Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Cartoon by Michael de Adder.

So: In the past the infrastructure was simpler, the underlying hardware was simpler, the number of use cases you had to satisfy was smaller. And now everything is fundamentally more complicated and you're competing with platforms that have millions of absolutely normal computer users using them. But we've also got greater avenues of sharing knowledge, collaboration, better understanding of how to build abstractions. Was the golden age 30 years ago, or is it now?

EveryLibrary Institute Joins the Our Future Memory Coalition - https://blog.archive.org/2026/01/12/everylibrary-institute-joins-the-our-future-memory-coalition/

Learning Retro Computer Electronics Fault Finding and Restoration
L: https://retrogamecoders.com/learning-retrocomputer-electronics/
C: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46556313
posted on 2026.01.09 at 12:24:04 (c=0, p=10)

It is actually kind of wild that we're simultaneously in an era of people complaining that Wayland is destroying choice and also maybe the greatest number of high-quality desktop environments aimed at different use cases the free software world has ever had

Fedi friends, I owe you a quick heads-up / update: the third chapter in my self-hosting with #YunoHost tutorial is coming this week. I'm currently writing it.

It's just a matter of formatting and writing an explanation for the dozens of screenshots I took while installing NextCloud 😅

I sincerely apologize for the delay but the Christmas holidays and all the travel to see family in 3 locations kept me super busy.

I'll publish it on Thursday at the latest! Thank you for your patience 🙏

Judge: Trump violated Fifth Amendment by ending #energy grants in only blue states - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/judge-trump-violated-fifth-amendment-by-ending-energy-grants-in-only-blue-states/ " Donald Trump’s social media post triggers rare Fifth Amendment ruling. "

@hajovonta
That's not a secret, also not the point.

The 2 main things about free software that offend capital are:
1. Capital can't appropriate it easily and enclose the commons because of capital's own copyright laws
2. Individual human skill can't be owned by a company: it's a rare form of workers owning the means of production

LLMs attack this by:
1. selectively ignoring copyright with the blessing of the powerful
2. eroding the value of human skill to rebalance power in capital's favour

I think the appearance of free software really broke the oligarch's brains. People are just giving away stuff that should be Shareholder Value? And we *can't* buy it off them and own it? People are just running a compiler whenever they like to make whatever they want without paying anyone?

The push to adopt LLM-powered code generation tools is so frenzied and desperate partly because it's a perceived solution to claw back ownership of the means of production into the Right Hands.

If you're in the #rural US, when you pay your bills, you're likely paying a #coop, even if you don't realize it.

By landmass, most of this country's #energy distribution is serviced by rural electric cooperatives.

There will be a free, four-part training series for rural residents who want to use grassroots power to work toward greater energy #affordability, #reliability, and #sustainability.

More info here:
https://www.shareable.net/working-towards-energy-affordability-in-rural-america/

Dear Fedi friends, some good news:

Today I learned from @liaizon that the Parisian art space @palaisdetokyo is on the fediverse.

I was curious about the server it's hosted on, so I checked it out and more good news: there are several cultural institutions on it.

Turns out, it's an initiative by the French Ministry of Culture: a Mastodon server to share "cultural news in a way that is freer, open and independent" (their words)!

THANK YOU @cercle for being here!

🔗 : https://reseauculture.fr/directory

Holy Shit. "one of ours. all of yours". on a government podium?!?

That's serious fascism stuff. It's the approach taken by the Nazis when Reinhard Heydrich, a prime architect of the holocaust, was assassinated by the resistance.

The assassins were mistakenly believed to be from the town of Lidice in occupied Czechoslovakia. So the Nazi's rounded up all the men and boys and killed them, and sent all the women to concentration camps. wiped the town off the map.

THAT is what's being evoked by that phrase on the puppy killer's podium.

How would you stay in touch if the Internet goes down? Can you set up your own long-distance communication network with mates?

This session covers what mesh network communication is, why and when it’s useful, plus some pointers on how to get started.

All welcome, no experience required!

Thursday 15 January
19:00-20:00
https://meet.jit.si/WhatIfTheInternetGoesDown

🏕️ DWeb Camp 2026 is happening in the Berlin area on Jul 8–12 ✨

Are you curious, excited, want to participate?

Fill out this survey! ⤵️

We would love to shape the first-ever DWeb Camp in Europe together!

Detailed location and further info soon 👀

https://airtable.com/appO6XXgm4TUQXMTX/pagGHDCSWQUTxIjSC/form

#DWeb #DWebCamp #DWebCamp2026

Today I remembered @aphyr's offhand quote about "far too much experience inferring system dynamics from timeseries graphs" and how much that hit home.

A large part of my job as a software dev at a SaaS company is staring at graphs and telling stories about them. But his description sounds better. :-)

(quote is from https://aphyr.com/posts/370-ecobee-settings-for-heat-pumps-with-resistive-aux-heat)

🛠️ 💻 In the spirit of repairability and keeping good equipment alive, I've gathered up a few retired Thinkpads from local surplus auctions. I'm upgrading the RAM and drives and will be making them available in the next few weeks. These will be cozy little Solarpunk machines, older equipment preinstalled with a lightweight linux desktop and all the software you need for browsing, writing, docs, email, managing passwords, and videoconferencing.

I would like to find each one a good home with a nice person who will appreciate and take care of it. If you know of someone in the USA who would be a good fit, please put them in touch. I will be sending these for the cost of shipping (estimating about $40) with a completely optional tip jar to help cover the cost of upgraded parts.

When I have more details together I'll send out a link but for now ping me with any questions. Thanks! 🙏

Think of ICE's masked thugs -- committing murder in public, with impunity -- as members of a revived KKK. Trump's KKK goons carry federal badges.

ICE is a clear, present, and escalating danger to everyone.

GoFundMe Ignores its Own Rules
by Hosting a Legal-Defense Fund for the ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good

https://www.wired.com/story/gofundme-ice-jonathan-ross-renee-good-fundraiser/

Animal rescue stories are popular on YouTube.

A YouTube channel sharing animal rescue stories now has 1.2 million subscribers.

The only problem? The stories are completely made up and the videos are generated using AI.

This content literally outcompetes videos from real animal shelters — for profit — while misinforming our children and anyone who cannot see the difference.

I cannot begin to describe how much that angers me.

https://youtube.com/@ajanimalking