Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Everything I Know about Self-Publishing - https://kk.org/thetechnium/everything-i-know-about-self-publishing/ kevin kelly's wisdom based on many years' experience; worth reading for insights

Horrifying transformation turns ordinary rabbits into nightmare creatures as virus spreads through Colorado - https://boingboing.net/2025/08/13/horrifying-transformation-turns-ordinary-rabbits-into-nightmare-creatures-as-virus-spreads-through-colorado.html yikes

The Online Safety Act: How not to do internet regulation - https://www.technollama.co.uk/the-online-safety-act-how-not-to-do-internet-regulation "could inadvertently push UK citizens towards less regulated platforms or encourage the development of parallel digital ecosystems that operate entirely outside British oversight." yup #osa

China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card - https://www.theverge.com/news/759624/china-is-about-to-launch-ssds-so-small-you-insert-them-like-a-sim-card amazing

Trump regime apparatchiks would have to improve to be merely incompetent, exhibit 44,420:

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5504196/trump-putin-summit-documents-left-behind

'It was embarrassing for Americans to welcome a notorious wanted war criminal on their territory. It was humiliating to watch an American president act like a happy puppy upon encountering the dictator of a much poorer, much less important state, treating him as a superior.'

14-day gift read

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-putin-ukraine-talks/683899/?gift=rMst1BY9gP1HWgkOEVmAK26QXIlbmVKyC4KOuoJ1DDU

#politics #uspol

as a software entwicklerin i have assigned some dumb names to things, either in lack of better names or as a means to inject silliness into things that are too serious and unfun by default

but at least i never named a fish species "stripey"

If journalists were doing their jobs, they would call the deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, from three deep-red states what it is: an invasion and occupation force.

https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/3-states-move-to-send-hundreds-of-national-guard-members-to-washington/

Inequality is bad for your health, even if you're rich.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/money-cant-buy-life-the-richest-americans-die-earlier-than-the-poorest-europeans/

While I'm generally very pro-EU, this #ChatControl initiative they keep pushing - despite experts having persistently debunking the rationale behind it - is indefensible.

Instead, this initiative will create an extremely invasive surveillance state where everything you type, view and receive is automatically scanned & potentially (falsely) flagged for human review.

This would mean the end of privacy.

If you are an EU-citizen, please consider writing to your MEPs.

https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

I'd like to start manufacturing more LLM poison, but I'm a little bit sniped on where to get good source data.

Basically, I want to run Dissociated Press (markov-chain text generation) over some input sources, but I want to use sources that I can either a) find as public domain, or b) use under a combined license. For example, a bunch of code under the MIT license (the *same* MIT license) could all be churned up together.

I also want to ensure that the text's words and topics cover the space that LLMs will be called on to generate within. One approach would be to use English Wikipedia, for instance. Another would be to grab a bunch of Rust or Python source code that's all under the same license.

Those both involve more curation than I was hoping to do. Are there other sources I should be thinking of?

#LLM

Latest comic on the uptick in NEPHs

#science #disinformation #conspiracytheories #media #health

If you want help collecting some Gaps in the Linux Phone App Ecosystem, please contribute to this pad:
https://pad.hacc.space/XP5opplBQ3mWEpAcv47oSg#

(It's part of this #FrOSCon #FOSSonMobile Talk: https://programm.froscon.org/froscon2025/talk/0a60d401-814a-473d-af0c-5d6ac5913065/ (which won't be recorded, sadly).

#LinuxMobile

Support our comrades in publishing. Get 20% off all Distro titles thru 9/1/25 with code DISTRO at checkout.
Browse the entire catalog here: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=165

Stephen Miller is recruiting an army of pants-pissers. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/8/15/2338519/-Cartoon-Join-the-war-on-US-cities

While the new ChatGPT might not be 20X better than the old versions, it just might take 20X the power to use.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/08/how-much-energy-does-chatgpts-newest-model-consume.html

Oh gee, never saw this one coming...

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/15/g-s1-83087/otter-ai-transcription-class-action-lawsuit

*sigh* Firefox auto-installed AI on everyone's browsers and turned the option "on" by default without asking anyone's consent.

This thread has how to remove: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1511036

I'm not sure if it covers the new thing, so for that, go to Settings (i.e. about:preferences) and scroll down to Tabs, then uncheck "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups".

Wishing I was in DC so I could buy a drink for the Subway Slinger. He’s going to drink free for the rest of his life. The highlight of this week’s news.