Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

We must recognize the danger that age verification laws have beyond pornography. They could clear the way for politicians to deem harmful any content they disagree with, such as LGBTQ+ content or content about abortion. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/impact-age-verification-measures-goes-beyond-porn-sites

@leighelse

It was Gates' Letter to Hobbyists that made me realise I was dealing with the Forces of Evil. Before that Big Blue suffered the same consideration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists

@lightweight

Had a nice chat with the kind people from @weblate at #FOSDEM, yesterday. Head over to the K building and visit their stand, if you're interested in localising your projects.

If your project is hosted on @Codeberg, you can make use of #codebergs's #weblate instance which is available at https://translate.codeberg.org/.

#FOSDEM2025

Thousands of #trees planted in #Devon to start creation of Celtic rainforest
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/29/thousands-of-trees-planted-in-devon-to-start-creation-of-celtic-rainforest

"They used to cover large parts of #Britain... The mature temperate #rainforest will take several decades to become established, but the gains for nature will be much swifter... #TemperateRainforests support an abundance of #wildlife including #birds while their damp conditions mean #mosses, #liverworts, #lichens, #ferns and #fungi thrive on the trees as well as the forest floor."

Here's the talk by the Software Freedom Conservancy in question:

https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6153-the-growing-body-of-proprietary-infrastructure-for-foss-development-repeating-bad-history/

The majority of you that visited our booth at #FOSDEM2025 asked us about federation, especially after a talk by the @conservancy that gave Codeberg and Forgejo a shoutout.

As we were not always able to give in-depth answers in person (there were lots of people!), we would like to highlight the following talk by @meissa: "Show and Tell: Federation at Forgejo"

https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5610-show-and-tell-federation-at-forgejo/

This kind of shit is why I stopped listening to NPR at the beginning of the GWB admin. Back then it was them running cover for W's unilateral cutting of overseas family planning aid. Now they're saying this and I, quite frankly, am not surprised. This is who they are. This is always who they've been.

https://fair.org/home/with-zero-evidence-npr-suggests-trump-may-work-for-the-working-class-in-second-term/

Watching people say about overt fascism "but that's illegal!" gives me such strong flashbacks to the billion times that disabled people talking about the patterns of discrimination we face have been met with similar shock and disbelief: surely "they" can't deny you jobs or an education or information in accessible formats, "that's illegal!"

The sooner you get past the shock, the sooner you can get to more useful reactions. Listening to your disabled comrades will make you harder to shock.

@lightweight

It isn't a new job (just think about all R&D 'invested' in programmed obsolescence), but I guess nowadays the job title would be 'enshitificator'...

I've often thought about that. There're people at Microsoft whose job it is to work out how to piss you off enough to kowtow to their demands to formalise your exploitation rather than get brassed off enough to reject that exploitation.

3/n

Thanks to someone in the Cooperative Development chatroom I just learned about a new co-op model I've never heard of before: a cooperative work pool!

TL;DR a bike shop and a ski shop could setup a work pool. In the winter when the bike shop doesn't have enough customers, the employees go work for the ski shop where it's the busy season (and during the summer they go back to the bike shop). This would be much better than getting fired every winter!

#cooperatives

Flashback: I remember standing in the pick-up department of a hardware vendor I used to frequent back when my business did a lot of system integration (helping Windows-dependent businesses take advantage of the capabilities Linux servers offered them). As I waited for someone to get my order together, I could hear a Microsoft rep pontificating to vendor staff about their latest version of Windows. 1/n

Anyway, on the topic of the old job hunt: trying my best with a general/non-custom tech "foot in the door" CV here: https://yvan.seth.id.au/CV/YvanSeth_CV.pdf

If anyone who's familiar with current successful tech hiring or jobseeking would like to offer feedback it will be highly welcome! I am a job-seeking novice here (I applied for about 3 jobs in my tech life and got all 3 of them, well, OK, if we don't include the Google job where we mutually aborted the hiring process due to their definition of software engineer being different to mine lol, and their requirements being weird 😂 )

I've been working on cutting it down, compressed to three pages now (by removing/compressing content not by making the font tiny, lol.)

I also welcome input from grammar pedants and the typo-vigilant. I've looked at this document so much in the last few weeks I'm a bit burnt out by it.

HTML version of the same: https://yvan.seth.id.au/CV/cv.html

The next #fluConf session is an article by ohio olarte (not on the Fediverse) titled "Neo-Luddism in a developing country can be odd"

https://fluconf.online/sessions/neo-luddism-in-a-developing-country-can-be-odd/

#fluConf2025 #Philippines

#ThichNahtHanh #Dharma #Buddhism #BelovedCommunity #Interbeing #Mindfulness #Meditation #PlumVillage #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma
@thichnhathanh
@dharma @belovedcommunity @engagedbuddhism
@recoverydharma @plumvillage

A political anthropologist submitted an opinion piece to the LA Times. The newspaper, which is owned by an RFK Jr.-supporting billionaire, edited the piece and gave it an inaccurate title to make it sound optimistic that Trump and his nominees could be good for public health. Here is the complete, unedited OpEd making clear RFK Jr. is a clear danger to the health of Americans.

https://newrepublic.com/article/191030/rfk-jr-op-ed-los-angeles-times

X appears to be becoming the official US Government propaganda network. This is likely aimed at forcing back the media and other large organisations. Do not fall for it. Journalists, universities, government agencies, international organisations - you can monitor x with an account and remain broadcasting on this platform. Help your audience stay here.

[I sent the following to my senators and representatives via https://resist.bot (and thanks for the prompting, @spaf)]

I am writing in concern over reports of Elon Musk and his accomplices exerting control over government information systems. At best, Mr Musk and his team are unauthorized personnel who apparently are installing new email systems and blocking authorized employees from accessing government information systems. At worst, they are saboteurs with agendas that conflict with our laws and institutions.

I have spent the bulk of my 40 year career in information systems protecting US users and networks from intrusions by hostile foreign attackers. I am a recognized expert in my field and have performed computer forensics and incident response work for a diverse set of organizations including the FBI, NASA, the FTC, DoD, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, eBay, and the University of Pennsylvania. I have held TS/SCI clearances with both DoD and DoJ.

So when I say that dropping new email servers into existing networks without proper planning and access control constitutes a clear and present danger to those networks and an enormous opportunity for our adversaries, I want you to understand that this comes from a place of hard-won and bitter understanding. Already there are confirmed reports of entire agencies receiving deluges of pornographic spam and other inappropriate material due to misconfigurations on these new email servers. But it is what other opportunistic nation states are doing out of sight that is more troubling.

I have worked on investigative teams that have led to decades of jail time for offenders who have gained unauthorized access to government information systems. Yet we have corroborated reports that Mr Musk’s team has not only accessed OPM systems without authorization, but actually locked out the authorized personnel. Need I remind you that these systems contain information about all government employees and contractors, including security clearance paperwork, personal financial information, and healthcare and insurance information?

Where is the immediate and aggressive emergency response to this dangerous and unauthorized activity into government information systems? The executive branch does not have the authority to permit any individual to conduct such operations. When Chinese government actors breached OPM in 2015, the reaction was swift and significant. This is as just as much of a hostile takeover, but the posture is one of blasé indifference.

This must not stand. Every hour this activity continues, more information may be captures and exfiltrated by Mr Musk’s agents. Every hour foreign adversaries may be establishing beachheads in government networks. Every hour the scope of potential compromise and the cost of fixing the damage grows exponentially.

The congress must resist the extreme actions of the executive and its minions. Without decisive and immediate pushback, we are lost.

@Codeberg

Also maybe a good day to mention a hobby project started last year:

https://codeberg.org/khaeru/yokoso#readme

Are you, or do you know, a person ‘from’ one country who's living in another? Do you have a story worth celebrating, or experiences worth sharing?¹ If yes, then please open a PR!

¹ hint: as long as you're not choosing to harm others, yes you do.

Interestingly, two days before Oracle deleted my account and all servers associated with it, I publicly criticized Oracle's CEO in a viral post for promising dystopian AI surveillance technology to his investors.

https://mastodon.de/@ErikUden/113879369270806353

What a weird coincidence.