I already boosted this, but I want to add more emphasis. I think every Canadian citizen of the Fediverse ought to sign this petition to get the Government of Canada off Xitter: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5359
Could anyone who has any Canadian followers please boost or just re-post it yourself? This matters.
“Truly a middle finger”: Humane bricking $700 AI Pins with limited refunds
Humane's showing how not to treat early adopters.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/truly-a-middle-finger-humane-bricking-700-ai-pins-with-limited-refunds/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
In today’s “terminology matters”:
❌ Return To Office policy: middle-management language that assumes “office” is a neutral position, we’re somehow “returning to”. This term has been carefully crafted by corporate strategists to sound as palatable as possible.
✅ Mandatory Commute policy: centers the outcome for workers - spending hours each day on an unpaid commute to and from the office just so we can be on video calls all day.
We don’t just have to accept hostile framing.
Citizen Lab released a report that highlights three serious security issues in the RedNote app, including that the app retrieves uploaded user content in a way that allows anyone else on your network, at your ISP, or organizations like the NSA, to see everything you look at and upload to RedNote. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/crimson-memo-analyzing-privacy-impact-xianghongshu-aka-red-note
I asked myself, if I'm setting my own fonts, why is my browser hitting fonts.googleapis.com?
And I am both surprised and not-surprised to discover that blocking fonts.googleapis.com with Ublock Origin fully removes a class of unwanted captchas from my browsing experience.
In Firefox: Extensions, UBlock Origin, click the gear, "My Filters" at the top, check the enable box, add this:
||fonts.googleapis.com
And suddenly this goes away:
Cycling helps fight climate change and makes cities more livable. More profoundly, people who cycle regularly are more oriented toward the common good.
Cars turn people into sociopaths; bikes reverse that.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494423001731
master: welcome to my Smart Home
student: wow. how is the light controlled?
master: with this on-off switch
student: i don't see a motor to close the blinds
master: there is none
student: where is the server located?
master: it is not needed
student: excuse me but what is "Smart" about all of this?
master: everything.
in this moment, the student was enlightened
Did you know that @OpenAlex now provides saved searchers and scholarly literature alerts that tell you when new papers on a topic are published. I switched my alerts from Google Scholar & really like the change (fewer extra papers that don't really match the search criteria) plus it's based on open scholarly infrastructure produced by a non-profit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGKF6jndCJw
(COI: because I believe in open scholarly infrastructure I volunteer on the board for the folks that make Open Alex)
A Decade of Write.as Sale https://write.as/deals/a-decade-of-write-as-sale
"The UK’s war on encryption affects all of us" via @verge.
Indeed, the UK's actions imperil security across the globe.
It's worth highlighting that open source comms tools, like @matrix and @signalapp, empower researchers and users: you'll _see_ if a backdoor is added.
Not so with proprietary tools. Do you really trust Meta, Apple, or Google not to roll over on you?
https://www.theverge.com/policy/612136/uk-icloud-investigatory-powers-act-war-on-encryption
#FOSS #SoftwareFreedom #OpenSource #Security #Privacy #Encryption