@amiya_rbehera

Is it possible to find out how many Indian journalists have joined ActivityPub based Fediverse and are active?

#ActivityPub, #Fediverse #Mastodon #MastIndia #MastodonIndians #India #Journalist

@amiya_rbehera

When you refer Mastodon, I guess you mean ActivityPub based Fediverse with diverse software platforms.

I am replying to your post from an Akkoma instance.

#ActivityPub, #Fediverse #Mastodon #Akkoma

cc: @srijit

Climate change is about saving the humanity and the corresponding ecosystem so that we people are saved. It is not about saving the planet which will change and continue. It is all about us.

#ClimateChange #CimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis

Reference: Climate change isn’t about saving the planet: It’s about saving the people

Bullshit and AI Chatbots

To understand that Bullshit is far more dangerous than lying one must read On Bullshit. Bullshit is distinct from lying.

The author Harry G. Frankfurt argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all. Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. Bullshit is definitely a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

After using extensively large language model based general purpose AI Chatbots for Kannada language to Bengali language translations, I agree with Cory Doctorow when he says the following.

“ChatGPT can take over a lot of tasks that, broadly speaking, boil down to “bullshitting.” It can write legal threats. If you need 2,000 words about “the first time I ate an egg” to go over your omelette recipe in order to make a search engine surface it, a chatbot’s got you. Looking to flood a review site with praise about your business, or complaints about your competitors? Easy. Letters of reference? No problem.”

“Bullshit begets bullshit, because no one wants to be bullshitted. In the bullshit wars, chatbots are weapons of mass destruction. None of this prose is good, none of it is really socially useful, but there’s demand for it. Ironically, the more bullshit there is, the more bullshit filters there are, and this requires still more bullshit to overcome it.”

One must be extremely cautious to constantly monitor the output of large language model based general purpose AI Chatbots using the paradigm Zero Trust Information similar to that of Zero Trust Networking. There no better alternative as on today. The results of these large language model based general purpose AI Chatbots can be precariously misleading. However, there is no doubt that AI Chatbots are technological feats.

#Bullshit #Chatbots #LLM #ZeroTrustIInformarion #AI #OpenAI #ChatGPT #LargeLanguageModels #GoogleBard

cc: @srijit

@vijay40 @Deus @mastodonindians

IMHO Signal App is a better alternative to WhatsApp.

cc: @signalapp

বাংলা ক্যালেন্ডার অনুযায়ী আজ সোমবার বিশ্বকর্মা পূজা। শেষ কত দশক আগে আমি বিশ্বকর্মা পূজার সময় পশ্চিমবঙ্গে ছিলাম আমার মনে নেই। বেঙ্গলুরুতে এই পূজার প্রচলন নেই। এখানে আয়ুধা পূজা হয়। আমার কাছে আয়ুধা পূজার আচার-আচরণ অনেকটা বিশ্বকর্মা পূজার মতো যদিও দুটো পূজা সম্পূর্ণ আলাদা।

আমার অনেক দিনের ইচ্ছে একবার বিশ্বকর্মা পূজার সময় পশ্চিমবঙ্গে থাকা। অনেক ছেলেবেলার স্মৃতি জড়িয়ে এই বিশ্বকর্মা পূজার সঙ্গে। আমার মনে আছে এই দিনে পাড়ার মাইকে পূজার নতুন আধুনিক বাংলা গান শোনার সুযোগ হতো। বাড়িতে শুধু রেডিয়োর কোলকাতা ক আর বিবিধ ভারতী ভরসা। ওখানে ওই বছরের নতুন বাংলা গান আসতে অনেক সময় নিতো। শুধু আধুনিক বাংলা গান নয়, পূজার নতুন বাংলা সিনেমার গানও শুনতে পেতাম। ওইদিন আর পড়াশোনা হয়তো না। সারাদিন গান সোনা আর সন্ধ্যেবেলায় পর্দা টাঙিয়ে ১৬ মিমি প্রজেক্টরে দু-একজন বন্ধুর সঙ্গে থেকে পুরানো বাংলা সিনেমা দেখা।

এই বিশ্বকর্মা পূজায় আমি সেইসময়ের সুপারহিট বাংলা সিনেমা শক্তি সামন্ত পরিচালিত অমিতাভ বচ্চন এবং রাখি গুলজার অভিনীত “অনুসন্ধান” ছবির গান প্রথম শুনি। কোন একবার পর্দা টাঙিয়ে ১৬ মিমি প্রজেক্টরে উত্তমকুমার এবং সৌমিত্র চট্টোপাধ্যায় অভিনীত “স্ত্রী“ ছবিটা পুরোটাই আমি দাড়িয়ে-দাড়িয়ে দেখি। বসার ব্যবস্থা ছিলো না। খুব সম্ভবত কিশোরকুমারের “আমার পূজার ফুল ভালোবাসা হয়ে গেছে” গানটাও বিশ্বকর্মা পূজার মাইকে প্রথম শুনি।

#Bengali #Bangla #VishwakarmaPuja
@bengali_convo

@amiya_rbehera

Instead of first attempting to find people in Mastodon, Hashtags can provide a more effective solution.

Hashtags democratize posts in Fediverse. You may refer to my post titled Why Hashtags are important for Fediverse?

Since hashtags are key to Fediverse, I suggest that one can prioritize following hashtags along with people. This gives an opportunity to a quality post from a new member of Fediverse (without any followers) to be visible.

It also means that while posting, one has to mention the hashtags explicitly. I see an opportunity here to develop Fediverse smart clients to suggest appropriate Hashtags while posting.

Unfortunately, I see a decline in applying Hashtags. Now Mastodon 4.2 has a “Public profile” section under “Preferences” where options to “Feature profile and posts in discovery algorithms”, “Include public posts in search results” (of Mastodon) and “Include profile page in search engines” (google, Bing etc.) are available. If these options are enabled, then usage of Hashtags may further reduce. This is a concern since all ActivityPub based platforms may not follow the approach of Mastodon.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Search #ActivityPub #Hashtags #Hashtag

@amiya_rbehera

“Use cash as much as you can. Stop using UPI.”

It is usually not possible to offer the exact amount of cash after purchase of goods or services. The problem is using cash in Bengaluru and in other cities of India, is getting back cash as change. For example, three wheeler passenger ferry services on road (popularly called “autos” in Bengaluru) are notorious for not having cash as change.

In addition to ensuring privacy, usage of cash will minimize unplanned expenditure or binge spending.

#DigitalIndia #Cash #Privacy

@atomicpoet

The Fediverse is not a replica, but rather a true trailblazer. We are all early adopters of this remarkable technology.

With more than one billion posts from nearly 13.5 million accounts across 25.6K active instances, I wonder who can conclude that ActivityPub based Fediverse can imitate an existing software infrastructure that connects people.

October

Through the movie October was released in 2018, I heard the song चल (Chal - come or let’s go) on FM Radio recently. A few lines immediately touched my inner chords. The song got over and I moved on. Then, much later, on an exhausted Friday evening those feelings reverberated in my mind again. Since I could not recall the lyrics properly, it took me quite a while to trace the song and the movie. This time I got completely immersed and listened to the song several times. Then I watched the movie October which left a lasting impression in my mind.

If I ever get a chance to meet the director Shoojit Sircar, I will thank him for crafting a nice and sensitive movie in an unconventional format with stellar performances and without any melodrama.

I suggest that, if feasible, this movie October may be watched in Amazon Prime. The language will not matter due to good quality English subtitles.

The song चल (Chal - come or let’s go) is a beautiful expression of hope and unconditional bondage between two human beings. It is a reminder that even the tiniest moments can be wonderful, and that we should always treasure the time we spend with the seemingly insignificant things about which we care and with the people we love.

I am copying and pasting a portion of the lyrics below.

चल छोटी छोटी सीली
शामें जी ले चल
चल आधी आधी थोड़ी
झूठी चाय पी ले चल
चल थोड़ी सी हैं मेरी सांसें
दोनों जी लें चल

Life is short and the breaths are even shorter. It is worth to live the moments even by having a fake cup of tea together.

चल भीगी भीगी हवाओं के
साथी हो ले चल
चल हथेली पे बारिशों की
बूँदें तोले चल
चल थोड़ी सी हैं मेरी सांसें
दोनों जी लें चल

When life is short and breaths are even shorter, let us be the companion of the wet winds and live the moments by weighing the raindrops on our palms.

चल ठंडे ठंडे पानियों में
पांव डाले चल चल साहिलों पे माझी वाला
गाना गा ले चल
चल थोड़ी सी हैं मेरी सांसें
दोनों जी लें चल

When life is short and breaths are even shorter, let us cherish the smallest of the moments by dipping our feet in the cold water or by singing the fisherman’s song.

During the course of the movie October, we get to know that one of the lead characters was given a Bengali name Shiuli because of her fondness for the shiuli flower, which she loved collecting as a child with her grandfather. And aptly, throughout the movie, the viewer may experience the subtle fragrance of the flower shiuli.

The flower Jasmine is called শিউলি (Shiuli) in Bengali language. Every autumn (typically during October in India) the flower blooms during evening and the tree sheds the flowers in the wee hours. As I child, I used to wake up early morning, with my brother, to feel and collect the flowers, with a divine fragrance, in a basket. This was my annual routine for several years till the tree was chopped off. Very recently I got to know that it was due to the unavoidable menace of caterpillars.

Towards the end of this movie one of Tagore’s many brilliant compositions “আমার রাত পোহালো শারদ প্রাতে” (My night has ended with the dawn of autumn) started lingering in my mind. In this song the flower শিউলি (Shiuli) renders the delicacy of nuance which portrays some aspects of the poignant emotions of this movie.

Here is a nice translation of song (translated by Ratna De)

My night has ended with the dawn of autumn
O flute, who should I leave you with
In your heart played the tunes
Strung with farewells and arrivals
During spring and autumn, at dawns and at nights
The words that stay secret in the heart
You had stolen them in songs
Its time is now over
Like the stars at the end of night
Let it perish with the death of the Shiuli

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India #Movie #Cinema #Unconditional #Love #Bondage

cc: @srijit

E-mail providers - which one to choose?

For an interesting compilation and analysis of email providers, you may click here.

cc: @srijit

In the article “I’ve Got Nothing to Hide” and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy, the author Daniel J. Solove argues that the nothing to hide argument, even in its strongest form, stems from certain faulty assumptions about privacy and its value. The author appropriately says the following.

“The problem, in short, is not with finding an answer to the question: “If you’ve got nothing to hide, then what do you have to fear?” The problem is in the very question itself.”
“The deeper problem with the nothing to hide argument is that it myopically views privacy as a form of concealment or secrecy.”

In this context I also quote a comment, as an interesting perspective, from a related discussion in Hackers News.

The problem with the “I’ve got nothing to hide” argument is it’s not “you” who decides what is “right” or “wrong”. The entity doing the “spying” determines what is right or wrong. “You” might think “x” is ok, however the “spying” entity may have the opposite view. And it is the “spying” entity’s opinion that matters, not yours, because it always them that have the power and authority in determining what is “right” or “wrong”. Moreover, definitions change on what is “right” or “wrong”.

#Rights #Privacy #HumanRights #PrivacyLaws #Freedom #FreedomofSpeech #RighttoPrivacy

cc: @srijit

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.“

~ Krishnamurti

cc: @srijit

“Without questions there are no answers. And without answers no truth, no progress, no future.”

~ Victor Canning

#Truth #Progress #Questions #Answers

cc: @srijit

@arinbasu1

Cory Doctorow’s article is interesting.

On the contrary, Paul Graham calls AI “the exact opposite of a solution in search of a problem”. AI “is turning out to be the missing piece in a large number of important, almost-completed puzzles,” said the Y Combinator co-founder.

I quote the following from the same article.

As it turns out, “every company, every individual, every business is a language business,” Brockman explained. “So if you can add a little bit of value in existing language workflows, then it will just be able to be adopted so broadly.”

Sam Altman was the President of Y Combinator which was co-founded by Paul Graham.

#OpenAI #AI #LLM

cc: @srijit

Aunindyo Chakravarty, former Senior Managing Editor, NDTV India & NDTV Profit, shares an interesting observation.

“India’s formally educated upper middle-class has a peculiar relationship with fake news. They know it is fake, but they still actively spread it, usually via WhatsApp. When confronted they withdraw into silence. Then they repeat the cycle, once again.”

#MastIndia #India #WhatsApp

cc: @srijit

@arinbasu1

LibreOffice supports pptx.

If you have to use a specific Microsoft PowerPoint template, then some luck is required to smoothly import the template in LibreOffice.

In war, truth is the first casualty.

~ Aeschylus, Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC)

#War #Truth

cc: @srijit

@shibaprasad

@shibaprasad

It means it is far enough that you don’t want to walk and it is not far enough for the auto/bike/cabs to accept the booking. Gets really frustrating at times!

Namma Yatri addresses and, mostly, solves this problem.

#Bengaluru #Bangalore #Ttansport #Auto #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians, @srijit