Of all my many shortcomings on my path to entrepreneurial success, I think the worst is my unwillingness, when implementing a turnaround strategy, to punt a well-established trademark and brand identity and replace them with something unburdened by the weight of content.
— Mike Godwin (@sfmnemonic) July 24, 2023
But seriously…
This post on bluesky earlier pretty much nails it for me. pic.twitter.com/yhBWZul3Mg
— Ian McQue (@ianmcque) July 25, 2023
— Jaybird (@OG_Jaybird) July 24, 2023
These are all porn except one. That one's Twitter. pic.twitter.com/VYUWOFsFTv
— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) July 24, 2023
I'm strongly in favor of referring to this hellsite as #Xitter and pronouncing it as "shitter".
— ??ohnny ??raz (@jvgraz) July 25, 2023
Xeet*
*Pronounced "shite" in Ireland https://t.co/0xa41iefFF
— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) July 24, 2023
Now that #Xitter is a thing, I'm just here to remind you that "X" in pinyin (the current standard for Latinizing Chinese) is pronounced like "sh." What this implies for the pronunciation of Xitter, should be fairly obvious.
— Dapper Dino ???????? (@dinosaur_dapper) July 25, 2023
But now we can call tweeting “X-creting” which is so much better.
— Cat (@BewilderedCat) July 26, 2023
meanwhile the entire tech press is clamoring 24/7 to find answers to why a preposterous phony could have POSSIBLY made a dumb decision pic.twitter.com/BWI5U48Qm9
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) July 25, 2023
How about instead of claiming this is part of a “strategy” people stop propping up Musk? He is an idiot with a lot of money. He has been like this forever. It’s a comfortable lie to say that he “earned” his way here. https://t.co/pfyk0Mqtii pic.twitter.com/d8JR6wG8tD
— Ed Zitron (@edzitron) July 25, 2023
can't make back $20b in value if you don't wipe it out first pic.twitter.com/rIN81NxQvd
— A.R. Moxon (@JuliusGoat) July 25, 2023
You're blackmailing me?
"Blackmail" is such an ugly word. I prefer "extortion".
The "X" makes it sound cool.#Futurama pic.twitter.com/TA4TlfffYn
— Futurama Quotes (@QuotesFuturama) July 24, 2023
I hate this app so much. This rebrand is awful. If you need to reach me, you can find me here engaging in content and regularly posting
— Amy Gaeta (@GaetaAmy) July 24, 2023
eclare
It’s amazing how quickly Elmu has destroyed something millions of people worldwide used on a daily basis. I still use it, and I will to the end. I don’t see a reasonable replacement yet.
NotMax
What has Maldumb X wrought?
Rathskeller
John Bull on Mastodon has a nice retrospective via 20 or so toots (or whatever they are called) on Musk’s recklessness and obsession with his everything-x-app vision. His insanity led directly to him being fired as CEO of PayPal.
Not that he hasn’t had a good run on many different technologies, but this recounting shows not even an evolution of thought or ability. He was heedless of risk then, heedless now. While people always surprise me, it’s so obvious that only a fool would trust their money with this guy.
bjacques
@NotMax: I prefer Emerod Mush. It sounds like a kid who gets dispatched early in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
dirge
Trying again because previous open thread was dead before I got there.
My wife and I have been planning to adopt three specific sibling kittens, and have just learned that they’ve all tested positive for FIV (via SNAP FELV/FIV dual test). My understanding is, given how difficult it is to transmit FIV, the probable explanation is transmission of maternal antibodies, rather than infection with the virus itself.
As much as I’d love to be the kind of person who provides for kittens with dire medical needs, if I’m honest with myself, the truth is that my wife’s medical needs are already too much for us to handle. I’m quite concerned about taking on any additional day to day medical responsibilities, and especially the possible emotional trauma of losing these kittens.
We’ve inquired about doing PCR tests to verify. Is that a reasonable ask? Can anyone hazard a guess at the real risks here?
Roger Moore
@Rathskeller:
My big feeling about Musk is that everywhere he’s been successful, it’s been because he was surrounded by good people. I don’t say that to take away anything from his success- if he was the one picking them, he deserves credit for building a good team- but just to point out that doesn’t seem to be the case at Twitter. He got rid of the people who really knew the company and doesn’t seem to have replaced them with anyone better.
dirge
Yeah, that’s how this economy works. If you’d like to do anything useful, you’re going to have to find some worthless jackass like musk to sponsor you, by tricking him into thinking it was all his idea. Then make sure he gets all the credit, or he’ll ruin you. Meritocracy.
NobodySpecial
I don’t know why Musk burning funny money he can’t see or touch to break something he hates that people enjoy isn’t considered a plan or his plan exactly.
He’s a bitter, greying man who can’t keep a relationship, manage anything he’s fallen into over his life via his wallet, or obtain the respect and love of anyone other than the disaffected. He did another dumb thing and instead of admitting failure, he’ll destroy it to save his ego.
Lokahi
@dirge: I’ve worked with FIV+ (and FeLV+) cats since 2012, and to your question: the risks are minimal.
How old are the kittens? Until at least six months, testing is of dubious value, as their young immune systems are strengthening and developing, and often defeat the virus.
FIV, while it does compromise the immune system, is nothing like HIV in humans, and is easily managed. Actually, there’s no management involved specifically for the virus. It’s a matter of staying on top of the cat’s health, annual vet exams, following the schedule for core vaccines, feeding a high-quality diet of wet food primarily, and lots of love, attention, and play!
So as not to get too lengthy and into the weeds here, I’d be happy to discuss further or answer questions. I only lurk here, and show up once every day or two, but I’ll try to check more frequently just in case.
Best of luck as you consider adoption, and I hope you don’t let this relatively benign issue prevent you from giving your heart and home to some deserving little critters.
Aloha,
Steve, a.k.a. Lokahi
Mel
@dirge: Generally, FIV test results in kittens under 6 months of age are considered difficult to assess, because as you mentioned, they can still carry maternal antibodies.
From what I understand from vets and shelter staff and having rescued / fostered kitties for several decades, PCR tests can be used as a second line test in cases where there is some uncertainty about the accuracy of antibody tests. The caveat is that FIV PCR tests have, apparently, a higher margin of false positive results than do antibody tests. So, I’m not sure if that would be useful in the situation that you’re facing with the three kitties. Antibody tests have about 95-99% accuracy, so especially with all three littermates testing positive, there are almost certain FIV antibodies present.
Since the big question is whether they are actually infected, or just carrying maternal antibodies, I’m not sure if PCR testing would give a rock solid answer, since PCR tests apparently have slightly lower accuracy levels. Maybe if all three kitties were serial PCR tested two or three times each, and were negative every time, that might give a more solid picture. That could get pricey, fast, though. We test our rescue kitties for Bartonella since I have a genetic immune deficiency and had a very scary Bartonella infection years ago. The Bartonella PCRs ran about $89 a pop.
I would look for a specialist cat vet in your area, call snd explain the situation, and see if they would be willing to advise how to best proceed to try to see if the kittens are actually infected or not. They might be willing to advise whether PCRs would be helpful, and quote you a general price so that you would know up front whether it’s feasible cost-wise, since you’d have to test all three kitties.
In the meantime, Cornell Veterinary School has some good general info on their site about FIV. A lot of it you probably already know, but they do have some info on testing and interpreting antibody presence.
Fingers crossed that the little ones are not FIV infected, and please give my best wishes to your wife. It’s sure hard to struggle with serious illness, both for the person who is ill and for the person who loves them.
eclare
@bjacques:
Ha! Perfect!
eclare
@NobodySpecial:
One of his children legally changed their name, telling a court they did not want to be associated with him in any way. It’s Shakespearean, sharper than a serpent’s tooth.
,
Princess
@dirge: In your position, I would feel perfectly fine walking away from this adoption. There are always more cats who need homes. In case you need to hear this.
WereBear
@dirge: It’s about taking regular care of them. The kind most cats don’t get. That’s how strays with it eventually go downhill.
But with proper feeding and vet care, and some normal vigilance about risks, the day to day isn’t… anything. Not different from what any conscientious person does for their cats.
https://www.zoetispetcare.com/blog/article/fiv-positive-cat
The problem is living with the worry. I understand with your wife’s issues, you already do and don’t want to add to it. But I know many people who collect these cats because they can’t give the disease to another FIV+. With proper care they beat the odds all the time.
We never know how long, in any case. So I concentrate on how much :) If this is not for you, I completely understand. If your area has a problem with it, a vet should know the differences in good care in their outcome. That might help you decide.
Nelle
@NobodySpecial: For a minute, I thought you were talking about Putin.
I’ve never joined Twitter, but am grateful to AL for harvesting and sharing from there all through Covid.
I ask myself, who is threatened by this unhierarchical, rapid sharing of information? Who benefits from its destruction? Who, even besides Musk, can afford to destroy it?
It doesn’t need to be an explicit conspiracy, just a recognition of aligned interests. Of course, though, we’re reading Freezing Orders (Bill Browder) so my mind wanders to the oligarchs and those who destroy whatever doesn’t serve their interests.
Ruckus
@eclare:
I was on twitter constantly. I have time for that because I’m retired. But now I have a hell of a lot more time because SFBII (yes it means shit for brains II. SFB ran for president and won and showed the world why I label him SFB. SFBII is like his younger twin brother, except they are related by their personalities rather than birth) bought twitter and has smeared shit on the floor, walls and celling. And thinks that improves it. One could say, truthfully, that hasn’t improved it in any way, shape or form. Exactly the opposite.
eclare
@Nelle:
Good questions. Of course I mainly use Twitter for cute animal photos.
But I know a lot of protestors worldwide have used it, Iran years ago comes to mind. It is a shame to lose it.
eclare
@Ruckus:
The functionality has not changed for me, so I still use it. I do not see a reasonable replacement yet.
My public utility used it a lot last week during multiple storms that left over 200k wo power in Memphis. It was helpful.
Ruckus
@NobodySpecial:
he’ll destroy it to save his ego.
I’m not sure that’s right.
I’m not sure it’s not 100% correct.
He’s been at least reasonably successful. Sure he started with a lot of money and he’s flushed quite a bit of it. He makes electric cars on 3 continents. And sells a lot of them. I’m not a fan but they do seem to work reasonably well (I know an early adapter) and it has opened up markets for others to follow and get us to stop burning stuff. He likely thinks he’s very smart because he has money. But if he doesn’t do anything else successful but Tesla, he’s done a lot.
Ruckus
@eclare:
I’m more protesting as why the hell did elon need to fuck with twitter. He could have bought it and left it the same. But he has to show how great, smart and wonderful he is. And even given my comment at #19, I think he’s doing this because he thinks he can do anything. And it’s not true. He’s proven that.
raven
@Ruckus: My buddy worked at Mattel in El Segundo in the early 70’s. I don’t suppose you would have had any occasion to meet workers there? My sis lives in Hawthorne.
twbrandt
Musk is now offering hefty discounts to advertisers to come back, while simultaneously threatening that if they don’t spend at least $10K in advertisements in the next 30 days, they will lose their gold checkmark (which verifies it is them) and twitter will do nothing to stop trolls impersonating them.
If I were a brand CEO who got that email, I’d tell him to GFY. What a clown.
Sorry, paywalled link.
MattF
And the obvious next step is to set up a financial services company. Call it IMSOSEXY, and users will come running.
satby
@dirge: As others have told you, testing is of limited value in young kittens. And PCR tests are expensive and also not always reliable. My pets have always been the “unadoptables”, so I’ve had a fair number of FIV cats. Since my cats are indoor only, they’ve had perfectly normal livespans. My current oldest cat is Peanut, aged 15 and FIV+. I’ve had plenty of cats without FIV who passed away much younger.
Some cats won’t live as long with it, some live longer. It only factors in when they get an illness (like Duke did) that seems intractable, at which point hard decisions might need to be made. And had he not been a street cat, he might have also lived a good long time. It’s always a bit of a crapshoot, none of us can predict the future, but I would take them with no qualms assuming keeping up with yearly vet exams aren’t an undue burden.
LiminalOwl
@dirge: Seconding Lokhani’s comments. We adopted Baxter knowing that he was a senior-ish cat as well as FIV+ (and we had no other cats at the time) and had five wonderful years with him. Still recall him with great fondness, years later. WereBear’s recommendations should carry you, if you decide to continue with your three kittens. Best wishes to you and your wife.
azlib
We had an FIV positive Maine Coon cat and he coexisted with our other 3 cats without a problem. Our vet says the infection is almost always passed by biting which among our cats was non-existent. We did have all our cats fully vaccinated since we have fostered over 300 cats since 2010.
The cat lived a normal life for years without any issues. He did die of renal failure which was not as far as we know FIV related.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NobodySpecial: That’s generally my feeling too. His money buys things that he and his fans then declare he made via his native genius. No. He bought it.
The Thin Black Duke
@LiminalOwl: Baxter was a mensch.
different-church-lady
Another post mocking Twiiter consisting of nothing but Tweets. When is the irony LED going to start glowing?
NotMax
@different-church-lady
A classic Red Dwarf funny (0:46 to 1:32).
;)
ETtheLibrarian
@Rathskeller: I have had a couple of things sitting in my head re The Site Formerly Known by the Blue Bird.
One, I had read that EM had actually acquired the x.com URL years ago. Seems to be related to his desire to rename PayPal.
Two, there was a interesting article on Vox looking at what he might be moving to. According to that he has wanted to create a super app like WeChat but in the US (or west) where you can do everything. One of the subheading gets to the nut of the problem from my end for a host of different reasons “Elon Musk’s Twitter may not be the right platform for a super app, thanks to Elon Musk”
Another Scott
@ETtheLibrarian:
The John Bull thread (above) gives an excellent short history of Melon’s X.
Also too:
+1
Cheers,
Scott.
BruceFromOhio
Been having fun on Threads. Even the god-botherers are improved, limited thus far in my feed to lightweight stuff like “Trust in Gaia, she loves you” which is entirely palatable. Many of the artists, bands, musicians, photographers and snarky meme bandits I follow elsewhere appeared there almost immediately and its been awesome.
Xeets and Xitter, indeed. Guess I can’t call it the twatter anymore. Good fucking riddance.
Bupalos
@Ruckus: I don’t disagree that Tesla is a net good for the planet. I do think it’s a little distortively simplified to treat Tesla as something that Elmo “did.” To the exclusion of the reality that lots of people had a hand in its success, that its cars didn’t really advance the technology meaningfully, and that as a development it appears almost inevitable given the state of converging demand and converging technologies.
IMO other ev’s are already better, and that market doesn’t exist because of Elmo. At best it has a certain shape because of Elmo, and it’s not the best shape it could have taken.
NotMax
@Bupalos
Saw my first Tesla ever only the other day in a parking lot. Did a walkaround. Initial impression: ugg-leee.
EthylEster
Xfinity also uses a single x for a logo.
It’s the comcast rebrand of a couple of years ago.
ChrisSherbak
@Rathskeller: ^^^^ this. Was going to post this as well.
Tony G
I don’t want to tell Elon Musk how to do his job, but I thought that this was interesting …
”
Indonesia bans X.com (Twitter?) under country’s laws on pornography
Indonesia is a nation of more than 270 million people.
I also wonder about the old punk-rock band called “X”. Can they sue for copywriter infringement? I’m pretty sure that if Musk had renamed the company as THEBEATLES he’d be hearing from lawyers.
I imagine that this is an example why a normal company will a team of lawyers looking into this type of thing before it just arbitrarily happens.
Tony G
@ETtheLibrarian: That’s right. I imagine that only the stupidest fan-boys will want to trust their banking to a platform that has been a disaster ever since Musk too over.
Tony G
@Another Scott: That’s right. Open a web browser, key in your URL or go to a bookmark or do a search, and then do whatever you need to do. Why go through “X” or any other “do-everything” portal? I suspect that “WeChat” might be popular in China because the Chinese people know that the web is heavily censored and that one’s use of the web is under heavy surveillance. — and that, therefore, “WeChat” is a “safe” place to go. We’re not at that point (not yet, anyway) so who needs an American version of “WeChat”?
dirge
Kitten update.
A sincere and emphatic thanks to everyone who chimed in about kittens and FIV. I am much reassured, and leaning toward going through with the adoption.
I figured I should also get the opinion of the local vet who’s going to be dealing with any health issues they have. So I’m currently waiting to hear back from them before making a final decision.