Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Since my time with the U.S. Treasury came to an end on January 20, I'm now available 10 hours/week for consulting. My expertise is the budgeting, procurement, and oversight of major custom software projects. If that is relevant to your interests, let me know!

The best thing that might come from the new US administration is that every other country in the world abandons US big tech on the grounds of digital sovereignty. That'd be a tremendously beneficial (and cost-saving!) outcome for the world and could mean the death of big tech. Win-win. Bring it on.

#Meta blocked Distrowatch links on Facebook while running #Linux servers - https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/facebook_blocks_distrowatch/ "I've tried to appeal the ban and was told the next day that Linux-related material is staying on the cybersecurity filter." everybody get off #facebook now

Absolutely wild vulnerabilities over at Subaru:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/01/millions-of-subarus-could-be-remotely-unlocked-tracked-due-to-security-flaws/

The researchers were able to get into a Subaru admin account just by guessing the email, and bypassed the "security questions" because they were only checked in the browser.

Just... utter malpractice. No excuses.

(And then it turns out Subaru is storing precise location history of cars for at least a year, possibly indefinitely, and allows remote unlocks of the cars, from this terribly insecure website...)

Hello Friends, my current contract role wraps up at the end of January, so I am looking to get #FediHired FT or PT in the arena of Internet of Things #IoT , Embedded Systems, and Making Friends With The Robot Overlords When They Were Babies.

I have an electronics and advanced manufacturing lab in Brisbane, so am ideally placed to assist businesses who need a "hardware wizard on retainer".

@petersuber is tracking Trump regime's actions on open access to federally funded research.

He's using a Wiki, which is exactly the right medium for this.

https://cyber.harvard.edu/hoap/The_Trump_administrations_on_open_access_to_research

Journalists can't be bothered to do this kind of thing even though it is vitally needed in several areas, not least Trump world corruption.

Asked this of DeepSeek (Chinese "AI" tool):

Q: "What is the political significance of Tiananmen Square regarding protests against the Chinese government?"

A: "Sorry, that's beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else."

Send em.

Fuck fascists. Fuck MAGA. Fuck Nazis.

If anyone wants to see where I've got my info, here's the FYI.org.nz entry for my OIA request: https://fyi.org.nz/request/23870-rationale-for-funding-google-microsoft-software-for-public-schools-in-new-zealand#incoming-91607 The response from the Min of Ed is damning: https://fyi.org.nz/request/23870/response/91607/attach/html/4/1316436%20Response.pdf.html

I've invented the perfect prompt:

"Write a TikTok application but for professionals. Be sure to use the best programming language and follow Agile methodology closely, and minimize bugs. You should also use the fastest database. Make sure the application is secure too, with firewalls and all that."

You can use this but you owe me 5% royalties, thanks.

Wow, my fedi feed is resplendent with invective against Meta and Google right now. Why don't we just include all of BigTech, because they're all equally risible and irredeemable? I know I do.

Meta is an evil company. Now it's filtering, and in some cases banning, discussions -- and users -- mentioning Linux.

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/facebook-flags-linux-topics-as-cybersecurity-threats-posts-and-users-being-blocked

I've just fired a couple rockets on the list, after the resident Microsoft rep on the list tried to redirect the discussion by making fun of parents who were against the Google & Microsoft takeover of NZ digital education, citing someone who apparently thought that Microsoft would irradiate their son's testicals with wifi. Of course, the goal was careful orchestrated to try to make any such objections seem laughably naive, despite there being a raft of legitimate ones: https://davelane.nz/explainer-digitech-risks-school-boards

Several people have asked me what I think about DeepSeek and the stock market tanking, and I have no thoughts other than "as a disciple of Taleb, it is very funny to me when big numbers go down".

some people prefer the negative income tax and others prefer the universal basic income, so they compromised on the negative basic income.

The economy is doing just fine -- the people, however...

https://www.resume-now.com/job-resources/careers/wage-reality-report

How it it possible that anyone, never mind a local or national politician with some influence, can still promote 'growth' as an economic strategy without being totally ridiculed?! Probably for the same reason we still have the same folks seriously talking about #TrickleDownEconomics like an early 80s gold-plated dickhead.

The people who are now in charge of the Office of Personnel Management apparently don’t know how to scrub PDF metadata, and have exposed the original authors of the guidance they’re publishing. Two have links to the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025.

Noah Peters is the author of the OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell’s January 27 memo (archive) providing guidance on the “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” executive order, which is being described as the “Schedule F” order because it effectively reinstates that policy under a new name (“Schedule Policy/Career”). Peters also authored the January 20 memo (archive) from Ezell, which exploits loopholes to bypass limits on political appointments.1 Both of these memos are clear steps towards achieving a primary goal of Project 2025: to expand President Trump’s power, and to replace career civil servants with Trump loyalists.

As far back as 2023, The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was recommending Peters for a position in Trump’s second administration.2 Peters had previously been appointed by Trump in 2019 as the Solicitor at the Federal Labor Relations Authority,3 where he “aided and defended Trump appointees’ anti-union FLRA policies that went against decades of the agency’s own precedents” according to Court Accountability Action and State Democracy Defenders Action.4 Peters returned to private practice in 2022, but recently quietly updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect a new title of “Senior Advisor” to the Office of Personnel Management. This appointment does not appear to have been announced anywhere else.

1/2

#USpolitics #USpol #Project2025 #HeritageFoundation

Please don't parrot the "Sputnik moment" BS regarding the alleged Chinese "AI" breakthrough.

Even if DeepSeek is the real thing, the wailing from the US tech bros looks mostly like a ploy to get taxpayers to spend 100s of billions of their dollars to further enrich US AI companies and their investors.

Socialism for the rich and the rest of us pay for it -- hell of a business model if you can pull it off. Don't let them get away with it.

Follow the money. Follow the money.