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/
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
"Librem 14 Thoughts From a Librem 13 Early Adopter"
https://puri.sm/posts/librem-14-thoughts-from-a-librem-13-early-adopter/
Find out more about the all-new Librem 14: https://puri.sm/products/librem-14/
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/
Announcing the all-new Librem 14
https://puri.sm/products/librem-14
A powerful 14" laptop in a 13" footprint
- Core i7-10710U (Comet Lake) Processor, 6 cores & 12 threads
- Up to 32GB DDR4 memory
- Output 4K Video to two displays
More about the Librem 14: https://puri.sm/posts/purism-launches-librem-14-successor-to-security-focused-librem-13-product-line/
A data broker used protestors' cell phone information without their knowledge to release demographic estimates of recent protests against police violence. This is a huge invasion of privacy and yet another reason why we need robust data protection laws. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/protests-tech-company-spying
Journalist’s phone hacked by new ‘invisible’ technique: All he had to do was visit one website. Any website. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/06/21/journalists-phone-hacked-by-new-invisible-technique-all-he-had-to-do-was-visit-one-website-any-website.html #privacy #security #purism #librem5
Many people either don't know how masks work, or don't care. I observe so many masks below noses or even hanging from chins. Unless this makes it mandatory to wear masks *correctly* I don't know if it will have the hoped-for impact. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-18/california-mandatory-face-masks-statewide-order-coronavirus-gavin-newsom
Much respect to hairdressers. After studying an hour or two of tutorials I spent about two hours cutting my son's hair only to end up with a Dumb-and-Dumber-esque bowl cut. #bangsarehard #humility
If you're a protester, consider taking actions like switching your phone to airplane mode or leaving it home altogether.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/surveillance-self-defense-attending-protests-age-covid-19
Protesters and journalists covering protests have different threat models. The good news is we have advice for both. First, if you're a reporter on the ground, here are some tech tips.
Last week I was a guest on FLOSSWeekly where I talked about @purism, balancing security with freedom, the Librem 5, and culture clashes in #FLOSS. Check it out: https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/581?autostart=false
I've joked about printing in Linux for 20 years, but I just got a portable printer for #vanlife (Canon Pixma iP110) and it was literally plug and play. I connected printer USB to my laptop, it auto-detected/configured it, and prompted to print a test page which worked perfectly.
The announcement that the DEA was authorized to conduct covert surveillance on protestors got me thinking about how one could protect oneself against that kind of mass surveillance. In this post I give a quick overview of Stingray technology, the implications of its use at a protest, how aerial stingrays (“dirtboxes”) extends its mass-surveillance capabilities, and how the Librem 5’s hardware kill switches give you control over where, when and how you are surveilled.
Technical author, FOSS advocate, public speaker, Linux security & infrastructure geek, author of The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course, Linux Hardening in Hostile Networks and many other books, ex-Linux Journal columnist.