Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

My publisher is looking for two #blind sensitivity / test readers, to make sure a story with prominent blind characters doesn't set a foot wrong.

This is a paid opportunity: a flat fee of $25 USD for feedback on a deadline. Story is roughly 20,000 words.

#publishing #FineFiction #writing

So, this morning, after years and years of using the GUI in Linux, I gave up. The state of the GUI does nothing but deteriorate over time for accessibility, and it's exhausting. It's only getting worse. We're far, far away from what it used to be, years ago. Certainly, the QT framework has improved since 5 and now 6 came out, but GTK? Oh dear, oh dear... So, let's dive into it. #linux #xorg #wayland #a11y #accessibility #blind

@jducoeur

Thanks for posting these. For anyone motivated to phonebank to protect voter referendums in Ohio, here are a couple of phone banking opportunties through Swing Blue Alliance:

Mondays 5:30-7:30pm ET
https://www.mobilize.us/swingbluealliance/event/567048/

Tuesdays & Thursdays 5:30-7:30pm ET
https://www.mobilize.us/swingbluealliance/event/563286/

This is how it works: pick out an odious political character (there are plenty to choose from) and get everybody to focus all their attention and their hatred on that one guy. This allows you to look like you're "doing something" while not changing anything at all about the system as a whole, and it distracts people from recognizing that the system itself is irredeemably corrupt. 1/

[Announcement]

As a matter of transparency, please be aware that Youtube's legal team contacted us.

See https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/3872 for more details.

Also, in the event where the main repository was taken down, be aware that our code is backed up at https://gitea.invidious.io/iv-org

-SamantazFox

Here’s a rough estimate of how many people recent SCOTUS rulings might kill

In addition to deaths, the decisions will lead to significant morbidity.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/heres-a-rough-estimate-of-how-many-people-recent-scotus-rulings-might-kill/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Trump's Florida indictment should be required reading. It does a good job of juxtaposing two things:

1) The the former president stored hundreds of highly sensitive classified documents in bathrooms, closets and other places that weren't exactly secured. The documents included boring stuff like defense and weapons capabilities of the US and allies; potentially vulnerabilities of the US to attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. Worse still, in the wrong hands these documents can expose and endanger human sources.

2) In addition to the 150 full-time, part-time and temporary employees at Mar-a-Lago, between January 2021 and August 2022, the Mar-a-Lago Club hosted more than 150 social events, including weddings, movie premieres, and fundraisers that together drew *tens of thousands of guests*.

"Oh, I was just looking for the bathroom...."

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.3.0.pdf

In another thread on Mastodon, someone has pointed out that "Free and Open Source Software" is almost always misunderstood by non-practitioners as meaning "free of cost software, i.e. freeware, and open source software", as @webmink rightly notes: https://the.webm.ink/the-return-of-freeware - I use the term #FOSS a lot, to convey both Copyleft software (i.e. meeting the Free Software definition) as well as weaker open source licenses like MIT, Apache, & BSD, which do far less to protect the 4 Freedoms. 1/2

@dynamic

There's this project called codidact.com which is a non-profit that is trying to be 'stack exchange but for good instead of evil'. The software is running, they have a small user base -- but they need more visibility and more people.

Well, Trump got indicted at my house, my house
I'll show you the cuffs kid, show you the cuffs
We'll take his prints and his picture at my house, my house
I'll show you the cuffs kid, show you the cuffs

We need to burn the ad-tech business to the ground and then pour salt on the ashes. These companies -- many owned, as in this case (Microsoft), by the tech giants -- have pure contempt for your privacy. They hoover up the most personal information and use it shamelessly to make money.

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

Ford, and now GM, have decided to ditch a developing EV-charging standard in favor of the one owned and controlled by Musk's Tesla.

Best guessing: Either they're going to get monumentally screwed someday when he charges monopoly rents (after initial contracts expire) or they're working with him to create a cartel. Musk wins either way.

If you want to help fight the political shenanigans going on in Ohio, I recommend signing up to help with Vote Forward, who are gearing up for this: https://votefwd.org/

They are a highly-organized letter-writing organization, that mobilizes folks to write to likely and appropriate voters for key votes, to encourage them to come out to the polls. It's low-effort, worthwhile, well-run, and everyone can help!

To any New Yorkers contemplating moving to Montana (perhaps after watching the damned Yellowstone show): The smoke you're experiencing now is what we get for at least a month of every summer. Just sayin'...

Hamilton Nolan: “Worker-owned coops are the next and final evolution of media unions.”
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-utopian-future-scenario-of-media

I like Wikipedia. I also like(d) StackExchange. In my opinion, they are both great examples of community-based information curation on the web.

Clearly not everyone agrees with me, though. Certainly got some pushback on my recent post on the idea of a federated StackExchante alternative. Also, during the whole LLM debate, I've seen people assert that Wikipedia is a terrible information source.

Where do you fall?
(boosts welcome)

Does a #federated alternative to #StackExchange exist? If so, how does it measure up?

If not, what are your thoughts on what it would take to create one? Could it be done on #ActivityPub, or would it require a different protocol?

(boosts welcome, as is generally true of public posts)

@georgetakei As much as I want to be happy about this, it doesn't stop the adult HRT ban. The only way to get HRT is through an MD or DO, and you have to fill out a form that literally doesn't exist (a consent form the medical board said they will eventually make, without any kind of indication as to when). This leaves something like 80% of adult trans people in Florida without any means to get their medications.

Where are you on the political scale? Please boost wildly!* 😃​

(*) Yes I mean Wildly not just widely

The agency that runs NY prisons "quietly handed down new rules severely curtailing what incarcerated writers and artists can publish — and forbidding them from getting paid for it." https://nysfocus.com/2023/06/06/doccs-prison-blocks-journalism-artists-creative-work