Sterling Hammer

@sterlinghammer.com

287 Followers 470 Following

Senior Reliability Engineer Azure / Technologist / Gamer / Photographer Washington by way of Massachusetts. Here you can find my latest #Photography and thoughts on the world of #Tech and #Politics https://www.hammerti.me These are my personal thoughts.

The problem of centralized systems is that they create an irresistible temptation to control and exploit. Users who found value early on feel stuck: they can leave, but doing so means abandoning their community. That lack of easy exit creates lock-in, and lock-in enables enshittification. And the same chokepoints that let companies extract value also let governments extract power. Those seeking control hunt up and down the network stack for leverage, and centralized providers concentrate it. Call this despotification: the political analog of enshittification, where the same chokepoints get exploited to extract compliance from platforms—and ultimately to gain control over what people can say and hear.
Section 4 The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
The hackers responsible have exploited automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems that were sitting online and unprotected by passwords, allowing them in some cases to tinker with display readings on the tanks but not the actual levels of fuel in them, the sources said.
Places like Germany and Sweden offer childcare subsidies, parental leave, and direct financial support from the government. Meanwhile, the United States has an “every man for himself” philosophy that hurts everyone and helps no one.
Within recent memory, people who made software and hardware understood their job was to serve their customer. It was to identify a need, and then fill it. But at some point following the financial crisis, would-be entrepreneurs got it into their heads that their job was to invent the future, and consumers’ job was to go along with that invented future.
The people who tell us that AI will dominate our future and take our jobs are the people who are hoping that will be true.
A Red and White Pembroke Welsh Corgi relaxing on top of a blue couch cushion with a white pillow beside her. She looks relaxed, eyes closed.
An orange tabby cat named Archer lying on a bench with his legs outstretched and eyes half closed, basking in the bright sunlight coming in from outside.
A photo of Mt. Rainier taken through the window of a plane. The photo is framed by the back of plane seats on the right, and on the left a man looking out the window while another one works on his laptop. The foreground is darkened, revealing the snow covered mountain out the window with clouds underneath it.
A screenshot of an application showing a credit balance of 1,000 and several options to top up the balance and add more credits to use AI editing.
A portrait of a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, here she is posing for the photo and looking off to the side. Feet outstretched in front of her
A photo of a large ferry, the MV Coho entering Victoria Harbor on a fall evening at dusk. Visible in the background is the Olympic Mountains and in the foreground several people enjoying the evening on a bench in the park overlooking the water.
A photo of a horse coming at the camera, dirt in the foreground from the low angle. A rider is hanging on the side of the horse with a bow and arrow in hand performing in front of a crowd
A photo of Pike Place Market in Seattle. The Pike Place Parking sign brightly visible on the left, the Joe Desimone Bridge crossing the street dimly lit below. A person is walking between pillars looking at their phone, shadow on the wall behind. The skyline of Seattle is a bit visible over the foreground of Pike Place.
A calico cat looking up and lying down on a hay bale with barn stall visible in the background