Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

“You four have been iconic, but we’ve found a guy who can do it in half the time and at half the cost.”

#climate #cartoon

It doesn't always have to be big. You can just grab the opportunity to focus on one of your favorite tools that is open source and organize a workshop on this. Hackerspace TkkrLab in the Netherlands is doing just that. Way to go there! https://tkkrlab.nl/cybersaturdays/2023_09_16_kicad/

Looking at this: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/496826/government-unveils-digital-services-tax-aimed-at-multinationals I note that Microsoft, who also don't pay anywhere *near* enough taxes in NZ, tend to get left off the list. That's a big oversight, and gives people the impression that they're 'good guys'. Wonder why they don't get a mention? 🤔

If any of you are involved in running a library, and you're not already aware of #Koha, I strongly suggest you look into it: https://koha-community.org/ It's the world leading #ILMS, and it's also #LibreSoftware. It has a great back story & was started by (& subsequently led) by NZers.

What this report shows is:
1 Company profit is the major driver of inflation.
2 Wages aren't coming close to keeping up.
3 Govt spending is NOT a major driver of inflation.

National told us it was ALL Govt spending.

#nzpol #NatLies #VoteGreensNZ

Wow, just got asked to take part in an academic research project on privacy policies in the Fediverse. In order to do so - and waive my privacy - I'm asked to fill in a Google Forms. 🤦

There's something painfully naïve about this.

LinkedIn censors posts without telling people:

https://battlepenguin.com/politics/linkedin-silently-deleted-several-of-my-posts/

It occurs to me that my main purpose for advocacy of #LibreSoftware/#FOSS is to *shift the Overton window* in industry and public perception of digital technology - especially that which is proprietary to #BigTech corporations as opposed to that created by communities and institutions for the Common Good. I thank all of you who extend the reach (by boosting) of my advocacy posts.

Notes to the folks who are scared that Trump's trial(s) will lead to violence by the white supremacists:

The white supremacists want you to be scared, and the white supremacists have already been violent on Trump's behalf.

Fuck the white supremacists. Fuck being scared.

#uspol

Sorry, can't talk right now

Busy explaining that low-wage workers are only called "unskilled" to normalize the existence of poverty wages, obscuring the fact that billion dollar companies often barely pay their "skilled" workers a living wage either.

We all deserve more

#BigPharma doesn't generally create cures, because they're not as profitable as ongoing 'treatments' & 'therapies' allowing them to sell us something for the rest of our prolonged but slightly miserable lives. Similarly, IT security vendors don't tell you the key thing you can do to protect yourself digitally. They want to sell you anti-virus & 'enterprise intrusion detection systems', etc. But they'll never say: you would vastly reduce your risk & costs by *not using MS Windows*.

Signal is becoming one of the most popular ways for newsrooms to get tips. It's easy enough to set up on your personal device, but having an institutional tip account is another thing entirely.

Here's how to overcome challenges when setting up Signal tiplines, based on a recent case study with @publicsource and our @freedomofpress digital security training team's previous experience. https://freedom.press/training/blog/signal-tiplines/

This might seem expected or innocuous even, but there is a lot of insight—and some creepy abilities—that can be gleaned from tracker links nowadays which put all of our privacy at risk and the security of some of us at risk.

When you open a link on Instagram or Facebook in the in-app browser (on both Android and iOS) for example, Meta can not only record the site you're on, but capture the keystrokes and data you enter (emails, names, addresses, etc).

Coverage via @TheGuardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/11/meta-injecting-code-into-websites-visited-by-its-users-to-track-them-research-says

Read why "Web Environment Integrity" is terrible, and why we must vocally oppose it now. Google's latest maneuver, if we don't act now to stop it, threatens our freedom to explore the Internet with browsers of our choice: https://u.fsf.org/40a #EndDRM #Enshittification #Google #WebStandards #DefectiveByDesign

So, the cat's out of the bag. Corporate greed is the driver for the inflation and cost of living crisis.

I'd have preferred an RNZ link (where I heard about it this morning), but could only find this one on the short:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2023/08/rising-profits-not-wages-primary-driver-of-domestic-inflation-during-cost-of-living-crisis-report.html

We need to discredit the entire concept of corporate-developed proprietary software.

I’m afraid that to reach those people, you may need to “speak their language” to some extent, by appealing to ideas of toughness. But toughness should not be understood as necessarily male. Caring for the planet we inhabit is a form of strength, virtue, and personal responsibility, qualities that can apply to men and women equally. (cont'd)

What if we branded environmentalism as "masculine"?
#climatechange #climatecrisis #environment #gender

What's most infuriating about the current state of affairs for my #Thinkpad T61 is that not only does the display on an external monitor work fine, but also when I have an external monitor hooked up, the internal display stops glitching.

So there's the right parts there to work right in theory. My friend and I guess this points to a voltage discrepancy, but I don't know if there's anywhere to go from here.

It's very frustrating and I would welcome any thoughts.

#RetroTech

Unhoused person in LA: "It's crazy because a week ago I was just like these people, before the eviction. Living there (points at building on corner). Every morning, I'd say good morning to everyone. Now, no one looks at me. No one says good morning.

"I'm the same person I was when I was under a roof and four walls. More stressed and sleep deprived and with less stuff but the same person. No more good mornings until I get inside I guess."