Did the internet really used to be better or are you just getting old?

OTOH, they're kind of like compilation records; good for finding new things.

Show thread

Top ten lists aren't very punk. The usual response to someone else's top ten is "Fuck you". If you ever agree with the whole list, you've found your soulmate.

As it is Fediverse Punk Month, we're especially happy to present this interview with @ktownhardcorefest about their intention to move away from Meta platforms.

#FPM

the-counterforce.org/k-town-ha

Mayor Adams admin tried to restrict press access in NYC just before his term ended.

Mamdani wasted no time ending the proposed new rules for the city's press pass program.

nydailynews.com/2026/01/12/mam

There was like one, maybe two days you could say "Happy New Year" without a bunch of clauses. patreon.com/posts/project-2026

So: In the past the infrastructure was simpler, the underlying hardware was simpler, the number of use cases you had to satisfy was smaller. And now everything is fundamentally more complicated and you're competing with platforms that have millions of absolutely normal computer users using them. But we've also got greater avenues of sharing knowledge, collaboration, better understanding of how to build abstractions. Was the golden age 30 years ago, or is it now?

Show thread

Learning Retro Computer Electronics Fault Finding and Restoration
L: retrogamecoders.com/learning-r
C: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4
posted on 2026.01.09 at 12:24:04 (c=0, p=10)

It is actually kind of wild that we're simultaneously in an era of people complaining that Wayland is destroying choice and also maybe the greatest number of high-quality desktop environments aimed at different use cases the free software world has ever had

Fedi friends, I owe you a quick heads-up / update: the third chapter in my self-hosting with #YunoHost tutorial is coming this week. I'm currently writing it.

It's just a matter of formatting and writing an explanation for the dozens of screenshots I took while installing NextCloud 😅

I sincerely apologize for the delay but the Christmas holidays and all the travel to see family in 3 locations kept me super busy.

I'll publish it on Thursday at the latest! Thank you for your patience 🙏

Judge: Trump violated Fifth Amendment by ending #energy grants in only blue states - arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20 " Donald Trump’s social media post triggers rare Fifth Amendment ruling. "

@hajovonta
That's not a secret, also not the point.

The 2 main things about free software that offend capital are:
1. Capital can't appropriate it easily and enclose the commons because of capital's own copyright laws
2. Individual human skill can't be owned by a company: it's a rare form of workers owning the means of production

LLMs attack this by:
1. selectively ignoring copyright with the blessing of the powerful
2. eroding the value of human skill to rebalance power in capital's favour

I think the appearance of free software really broke the oligarch's brains. People are just giving away stuff that should be Shareholder Value? And we *can't* buy it off them and own it? People are just running a compiler whenever they like to make whatever they want without paying anyone?

The push to adopt LLM-powered code generation tools is so frenzied and desperate partly because it's a perceived solution to claw back ownership of the means of production into the Right Hands.

If you're in the #rural US, when you pay your bills, you're likely paying a #coop, even if you don't realize it.

By landmass, most of this country's #energy distribution is serviced by rural electric cooperatives.

There will be a free, four-part training series for rural residents who want to use grassroots power to work toward greater energy #affordability, #reliability, and #sustainability.

More info here:
shareable.net/working-towards-

Dear Fedi friends, some good news:

Today I learned from @liaizon that the Parisian art space @palaisdetokyo is on the fediverse.

I was curious about the server it's hosted on, so I checked it out and more good news: there are several cultural institutions on it.

Turns out, it's an initiative by the French Ministry of Culture: a Mastodon server to share "cultural news in a way that is freer, open and independent" (their words)!

THANK YOU @cercle for being here!

🔗 : reseauculture.fr/directory

Holy Shit. "one of ours. all of yours". on a government podium?!?

That's serious fascism stuff. It's the approach taken by the Nazis when Reinhard Heydrich, a prime architect of the holocaust, was assassinated by the resistance.

The assassins were mistakenly believed to be from the town of Lidice in occupied Czechoslovakia. So the Nazi's rounded up all the men and boys and killed them, and sent all the women to concentration camps. wiped the town off the map.

THAT is what's being evoked by that phrase on the puppy killer's podium.

How would you stay in touch if the Internet goes down? Can you set up your own long-distance communication network with mates?

This session covers what mesh network communication is, why and when it’s useful, plus some pointers on how to get started.

All welcome, no experience required!

Thursday 15 January
19:00-20:00
meet.jit.si/WhatIfTheInternetG

Show more
Librem Social

Librem Social is an opt-in public network. Messages are shared under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license terms. Policy.

Stay safe. Please abide by our code of conduct.

(Source code)

image/svg+xml Librem Chat image/svg+xml