#Teachers and #academicmastodon :
Does anyone have a good substitute recommendation for using live google docs in the classroom, something that is privacy-conscious?
I often use a live #Google Doc, and sometimes a spreadsheet, having students work on tasks as a class.
Getting away from Google, Microsoft, etc. is the goal here but also preserving student #privacy. Even better if no login is required at all.
Aside from something like an Etherpad, most of the options seem to lead back to the big companies. Firing up my own #Etherpad instance might be an end goal but I won't get to that until summer...
Any suggestions? Please feel free to boost.
Google has added Loss of Pulse detection to the Pixel Watch 3.
Maya Posch explains the functionality and the methods by which Google hopes to avoid false positives.
hackaday.com/2025/03/12/pixel-…
Pixel Watch 3’s Loss Of Pulse Detection: The Algorithms That Tell Someone Is Dying
More and more of the ‘smart’ gadgets like watches and phones that we carry around with us these days come with features that we’d not care to ever need. Since these are devices th…Hackaday
orbitresearch.com/wp-content/u…
orbitresearch.com/orbit-speak-…
Orbit Speak User Guide Downloads
Orbit Speak User Guide v0.11 (DOC) – Manual in Doc Format (Released on 07-Feb-2025) Orbit Speak User Guide v0.11 (PDF) – Manual in PDFOrbit Research
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I continue to feel separated in every meaningful way from people who think this is okay. I’m not sure being their neighbor or their fellow citizen is an achievable or desirable goal.
Texas HB 3817 makes it a felony to be trans. Click link to say "NO!" to the Texas legislature. 
There is no #cloud, only other peoples' computers. As @pluralistic says "It’s funny because it’s true and the 'other people' in this case are rapacious, vertically integrated monopolies."
Now you can bypass the cloud w/ @privacysafe temporary encrypted files 👇
psafe.ly/TszQng
Cory Doctorow reshared this.
So I should trust it because you say so? Who trusts you?
Because, from where I stand, you're just another Internet rando.
Please try to see it from my viewpoint and then find a way to make the trust you demand from me something that is verifiable by me. Perhaps a trusted-by-me third party can speak for you? (I trust @pluralistic, for example.)
Trust is not easily earned and should not be easily given.
(BTW: I still won't click on a link shortener, even so.)
@jackwilliambell Sure, I can't force you to trust me. When did I try to do that?
A URL to a web server I run is a URL to a web server I run. Whether it is a 301 redirect or not, or what length it is, has nothing to do with privacy or trust. An HTTP request is an HTTP request and can be logged by the server.
Here are two direct links to apps I hope people will trust enough to use, but if that is not you, that is okay 😀
Secret Policeman's Ball: Peter Cook and Dudley Moore 'Frog and Peach'
The Ball is back for 2012!Follow us at http://www.facebook.com/secretpoliceman for exclusive comedy, behind the scenes gossip and prizes that money can't buy...YouTube
"I have no idea what I'm talking about" level question:
So last week I found out how polls work in ActivityPub
github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i…
And… this is interesting. What does this say about the level of anonymity of votes in Mastodon polls? I always assumed at least some of the instance admins would be able to deanonymize votes, but if votes are somehow analagous to statuses does that imply random users could snoop who voted how…?
Multiple-choice polls should allow no-votes · Issue #34041 · mastodon/mastodon
Pitch Mastodon allows multiple-choice polls; e.g., selecting more than one choice is allowed. However, these polls reject an attempt to vote for 0 of the options. In many types of poll, that may be...GitHub
No. Evan's comment describes the inter-server protocol. Other users have no way of accessing these individual votes, on the voting server nor the poll server. Admins with database access can plainly read individual votes on either of the two servers.
PieFed came up with an interesting system last year that scrambles user IDs for votes to anonymize them, so the voting user's server would still know their specific votes, but the poll server would not. This has not yet been added to Mastodon.
mcc reshared this.
So this is almost like Matrix where any room participant can read individual poll answers, even historical ones after a user changes their mind (except here it’s gatekept to only admins, but a random user can just run a single-user instance and become admin)
I feel like somewhere should be a disclaimer that poll answers aren’t really as private as they would seem. Similarly for blocks (Moshidon does say the blocked user sees that they’re blocked but most servers actually hide this)
This is correct. @kimapr If you run a Mastodon server, you have access to (1) all votes for all polls started on your server, and (2) votes by people from your server on polls hosted elsewhere.
I didn't have room for it in my original reply, but it's worth clarifying that there's nothing except a social contract stopping an ActivityPub server from publishing all votes it knows. The whole "private voting" idea in PieFed started because mBin was publishing votes: piefed.social/post/205362
in 2020
the WHO declared
that the pandemic had begun,
which means, my friend,
that as of today
you have now survived
five years of this pandemic,
but remember, my friend,
oh please, my friend, remember,
you have not yet survived
this pandemic.
EPROM-based Enigma Machine
hackaday.com/2025/03/12/eprom-…
EPROM-based Enigma Machine
The Enigma machine is perhaps one of the most legendary devices to come out of World War II. The Germans used the ingenious cryptographic device to hide their communications from the Allies, who in…Hackaday
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laughingsquid.com/inflating-ob…
A medieval Bishop's ring from more than 800 years ago goes to auction
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5326044/bishop-ring-metal-detector-auction-rare?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Arts & Life @arts-life-npr
I'm thinking about getting a flag of Canada.
It would confuse some of my neighbors and irritate the rest.
RFK Jr.: It Would Be Better if ‘Everybody Got Measles’
“It used to be, when I were a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said, then taking a swipe at the vaccine. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.” 🤦♂️
Source: archive.md/IWQFv
Can we please NOT give nazis megaphones? I mean, ~probably~ most of your followers know those are lies, but rather than quoting him directly in a way that might get amplified to people who don't know better, even just sticking in someone's head subconsciously, report on what they lied about:
"RFK called for everyone to get measles, citing a lie that getting it provides lifetime immunity and that the vaccine does not. In reality, getting measles destroy's the immune system's memory of past infections, rendering one susceptible to other deadly diseases."
NIH cuts funding for vaccine hesitancy research and and may target mRNA research too
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/nx-s1-5325863/nih-trump-vaccine-hesitancy-mrna-research?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into All Things Considered @all-things-considered-npr
Russia today controls less of Ukraine than they did three years ago. Russia today controls less of Russia than they did three years ago.
Russia is not winning this war.
Ooooooh! Cory Doctorow is planning a trip to NZ, with a Wellington event on May 3 or 4! I really enjoy all of his writing, so it will be great to hear him again!
From: @pluralistic
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11395782…
Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)
Attached: 1 image Today's threads (a thread) Inside: Announcing the Picks and Shovels book tour; and more! Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/06/picks-and-shovels-tour/ #Pluralistic 1/Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net
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The act of encrypting things *always* makes them (seem) more interesting.
You can use encryption to keep secrets, but, in using encryption, may let others know that you even have a secret at all.
So, the very best kind of encryption is both un-openable without a very large securely transported key AND not obviously (or even unobviously) encrypted at all.
Oh geez I should have put a little something, that would have been very amusing.
"Prominent Nuclear power supporters Mark Lynas and George Monbiot have said that the Hinkley C nuclear plant under construction in Britain should be scrapped so we have Andy Dawson from England to speak with us about it.
Andy Dawson is a retired nuclear engineer. He worked in the design and built of the Heysham 2 and the Torness Nuclear Power Stations, with excursions into Fast Reactors and the Sizewell PWR. He has also worked in Management Consultancy on energy."
youtube.com/watch?v=B3Klf5GfTw…
Hinkley Point, Boon or Boondoggle?
Prominent Nuclear power supporters Mark Lynas and George Monbeit have said that the Hinkley C nuclear plant under construction in Britain should be scrapped ...YouTube
* ketchup tastes sweeter
* traffic cones are evil now
Finding My Hiking Legs Again: Beating Back Negativity In Yosemite
➡️ seasonsofjason.com/finding-my-…
Finding My Hiking Legs Again: Beating Back Negativity In Yosemite
Trying to escape winter hibernation mode, getting a welcome attitude adjustment, and hitting the trail again. Come along for another hiking photo journal!Jason Evangelho (Seasons of Jason)
As reported in the Guardian US edition:
theguardian.com/us-news/live/2…
Chuck Schumer says Democrats will not support ‘partisan’ Republican funding bill to avoid shutdown – live
Republicans only have 52 yes votes and senator says Democrats won’t help get to the 60 votes needed for the bill to passAmy Sedghi (The Guardian)
eLearningTechie
in reply to Trevor Burrows • • •They have lots of free alternatives for commercial sites.
De-google-ify Internet - Main Page
degooglisons-internet.org