Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

San Francisco Police are “not able to just say ‘we’re collecting data on criminals,’” EFF’s Dave Maass told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They’re collecting data, in fact, on innocent people going about their lives.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/sfpd-arrests-license-plate-readers-19509117.php

PSA on Wildfire preparedness.

"My suggestion: If you live in a rural area prone to wildfires in the western United States… have a week’s worth of supplies, they might shut your power off this Summer."

https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/p/they-shut-grandmas-power-off-for

“The thing with Sam Alito is that he doesn’t give a fuck. He is a seventy-something Fox News watcher and religious fundamentalist who happens to find himself in a position of immense and almost incomparable power over all of American society and he’s going to take that power to the limit to advance his own political preferences. He’s not even going to go through the motions of pretending that’s not the case.”

Josh Marshall understands Alito all too well. Gift link:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/resilience-part-2-or-thoughts-on-sam-alitos-dgaf-justicehood/sharetoken/Y8snIS0q4CvM

It is so unfair that some of the most vulnerable members of our society (through no fault of their own) are treated so badly that they can't live reasonable lives despite working really hard to manage life under stressful conditions. All for tax cuts to pay landlords. https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/12-06-2024/what-happens-when-disabled-people-lose-flexible-funding

In another news... Microsoft pulls Windows 11 24H2 from Insider Release Preview Channel Because of Recall Generating Nothing But Negative Press. Not a single person want this feature, I guess. Lmao. https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/10/microsoft_pulls_windows_24h2_11/ Who wants a fully surveillance-enabled computer that records everything you do, including your password, in an SQL database? This is a wet dream for three-letter agents and threat actors.

Freakshow bigot Martha-Ann Alito, wife of extremist theocrat insurrectionist SCOTUS justice Samuel, is so triggered by rainbow flags that she daydreams about flying "Shame" flags. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/supreme-court-martha-ann-alito-pride-flags-left-media-1235037338

youtube is A/B testing login-walling videos. a *huge* step towards internet lockdown, and they appear to be blocking accounts using their cookies for downloaders.

https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/issues/551

this is. not good.

Also, shout-out to @letsencrypt for dramatically changing the security landscape of the Web for the better over the years.

Rarely is there an example of a project so effective and so directly improving everyone's lives, while at the same time keeping the original engineering mindset and just Doing Stuff Right™ humbly in the background.

Next November it will have been exactly a decade since LE started. We all owe them a huge 10th birthday party.

Pride is for all ages. Queer art and representation matter - especially to LGBTQ+ children and young adults.

Check out our kid-friendly queer coloring books (along with our non-kid-friendly coloring books) here: https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_list&c=162

It occurs to me that a whole lot of people nowadays - thanks to the likes of Yelp - are graded on their performance with a star system. You know who else gets graded with stars? Children. All this ranking of people via gold stars is infantilizing. They are convincing us all to act like we're in kindergarten. "Better do what's expected of you or you won't get a gold star!"

These systems serve two negative purposes: 1st, they provide an easy outlet for the vindictive and petty 1/x

Ok, I'm just going to start muting everybody sharing AI generated "art." It looks shitty if you bother to look at it at all, it's lazy af, and you know the environmental footprint is atrocious. If the most artistic effort you can bring yourself too is typing a silly prompt into a text box, I'm not at all interested in anything you think is "artistic." Sorry not sorry.

You see? This is what they do every time things aren't going their way and they simply cannot bring themselves to accept any responsibility for it. Some of us have been putting up with this bullshit for a long time. Calling out the lies and manipulations of the American Empire? You must love PUTIN!

Remember this while they're begging you for money.

#BREAKING The NZ govt has been secretly using Israeli spyware to search encrypted platforms for audio, video, images & text - collecting info without a person knowing - including family details, financial, health, political & religious information.
#nzpol
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/519051/mbie-ends-contract-with-spyware-company-but-is-looking-for-a-replacement

These fake movies stink less than this summer's real ones. https://brianmcfadden.org/2024/05/31/summer-movie-duds/

It seems like there are a bunch of websites that offer rigged #Blender models, many of which are even free (as in beer), but that all of these sites require logins for use, and I've developed a severe aversion to platforms that require account creation.

Can anyone vouch for Blender model-sharing platforms that have a positive culture and are not predatory?

More than 21 million American children now attend schools that offer free meals to all—a tenfold increase from 2010. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/1930d465?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

Apparently Microsoft heard the news that its insane "Recall" feature needs some remedial security work.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/7/24173499/microsoft-windows-recall-response-security-concerns

Looking forward to security researchers exposing what will certainly be huge holes in this protection.

Microsoft simply cannot be trusted.

This may seem like a minor point but when it comes to organizing responses, it's huge.

I am utterly sick of seeing someone post something awful as worthy of criticism only to see 10 replies saying something like, "well of course, what did you expect, the system was designed to do this."

No it wasn't. The system was designed not to care that it happened. You don't combat that by cynically dismissing caring about it as naive.

New York State wrongly accused me of committing fraud in order to collect an extra $62 in unemployment in 2020, charged me something like $140, twice (due to another error) for that, then realized their mistake and sent me a Key Bank debit card for the money.

The card could never be activated. When I called Key Bank about why, they said that they had stopped working with NY Dept. of Labor *8 MONTHS* before.

NY State basically fucked up twice then sent me a bad check.

https://nysfocus.com/2024/06/06/unemployment-benefit-overpayment-debt

My research group (@communitydata) is organizing a "Science of Community" track again at FOSSY (https://2024.fossy.us/) in Portland, OR (August 1-4) for #freesoftware and #opensource researchers and practitioners to connect! Please consider submitting! https://blog.communitydata.science/fossy-2024-call-for-proposals/