Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The Swiss government has ended its contract with American analytics company Palantir, after federal agencies in the country rejected Palantir at least nine times over seven years. The reason? Security concerns that should make other countries think carefully:

- Risk of US intelligence gaining access to sensitive data
- Potential loss of national sovereignty
- Dependence upon foreign specialists in crisis situations

Swiss authorities won't touch their software with a bargepole.

1/2

@aj I like this:

"a place to have conversations online without algorithms, AI, and ads getting in the way."

Can I use it as a tagline on piefed.social?

Not quite the final chapter! Benj Edwards has taken responsiblity in this Bluesky post:

https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p

For those who won't head over there, a summary:

First, this happened while sick with COVID. Second, Edwards claims this was a new experiment using Claude Code to extract source material. Claude refused to process the blog post (because Shambaugh mentions harassment). Edwards then took the blog post text and pasted it into ChatGPT, which evidently is the source of the fictitious quotes. Edwards takes full responsibility and apologizes, recognizing the irony of an AI reporter falling prey to this kind of mistake.

The final chapter? The statement from Ars:

On Friday afternoon, Ars Technica published an article containing fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a source who did not say them. That is a serious failure of our standards. Direct quotations must always reflect what a source actually said.

https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations

While Flock claims ALPR (Automated License Plate Reader) cameras keep neighborhoods safe, the evidence tells a different story. Join our livestream "Get the Flock Out of Our City" on 2/19 at 12pm PT to find out more! https://www.eff.org/livestream-flock

Codeberg Pages documentation now lists git-pages as the deployment method to use going forward! https://docs.codeberg.org/codeberg-pages/

thanks to everyone on the @Codeberg team for making this collaboration possible

I can be angry about rising fascism and also angry about facial recognition built into surveillance glasses at the same time, not only because these things are directly related, but because I contain fucking multitudes and all them are mad all the goddamn time.

Which email service (not self hosted for 2 reasons, effort, and deny-listing) do you recommend for own domain addresses, that has IMAP access and is not US nor EU (not crazy about Russia either, but perhaps distributing my data over different dictatorships is not the worst idea, they will never work together to get the full picture)?

I currently use Zoho, the free one, no IMAP, just web mail, no PGP, so I encrypt a text file with what I would normally write in the email body and attach, but that makes communication with non-IT people difficult. Now I want something I can simply use in Thunderbird and I am willing to pay.

Fastmail?

#email #emailEncryption #fastmail #bigtech #privacy

This is quite a good interview with Prof Carl Bergstrom (from my alma mater, University of Washington) on 'AI' https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2019023013/professor-carl-bergstrom-living-with-ai

This is the first in-depth study to trace the political trajectory of punk in post-Franco Spain.

Use coupon code "February" at check-out to get a discount and listen to the full Spanish Punk playlist (curated by the author) at the link in our bio. https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1770

🔵 This week's comic,
IN WHICH
Mickey Mouse is reunited with his dog in the public domain, but it doesn't go quite like either expected...
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
the Inner Hive, including long-time member Steve Alcott & new member Billie on Thames
( patreon.com/rubenbolling/membership )
READ IT RIGHT HERE👇

Hey friends; if you know someone who needs help (paid) modernizing an older application please let me know.

I really wish that people who made automated code tests part of their hiring process would have people test them before handing them off to candidates. Maybe test them with people who haven't been involved in coming up with the question.

Typos and difficult-to-understand language are huge accessibility problems for applicants with disabilities.

Some impressions from this years #FOSDEM : https://ev.phosh.mobi/de/blog/fosdem-2026/

#Phosh #LinuxMobile

Important win for press freedom from the ACLU: a landmark settlement for photojournalists who had their First Amendment rights violated at the US-Mexico border by CBP and ICE

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/landmark-settlement-announced-in-lawsuit-challenging-unlawful-questioning-of-journalists-at-the-border

Global News Podcast - #Climate boost as #China's #CO2 #emissions fall - BBC Sounds

So, just as the #US has just signalled a U-turn back to the 19th century, China is doing some things which give some hope for the future.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0n0rh33

#Environment #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange

These charts show how #Trump is isolating the #US on the #world stage | #UnitedNations | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/feb/13/these-charts-show-how-trump-is-isolating-the-us-on-the-world-stage

#Politics #China

If you use AI-generated code, you currently cannot claim copyright on it in the US. If you fail to disclose/disclaim exactly which parts were not written by a human, you forfeit your copyright claim on *the entire codebase*.

This means copyright notices and even licenses folks are putting on their vibe-coded GitHub repos are unenforceable. The AI-generated code, and possibly the whole project, becomes public domain.

Source: https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/LSB/PDF/LSB10922/LSB10922.8.pdf

“People tell chatbots about their medical fears, their relationship problems, their beliefs about God and the afterlife.

Advertising built on that archive creates a potential for manipulating users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone prevent.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/11664538/anthropic-ai-safety-researcher-mrinank-sharma-quits-concerns/

#Privacy #NoAI

Sometimes I just sit down and realise:

Tinkering with Linux eventually resulted in my dream job
Many FOSS tools I use are made by awesome individuals, most of them working on things on their free time
I trust my devices more now that I use these tools
Since I run tools like Nextcloud myself, I can trust that my data is not being misused
I have knowhow to help my friends and family to keep their data safe (sometimes I wish they would follow my advice but anyway lol)
Since I dont use corpo social media, none of the crap around it concerns me
I am just generally happier since I do not have worry about any of the techbro nonsense

Makes me feel oddly sated. Calm.

Is any of it perfect? No. But I take these always over the user-hostile corpo solutions.