9,195 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2020
    1. The basic intuition is described well by the Shipman & Marshall paper: users enter information in a mostly informal fashion, and then formalize only later in the task when appropriate formalisms become clear and also (more) immediately useful.

      Incremental formalism

      Users enter information in an informal fashion. They only formalize later when the appropriate formalism becomes clear and/or immediately useful.

    2. It’s important to notice something about these examples of synthesis representations: they go quite a bit further than simply grouping or associating things (though that is an important start). They have some kind of formal semantic structure (otherwise known as formality) that specifies what entities exist, and what kinds of relations exist between the entities. This formal structure isn’t just for show: it’s what enables the kind of synthesis that really powers significant knowledge work! Formal structures unlock powerful forms of reasoning like conceptual combination, analogy, and causal reasoning.

      Formalisms enable synthesis to happen.

    1. Replication begins

      Rolling circle replication overview

      Replication begins when the Rep protein, which is encoded on the plasmid (ORF A), recognizes a specific site on the plasmid (double-strand origin, or DSO) and catalyzes the nicking of one DNA strand. The Rep protein remains bound to the 5′ phosphate after the nicking action. The newly released 3′ hydroxyl on the opposite end serves as a primer for DNA synthesis. The host DNA polymerase uses the unnicked circular strand as a template, so that a single replication fork moves around a plasmid until it regenerates the DSO. A second copy of Rep protein catalyzes the cleavage of the newly formed DSO, effectively releasing a single stranded copy of the plasmid. In the absence of Rep, the replication fork continues to move around the template, forming a single stranded concatemer. The single strand origin (SSO), a non-coding element that forms extensive secondary structure, is required for synthesis of the lagging strand. SSO sequences vary considerably among different RCR plasmids, but are extremely important for robust replication of the plasmid in the cell [10]. Here we describe the engineering of the pWV01 RCR origin to create pBAV1K-T5, a very broad-host range expression vector.

    1. What's not obvious here is how the quotes nest. A C programmer reading this would expect the first and second double-quotes to be grouped together; and then the third and fourth. But that's not the case in Bash. Bash treats the double-quotes inside the command substitution as one pair, and the double-quotes outside the substitution as another pair.

      subshell > quotes

    1. Important caveat: in the combined expression, if the middle command has a non-zero exit status, then both the middle and the rightmost command end up getting executed.

      I don't think that is surprising, is it? Since && and || have the same order of precedence. So I think this is more of a clarification than a caveat.

      I think this is just because:

      a && b || c is equivalent to: (a && b) || c (so of course c gets evaluated if (a && b) is false (that if either a or b is false).

      I think they just mean, in this case:

      bedmap && mv || fail
      

      if mv fails, then fail still gets executed.

      Easier to see with a simpler example:

      ⟫ true && false || echo 'fail'
      fail
      
      ⟫ false && true || echo 'fail'
      fail
      

      Better example/explanation here: https://hyp.is/-foxmCVXEeuhnLM-le_R4w/mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls

      The caveat/mistake here is if you treat it / think that it is equivalent to if a then b else c. That is not the case if b has any chance of failing.

    1. When you email me, please include a minimal bash script that demonstrates the problem in the body of the email (not as an attachment). Also very clearly state what the desired output or effect should be, and what error or failure you are getting instead. You are much more likely to get a response if your script isn't some giant monster with obtuse identifiers that I would have to spend all afternoon parsing.
    1. In Rust, we use the "No New Rationale" rule, which says that the decision to merge (or not merge) an RFC is based only on rationale that was presented and debated in public. This avoids accidents where the community feels blindsided by a decision.
    2. I'd like to go with an RFC-based governance model (similar to Rust, Ember or Swift) that looks something like this: new features go through a public RFC that describes the motivation for the change, a detailed implementation description, a description on how to document or teach the change (for kpm, that would roughly be focused around how it affected the usual workflows), any drawbacks or alternatives, and any open questions that should be addressed before merging. the change is discussed until all of the relevant arguments have been debated and the arguments are starting to become repetitive (they "reach a steady state") the RFC goes into "final comment period", allowing people who weren't paying close attention to every proposal to have a chance to weigh in with new arguments. assuming no new arguments are presented, the RFC is merged by consensus of the core team and the feature is implemented. All changes, regardless of their source, go through this process, giving active community members who aren't on the core team an opportunity to participate directly in the future direction of the project. (both because of proposals they submit and ones from the core team that they contribute to)
    1. Reviewing pre-prints with hypothes.is?

      After conversion using the hypothes.is API tool: https://jonudell.info/h/CopyAnnotations/ , this annotation has been copied to a public annotation (which I subsequently edited).

      Drawback: you can only use it with one user log-in and on a single web domain (so you'd have to run it for every single article someone has reviewed).

      Original annotation (see in group—that one stays there, usefully!)

      This annotation should be private to the group only.

      Tags are permitted, they can be any free text.

    1. first-personal thought and language is irreducible to non-first-personal thought and language, and is essential to the explanation of action

      Is the author implying that, on a 'Referent' and 'Thought and Language' Grid, 'Referent" ("I" as Subject) as a content of the 'Thought and Language' ("My pants are on fire") calls for action enablement. Whereas 'Referent' ("Smith" as Subject) as content of the 'Thought and Language' ("Smith's pants are on fire") is not self-locating, for being non-first personal thought?

      == Two Lines of Thinking == (1) Smith's pants are on fire. He should put it out. (2) Smith's pants are on fire. He should put it out. I am Smith. Therefore, my pants are on fire. Therefore, I should put it out.

      == unless, I come to believe 'I = Smith', only then it calls for action. Unless and until, 'Smith' becomes first-personal in the mind, it is unable to self-locate.

    1. This is Sass based, and therefore doesn't require Svelte components

      Just because we could make Svelte wrapper components for each Material typography [thing], doesn't mean we should.

      Compare:

      • material-ui [react] did make wrapper components for typography.

        • But why did they? Is there a technical reason why they couldn't just do what svelte-material-ui did (as in, something technical that Svelte empowers/allows?), or did they just not consider it?
      • svelte-material-ui did not.

        • And they were probably wise to not do so. Just reuse the existing work from the Material team so that there's less work for you to keep in sync and less chance of divergence.
    1. If your Svelte components contain <style> tags, by default the compiler will add JavaScript that injects those styles into the page when the component is rendered. That's not ideal, because it adds weight to your JavaScript, prevents styles from being fetched in parallel with your code, and can even cause CSP violations. A better option is to extract the CSS into a separate file. Using the emitCss option as shown below would cause a virtual CSS file to be emitted for each Svelte component. The resulting file is then imported by the component, thus following the standard Webpack compilation flow.
    1. Frontend frameworks are a positive sum game! Svelte has no monopoly on the compiler paradigm either. Just like I think React is worth learning for the mental model it imparts, where UI is a (pure) function of state, I think the frontend framework-as-compiler paradigm is worth understanding. We're going to see a lot more of it because the tradeoffs are fantastic, to where it'll be a boring talking point before we know it.
    1. We all know that real business logic does not belong in the presentation layer, but what about simple presentation-oriented things like coloring alternate rows in table or marking the selected option in a <select> dropdown? It seems equally wrong to ask the controller/business logic code to compute these down to simple booleans in order to reduce the logic in the presentation template. This route just lead to polluting the business layer code with presentation-oriented logic.
  2. Oct 2020
    1. the azaleas

      My grandma used to grow these in our backyard, and I grew up anticipating their bloom, only to see them shrivel up and brown a couple weeks later...for the plant to stay alive, they must be vigorously pruned and cut back regularly...so this choice of flowers, I think, is pretty apt for the themes of youth/entering society/the fear of age.

    1. Please don't copy answers to multiple questions; this is the same as your answer to a similar question

      Why on earth not? There's nothing wrong with reusing the same answer if it can work for multiple questions. That's called being efficient. It would be stupid to write a new answer from scratch when you already have one that can work very well and fits the question very well.

    1. Library author here. I'm always fascinated by new ways people can invalidate my assumptions. I mean that in a sincerely positive way, as it results in learning.
    1. export const validationSchema = {
        field: {
          account: [Validators.required.validator, iban.validator, ibanBlackList],
          name: [Validators.required.validator],
          integerAmount: [
      

      Able to update this schema on the fly, with:

        React.useEffect(() => {
          getDisabledCountryIBANCollection().then(countries => {
            const newValidationSchema = {
              ...validationSchema,
              field: {
                ...validationSchema.field,
                account: [
                  ...validationSchema.field.account,
                  {
                    validator: countryBlackList,
                    customArgs: {
                      countries,
                    },
                  },
                ],
              },
            };
      
            formValidation.updateValidationSchema(newValidationSchema);
          });
        }, []);
      
    1. Use the same value that was submitted, which ensures that a 'change' is triggered even though the value itself doesn't change. Therefore, the same value gets validated again.

      Calling it "change" even though it didn't change is kind of cheating/abuse ... but I guess it's okay...??

        mutateValue([name], state, { changeValue }) {
          // change the value to the same value, thus
          // triggering a revalidation of the same value
          changeValue(state, name, value => value);
        }
      
    1. In agent-oriented programming the antonym is depender, though in general usage the common term dependent is used instead. There is no common language equivalent for dependee', however – other metaphors are used instead, such as parent/child. The circumlocutions “A depends on B” and “B is depended on by A” are much more common in general use than “A is the depender, B is the ' dependee ”.
    1. In the software industry we use "dependency" to refer to the relationship between two objects. We say "looking for dependents" for relationships to dependent things and "looking for dependencies" for relationships to prerequisite things, so it gets that connotation, but the literal meaning is the relationship itself, not the object. Finding a better word is exactly the point of the question
    1. Structural Racism as SDH: -Examples: 1) Home Health workers not eligible for paid leave causing disproportionate harm when injured 2) Nursing Home: SSA funded private long term care for the elderly and prohibited funding for institutions for AA individuals Laws 1) Often don't address root causes. For example, anti-discrimination laws legitimizes existing structures

    1. Human empathy in the perception of nature

      Many people seem to think that a universal conception of morality requires that we find moral principles that admit no exceptions. If, for instance, it is indeed wrong to lie, it must always be wrong to lie—and if one can find a single exception, any notion of moral truth must be abandoned. However, the existence of moral truth—that is, the connection between how we think and behave and our well-being—does not require defining morality in terms of unvarying moral precepts. Morality could be a lot like chess: some principles generally apply, but they might admit to essential exceptions. If you want to play good chess, a principle like “Do not lose your Queen” is almost always worth following. Nevertheless, it admits exceptions: sometimes sacrificing your Queen is a brilliant thing to do; occasionally, it is the only thing you can do. However, it remains a fact that from any position in a game of chess, there will be a range of objectively right moves and objectively bad ones. Suppose there are objective truths to be known about human well-being—if kindness, for instance. It is generally more conducive to happiness than cruelty is—then science should one day be able to make exact claims about which of our behaviors and uses of attention are morally right, which are neutral, and worth abandoning (Harris 2010).

      Harris, Sam. The Moral of Landscape. New York: Free Press, 2010.

    1. To silence circular dependencies warnings for let's say moment library use: // rollup.config.js import path from 'path' const onwarn = warning => { // Silence circular dependency warning for moment package if ( warning.code === 'CIRCULAR_DEPENDENCY' && !warning.importer.indexOf(path.normalize('node_modules/moment/src/lib/')) ) { return } console.warn(`(!) ${warning.message}`) }
    1. Handling all these requests costs us considerably: servers, bandwidth and human time spent analyzing traffic patterns and devising methods to limit or block excessive new request patterns. We would much rather use these assets elsewhere, for example improving the software and services needed by W3C and the Web Community.
  3. learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com
    1. For the law ofnature, like every law concerning men in this world, would befutile if no-one had power to enforce it and thereby preservethe innocent and restrain offenders

      agrees with Hobbes in that laws of nature need an enforcer- just instead says every man has this power

    1. You or the owner of your User Content still own the copyright in User Content sent to us, but by submitting User Content via the Services, you hereby grant us an unconditional irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable, perpetual worldwide licence to use, modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, publish and/or transmit, and/or distribute and to authorise other users of the Services and other third-parties to view, access, use, download, modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, publish and/or transmit your User Content in any format and on any platform, either now known or hereinafter invented.
    1. He took three paces—with the fourth he reached his goal,       

      Interesting depiction of the actual size of gods here. If Poseidon was this large, how large would other gods appear such as Zeus? Or even Cronus, as literature suggests he too has a physical form. Would gods be able to show their true form to humans? Or is this why Zeus often appears as other beings when interacting with mortals.

    1. // Make a HOC
      // This is not the only way to accomplish auto-save, but it does let us:
      // - Use built-in React lifecycle methods to listen for changes
      // - Maintain state of when we are submitting
      // - Render a message when submitting
      // - Pass in debounce and save props nicely
      export default props => (
        <FormSpy {...props} subscription={{ values: true }} component={AutoSave} />
      );
      
    1. Cognitive Presence “is the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse” (Community of Inquiry, n.d, para. 5). Video is often used as a unidirectional medium with information flowing from the expert or instructor to the learner. To move from transmission of content to construction of knowledge, tools such as Voice Thread (VoiceThread, 2016) support asynchronous conversation in a multimedia format.

      The author, Kendra Grant, is the Director of Professional Development and Learning for Quillsoft in Toronto Canada. Grant helps business succeed in education design and support. In this article Grant discusses how quickly the learning environment has changed through technological development. Grant explores the RAT Model, which guides instructors in the "use of technology to help transform instructional practice." Grant then examines the Community of Inquiry model, which seeks to create meaningful instruction through social, cognitive and teaching presence. Grant concludes by providing general principles for creating a positive video presence.

      Rating: 8/10

    1. 15 Fall Scenarios

      The authors, Edward J. Maloney and Joshua Kim, wrote a total of 15 articles describing various scenarios for the university learning environment during COVID-19. This article summarizes each of these more detailed plans including "normal" and moving the Fall term to the Spring. They also describe various learning models including HyFlex, modularity, virtual, and remote.

      Rating: 7/10

    1. Online learning, blended learning, flipped learning, hybrid learning, flexible learning, open learning and distance education are all terms that are often used inter-changeably, but there are significant differences in meaning. More importantly, these forms of education, once considered somewhat esoteric and out of the mainstream of conventional education, are increasingly taking on greater significance and in some cases becoming mainstream themselves. As teachers and instructors become more familiar and confident with online learning and new technologies, there will be more innovative methods developing all the time.

      The author, Anthony Bates, holds a BA in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. He holds over 40 years of teaching experience. In this chapter he proposes online learning is a mode of delivery versus a teaching method. In this chapter Bates compares teaching delivery methods, defines which mode students need, and weighs in on the choice between face-to-face and online teaching.

      Rating: 10/10

    1. I'm okay with an overall design that allows people to plugin the parts they need in order to be able to generically support a compile-to-javascript language, but to bake in support for one singular solution because its popular is simply bad engineering.
    2. One of the primary tasks of engineers is to minimize complexity. JSX changes such a fundamental part (syntax and semantics of the language) that the complexity bubbles up to everything it touches. Pretty much every pipeline tool I've had to work with has become far more complex than necessary because of JSX. It affects AST parsers, it affects linters, it affects code coverage, it affects build systems. That tons and tons of additional code that I now need to wade through and mentally parse and ignore whenever I need to debug or want to contribute to a library that adds JSX support.
    3. If the react cargo cult didn't have the JSX cowpath paved for them and acclimated to describing their app interface with vanilla javascript, they'd cargo cult around that. It's really about the path of least resistance and familiarity.

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    1. In the next major, we'll start copying the ref onto both the props and the element.ref. React will now use the props.ref as the source of truth for forwardRef and classes and it will still create a shallow copy of props that excludes the ref in these cases. At the same time, we'll add a getter for element.ref in DEV that warns if you access it. The upgrade path is now to just access it off props if you need it from the element.
    1. they found that the glyoxylate and pyruvate reacted to make a range of compounds that included chemical analogues to all the intermediary products in the TCA cycle except for citric acid. Moreover, these products all formed in water within a single reaction vessel, at temperatures and pH conditions mild enough to be compatible with conditions on Earth.
    1. Lei, Simon A., et al. "Strategies for improving reading comprehension among college students." Reading Improvement, vol. 47, no. 1, Spring 2010, p. 30+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A221203907/AONE?u=azstatelibdev&sid=AONE&xid=6ed72e73. Accessed 12 Oct. 2020.

      Description: This article delves into the importance of comprehension and vocabulary for college level students. It outlines different tools students can use online to help them comprehend such as annotations and graphic organizers.

      Rating: 9/10

      Reasoning for the rating: This article uses many sources as it describes the methods to best comprehend complex texts. It also takes time to explain the importance of comprehension in English classes as well as outside. It supports each method with an example or explanation for the success of the model. Though it touches upon ineffective methods, it does not delve into why they fail.

    1. Description: Banner discusses the correlation between literacy blogs and reading comprehension in students. He outlines the relationship between socialization and motivation. Furthermore, he describes the steps a teacher can use to implement literature blogs in their classroom.

      Rating: 7/10

      Reason for the rating: Banner uses multiple sources to support his theories and methods. The examples given in the text are well-thought out, but focus on middle school and high school students. Additionally, the website "Emerging Ed Tech" is designed to be a space where educators can discuss how to integrate technology effectively in their classrooms.

  4. mdxjs.com mdxjs.com
    1. Sometimes, you may be tempted to write that wrapper. Because all your (React or Vue or insert your reactive framework here) instincts tell you so.Resist the temptation. There is a better way. A svelter way. Introducing: the use-directive (a.k.a. “actions”).
    1. Note how we have to duplicate the code between these two lifecycle methods in class. This is because in many cases we want to perform the same side effect regardless of whether the component just mounted, or if it has been updated. Conceptually, we want it to happen after every render — but React class components don’t have a method like this. We could extract a separate method but we would still have to call it in two places.
    1. In an initial conversation with a Facebook spokesperson, they stated that the company does “not provide creditworthiness services, nor is that a feature of Actionable Insights.” When asked if Actionable Insights facilitates the targeting of ads on the basis of creditworthiness, the spokesperson replied, “No, there isn’t an instance where this is used.” It’s difficult to reconcile this claim with the fact that Facebook’s own promotional materials tout how Actionable Insights can enable a company to do exactly this. Asked about this apparent inconsistency between what Facebook tells advertising partners and what it told The Intercept, the company declined to discuss the matter on the record,
    1. YouTube doesn’t give an exact recipe for virality. But in the race to one billion hours, a formula emerged: Outrage equals attention.

      Talk radio has had this formula for years and they've almost had to use it to drive any listenership as people left radio for television and other media.

      I can still remember the different "loudness" level of talk between Bill O'Reilly's primetime show on Fox News and the louder level on his radio show.

    2. A 2015 clip about vaccination from iHealthTube.com, a “natural health” YouTube channel, is one of the videos that now sports a small gray box.

      Does this box appear on the video itself? Apparently not...

      Examples:

      But nothing on the embedded version:

      A screengrab of what this looks like:

    3. When Wojcicki took over, in 2014, YouTube was a third of the way to the goal, she recalled in investor John Doerr’s 2018 book Measure What Matters.“They thought it would break the internet! But it seemed to me that such a clear and measurable objective would energize people, and I cheered them on,” Wojcicki told Doerr. “The billion hours of daily watch time gave our tech people a North Star.” By October, 2016, YouTube hit its goal.

      Obviously they took the easy route. You may need to measure what matters, but getting to that goal by any means necessary or using indefensible shortcuts is the fallacy here. They could have had that North Star, but it's the means they used by which to reach it that were wrong.

      This is another great example of tech ignoring basic ethics to get to a monetary goal. (Another good one is Marc Zuckerberg's "connecting people" mantra when what he should be is "connecting people for good" or "creating positive connections".

    4. The conundrum isn’t just that videos questioning the moon landing or the efficacy of vaccines are on YouTube. The massive “library,” generated by users with little editorial oversight, is bound to have untrue nonsense. Instead, YouTube’s problem is that it allows the nonsense to flourish. And, in some cases, through its powerful artificial intelligence system, it even provides the fuel that lets it spread.#lazy-img-336042387:before{padding-top:66.68334167083543%;}

      This is a great summation of the issue.

    1. Meta co-founder and CEO Sam Molyneux writes that “Going forward, our intent is not to profit from Meta’s data and capabilities; instead we aim to ensure they get to those who need them most, across sectors and as quickly as possible, for the benefit of the world.”

      Odd statement from a company that was just acquired by Facebook founder's CVI.

    1. Meanwhile, politicians from the two major political parties have been hammering these companies, albeit for completely different reasons. Some have been complaining about how these platforms have potentially allowed for foreign interference in our elections.3 3. A Conversation with Mark Warner: Russia, Facebook and the Trump Campaign, Radio IQ|WVTF Music (Apr. 6, 2018), https://www.wvtf.org/post/conversation-mark-warner-russia-facebook-and-trump-campaign#stream/0 (statement of Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.): “I first called out Facebook and some of the social media platforms in December of 2016. For the first six months, the companies just kind of blew off these allegations, but these proved to be true; that Russia used their social media platforms with fake accounts to spread false information, they paid for political advertising on their platforms. Facebook says those tactics are no longer allowed—that they've kicked this firm off their site, but I think they've got a lot of explaining to do.”). Others have complained about how they’ve been used to spread disinformation and propaganda.4 4. Nicholas Confessore & Matthew Rosenberg, Facebook Fallout Ruptures Democrats’ Longtime Alliance with Silicon Valley, N.Y. Times (Nov. 17, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/17/technology/facebook-democrats-congress.html (referencing statement by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.): “Mr. Tester, the departing chief of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, looked at social media companies like Facebook and saw propaganda platforms that could cost his party the 2018 elections, according to two congressional aides. If Russian agents mounted a disinformation campaign like the one that had just helped elect Mr. Trump, he told Mr. Schumer, ‘we will lose every seat.’”). Some have charged that the platforms are just too powerful.5 5. Julia Carrie Wong, #Breaking Up Big Tech: Elizabeth Warren Says Facebook Just Proved Her Point, The Guardian (Mar. 11, 2019), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/11/elizabeth-warren-facebook-ads-break-up-big-tech (statement of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)) (“Curious why I think FB has too much power? Let's start with their ability to shut down a debate over whether FB has too much power. Thanks for restoring my posts. But I want a social media marketplace that isn't dominated by a single censor. #BreakUpBigTech.”). Others have called attention to inappropriate account and content takedowns,6 6. Jessica Guynn, Ted Cruz Threatens to Regulate Facebook, Google and Twitter Over Charges of Anti-Conservative Bias, USA Today (Apr. 10, 2019), https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/10/ted-cruz-threatens-regulate-facebook-twitter-over-alleged-bias/3423095002/ (statement of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)) (“What makes the threat of political censorship so problematic is the lack of transparency, the invisibility, the ability for a handful of giant tech companies to decide if a particular speaker is disfavored.”). while some have argued that the attempts to moderate discriminate against certain political viewpoints.

      Most of these problems can all fall under the subheading of the problems that result when social media platforms algorithmically push or accelerate content on their platforms. An individual with an extreme view can publish a piece of vile or disruptive content and because it's inflammatory the silos promote it which provides even more eyeballs and the acceleration becomes a positive feedback loop. As a result the social silo benefits from engagement for advertising purposes, but the community and the commons are irreparably harmed.

      If this one piece were removed, then the commons would be much healthier, fringe ideas and abuse that are abhorrent to most would be removed, and the broader democratic views of the "masses" (good or bad) would prevail. Without the algorithmic push of fringe ideas, that sort of content would be marginalized in the same way we want our inane content like this morning's coffee or today's lunch marginalized.

      To analogize it, we've provided social media machine guns to the most vile and fringe members of our society and the social platforms are helping them drag the rest of us down.

      If all ideas and content were provided the same linear, non-promotion we would all be much better off, and we wouldn't have the need for as much human curation.

    2. It would allow end users to determine their own tolerances for different types of speech but make it much easier for most people to avoid the most problematic speech, without silencing anyone entirely or having the platforms themselves make the decisions about who is allowed to speak.

      But platforms are making huge decisions about who is allowed to speak. While they're generally allowing everyone to have a voice, they're also very subtly privileging many voices over others. While they're providing space for even the least among us to have a voice, they're making far too many of the worst and most powerful among us logarithmic-ally louder.

      It's not broadly obvious, but their algorithms are plainly handing massive megaphones to people who society broadly thinks shouldn't have a voice at all. These megaphones come in the algorithmic amplification of fringe ideas which accelerate them into the broader public discourse toward the aim of these platforms getting more engagement and therefore more eyeballs for their advertising and surveillance capitalism ends.

      The issue we ought to be looking at is the dynamic range between people and the messages they're able to send through social platforms.

      We could also analogize this to the voting situation in the United States. When we disadvantage the poor, disabled, differently abled, or marginalized people from voting while simultaneously giving the uber-rich outsized influence because of what they're able to buy, we're imposing the same sorts of problems. Social media is just able to do this at an even larger scale and magnify the effects to make their harms more obvious.

      If I follow 5,000 people on social media and one of them is a racist-policy-supporting, white nationalist president, those messages will get drowned out because I can only consume so much content. But when the algorithm consistently pushes that content to the top of my feed and attention, it is only going to accelerate it and create more harm. If I get a linear presentation of the content, then I'd have to actively search that content out for it to cause me that sort of harm.

    1. A spokeswoman for Summit said in an e-mail, “We only use information for educational purposes. There are no exceptions to this.” She added, “Facebook plays no role in the Summit Learning Program and has no access to any student data.”

      As if Facebook needed it. The fact that this statement is made sort of goes to papering over the idea that Summit itself wouldn't necessarily do something as nefarious or worse with it than Facebook might.

    1. Having low scores posted for all coworkers to see was “very embarrassing,” said Steph Buja, who recently left her job as a server at a Chili’s in Massachusetts. But that’s not the only way customers — perhaps inadvertently — use the tablets to humiliate waitstaff. One diner at Buja’s Chili’s used Ziosk to comment, “our waitress has small boobs.”According to other servers working in Ziosk environments, this isn’t a rare occurrence.

      This is outright sexual harrassment and appears to be actively creating a hostile work environment. I could easily see a class action against large chains and/or against the app maker themselves. Aggregating the data and using it in a smart way is fine, but I suspect no one in the chain is actively thinking about what they're doing, they're just selling an idea down the line.

      The maker of the app should be doing a far better job of filtering this kind of crap out and aggregating the data in a smarter way and providing a better output since the major chains they're selling it to don't seem to be capable of processing and disseminating what they're collecting.

    2. Systems like Ziosk and Presto allow customers to channel frustrations that would otherwise end up on public platforms like Yelp — which can make or break a restaurant — into a closed system that the restaurant controls.

      I like that they're trying to own and control their own data, but it seems like they've relied on a third party company to do most of the thinking for them and they're not actually using the data they're gathering in the proper ways. This is just painfully deplorable.

    1. I literally couldn’t remember when I’d last looked at my RSS subscriptions. On the surface, that might seem like a win: Instead of painstakingly curating my own incoming news, I can effortlessly find an endless supply of interesting, worthwhile content that the algorithm finds for me. The problem, of course, is that the algorithm isn’t neutral: It’s the embodiment of Facebook and Twitter’s technology, data analysis, and most crucial, business model. By relying on the algorithm, instead of on tags and RSS, I’m letting an army of web developers, business strategists, data scientists, and advertisers determine what gets my attention. I’m leaving myself vulnerable to misinformation, and manipulation, and giving up my power of self-determination.