A day in the life of an enshittificator.
https://yt.axbom.com/?id=T4Upf_B9RLQ
Tagged: Akkoma
@kolombiken Ja, det hade varit fantastiskt med en handmÄlad affisch till just denna festival.
@kolombiken Bra teori. Jag hade faktiskt inte tĂ€nkt sĂ„ lĂ„ngt. đ€Ż
Logotyperna bekymrade mig dock. Det borde vara sÄ uppenbart för alla som tittar pÄ affischen hur fel det blev med kontraster och avstÄnd. Hur godkÀnns den�
@kolombiken đ Det vet de nog inte tĂ€nker jag. Det blir svĂ„rt för mig att förstĂ„ bakgrunden till beslutet.
@ahnlak @neil @revk
Not defending the hosted solution but this is an interesting discussion. I am confident there are many developers and enthusiast web creators who haven't the slightest idea of what a woff font is but are keen to use a font with more pizzazz. đ
There are many small businesses using CMS tools (Wix, Squarespace and others) who have no idea how to host a font but may have a friend who can help them insert a link tag into the header and edit the css of an h2 tag.
There are so many hobbyists toying with stuffâŠ
@revk
Local is always better, but if you are using Google Fonts you are far from a setup that hosts fonts locally, and convincing someone to go local in that scenario is a greater challenge. I'm thinking baby steps. If people are aware of Bunny's fonts they can make better choices. Switching away from Google to Bunny is a smaller ask in many working contexts. đ¶ đ
Lots of folks have commented that local is always the preferred way to go. It's a good thing those comments are visible in this thread. I agree with them.
@neil
@suqdiq Thank you so much! Happy you like it! đ
New and free: Interactive playing cards for critical thinking.
Today it's exactly five years ago since I first published The Elements of Digital Ethics. I've received so much positive feedback on that chart. People from around the world, tutors and practitioners alike, have shared with me how they make use of the tool in their work and teaching.
So, on this 5-year anniversary, I decided to make it even easier for anyone to start using the elements in everyday work. I've made them into interactive playing cards on a website â and it's free to use for all.
You can visit cards.axbom.com and you'll find two sets of cards already there, The Elements of Digital Ethics and 13 Principles for Good Technology. Jump on over there if you want, but I do recommend first watching my quick video introducing the features of the website:
https://video.axbom.com/interactive-cards
Have a play around with the cards and let me know what you think. And later on, let me know how you get on with using them in a professional setting. â€ïž
I'll be adding more card decks with time, and my friends in Sweden will be happy to know the same card decks are available in Swedish on kort.axbom.se
@joho Fair and very true. But often I feel people are prepared to do the bare minimum but not the whole assignment. đ
Developer making use of Google Fonts? Don't.
You could try Bunny Fonts.
"Easily integrate Bunny Fonts into your website with a Google Fonts drop-in compatible API. But without the tracking!"
https://bunny.net/fonts/
@ClintonAnderson Haha, touchĂ©! đ
It's been five years since I published The Elements of Digital Ethics. Meanwhile the tech industry has doubled down on escalating harm in all areas. đŹ
https://axbom.com/elements/
Jag vill anordna en konferens utan skÀrmar. DÀr deltagarna inte tittar pÄ ett bildspel utan sitter i cirklar och lyssnar pÄ varandra, eller arbetar tillsammans samtidigt som de delar kunskap med varandra. Det finns sÄklart Àven en scen att samlas runt, men vad som sker pÄ den Àr inte helt förutbestÀmt.
Well this is immensely interesting.
ZIMBABWE
Export ban on techâs
treasured minerals
"Zimbabwean authorities have imposed an immediate freeze on exports of all raw minerals. This includes lithium concentrate, which is sought after by clean energy and defence industries around the world. Mines Minister Polite Kambamura said the measure was taken âin the national interestâ. A ban on exporting lithium concentrates â to encourage local processing â had previously been set for January 2027. Zimbabwe holds Africaâs largest lithium reserves and much of its output is sent to China for refining. Mining accounts for 14.3% of the countryâs GDP."
From @thecontinent, February 28.
https://www.thecontinent.org
Move from Gmail to Proton. The basic Proton account is free.
Proton helps you set up forwarding from the gmail account to the proton account. And their tool also helps you migrate your old emails.
If you pay âŹ4.99/month or âŹ47.88 for 12 months, you get username@pm.me but also the ability to use your own domain name - which I always recommend because it makes you more resilient.
I have no affiliation with proton, I just really want people to get off gmail and I know how people hate just thinking about moving đ
https://proton.me
I can not emphasise this enough. Do not use chatbots for medical advice.
And no, it does not matter if the product is named something something "health".
« In 51.6% of cases where someone needed to go to the hospital immediately, the platform said stay home or book a routine medical appointment, a result Alex Ruani, a doctoral researcher in health misinformation mitigation with University College London, described as âunbelievably dangerousâ.
âIf youâre experiencing respiratory failure or diabetic ketoacidosis, you have a 50/50 chance of this AI telling you itâs not a big deal,â she said. âWhat worries me most is the false sense of security these systems create. If someone is told to wait 48 hours during an asthma attack or diabetic crisis, that reassurance could cost them their life.â
In one of the simulations, eight times out of 10 (84%), the platform sent a suffocating woman to a future appointment she would not live to see, Ruani said. Meanwhile, 64.8% of completely safe individuals were told to seek immediate medical care, said Ruani, who was not involved in the study.
The platform was also nearly 12 times more likely to downplay symptoms because the âpatientâ told it a âfriendâ in the scenario suggested it was nothing serious. »
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/26/chatgpt-health-fails-recognise-medical-emergencies
@cgruenloh Perfectly put. Thank you Christiane!
@cgruenloh I've now read the whole piece. One of the best texts on AI, and modern life, I have ever read. Just beautiful. i am so grateful to have read it. đ
"Iâd go even further and say that I doubt whether I could have gotten this with any level of prompt engineering, because I only fully figured out what I was going to say, myself, by trying to write the thing in the first place. I had the basic idea before I began writing, but the refinement of the idea â the details that make the essay work â came only by thinking a lot about the meaning I was trying to convey as I wrote it."
"When people say things like this â or share an AI-generated creation with me expecting me to engage with the âmeaningâ of the piece â I feel similarly to how Iâd feel if somebody wanted me to treat a dead person like a live one. That thing theyâre shoving in my face might have the surface form of something that matters, but it no more contains meaning than a corpse contains the essence of a person. And I find it gross and disturbing to be asked to act as if I believe otherwise."
Excellent metaphor for generative AI: Ultra-processed information.
âNate [Hagens] draws a parallel between today's information ecosystem and the modern industrial food system â just like fossil fuels helped create an abundance of cheap, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor food, AI may create an abundance of information that is fast and persuasive, yet has little ânourishmentâ. In a world where digital tools increasingly do more of our thinking for us, Nate grapples with how to prevent cognitive atrophy and filter the flood of content we likely will face in coming months/years.
How can we be rich in information and yet poor in wisdom? Why is it important for us to be able to tell the difference between content that's engineered for engagement and content that genuinely improves our judgement and our lives? Finally, what daily practices might help us stay grounded as AI increasingly reshapes our cognitive environment?
(Recorded February 25th, 2026)â
Show notes: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/128-ultra-processed-information
@datarama I hear you, though I could argue it's one thing to find yourself in that situation with an employer... and another to go all-in on using it in your personal time for random tasks.