Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

Interesting to see the Netherlands banning the use of mobile devices in the classroom. I totally understand why. My kids' school has basically the same policy. I wonder if a nation-wide ban will make other things difficult though. In Vienna, the school decides the policy. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/04/mobile-phones-other-devices-to-be-banned-from-dutch-classrooms

According to my tests with my single #GooglePlay device (#Android 10), Play Protect does not put up the "Unsafe App" warning screen for F-Droid 1.17-alpha0. Can anyone else confirm this?

It seems to me that "modern" is the word that companies use to describe new features when they don't want to explain the actual reasoning behind why they made the change. "[X] offers a more modern way of storing local data".

One of the biggest sighs of relief I've had recently is hearing @doctorow say that podcasts are still resilient against #privatization. I had great fears that #spotify's attempt to do so by paying Joe Rogan $100mil would be successful, but apparently, Cory Doctorow considers that attempt to be a failure. It is at least clear that Apple's efforts there have failed over the years. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/enshittification-part-3-saving-internet-on-the-media

We can set up #internet communities with hard requirements to respect the community. This is why #FDroid is legally structured to put #FreeSoftware first and foremost, via legal structures set up by Commons Conservancy.

What is happening with #Reddit should not be surprising, it is a for-profit corporation. They are legally required to maximize profit. There are no requirements to respect the community that uses it. This is the danger of hoping that #internet companies will do the right thing. Corp. officers will not take on personal liability to defend communities, because corp laws say shareholder profit comes first. #WhatsApp showed this by selling out to #Facebook. #Telegram looks very ripe for the same.

For those who believe that the western liberal democracy is more effective than Chinese communism, consider that China is ahead of its #climate goals while western liberal democracies are behind. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (Shakespeare quote, not singling out). If we are to prevent authoritarians from expanding, we need hold our governments to account. We also must take personal responsibility and do what we can to reduce our own climate impact https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/china-wind-solar-power-global-renewable-energy-leader

Interesting to see that the #Ruble has dropped below pre-invasion value when compared to the #Euro.

I like #Matrix and #Signal both for group communications, but there are still many things that #email does much better. For example, I often want to quickly preview a message to see if I want to deal with it now. If not, then I leave it marked unread. Not possible all the messenger apps I've tried. That leads to slower response times because I won't open messages until I'm fully ready to deal with something more complicated. Maybe #DeltaChat is the best direction for the long term.

A decade ago, #AmnestyInternational did some extensive UX work on #panic buttons using the power button. They used 10 presses as their trigger, and still got far too many false positives. Their conclusion was power button triggers were not workable. #GuardianProject reached a similar conclusion back then. I guess #Google missed that research: they shipped #Android with a 5-press trigger, and now emergency services numbers are receiving record numbers of false calls:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/uk-police-blame-android-for-record-number-of-false-emergency-calls/

#NYC way of dealing with work when it is hot: go from super hot subway platform to cold subway to frigid AC offices and keep working away.

#Vienna way of dealing with work when it is hot: no AC anywhere, if it is too hot to work, go to the nearest body of water and spend the rest of the day swimming.

AI generated music is getting traction because they are basically exploiting a loophole in copyright laws, where AI systems can take human music and make it available in a way that looks like copyright laws do not apply 2/2

I don't think I'll ever see a good reason for #AI generated #music. Music taps directly into emotions and human connection. There is already so much human-composed music out there that could be used instead of AI music. The problem is broken #copyright laws e.g. long terms, massive penalties, and applying a commercial regulation to all uses. 1/2