Reposted by kimBen Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 14/02/2026The "AI revolution" in science is going so smoothly that my instititutional library is having to deploy multiple technical protection measures against "poorly behaved Gen AI crawling" just to maintain its timely service library.ed.ac.uk/research-sup... 224397
Reposted by kimNorm DePlume @normdeplume.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Hannah Arendt did not mince words, did she? 'Totalitarianism replaces all first-rate talents with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.' From "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951) 7890349
Reposted by kimlauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 20/01/2026we're getting all the downsides of cyberpunk (social alienation, ruthless hyper capitalism, digital mass surveillance state) but none of the promised upsides (cheap street food, cool jackets, super drugs that make you really fast and strong before they kill you) 24993832240
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 20/01/2026I've done my familial duty by turning motion smoothing off on the elders' TV before starting the new agatha christie 010
Reposted by kimClaire Knowles @cgknowles.bsky.social · 09/01/2026At the University of Leeds, we are seeking a dynamic and highly skilled Lead Engineer to lead a project development team for Digital Library services, to support digital access to the Libraries’ Cultural Collections? It is a fantastic opportunity: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...jobs.leeds.ac.ukJob Opportunity at University of Leeds: Lead Engineer (Digital Library)The interviews will be held on the 12 February 2026This role will be based on the university campus with scope for it to be undertaken in a hybrid manner. We are also open to discussing flexible worki... 099
Reposted by kimSeva @seva.bsky.social · 01/01/2026Jan 1: this is the year of new Me Jan 12: [eating shredded cheese directly from the bag] new years resolutions are a bourgeois construct for disciplining bodies into productive units for capital 3353971170
Reposted by kimAvdi Grimm @avdi.codes · 19/12/2025Testing server-rendered HTML: Make a request, look at the result. Testing React et al: Make a request. Receive HTML. Ignore it! It also contains a string. The string is attached to a bird The bird speaks latin Find an antiquities professor He can distract the bird While you build a fake browser 826027
Reposted by kimEddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Genuinely great work from the university libraries across Australia and New Zealand to get this deal. Getting all these companies - especially Elsevier - too shift on pricing and access is a huge acheivement. 17120
Reposted by kimAndrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 15/12/2025Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things 13039551264
Reposted by kimlauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 11/12/2025generational discourse can be solved once and for all by distinguishing between "remembers no computers", "remembers no personal computers", and "remembers no cell phones". everything before that fought in wars. everything after that is, best case scenario, inventing the borg 421130115
Reposted by kimlauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 08/12/2025okay, yes, it's now dark at 4:30. but at least all the fresh produce also tastes worse 1871040
Reposted by kimBelinda Barnet @manjusrii.bsky.social · 15/11/2025The irony here is that academics don’t just write the articles for free—we also referee and edit for them for free. Something is deeply broken. “New Zealand's eight universities spent $30-million a year on journal licences and about half of that sum went to Elsevier. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...rnz.co.nzUniversities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher ElsevierOne New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year. 11335117
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 14/11/2025didn't know i would laugh so much watching ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. also convinced matt berry wrote most of the character names 010
Reposted by kimTania Roxborogh @taniaroxborogh.bsky.social · 07/11/2025😭 Moe mai rā e te manukura, e tā mātou kaiarataki ka aroha ana ki tōna whānau pani www.teaonews.co.nz/2025/11/07/l...teaonews.co.nzLee Tamahori, trailblazing Māori filmmaker, dies aged 75Renowned filmmaker Lee Tamahori, whose work helped define Māori storytelling on screen and propelled New Zealand cinema onto the world stage, has died. 03813
Reposted by kimAmy Westervelt @amywestervelt.bsky.social · 27/10/2025A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 8428431013
Reposted by kimaethylred.bsky.social @aethylred.bsky.social · 24/10/2025It’s Labour Weekend in Aotearoa, where we celebrate Samual Duncan Parnell, unions, and the Labour movement (no, not the party) for getting us the 8hr work day and the weekend. By striking. Big time. nzhistory.govt.nz/people/samue...nzhistory.govt.nzSamuel Parnell | NZ HistoryLabour Day, a public holiday in New Zealand since 1900, is a suitable occasion to pay tribute to Samuel Parnell, who achieved fame as the founder of the eight-hour working day in New Zealand. 1247
Reposted by kimInternet Archive @archive.org · 22/10/2025Happy Internet Archive Day! Join us tonight—online or IRL—for The Web We’ve Built! If you visit the Archive in person, grab a free copy of Sir Tim Berners-Lee's new book THIS IS FOR EVERYONE from our BIG Free Library! 🎟️ ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/10/22/h... #Wayback1T 4460110
Reposted by kimLuca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 19/09/2025I know a fae trap when I see one 6545621325
Reposted by kimqntm @qntm.org · 07/09/2025ME, IN TEARS: you can't just say every single part of a computer system is a file UNIX, POINTING AT THE MOUSE: file 392325506
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 30/08/2025I like arch, but I'm not a huge fan of constantly installing new flaky versions of nvidia drivers when I `-Syu` (actually, maybe my real problem should be with nvidia's lack of open drivers / decent linux support...) 120
Reposted by kimDavid Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 21/08/2025I think it says a lot about NZ's Green Party being environment/ecosystem/science based rather than some of the cultural trends in other countries, that the Green Party had the fewest voters who had never had a covid vaccination 0.34%. 32.5% of NZ First voters say they never had a covid vaccination. 1225089
Reposted by kimCool Hand Fluke @nzrossvideo.bsky.social · 04/08/2025I see they’ve given up on calling him associate minister. 03412
Reposted by kimkim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 31/07/2025So FSU got one board member into #InternetNZ (following their big membership flood) but the rest of us got Dylan Reeve which is nice, and every member motion was "not carried" (2/3 majority needed). 12 of those 15 motions were moved by team FSU. Membership has gone from 400 -> 4000 in 2025. 041
Reposted by kimKeith Ng @keithng.bsky.social · 31/07/2025The upshot here is that a) the FSU block had ~1000 out of 2800 votes, so not a big margin, but big enough, and b) it was definitely a FSU vs everyone else block - virtually all of Ayling's surplus votes went in the bin (ie. Ayling voters didn't rank anyone aside from Ayling/Brown*) 1135
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 31/07/2025So FSU got one board member into #InternetNZ (following their big membership flood) but the rest of us got Dylan Reeve which is nice, and every member motion was "not carried" (2/3 majority needed). 12 of those 15 motions were moved by team FSU. Membership has gone from 400 -> 4000 in 2025. 041
Reposted by kimByron C Clark @byroncclark.bsky.social · 31/07/2025If you joined InternetNZ to help stop the takeover by rhe FSU and Hobson's Pledge, you've done some great work tonight Consider bringing that energy to other civil society organisations, groups like Voices for Freedom are also trying to take advantage of low participation to push their agenda 324365
Reposted by kimSeamus Blackley @seamus.bsky.social · 29/07/2025The person who wrote this simultaneously demonstrates a deep lack of understanding and also an extraordinary deficit of seriousness in a very remarkably small number of words. 381811279
Reposted by kimweeder @weeder.bsky.social · 26/07/2025"I've been reading less political news lately" I say, mentally noting your over-medium egg order as typically centrist 424324
Reposted by kimIndependent Media Australia. @indymediaaus.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2025Why Lenin’s imperialism is still relevant www.greenleft.org.au/content/why-le… #Auspolgreenleft.org.auWhy Lenin’s imperialism is still relevantIn the first part of this interview with Green Left’s Federico Fuentes, veteran Filipino socialist activist Rasti Delizo discusses the ongoing relevance of Vladimir Lenin’s concept of imperialism. 065
Reposted by kimDr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 18/07/2025"i asked grok" "i asked chatgpt" yeah well i asked carl sagan and he said the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge 🧪 130224776670
Reposted by kimByron C Clark @byroncclark.bsky.social · 14/07/2025If you joined InternetNZ more than 3 months ago to help stop the hostile takeover of the NGO by the Free Speech Union and Hobsons Pledge, you will have received an email with a link and password to cast you vote. This is a good guide. Don't rank the FSU/Hobsons candidates at all, leave them blank 36438
Reposted by kimKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 13/07/2025There is no longer any doubt that Israel has set up a fake humanitarian organisation so it can kettle Gazans into a kill box and murder them en masse It is evil beyond description and in a decent world it would result in immediate, massive, global action to stop them and prosecute those responsibletheguardian.comDozens of Palestinians killed in latest Israeli attacks near food aid distribution site, medics and witnesses sayWitnesses describe people shot in head and torso near sites run by Israeli-backed US organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation 191522821
Reposted by kimthe Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 01/07/2025contrast younger self's fear of being put out to pasture with mature and wise self's deep yearning for the pasture 1677488
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 28/06/2025It is a scientific fact that in Berlin-Brandenburg, no matter how far into nature you go, there will always be a half naked 50 year old dude blasting House or DnB on a Bluetooth speaker 020
Reposted by kimMichael Brown @jingajik.bsky.social · 25/06/2025Explanation of the intensive copyright assessment-clearance work that goes into making a serial available on NLNZ's Papers Past website - and a callout for information natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/a... 074
Reposted by kimTe Pāti Māori @tepaatimaori.bsky.social · 23/06/2025📣📣 Aotearoa, take a bow! 📣📣 🗣 Approximately 131,000 submissions made, 2nd highest ever after the Treaty Principles Bill. I puta te karanga, and Aotearoa, you answered. ❤️✊🏾💯 #NZPol #RSB #ToitūTeTiriti 826164
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 12/06/2025my train's digital boards and announcements are all busted so i'm being treated to proper human station announcements and stuff, quite nice 010
Reposted by kimJason Scott @textfiles.com · 11/06/2025And there you go. It would be poor form for me to rant. www.thepost.co.nz/culture/3607...thepost.co.nzNational Library to recycle 500,000 unused booksSome of the books include outdated travel guides to foreign countries, a work on thatching cottages in the Yorkshire style and another on concrete pouring techniques. 2274
Reposted by kimBerlin Swapfest @swapfest.berlin · 19/05/2025After the success of the first Berlin Swapfest we're happy to announce the date for the next: July 20th, 2025 at @c-base.org from 12:00 - 18:00 We're incredibly thankful to everyone who attended the last and we're excited for the next! Register to attend or reserve a table: www.swapfest.berlinswapfest.berlinBerlin Swapfest @ c-baseThe Berlin Swapfest is a place for people to buy, sell, and swap electronics, computer equipment, and tools. 074
kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Is academia.edu harvesting sandbox Datacite or ORCID data? I just an a really old test repository item "recommended" to me... it's never seen a production system. A couple of other random "researcher profile" sites seem to have dragged this old test item in from somewhere, too... 000
Reposted by kimGef the Toking Mongoose @geftokingmongoose.bsky.social · 24/04/2025if the hardcore band looks like this you are going to die in the pit 9975921211