How far can a toot travel in the fediverse?

I chatted recently with someone who complained that the fediverse lacked "reach".

So I'm curious: if you are up for it, could you please reply to this toot (which started life on single user instance on a tiny computer in a garage in the United Kingdom) saying which country you are in?

Edit: 12 hours, 74 countries: https://neilzone.co.uk/2025/04/a-toot-travelled-to-fediverse-users-in-53-countries-in-12-hours/

@neil San Francisco, USA

Today at the Washington Monument. #HandsOff

Hey there #fediverse, I’m looking to hire a senior engineer to work with some awesome folks on #Netflix’s build tools & test infrastructure. If you are interested please apply online! (see link in Toot)

My DMs are open if you have any questions about the role or if you want to let me know that you applied.

#Java #JVM #Gradle

https://explore.jobs.netflix.net/careers/job/790301668836?utm_source=LinkedIn&domain=netflix.com

Researchers at Harvard Business School and University of Toronto used unique data to quantify the value of open source.

Takeways:

* Supply-side (cost to recreate) is ~$4.15B, but demand-side (value to firms) is $8.8T. Shows massive cost savings & productivity boost from OSS.

* If OSS didn't exist, firms would need to spend an estimated 3.5 times more on software than they currently do. OSS provides a massive, often invisible, productivity boost.

* A tiny fraction of OSS developers create the vast majority of value. Only 5% of developers are responsible for over 96% of the demand-side value

* Firms should not just "free ride" on OSS but actively contribute to the ecosystem, as this is far cheaper than recreating the software themselves.

Source:
https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/24-038_51f8444f-502c-4139-8bf2-56eb4b65c58a.pdf

The New York Times just discovered parallel computing.

GIMP 3.0 is released, check it out!

https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/03/16/gimp-3-0-released/

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed in any way - from testing and submitting bug reports through to designing, coding, fixing, packaging, testing some more, translating, documenting, hosting, administration, so many people, so much work, so much to be thankful for!

Welcome to GIMP 3.0!

Come work with me!

#Monterey #MontereyBayAquarium #Security #GetFediHired #Jobs #Hiring

https://candidateportal.creativecircle.com/job-detail/796730

A well-funded Moscow-based global ‘news’ network has infected Western artificial intelligence tools worldwide with Russian propaganda

An audit found that the 10 leading generative AI tools advanced Moscow’s disinformation goals by repeating false claims from the pro-Kremlin Pravda network 33 percent of the time
https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/a-well-funded-moscow-based-global

If you’re enjoying using sfba.social, consider supporting @seb and team with a recurring donation!

https://ko-fi.com/sfba_fedi

This is the most important comment I have heard this week — Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk:

“500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians […] Europe, if there is something we lack today, it is not economic or demographic power, but the belief that we are truly a global force.”

I think Tusk hits the bullseye here. Those 140 million Russians are already fully occupied by fighting Ukraine, and our leaders act like we are Liechtenstein.

Hi everyone. It’s a new month and here’s a new plea for you to support your fediverse instance if you can and they accept donations. My thanks to all that do, and also my thanks to the many people that make the fediverse tick.

Just to say the obvious bit out loud - Trump, VD Vance and Elon Musk are bullies.

They’ve made their whole careers via it.

They shout at people, send mobs after them, complain to employers, threaten legal action, etc etc etc. It’s all about silencing speech which causes them discomfort.

Elon hired a private investigator after my last spat with him, it emerged in court.

Time after time organisations have gone with it and given in to said bullies. They shouldn’t. We shouldn’t.

I've been looking at the background of Branden Spikes, the senior member of DOGE who is director of IT over at X (his OG email is b@x.com).

Prior to joining up with Musk, Spikes ran a company called Spikes Browser, which tried to create a sandboxed browser environment. I met Branden in DC in 2013, and I actually used Spikes for a short while.

It seems that Branden used to be married to a woman named Natalia Haldeman (she went by Natalia Spikes then). Records published by ProPublica show that Ms. Haldeman is the CEO of a nonprofit called the California Russian Foundation.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/452775704

https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la2-branden-spikes-vs-natalia-haldeman-855382?init_S=c_relc#dockets

When I search in the breach tracking service Constella Intelligence for spikes.com, I find tons of Yandex profiles for people in Russia who have spikes.com email addresses (all phonenumbers@spikes.com).

Going to keep poking at this.

edit: corrected name of the foundation.

What's to stop Musk, who's already tried meddling with German elections, from seizing Zelenskyy's, or any other European leader's X account, and posting something with dire geopolitical consequences? We're way past the point where it's wise for European leaders and institutions to rely on a presence on X—and other US platforms are not a good long-term solution either. More should follow the example of the @EUCommission and provide their updates directly, without middlemen, through the fediverse.

The Trump administration has launched a portal where you can report DEI in schools, "ensuring all students have access to meaningful learning free of divisive ideologies and indoctrination."

You know what to do: https://enddei.ed.gov/

Just to be clear, because a bunch of assholes have hijacked public perception and lifted up some of the worst people on Earth as exemplars of what the “tech world” is supposed to be:

I’ve been in the software world for decades, surrounded by thoughftul, creative, and humane people with whom I’ve formed many wonderful friendships and done meaningful work. That’s possible. It’s normal, even.

You don’t have to become a sociopath to make it in the tech world. Or a malignant narcissist. Or a Nazi.

Your instincts to be a decent person are good instincts. Don’t let anyone talk you into being an antisocial monster. You don’t have to be.

All billionaires must submit a list of five things they did for society in the last week or their wealth shall be confiscated.

#stinson