John Sullivan @johns@librem.one

I don't think I'm saying anything new to a lot of people here, but I'm remembering times in the last 10 years people oversimplifying the problems out of a well-meaning desire to have clear ethical lines shot down / shouted down projects that would have significantly advanced user freedom over forest/trees complaints about potential "SaaSS" elements in those projects.

Free software's going to have to find a better strategy against SaaSS given, on top of all the other obstacles and challenges to it, purely local computing is enroute to becoming financially/physically impossible. Ethical, freedom-respecting ways to use shared/distributed storage and shared/distributed computing? Dust off that Franklin Street Statement and try again? AI/LLM has been the problem but may "just" be a subset of this problem.

Finished Orbital, started Flesh -- got to keep up with the Bookers. #books

That cell was the only formula -- all other cells were static amounts with no more than two places. Huh? 2/2

I just spent 30m chasing a penny in #LibreOffice Calc while updating a cash flow forecast. One of the cells was a simple formula (99% of an amount, formatted as currency). The displayed result was $11.74. But a subsequent formula that summed that cell with some others apparently came to a different conclusion, reducing the amount by 0.01, causing my sum to differ from the bank statement by a penny even though all of the individual transaction amounts matched. 1/2

I think this was probably a smart strategic decision to shut down given present circumstances but FFS: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/06/nx-s1-5668292/the-corporation-for-public-broadcasting-votes-to-end-operations

I worry that, like with other kinds of public infrastructure, we won't ever find the resolve to restore it, much less be bold with new similar initiatives.

Renewed my @conservancy sustainership. I wish I could do more, but I can at least do that. I'm looking forward to more Outreachy internships, more OpenWRT One type devices, more copyleft advocacy, and more FOSSY in 2026!

Donations to @fdroidorg enabled a massive improvement in infrastructure -- app updates are now built and pushed out much more frequently (up to twice daily right now??)! A great example of how your financial contributions lead directly to meaningful improvements benefitting every user. Read the post for more details and how to donate. https://f-droid.org/en/2025/12/30/a-faster-heart-for-f-droid.html

"that American poet with a pile of saucers in front of him and a stupid look on his potato face talking about the Dada movement."

Finished *Before the Coffee Gets Cold*. I'd recommend I think? Widely described as cozy but it was also pretty existentially frustrating and sad. *Orbital* is cozier. Unrelatedly, started Gunnar Harding, *Guarding the Air: Selected Poems* and not sure why I didn't read this 25 years ago, first two poems have already dropped my jaw and the third I peeked mentions Anselm Hollo. #poetry #books

I'm not sure if it was supposed to or not, but eliminating the penny has not made my life easier.

We've taken to turning the reader backwards so that customers can't insert chip cards without assistance, for the *sole* reason of preventing people from inserting the Apple card. It is only the Apple card.

I have a new reason to shake my fist at Apple: their credit card (the physical card) breaks the card reader 100% of the time, causing a 10 minute delay to reset and reconnect everything. Except for the time when it never came back at all and had to be replaced.

@xor Happy first crossword ever published in a newspaper day

Also, "We grow small trying to be great."

Every time I read this quote I think about how important it is for nonprofits "The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone."

Cold calling brick and mortar stores in the middle of December suggesting they change their point of sale system is a brilliant business plan that I'm sure is very successful and doesn't inspire any negative feelings at all.

I'm glad they are making it easier to move your data around, but there is only one side of the equation that is in the end making it hard to switch between Android and iPhone, and that's Apple, who won't let you install Android on iPhones you "own" and would in fact describe you as a criminal for attempting it.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/google-and-apple-are-making-it-easier-to-switch-between-iphone-and-android?utm_medium=RSS