Good to see this happening in Japan -- I think scrutiny of deals around preinstallation of software on #Android devices is important for the future growth of projects like @fdroidorg
, and of mobile freedom in general. #google
Do you think these two NYT advice columnists, published on the same day of the paper edition, knew they were separately answering the same question? Scroll to the questions about office attire..
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/business/do-dogs-belong-at-work.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/style/in-laws-wedding-attendance.html
One thing it should obviously not be is a platform actually owned and run privately by government officials (truth social, X..).
Government use of private social media has become an issue that bothers me disproportionately to what it should (naked promotion/enrichment of specific private businesses while compelling citizens to become their customers), but here's more https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-social-security-administration-is-reportedly-moving-all-official-communication-to-x-223201698.html . Would it be okay if what they were using federated? Or does there just need to be a publicly run platform (federated or not)? Or should it be privately run on a bid-based system like other government contracts?
Recently finished The City and Its Uncertain Walls (Murakami) which lead me to start rereading parts of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. When not doing that, finished The Vegetarian (Han Kang) and now need something a little less real / destabilizing, so probably starting The Book of Love by Kelly Link. #books
Happy birthday Libre.fm! Can't believe I've been using it for 16 years. Thanks to @mattl and all the contributors who made it possible.
Libre.fm turns 16, updates for March – Libre.fm blog
https://blog.libre.fm/2025/04/libre-fm-turns-16-updates-for-march/
(and it's possible none of this is #LibreOffice's fault -- maybe #Wayland could be to blame? It happens most often upon switching back to the window after being somewhere else)
Ask me how many times a day I get burned by the #LibreOffice race-ish condition where I hit C-f and then start typing but the C-f handler doesn't leap into action until after the other keystrokes have been processed as normal input, so I end up accidentally replacing the contents of a spreadsheet cell that I also can't easily find because where was focus...and then the cursor jumps to the search box.
Always a bummer when there's a cool thing for a while, which then inspires a formal organization to run/lead the cool thing, and then the formal organization ends up messing up the cool thing. (NaNoWriMo "closing down") https://lithub.com/nanowrimo-is-shutting-down/
Other tales like this?
What does it mean if I have a Sailor Pro Gear 21k #fountainpen with just "M" on the nib, vs one (Realo 1911) that has "H-M"? I thought all of Sailor's Ms these days were H-Ms..? The M was bought within the last 5 years; the H-M I have no way of knowing but the other nib markings look contemporary.
TIL that the Big and Little Dippers are not constellations. Quality liberal arts education I had.
Next week, Amazon is stripping away your ability to download your ebooks.
https://lithub.com/next-week-amazon-is-stripping-away-your-ability-to-download-your-ebooks/
I think they have a point here and I'm glad that someone, anyone, is pushing against #Apple's "unapproved apps still need to be approved" stance. The sort of one-and-a-half party approach to third-party distribution.
Former shipper and executive director at the Free Software Foundation, now https://alliterativeadvising.com, https://crazyalansemporium.com, and board of directors for https://f-droid.org.