Lee Riemenschneider @lwriemen@librem.one

What is the future of smartphones? Let's listen to Nicole Færber, Chief Technology Officer, Purism, at the recent discussion organized by Protocol

"The last twenty years of the internet have demonstrated the vast and unchecked power that comes with owning and controlling the platforms, the ability to structure and profit from every interaction. It seems unbelievably short-sighted for the education sector to relinquish the dwindling amount of agency it still possesses…" https://abject.ca/just-give-up-i-guess/

A recent discussion made me remember an interesting talk about higher education and the tendency of individuals to radicalisation. As I found: The matter is difficult, with in fact higher-ed graduates from various disciplines found at high rates in radical groups.

- book discussion from 2016: https://academic.oup.com/esr/article/33/1/161/2525515

- US library of Congress report from 1999 (see particularly page 48 f): https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/Soc_Psych_of_Terrorism.pdf

Any sociologist who can advise on the most recent state of reseach?

UN: Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record in 2020

https://ground.news/article/un-greenhouse-gas-concentrations-hit-a-new-record-in-2020_158938 #climatechange #climatecrisis #leadonclimate

1/2 off sale this week on TESA games including Co-opoly, Strike! and Game-Changer...

https://store.tesacollective.com/collections/games

A couple years back, the charitable foundation I work for took up MSFT's donation programme for Azure-based hosting (they gave us a USD 5k 'credit' for hosting services for a year). Azure was demonstrably less capable, needlessly complex, & uninformative compared to other cloud providers we were using alongside it. When our 'credit' ran out (Azure doesn't tell you how much you've spent on their dashboard - that's an extra $$ service), turned out our instance was costing USD600ish/month 1/2

And yes, I think Techsoup is an unethical organisation that is completely complicit in the wilful exploitation of charitable and non-profit organisations, globally. They actively avoid mentioning or promoting excellent Free and Open Source Software to their audience... because they make all their money from 'clipping the ticket' (the 'admin costs' they charge) getting them addicted to MSFT's proprietary software producing proprietary digital artefacts.

Microsoft are quite despicable. Look at https://email.connectingup.org/t/i-e-cjukitt-shutkotj-k/ - this is the web view of an email I just got from 'Techsoup', who exist to addict non-profits to MSFT proprietary software (offering 'donated' MSFT software at 'almost free' prices, so NGOs don't adopt #FOSS instead)... and now MSFT, having addicted them, are jacking up the price and forcing them to switch to subscription pricing. Yuck.

Rather than risk having to pay for that again in future, with all the issues we were having (did you know that Azure Linux instances don't support Websockets by default?), we migrated our Azure instance to a higher spec DigitalOcean droplet... costing USD 40/month. Yes, something like 1/15th the cost. We haven't regretted the move for an instant. We similarly ditched AWS, with massive productivity gains & substantial cost reductions. I can't believe businesses use either of those services. 2/2

EFF, with @ACLUNorCal, @ACLUSoCal, and @sdACLU, has filed a suit on behalf of three immigrant rights activists against Sheriff Bob Doyle and Marin County for violating two California laws that protect immigrants and motorists’ privacy. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/eff-files-new-lawsuit-against-california-sheriff-sharing-alpr-data-ice-and-cbp

Congratulations to Mi'kmaq water protectors on their hard-fought victory against #AltonGas. We figured we'd mark the occasion by re-sharing a video we put out about their struggle back in 2017.

https://sub.media/video/mikmaq-resistance-defend-the-sacred/

Crowd-sourced safety apps are out of control and have become the toxic social component of a landscape of surveillance, paranoia, and potential vigilantism.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/crowd-sourced-suspicion-apps-are-out-control

This looks pretty cool for raising awareness... would love any feedback.
https://whoslistening.globalencryption.org/

Right now in so-called Montreal
Action in solidarity with Gidimt'en and Likhts'amisyu land defenders
#AllOutforWedzinKwa
#ShutDownCanada

The 5th Amendment protects your right to refuse to provide your password to police. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/police-cant-demand-you-reveal-your-phone-passcode-and-then-tell-jury-you-refused

Discussed the key role coops play in Nordic democratic socialism and how coops help explain the rise and decline of the labour movement.

Also present some thoughts on how to revitalise coop organising by campaigning in credit union, mutual insurance and pension fund board and trustee elections to get them to redirect their massive pools of capitals into funding new coops, especially in the tech sector.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSeKoNHs7vA

Big Oil’s Climate Plans Are Worthless, According to Science https://gizmodo.com/big-oil-s-climate-plans-are-worthless-according-to-sci-1847919875 #climatechange #climatecrisis #leadonclimate

Given Trumps past history with people taking Trump to court, this is going to be very interesting. I'm not sure if Trump's going to even comply with the results of a court case or any kind of licence enforcement.
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RT @IlvesToomas
Ripping off open source software is the apotheosis of Trumpism https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/22/22740354/trump-truth-social-network-spac-mastodon-license-software-freedom-conservancy
https://twitter.com/IlvesToomas/status/1451636556343689226

People shouldn't have to unlock their phones for police. We’ve fought for that principle in courts across the country, and the fight continued this week in Utah. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/police-cant-demand-you-reveal-your-phone-passcode-and-then-tell-jury-you-refused