Proofreader/copy editor. Ex-bookseller, voracious reader, music fan, talker, amateur photographer, amateur drinker. The Doctor calls me 'Local Knowledge'.
Aberdare, Wales
Joined October 2013
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Going to be retweeting this regularly, don't worry. โ at Aberdare, Wales
The Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre was built using public money. Now the government plans to sell it off during a pandemic.
This has to be stopped. Sign this petition to tell @KwasiKwarteng to stop the Vaccine Manufacturing Centre sell off๐ weownit.org.uk/act-now/stop-โฆ
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
A portable music playing device that did nothing but play music, that you only had to pay for once, that worked perfectly with or without wifi, that was an unambiguous upgrade over what came before it with no drawbacks, that never ever made you listen to commercials between songs
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
Privatisation of British Library:
To be asset stripped, destroyed like water companies & Royal Mail:
BL management will close reading rooms, converting them into paid, private spaces operated by commercial company.
They propose outsourcing in-house security.
Stop this rip-off.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
๐ข๐ก ๐ง๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐ฌ:ย Wales's first ski lift was opened in May 1956, offering skiers a trip to the top of Pen-y-Fan. Sadly, there was never much snow around so skiers would have to come back down on the ski lift again and the operation was closed down in June 1956.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
9 Nov is called Germany's Schicksalstag, Day of Fate. It's the day of the Kaiser's abdication (1918), Hitler's Munich Putsch (1923), the Nazis' "Kristallnacht" pogrom (1938), the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). A good day to remember that democracy should'nt be taken for granted.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
If I upload a movie clip to YouTube, I get a copyright strike within hours.
If I burn a copy of an album for a friend, I'm a pirate.
But AI companies can feed millions of books, songs, articles, and photos into a model, and it's called "training."
The artists, writers, and photographers whose work went in weren't asked and weren't paid.
Courts are still sorting out whether that counts as fair use, and so far the rulings are mixed.
But watching it play out, I can't shake one question.
When an individual copies something, it's theft.
When a trillion-dollar company does it at scale, it's innovation.
Same material. Different size of bank account.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
I'm a commissioning editor and I'm up to the tits in AI-written submissions. They absolutely reek of laziness and stupidity. What's the point of wanting to be a writer but finding writing to be an inconvenience? I delete every one of them.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
On this day in 1839, thousands of Chartists marched through Newport, demanding greater political rights and representation.
Today, we remember those who lost their lives and all who fought for a more democratic society.
Their place in Welsh history will never be forgotten ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
Kenneth: I've come to make a complaint about your dog, he keeps burying things in my garden
Tony: Burying things? What?
Kenneth: Me!
Bill: This is terrible, when did he bury you?
Kenneth: Last week
Bill: Why didn't you complain earlier?
Kenneth: I've only just got out!
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Bristol became famed for dying cloth such a distinct shade of red that the hue became known as โnonesuch redโ and synonymous with the city.
The logo for the University of Bristol uses this red in tribute to its historic significance to Bristol.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
Google announcing that schools banning AI will also lose access to Google Search is a pretty good opportunity to teach the next generation that Google isnโt the internet and that there are plenty of alternatives to its platforms. Maybe itโs time schools started exploring them.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ช? In the late 1970s, Welsh council estates would compete to decide who could build the largest bonfires on Bonfire Night. Some were so large that they would burn until Christmas.
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
Mrs Crevatte: Have you been having models up here? Have there been naked women in my establishment?
Tony: Of course not, I can't afford 30 bob an hour. I did that from memory. That is women as I see 'em.
Mrs C: You poor man! Fancy knocking around with women like that!
#TheRebel
Julia Thorne ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ retweeted
There is no reason to connect freezers to the internet.
The idea that "tech everywhere is more efficient" is nonsense.
There are plenty of places it's positively harmful. Like here, for instance...
๐ฆHackers hit supermarket freezers again overnight, this time across Belgium, Sweden and a handful of other European countries. They remotely switched units into defrost mode and pushed them as high as 50ยฐC, ruining frozen stock at chains like Delhaize and Coop. Itโs the same kind of attack that hit about 700 stores in France three weeks ago. Many of the targeted controllers are old, internet-exposed models that no longer get security updates.
My Take
Hackers have moved past stolen passwords and into the physical world. Last year one attack shut Jaguar Land Roverโs factories for about five weeks, and now grocery freezers are fair game. Every system that went online to save on staff added another way in, and companies keep adding more, all the way down to AI agents that log into accounts for you. AI also makes the attackerโs job faster and cheaper, so I donโt see this slowing down.
Security turns into a cost every business pays one way or another, either upfront or after the disaster. I think the companies that kept a manual backup (someone who can walk over and check the freezer) look a lot smarter over the next few years.
Hedgie
