Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

I’m quite confused when I hear my fellow European citizens worry about our dependence on American Big Tech, and that in case America goes full Nazi we have no way of building our future.

American Big Tech is overwhelmingly dependent on free and open-source software that is overwhelmingly built and maintained by volunteers on both sides of the pond.

From the Linux kernel that powers basically all the large servers in the world, to the most popular distros built around that kernel, to the most popular database systems (MariaDB, Postgres, MongoDB…) and messaging systems (Redis, Kafka…), to Elastic (based in Amsterdam), to Blender (also based in Amsterdam), to all the open programming languages that power today’s world (Rust, PHP, Python [also invented by a Dutch developer], Kotlin [developed by JetBrains, also headquartered in Amsterdam]), to the Web servers that serve most of the content (nginx, Apache…), to the Grafana+Loki+Prometheus+OTEL stack that makes the backbone of observability in most of today’s large companies, to the numpy+pandas libraries that are the backbone of all of today’s AI hype, large American companies could do NOTHING, and I mean literally NOTHING, without open-source software that is built out of collaborations between European and American developers (who are often unpaid and on the verge of burnout).

If you want a glimpse of today’s technological avantgarde, you don’t have to go to flashy and hollow events like ESC in Las Vegas, or any Silicon Valley sponsored event. You have to go to FOSDEM in Belgium.

American Big Tech has the ability of putting together these freely available building blocks, building finished products with them, monetizing them aggressively through unethical business models, funding them through some of the richest men in the world (because the VC world is still dominated only by rich white men), locking them up as services that run into their private clouds (companies like AWS literally fill up bottles with free tap water and make outrageous amounts of money by renting access to that water), and sucking up generous subsidies from the federal government, while the EU gives literally peanuts to those building this infrastructure - we had to wait for years and beg the commission before getting something like Next Generation Internet up and running, which provides these projects with literally 0.01% of the money that the US has provided to its already deep-pocketed giants through things like the CHIPS act, and we also have to periodically send them letters like this https://pad.public.cat/lettre-NCP-NGI# to make sure that we don’t lose even those peanuts.

Imagine what we could build in Europe if only we had coherent technological programs that just funded the talent that we already have.

Imagine what we could do if instead of a couple of millions of spare change (and Von der Leyen never putting her wallet where her mouth is, because if we had one million every time she said “EU 🩷 open-source” all the EU-based volunteers on Github will be millionaire by now) we had even a fraction of the funding of acts like CHIPS.

Imagine what we could do if European companies firmly grounded in the values of open-source and ethical business models (like Nextcloud or Blender) had enough funding to compete with the American giants, instead of having to hear technologically illiterate megalomaniacs like Draghi and Macron argue for “European champions” that simply mock the unsustainable and unethical business models championed by America.

Our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic lately are going a bit nuts (like Nazi nuts). It’s time to start decoupling and de-riskifying from them, nurturing our own sustainable open-source ecosystem, and, if they start leveraging their own Big Tech as a weapon against us, pull the drawbridge and cut them out of the European open-source software that runs their servers.

In a world where code and data are the new oil, access to open-source software means access to the raw materials required to make your industry wealthy. We shouldn’t underestimate that.

@lightweight couldn't agree more, NZ should regulate the shit out of FB and friends. If they can't stop this kind of hate speech on their websites, fine, you can't be viewed in NZ.

Misinformation would fall away, smaller local instances (fediverse?) might fill the space. Net win.

From the article: "If people felt social media companies had not responded to their concerns they could complain under the code. ". Bollox. An individual complaining to meta is going to do fuck all. Needs 2b country

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and family camping trips to Mt. Diablo are among my best memories from childhood. The Spanish (who found the entrance to the bay in 1772) tended to rename sacred indigenous places with words like "diablo" - devil or "mal" - bad, and Mt. Diablo is no exception.

East Bay area natives call the mountain Tuyshtak, meaning "at the dawn of time." The mountain played a part in creation stories and was a gathering place.

Today, the 16th of Febuary, marks the the 12 anniversary of the death of Syrian anarchist Omar Aziz. We have prepared a collection of writings on his life and legacy by MENA anarchists including his daughter Jwana Aziz on our website.

https://muntjacmag.noblogs.org/post/2025/02/16/omar-aziz/

We also have zines of his essay in Arabic & English.

In an NHS ward I saw how Britain relies on immigrants. Yet still we tell them they’re not wanted - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/16/nhs-britain-immigrants-dad the poisoned fruit of #brexit

#Opensource maintainers are really feeling the squeeze - https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/16/open_source_maintainers_state_of_open/ this has long been a problem, it really needs solving

77 commits later, and #libobscura has a scripting system good enough to initialize a #USB #Camera

So it's back to the same functionality, except with extra complexity, lol.

Next up: organize the commits (don't leave a mess if you want contributors) and make sure #librem5 works the same way.

"They argue that rewilding productive farmland or forestry in industrialised nations that have low levels of biodiversity may do more harm than good on a planetary scale.

"Exploratory analysis by the team suggests that reclaiming typical UK cropland for nature may be five times more damaging for global biodiversity than the benefit it provides local species, due to the displacement of production to more biodiverse regions."

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1072994

Remember this while you type your prompt into ChatGPT...and then ask yourself "am I part of the problem?"

@thibaultamartin @postmarketOS People mostly don't buy new phones because the OS becomes obsolete. That is 100% a thing for nerds like you and me (and I love postmarketOS!), but I fear most regular people

1. don't care/notice if their phone stops getting updates and
2. want to buy a new phone regularly.

So what's needed first and foremost is not a way to keep old phones running, but the *willingness* to do so. Which needs a certain de-growth mentality that I don't really see in Europe today.

I'm looking for a senior-level backend or fullstack engineering fully remote role. IC or management! Very interested and excited for jobs that center social good.

- 10 years of Python/JS Fullstack experience building native apps and sites
- First engineer at multiple startups
- CTO for the last 5 years
- Love mentoring and teaching (former teacher)
- Can talk to both machines and people

#GetFediHired

I've been pretty quiet with my MAGA family members lately. Last time, I was outspoken and it didn't do one bit of good, they just dug in their heels.

We live far apart anyhow, so I have limited contact, but I'm not "tolya-so-ing" them or anything. If they eventually come to me, I won't be a dick about it. There's no point.

PSA:
Now may be the first time you hear about Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science.

Be aware of the fact that Hirschfeld was not only gay, but also Jewish.
"The Nazi Party attacked Dr. Hirschfeld for his ideas about sex, sexuality, and gender, as well as his Jewish ancestry."
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/magnus-hirschfeld-2

My point: Stuff is intersectional - be wary of every 'simple' history. And fight together ✊🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ #TransRights

https://apnews.com/article/black-consumers-dei-buying-guide-naacp-34664d8af92e2dc1ba787a498348b7a4?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
And because I think there's so much dubious morality in the corporate world in general, I think it's worth specifically highlighting the companies that the NAACP is praising for standing by their commitments to DEI:
"The advisory praises Costco for standing by previous commitments, as well as Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Delta Airlines, e.l.f. Cosmetics and JPMorgan Chase & Co."

Latest comic on the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

#cartoon #comic #economy #uspol #oligarchy

Meet Elon's dipshits. patreon.com/c/BrianMcFadden

Philosophical question: If I can't stop tinkering with the words in a blog post, does that mean I will never be finished?

Okay, that's it. Time to stop and publish.

I started out writing about the trial and execution of Socrates.

That brought me to the nature of subversiveness and the role of subversive elements in a democracy.

🎶 Come gather 'round people wherever you roam . . . "🎶

https://terikanefield.com/part-4-socrates-and-the-subversive-element/

I'm so fucking sick of these attacks on human rights.

I propose the following course of action:

We pick a specific target and trash its value.
- Do whatever we can to make it lose money, customers, resources, employees, reputation.
- Do our best to make it toxic waste that investors won't touch.
- We make it easy for anyone to join the carnage.
- We keep hammering it until it dies or we get protections

Then we collectively pick another target and do it again.

And again.

Until the dying screams of US corporations reach the ears of those with the power to call off the attacks on women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and everyone else this administration is going after.

When they stop, we stop, negotiate, and stand ready to start again if they don't follow through.

I suggest Tesla be the first to burn.

#ResistEverywhere #CitizenSabotage #HumanRights #USPol #FuckCapitalism #FuckFascism #EatTheRich

We have left the Cool Zone and entered something much, much worse, and stupider. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/2/14/2303653/-Cartoon-The-MAGA-zone

Trump regime fired the Epidemic Intelligence Service -- you know, the people who track diseases that sicken and kill Americans.

https://med-mastodon.com/@luckytran/114004704845979956

The contempt for human life is extraordinary. I said this a few minutes ago but I have to say it again: Trumpists aim to kill millions.