Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Reading this, https://techblog.nz/3186-Griffin-on-Tech-Microsofts-leg-up-from-the-Govt-and-the-tech-bro-cage-fight I feel outrage at the deep naivete of our gov't tech decision makers. And I also feel frustration at the fact that the author (and the tech media in general) sees this "lock in problem" & improper (i.e. corrupt) procurement process (e.g. instructing gov't department heads to 'come up with ways to work with Microsoft' without a contestable tender) is a problem... & then shrugs. Rather than accepting this, how about we just stop doing business with Microsoft?

This is wider distribution:
"Meta’s LLaMa 2 license is not Open Source"

Co-opting the term "open source" to then place restrictions on it is not helpful.

Yes, we are in new territories. Perhaps the open source definition needs to be relooked, but while that could be something OSI could do (along with the community), for now, LLaMa is NOT open source compliant.

https://blog.opensource.org/metas-llama-2-license-is-not-open-source/

Google keeps raising prices for YouTube. Not remotely worth it at this point.

Intriguing:
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-07-17/two-arrogant-men/
"As a matter of fact, most traditional farming systems, with or without grazing (without livestock isn’t an option as all traditional food systems have had some livestock), have been sustainable. The grasslands of Europe, managed for millennia without holistic planned grazing, are hotspots of biodiversity."

The last clause being a hotlink to this article:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718307456

@dangillmor
and a positive AI story:

New Project Uses AI To Turn Project Gutenberg Texts Into Free Audiobooks With Lifelike Voices — In 30 Seconds | Techdirt

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/20/new-project-uses-ai-to-turn-project-gutenberg-texts-into-free-audiobooks-with-lifelike-voices-in-30-seconds/

Florida's official racism is ramping up and up and up: "Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills. This change is part of the African American history standards the State Board of Education approved at a Wednesday meeting." https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/07/19/do-not-for-the-love-of-god-tell-kids-that-slavery-was-beneficial/

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Private equity ghouls have a new way to steal from their investors; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/20/continuation-fraud/

#Pluralistic

1/

One set of tactics in addition to many others:

I want to see more legal action against Big Chem and Big Oil. And more cases for the Rights of #Nature that give personhood and rights to thrive to (for instance) rivers, lakes, mountains, species, ecosystems. And more legal action against policymakers who harm through their legislation.

And way more #LandBack. For a start, all public lands in the hands of Original (#Indigenous) Caretakers.

#ClimateCrisis #ClimateDiary #ClimateJustice

Gee, how did America every pay for infrastructure??? And why can't we afford to improve things now???

How do you know you've created a #portfolio? Stephen Harlow (University of Waikato) says when it's purposeful and includes a reflection. Listen to his entire interview on 'Create. Share. Engage.' in your #podcast app or at https://podcast.mahara.org #DigitalStorytelling #Mahara

It's happening! I just submitted the final, edited PDF proof of my new book How To Write A Tech Book!

Now I wait for the print proof to arrive for my final approval and then I can publish. If the proof arrives quickly and is error-free I hope to launch the book the week of July 31st.

In the mean time you can check out a sample chapter (Chapter 1: The Idea) here: https://kylerank.in/htwatb_sample_chapter.pdf

#writing #TechWriting #publishing #TechnicalWriting #author

@dangillmor

Lots of us indie authors are offering a direct buy option from our websites so you can own the ebook. We make more money that way too, as Amazon & the others don't take their cut.

" Nobody becomes a #billionaire by accident. You have to have wanted that level of power, control & wealth more than you wanted anything else in your life. They all sacrifice family, relationships, stability, community, connection, and belonging in service of keeping score on a scale that actually yields no additional real-world benefits on the path from that first $100 million to the tens of billions.

This makes billionaires "a cohort that is, counterintutively, very easily manipulated." And they're all #manipulators
and hang out together, which means that when a #conspiratorial belief takes root in one billionaire's brain, it spreads to the rest of them like wildfire.

Then, billionaires "push each other further and further into extreme ideas because their entire careers have been predicated on the idea that they're genius outliers who can see things others can't, and that their wealth is a reward for that imagined merit."

2/2
https://www.anildash.com/2023/02/27/tycoon-martyrdom-charade/

Summary: Corey Doctorow
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/15/in-the-dumps/#what-vacation

@ProPublica

That's why they don't let me be editor of publications.🤷🏿‍♂️

Because if I was your editor, I would tell you to go back and try again because you missed the story.

Who is paying to fly these Proud Boys around the country? How many of these angry speakers are not even authentic members of the community? What is the ultimate goal of disrupting school boards? Why did federal law enforcement not take action against this clearly concerted and coordinated effort to disrupt school boards?

Attending @defcon? Be sure to check out EFF’s second annual charity poker tournament, hosted by @Tarah, where you’ll face off in some friendly competition to support civil liberties and human rights online. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/eff-poker-tournament-def-con-31

The Arizmendi bakeries have spun-off another #WorkerCoop business (or are about to), but this one is happening in a little different way than normal.

https://oaklandside.org/2023/07/18/nicks-pizza-and-bakery-oakland-becoming-a-worker-owned-collective/

LGBTQ #Cooperative cafe Glitter Bean has launched a GoFundMe to make needed repairs and recover from 2 years of covid restrictions.

https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/glitter-beans-workers-turn-to-crowdfunding-to-save-queer-centric-co-op-cafe-31179174

https://www.gofundme.com/f/6t29tp-save-the-bean

On the #CyberResilienceAct #CRA the @fsfe has already proposed a solution that will lead to more #security while safeguarding #FreeSoftware (#OpenSource):

* Liability should be shifted to those *deploying* Free Software instead of those *developing* Free Software and

* Those who significantly financially benefit from this deployment should make sure the software becomes CE-compliant

https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230719-01.en.html

One of the main problems with Capitalism is that it does not follow my mom’s rule of “everyone gets firsts before anyone gets seconds.”

Asking for a friend: If I post something followers-only, under what circumstances would it federate to threads.net? (Assuming the latter is not blocked, of course.)

Only if I currently have a follower there? Only if someone *else* on my server has a follower there? Or under some broader set of circumstances?

Experiments proved confusing, so I'm hoping to get an answer from someone who actually knows the protocol.

(I know there's no "real" privacy in ActivityPub, but I'm curious.)