@samuelwa.de
2.7K followers 1K following 690 posts
Vancouver-based editor at @chinadigitaltimes.net, a Berkeley-based nonprofit publishing news and translation about human rights and censorship in China. Knows changes aren't permanent, but change is. Will stand on the ocean until I start sinking.
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samuelwa.de
I spoke with @whiskeyocelot.bsky.social and @chinafile.bsky.social's Jessica Batke about their recent Locknet report, which provides a brilliant, concise, detailed but accessible overview of China's online censorship system.
chinadigitaltimes.net
Interview: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”

"Just because there are gaps, that doesn't mean the system as a whole is not effective. The human psychological component to this is that for most people, most of the time, as long as it's inconvenient, that's enough."
Interview: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”
In June, ChinaFile published a new report, "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters"—the product of 18 months’ work by Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigatio...
chinadigitaltimes.net
samuelwa.de
If you say "just works," they're allowed to get mad. This was clearly stipulated in the ceasefire agreement.

Strange sort of person who uses Alzheimer's as a punchline, though.
Reposted
leonenglish.bsky.social
Been thinking about this in the context of my elderly, member of her county Democratic Party aunt who the news managed to convince, in 2020, that antifa was a threat. You can't pull that off if half the people on the news are wearing cartoonish costumes and just hanging out.
golikehellmachine.com
the inflatable costume thing is an extremely smart tactic
golikehellmachine.com
my father (a retired white engineer who has been in oklahoma for 40 years) is my weathervane for what normal people who just watch the news periodically think, and he was like “so, they want to call the guard out on a bunch of kids wearing frog suits? is that true?”, the admin is losing the PR war
samuelwa.de
just a quick post
samuelwa.de
please consult relevant department

title that *really* matters

tank man survived actually

omg they have food
impavid.us
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
samuelwa.de
The bit before the fade-out is ferociously silly, but I'm sure that's just setting the scene for its later brilliance.
sallyjenx.bsky.social
This is really smart. Amazed at the hysteria over the ascendance of a woman entrepreneur who clearly knows how to cover and sell news and who's not afraid to take on a mob. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss
The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.
www.theatlantic.com
samuelwa.de
Got curious, looked him up, found him arguing that French people with tattoos is an example of American cultural influence. I guess all those guys in The Water Margin must have been big USA fans, too.
Reposted
camerondcampbell.blog
Last night the Didi car that I rode back to the hotel smelled terrible because of driver's BO. I was suffering in silence and then the Didi app that was giving navigation suddenly switched and said something like "Driver, open the windows and allow air to circulate." 1/3
Reposted
profjulietlu.bsky.social
A great group of China environment Scholars (Annah Zhu, Coraline Goron, and Kevin Lo) are putting together a proposal for a special issue on "China’s Role in a Global Just Transition: Contradictions, (Geo)Politics, and Alternative Futures"

Do consider submitting!
drive.google.com/file/d/1c9hE...
CfP for GEP SI on China's role in GJT.pdf
drive.google.com
samuelwa.de
Malkovich malkovich malkovich, malkovich Malkovich?
samuelwa.de
More or less stopped forgetting steps and having to start again now. Found myself twisting cubeless algorithms in the car earlier. Might start timing myself soon. Pray for me.
samuelwa.de
They should build shock contacts into the next-gen controllers.
samuelwa.de
As enthusiastic as I am for the fruits of the LED revolution, one definite downside is car headlights that could blow up Alderaan.
Reposted
jojjjajjr.bsky.social
Here’s my fork of #orca with vim bindings if anyone wants to try it. I’ve only tested it on macOS

github.com/johnmatter/O...
Reposted
aelkus.bsky.social
one single step that would do a lot to improve reputation of LLMs would be for Google to abandon AI Mode like they do with all of their other products
samuelwa.de
A man walks down the street, he says, "Why am I software in the middle now?"
scottbot.bsky.social
My life improved last year when I started pronouncing AI as the name Al (AL) in my head whenever I saw it. In case you need that.
samuelwa.de
(You have to fully refresh the page after switching to a non-UK IP address—it doesn't seem to reregister your location if you're just clicking around from page to page on the site.)
samuelwa.de
That's another issue—as far as I can tell there's no way to access it from the main Settings tab, only from the separate Settings at the top of the Chat tab. (But that, at least, is still accessible when it thinks you're in the UK.)
samuelwa.de
If you have to enforce ID verification for certain features, that's one thing, but there needs to be provision for people who'd rather go without it.
samuelwa.de
You should be able to work around it by disabling DMs and then faking location outside the UK with a trusted VPN in order to leave all existing conversations so they won't receive new messages, but that's much more of a pain than it should be, and I'm not even sure it'd stop new messages.
samuelwa.de
If I'm understanding this situation correctly, you can disable DMs, but
a) it doesn't apply to existing conversations, and
b) you can't end those conversations, because you can't access them without verifying.

Wonderful.
lillyh.bsky.social
Could whoever keeps sending me DMs on here please stop? I can see the notice, but I can't read them because I'm not sending any ID to the ridiculous people who run Bluesky.

You can still DM me on Masto, as they didn't go down that route.
samuelwa.de
A modern speedcube is incidentally a pretty great showcase of Chinese manufacturing. Night and day vs an official cube—vastly quicker, quieter, smoother, more stable, and often cheaper too. It got there because even a very niche product can affordably go through masses of iterations and refinements.
samuelwa.de
Only people who understand basic history. Niche audience anyway.