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Just 24% said they were satisfied with the NHS in 2023, with waiting times and staff shortages the biggest concerns.
That is five percentage points down on last year and a drop from the 2010 high of 70% satisfaction.
The poll - the gold-standard measure of the public’s view of the health service - has been running since 1983.
This is the result of an age-old strategy of making things progressively worse, with one aim —to privatise— and get the architects and their friends rich off the spoils. This is nation-level short selling on an industrial scale and should be illegal or, at the very least, highly regulated.
27 March 2024 — French West Indies
Burning the planet to a cinder is the answer to getting fans to buy your music?
This is such an extraordinarily bad take. Repeat after me: blockchain is not the answer.
26 March 2024 — French West Indies
I spent the weekend replacing an ageing Apple Airport wifi network with some fancy gear from Ubiquiti.
I should have done this ages ago, but I’m glad I waited for this generation of Wi-Fi device. The configuration options are much better than those in my previous kit.
18 March 2024 — French West Indies
So much of the Internet is now a Hobson’s choice, that we’ve lost what its purpose was.
7 March 2024 — French West Indies
Generative AI accountability
Should owners of GenAI machines be made responsible for their outputs?
I’m not sure whether I entirely agree with that statement, but I think a more nuanced interpretation could be considered for regulation or rules of use. Something like: If you can’t precisely describe how the algorithm produces its results in a methodological and repeatable manner, then perhaps you shouldn’t be operating them, and at the very least, you should be held responsible for their output.
These are not like search engines or social media platforms, despite the concerted effort to portray them as in the same category. The implication is that Section 230, therefore, shouldn’t apply.
TLDR: No one knows ‘how’ these systems work.
6 March 2024 — French West Indies
They say RSS died years ago, killed by Google.
Lol.
2 March 2024 — French West Indies
“FineWoven cases are junk, say majority, sharing photos of peeling and scratches.”
From 9to5Mac.
I’d argue that pretty much all of Apple’s recent accessories are junk these days. The quality and longevity have generally nosedived over the last few years.
Present Apple has changed from supplying quality equipment to extracting rents on services because it can no longer grow as it used to. On a finite planet, there’s only a finite number of people to sell stuff to. Shareholders are contributing to the decline of the very thing they believe they’re going to get rich from.
This is not another “Apple is doomed” post, but it is a waypoint in the history and direction the company has chosen.
26 February 2024 — French West Indies
Welcome Back
This is the first post of a completely new blog based on the old blog that used to reside here.
I recently went through a complete overhaul of all my writing into one site, consolidating everything in one place. After an arduous migration of data and a failed attempt at using a popular platform, I decided on Micro.blog (MB) as my new home.
MB allowed me to easily and quickly create a blog and a newsletter and cross-post to a bunch of other sites like Mastodon and LinkedIn, to name a couple, for $10 per month. Excellent value as far as I’m concerned.
In theory, the idea was reasonable, but I quickly stumbled upon one of the issues of our technological times: the separation of professional and personal blogs and miscellanea. I found that I’d put in place a professionally oriented site in terms of content, and it stifled the outlet for personal thoughts and reflections on the world I live in. I had previously used separate platforms to achieve this, resulting in extra costs. Then something changed.
I feel like I have totally lucked out (in?) when I chose MB, specifically the Premium plan. If you’ve popped in here recently, you’ll have fallen on a link list aimed at linking to the main site. This was available at no extra cost and was very useful. However, Manton Reece, the founder of MB, announced a change to the pricing model, allowing a Premium subscriber to run up to five separate full blogs at no extra cost. This is an incredible value, and it was this change that made me rethink that separation, and hence, this blog was (re)conceived.
For what it’s worth, I’ve decided to start from scratch and not migrate the old posts here. I might reflect on that and change my mind. I’m undecided currently. As I write this, I’m thinking it would be more coherent and allow me a little more freedom to post other things. We’ll see. That’s the beauty of these tools. We can mix and match and change things up as we see fit, particularly as it is a personal site with absolutely no monetisation or tracking whatsoever.
But that’s a can of worms for another day.
/French West Indies
Meta May Allow Instagram and Facebook Users in Europe to Pay to Avoid Ads
The subscription plan is a response to European Union policies and court rulings to restrict Meta’s data-collection practices.
I say go for it. We might find out what Social Networks are really worth then. I suspect not a lot.
2 September 2023 — French West Indies
Facebook/Meta and highly personalised ads in the EU
Highly personalised ads imply highly personalised data about you. Despite what Facebook/Meta and the intrusive advertising apologists say, collecting, storing and profile-building that information is a huge security risk to each and every individual on the internet. And yes, I know there have not been any “known” breaches reported, but known is doing a lot of lifting in that statement.
After more than five years of extensive litigation by noyb, the German Kartellamt and decisions by the EDPB and CJEU, it seems that Meta finally complies with EU privacy laws:
5 years of litigation: Meta apparently switches to consent for behavioral ads
Many think that policy advisors in the EU Commission develop policy ideas like they’re given in Christmas crackers. That couldn’t be further from the truth, as policy is shaped mainly by research and findings. And whether you agree or disagree with eventual legislation, the foundations of it are not some verbal fart of a career policy wonk with incentives to climb the greasy pole of EU politics.
Firstly, I’d like to point you to a document from the European Commission, the Study on the impact of recent developments in digital advertising on privacy, publishers and advertisers.
The Executive Summary lists many conclusions and observations, with one that is particularly interesting and not widely understood:
There is limited evidence to suggest that the efficiency and efficacy gains of advertising products that rely on personal data and profiling outweigh the interference with individuals’ fundamental rights and consumer rights in addition to the reported negative societal impacts. A large amount of academic research has focused on demonstrating that the way that digital advertising works today has significant impacts on privacy, data protection, democracy, society and the environment. However, there is a lack of independent analysis to assess the costs and benefits of using personal data and profiling in advertising.
And this:
Lack of transparency in digital advertising limits evidence-based decision-making because advertisers lack independent data to assess the performance of digital advertising. This strengthens the position of players with strong market power and deters advertisers from switching to emerging alternatives that are less intrusive, even though there is evidence that some advertisers would prefer to rely on models that minimise the processing of unnecessary personal data. More independent data about the performance of alternative models compared to the status quo is needed to encourage widespread adoption among advertisers and publishers.
The efficacy of online advertising has always been bullshit and a mechanism of wealth extraction from advertisers and targeted individuals alike. It is time to expose it for what it is —essentially a scam.
5 August 2023 — French West Indies
Digital Colonialism in action
We’ll just walk in here, do what we want and won’t ask permission. Look over there, free money!
“The Kenyan government has ordered cryptocurrency project Worldcoin to stop signing up new users, citing data privacy concerns.”
Any other global south countries should follow suit before this ill-advised scheme installs itself. Until some of the fundamental questions of security, safety and privacy are properly answered, this project should be shut down wherever it operates.
2 August 2023 — French West Indies
A world slowly going mad
The FT reports that Meta is about to introduce chatbots with different “personas” as a retention ploy.
Meta prepares chatbots with personas to try to retain users | Financial Times (paywalled)
What could possibly go wrong?
1 August 2023 — French West Indies
The Metaverse: Just around the corner (if the corner is a galactic-sized outer arm)
Mark Zuckerberg: Threads users down by more than a half - BBC News
“He said work on the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology that would power it was "not massively ahead of schedule, but on track", adding that he didn't anticipate it going mainstream until the next decade.”
Translation: Circling down the stained toilet.
Digital IDs and Shitcoins
Step 1: Create an AI that accelerates its adoption and forces the creation of AGI.
Step 2: Roll out an iris-scanning tool capturing the biometric identities of those least in a position to protect themselves in exchange for a small payout of some useless shitcoin.
Step 3: Argue that AGI is coming and, therefore, we need to protect our IDs from this monster, and the solution is … (see step 2)
Step 4: As a private company spread across the globe owning millions (if not billions) of digital IDs with virtually no protection (let's not even talk about cybersecurity - fsck me, this would be one hell of a juicy target) extract value by choking the poor for access to essential services and/or human rights.
This is digital colonialism and must be stopped.
Do not, I repeat, do not give your digital ID to this company. They cannot be trusted with that type of information.
BTW, the shitcoin will be exploited, and those that can least afford it will lose money at best. At worst… it might be much more than you think.
25 July 2023 — French West Indies
I’m a British subject not proud of it
From the Conversation:
In announcing the scheme, then home secretary Amber Rudd apologised for her government’s appalling treatment of the Windrush generation. People had suffered devastating harm. They had lost jobs and homes, and been deprived of healthcare. Many had been threatened with deportation. Some were deported to countries they had not visited since early childhood.
In the five years since, however, this scandal has only deepened.
Fucking disgraceful.
With thanks to UB40 for the headline.
4 June 2023 — French West Indies
Hallucinations are not limited only to GenAI, they are also the domain of its creators
During an onstage interview with Sam Altman with Azeem Azhar, as reported by the Verge:
“My basic model of the world is that the cost of intelligence and the cost of energy are the two limited inputs, sort of the two limiting reagents of the world. And if you can make those dramatically cheaper, dramatically more accessible, that does more to help poor people than rich people, frankly,” he said. “This technology will lift all of the world up.”
This is utter rubbish. The ones that will benefit the most from this technology will undoubtedly be those with the means to exploit it the most, continuing their tradition of wealth extraction from those with the least means.
This will lift the world’s average in precisely the same way that the co-passengers in a lift with Bill Gates are all billionaires… on average.
Take note, equally, of the “if”. That’s doing a LOT of heavy lifting.
Once last quip. You see how these people see the world as binary — rich people and poor people. This is how they fail to understand and hence, mitigate all that messy in-between stuff existent in practically any topic, be it race, food, politics, etc.
Seriously, who the fuck do these people think they are?
24 May 2023 — French West Indies
AI hallucinations
I should have linked to this article from Naomi Klein in the Gruaniad a while back.
AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are.
If you’re unfamiliar with Naomi Klein, I suggest reading No Logo. A journalist’s essay on marketing, brands and the coopting of “difference” to sell more stuff.1 Written in 2000 but is still relevant today, and in some respects more so.
24 May 2023 — French West Indies