Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Latest reminder that if you buy something that the maker calls "smart" you are setting yourself up for being ripped off.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/smart-sous-vide-cooker-to-start-charging-2-month-for-10-year-old-companion-app/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

I go out of my way to avoid "smart" stuff -- but it's increasingly difficult to find.

Someone will make a lot of money when they open a store that sells things that purchasers fully own.

Long-term goal: retake the phrase “good enough for government work” as a shorthand for the rigorous standards that government agencies [rarely, but increasingly often] impose on custom software projects' quality.

As in, "sure, your code is good, but is it good enough for government work?”

It’s one of the bloodiest wars of the modern era—but the vast majority of casualties are civilians on one side. You can decide what to call that.

#politics #war #gaza #israel https://journa.host/@fulelo/112968125898624163

Dear universe,

I should not need Adobe software in order to sign a form.

Signed,
Me

P.S. Have you maybe noticed that electronic signatures are kind of a load of nonsense anyway?

According to xenophobic politicians all over, but particularly in America, immigrants are simultaneously lazy freeloading rapist criminals who murder and peddle drugs AND ALSO are taking all the legit American jobs (more than 100% of them if Cheeto Mussolini is to be believed). 🙄

Unrelated but it's a feature of fascism to present its enemies as being both weak and strong, disorganised and mighty, clueless and all-knowing at the same time and depending on the context.

#NoBordersNoWalls

So following Doctorow's links I find in Wilholts comment where he states this law, a statement for the counterpoint equally well stated -
"So this tells us what anti-conservatism must be: the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone."

Worth repeating. Certainly reflects our current government -
Wilhoit's law, "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect"
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/15/private-law/

An old Verizon demo app lurking deep in stock Android creates exposure for almost all Pixel phones. A fix from Google is coming but hasn't been pushed yet. And Palantir says it is concerned enough about the situation to ban all corporate Android devices https://www.wired.com/story/google-android-pixel-showcase-vulnerability/

Apropos to recent events in the literary world, I have written a long essay on why a) you should not idolize creative people, b) come to think of it, you shouldn't idolize anyone, c) holy fuck you really should not idolize ME.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2024/08/15/please-dont-idolize-me-or-anyone-really/

Harris' (apparent) proposal to make a crime out of grocery "price gouging" could be a major unforced error.

The details will tell us, but we haven't seen an actual plan yet.

What we need is to break up the monopolies and cartels that run pretty much every sector of our economy and restore true competition.

Granular interference with markets won't cut it.

She Wrote an Op-Ed Criticizing Biden on Gaza. The Justice Department Accused Her of Breaking the Law: A federal watchdog ruled that a DOJ employee’s article in The Hill did not violate the Hatch Act.

Story by Shawn Musgrave in @theintercept

https://theintercept.com/2024/08/14/gaza-justice-department-hatch-act/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=theintercept

Remembering Kony 2012

Facebook is flagging a legitimate week-old photo of a Vice President Kamala Harris rally as “false.”

Facebook algorithms have been hijacked by users who claim a non-English Reuters fact-check proves this legitimate photo is, instead, “false.”

https://themoderatevoice.com/facebook-erroneously-labels-harris-airplane-hanger-photo-false-receipts-say-otherwise/

#USPolitics
#Facebook
#FactCheck
#HijackedAlgorithms

A new analysis of satellite imagery dating as far back as 1972 reveals that mangroves in Madagascar are rebounding after decades of deforestation.

The island’s total mangrove cover is down 8% compared with 1972, but a closer look at the data shows that the rate of loss has been declining and even reversed in the last decade.

By Darren Incorvaia
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/50-years-of-data-show-that-madagascars-mangroves-are-making-a-comeback/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Mangroves #Madagascar #Deforestation

While you're waiting for GitHub to stop being broken, you might want to check out a self-hosting alternative called @forgejo instead at:

➡️ https://forgejo.org

Their software is a community fork of Gitea.

Alternatively, if you just want a Forgejo instance to sign up on, check out @Codeberg at

➡️ https://codeberg.org

#GitHub #GitHubDown #CodeForges #Dev #SoftwareDevelopment #SelfHosting #CommunityHosting

@vkc isn't publishing an opensource git to only one depot a kind of anti-pattern for git anyways ? I see the point for bug-tracking, but not for publication

@vkc

That sounds like the new owners.... MicroShit at it again.

The funniest thing (to me anyway) about GitHub being down is that they still point their status page to Twitter, which now famously *does not work* unless you're signed in and otherwise displays messages out of chronological order.

What a joy the centralized web is.

@luckytran An EXTREMELY important detail that is on the NYCLU web page briefing about this is that there is a very broad medical exemption, but it is ONLY for people PROTECTING THEMSELVES.

The NYCLU explicitly points out that if you are wearing a mask because you are infected and contagious and are trying to protect OTHERS, that is NOT given an exemption under this law.

They likewise point out that if you are wearing a mask because you live with someone immunocompromised and are trying to protect THEM, that is also NOT given an exemption under this law.

IMPORTANT: If you are wearing a mask in Nassau County and accosted by the police, tell them you are protecting YOURSELF.

(Which, if it's not true, it should be. The first step in not spreading it is not catching it.)

It's important to know your rights! Even though a mask ban is now law in Nassau County, NY, cops can't:

❌Make you provide a doctors note proving your disability
❌Force you to disclose private health info
❌Make you take off a religious face covering