Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Huh, could it be possible that Microsoft, in addition to being almost entirely unable to write software, has expanded their incompetence diversity to include quantum computing as well? https://yewtu.be/watch?v=bJTsFZtD7xE or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJTsFZtD7xE

Right, just upgraded 4 Mastodon instances from 4.3.0 -> 4.3.4 (due to a critical security issue) in about an hour. Fairly well scripted. This stuff isn't that hard (if I can do it 🤪 )...

Meanwhile in NYC...

https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/nomore24busts

Huh, imagine, gov't IT systems vastly over priced: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/543767/acc-s-botched-it-project-needed-overseas-expertise-to-help and imagine - the soluion: "buy more off-the-shelf". 🤦 How about pay local providers to build #libre / #FOSS solutions that can be used across gov'ts around the world! We're not competing with other gov'ts! What if they did the same & most of our gov't IT systems came from other countries' libre efforts, supported by our *local* industry, not Trump's BigTech puppetmasters (or minions, depending on your POV).

“Your driving data goes to a half a dozen companies you’ve never even heard of for reasons you’d perhaps never agree to if asked directly,” EFF’s @Thorin told @ConsumerReports. https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/personal-information/how-to-stop-your-car-from-collecting-sharing-driving-data-a1233378612/

Investigating journalists for accurately reporting comments critical of the Dear Leader is something we used to expect from North Korea, Iran, and Russia, not the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/business/media/voice-of-america-trump.html

Secret police, secret arrests, secret jails, and secret courts.

If that sounds un-American to you, that's because it is.

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2025/03/secret-arrests-hidden-jail-rosters-shrouded-records-immigration-court-lacks-the-transparency-of-other-courts-experts-say.html

I don't really know how to shout this from the rooftops any louder: If this actually happens, it would spell the end of U.S. numerical weather prediction--the scientific models, run on supercomputers, used to create virtually all weather forecasts. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/03/doge-noaa-weather-building-leases-trump

All corruption, all the time in Trump world... https://gizmodo.com/sec-drops-charges-against-chinese-billionaire-after-he-pumps-30-million-into-trumps-crypto-scheme-2000569966

Google: We’ll reach Artificial General Intelligence if you slackers just show face in the office 60 hours a week

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/03/03/google-well-reach-artificial-general-intelligence-if-you-slackers-just-show-face-in-the-office-60-hours-a-week/

Hearing someone unironically refer to the US and Western Europe as "The Free World" is just hilarious.

I keep reading that #China (murderous dictatorship) is the world's biggest carbon emitter per nation. This is true but irrelevant. The number we should look at is carbon emissions *per capita*. Here are the top ten in 2023:

* Palau
* Qatar
* Kuwait
* Brunei
* New Caledonia
* Bahrain
* United Arab Emirates
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Gibraltar
* Saudi Arabia

It's the Arabian peninsula, people. China is doing better than Canada, Russia, Australia and the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

#co2 #climate

Ah, Trump just paused all military aid to Ukraine, lifted sanctions on Russia, cancelled all cyber operations (offensive and defensive) against Russia, and fired a bunch of the Cyber team too. Oh and he took whatever classified documents he had back to Mar-A-Largo as well.

And we still aren't openly saying he's a Russian asset yet?

#Trump #Russia #Spy #AgentOrange #TrumpIsARussianAsset #USA #Politics #Ukraine #CyberSecurity

I've seen AppArmor used primarily to *harden* the security of an existing program. Is it also reasonable to use it to *sandbox* known-malicious code? Or are other methods required?

Incredible statement from the American Meteorological Organization. It takes a lot for a scientific organization to issue a statement like this:

"U.S. leadership in scientific innovation is at risk due to the recent and ongoing reductions in U.S. federal science capabilities. The consequences to the American people will be large and wide-ranging, including increased vulnerability to hazardous weather...Recent terminations within the government workforce for science are likely to cause irreparable harm and have far-reaching consequences for public safety, economic well-being, and the United States’ global leadership."

Full statement here: https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-ams/ams-statements/statements-of-the-ams-in-force/the-u-s-weather-enterprise-a-national-treasure-at-risk/?_zs=m2nfc1&_zl=iOL6A

The "Resistance Toolkit" -- https://resistance-toolkit.com/

Over my career I've been involved in hundreds of contract negotiations, many of them including stuff like software licensing. I've done this work for governments, and corporations, for myself, and for non-profits.

Which is to say, I know what words mean. I know what the legal norms are in multiple jurisdictions, and I know when someone is trying to bullshit me.

I have no doubt that Mozilla think they need this license and privacy policy. I'm concerened enough by the "why" to ditch firefox.

Mozilla have published an update to this:
> "UPDATE: We’ve seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so we want to clear that up. We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice."

I want to break this down.

https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/114072293410465140

The sound you're about to hear is the economy seizing up, grinding people and companies into the ground as Trump-mandated uncertainty about...well, everything becomes the central reality.

We'll be lucky if it's only a bad recession.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/atlanta-fed-shock-sounds-trumpcession-warning-mcgeever-2025-03-03/