Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

@dangillmor
Marc Elias is doing heroic work in his whack-a-mole legal efforts to fight voter suppression activities. At any given time he has dozens of lawsuits against GOP fuckery. Wins most of the time, but they keep sprouting up. You can follow him here. https://www.democracydocket.com/

Why are libraries are ground zero in the culture wars? Because they provide a mental model for a democratic public sphere, a place of information without coercion. Here's how to save our libraries! It's my latest for @washingtonpost https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/24/libraries-end-culture-wars-book-bans/

BREAKING!

The Antifa Turtle on #Twitter shared a Twitter API okta leak that shows there is a list of "protected accounts", all of them right wing, who are allowed to break #X Terms Of Services without consequence and includes a list of whitelisted slurs they are allowed to use.

The whistle-blowing Twitter account was suspended by mods shortly after.

#elonmusk #freespeech #whistleblower #leak @UnicornRiot @freedomofpress @OffTheHook

Basically, a good way to never trust "it's okay, the data is anonymized" again is simply knowing what the "Hemisphere Program" is.

https://www.eff.org/cases/hemisphere

In short, the US government got access to number from, number to, datetime, length and sometimes location information for every call passing through AT&T's network from 1987 to today.

Then they ran an algorithm to de-anonymize every burner phone based on behavior. They did this because maybe some of those burners were used by drug dealers.

My father recently passed away in the US. I'm currently cleaning up his email account (which I have long managed on his behalf with my own mail infrastructure). The number of invasive, inane, insipid, predatory, disingenuous, and exploitative services the US' capitalist system has created is appalling. They all want you to fail at unsubscribing, actively trying to get you to accidentally sign up again after you explicitly unsubscribe. They're run by grifters wgi vastly overrate themselves.

I recently bought a #Wacom #DrawingTablet for my #Laptop. As with other #Hardware or #Peripherals that has been around for a while, there is no need to download and #drivers for it under #GNU #Linux as it’s detected automatically and everything just works without any fuss. #Programs such as #Xournal++ detect variations in #PenPressure and draws lines of varying thickness depending upon it. It’s taking practice but the results are quite precise in terms of position too.

#Fedora #KDE #KDE6

This is pure cartel behavior: Reddit and Google have cut a deal that freezes out all other search engines from indexing Reddit, where volunteers do essentially all the work.

This should not be legal.

It is VITAL to replace Reddit, and it will take a global village to do it. If we don't, the cartel wins.

https://www.404media.co/google-is-the-only-search-engine-that-works-on-reddit-now-thanks-to-ai-deal/

“Texas prison officials responded by issuing bleach, masks, fresh fruit, and hot meals to prisoners, and adopting an official COVID-19 protocol.

“They also wrote me a disciplinary case and tossed me into solitary confinement for 22 months,” Jeremy Busby writes.

https://freedom.press/news/incarcerating-the-internet-social-media-bans-censor-journalists-in-prison/

“I created pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter…to inform the general public of the conditions that Texas prisoners and staff members were experiencing.

“I also started the hashtag #AllEyesOnTDCJ, which went viral,” Jeremy Busby writes.

https://freedom.press/news/incarcerating-the-internet-social-media-bans-censor-journalists-in-prison/

The point is: What happens in heaven? Unknowable wonderfullness?

Nonsense! The answer is nothing. Nothing happens because if something happens, in fact if something _can_ happen it is not eternity.

Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is; change.

-Iain M Banks
#atheism #theculture #bookstodon

The recent CrowdStrike outage is a wake-up call: centralized services are a single point of failure. 🌐

For true digital resilience, we must decentralize and diversify our technology. Read Nextcloud's take on this event.

https://nextcloud.com/blog/global-outage-shows-lack-of-digital-sovereignty-and-resilience/

Reposting this amazing guide on how to write helpful alt text from https://www.perkins.org/resource/how-write-alt-text-and-image-descriptions-visually-impaired/, originally posted by @karengregory (including her original image description) so that I can pin it.

#AltText #ImageDescription #accessibility #a11y

CrowdStrike is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology for crashing millions of computers around the world due to a defective software update.

“To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!,” says the email from CrowdStrike's chief business officer Daniel Bernard.

But some found that the gift card didn't work, while others got an error message saying the voucher had been canceled.

More from @lorenzofb: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/24/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-apology-gift-card-to-say-sorry-for-outage/

Met the designer of this wonderful solo card game the other day.
https://www.lightheartgames.com/crystallo

She said the hardest part of making her game was dealing with unscrupulous publishers after the (highly successful) Kickstarter campaign. Got me thinking about possible #cooperative solutions to help indie TTG devs get their games printed.

JD Vance vows to represent fellow 'losers' and 'suckers' in White House

"If elected, Vance would break ground as both the first Marine and the first person born entirely without a spine, to serve in the role."

https://www.duffelblog.com/p/jd-vance-vows-to-represent-fellow

@dynamic @scott That’s legit! I appreciate the distinction.
I also do think we need to support the actual humans doing that work, tho. That doesn’t mean not critiquing them, I think, but I know that the government can become very isolating. Our worthy desires for transparency & accountability can manifest as worker surveillance & antagonism in a way that is damaging.
But you’re right: not all are in a position to actually support the human, and so issues are a better fit

She was probably under incredible pressure to do these things, and risked career-destroying opposition if she did not. Any mayor would face such pressures. Office holders are not really equally free to do all of the possible things formally within their powers.

Strategies for making change should therefore not bet too much on simply electing good people and then sitting back and letting them do their thing

Meanwhile, back home Private Equity is eating what's left of the healthcare system (after the insurers had their way with it) while feigning ignorance about what could possibly be driving prices up.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/07/pitchbook-report-attempting-to-defend-private-equity-role-in-healthcare-suffers-from-fundamental-fatal-analytical-flaw.html

A friend has been suffering from some serious back problems, and recently made a trip to Colombia to have it checked out (his wife is Colombian). Several MRIs, many appointments with specialists over the course of three weeks. Total bill: $500.

Our medical system is a disgrace.

@rwg @giovannamas having just been asked to review for a TF journal, no thanks: "Given the recent decision of T&F to exploit their authors by signing over their rights to an AI company, I cannot in good conscience perform free services for this publisher until the situation is resolved."
#TaylorFrancis #generativeAI