That's by Ian Wishart. He's a conservative christian climate change denier who runs a dodgy conspiracy magazine called Investigate which runs allegations about things like Muslim terrorists infiltrating NZ.

In other words you should probably independently verify all claims and images before believing them.

Mirroring may won't work for me due to a distinguishing mark but it sounds like one of those phone selfies with a huge nose would.

Hmm decisions decisions. On the one hand I'm against surveillance capitalism, on the other hand what's the bet that facial recognition tech improves exponentially and I'm stuck with identification that looks like Gollum for no purpose.

Sort of but I think influence over emotional states is understating it and just the tip of the iceberg. It also made it sound passive and accidental. The real problem will be overt control as a logical extension to the kinds of trade offs we already see people make about, for example data privacy. With the Replika fiasco I bet heaps of those people would have paid good money to get their virtual love interests de-"lobotomized".

I think I ran into the same problem with Libby until I installed Adobe digital and now I have to get Adobe to fetch the file then close it and import it. Bit of a rigmarole but worth it. Calibre lets you edit books as well which I like.

I get the impression that your starting point with the trial and error is light years ahead of mine though!

Thanks for the warning, it's a good point! But it should be all good - I don't like facial distortion, so my method of taking passport photos (or for any official-ish thing) involves setting up an old actual camera with a manual aperture and a tripod.

(I tend to do it myself cos other people get exasperated after about the 15th photo of me looking like a murderer.)

I do like the idea of being hard to surveil though! Didn't think about that aspect of selfie culture! But presumably if they're using photo matching to the previous passport having a distorted image would impact its chances of being accepted?

Oh I see that makes sense. Thanks! I think I was getting renewal and application mixed up.

Good, I remember it being easy-ish last time I renewed (which must have been when I signed up to RealMe hence the confusion). I remember being really surprised and happy they let me keep my old expired one because it was from back in the day and had stamps in it etc.

The only hassle was their insistance on not smiling which meant I took like 100 photos of myself to find one that didn't full on look like a mug shot of a serial killer.

Oh. Yeah if you're using library books, some of the e-platforms (but not all) insist that Adobe Digital Editions has to be present on your machine to let you download it in the first place. That's probably the hiccup.

That does sound like fun with Docker.

when it works

There's the rub! My problem (apart from resources) is no IT background so I lack a fundamental understanding. A blue screen of death takes me all afternoon to make a linux thumbdrive and boot in and fix everything very laboriously through trial and error and reading forums when it would probably take you 15 minutes tops. Between that and all the old tech it's like I'm in a cargo cult!

There seem to be way more options for Bookwyrm than last time I looked! but no NZ one.

Sci fi is among the genres I like and I have discoverability issues so would definitely be up for reading your list even if it is all 5 stars ha ha.

Libgen etc is like that one Chumbawama song but you definitely wouldn't want to do it in NZ jurisdiction. Things seem to be heating up with the society of authors getting all up in arms, and a disproportionate number of those guys are lawyers. Not sure what it is about being a lawyer that makes people write novels.

Thanks!

Just found this (orange website though) which I think must be what they were talking about, but I don't fully follow it.

Dug up my passport as well - needs renewal next year. So hopefully this smooth going continues and we don't get a bird flu pandemic! God I look young in that picture.

I really like RealMe, it's super convenient as a verification, especially for those of us with limited forms of ID (I can't actually leave the country these days but I need a passport because I also can't drive).

I did not know about libgourou, that sounds like a good tool.

Not up to speed with the new format but as far as I know, the Calibre situation is very simple, it strips DRM automatically while a book is being imported.

I side load everything onto an old kindle (from 2012, back before they nagged you about the Amazon store) so Calibre is perfect for me.

I'm always intrigued by all your server stuff though.

Ha yes remembering is what I've been using. I tried Goodreads but it always makes me feel like I need to write reviews and I don't want to.

Hate to think how many I read! I'm still traumatized by the time in middle school when they made us write books we had read on a wall chart.

I would totally peruse your bookwyrm/gr though, based on your rec so far!

I think we'd have to be careful about what we reposited (reposed?). Shadow libraries seem to be in the crosshairs at the moment including in NZ.

Trouble is your statement was in answer to @[email protected]'s comment that labeling lonely people as losers is problematic.

Also it still looks like you think people can only be lonely as a consequence of their own mistakes? Serious illness, neurodivergence, trauma, refugee status etc can all produce similar effects of loneliness in people who did nothing to "cause" it.

And Hastalavista if you wanted to find things that Altavista didn't.

That's really interesting. Its output to this prompt totally ignored the biggest and most obviously detrimental effect of this problem at scale.

Namely, emotional dependence will give AI's big tech company owners increased power over people.

It's not as if these concepts aren't widely discussed online, everything from Meta's emotional manipulation experiments or Cambridge Analytica through to the meltdowns Replika owners had over changes to the algorithm are relevant here.

That makes sense. Good, I am looking forward to this octopus book!

Do you use Calibre as your ebook manager too? 🙂

Awesome. Corvids seem like a solid choice.

I am still using... a very old bio-method to track my reading; it has worked up til now but as time goes by data loss is an increasing possibility so I should probably switch to tech. I think there might be a fediverse Goodreads alternative for books? Bookwyrm. Also NeoDB but I'm not sure what that does.

I think I saw something about DIA no longer allowing it for passport renewal. But when I google all I get is articles saying it is being expanded.

Been ages since I had to renew so I'm probably forgetting the poor customer experience part and am about to find out.

😄Hmm does that say something about the books I wonder or is it more a reflection of how many people only read the first part of trilogies?

True, and nothing about them prepares you for it.