Aram Zucker-Scharff
@chronotope.aramzs.xyz
AramZS. he/him. Privacy Engineer. Tech for journalism. Ad Tech. Prev: Fullstack, strategy, econ/game journo, storytelling, altac. Views are only my own. NYCer. https://aramzs.nexus/
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Larry Ellison Met With Trump To Discuss Which CNN Reporters They Plan To Fire
Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: rich,…
Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: rich,…
Larry Ellison Met With Trump To Discuss Which CNN Reporters They Plan To Fire
Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: rich, thin-skinned right wingers want to own the entirety of U.S. new and old media, then convert it into a giant propaganda and lazy infotainment bullhorn that blows smoke up their asses…
www.techdirt.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Larry Ellison Met With Trump To Discuss Which CNN Reporters They Plan To Fire
Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: rich,…
Trump’s right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn’t really subtle: rich,…
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
support for striking @sbworkersunited.org spotted at richmond’s independent riverbend roastery
November 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
support for striking @sbworkersunited.org spotted at richmond’s independent riverbend roastery
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
The psychological distress experienced by people encouraged to form an attachment to OpenAI's product when that product is changed or taken away is real, no doubt. But the journalist is absolutely callous with regards to those who have died and their loved ones.
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November 25, 2025 at 1:43 PM
The psychological distress experienced by people encouraged to form an attachment to OpenAI's product when that product is changed or taken away is real, no doubt. But the journalist is absolutely callous with regards to those who have died and their loved ones.
>>
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Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
I shared this yesterday. But I want to repost @chrisbratt.bsky.social's investigation into the Rockstar union-busting allegations.
What people in the business call "proper reporting" and the kind of stuff a healthy media ecosystem must support.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...
What people in the business call "proper reporting" and the kind of stuff a healthy media ecosystem must support.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...
The Messages Rockstar Saw Before Firing 34 Union Members
YouTube video by People Make Games
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:19 AM
I shared this yesterday. But I want to repost @chrisbratt.bsky.social's investigation into the Rockstar union-busting allegations.
What people in the business call "proper reporting" and the kind of stuff a healthy media ecosystem must support.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...
What people in the business call "proper reporting" and the kind of stuff a healthy media ecosystem must support.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
alan dershowitz, who cried when he couldn't get pierogies
"elevate charismatic figures such as Alan Dershowitz"
-____________-
-____________-
November 25, 2025 at 1:09 PM
alan dershowitz, who cried when he couldn't get pierogies
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
“The transit system is one of the greatest tools communities have to combat climate change and reduce emissions,” she said. “You can make a pretty immediate impact.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:10 PM
“The transit system is one of the greatest tools communities have to combat climate change and reduce emissions,” she said. “You can make a pretty immediate impact.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Went looking for COVID19 death statistics recently:
18.2 million people worldwide, 1.13 million in the US
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
We still have no day of remembrance or mourning.
18.2 million people worldwide, 1.13 million in the US
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
We still have no day of remembrance or mourning.
Estimating excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of COVID-19-related mortality, 2020–21
The full impact of the pandemic has been much greater than what is indicated by reported
deaths due to COVID-19 alone. Strengthening death registration systems around the
world, long understood to be ...
www.thelancet.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Went looking for COVID19 death statistics recently:
18.2 million people worldwide, 1.13 million in the US
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
We still have no day of remembrance or mourning.
18.2 million people worldwide, 1.13 million in the US
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
We still have no day of remembrance or mourning.
I think this is at least the second time he's said this and it is a dumb comment for a lot of reasons, not least is the direct reasons for this change are all due to changes in the market and federal regulations, both of which he has direct impact on. People don't just do things for no reason!...
Sean Duffy: "Dressing with respect -- whether it's a pair of jeans and a decent shirt, I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better which encourages us to maybe behave a little better. Let's try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport."
November 24, 2025 at 11:15 PM
I think this is at least the second time he's said this and it is a dumb comment for a lot of reasons, not least is the direct reasons for this change are all due to changes in the market and federal regulations, both of which he has direct impact on. People don't just do things for no reason!...
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
In rural Alaska, people rely on public radio stations, like KYUK, for critical information about natural disasters. But after Congress clawed back federal dollars, KYUK lost 70% of its funding.
In rural America, public radio saves lives
In remote Alaska, public radio station KYUK is crucial during natural disasters. Without federal funding, how will it survive?
www.motherjones.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:00 PM
In rural Alaska, people rely on public radio stations, like KYUK, for critical information about natural disasters. But after Congress clawed back federal dollars, KYUK lost 70% of its funding.
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Silicon Valley wants to believe in science fiction so badly that a cohort of people actually view these systems as real-life, highly knowledgeable "superintelligences" that occasionally make mistakes—attributing intent, understanding, and anthropomorphic traits where none exist. LLMs do not think!
November 24, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Silicon Valley wants to believe in science fiction so badly that a cohort of people actually view these systems as real-life, highly knowledgeable "superintelligences" that occasionally make mistakes—attributing intent, understanding, and anthropomorphic traits where none exist. LLMs do not think!
lol sure yeah right of course it is going to happen and do that def not an attempt to juice up the market
Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.
Altman describes OpenAI's forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone | TechCrunch
Altman and Ive tease a simple AI device aimed at calm, distraction-free computing, launching within two years.
techcrunch.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:03 PM
lol sure yeah right of course it is going to happen and do that def not an attempt to juice up the market
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
This PR is like the perfect distillation of LLM-assisted hubris. Dev who has never written a compiler or even studied the DWARF spec vibe codes out 13k LOC of "support" in OCaml with a bunch of shallow test cases, and doesn't think he needs to understand his own PR because "Claude understands it!"
One of the many joys of using AI for programming is the creation of huge PRs on complex topics that the authors barely understand, but still suggest "because they work". Here's a great example from #OCaml github.com/ocaml/ocaml/...
Kudos to OCaml's maintainers for handling this so gracefully.
Kudos to OCaml's maintainers for handling this so gracefully.
DWARF support for macOS and Linux by joelreymont · Pull Request #14369 · ocaml/ocaml
DWARF v5 Debugging Support for OCaml Native Compiler
This PR adds DWARF v5 debug information to the OCaml native compiler, allowing proper source-level debugging in GDB and LLDB.
What's Impleme...
github.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:46 PM
This PR is like the perfect distillation of LLM-assisted hubris. Dev who has never written a compiler or even studied the DWARF spec vibe codes out 13k LOC of "support" in OCaml with a bunch of shallow test cases, and doesn't think he needs to understand his own PR because "Claude understands it!"
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
For Aftermath, @alyssamerc.bsky.social spoke with the Sucker Punch dev fired over Charlie Kirk comments and others, who highlighted the unique way the backlash played out in games
November 24, 2025 at 6:43 PM
For Aftermath, @alyssamerc.bsky.social spoke with the Sucker Punch dev fired over Charlie Kirk comments and others, who highlighted the unique way the backlash played out in games
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
This is an insane story because it's basically saying that the people we pay to predict the likelyhood of future events, for whom it is their main job, have looked at the present and decided that AI is only going to get worse, more often incorrect and create worse consequences for those errors.
“Insurers increasingly view AI models’ outputs as too unpredictable and opaque to insure, said Dennis Bertram, head of cyber insurance for Europe at Mosaic. “It’s too much of a black box.”
www.ft.com/content/abfe...
www.ft.com/content/abfe...
Insurers retreat from AI cover as risk of multibillion-dollar claims mounts
AIG, Great American and WR Berkley seek permission to limit liability from AI agents and chatbots
www.ft.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
This is an insane story because it's basically saying that the people we pay to predict the likelyhood of future events, for whom it is their main job, have looked at the present and decided that AI is only going to get worse, more often incorrect and create worse consequences for those errors.
I have to note, not every website has to be a million people working on it. Maybe the site can't support the previous growth but the idea that a major news site would be shut down is an incredible failure of the people in charge to understand their buisness. fortune.com/2024/02/29/v...
Vice execs abruptly lay off workers, end town hall after downpour of thumbs-down emojis | Fortune
“It’s impossible to ignore the emojis, from my side,” Vice CEO Chris Dixon said as he ended the Zoom town hall.
fortune.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I have to note, not every website has to be a million people working on it. Maybe the site can't support the previous growth but the idea that a major news site would be shut down is an incredible failure of the people in charge to understand their buisness. fortune.com/2024/02/29/v...
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
This is what happened to me. Employers across the board need to be aware of how harassment campaigns work and do better to protect their employees from them. These people should not have a platform to profit off of harassment.
Two months after firing over Charlie Kirk comments, Ghost of Yotei dev blames harassment campaign, not 'bad joke'
aftermath.site/sucker-punch-c...
aftermath.site/sucker-punch-c...
November 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
This is what happened to me. Employers across the board need to be aware of how harassment campaigns work and do better to protect their employees from them. These people should not have a platform to profit off of harassment.
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
G/O once tried to lock Slack avatars to stop employees from displaying union badges
November 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
G/O once tried to lock Slack avatars to stop employees from displaying union badges
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Man, I'm really tired of being used as a bat to pound on Mamdani. It's offensive, and it paints all Jewish New Yorkers as Fox-watching racists. Those type are certainly among us, but plenty of New York Jews are confident in their selection of Mamdani and unconcerned w/his handling of antisemitism.
WELKER: What is your message to Jewish New Yorkers who feel you won't be tough enough in your response to antisemitism?
MAMDANI: That I am looking forward to being the next mayor and fulfilling the commitment I've made to Jewish New Yorkers to not only protect them but to celebrate and cherish them
MAMDANI: That I am looking forward to being the next mayor and fulfilling the commitment I've made to Jewish New Yorkers to not only protect them but to celebrate and cherish them
November 23, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Man, I'm really tired of being used as a bat to pound on Mamdani. It's offensive, and it paints all Jewish New Yorkers as Fox-watching racists. Those type are certainly among us, but plenty of New York Jews are confident in their selection of Mamdani and unconcerned w/his handling of antisemitism.
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
“Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 21 voice assistant (VA) designers at major technology companies, we examine how designers of VA devices think about how to design anthropomorphization in order to produce a specific user experience.”
Producing shifting personhood: How designers anthropomorphize artificial intelligence - Margot Hanley, Hannah Wohl, 2025
Anthropomorphized artificial intelligence has become increasingly ingrained in the fabric of everyday life, yet sociologists know little about how it is produce...
journals.sagepub.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:11 AM
“Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 21 voice assistant (VA) designers at major technology companies, we examine how designers of VA devices think about how to design anthropomorphization in order to produce a specific user experience.”
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
One of my ongoing frustrations with software engineering as a professional practice is that LLMs were in no way the thing that caused this (though they do exacerbate it). Every company I’ve seen in my career fetishized producing solution-shaped objects for problems they didn’t (care to) understand.
"writing code to solve a problem" used to have "understanding the problem" as a prerequisite. but vibecoding allows solution-shaped objects to be produced without any of the hard-won understanding. beware of solution-shaped objects.
November 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
One of my ongoing frustrations with software engineering as a professional practice is that LLMs were in no way the thing that caused this (though they do exacerbate it). Every company I’ve seen in my career fetishized producing solution-shaped objects for problems they didn’t (care to) understand.
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Jeffrey Goldberg's editorial leadership has been a disaster for the human race
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?
Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
November 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Jeffrey Goldberg's editorial leadership has been a disaster for the human race
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
How broken is today's frontend culture?
A friend points out that the median *mobile* page is now larger than a copy of DOOM (2.6 MiB vs. 2.48 MiB), the 75th percentile page is more than 2 DOOMs, and the P90 mobile page is 4.5x the size of DOOM:
httparchive.org/reports/page...
A friend points out that the median *mobile* page is now larger than a copy of DOOM (2.6 MiB vs. 2.48 MiB), the 75th percentile page is more than 2 DOOMs, and the P90 mobile page is 4.5x the size of DOOM:
httparchive.org/reports/page...
HTTP Archive: Page Weight
This report tracks the size and quantity of many popular web page resources. Sizes represent the number of bytes sent over the network, which may be compressed.
httparchive.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:43 PM
How broken is today's frontend culture?
A friend points out that the median *mobile* page is now larger than a copy of DOOM (2.6 MiB vs. 2.48 MiB), the 75th percentile page is more than 2 DOOMs, and the P90 mobile page is 4.5x the size of DOOM:
httparchive.org/reports/page...
A friend points out that the median *mobile* page is now larger than a copy of DOOM (2.6 MiB vs. 2.48 MiB), the 75th percentile page is more than 2 DOOMs, and the P90 mobile page is 4.5x the size of DOOM:
httparchive.org/reports/page...
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Deepening our dependence on natural gas isn't a solution to the affordability challenge. And it never has been. isonewswire.com/2025/11/18/i...
November 24, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Deepening our dependence on natural gas isn't a solution to the affordability challenge. And it never has been. isonewswire.com/2025/11/18/i...
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
I’m seeing a comment from an OPM official that DOGE is disbanded reported in Reuters get picked up by other outlets, but the only thing that is real is the appropriation logs, don’t say it’s over until it stops being reported here: openomb.org/search?term=...
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openomb.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:09 PM
I’m seeing a comment from an OPM official that DOGE is disbanded reported in Reuters get picked up by other outlets, but the only thing that is real is the appropriation logs, don’t say it’s over until it stops being reported here: openomb.org/search?term=...