keverets @keverets@librem.one

For rainy days we have a treadmill but it's locked into the vendor's subscription service if you want to watch videos.

Except...tap the bottom left 10 times, wait 7 seconds, tap 10 more times, up pops a number, use that as a seed to generate a number with lrand48, reduce modulo 999999 (not 1000000!) and type that number back in, and now you have an Android tablet with web browser and access to YouTube.

"but e-mail !1!!!" Is probably still a number one objection from experts and power users who refuse to fathom that e-mail protocols are a viable option for instant messaging even if it demonstrably works, is fast and secure :) We'd be happy if someone engaged in a proper comparison with xmpp and matrix specs and impls, really the only three messenging protocols deployed and implemented at scale. (Can't compare that with Signal or WhatsApp which don't have wire specs!). https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-core-rust/blob/main/standards.md

Does your public library use on Overdrive/Libby for ebooks or audiobooks? ⚠️

In the US and Canada, the answer is probably yes. And you might want to speak to your library staff and commission about it.

Libby is now owned by a private equity firm & making sketchy changes: https://buttondown.email/ninelives/archive/the-coming-enshittification-of-public-libraries/

The latest development is that their overbroad privacy policy allows them to sell your borrowing history to advertisers: https://infosec.exchange/@longobord/112243098104196246

Thank you @karawynn and @longobord!

#Privacy #Libraries

"Spotify’s CEO is now a billionaire but it takes artists 334 streams to make $1. The company just enacted a plan to completely demonetize smaller artists. Under the new policy, tracks that get under a certain threshold of annual streams will receive no money from the company. Groups like United Musicians and Allied Workers (ig: weareumaw) are fighting to save their industry."

#Union #capitalism

PumpkinOS: A Modern Reimplementation of PalmOS for Today’s Platforms https://hackaday.com/2024/04/08/pumpkinos-a-modern-reimplementation-of-palmos-for-todays-platforms/ #Retrocomputing #PalmOS #palm #pda

After reviewing the privacy policies of all 3 apps, I find that a deceptively broad interpretation of the Overdrive/Libbyapp privacy policy enables them to share your checkout history with advertisers.

3/x
#privacy #library

Kashmir Hill once tried 5 weeks without Big Tech, a main thread of that was how Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon are pervasive and how it is nearly impossible to operate in a digital society without these companies touching your personal data.

https://puri.sm/posts/purism-differentiator-series-part-8-big-tech-avoidance/

@MapAmore Wow! This looks even better than StreetComplete for crosswalks, and it's on F-Droid! Thanks for the recommendation. :)

@zwol M4 always was horrible, and I say that as the original author of GNU M4.

The original Unix M4 was weird, and there weren't really any good explanations for why it was the way it was. Apparently someone at Bell labs needed a preprocessor and wrote M4, sometimes in the '70, for no other greater purpose than to scratch a personally itch.

GNU M4 only exists because RMS wanted GNU to have what Unix had, and while I wanted to do something different and better, RMS convinced me to do M4 first.

@esther

As a legally blind person touchscreens or touch buttons on every device are the bane of my existence.

The iPhone is very accessible, Android phones are reasonably accessible to the blind. But hardly anyone makes the touch screen on an appliance screen reader accessible.(apart from very expensive products made especially for the blind).

Why does the espresso machine at work need touch sensitive buttons? I've learned that I need the second button from the top. But since I can't touch the top of the machine to feel where the buttons are without instantly activating any other button on the way I find it very difficult to make a cup of coffee .

Touch screens are worse. and when some company does make them accessible for legal reasons (ATMs for example), they do such a shitty job you may as well ask for sighted assistance anyway.

#accessibility #blind

The Way Things Work (1994)
Magnetism

🚨 BOOST CHALLENGE! 🚨Ok #Fediverse and #Mastodon. If I tell my Canadian Member of Parliament, Gord Johns, that he will get 2000 followers within one week of creating a Mastodon account, will you make that happen?

I want him to be able to say when he stands in the House and presents the #e4769 petition for an official Fediverse server that he himself is the first Canadian MP to be on the Fediverse!

Boost for yes! I am going to show him this post! I'm counting on you, literally! 🔥 🙏 2️⃣ 0️⃣ 0️⃣ 0️⃣ 🙏

The Verge article on the best printer in 2024 is just completely brilliant in so many ways.

And also kinda sad.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework

I did not realise that the Amazon Go/Fresh "just walk out" technology was in fact significantly powered by a thousand people in India manually labelling things. And now it turns out that they can't actually close the automation gap, they're ditching it as it's too expensive? https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116