Online Communities, Microsoft Layoffs, Games, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 25, 2024

• Kev Quirk ☛ Thinking About Online Communities

  This is all great feedback and I agree with it all. Of the few hundred people who have voted so far, only 10% have said they would actually join. That's fine - 500 people is the maximum, not the target. If it ended up being 50 people, that would be great too.

• LWN ☛ Nix alternatives and spinoffs

  Since the disagreements that led to Eelco Dolstra stepping down from the NixOS Foundation board, there have been a number of projects forked from or inspired by Nix that have stepped up to compete with it. Two months on, some of these projects are now well-established enough to look at what they have to offer and how they compare to each other. Overall, users have a number of good options to choose from, whether they're seeking a compatible replacement for Nix (the configuration language and package manager) or NixOS (the Linux distribution), or something that takes the same ideas in a different direction.

  To establish a baseline for the comparison, the Nix project is still operative and working on business as usual. NixOS 24.05 was released on-schedule at the end of May, and 24.11 will follow later this year. Despite that, the project has seen more contributors leave — and continuing issues with upheaval in the community. While the project seems unlikely to go away, it has definitely suffered a blow.

• Amid DEI cuts, Microsoft works to distinguish itself from those responding to ‘woke’ backlash

  Microsoft recently cut two diversity-related roles, igniting speculation that it was joining a cohort of employers walking back DEI commitments amid “woke” backlash.

  One outlet reported that in the wake of those layoffs, a team lead emailed thousands of workers, criticizing the company for no longer viewing DEI as “business critical.”

  A Microsoft spokesperson, on the other hand, told HR Dive that the two positions eliminated were redundant roles on its events team, and that the company’s global DEI team was unaffected.

• “Concept artists were then forced…”: Call of Duty Artists Allegedly Made to Rely On AI For at Least 1 Bundle Only Weeks After 1,900 Layoffs [Ed: Microsoft continues to lay off people, knowing that some CG staff cannot really replace them but budget is very tight (Xbox losing lots of money).]

  One Anonymous Activision employee came forward and expressed his concerns regarding the shift in the working system within the company. He talked about how a lot of 2D artists were laid off, and many others were forced to integrate AI into their workspaces.

• Games

  • Sebastiaan Andeweg ☛ So now I am a Game Master

    My next goal is to actually start a campaign, as my seven one-shots are not really sustainable in the long run (so much preparation proportional to the game time). And the general goal is to just get better at improvising at the table, to just go with the flow of where-ever the players want to go. And maybe a subgoal is to write about my progress from time to time here.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Matt Birchler ☛ The one way wired earbuds still beat AirPods

    Bluetooth earbuds are better for me in basically every situation, but wired earbuds remain undefeated on the “pairing” front. Yes, pairing AirPods with Apple devices is easy, but you know what’s easier? Plugging them in.

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla ☛ BAFTA Award-Winner Siobhán McSweeney to host Mozilla’s 2nd Annual Rise25 Awards in Dublin, Ireland on August 13

    Following the news of our 25 honorees for The 2nd Annual Rise25 Awards, Mozilla is thrilled to announce that actress and presenter Siobhán McSweeney will be hosting this year’s ceremony which will celebrate these individuals for leading the next wave of AI. The Irish actress, best known for her BAFTA award-winning performance as Sister Michael in Channel 4’s (Netflix in the U.S.) series “Derry Girls” and most recently in Hulu’s “Extraordinary,” will take the helm during this year’s ceremony which will take place the evening of Tuesday, August 13 at the Convention Centre in Dublin, Ireland. 

• IBM

  • Red Hat Official ☛ 9 benefits of an automation-first mindset

    To put it simply, IT automation is all about using software to handle those repetitive administration tasks we usually do manually. Think of it like setting up a bunch of smart routines that take care of things for you, helping your IT environment run smoothly and scale quickly when needed.