Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

I can't overstate how influential Penny's computer book was on my ideals for computers: portable, always with you, flexible, extensible, easy to reconfigure/reprogram. It's why my first laptop was a Libretto and why my next personal computer will be a Librem 5 w/ a laptop dock.

I mean, come on...

Ok so not as accurate as Back to the Future 2, but close.

Some say that people don't care about #privacy, but Facebook is convinced that enough people won't opt into being tracked that they are removing tracking by unique phone identifier entirely before opt in gets implemented in iOS 14: #powerofdefaults https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/ios-14-privacy-settings-will-tank-ad-targeting-business-facebook-warns/

One promise of neural tech is to supplement humans w/ apps that provide instant skills/knowledge. Imagine Apple and an app company get in a dispute, Apple removes the app, and you lose the ability to speak Mandarin/drive/cook/play guitar/write software?

If a computer can read/write directly to your brain, does it change how you feel about vendor control of which software you can use or whether you can see the code? What about subsidizing hardware/software w/ ads or selling data they access through the computer?

Given what you know about the current state of phone technology and Internet #privacy, which tech company would you trust to control your neural implant? https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21402240/neuralink-august-2020-event-brain-machine-interface-working-demonstration

It reminds me of standard NSA denials on spying in a particular way "in this program" because they use a different program to do that.

In essence, Google's privacy policy allowed Google app A to grab location data from Google app B, even if you disabled location services from A but not B.

"Documents released also show that Google’s privacy policy was crafted in a way to allow applications that had location tracking turned off from using the location tracking information from another Google application that had location tracking on" #privacy https://www.azmirror.com/2020/08/24/unsealed-google-lawsuit-docs-show-its-own-engineers-were-confused-by-privacy-settings/

I got a Zojirushi water boiler for my birthday and wow, having instant hot water on demand instead of waiting for a kettle is a game changer when you drink a lot of coffee and tea.

Wow, after a single week of on-campus instruction, student/staff COVID-19 infections went from 10 to 177, prompting UNC-Chapel Hill to move to remote learning: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/unc-chapel-hill-coronavirus-cluster/2020/08/17/8ebce060-e0ab-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html

All the more reason to take control over your own location data and how it's shared, instead of hoping proprietary software funded by your data is operating in your best interests (it isn't): https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/secret-service-other-agencies-buy-access-to-mobile-phone-location-data/ #privacy

Social media is going to be intolerable the next six months with all the helicopter parents and celebrities nagging me every day to practice good hygiene, vote and get vaccinated. #yourenotmyrealdad

My uninformed theory about the Mozilla layoffs is that Google waited for anti-trust hearings and then canceled/drastically reduced FF sponsorship claiming COVID cost-cutting, safe in the knowledge that browsers weren't brought up in the hearings. #speculation