John Sullivan @johns@librem.one

@liw “The Ferengi are hailing us.”
“Onscreen.”
“Uh… we can't, they're using a proprietary codec and the licence isn't compatible with Federation law.”
“Can we install it anyway? Under one of the diplomacy directives.”
“Nnnooo, looks like we'd need to upgrade the ship's processing core. Or maybe downgrade. Possibly both.”
“Ah screw it, just open fire.”

My friends on IRC are discussing how realistic Star Trek is. The thing that's least realistic is video conferencing, which always works. That's just not possible.

Teleporting? Fine. Warp drive? No problem. Holodeck? Easy. Video conferencing: no way.

New blog post: https://www.harihareswara.net/sumana/2019/06/12/1 "Hey, You Left Something Out"

On the reply/comment pattern that goes (playfully or dismissively): "you did not mention the thing that I think should be mentioned. Therefore, something is wrong." What it's aiming at & what it misses.

Piracy is Ethically Acceptable To Many Harvard Lawyers https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-ethically-acceptable-for-many-harvard-lawyers-research-finds-190607/

if any Boston-area #floss #freesoftware #opensource folks are thinking of going to Grendel's for the weekly get-together tonight https://libreplanet.org/2019/fun/ , look for https://jasonaowen.net/ and say hi? He's visiting

More than 50 police departments have partnered with Ring to create a resident-powered surveillance dragnet. That's 50 cities too many. https://www.cnet.com/features/amazons-helping-police-build-a-surveillance-network-with-ring-doorbells/