Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Smuggling some chips is easier in the US because we have a right to bear ARMs.

This brings a new meaning to "Intel Inside" https://www.pcgamer.com/chip-shortage-sees-people-cling-filming-cpus-to-their-bodies-and-millions-of-dollars-worth-of-components-seized/

I'm pleased with how quiet this Librem 14 is when running Qubes. No apparent electronics noises and the couple times the fan spun up (which is less often due to the faster CPUs) the low RPM was barely audible. I'm sure at full RPM it'll be loud of course.

I'd like to eat these, but I have to remind myself that I work in technology, where you must always keep currant.

For any other Librem 14 users running Qubes, I was able to install the librem-ec-acpi-dkms package in Qubes dom0, which lets you have more control over the embedded controller including setting charge thresholds. I documented my steps here: https://source.puri.sm/-/snippets/1170

Guns of August (which you should read if you haven't) describes how quickly one event cascaded into a world war. Take that, combine with flash crashes from AI-controlled high frequency trading, and you have my main worry w/ autonomous weapons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/07/ai-weapons-us-military/

I'm now running Qubes 4.0.4 on a shiny new Librem 14 laptop for work. Installation and backup/restore from my old Librem 13v4 worked smoothly. Now to put this 6-core/12-thread i7 through its paces!

I'd actually recommend this for someone new to safety razors. The mild setting on the head combined with being weighted opposite most razors (bottom of handle instead of head) means it's a lot easier to use minimal pressure and let the blade (and vibration) do the work.

Verdict: more of a mild skirmish than a bloodbath. Similar # of nicks as any time I use a brand new blade and fewer than I normally get when trying a new razor. Close, comfortable shave. Actually pleased with the results and looking forward to the next shave.

I admit I'm a little nervous moving a vibrating razor blade across my face. I'll shave with it tomorrow morning and report back on whether it was a close, comfortable shave or a bloodbath.

Today's thrift store find: vintage Stahly "Live Blade" vibrating safety razor. After winding the base the razor vibrates for about 3 mins. These were made between the `40s and early `70s. Date code B stamped on head, guessing this is a later model as the head feels like aluminum.

"Tom Burt...revealed that Microsoft is presented with 7-10 secrecy orders per day from federal law enforcement. These comprise a quarter to a third of all legal demands Microsoft receives, he said." #privacy https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/02/us_government_cloud/

Many people believe their smartphones are like an elite gated community, when in fact they are more like a digital nursing home. Desktop computers are next. https://puri.sm/posts/the-future-of-computers-the-neighborhood-and-the-nursing-home/

If I could help computer users understand one thing it would be that unless something changes, their future computer will be locked down like their phone, so they can only install software if the OS vendor approves. I talk about this in a new blog post: https://puri.sm/posts/the-future-of-computers-the-neighborhood-and-the-nursing-home/

I have way too much fun comparing hardware and software supply chain security to food supply chain security: https://puri.sm/posts/from-fab-to-table-librem-5-usa-supply-chain-security/