I wanted to block Google's shitty AI results. Ok it looks like I can add &udm=14 to the url to do that.

Let me just add a custom search engine in Firefox... oh wait apparently you can't add custom search engines anymore. You have to install an extension for that.

Ok I found an extension that does it but it makes Firefox say "search with [extension name]" instead of "search with Google" and the icon is different which is annoying.

Should be an easy fix, just download the extension's source and modify the manifest.json to name it "Google" and change the icon to Google's.

Alright now let's install it and... "This add-on could not be installed because it has not been verified." Wtf I have to sign my own add-ons just to use locally?

Fine whatever download the shitty npm program to sign the add-on (it downloaded 400 dependencies btw). Oh wait I need an API key to sign the add-on to use it locally. I'm not getting a fucking API key to run local code.

Oh good there's actually an about:config setting to disable add-on signing... and it doesn't work anymore.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Is there a good Firefox fork that undoes this bullshit but otherwise keeps up with the main codebase and isn't a pain to switch to?

RIP BOZO

The victim, G.H., is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who met Officer Rodney Vicknair of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) in May 2020 when she was just 14 years old, according to a copy of the lawsuit filed in a Louisiana federal court by her mother and obtained by Inside Edition Digital.

At the time, Vicknair had been dispatched to the scene of a sexual assault and took G.H. to a local children’s hospital so a rape kit could be performed, according to the suit.

Soon after the second rape Vicknair was arrested and later confessed to raping G.H. He died in prison earlier this year from a brain tumor, having served less than a year of his 14-year sentence.

🍻

There are places like internet archive that preserve things like videos, images, audios, books and programs, but I have not seen any website that preserves only cooking recipes, do you know of any?

ERWIN, Tenn. – Among the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and the countless stories of loss and hardship, one particular tragedy is under investigation after the deaths of several workers at a plastics company in East Tennessee.

Robert Jarvis, an employee at Impact Plastics in Erwin, is consumed by anger and frustration as he recalls the terrifying events of last week when several of his coworkers were swept away by floodwaters outside the plant. He recounts how he and his colleagues were forced to continue working despite the deteriorating weather conditions.

"We were all working and the power went out," he told FOX 39 in Greeneville. "I got a text … from another employee saying that the parking lot was flooded."

Panicked, he tried to move his car to higher ground, as the parking lot became submerged. Jarvis said there was only one way out – a narrow road that was quickly becoming blocked.

Jarvis said that despite his co-workers' pleas to be allowed to leave, they were told to stay put as other employees were reportedly trapped in the floodwaters outside.

"We were in panic mode," he said. "The water was coming up, and then we did what we had to survive. It was a guy in a 4x4 who came, picked a bunch of us up, and saved our lives, or we'd have been dead too."

A company spokesperson confirmed to FOX Weather that only two of the seven people missing in the flood have been located, with their bodies being recovered earlier this week. A third body was located Thursday, county officials said.

"It hurts knowing that they didn't make it, and I did," Jarvis said. "It just doesn't seem fair to me that they didn't make it."

I don't like the clickbait title at all -- Mastodon's clearly going to survive, at least for the forseeable future, and it wouldn't surprise me if it outlives Xitter.

Still, Mastodon is struggling; most of the people who checkd it out in the November 2022 surge (or the smaller June 2023 surge) didn't stick around, and numbers have been steadily declining for the last year. The author makes some good points, and some of the comments are excellent.

When you think of Android Automotive, you probably think of cars, EVs to be specific. But that’s not the only place the OS can be used, as KTM is now using Android Automotive OS on motorcycles.

I know "ghoul" is said a lot around here, but there needs to be a stronger word than "ghoul" for Stephen Miller.

I'd seen this clip before but didn't know what the man was saying; there's so much pain in the man's voice.

Back in the same ol' place again. Let's see how we do with the second go 'round.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri on Friday addressed the moderation issues that saw Instagram and Threads users losing access to their accounts, having posts disappear, and more, saying that the company “found mistakes” that it’s attributing to human moderators. The company did not initially blame faulty AI systems, as many believed would be the case.

In a post on Threads, Mosseri addressed the issue that has been plaguing the social platforms over the past several days, adding that the mistakes it’s found so far were due to content reviewers — people, not automated systems — “making calls without being provided the context on how conversations played out, which was a miss.”

His explanation doesn’t seem to fully account for the range of issues that users were experiencing, as some found their accounts erroneously labeled as belonging to a user under the age of 13, then disabled. It’s unclear how a human moderator would have made this assumption. In addition, according to a report by The Verge, even after a user submitted their ID to verify their age, their account still remained disabled.

archive (But really, if you're in the Southland please subscribe, they have consistently good/important articles)

SpaceX’s plans to launch more rockets from the California coast were rejected by a state commission this week, with some officials citing Elon Musk’s political posts on X and raising concerns about the billionaire’s labor record at his companies.

The plan to increase the number of rocket blasts into space up to 50 a year was rejected by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday despite assurances from Space Force and Air Force officials that they would increase efforts to monitor the effects that rocket launches have on nearby wildlife.

Among the issues raised were Musk’s decision to insert himself in the presidential race, his spreading of conspiracy theories, the labor record of his companies and derogatory comments he has made about the transgender community.

Military officials argue that launches by SpaceX, a leading contractor at Vandenberg Space Force Base, should be considered a federal activity because all of its launches benefit military objectives... As such, Space Force officials don’t have to obtain a permit or permission from the California Coastal Commission for rocket launches; they only need to reach an agreement to mitigate the effects.

But commissioners in recent months have questioned whether SpaceX launches, which carry private Starlink equipment on up to 87% of their flights, should be considered private activity.

Military officials have gone before the commission repeatedly this year to try to significantly increase the number of SpaceX launches, and officials said they plan to once again ask for another increase — for up to 100 annually — by early next year.

“Today’s vote hasn’t changed the [Department of the Air Force’s] or Vandenberg’s unwavering commitment to preserving the California coastline and the precious species that reside there,”

doodle by yours truly