Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

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Google is too big to fail, and yet they seem to be failing at basic things they used to do well (like search) while removing useful features (like cache) and adding a bunch of crap nobody needs or wants.

Want to know if a given domain name shows up anywhere in search? Well screw you, we're not going to tell you that anymore, but here's 1,400 completely useless and irrelevant results that could possibly have some info (but don't). When the search engine could have done what it's done for years, and admit that it doesn't know WTF you're talking about and say "no results found." Now it just makes shit up if it doesn't know the answer.

Hey cool! My search result shows the term I was looking for is present on 7 website. Shoot! None of them are online anymore. How about showing us your cached version of the site, you know the one that was used to create this search result? Oh wait, no, you can't see that anymore. Why? Here's Danny Sullivan's dismissive and mystifying explanation: "“It was meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn’t depend on a page loading,” Sullivan wrote on X. “These days, things have greatly improved. So, it was decided to retire it.”

Want software? Great, Google will serve a malicious ad on top that looks a lot like an organic search result but which is paid for by scammers and installs malware.

Racism is the policy of the Florida state government and -- given this official mandate -- the policy of countless local jurisdictions in that increasingly retrograde state.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/florida-school-requires-permission-slip-for-kids-to-participate-in-black-history-month-events

Jim Crow wasn't eliminated, just hidden.

EFF and California’s ACLU affiliates have urged Attorney General Rob Bonta to act on dozens of police agencies that are still sharing automated license plate reader data with out-of-state authorities, putting abortion rights at risk, @arstechnica reports.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/some-calif-cops-still-sharing-license-plate-info-with-anti-abortion-states/

Look, I love dogs, but I’m so freaking sick of entitled dog owners who manifestly believe that *their* dog is somehow exempt from being on a leash in an area dogs must be on leashes.

Can't say much about the Supreme Court that wouldn't get me in trouble for incitement.

For anyone who is too small-brained to develop #libcamera, I started an unofficial Matrix channel to discuss the need for ergonomic alternative:

#libobscura:chatwave.org

https://matrix.to/#/#libobscura:chatwave.org

#v4l2 #linux #driver #kernel #ergonomy #graphics #camera #video

Today I'm going to teach my government kids about non-free speech absolutism, and they will need to use SCOTUS cases to build a prosecution against Meta

So
I need some solid news links to Meta's terrible shit. Hit me with them y'all

I see people railing at the affront of #libre software that they find 'hard to use' and how that's elitist and shouldn't be the case. That it's the software designers' or developers' fault.

The #libre software world certainly needs more good designers, accessibility, & UX people, but they seem rare. Unlike those design-focused people, who require software devs to realise any sort of functioning app, devs can throw together an interface that *they* can use without too much trouble... 1/n

This piece in the Atlantic is a eyebrow-raiser; a defense of James Dobson, an earnest insistence that "despite its flaws" Evangelicalism has helped many people live better lives, etc…

I'll say this, at least: The public defense of Evangelical culture is no longer able to rest on the assumption of moral superiority. "But it helped them be nicer, doesn't that count for something?" is... a hilarious fallback for fundamentalism.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/evangelicals-christianity-james-dobson/677362/

Note that all the technology exists - & is fully #libre - to allow each country to take control of their learners' Chromebooks (using #Chromium or #Gallium codebases) and have all the data held in-country on locally administered, gov't run systems rather than #BigTech ones. It would probably cost no more than paying Google their loss-leading fees & probably much less over time, without any privacy issues. Sadly, Microsoft's stuff has no such libre route - it needs to be culled from education.

Repeat after me: a university is *not* a corporation, and should not be run like one. The former exists for the pursuit of knowledge, while the latter for the pursuit of profits. These are mutually incompatible.

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

Not ready to talk about Black History. Still talking about white US history.

Q: Why are Black neighborhoods so often high crime neighborhoods? Must be a lawless people! Violent! Thieves! Predators!

A: There is no such thing as a "high crime neighborhood." The whole concept is entirely made up based on our notion of what we consider a crime.

You may be thinking:🤔 Wait... What?! Not true! A high crime neighborhood has more drug use and sales, theft, and even murder!

But what about theft? If you park your car in a high crime area, you're likely to get your windows smashed!

But, most theft in this country, is wage theft. Mostly rich white business owners, stealing wages from poor Black and brown service workers. Between $8B and $15B a year. Yes I said "billion!" Yes I said "a year!"

Republicans want to defund the (corporate) police

"The Antitrust Division has fewer people enforcing anti-monopoly laws in a $24 trillion economy than the Smithsonian Museum has security guards."

-Matt Stoller

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/congressional-republicans-to-defund

#antitrust #corruption

Fascinating to see people talking up Bluesky in the Fediverse. Why? They're here. They've already escaped the world of implicitly corruptable corporate-owned for-profit platforms... and yet they don't realise they've already succeeded at the hard part. Now they seem desperate to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

A UN Cybercrime Treaty that subjects security researchers to prosecution will make everyone less safe, 124 prominent security researchers told UN delegates today. Malicious actors will have an easier time launching attacks unless the treaty protects their work. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/protect-good-faith-security-research-globally-proposed-un-cybercrime-treaty

“Workers at video game outlet IGN announced they’re unionizing Tuesday, with a supermajority of support from editorial and creative workers. With around 80 members in the unit, the union would be one of the largest unionized games journalism outlets in existence.”

HELL YES https://aftermath.site/ign-creators-guild-union-games-journalism

One reason journalists flock to centralized platforms -- despite massive evidence that this is a strategic mistake -- is that the journalism craft is accustomed to needing a daddy.

#FOSDEM was great, but it's also great to finally sit at my own laptop at home.

Thanks to all the people who helped me connect and gave me pieces of valuable info! That was one intense conference!