Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Good things happening in october

October is full of chances for all of us to bump into each other again. Below a list of upcoming events, followed by some good news from Abolish AI!, designed to make you feel a little bit lighter in your day. https://abolish-ai.net/2026/10/06/good-things-happening-in-october/

Thing is, we're betting multiple Terabytes of data on rsync working reliably. I'm paranoid enough to regularly run checksums on a few hundred Gigabytes to make sure rsync did its job right. This is the first time *ever* that rsync has just flat out failed to do its job. I'm not impressed.

Yay. I just got hit on the nose by rsync sloprot. Somehow I had avoided it so far. The "don't worry, it's fixed in the next version. Just upgrade" response doesn't fill me with warm fuzzy feelings. I'm now pondering my options. I haven't found a clear obvious safe choice for a slop free fork yet, and switching to another implementation will involve a verification process, and possibly porting of tooling.

Can we please just keep our software working reliably?

#linux #unix

We cut down this forest here and we installed this huge army of solar panels. And if we tilt them just right, we save a few butterflies, for a few years anyway. Because the way to "save" nature is to industrialize the countryside and wild nature, it seems.

Today, it seems we can neither dream nor think without thinking about machines and technologies. We cannot even imagine the idea that the greatest service we could do to nature is to leave her alone. To get out of the way. To withdraw.

Horror has always been a political genre. So, for October, we've compiled a list of 13 horror films and some suggested reading to go with them. Here's part 1 of 2. What would you add to the list?

Get 40% off select titles with code HORROR thru 11/1 here: https://www.pmpress.org/category/horror-is-political-sale

This summer I reviewed a certain place I had stayed at. Got a response now. They use some kind of an LLM to respond to comments.

I wrote "The nightstand was too low compared to the bed, so I had to use the dining table as my nightstand instead." and the response is: "We’re especially happy to hear that our night team was able to assist you quickly when needed." 🤪

#AI #noAI #LLM #LLMs

me 2023: i'm shocked how willing people are to catch the virus that gives you brain fog

me 2026: i'm shocked how willing people are to use the machine that deskills you

maybe i should stop being shocked

"Software developers are not okay"

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/05-software-developers-are-not-okay/

The software industry is becoming increasingly hostile to those who work in it. The uncertainty is affecting even those who believe in the promises of tech.

Direct link to the essay: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/05-software-developers-are-not-okay/#software-developers-are-not-doing-well

"During their relationship, Lisa’s ex-partner was controlling. He kept her at home where he was emotionally and physically abusive towards her, including once attacking her with a machete.

These days, he runs protests outside houses of multiple occupancy that he claims are housing asylum seekers"

Interviews with 7 partners of 'Protect our women' thugs.

#FarRight #DomesticViolence #DomesticAbuse #CoerciveControl #Women

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/06/uk-domestic-abuse-survivors-ex-partners-behind-far-right-street-patrols

A lot of us in the free software space are stinging rn, watching slop worm its way into our communities, tools, perhaps even the philosophy itself. I'm seeing justifiably protectionist language like infiltration, infestation, infection. & while from a security standpoint, vibed code can oft be compared to digital asbestos, I find myself reaching more for organic vs inorganic (code), bc just as it's very hard to live without plastic, it's already very difficult to avoid slop in free software 1/n

If Zuck's pivoting to it, you know it's toast. https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2026/10/05

honestly at this point writing your password down in a notebook or hidden on your desk might be more secure than keeping it online in some fashion. i mean what're the odds of you getting burglarized vs. someone just hacking the system you use

I see #Trump is now seeking to divert attention away from his Epstein War against Iran by claiming that it is Ukraine which is causing high fuel prices. Maybe he should have ended the Russia - Ukraine war on his first day in office like he promised. Then the surge in fuel prices obviously wouldn’t have happened.
#Moron #Politics

Print Issue #13 of The Counterforce is here for download, featuring an amazing cover by Arthur K. Download, print and distribute!

Also is the newest MRR Reviews digest PDF, pulling reviews from @maximumrocknroll and putting them into a printable PDF zine for distribution!

I don’t know how to explain to people that just because certain things appear to approximately work doesn’t mean they actually work. This was already horrifically difficult before AI and now it’s damn near impossible to get the point across when literally any trivial example passes muster

The asymmetry between me having to provide a compelling defence that they can actually understand (without the required background knowledge) vs them being able to endlessly generate garbage in seconds is just… exhausting

I want to share with you the gist of a mind-blowing conversation I had with my doctor today at my annual physical.

She asked about my mood, which led to a conversation about how AI is ruining everything, which prompted her to mention that she doesn’t use the AI transcription app that her hospital network is encouraging people to use, because she finds it’s too time-consuming for her to read and correct the AI transcriptions instead of just writing down her own notes.
#healthcare
1/5

@jik If you just substitute the word "doctor" for literally any other job in the universe, this sounds like something a union organizer would be interested in.

The Northwest Cooperative Development Center has released a great series of videos on the co-op conversion process. Here's the first two sessions, covering conversion basics and talking with members of two cooperatives about their conversion experience.
#WorkerCoops #Cooperatives

https://geo.coop/articles/exploring-conversion-process

This documentary about AI does not pull punches about how this technology is tied to eugenics and fascism. Great!

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/ghost-in-the-machine/