@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

davidculley

@[email protected]

In case you didn’t notice the rise of fascism in your home country or the genocideS, the days of staying away from politics are over. Use your voice.

I’m now learning about online privacy, Marxism and political economy, self-hosting technology.

I’m a data engineer in Germany. My academic background is in deep learning. I’m anti “AI”.

Fight the surveillance. Fight capitalism. Fight enshittification. Fight fascism. Fight the injustice. Fight the exploitation.

Israel is committing genocide.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

RE: https://esq.social/@SuffolkLITLab/116054463472872585

For Big Tech, “deleted” means setting deleted = false to deleted = true.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral Can confirm. At work, when I write SQL doing data analysis, I often have to write

select * from …
where is_deleted is not true

Otherwise, without that where filter, I would count database rows that allegedly no longer exist.

In some cases, a company in Germany is legally required to keep data around after "deletion" for up to 10 years.

In other cases, a company just might not want to throw away data that might prove valuable some day.

I would put Nest videos in the latter category.

In all cases, a user should be aware of what you said: that deletion just hides his data from him, but the data remains accessible in the database for the company.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@Orca @aral European law also forbids police officers to deny entry at the border and send away people who seek asylum. It is not the task of a police officer to decide over asylum. Police officers have to let asylum seekers into the country and let the appropriate people decide over asylum. If somebody doesn't meet the requirements for asylum, they may then be expelled from the country, but they may never be denied entry in the first place.

Yet that happens every day.

It is even forbidden by European law to "just" search people who cross the border. For example, when you take a train from France to Germany.

Yet that happens (presumably) every day. German police officers would enter the train at some stop near the border, ask people for their papers (suspiciously always only the brown people), and leave the train at the next stop.

German law apparently contradicts European law. A German police officer that I know (not a border police officer) genuinely thinks this is legal according to German law and thus he doesn't see a problem.

German ministers of the interior (Thomas de Maizière, Horst Seehofer, Nancy Faeser, Alexander Dobrindt) and their subordinates (police officers) are breaking this European law at least since 2015. My police officer acquaintance seriously said it cannot be illegal—nor true—what I say because they (German police) have been doing it this way for over 10 years now. As if a violation of the law would at some point become legal if you just did it for long enough.

My point is: Contradictions between European and national law are all over the place.

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

German police¹ is using ChatGPT to fake images of injured police officers.

The German union of police officers (GdP²) condemns violence … against police officers. 😡

They are the ones who beat up anyone who protests against fossil fuels or genocide, and then they fake their propaganda using GenAI to incite against "violent radical leftists".

¹ Sachsen, not even the infamous Berlin police
² which is also the source of this image, see https://www.gdp.de/sachsen/

Fake image of three police officers, two holding one who is bleeding heavily from his forehead. The image is created by the union of police officers (GdP) using ChatGPT, and shared on their official GdP website for press releases.
ALT
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115933583465898366

You might have thought it not possible, but Google is going to spy on you even more.

Gotta feed those AI agents!

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

RE: https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/115894761008368449

But … but … I thought Bill Gates is one of the good billionaires?!

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

Over the weekend, Germany's fascist minister of the interior, Alexander Dobrindt, visited Israel and Netanyahu to "learn from Israel".

That fascist fuck Dobrindt wants a partnership with Israel (and got it) to learn how to deploy the surveillance tech that Israel uses against Palestinians, against the German population. 🤬

After Dobrindt spent the past days inciting clueless German centrists and "moderates" against imagined radical leftists. After a recent blackout in Berlin, Dobrindt again accused "leftists" (anyone who isn't a Nazi) of being terrorists.

Netanyahu was very happy with the meeting, and called Israel and Germany "natural partners".

All while the equally fascist and utterly incompetent German chancellor Friedrich Merz was in India, courting the right-wing Indian prime minister Modi who is spreading hatespeech against the Muslim minority in India.

https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/515522.dobrindt-in-israel-beim-nat%C3%BCrlichen-partner.html

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

The judge of Netanyahu's corruption case was killed on Sunday.

He was driving his motorcycle when suddenly an off-road vehicle came from off-road and rammed him.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/beersheba-district-court-president-benny-sagi-killed-in-shocking-crash-on-route-6/

@Mohmad30@mastodon.bida.im avatar Mohmad30 , to random Arabic

Dear @aral, I want to change this email address to this one: https://gofund.me/69b0e26cb. What should I do?
@aral

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@Mohmad30 @aral The link might change automatically if you wait a bit. But I don't know how Aral implemented it.

@AnarchoNinaWrites@jorts.horse avatar AnarchoNinaWrites , to random

The machine works hard to indoctrinate your children into capitalist reaction because the maggots running this shitshow know over time you will internalize those beliefs as your own ideas, and when they turn out to be wrongheaded, evil, and actively harmful to you, you will resist discarding them precisely BECAUSE you have internalized the belief that those were YOUR ideas in the first place. It's what these muppet Renfields are trying to trigger when they say "everyone knows" or "80/20 issue"

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@dhedgehog Do they get these ideas from TikTok or YouTube specifically or from someplace else, do you know that?

@mariyadelano@hachyderm.io avatar mariyadelano , to random

I’ve been testing a theory: many people who are high on and are just new to automation and don’t realize you can automate processes with simple programming, if/then conditions, and API calls with zero AI involved.

So far it’s been working!

Whenever I’ve been asked to make an AI flow or find a way to implement AI in our work with a client, I’ve returned back with an automation flow that uses 0 AI.

Things like “when a new document is added here, add a link to it in this spreadsheet and then create a task in our project management software assigned to X with label Y”.

And the people who were frothing at the mouth at how I must change my mind on AI have (so far) all responded with resounding enthusiasm and excitement.

They think it’s the same thing. They just don’t understand how much automation is possible without any generative tools.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@mariyadelano This is exactly my experience. They just ask for some automation. And naturally, due to their cluelessness, their first thought is AI.

What they ask for can almost always be delivered with zero AI:

  • find all occurrences of A in a text and replace them with B
  • transform the CamelCase words in all this text to snake_case words
  • auto-indent this text according to our style guide

All you need is a basic grasp of your text editor and/or the ecosystem of the programming language of your choice.

I understand that a non-technical manager doesn't understand the difference between this and AI. But when I see senior engineers who don't understand this, I wonder how they ever earned the Senior in their title.

Years since graduation from university isn't the same as experience. Having survived multiple years in the same job without growth isn't the same as being senior.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@patmikemid Yeah, if you don't want to waste time working on the wrong problem, you should first think through what the problem even is, what its boundaries are, what you want to specify as in scope and what as out of scope, and how success would look like.

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

I don’t understand… when did Mozilla, a not-for-profit that owns a half-billion-dollar-a-year for-profit that gets its half-a-billion dollars every year from Google go bad? They seemed like such good folks.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@bilal_mo I think Aral currently uses Safari from Apple.
https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/115536762520089357

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Against all odds, here and looking forward to giving my talk in a little over an hour.

Yours truly smiling into the camera with a speakeasy style venue in the background.
ALT
davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral I love the jacket. 🙂

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

So the good news is my immune system went thermonuclear on whatever it was I caught last week and cleared it (likely the flu, and likely because I’d just had the flu + COVID jab two weeks prior). The bad news is my immune system went thermonuclear and, oh, hello autoimmune reaction!

So, post-this-morning’s doctor visit I’m sitting here, about to rehearse my talk for tomorrow, looking like I’ve had a nasty bout with a hive of angry bees and with two different types of cream on to help.

😬👍

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral Oh, please don't overstretch yourself if you don't feel comfortable or healthy enough.

@fabio@manganiello.eu avatar fabio , to random

Today's the birthday of @aral 🎂

Give all a big shout to this amazing engineer with a huge heart!

Without you gaza-verified wouldn't be here and many people wouldn't have been saved from a genocide.

And without many in our industry wouldn't even know what ethics is.

A big thank you for everything you've done and you keep doing!

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral It's true what @fabio said.

Without you, many Westerners would still be debating whether someone is truly from Gaza or AI-generated because she wears nail polish.

Without you, Westerners would still be holding back their donations for fear of getting scammed.

Without you, Westerners would still be sherlock-holmesing and examining the shadows in videos.

You basically opened the doors for donations to flow to Palestinians. Besides your own personal donations, you have a tremendous effect, both direct and indirect, on the lifes of Palestinians. On the scenes and behind the scenes.

And that's just the Palestine issue. You've been doing this long before the last 4 months or before October 2023. You've been talking about Mozilla and all the People Farmers since many, many years.

One day we will overcome capitalism and colonialism. We will achieve it. 🤗💕

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

Happy birthday, Aral! ❤️🥳🫂 @aral

Thank you, Fabio, for this thoughtful gesture for Aral. 🤗 @fabio

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

I liked software better when you could copy it, not have it copy you.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@eslamradwan1_D_5 Please don't be disappointed in @aral . Even I with my meager 300 followers am getting so many messages and notifications that it's getting overwhelming to reply to everyone always and not overlook anyone. I can not imagine how it's for Aral. I can promise you, Eslam, that Aral helps everybody and leaves nobody behind.

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , (edited ) to random

It’s clear now that Hitler was just ahead of his time. If he were around today and had picked a different target, our Western governments would be calling him an ally and supporting his genocide with money, propaganda, violent repression of dissent within their own citizenry, and weapons. How do I know this? Because that’s exactly what they’re doing with the Hitler of our time: the wanted war criminal Netanyahu.

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20251028-israeli-planes-strike-gaza-city-after-netanyahu-orders-powerful-attacks

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral If you were living in Germany, that post would/could get you jail time.

They'd say that by equating Netanyahu with Hitler, you're "trivializing the Holocaust" as nothing can ever be as bad again as the Holocaust. And that (trivializing the Holocaust) is of course a cardinal sin in Germany.

Of course it's a weaponization to silence justified criticism of a wanted war-criminal.

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

Mai ( @rouh ) is from Gaza and new on Mastodon. She doesn't know yet how to network. Consequently, she doesn't receive a lot of donations.

The thing is: She takes care of a camp of 30 children. While suffering from genocide herself! Truly heartwarming. She could really use our support.

The way to network on Mastodon is to FOLLOW her and share/BOOST her posts.
Unlike other social networks, Mastodon isn't controlled by a corporate algorithm, or any algorithm that would make her discoverable. It is up to us. But that also means we see only what we want to see. 🙂

I myself, to stay organized, use lists a lot. I have a list named "Gaza Verified" to which I add everybody from https://gaza-verified.org . In case your worries about an overwhelming timeline hinders you from following more people.

Please follow Mai ( @rouh ) and, if you're generous, donate to her.

If you want to copy my tip using a dedicated list, also consider following everybody else listed on https://gaza-verified.org verified by @aral . 😊

Thank you!

https://mastodon.social/@rouh/115266714032813187

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

6th century BCE ideology fuels 21st century genocide to prove their god has the biggest cock.

Totally fine and normal.

https://mastodon.neometropolis.net/@QudsNen/115410812912417956

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral How many more centuries/millennia will it take to overcome this notion that there's an invisible man in the sky and that only you believe in him in the correct way?

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

How does genocide happen in 2025? Because of toadies like Keir Starmer.

He should be sitting at The Hague alongside Netanyahu, Trump, Friedrich Merz, and everyone else who is complicit in the ongoing Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people.

https://mstdn.social/@markhburton/115405505271441335

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral Friedrich Merz isn't just enabling genocide, he is literally using the same language against anyone with a non-white skin color as Joseph Goebbels used against Jews.

Merz wants to deport anyone from Germany who doesn't look white, and is even talking with the Taliban about his plans to deport to Afghanistan.

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

Imagine tasting chicken again for the first time after almost a year. After two years of genocide, after often having to go to sleep with a belly hurting from hunger.

Imagine it, even if it's only a tiny, tiny piece because you have to share 1 kg between 18 people.

Although there is supposed to be a ceasefire, food is still very expensive and Palestinians can't afford it without income.

Imagine the sheer joy of getting a glimpse of what you get to have every single day: tasting bits of meat.

Please consider donating to @bilal_mo to allow him to have something else for dinner than blank rice or blank lentils (or nothing at all). Even if it's just $5, you have that.

https://gofund.me/36056f38d

Read this thread to delight in his joy over such a simple thing as having chicken for dinner:
https://mas.to/@bilal_mo/115390757675764402

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

@nourgaza , a mother of two young daughters, is still stuck in the North, but she has almost enough money to afford transportation south into (momentary) safety.

She had a video call with @aral and is listed on https://gaza-verified.org in case you're hesitating out of fear of getting scammed.

Can we bring her over the finish line and out of the death zone? We're almost there.

https://gofund.me/4d8ba4f7

Think about whether you will be more at peace, when this genocide is over, if your donation contributed to literally rescuing a family from death or if you went out for dinner at the restaurant for the fourth time this month.

davidculley OP ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

Update on @nourgaza : ⬆️

She made it out of the danger zone in the North, thanks to some incredible donations that paid the driver who evacuated her and her daughters from Gaza City under great personal risk.

Although she's now in the South, she had to leave virtually everything behind and is now homeless, sleeping outside on the streets. She has no tent that could shelter her from rain.

Even as she drove southwards the road into relative safety, the car next to her was bombed to pieces by Israel, killing the passengers in front of her two daughters' eyes.

Can we help Nour and her children buy a tent so that they no longer have to sleep in the dirt and rain? Her younger daughter just developed a nasty skin infection from all the dirt they have to lie in.

https://gofund.me/4d8ba4f7

Please. Today is Amazon Prime Day. I know you're going to buy something for yourself today. Don't claim you have no money. So how will you decide? 1) Spoil yourself with some more junk that you don't actually need, or 2) help two children and their mother who have gone through so much?

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update that @AhmedOuda is alive.

We hadn’t been able to reach him this past week and we were very worried as he was in the North.

I’m now back in touch with him. He and his family have moved South but they have been sleeping on the streets. They desperately need a tent and land.

I am working to prepare and launch a second (and final) week of our Gaza Verified Emergency Appeal and we will include Ahmed and his family in it.

(The new week will launch with a new goal and a new set of families, including some from last week who still have needs either due to rising prices or new information in a rapidly changing situation on the ground. I will archive the first week information on the site.)

I will have more details later today.

Thank you all for your amazing support so far.

Just a heads up that I am going to need it for another week.

💕

https://gaza-verified.org/emergency/

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral You are doing life-saving work, Aral. I support you as best I can.

I know how stressful your efforts are, but when you look back and remember that you literally saved lives, it will all have been worth it. May this thought give you strength.

You are such an inspiration, Aral. ❤️ I love you. Not just for what you do, but I love you, period. From human to human.

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , (edited ) to random
davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@scottwillsey @aral Germany is the second-largest exporter of weapons to Israel after the USA. There you have the reason for not going against the Israeli apartheid.

@mago@climatejustice.social avatar mago , to random German

Schön, dass er noch mal einen seiner wichtigsten Verbündeten im Genozid erwähnt.

video/mp4

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@cairobraga Benjamin Netanyahu said:

When Israel struck Iran's nuclear facilities, German chancellor Merz admitted the truth. He said, "Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us."

mago commented (sarcastically) in German:

Nice that he [Netanyahu] mentions one of his most important allies in the genocide.

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

TL; DR: We still need to raise $393.13 so we can send payments to @ahmedosama and @mohshbair today :)

https://gaza-verified.org/emergency/

Please share and help if you can.

💕

https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/115265740086265522

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Hi everyone,

I’ve just launched the Gaza Verified Emergency Appeal to get our remaining 8 families who are stuck in the danger zone in the North to relative safety in the South.

https://gaza-verified.org/emergency/

Based on conversations @joynewacc and I have had with them to ascertain what they need (transport, land, tents), we have set the campaign goal at $15,000.

To kick things off, I’ve made a personal donation of $1,000.

These families are living in terror under nightly bombings by Israel. Please, if you can, help them survive Israel’s ongoing genocide. And please share this as widely as you can.

Thank you!

💕

PS. The donations are being collected by our not-for-profit, Small Technology Foundation and the entire sum, minus Stripe’s fees, will be transferred to the individual fundraisers of the families. We have suspended our own fundraising for Small Technology Foundation for the duration of the emergency appeal (https://small-tech.org/fund-us/).

PS. If you keep the campaign page open, you will see the progress meter update and donations coming in in real time.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral You are a hero, Aral! We all are.

Without us coming together to show some humanity and fund this effort, and without you organizing all of this, Aral, we wouldn't be literally rescuing entire families from death right now.

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

I don't know what to write anymore.

Israel cut off all internet and phone lines in Gaza City which they're currently invading and where half of all Palestinians lived.

Some Palestinians who're still trapped in the North manage to occassionally connect to the internet via an eSIM (if they have one). But most of the Palestinians still in the North are unreachable since yesterday morning.

Nobody knows if they're even still alive.

When I look at their fundraisers, I see $5 or $7 donations trickle in. $5 doesn't even buy them a can of tomatoes, let alone a transport of their clothes and blankets out of the heavily bombarded "evacuation zone". They'd have to sleep outside on the floor and couldn't even cover themselves with a blanket or shield themselves from the rain because they can't afford a tent from a $5 donation.

But when I scroll through my timeline, I see people half-seriously asking if they should buy two iPhones just because they can't decide which color they like best.

Meanwhile, my posts don't get a single like. I don't even know if anyone reads what I write. Or if y'all just don't care.

Frankly, it makes me sick.

Maybe this is the reason my posts don't get any likes. The way I express my frustration, the words I choose. Am I telling you something about yourself that you'd rather not know about yourself?

@_elena@mastodon.social avatar _elena , to random

Dear Fedi friends,

I would love to start a hashtag, doing shout-outs to Fediverse people that one finds inspiring, enlightening, or just plain cool.

The online world can be a dark, overwhelming place and I just wanted to encourage others to shine a light on people who make a positive difference... to say, "I see you, I hear you and I value you."

Today my goes out to @sylvia , whose creativity & positivity always uplift & inspire me ❤️

Who are you grateful for?

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@afewbugs @_elena @aral @joynewacc Aral is such an inspiration to me. I sit here, waiting for some leader figure to emerge and tell me what to do. To tell me how I can help. I'm just a normal person, after all. But I realize, why wait for a leader? I can start things myself too. I don't need to wait until the work is done by someone else. Be the change you want to see, and all that. I can start with small things. Look what https://gaza-verified.org has become within a few days. 😍 I don't have thousands or tens of thousands of followers, so my initial impact may be smaller, but I can nonetheless take actions into my own hands and be the first to start something. Even if I just tell one person today that he/she is loved and not forgotten, I will have left an imprint on their life that they will never forget.

And Joy is such an example of strength. Helping her people survive while she struggles for her own survival. She values empathy with her people and humanity over competition. Joy, you're a true hero. 💕

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Dear Mastodon instance admins,

Palestinians are facing genocide and famine.

If there is a Palestinian account from Gaza on your instance and it is not exhibiting bot-like behaviour PLEASE AT LEAST CONTACT ME before limiting/suspending it so @joynewacc and I can attempt to verify them by having a video chat with them on Signal and adding them to Gaza Verified:

https://gaza-verified.org

Blocking the accounts of Palestinians in Gaza on the fediverse is like repeatedly slamming the door in the face of Anne Frank.

Please have some humanity.

Also, if your server is a safe space for Palestinians from Gaza, please respond and let me know and I’ll add you to the list at https://gaza-verified.org/guide/

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

Dear @hachyderm , some Palestinian accounts like @mohshbair or @Dr_Nadeen98 are hidden from Hachyderm users to protect them from bots, but these accounts and probably some more aren't bots.

They're actual Palestians living in Gaza under genocide, and have been verified by multiple people who had video calls with them.

@aral and @joynewacc run a website https://gaza-verified.org that lists accounts you can definitely unhide from Hachyderm users. See the message above in the thread.

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Both @Aseelsehwel and @mohshbair are being displaced yet again and forced to move South as Israel continues its genocide and wholesale destruction of Gaza with the complicity of our inhumane governments in the West.

Please keep them in your thoughts.

And please donate to their fundraisers if you can.

You can find both of them on Gaza Verified: https://gaza-verified.org

Since they won’t have Internet access on the road, I don’t know when I’ll hear from them again. And it worries me to no end.

I’ll let you all know when I do hear word – hopefully – that they are safe and sound.

davidculley ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

@aral @Aseelsehwel @mohshbair Thank you, Aral, for everything you do.

@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

When I was still at university studying computer science, I wrote my thesis on geometric deep learning. (This was in 2021, before the world had heard of ChatGPT or LLMs.)

Geometric deep learning is a subfield of machine learning that combines deep learning with physics. You study concepts from physics such as symmetry, and apply those learnings to deep learning.

Again, this had nothing to do with or with what is nowadays meant by "AI".

That subfield was pioneered by Prof. Michael Bronstein, an Israeli scientist and professor at Oxford in the UK. He also was Head of Machine Learning at Twitter (before Musk bought it) and used this tech to fight misinformation on Twitter.

After October 7, 2023 happened, many researchers in the Computer Vision field showed their true colors, their zionist face. Many researchers in Computer Vision are Israeli.

When at a talk at the main computer vision conference (CVPR), the audience was confronted that much of the tech they (the people who "don't care about politics" and "just want to work on interesting problems") research and develop, is actively used by to establish apartheid and oppress the Palestinian people, many Israeli researchers threw around the now all too familiar rejections and accusations of anti-semitism.

Lots of these researchers are still, in 2025, on X/Twitter. Lots of them work at big-name companies such as Nvidia or other companies my followers might perhaps still respect.

I admit that before October 2023 I didn't know anything about Israel or Palestine or their conflict.

After I finished my thesis, graduated, and left academia, two things happened:

  • ChatGPT was released and people started to confuse AI with "AI".
  • Israel began a , which opened my eyes to what scum zionists are, no better than Third Reich Germans who wanted more "Lebensraum".

I no longer work in computer vision. I no longer work with AI. I just can't reconcile it with my morals and what I believe to be right, now that I learned a bit more about the world outside of my academic bubble that was "interesting problems that are fun to work on".

So much of CV is not for the betterment of humanity but for surveillance and oppression, and to further the genocidal zionist vision.

davidculley OP ,
@davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

I'm thinking back to 2021 when I was writing my thesis in university and had to read academic research papers every day.

The authors (all Israeli) of the deep learning papers I had to read in 2021, shared this in June 2024.

A tweet from June 2024, by Israeli Computer Vision researcher Yizhak Ben-Shabat and retweeted by Michael Bronstein, reading: > I was deeply offended by a slide in a recent talk at #CVPR2024 that falsely accused my country of genocide. Such baseless political statements have no place in our scientific community. Let's keep our focus on advancing science and leave politics at the door. @CVPR Shown is a presentation slide from the "Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition" conference, posing the question, "How has CVPR research contributed to tech used in genocide in Palestine ?"
ALT
  • Reply
    • + aral
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , (edited ) to random

    Folks, if you see a link to Gaza Verified (gaza-verified.org) on a profile, make sure that the link has the verification badge (in the apps) or is green with a check mark (on the web app).

    So, in other words, please verify that the link is actually verified.

    More info on how verification works on Mastodon: https://joinmastodon.org/verification

    You can also look on the site and make sure you see the account that is linking to the site is listed there.

    (I just got word that scammers have already started adding non-verified links to the site. These people… the lowest of the low. Actually stealing from people who are trying to survive famine and genocide. I have no words.)

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral I'll keep my eyes open. 💯

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    In case anyone’s wondering what’s happening with the all the profile photo changes… yes, I’m having fun in Photo Booth :)

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral The photos look really professional. 😊

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    I’m speaking at Defuse – Design For Use – at The Sugar Club in Dublin on November 10th at 7PM.

    The theme is “Reclaiming Design: Taking Back Purpose in an Automated Age” and my talk’s titled “Think small.”

    It’s first come, first served, so mark your calendars and show up early (and find me and say hi if you do!) :)

    https://defuse.ixd.ie

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral Are these others not able to set up a website? Too poor to pay someone to do it for them?

    If they're really cheap, some 15-year-old would do it for them for 30 bucks probably.

    Why don't they want to break free from our corporate overlords?

    I guess I have to say that at least we can be glad nobody linked to their X profile …

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral Very cool, congratulations! I'm happy for you. 😊

    @daliamohisen@mastodon.social avatar daliamohisen , to random Arabic

    I just received news that crushed me on top of everything I’m already enduring. An email was sent to my cousin
    the one who manages our campaign abroad, since we Palestinians from Gaza are not allowed to create accounts or links ourselves. He set it up for us, but unfortunately, we have received only a small amount of donations so far.

    image/jpeg

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral Check out this section in the second screenshot:

    > the content of your fundraiser falls under our "Prohibited Fundraisers …" section
    > any attempt to bypass or otherwise circumvent … regulations

    They really do not want money to enter Gaza.

    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar davidculley , to random

    "I feel like what Israel is preparing for us in the south is a concentration camp where we will be cut off from the world, our voices muffled, our existence erased.

    I do not know how much longer my words will reach the outside world, so I want to take this opportunity to make an appeal.

    Do not forget me, Sara Awad, a Palestinian student, whose biggest dream is to finish her degree in English literature and become a professional journalist."

    https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/8/19/in-gaza-city-we-are-saying-goodbye

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , (edited ) to random

    We will continue to live within an unjust system as long perpetuating it is seen as what normal people do while fixing it is considered the purview of a select group of specialists.

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral So many people think like this asshole CEO:

    > It's not my job to play the ethics game
    https://mastodon.social/@dangillmor/115024101273954102

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    GitHub CEO: Embrace AI or get out.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/github-ceo-developers-embrace-ai-or-get-out-2025-8

    PS. Here’s where to go: @Codeberg

    https://codeberg.org

    (As an additional bonus, you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing you’re part of an anti-fascist not-for-profit cooperative instead of a trillion-dollar US corporation that’s helping Israel commit genocide.)

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral @leamusi Exactly. GitLab enjoys having ICE as a customer. It's "just business" to GitLab.

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    Isn’t genocide denial a crime in Germany? Does that only apply to one genocide? (The Holocaust?) Or does it also apply to, say, the Armenian genocide too? And, if so, does that it mean that the only genocide it doesn’t apply to is Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people?

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral It seems you can get up to 5 years in prison for denial of the holocaust (WWII).

    It's called "Volksverhetzung" (incitement to hatred) in German.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksverhetzung

    I'm not sure if that applies to other genocides.

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    Fabio is the opposite of a Nazi and I am sick and tired of people WHO ARE OPPOSING A LITERAL GENOCIDE being perpetrated by Israel constantly having to defend themselves from accusations of antisemitism.

    The dregs of humanity who are supporting, apologising for, and complicit in Israel’s genocide are the people and instances we should be blocking here not antifascists like Fabio who is spending his time trying to get aid to Palestinians on the ground in Gaza.

    Ask yourselves what kind of person tries to have someone who is trying to get aid to people who are being starved blocked on the fediverse.

    And then decide who should be blocked and who shouldn’t.

    (And remember that history is watching.)

    @fabio@manganiello.social avatar fabio : A quick heads up to my followers: after threatening to get...

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @celesteh Dude, you apparently have the reading comprehension of a fifth-grader. Spend some time reading books until you learned to read before you call people like @fabio nazis.

    You should apologize to @aral once you understood he was calling out the actual nazi who denies and defends an ongoing genocide whereas you attacked the two guys standing up for the victims of said genocide.

    Because by calling Fabio antisemitic for his arguments you didn't understand, you are equating the supporters of genocide with all jews, and that makes you the biggest antisemite in this discussion.

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    Please understand that I say this with the utmost sincerity: Go fuck yourself you genocidal piece of shit. People are being starved to death and being murdered with bullets while lining up for food while being starved to death and this is what you have to say, you utter piece of human trash? Assholes like you without a thread of human decency are the reason human suffering is allowed to exist. You make me sick. https://mastodon.social/@dodo1095zd/114895972721484922

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral I just blocked and reported this (German) guy who argued the same way:

    "Palestinians are starting war after war since 80 years and are constantly loosing the wars they started. Maybe, since they 'keep running against a wall' since 80 years, they should just accept what Israel 'offers' them. Also, it's their own fault if they're genocided, since they won't release the hostages."

    https://social.tchncs.de/@AdeptVeritatis/114886038218094678

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , (edited ) to random

    Odd, I tried to get him and everyone else at Diem25 on the fediverse years ago but 🤷‍♂️

    https://ar.al/notes/farewell-not-goodbye/

    Do as I say, not as I do, I guess. https://todon.nl/@mar/114858718426096575

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral Oh wow, that's awful. Being called uncomradly by the people you care for. Sorry you saw yourself forced to leave. 😔

    In 2017, I hadn't even heard of Mastodon yet. But in 2025 not being in the Fediverse? Heck, in 2023 not being in the Fediverse (and that's still generous)?

    @malteengeler@legal.social avatar malteengeler , to random German

    If your criticism of "big tech" is merely a result of the unhappiness about the fact that Meta, Google and Microsoft aren't EU-corporations you are missing the point.

    There is nothing that indicates that SAP or Deutsche Telekom would hesitate a second at the chance of becoming the equally violent and exploitive forces.

    The solution to Big Tech isn't EU Big Tech. It's de-commercialisation and democratization of tech.

    davidculley ,
    @davidculley@hachyderm.io avatar

    @aral @malteengeler I wonder if I specialized in the wrong niche in order to work on Small Tech. I wonder if there is demand for data engineering in Small Tech.

    If I were a web developer, I could spin up something like https://gaza-verified.org myself. If I knew Go or Rust or whatever (and had more ideas), I could build some app or service that helps people in a meaningful way.

    But I specialized in organizing data. Like someone who hasn't organized their closet for a long while and calls Marie Kondo to clean up their wardrobe, I'm the Marie Kondo for data. I know how to move (big amounts of) data from here to there, and how to organize it so that information is easily accessible and insights are facilitated. Without people like me, data is just noise.

    I was told that data is the new oil/gold/electricity. And I do believe that there are use cases for doing good, still waiting to be discovered. Otherwise I'd probably already have switched careers.

    But my specialization is most useful with large datasets. Small datasets aren't in such dire needs of good organization strategies, same as you don't need Marie Kondo when two pair of shoes and three shirts is all you own.

    I wonder if my specialization is useful only to Big Tech.

    Does anyone have ideas for how I could use my skills for Small Tech? Does maybe even anyone has uses for someone like me?

    I didn't study this to be a cog in the ad-tech surveillance machine. 😒