Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

@lunduke Microsoft has always followed in IBM's footsteps, and Google is following in Microsoft's. Microsoft is currently at the phase where IBM spray painted Tux on SF sidewalks.

@le_ArthurDent@mastodon.social Seeing a small number of preppers wearing camo and tactical gear protesting shelter-in-place.

I expected a global pandemic with partial shutdown of society would be the time for preppers to shine and practice their training. Yet after only a month of easy sheltering (grid up, clean water, ample food, even Netflix), some preppers are starting to crack. Disappointing.

Once I ran outside
Now I stay inside
This tainted test you've given
I give you all a swab can give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Tainted test:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/cdcs-failed-coronavirus-tests-were-tainted-with-coronavirus-feds-confirm/

So hypothetically, if you can get paid to take barrels of negative-value oil, do they offer contactless delivery or at least curbside pickup? #stimuluscheck https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/oil-drops-to-18-year-low-on-global-demand-crunch-storage-woes

I transferred some of the Altbier to a 6L keg that fits inside my kitchen fridge and is pressurized using a CO2 canister. Three weeks from grain to glass.

Some folks were curious about the time from brew day to glass. This Altbier is an ale and ferments faster (1-2 weeks) than a lager (3-4). Last week I chilled it down to cellar temps and transferred it into a keg and connected the keg to CO2 to carbonate for 1-2 weeks.

One underreported downside to wearing a mask so much is that all this talking like Batman is wearing out my voice.

In a world full of bored pranksters willing to zoombomb en masse, a truly anonymous #COVID19 contact tracing app doesn't stand a chance. It'll only take a small number of trolls to make identification mandatory.

Today I was reminded of the time I remotely wiped a server over SSH and wrote about it for Linux Journal. I figured some of you might not have read it before and would find it entertaining: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/remotely-wipe-server

@leimon I have to say, knowing I can go outside and disable Bluetooth and wifi with a kill switch is pretty comforting. Not to mention having full control of the software on my phone.

@dallin Thanks for the link. I suspect (hope) that only means the OS will natively have the capability, but that it will default to off (otherwise it would contradict their claim of consent). I also hope they release the code.

For the sake of our phones (and clothing) I hope the COVID-19 5G truthers setting fire to antennas in the UK never discover these apps use radio waves to track the infection.

I'm so happy I splurged for Penguin's high quality cloth hardcover of War and Peace (Briggs translation). It not only feels great in your hands, it has a silk ribbon bookmark! #booknerd

@af The top result you are pointing to (investors.com article I assume) is an editorial, not a news story, that is coming from a partisan "fake news" point of view. I'm not seeing any hard news bombshells here and don't approach news from a partisan angle myself. Instead I simply look at how a news outlet handles reporting and research and how they handle retractions when they make a mistake, etc. It's irrelevant to me whether stories are favorable to any particular political party.

@af They wrote the story and tend to exercise independence and high journalism standards, which matters far more to me than ownership.

The article touches on some #privacy concerns, but much depends on this being voluntary. My concern is it will be false choice like many TSA rules: ie. you can "choose" to use the app and resume work/public life or "choose" to stay at home. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/10/apple-google-tracking-coronavirus/

Here's a practical COVID-19 challenge for makers: solve the consumer TP supply chain issues with a #3dprinted drill attachment that would let you re-spool an empty consumer TP tube from the giant (now plentiful) commercial rolls so people could do it at home.