ada lovelace is cooler than you

a science/space/tech sideblog. main at boykeats

[targetedknowledge]

[cryoverkiltmilk]

How to disable Copilot in Windows 11

Completely disable Copilot in Windows 11

You too can get the satisfaction of maiming or killing a spy embedded in your organization.

[sevastiel]

HELL YEAH DESHITTIFICATION!

For everything we do here, please be sure to be careful with what you edit, and restart your computer to lock things in. If you don't have access to the Group editor, (likely to happen if you're on base windows) you can do this as well by opening your Registry Editor app, then inputting this after your 'computer' or whatever the initial segment is. (Mine is computer. If I just try and paste the below string it gets SO mad at me)

\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot

Navigating to your "turnoffwindowscopilot", hit modify, and set the value data to 1.

If done correctly, it'll look like this.

While we're at it, you can also get rid of the integrated search, (or that thing where it searches the web when you search anything, whether or not you want it to) and such through regedit as well.

Integrated search will have you going to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Navigate to your "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" bit, if you don't see it, you can make it by right clicking and creating a new registry D-Word key of that exact name. Edit the key, set it to 1. It'll look like this if you do it right!

To get rid of Windows Spotlight, (The thing where it pulls up ten billion pages on windows start page, shoving ads in your face and cluttering everything) we go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DesktopSpotlight\Settings

And set "Enabled State" To 0. If you do it right, it'll look like this!

Disabling edge on startup will also help a fair deal with processing speed and the like. This you can do in all sorts of ways, the easiest being turning it off entirely on startup through settings in the like.

If you want to kill it *entirely*, though? :)

In regedit, run along to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Navigate to your MicrosoftEdge key subcategory. If you don't see it, you can make one! Note, this is a KEY, not a d-word. *inside* that subcategory, we want to either make or find the D-Word key of PreventLaunchEdge and set that to 1 in the same way as all the others. It'll look like this.

Aaaand while we're here, I'd HIGHLY recommend shanking Killer Networking Services. It's just bloatware. (Ostensibly it's supposed to monitor your network bandwidth and even things out, but that really means it's constantly monitoring and pinging things, which eats up the bandwidth you DO get, and also chunks your computer's processing power.) Getting rid of it entirely is borderline impossible, since it's set to redownload on regular updates and intel is very pushy with its updates.

This you can do by opening your Services.msc, which basically shows you all the background stuff that Windows does. Find Anything with Killer in the name, right click it, go to properties, and disable startup. It should look like this, if done successfully. It will probably reenable itself in time/in later updates for windows, but it's a quick fix. I'd also check your TaskScheduler app to make sure that nothing's scheduled to open up there, either.

If you CAN completely kill Killer services through uninstalling and the like, I would warn that at very least for my computer, the only ethernet/lan support applications that are available ARE Killer's. When you download updates, you really do have to do it manually and ONLY download the ethernet services, or just be cool with not having Lan functionality.

One last thing, not a shit application but is a shit service. If your computer's constantly overheating or just warm, you likely have Turboboost enabled. (Default setting that you can't change) If you want to be able to turn it off and drop your temps by like 40 degrees, in Regedit go to

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7

(Note- This isn't the string copy paste from the reddit thread, this is mine that does the same thing. If my string doesn't work for you, check the reddit thread string. If that doesn't work either, you can follow the path and find it pretty easily. Probably has like, one letter of difference somewhere. The bits all start the same, though, so it's easy to find.)

and go to "attributes". Set the value from 1 to 2, and now in your advanced Power Plan settings in control panel, you'll be able to *see* turbo boost and turn it off.

It'll look like this, and in power options, a successful disabling of boost should look like this.

Turning off quick startup's also a good call, since that basically stops your restarts from actually shutting things down properly.

GOOD LUCK OUT THERE YALL. MAKE SURE TO CLEAN YOUR PC!

[hunter-rodrigez]

I would like to once again recommend to you all Winero Tweaker, a free program that lets you adjust a bunch of windows settings with a single click instead of digging through 30 different setting screens and registry entries.

There's well over a hundred settings, here's just a few of them:

(sorry the classic taskbar option no longer works with current windows 11 version)

Fair warning: This is a powerful tool which means it can also do some damage if you don't know what you're doing, but every setting comes with an extensive explanation, as you can see in the Ads and unwanted apps screenshot.

This tool will even turn windows 11 from a bloated mess into a (more or less, this tool isn't magic) usable operating system.

[manga-and-stuff]

Some tech advice for you all from my personal blog. I figured the more people see this the better, and I got a lot more followers on this blog.

[melyzard]

As more and more people are being forced to switch to Windows 11, Microsoft's most AI-malware-ridden OS yet, I've been putting together articles and links for how to undo the damage and save your battery, your RAM, your disk space, your privacy, and your sanity from this bullshit.

FIRST:

The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:

GitHub - Raphire/Win11Debloat: A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform v

A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customi

It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).

Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).

Sick of AI in your Windows 11 PC? Here's how to get rid of it

Microsoft wants to put AI everywhere on your PC, but you can take back control.

Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:

No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).

Stop Windows 11's most intrusive ads with these 9 easy tweaks

Tired of Microsoft pushing ads throughout Windows 11? Here are the settings you can tweak to turn them off and reclaim some privacy.

The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.

Bonus:

Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)

Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)

How to disable the AI in firefox (still the only browser that lets you do this permanently) (Windows Report, 2025)

[melyzard]

As more and more people are being forced to switch to Windows 11, Microsoft's most AI-malware-ridden OS yet, I've been putting together articles and links for how to undo the damage and save your battery, your RAM, your disk space, your privacy, and your sanity from this bullshit.

FIRST:

The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:

GitHub - Raphire/Win11Debloat: A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform v

A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customi

It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).

Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).

Sick of AI in your Windows 11 PC? Here's how to get rid of it

Microsoft wants to put AI everywhere on your PC, but you can take back control.

Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:

No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).

Stop Windows 11's most intrusive ads with these 9 easy tweaks

Tired of Microsoft pushing ads throughout Windows 11? Here are the settings you can tweak to turn them off and reclaim some privacy.

The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.

Bonus:

Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)

Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)

How to disable the AI in firefox (still the only browser that lets you do this permanently) (Windows Report, 2025)

[targetedknowledge]

[cryoverkiltmilk]

How to disable Copilot in Windows 11

Completely disable Copilot in Windows 11

You too can get the satisfaction of maiming or killing a spy embedded in your organization.

[melyzard]

As more and more people are being forced to switch to Windows 11, Microsoft's most AI-malware-ridden OS yet, I've been putting together articles and links for how to undo the damage and save your battery, your RAM, your disk space, your privacy, and your sanity from this bullshit.

FIRST:

The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:

GitHub - Raphire/Win11Debloat: A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform v

A simple, lightweight PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customi

It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).

Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).

Sick of AI in your Windows 11 PC? Here's how to get rid of it

Microsoft wants to put AI everywhere on your PC, but you can take back control.

Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:

No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).

Stop Windows 11's most intrusive ads with these 9 easy tweaks

Tired of Microsoft pushing ads throughout Windows 11? Here are the settings you can tweak to turn them off and reclaim some privacy.

The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.

Bonus:

Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)

Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)

How to disable the AI in firefox (still the only browser that lets you do this permanently) (Windows Report, 2025)

[yamada-ryo]

So it turns out the windows 11 'shut down' button no longer shuts down the computer entirely. I know this because task manager snitched on the runtime. So I shut it down and turn the main switch off and guess what happened on the next boot. American Megatrends. How the hell does windows 11 even manage to fuck up shutting down

[yamada-ryo]

Apparently it fucked with my bios settings? Now I can't even run my emulator.

[yamada-ryo]

This shit was NOT set to off before. This OS is a virus that fucks with your system. And not in a good way.

[switch-to-linux]

I have a suggestion

[h-nry]

[aeori-o]

For anyone who has any modern Windows PC: This has actually been broken since Windows 7! Maybe 8, I don't remember, I just remember being the exact same level of horrified as OP when I finally noticed an 'up time' of like three hundred some odd hours on my old PC despite it having been shut off regularly. Anyway.

The usual culprit of Windows not "fully" shutting down is "Fast Start Up" being turned on (which was and is "on" by default, because it does help a slow computer or a computer with a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) start up faster). Anyone with a modern Windows PC running an SSD as your boot drive should turn this off. The computer not fully shutting down can lead to weird compounded errors. So please follow along!

Type "power options" into your search bar and click the result, should look like this:

Which should open this:

Now we're going to back up to "Power Options" by clicking that in the upper bar or hitting "Cancel" on the bottom right. Now you should be here:

On the left hit "Choose what the power buttons do". Now you should be here:

Ignore the power button thing, but if your "Turn on fast startup (recommended)" is still on then turn it off! If yours is also greyed out make sure to hit that little blue thing with the shield near the top that says "Change settings that are currently unavailable" and then turn it off. Remember to hit "Save changes". Now your computer should fully shut off!

If you don't know how to check your "up time" to even know if this is a problem for you the easiest way to check is in the task manager. In the "performance" tab under your CPU at the bottom it will have an "Up time" like this:

(No comment on the SVM mode randomly disabling itself, it may or may not be related to this. I've never made use of and therefore never paid attention to mine and a lot of people aren't going to have it because that's AMD and while it's been more popular lately Intel is still really big out there. AMDs known to be quirky though (I say this as an AMD user) so who even knows what happened there.)

I know the post became memeing on windows but this can cause actual issues on modern hardware so figured I'd hijack in case it helps someone out. (It's something I have forgotten to check in the PCs I've helped friends make recently so I'm now having a "wuh oh" moment wondering if quirks one of them has been exhibiting is related to this.)

[agentromanoffsir]

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

[night-dark-woods]

ID. images are both animated banners that say "cringe is dead" with a dancing smiling rainbow star next to the text. End ID.

[elfgrove]

New Things to Beware on the Internet

On May 3rd, Google released 8 new top-level domains (TLDs) -- these are new values like .com, .org, .biz, domain names. These new TLDs were made available for public registration via any domain registrar on May 10th.

Usually, this should be a cool info, move on with your life and largely ignore it moment.

Except a couple of these new domain names are common file type extensions: ".zip" and ".mov".

This means typing out a file name could resolve into a link that takes you to one of these new URLs, whether it's in an email, on your tumblr blog post, a tweet, or in file explorer on your desktop.

What was previously plain text could now resolve as link and go to a malicious website where people are expecting to go to a file and therefore download malware without realizing it.

Folk monitoring these new domain registrations are already seeing some clearly malicious actors registering and setting this up. Some are squatting the domain names trying to point out what a bad idea this was. Some already trying to steal your login in credentials and personal info.

This is what we're seeing only 12 days into the domains being available. Only 5 days being publicly available.

What can you do? For now, be very careful where you type in .zip or .mov, watch what website URLs you're on, don't enable automatic downloads, be very careful when visiting any site on these new domains, and do not type in file names without spaces or other interrupters.

I'm seeing security officers for companies talking about wholesale blocking .zip and .mov domains from within the company's internet, and that's probably wise.

Be cautious out there.

[elfgrove]

I really want to reiterate how this can go wrong frequently and fast, folks.

A malicious actor sets up a page with an auto-downloader squatting on a domain name that matches a common zip file name like photos DOT zip. This website is set up to start an auto downloader upon being visited, downloading a zip file with the same name as the URL which contains malicious software (virus, worm, keylogger, etc).

Scenario.

Someone you know well sends you an email or text with promised photos attached. The email even reads something like this.

Because .zip is now a TLD, that plain text is automatically formatted into a link to malicious actor's website without them having to send you anything.

Folk with family with iPhones or iPads that are sent multiple photos in one go might be familiar with iCloud's tendency to automatically compile them into zip file for the sender and less savvy tech users have trouble NOT doing that.

These same less savvy users, or even just someone just not thinking in the moment, will click that .zip link, not realizing it isn't the the same as clicking on the promised attachment.

They download a file that matches the name they expected. They open it because they were expecting that file and it's from a trusted source. Except the file they downloaded isn't the one that was sent by their trusted source and now they have malware.

Another Scenario.

An IT person tries to send you an email with instructions on how to resolve a problem with a commonly used filename like install-repair DOT zip or to install new software like microsoft-office DOT zip.

The email may start with instructions of where to go get the legitimate file to do the install or repair, but now a line later in the instructions is also has a link to a .zip URL. A user, already frazzled by IT problems, may click it to ensure they have the right file. Again, they download malicious code from a squatting website or it prompts them with a fake login and now the squatting website has stolen their login credentials for a legitimate site. All due to an expected email from a trusted source.

Above you can see microsoft-office DOT zip is already out there with a fake Microsoft login screen waiting to steal your credentials.

These risks are already out there now because the TLD has been activated.

Plain text on old post are already being resolved into links to the new websites.

Here you can see a tweet from 2021, long before .zip was a domain name, now resolves that plan text into a clickable link. You'll start seeing this everywhere, and malicious actors do not have to lift a finger to send it to you.

Yes, a lot of users aren't going to click that, but a lot of folk will. Whomever is squatting on photos DOT zip domain name has made a one time payment to have access to anyone that ever sees that file name typed out.

In an example of an existing squatter site, clientdocs DOT zip is exactly one such pre-setup .zip domain name that initiates an automatic download. This one may be harmless, but the set ups are already out there and waiting to catch folk.

It's an unnecessary and risky can of worms that's been opened up.

Holy Unforced Errors, Batman.

[never-obsolete]

[never-obsolete]

Visit Original Link

here's one of the hotdog sounds (startup.wav)

[humblegrub]

honestly, the things that insects are capable of will never cease to amaze me

[amiibo-king]

it's come to my attention that a lot of people don't know about bluemaxima's flashpoint and genuinely think they'll never be able to play their favorite 00s internet games ever again so i just want to remind everyone that flashpoint is a huge internet flash game preservation project that allows you to play just about any internet flash game/animation despite the death of flash. if they've got it in their database (and they probably do) you can play it. go forth and drink in the 00s nostalgia

even if you think there's no way they'll have the game u want. they probably do anyway. when i first downloaded flashpoint i thought for sure theres no way they will have the obscure flash game i played for hours as a kid that was only even available on the internet for like 2 months in 2006. but you know what. they had it. seriously, download flashpoint

[foone]

Want to see the worst keyboard I've made? No?

Too bad!

Here's the Hair Keyboard. I built this in 2020. It's basically just a relatively standard QWERTY membrane-dome keyboard, but it's got a very unique look, thanks to a lot of time spent with glue and fake fur from a hobby store. It took a LONG time to comb this thing into usability, and I cannot describe how it feels to type on.

An overall picture:

Some horrible pre-combing shots:

Bad Hair (Keyboard) day:

Fun fact: Posting this is causing my music to skip. I think my computer can't handle even the image of the Hair Keyboard.

[yournewkeyboard]

[foone]

I haven't seen it get mentioned on Tumblr yet but Samsung has just gotten caught in a hilarious scam: they apparently advertised how their latest phones can take great picture of the moon, compared to other phones!

But it turns out they aren't using machine-learning to clear up blurry pictures, they're using machine-learning to detect when you're taking a picture of the moon, and then they swap in a saved PNG file of the moon.

A reddit user figured this out by taking a photo of the moon from Wikipedia, blurring it in photoshop, then trying to photograph it from across the room with all the lights turned out.

Their Samsung phone somehow managed to "clear up" the blurriness and recover details that weren't there in the first place. Because it's just cheating.

[foone]

r/Android - Samsung "space zoom" moon shots are fake, and here is the proof

7,831 votes and 976 comments so far on Reddit

Here's the first reddit post in the saga.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/11nzrb0/samsung_space_zoom_moon_shots_are_fake_and_here/

Next step obviously is for someone to disassemble the camera app, find the PNG, and replace it with something else.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

An interesting demonstration of how the human brain works.

But also something of a lesson regarding perception, and the unreliability of subjective perspective versus objective reality.

You can be extremely certain about how you perceive the world, your "lived experience," that which you "feel it in my heart." But that doesn't mean it's actually true. And it doesn't mean we have to endorse it, or ignore or outright deny objective reality.

That's a "you" thing, not a "we" thing.

[floridensis]

uh yeah no problem i literally live for this

[great-and-small]

Something similar happened to me with a weird crustacean I posted and I was dancing on the wind for weeks

[omusa-inola]

OP can we see said caterpillar?

[floridensis]

[omusa-inola]

Imagine seeing an insect - it happens all the time, not a rare or wondrous occasion by any general sense, yet... Between 15,000 and 18,000 new species are identified each year, half of those discoveries being insects.

That spider in your home, could be unidentified, new. The flies on your windshields, fresh creations.

Years ago I found a huge grub in a friends garden. Took it home in a jar speared with a fork for breathing holes. Put it in a bowl of dirt - Moth larvae will bury underground to metamorphosize - I carefully dug into the dirt when the leaves were falling. A beautiful umber leathery cocoon sat, quietly greeting me. All winter I kept it inside, warm. Carefully moved from one room to another. Come spring, I thought they would not come out. Come summer, I was left with a casing I thought empty. One night, one breathtaking night, a moth larger than my partner's hand, or mine appeared. The Pandora Sphinx Moth was free, and she spread her wings and took to the night sky. I never knew a moth like her could exist in Colorado.

At any given moment, it's estimated there are 10 quintillion individual insects alive. Be curious! Who knows what we will discover next. There in your backyard, local park, leaflitter in the city, some new, wonderous thing lives.

[floridensis]

heres the first ever picture of an as-of yet undescribed leaf miner moth! featuring my dog! i just took him out for his walk one day and saw something on a leaf, i didnt even know it was evidence of a bug, i thought it might be a fungus or something. i posted it to inaturalist and after identifying the host tree, a leafminer expert informed me that that tree was not a known host of anything this might be, and it was almost certainly an undescribed species of moth.

i eventually collected some more leaves that still had larvae/pupae living inside to mail to him so he could raise them to adulthood and work on classifying them

look at that!! a whole new moth!!

theres just so many bugs in the world!! you just never know!!

[onenicebugperday]

This is why you should upload your images of bugs (and other plants and animals) to inaturalist.org! It really does help scientists! It’s also helpful if you list those images as public domain or at the very least only require attribution to share.

[clocks-divorcing-ticks]

I love iNaturalist and have been uploading almost daily to it for over a year now. I do want to encourage anyone using it to make use of the "obscured" location visibility option, which gives your identifications a general radius rather than specific location. It protects both you from doxxing yourself, as well as the location of any rare plants or animals you find from being poached or trafficked. (iNaturalist will automatically do this for some particularly vulnerable species) Citizen science is so so valuable to our understanding of changes in the environment. As someone with an ecology background I cannot possibly overstate how useful it is to have people providing extra data points. We were constantly brainstorming ways to get the public involved in our research projects due to how invaluable it is. So far via iNaturalist I've identified 2 newly introduced insect species in my state which weren't thought to have spread this far until I IDed them, as well as a host of as yet undescribed native species (including a new species of blue banded bee which I'm still very excited about). And this is just in one year taking pics in my own backyard.

That's without even beginning to talk about the mental health benefits to being outside and involved in the natural world around you. I normally stop shot of recommending a specific app, but since this topic came across my dash I figured I'd jump in and vouch for this one.

[floridensis]

[headspace-hotel]

Oh my godddd new moth just dropped!!! With an incredible fluffy butt, no less!

This is a perfect example of why you don't burn/shred/landfill your leaves. Leaf them alone!

[lennythereviewer]

Hey remember when Tumblr banned porn and everyone fled to Twitter and the internet by and large became that much more insufferable? Yeah well, we’re about to get the sequel no one’s been waiting for

A recent lawsuit is calling into question the very law that makes user-generated content possible on the internet and it’s going before a bunch of old people who have no idea how the internet works. If Section 230 gets repealed or modified, the internet as we know it will radically change forever. Content policing will be that much worse; and either the guidelines will be so restrictive it’ll squeeze the life out of their sites, or sites will close their doors all together by not being able to meet the moderation demand and not wanting to risk being liable. 

Unlike SOPA way back in the day, this one is quietly flying under everyone’s radar so there’s no big pushback like last time, so there is a very real possibility this goes down in the worst way possible. So Yeah Ya’ll may want to start saving your favorite content if you feel it’s going to go bye-bye

[moonblossom-bunny]

This video goes more in depth as to why it is so important Section 230 stays unchanged.

[dwagom]

*a bunch of old people who know exactly how the internet works

[luulapants]

NECESSARY CLARIFICATION BEFORE YOU FREAK OUT!!

LegalEagle (who I like!) makes a false implication in this video, and you can see that same idea in the CNN article as well. This ruling would not “obliterate” section 230. It adds an interpretation to it that was not considered when the law was written back in 1997: the role of recommendation algorithms in defining whether or not a website is acting as a publisher. This wasn’t necessary in 1997 because those algorithms didn’t exist.

This is a ruling that would NOT negatively impact sites like Reddit or Tumblr, which don’t rely on recommendation algorithms to operate.

Supreme court cases like this operate in a very narrow scope. The question in this case is not “is section 230 legal?” or “are websites culpable for user content?” The question is “does a recommendation algorithm constitute an active promotion of third party content that moves a site from the role of host to the role of publisher?” This is very different from the question of good faith moderation that he discusses in the video, though he conflates the two.

If your website actively selects articles to post, you’re a publisher and liable for the articles you post. If you’re a user content-based site and not moderating at all, you’re a host. You’re not responsible for any of it. Section 230 says that if you attempt to moderate the user-generated content on your platform in good faith, which involves setting a TOS and trying your best to weed out content that violates the TOS, even if your moderation isn’t great, that doesn’t mean you’re endorsing something that you fail to remove.

Saying, “Since you liked this video about ISIS, we think you’d be interested in this video about how to build a bomb,” isn’t as active and intentional as choosing and publishing that video, but it’s also not as neutral as just failing to remove the video from your platform. Even if a human never made the decision to promote the material, the site’s AI did. That’s a big deal.

If this ruling was made, sites that currently rely on recommendation algorithms (YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, etc.) would have a choice: to massively rework their algorithm’s parameters for what gets promoted to do a better job of weeding out content that violates the TOS…. or to stop using an algorithm. LegalEagle makes it sound like this would be IMPOSSIBLE, like this would kill all of those websites forever!! They just can’t work without an algorithm.

If you’re on Tumblr, you know that it IS possible to have a large user-generated site without a recommendation algorithm. You probably agree that it’s better. You choose what content to follow based on word-of-mouth recommendations and text searches. Nothing gets shoved in your face as an “WE THINK YOU’D BE INTERESTED IN…”

This ruling would be a huge blow to websites that use these algorithms to create a passive content-consumption audience. It would probably make the rest of the internet better, though. It would definitely strengthen platforms that prioritize user communities and active participation.

Some very wealth companies stand to lose a LOT of money if this ruling goes against them, and there is going to be a TON of astroturfing, propaganda, and misinformation campaigns out there telling you this will be the end of the internet forever. PLEASE be skeptical.

[tepperz]

#in case this gets longposted: please read the whole post. the addition at the end clarifies this doesn’t mean internet censorship.

#it means possibly shooting algorithms in the kneecap

^tags you can copy into your reblogs if you want to!

Also its worth noting that the REASON that these changes are being put forward is because of a legitimate act of terrorism that has happened in part by youtube’s algorithm promoting ISIS. It’s not a figurative – actual violence has happened. And it’s the affected families who are pushing for this modification!

[vexwerewolf]

Damn so the section 230 case isn’t a reason to panic. Finally, some good fucking news.

[lookcaitlin]

[oldguydoesstuff]

Wow, a rare Panafacom system! This machine had an MN1610 CPU, which was the first 16 bit microprocessor chip. Running at 2MHz too, kind of a beast for 1977.