Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

"Employees navigating similar pressures at other companies should be watching closely, because whatever Proton works out here is almost certainly coming to their performance review next."

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/ai-unemployment-proton-interviewing-employees-145827415.html

In December my 2-year VPN subscription is running out. I had planned to switch to 22Mullvad, but Mullvad has come out as 50% nazi since.

Which VPN should I use, that works on Linux, Android, and GrapheneOS? I use VPN for everything I do online, except a few things that do not work with it, and German state services. I do not trust German ISPs and I do not want them to know what I do. Therefore the VPN has to be reasonably fast, private (no logging, independently audited), non-fascist (of course), no DNS leaks.

#AI #noAI #proton #VPN #technofascism #privacy #security

@Niklas @jlink @argv_minus_one I actually have a problem with the effective part the way they present it. Someone calculated that mosquito nets save the maximum number of lives per dollar donated, and most EA started donating for mosquito nets, before they switched to "AGI" of course. But that would result in an excess of mosquito nets while people in other parts of the world die of other causes. So what would be the most effective way to donate? Mathematically, calculate what is needed where, for example x USD for mosquito nets, x/2 USD for a certain vaccine, 3x USD for famine relief, and then, roll a dice, literally let a random number generator decide where your money is going to go based on those weights.

I boosted your toot in case anyone knows of such an organization. I myself am a very ineffective donator by their standards, I am more of a mutual aid person and support my Fedi comrades who need help (I do donate to NGOs, but mostly local ones, "think globally, act locally").

However, because there is enough money/resources in the world for everyone to have a good life, they are just being hoarded by the few, I am in favour of Piñata Economics: piñata the billionaires until their wealth trickles down.

Out of the ‘AI’ Crisis – Premium Newsletter launch and Halloween Sale

I'm trying a new thing and launching a premium newsletter in addition to the regular one.

I'm hoping this will help pay for the work that goes into the newsletter, videos, and podcasts, and times are genuinely a bit rough these days, so I'd very much appreciate it if people could spread the word 🙂

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/out-of-the-ai-crisis-halloween-sale-and-launch/

"Neglect a system badly enough, or long enough, or incautiously enough, and it will be at risk of failure. Any sufficiently advanced negligence is indistinguishable from malice."

Deb Chachra, How Infrastructure Works (pg 161)

I would be very grateful if people out there could stop saying that "every FOSS project is turning towards AI" just because some prominent examples are.

My projects are not. And for OctoPrint I'm actually doubling down on the "made by humans" point in the upcoming website relaunch and am also considering adopting CASA¹

But it's really exhausting to fight this shit at two fronts.

¹ https://destructured.net/casa

“Anthropic files its ‘IPO’ — but all the key numbers are missing – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/27/anthropic-files-its-ipo-but-all-the-key-numbers-are-missing/

> As a serious business proposition, you’d be nuts to go for this.

What he said.

One thing I've noticed AI whistleblowers NOT saying is that a technology capable of autonomously destroying humanity is also a technology that could be used by its makers to destroy humanity, or some disfavored portion of humanity.

For some reason, they really want us to focus on that "autonomous" part.

RE: https://mastodon.online/@tomstafford/117517506699981465

important point

@frincon @hannorein @keithnator3000 I think this is a societal problem, not one limited to open science. AI is the greatest theft in history. Grandmas were sued for supposedly downloading three mp3s in the '00s and now we can hoover up all digital content and use it for free? The issue is not with the content, it is with consent and enforcement of it in the face of capital.

https://khufkens.com/posts/contempt-consent-AI-culture/

RE: https://sfba.social/@drahardja/117516108521286107

I stopped working on control systems back in my early/mid 20's when BAe/Rolls Royce couldn't promise the code I wrote wouldn't be used to test weapons.

I totally get the desire to work on cool shit but Boston Dynamics was always going to sell more systems to repress people than do search and rescue missions just look at the design of their robots. They are offensive tools.

So a #Tesla semi spontaneously burst into flames this afternoon and shut down a major highway in #Hayward #sfba #california until tomorrow.

“The CHP said at 7:45 p.m. that the fire was expected to burn for between 15 and 18 hours and that the southbound lanes of I-880 would remain closed until it was out.”

https://abc7news.com/post/tesla-semi-truck-bursts-flames-shuts-down-880-hayward/19988258/

anyway i just found this community of AI abstainers called humancrafted through the referrers to my no AI notice, in case that's up anyone's alley: https://humancrafted.discourse.group/

@drahardja Standard American response, no? It’s fine building things that hurt people if you don’t have to see them. If you can other them. Now it’s ICE and it’s on our streets.

This is how Facebook employees have always slept at night.

@drahardja Maybe the museum of science and the public library can do some kids' events about electric shock gloves next

I’m sorry, but what did these #BostonDynamics employees think they were working on? Animatronic performers for Chuck E. Cheese?

These robots are obviously weapons. They’ve always been obviously weapons. It’s always been pretty clear that it’s only a matter of time until the military deploys them. And US law enforcement too, because they are basically paramilitary forces now.

Boston Dynamics took money from DARPA to develop their humanoid platforms. DARPA sponsored a series of humanoid robot competitions. Do these folks think they’re doing it for pure science? Everyone in the game has always known DARPA is trying to make remote-controlled or autonomous robo-soldiers, and these companies are spending money on prototypes because they want to sell them. I don’t know how it could have been more clear.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/boston-dynamics-employees-want-to-block-sale-of-robot-dogs-to-ice/

@emma @be Indeed I was afraid of this to happen when the GR got discussed. There were many people whom I highly respect (and still highly respect) who were convinced that there were indeed roughly 3 choices: "no LLMs", "maybe LLMs" and "always LLMs". Unfortunately, those who said that the "maybe LLMs" choice was the same as the "always LLM" choice seem to be receiving evidence that they might've been right all along and in fact there were only 2 choices... @cwebber

Here's the thing I can say to younger queer folks now in case they don't know this: before the internet they told us there were ZERO others like us. ZERO. They told each and every single one of us that we were wrong and alone and didn't have stories that deserved to be told in fact had stories that could not be told at any cost.

So when they say there aren't *enough* of us now to defend our rights, to stand up for basic human rights, when they say we're too few to consider, too fringe, too little too vulnerable, too outside to consider? They're lying again, still and always.

They want queer people to feel like we're alone when we really, really, really fucking ARE and HAVE BEEN and WILL ALWAYS be here and if you feel alone because everyone around you says you are, remember they lie.

Evolution seems to work well as a replacement for Thunderbird calendar.

I blogged about recovering Thunderbird data: https://www.brainonfire.net/blog/2026/10/27/recovering-thunderbird-data-loss/

It may actually have just been a busted cache, even though I was using local calendars, as the data in local.sqlite actually seems to be complete?! But it would have sucked to lose something, so I'm glad I went through this exercise anyhow.

A 28-Year-Old #DOGE Operative Gutted #USAID. HR Had No Record of Him Working There - https://www.wired.com/story/a-28-year-old-doge-operative-gutted-usaid-hr-had-no-record-of-him-working-there/ “If Lewin didn’t even fill out the papers and was not authorized to take these actions, then he could be exposed to personal liability,” sue him now.