Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

I'm old enough to remember when having tattoos would make finding a job harder. Nowadays, employers are requiring you get a tattoo just to get interviewed. Strange times.

https://futurism.com/future-society/ai-startup-coerced-tattoos-logo-job-interview

Trump's War on the Smithsonian https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2026/08/03

🌐 🇪🇺 "Europeas Souveränität im Netz – Wie eine europäische Webdateninfrastruktur Freiheit, Wirtschaft und Demokratie stärkt"

Im Rahmen des #ossym26 richten wir zusammen mit dem Weizenbaum Institut Berlin einen besonderen Netzwerkabend mit Keynote & Podiumsdiskussion aus.

Wann und wo?
8. Oktober, 19 Uhr
Weizenbaum Institut Berlin

Details zum Event:
👉 https://opensearchfoundation.org/de/veranstaltung-europas-souveraenitaet-im-netz/

Zur kostenfreien Anmeldung geht es hier:
👉 https://tickets.weizenbaum-institut.de/OSF/

Wir freuen uns auf Euch!

Just came across Cam Wilson's reporting guide for folks that want to raise stories, particularly leaks about how AI stuff is going on at companies.

https://cameronwilson.com.au/guide-to-my-reporting/

A lot of folks send me stories, and I don't publish them because I don't have the bandwidth or network to do so while keeping you safe. Cam does! Send them his way instead.

(He's also highly regarded by several of my friends and is on Mastodon, which probably tells you a lot about his stance on source safety.)

100% of US-based mobile phone carriers are absolute trash, especially with regard to customer service.

I hate this shit so much.

Interesting to see a report that claims Linux reaching over 10% desktop market share in North America, with a pretty recent spike: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/north-america#monthly-202506-202607

I have a lot of different theories of what might account for this including:
* Windows expatriates
* Gaming
* Improved desktop Linux options like Bluefin
* Local AI inference experiments

What do you think accounts for it? I'm leaning toward AI inference, just because of the timing of the spike.

#linux #desktop #AI

If useful, here's my attempt to process my feelings about how I feel sadly kinda — or rather very — sick from all this AI fascist nonsense as an academic. 😶‍🌫️

I'd be pleased if even one person finds something useful because there's something to be said for processing this all together, so, um, enjoy?

https://olivia.science/anxiety/

Gonna start using "During COVID" correctly to irritate people. "Yeah, this morning, During COVID, I walked the dog. A short one, though, these wildfires." "Sure, I filed my taxes During COVID, in 2025." "Wanna have a masked hang later today, During COVID?"

From AI Forensics investigation of Hugging Face's top image models:

- 73% of monitored requests were sexual in nature.
- Of those, 83% sought to undress or otherwise sexualize a person
- 95% targeted women
- 6.7% targeted a minor (if fulfilled, these requests would constitute CSAM).
- Only 3% of audited Spaces showed any evidence of output moderation.

https://aiforensics.org/work/hugging-face-ncii

#NCII #AI #Privacy #Abuse

Anyway, since I’m always annoying my own brain by trying to come up with clearer and more specific wording for my own opinions:

I reject the notion that LLMs can be deployed “responsibly” at scale and believe that anybody claiming otherwise is fooling themselves, conning you, or possibly both

The fact that Taylor Farms uses prison labor has finally become common knowledge.

So, guess we know what we're talking about in tomorrow's Sunday Morning Outbreak News Livestream!

(Plus Salmonelleggs, & ANOTHER botulism outbreak in baby formula that's somehow going under the radar. So obvs we gotta talk about… all that.)

https://youtube.com/live/_mjPVY1MEVE?feature=share

Tried something new with a recruiter this morning: I told them openly that I reject AI and I am only interested in working with teams that share my principles or at least respect them. He seemed to appreciate this and said it was "fair." IDK, it may be the last I ever hear from him, but it feels like progress from several months ago when I got in an argument with a recruiter about AI (though I was probably more standoffish then).

Capital One Financial hits back against a lawsuit over its decision to close ‌the Trump Organization's bank accounts years ago with a disclosure that marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to the US president's family business. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/capital-one-says-it-closed-trump-organizations-accounts-after-anti-money-2026-08-01/

If you say "David Zaslav" three times into a bathroom mirror, your toilet disappears and his veneers grow a little bit more.

Latest comic: Online shopping has become a hall of mirrors

#consumers #shopping #internet #technology #economy #cartoon #comic

California lawmakers have amended A.B. 1709, but the core problem remains: the bill is still a ban on social media access for youth under 16, and it still threatens the privacy and First Amendment rights of all Californians. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/amending-ab-1709-doesnt-fix-it-californias-social-media-ban-still-threatens-free

Americans are still working long hours, with no federal guarantee of paid vacation, sick days or parental leave.

Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon revisit the long fight for shorter hours—and why a 32-hour week will require organized labor with the power to win it.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/four-day-work-week-labor-unions-juliet-schor

Can't wait until this guy's swiss cheese brain is on display in the Mütter Museum. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/31/800077220/cartoon/blight-at-the-museums/

“On the non-use of AI in my writing process - Charlie's Diary”

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/08/on-the-non-use-of-ai-in-my-wri.html

> I do not use LLMs in my work. I don't use them in my non-work life either, for that matter. I despise the grifters selling these toys as "tools" and trying to convince us to use them to generate plausible answer-shaped text strings in place of actual internet search for verifiable sources.