Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

European missile group MBDA selling parts for bombs that have killed children in #Gaza - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/17/european-missile-group-mbda-selling-parts-for-bombs-that-have-killed-children-in-gaza "Britain has paused some weapons sales to Israel, but a Guardian investigation shows revenues from the GBU-39 bomb generated by the US arm of MBDA flow through the UK"

Seems like every time Netanyahu's corruption trial resumes, he bombs a neighboring country, and the trial is delayed again...

https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-trial-paused-as-syria-bombed

@paul_ipv6 @nixCraft this reminds me: I have in my garage right now (rolled up) one of what was, at the time, only ten *in the world* UNIX timeline posters printed on vinyl. It's something like 40 feet long, and I need to find a university CS department to donate it to. A bunch of us at work went in on it together and mounted it on the external wall of the datacenter.

I'm willing to ship this behemoth somewhere if somebody can promise me a good home for it. You can't even buy it from the printer I bought it from, so there are very few available.

https://www.levenez.com/wall/#2010

🧵1/ Social media permanently changed American political campaigning, but only Republicans have changed with it.

Donald Trump won the 2024 election, not because people liked him, but because his party understands network marketing in the social media age.

https://plus.flux.community/p/republicans-treat-politics-like-viral

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to get hired for any jobs that I've applied to over the past year. And at the age of 58, I don't think anything is going to change. No company wants to hire anyone my age. I've been talking with my wife and I might try to start doing some Linux and Open Source consulting work. Maybe even start an actual business. I am absolutely sick and tired of working my ass off getting resumes edited, writing cover letters, sending them off to companies with the hopes that someone will actually give me a change, to only get a rejection email telling me they are going with someone else but keep an eye on future openings.

A message to younger folks in the Tech industry: Make sure you're well know in the industry and don't get old. Not getting old is, of course, impossible but what I've found is that even though I have been in the Linux and Open Source world for more than 30 years, I am a complete unknown and that is one of the reasons (of many) I'm not getting a chance.

In non-horrifying news, I’m reading about trogocytosis this morning, and it’s fascinating. It’s a process by way of which a cell extracts a slice of membrane from another during direct contact, *and that slice retains its function*, blurring the boundary between self and other on the molecular level. It really is chimeras all the way down, isn’t it?

How Big Tech Exploits Apps to Circumvent Privacy Laws

Despite GDPR, CCPA, and CPRA, Big Tech continues to bypass data protection laws through a powerful loophole: mobile apps.

Android, iOS, and Windows apps operate as closed surveillance ecosystems, where Terms of Service and permissions legally transform your smartphone into a data extraction tool.

Read more at Purism: https://puri.sm/posts/how-big-tech-exploits-apps-to-circumvent-privacy-laws-a-solution-from-purism/

It is too hot to waste all that water on A.I. Blast me with a firehose of cold water and let me answer things incorrectly.

From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Freelance photographer Tod Seelie says he was attacked by a group of people attending an immigration protest in LA on June 14.

He was shoved to the ground and punched at, and his phone taken and damaged.

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-attacked-by-protesters-at-la-immigration-demonstration/

🔴 Brand new Tom the Dancing Bug comic now up on Boing Boing!
-
The heroic billionaire Lex Luthor faces the evil menace of Superman!
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https://boingboing.net/2025/07/16/tom-the-dancing-bug-the-heroic-adventures-of-lex-luthor.html

I keep seeing this sentiment that desktop Linux has become woke and gay.

Desktop Linux has been woke and gay the whole time. Y’all just for some reason decided you suddenly have a problem with it. We didn’t change, you did. Okay some of us came out of the closet. But we’ve been talking about diversity and inclusion for decades and equity has been the entire focal point of the free software movement since like the 70s! It’s woke gay communism and you fucking loved it until 2016

Ever heard someone say "We SHOULD pay farm workers more! But then oranges will cost $3 each?"

Here's the debunk in video format- with additional info that didn't make it into the thread.

Send to anyone who'd find it useful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfHUnK81nvw&t=3s

New Privacy Guides article 🔒
by me:

While most social media rely on commercial models harvesting users' data to sell to advertisers,

Mastodon offers a human-centric alternative that doesn't seek profits from your data and attention.

This means better social connections, better controls, and better privacy!

The first part of this article discusses privacy and security on Mastodon.

The second part is a tutorial to guide you in making the most of Mastodon's security and privacy related features.

This tutorial includes how to:

• Enable multifactor authentication 🔑🔑

• Adjust privacy vs discovery 👀

• Select post visibility and access

• Verify yourself

• Delete and back up your data

• Block users and instances ⛔

• Opt out with hashtags #️⃣

• Move from one instance to another 🚀

I hope this helps you making the most of what Mastodon has to offers!

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/07/15/mastodon-privacy-and-security/

#PrivacyGuides #Mastodon #Fediverse #Privacy #Security #Tutorial #TheFutureIsFederated #TinyMastodonTip

Even for the Trump regime, this is utterly vile: incinerating food rather than give it to people who'd otherwise go hungry, or starve.

https://archive.ph/PpL1d

Large study squashes anti-vaccine talking points about #aluminum - https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/07/large-study-squashes-anti-vaccine-talking-points-about-aluminum/ #antivaxxers wrong again...

"#Trump flew on #Epstein's private jet seven times and once hosted a "calendar girl competition" at Mar-a-Lago featuring just himself, Epstein, and 30 women. But sure, tell us more about how you "hardly knew the guy."" - https://boingboing.net/2025/07/15/trump-claims-deep-state-wrote-fake-documents-about-imaginary-list-that-doesnt-exist.html

Belkin Bricks Most Wemo Smart Home Devices, Again Demonstrating You Don’t Own What You Buy - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/15/belkin-bricks-most-wemo-smart-home-devices-again-demonstrating-you-dont-own-what-you-buy/

Mining Firm Tied to Trump Allies Poised for Major Favor From #EPA - https://readsludge.com/2025/07/15/mining-firm-tied-to-trump-allies-poised-for-major-favor-from-epa/ " Northern Dynasty Minerals, once represented by Susie Wiles and underwritten by Howard Lutnick’s investment firm, could soon see a key veto of its Pebble Mine project reversed. " #extraction

‘The place is bleached, a dead zone’: how the UK’s most beloved landscapes became biodiversity deserts - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/16/dartmoor-is-dying-how-the-uks-national-parks-turned-into-biodiversity-deserts why is #nationaltrust complicit in this overgrazing?