Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

We are continually disappointed by false promises of mobile convergence. My thoughts on why: real convergence means taking your desktop computer with you wherever you go. Fake convergence is the opposite: stretching a phone to fit a larger screen. #Librem5 https://puri.sm/posts/investing-in-real-convergence/

A post-tax-filing whiskey is a tradition around here. It works when it's a refund year but especially when it's not. #itwasnt #lastminutetaxes

One of the most damaging philosophies #infosec copied from IT is a belief in user inferiority. Too many security decisions are rooted in a patronizing notion that users are children and that trust and agency must be taken from them and given to infosec staff/vendors.

So thankful my wife and I can work from home. Year-round school starts this week: mandated 230 mins/day of work w/ multiple daily zoom calls. For 3rd grader this will require much parental supervision. Don't know how single parents/others can do it.

It blew his mind that a single deck of cards you can buy for $1 could mean a hundred different single and multiplayer games. I immediately taught him solitaire, and cribbage is next. Society would never invent such a thing today.

I'm a free software nerd because explaining what a deck of cards is to my son became an object lesson in open standards and vendor lock in.

For hundreds of years a new card game meant new rules but the same deck. Now everyone has to monetize w/ custom cards and expansion packs.

I'm digging the new boot splash screen that made it in the #Librem5 Dogwood PureOS release. I especially like the graphical feedback during system updates.

A beard is basically a swap partition for your mouth.

Oh Snap! https://linuxreviews.org/Linux_Mint_20_Blocks_And_Removes_Snap_Citing_Backdoor_To_Canonicals_SnapCraft_Store

"This has been going on for years and is an essential part of the mobile app economy."

Unless you remove the financial incentive, there's no hope for #privacy on Android/iOS. Their app ecosystems are built on selling user data and no amount of prompts or checkboxes can fix it.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/8/21311533/sdks-tracking-data-location

Movie remake: Terminator, but T-101 has 2020 facial recognition tech with current false positive rates. Twist: Sarah Connor is black. #privacy

First SARS-CoV-2, then H1N1 G4 and now actual Bubonic plague? #yearofpestilence https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/bubonic-plague-triggers-health-alert-in-china-after-herder-is-infected/2020/07/07/bfb8f874-c004-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html

I appreciated Brian Chen's NYTimes piece on tech longevity (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/technology/personaltech/make-your-tech-last-longer.html). Mainstream attention on this is critical. My thoughts on how @purism is solving the issue are at https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-longevity-solving-the-problem-of-disposable-technology/

Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but to me if you only care whether something hurts you/yours, then admit it and move on, there's nothing to debate. If you *do* care whether you hurt others, then listen when they say they are hurt and try not to hurt them.

The conclusion that's stuck w/ me years after reading this piece on rich preppers isn't the excess, but the selfish, short-sightedness. If those people would invest the same resources into *improving* their society, they needn't worry about its collapse. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich

One of our hens has become rather progressive lately. Instead of standard hen clucking, she now crows like a rooster before laying an egg.

After 900 or so pages of building to this moment, I'm at the section in War and Peace where Moscow is evacuating and preparing to burn before Napoleon's arrival. It's a fascinating scene in history and equally interesting to read a fictionalized account. Great book.

In honor of the @purism #Librem14 launch I wrote a personal post to share my perspective as someone who backed the original Librem 13 crowdfunding campaign and still use it daily: https://puri.sm/posts/librem-14-thoughts-from-a-librem-13-early-adopter/