Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The biggest issue with the current trend towards tech mass surveillance is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be codified into law for it to be effective.

Even if the UK doesn’t manage to pass a law that bans VPNs, even if Chat Control doesn’t pass, even if the EU puts stringent regulation around user data collection, mass surveillance can still de facto be implemented above the law.

Sure, VPNs may not be illegal. But what if my website has a daily updated database of known VPN servers offered by the major providers (it’s just a few thousands of servers, after all), and I prevent you from accessing it unless you turn off your VPN or Tor?

And what if many websites start sharing that approach?

And what if connections from IPs on those lists started being classified in Cloudflare’s highest risk category, so you have to solve 5 CAPTCHAs to find cars and bikes before you can access the content?

Sure, the law may not require you to have a genuine Android or iOS device in order to verify your identity. But what if, when you access a website, Cloudflare puts under your nose a CAPTCHA with a QR code to be scanned from your mobile device, creating a link between you as a person and your visit to that website?

Sure, the EU may impose heavy fines over Google for its abuse of dominant position and unrestricted access to people’s information. But what’s the point when most of the apps start anyway using the new Google Integrity API to verify user access, and when the EU itself considers using that API for identity verification on its side?

Sure, Chat Control may not pass. But what if Facebook simply silently removes E2EE from its chat services, ending up with people’s conversations stored overnight in clear text, ready to be handed out to the best buyer?

The tech industry has reached such a level of power concentration that laws don’t matter anymore.

All it takes is Cloudflare to add a new challenge to their CAPTCHA, or Google to add a new control to their Integrity APIs, and thousands if not millions of websites and apps become suddenly inaccessible to those who want privacy.

Those tech companies and the decisions they take during their closed-doors meetings have become the law.

RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116974840056295473

Also available as video on PeerTube:
https://peertube.dair-institute.org/w/23g3vAkBsgQM1svfo3hhRD

Apropos of nothing, I have never liked Ian Banks. I read the first of his "Culture" novels and was disgusted by the pointless body-horror cult shit that he included in the last chapter for no discernible reason. Wasn't impressed by the rest of the book, either, frankly. I know he's got fans, but for the life of me I can't understand why.

In my humble opinion, many instances of ‘writer’s block’ are in fact ADHD or autistic burnout. Writing as a job is more forgiving of neurodivergence than most, so many writers are basically subsisting on caffeine and anxiety until they hit a brick wall and their executive function collapses

Which would mean that reading up on neurodivergent burnout is more likely to help get over a writer’s block than the fluff you find in books or blogs on creativity

I really like how watching the uxn channel on the concatenative discord has really left a permanent mark in my brain. Me and the rest of the mods basically let it operate as an automous zone in the discord. I even had it muted for the most part. Unbenounced to everyone outside that channel however, an AI booster and vibecoder had joined.

In a matter of a month or so, he killed the whole channel. Strangled it with his refusal to think. Every word someone said was feed straight into an LLM. Then, thrown back at chat cause the LLM could predict the correct code, and he could understand anything.

Eventually everyone grew so tired they began leaving. One fucking person leeched off a whole community. Never. Again. Ever inch you cede to LLM contributions in your community is another step towards its implosion. There is a reason so much of the art community has vehemently rejected whole sale.

But programmers need their new toys. And programmers demand every space follows industry trends and recommendation. And programmers cannot handle the idea of someone saying "no, we don't do that here". Cause nobody gets to say No in the software world. Things are always forced to evolve, consequences be damned.

I made the mistake once. I will not be making it twice. Do not help build the new car depedent infrastructure or everything you care about will be paved over.

RE: https://cathode.church/@meena/116335623473605990

reading somebody's [negative reaction](https://マリウス.com/i-regret-migrating-to-codeberg/) to codeberg's members taking a vote against LLMs (and crypto) I was just reminded that some guy with an ego overinflated by his fan base recently said that LLM is just a tool

I don't think it was ever Codeberg's goal to be a Github replacement, or the next universal code forge. further, Codeberg's bias towards seeing Open Source as fundamentally community driven is because Codeberg is fundamentally community driven

so, yeah, if the place you want to host your software on has missions and values that don't align with you, it's probably good to look elsewhere.

“AI vendors are destroying rare books to feed the chatbot – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/07/23/ai-vendors-are-destroying-rare-books-to-feed-the-chatbot/

Imagine if we just believed disabled people?

If we trusted that they were the experts in their bodies?

If we listened when they said they could do something, and supported them when they said they couldn’t.

If we gave accommodations and assistance without judgment?

That’s true inclusion.

#disability #ableism #chronicillness #eugenics #inclusion

Idea: make a flowchart-y website where you can hop from one political question to the next based on just "my meal isn't political".

I doubt any questions would even be about the actual food itself before question 50.

https://exquisite.social/@thomholwerda/116970298860619567

Company description: "Helping Medicare brokers build the insurance business of their dreams"

...wait, is that supposed to *entice* me? Or is it supposed to be satire?

From the reliably excellent @molly0xfff:

Crypto barons spent >$200 billion since 2024 to buy a friendly Congress. They got "a bill too corrupt for Democrats to pass, a Republican majority too cowardly to rein in the president, and a president who won’t sign anything that meaningfully threatens his $1.4 billion-a-year grift."

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-107/

Book excerpt in the New Yorker by longtime Google employee who dared to dissent. It turned out poorly for her. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-voice-of-google

There was a time, way back, when Google was a righteous and honorable company, but it's long, long gone.

It should be absurd to say this, but it is not.

So incredible is our predicament that moving off big tech & choosing to do without big AI are two of the most positively impactful changes one can make for both people & planet today. At scale, such a shift could be profound, tipping the balance.

Through depopulating these services, we de-fund & dis-empower both the companies that provide them, and the dark political interests that tool them.

The power to enact this change is real.

Been using Qwant.com (EU's search engine) in place of Google or any of the various 'Bing-also-rans' as my default for a month or so... works very well. Not pushing 'AI' on me, though it seems they're trying to offer it as well. It'll be crucial to me that I can configure my use to avoid it.

It's past time for everyone to get over their fear of fighting back against Trump administration censorship.

Take these bozos to court. They lose regularly.

https://apnews.com/article/usmediatimesair-force-one-42429e4d4da8accc42b6c3ddf3f4fed5?user_email=04f821d8ddc19142c23d4ec1dd3c4ee6ae44e7ed7909966f0fb3c602e872a8bd&utm_medium=APNews_Alerts&utm_source=Sailthru_AP&utm_campaign=NewsAlert_Jul23_2026_03:35PM&utm_term=AP%20News%20Alerts

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The KIDS Act will effectively create a new mass surveillance system, EFF’s India McKinney wrote for @CoinDesk. Your current online usage is not necessarily linked to your specific identity; if this bill passes, that will likely change.
https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2026/07/23/the-kids-act-is-way-worse-than-digital-carding-it-is-a-mass-surveillance-system

Every frontier #AI model the UK tested for cheating cheated - https://thenextweb.com/news/aisi-frontier-ai-models-cheating " In cyber tests from Britain’s AI Security Institute, leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic took banned shortcuts to hit their goals. Asked afterwards whether they had cheated, they called it wrong less than half the time. "

‘I got carried away’: Elon #Musk expresses regret about #Doge and wading into #Trump’s orbit - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/23/elon-musk-regret-trump-doge-ai yeah, pity about the 6 million who will die as a result of his cuts

see also: https://moodysonnets.blogspot.com/2026/07/magi-maga-doge.html

Hi, I’m a seasoned engineer with 25 years of experience. I’ve got experience in data engineering with high volumes of data, some ML, lots of AWS and IaC,some security.
I’m used to managing and communicating choices and trade offs to implement customer focused solutions, and running them in production.
(FWIW I also sew and grow vegetables)

I’d like to work for a company looking to make a positive environmental impact on the world.

Based around Bath/Bristol or remote #fedihired #mastohire