Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

#EU opens #antitrust inquiry into #Microsoft’s #Teams #software | Microsoft | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/27/eu-antitrust-inquiry-microsofts-sale-teams-bundling

#ProprietarySoftware #MonopolisticPractice #AnticompetitiveBehaviour

This is the best explanation I've found of how terrible the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is. It's probably worse than you thought, even in its amended form. Please call your reps now!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/kids-online-safety-act-still-huge-danger-our-rights-online

Watch Scott Branson, coeditor of Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies, on @subMedia System Fail #24: Pride and Prejudice. https://blog.pmpress.org/2023/07/25/scott-branson-on-system-fail-24-pride-and-prejudice/

MA Governor Healey Signs Executive Order Establishing Digital Accessibility and Equity Governance Board - and also creates a Chief IT Accessibility Officer (CIAO) https://www.mass.gov/news/governor-healey-signs-executive-order-establishing-digital-accessibility-and-equity-governance-board
Executive Order here: https://www.mass.gov/executive-orders/no-614-establishing-the-digital-accessibility-and-equity-governance-board
CIAO job posting here: https://massanf.taleo.net/careersection/exm/jobdetail.ftl?job=230008CK&tz=GMT-04%3A00&tzname=America%2FNew_York

#a11y #accessibility

Do I want fedi to grow? Sure, that'd be nice. Do I want the corporate internet to shrink? Yes please.

But really, just keeping what we have here would be pretty good too.

Sometimes I think people don't really appreciate what an accomplishment it is that we've staked out a little corner of the web where it's possible to have normal casual conversations---with friends, with strangers, or with both---without being beholden to some billion dollar corporation.

Quick reminder that at least decent chunk of the forests *still burning* in Canada were part of the "offsets" countries and companies pay for as credits in Carbon Trading schemes meant for them to keep polluting guilt free.

The "offsets" are now in the atmosphere heating the planet. As well as the emissions.

Good stuff. /s

That's part of why Emissions Trading Schemes are little more than fancy accounting and should never be accepted as Climate Action.

#BlahBlahBlah #ClimateCrisis

Signal is an ongoing book series dedicated to documenting and sharing compelling graphics and cultural movements of international resistance and liberation struggles.

To celebrate the new issue 08, save 20% on ALL issues of Signal with coupon code JULY at https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=80

Interesting observations, @siderea

Now I'm curious, what happens if we put your thoughts on pseudonymity next to @Lady's thoughts on coercive platforms:
https://glitch.cat.family/@Lady/110772324853832414

Quote:
"...the fact that people are forced to live their lives on facebook is one of its failures. ... there are people [including marginalized organizers] there who in an ideal world would not be on any platform, who have no need for the platform itself but are forced for one reason or another to participate."

My experience taught me, over and over and over again, that pseudonym usage being normal in a community, whether online or off, is a pretty reliable sign of a community that is going to turn out to be vibrant, creative, liberal, politically aware, and intellectual, and valuing authenticity, vulnerability, learning, risk-taking, curiosity, wonder, delight, and joy. Their food will be better, their arguments more rollicking, their clothes more luxurious, their entertainments more transporting, and their lovers better lays.

I'm not angry about this, contrary to what it may sound like: I'm amused. Perhaps I'm easily amused.

Thing is, it's a pretty normal thing - and it's happening a bit more now given recent topic of discussion here - for me to wind up having conversations with people about the value of anonymity or pseudonymity, in which people volunteer the opinion directly to me, usually in agreement with me, that anonymous commenters are not all bad, or that there's some value to allowing anonymous online comments because of some example... out there (*waves hands airily*) somewhere.

To *me*. Directly *to me*. While I am standing directly in front of them, as it were, virtually, *using a pseudonym*.

You know the ID in my wallet does not actually say "Siderea, Sibylla Bostoniensis", right? My professional license does not say "Siderea, Sibylla Bostoniensis, LMHC". That is not what I put at the top of my IRS 1040. It's not what my patients call me.

We went from the wettest spring in recent memory to "severe drought" over the course of the last two months. Fun times.

https://montanafreepress.org/2023/07/26/fishing-and-fire-restrictions-begin-in-western-montana-as-drought-drags-on

It’s vastly more profitable to produce clothing that will wear out quickly, so that people will need to constantly pay to replace them, wrecking the environment in the process, than it would be to clothe everyone adequately and sustainably.

https://www.gq.com/story/oliver-franklin-wallis-wasteland-excerpt

Hundreds of schools find out that Chromebooks expire like milk.

A software death date is baked into older Chromebooks and set to expire three to six years after their release. Despite having fully functioning hardware, an expired Chromebook will no longer receive the software updates it needs, blocking basic websites and applications from use.

A lot of schools have found themselves stuck with expensive paperweights. https://www.govtech.com/built-in-death-date-renders-school-chromebooks-useless

2. Today I drove Missy by herself on a historic Doctor's buggy, restored to fully usable.
I needed to return a library book no later than tomorrow, so this was a real errand.
Last week I was running a load of recycle.
I sit out here, five miles from town, and I think, ten mile round trip on gasoline - high mileage vehicle and driving style, but still gasoline - or ten mile round trip in a donkey cart?

@gnramires @ByronCinNZ

Yes, well, you’re what the con artists know as a shill. SBF and the rest of the grifters espouse some high sounding nonsense. You get suckered in and start spreading it too.

Effective Altruism is hopelessly tainted. The leaders are bad, exposed for embezzling, their plans to ditch you for their own self-preservation are exposed, and they are heading for prison.

Don’t slide in here and preach to me. I already partake in plenty of altruism that is effective without EA.

@lightweight @alcinnz

I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but my stance would be "if you want to use a service, you have to read the EULA in their entirety".

A couple times now I've heard a claim that XMPP / Jabber is better off now, having been first adopted and then rejected by Google for its chat services, with the implication that Google played a role in improving things.

I haven't really heard clear supporting evidence for this, though, or even a personal anecdote to explain what has improved.

Can anyone provide specific evidence for (or against) this claim?

(boosts welcome)

Posting the white / not white poll now, will add the others later.

Poll 5: How do you feel toward the Anti-Meta Pact, and what best describes your race?

#Facebook #federation #defederation

(boosts welcome)

Analysis: #India’s Himalayan forests under threat with new Bill - https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/nature/analysis-indias-himalayan-forests-under-threat-with-new-law/ sounds bad