MadeInDex

If, like me, you have always been wondering if eBay is a more ethical alternative to Amazon, your question has just been answered: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/ebay-former-execs-pay-56m-to-settle-bloody-pig-mask-harassment-case/

Luckily we already have an alternative on the Fediverse for local listings!

The Flohmarkt instances: 🗺️ https://flohmarkt.fediverse.observer/map 📑 https://flohmarkt.fediverse.observer/list

It's still small but growing steadily :)

We visited the CSD Pride Parade in Berlin on Saturday when the terror attack happened.

Most people (myself included) did not even notice until they read the news later. In the area where the attack happened, the only security measure I saw was one police car, that drove by once while we were there.

There was even someone, feeling comfortable enough, to openly hand out business cards with a QR code, offering drugs.

We left there before it happened and only later saw helicopters fly past, however what I did notice was the lax security on the main roads, even remember remarking on it on arrival.

I just want to clarify: the park where it happened was PART of the parade, not "the edge" as news etc. claim, people marched there as well, used the portable toilets, rested in the shade...

Complete failure by state & police, as this is THE regular venue for the biggest gatherings of Germany not just CSD.

I know how this sounds, but to me the problem was not a lack of police officers, but horrific planning.

Modern threats aren't even addressed as far as I can tell... Don't want to go into detail, to avoid giving people ideas, but most of you probably know what I mean.

Feels to me like GrapheneOS did exactly what it should, passing the US border test with flying colours!

Funny part about this lawsuit: “With a little planning ahead of time, you can always download the data you need once you get to where you’re going,”

If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)

Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in Australia still use it 🥳

Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate 😉

Source: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf

However you look at it age verification is a major change to the internet and our freedoms.

We've seen all kinds of legislation pushed through in the past, often even against major resistance.

What makes me suspicious this time is the speed at which some of the slowest bureaucracies in the world are adopting it and how it's happening in 20+ countries in parallel.

It's like they're all in a group chat, fast-tracking this before resistance can even form.

What could go wrong with forcing a data hungry AI company like Anthropic to force it's users to do ID verification?

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/22/anthropic-says-claude-may-want-to-see-your-id

Meanwhile asylum-seekers are a great source for biometric data for the UK government: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/the-uk-will-scan-asylum-seekers-faces-for-age-checks-despite-knowing-the-tech-is-flawed

As the West is trying to imitate totalitarian states as of late, they might be better advised to imitate their exports instead.

With the worldwide wave of social media bans on major platforms aka digital verification, I wonder if we'll see an influx of people to the Fediverse?

🤞🤞🤞 here is hoping <3

A very very senior game developer recently told me how he is changing specialization because AI is much better than him at what he does already.

I asked him if it was just the speed and mass of code, to which he replied that Claude 5 Fable/Mythos is just so advanced, it comes up with solutions he would never have thought of, not even requiring good prompts anymore.

He further said in some areas like Unity it's not perfect yet, but improving drastically.

Honestly this is pretty different to what I read in many articles regarding AI code.

They mentioned errors, bad performance & such.

However if it is already used in production and he as a professional evaluating it, is saying it's better than him...

That same day I also talked to somebody that got hired to train an LLM. His interview was with that companies chatbot, that offered him over 120$ per hour, a roughly 500% increase from his previous job 🤣

I truly wonder if, with the billions lost, the UAE & GCC countries are really going to build a canal to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

There has apparently already been a plan for this collecting dust. With the current problems, $50B+ doesn't sound so bad anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Canal

Although likely pipelines would be the preferred short/mid-term solution.

🌐 Many companies now block older browser versions from accessing their websites!

This follows many browser makers ending updates 4 older operating systems, leaving legacy devices unable to use web services without an OS upgrade.

This kinda reminds me of the Java website block by browsers a few years ago, just in reverse. (Revenge? ;)

Old Android versions are also increasingly blocked from accessing the Google appstore.

Truly about security or perhaps Planned Obsolescence?

Update: "old devices can only use old os > old os can only use old browser > old browser cannot use web> poor uneducated people = screwed once again!"

"Only suggesting corporate browsers, kinda like an ad."

It's funny how in the US you can just say HIM and everyone knows who you are talking about.

And even funnier when people reply something along the lines of: "What did HE do now?!"

*Or sad - however ya cope ;)

Always had a feeling this was true: Sleep the right amount, live longer, sleep the wrong amount, age faster!

"...scientists narrowed down a “sweet spot” of between 6.4 and 7.8 hours of sleep per night. Sleep durations that fall too much on either side of that, the study found, were associated with accelerated aging." (For some it's 4, for some 9 though)

Just thought I would share this, as it seems important to all of us who don't love aging ❤️

We’ll soon get a chance to see whether, frankly, our last hope, evil corp Google, can still distinguish content created by AI from Human one 🤖

Here’s how I would rank the detection difficulty: 1️⃣ Text 2️⃣ Code 3️⃣ Images 4️⃣ Gifs 5️⃣ Videos If they already fail at level 5, we have a SERIOUS problem.

I wonder if the people at X ever read their own announcements.

Literally explaining how they sold out and enshittified the "blue checkmark".

This also seem like yet another step towards mandatory IDverification on social media! (only to protect them kids & democratize the platforms of course 😉)

It's almost like this guy wants his ties to Epstein kept in the news cycle - pressuring the media hard while simultaneously triggering the Streisand effect.

One is left to wonder: is this intentional, or is he really incapable of learning?

I noticed many people believe, that Western countries ranking low on corruption indexes, shows they aren't corrupt as hell.

To me this just means it's at a higher, much harder to prove level.

Instead of starting at the cop level (which is still possible with connections), it starts at the points where multi-millions can be made without anyone really noticing.

E.g. farm land > residential use, construction projects, sale of government properties, favors for corps etc.

It's pretty interesting to see how China can order a US company to unwind the purchase of another company in Singapore, after it was already complete.

🇺🇸 Meta > 🇸🇬 Manus ❌ 🇨🇳 Government

#SingaporeWashing

I would not be against digital transparency (on social media etc., not your search history or private communication), if we lived in an utopian society, but as things stand, the "system" is abused by the elites & corps.

Therefore if, if this were to pass now & you did anything they don't like, they will be able to stop you even easier & likely fully. It would completely rob us of the ability to fight back. E.g. posting something about a politician being corrupt or a corp evil & instantly getting sued for reputational damages, insulting an official etc.

Looking at how much conflict natural resource-rich countries (oil, gold, diamonds..) seem to attract, I wonder whether such wealth is more a curse than a blessing.

Many regions with scarce natural resources, adapted & perform very well. Some of the richest are examples (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore..)

Looks to me like the greed for them attracts conflicts: civil wars, invasions etc. Cultural, ethnic, religious reasons often just seem to be used to cover it.

Plus all the environmental destruction / pollution that come with the extraction & processing.

Like when you set it to English in ya profile Settings you get this error message: "Warning: If you deselect Undetermined, you will not see most content.".

When you post, when you make communities, that setting is everywhere and it's just confusing the hell outta me and I'm scared to select English anywhere tbh

When I had it on English, I couldn’t even see any replies and comments at all anymore. Took me like a week to figure out why! 😱

Left this post on “Select language”, but when I added these last 2 sentences with the “Edit” option, without changing anything about the language, it gave me this error “Language not allowed” and I had to switch it to “English”.

After changing the language to "English" I was unable to see it from the 2 crossposts or the profile page. Like you can only see the crossposts from the original post, but the original post is not visible from the crossposts ;)

Had to press the "X"-button next to "Undetermined" to make comments and the "English" post appear again.

It's ironic to see those same global elites who love partying with the likes of known & convicted child sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein now urging worldwide restrictions on E2E / VPN & promoting age, biometric, and identity verification online - all in the name of protecting children.

It’s also highly suspicious that so many of the world’s biggest countries are trying to implement this wider internet control at the same time.

Feels like a major push toward authoritarianism to me.

It's messed up how the people always have to fight to wrest any rights from those in power, and then fight even harder to keep them!

What is a company like Meta to do when it notices that 10% of it's income comes from advertising scams, illegal gambling & products? ENCOURAGE IT & RAISE THE PRICES FOR THE CRIMINALS - OF COURSE!

Sadly the good times eventually had to end: The Consumer Federation of America is going after Meta for it now!

🤖 Honestly you can't make this up:

Human Robot Zuckerberg is gonna put an AI based smart keylogger on his employees computers.

Nothing says we don't trust you and don't appreciate you like a regular screenshot of your work screen.

No more NSFW! Welcome to the future baby!

Guess them employees are gonna get a taste of their own medicine for once.

Seems like everything is going according to plan.

Use the employees data to train MaiRK, so Meta can finally become a synonym for MaiRK. https://mastodon.social/@madeindex/116402482806274908

Eventually we will only see his superintelligence controlling everything. https://mastodon.social/@madeindex/115871208581092120

Narcissism 2026 version 😋

If you are thinking: Wouldn't this make people quit? Meta is banking on it: https://www.reuters.com/world/meta-targets-may-20-first-wave-layoffs-additional-cuts-later-2026-2026-04-17/

🌊 We must stop eating wild ocean animals, including open‑pen "farmed" saltwater fish such as salmon. https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/exploring-underbelly-chiles-salmon-farming-industry

If you’re not urgently dependent on seafood for survival, simply switch to other options such as land / closed‑system aquaculture or plant based solutions.

I'm not saying everybody needs to become a vegan/vegetarian right now, that is up to each individual, but we should avoid the worst of the worst.

That is, if we want to at least keep a few of the giants of the seas alive. 🦈🐳🦑🐠🐟🐡🐬🦑🪸🦐

🇺🇸 "Law that has allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to collect... overseas communications without needing search warrants is set to expire"

Here is a completely wild thought: instead of changing or renewing it, how about the USA stops ignoring people's basic rights worldwide? 🤪