (2022, recorded right after the initial invasion maneuvers), but I found this a great primer on Russia/Ukraine relations dating from the Medieval era to today.
The need for cuts at KO-OP came about for the same reason they’ve been happening at so many other game studios these days: the funding dried up. Dabbous said KO-OP has been on shaky ground before–“KO-OP has never had a game that's been a hit and has brought sustainable revenue into the studio. By all means, KO-OP should not exist.”--but that in the past they’ve usually been able to get funding for their next project within six months of finishing the previous one.
I think the nature of running a co-operative in the games industry does not exactly remove the element of risk from the business prospects, but I'm glad to hear that it's at least more democratic and communicative.
His viral post had captured a feeling of exhaustion and frustration that so many can relate to with the flood of AI-generated ‘slop’ and then, ironically, that very viral attention had sent others off to generate their own AI rip-offs of his work.
The framing of this article is kind of odd -- "isn't it weird this guy was accused of being AI?" is not the principal issue here. The issue here is that he put together a handmade ad and it was immediately copied by the AI generated small business losers online who have access to grok. AI is bad and it's filling the internet with useless shit!!
Are companies genuinely planning their workforce requirements, or are they experimenting with how few developers they can get away with now that AI is involved?Because from where I’m standing, it increasingly feels like developers are becoming disposable resources in a giant experiment.
To be clear, I feel very bad for this author who appears to be on the receiving end of a rapidly enshittifying company (Plex, which I use regularly but am basically always expecting to fall apart at a moment's notice). However, it is clear that the author is also a user and promoter of the very technologies that put him out of work, which strikes me as very short-sighted. Nevertheless, it is a good look inside a very frustrating industry.
LLM technology is catnip to these large company structures -- it's an excuse for them to lay off huge swaths of their workforces without any extra explanation. We can simply "do it with AI", a claim that is dubious at best and is unfortunately only emboldened by rank-and-file workers endorsing this technology. Chewing off your own foot and then complaining that it's hard to walk.
Because big tech doesn't do customer service, we are being inundated with AI-generated emails begging us for help.
Strange example, but yet another case of the modern LLM craze filling the internet with useless shit.
When I write code, the code stops writing when my fingers do. I am making concrete a vision I have in my head of my goal, like the nail being driven into the wood. These operations feel discrete to me in a way I find pleasing. This lack in AI coding programs feels very stark to me, one doesn't seem to be 'using a tool' in a literal sense.
In the last few months, Yen set up an email address for employees to contact if they come across anything blocking adoption of AI at Proton, so leadership can “ruthlessly smash everything that stands in the way of AI velocity;” Proton installed software on workers’ computers that track how much AI code the company is generating; and Yen said this is the last year that Proton will hire engineers at all, and instead only hire people to build things with AI.
By all appearances, Proton's CEO and CTO are both in the throes of a deep and disturbing bout of AI psychosis and it's putting a lot of people who rely on their products in danger. Diversify soon, methinks.
"This dataset is massive in terms of both size and impact. It provides an unprecedented look into the Department of Homeland Security's organizational structure, highlighting which people do what work across multiple DHS agencies, including ICE," said journalist and cyber security researcher maia arson crimew.
Massive database and deep body of information to pick through about one of our current fascist agencies in the USA.
These passages are unusual enough that earlier editors and scholars were made uncomfortable about them. We discuss their devotional context but also the broader context of homoeroticism and homophobia in the monastic world of that time. The conversation is based on Derek's recent monograph, Monastic Desires: Homoeroticism, Homophobia, and the Love of God in Medieval Constantinople (Cambridge University Press 2026).
Browse IKEA catalogues through the ages, reflecting different eras and lifestyles - a goldmine for the nostalgic, design enthusiasts and history buffs.
Many artists struggle to choose the right watercolor paints. I created a paint database with the best swatches so you can see how paints look on paper and how they mix. Save time and money, build your perfect watercolor palette, and let your paints bring you joy.
Hi there! We’re the Artisans Cooperative, built to shine a light on all the wonderful artisans that keep handmade craft alive! We've been building a better online marketplace for handmade goods.
Neat, sort of a cooperative Etsy. Good vibes.
If a person works in a factory or a retail store every day for their entire life, none of the work that they do will lead to the discovery of the historical development of the capitalist mode of production. In their work they do not conduct the experiments which would lead to this knowledge. An understanding of historical materialism and political economy can only come from a scientific analysis of philosophy, history, and the conditions of the working class.
If you need a quick explainer on the communist theory of social revolution, I think this is a pretty solid one. Part II can be read here and gets more into specific US contexts.
What we are learning at an alarmingly fast pace is that not only are some of the locks easy to pick, in some cases the door is wide open or there’s a giant hole in the wall.
You may or may not have noticed (though I did make a blogpost about it) but I took down this site for a couple hours last night -- the reason being a massive PHP exploit that this site (& a few others I selfhost) were vulnerable to.
I'm not really sure what to do with this, other than what I can do -- be wary, pull things offline if need be. I am a bit of a pessimist in general and I know that, but I do think it is a very rough time to be "getting into" hosting websites, and yet that is what I'm doing.