reverse-i-searches: I wanted find Maildir -type f -mmin -10 | mthread | mseq -S, and I got find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -delete!!Thank goodness for -maxdepth 1!
Baroness Kiddon has tabled an amendment that would require client-side scanning on every device. That would include all film cameras. https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/65150/documents/7938 #MassSurveilance #scanning
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Screen shot of amendment 239A to Crime and Policing bill
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Screen shot of amendment 239A to Crime and Policing bill
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The stupidity is bottomless.
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@JamesBaker regular reminder that Kidron is the founder of 5rights, a charity that took 1.8m in donations last year. One person at the charity is paid £150-200k. Would love to know how much of that if any came from Age Verification industry lobbyists.
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@JamesBaker should people with positions like that be allowed to table amendments to bills that are clearly very close to their own interests?
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@ret Whose funding stuff is always interesting to look at. The CCDH is worth looking at as well. Often 5Rights are more sensible on this stuff though and what Kidron does isn’t always the same as their position TBF
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@JamesBaker @ret, do you mean whose money or who's funding stuff?
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@lp0_on_fire @ret Well take the CCDH in the US they got like $4M in the UK large donations too. There is certainly big financial backing of much of the online safety/censorship stuff.
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@JamesBaker @ret, not what I meant…
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@lp0_on_fire @ret Plz explain! If I’ve misunderstood :)
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@JamesBaker @ret, what you typed has the meaning “who owns the money”. I suspect that “who's” (who is) is meant, but both make sense to me. (And if you're confused: consider that the money can reasonably be called the funding stuff.)
@JamesBaker worse: all "relevant devices" must come with "tamper-proof system software"
this would be the death of jailbreaking and open source
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How spicy do I like my food? Well...
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Photo of a Pad Thai food order with 15 lines of Spicy food modifiers with *Spec Prep* notes:
MAKE HIM REGRET
BEING BORN
I've been seeing some messages saying that "AI outputs not being eligible for copyright means they can't be integrated into FOSS projects because they can't be licensed!" and I don't think that's true. Instead, I will give you several *different* reasons to reject AI generated content in your FOSS projects.
In the US at least, the absence of copyright means the public domain. The public domain itself is considered FOSS compatible with every FOSS license. Except!
The public domain doesn't exist in all jurisdictions in the same way. This is one reason CC0 was made, which is a public domain waiver with a fallback license. (CC0 is not a good idea to use with software though, separate thread about why that is.)
There *is* a related risk: internationally, there isn't agreement about whether or not whether or not AI generated content is subject to copyright yet. AND, not everywhere even has a concept of "public domain". AND, the legal status of this AIgen isn't well settled ANYWHERE yet.
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So you probably don't want to reject AI generated content not because "AI generated content Is incompatible with your license if it has no copyright" but because "whether or not AI generated content is subject to copyright is not a settled matter and ESPECIALLY NOT INTERNATIONALLY" (and not everywhere has a public domain). If you accept something, its status may not be the same internationally, and *legal decisions about AI output could change soon*, leading to an integration of something very hard to undo later.
And the OTHER reason to not integrate it is that most of AI generated output has subtle bugs and tends to result in an erosion of your community. So yeah, that too.
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I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, but I did work previously at Creative Commons and FOSS licensing stuff was part of my job, so I know a bit too much about these things and do think about them. (When I say the CC0 stuff is problematic that's because I actually took CC0 through the FSF and OSI processes for license approval and watched the situation blow up over CC0 precluding an equitable estoppel defense by explicitly saying it did not waive patents.) Other FOSS legal people may have different views than me.
But I DO know that "things being in the public domain" is not itself a *problem*, it's often good for things to be in the public domain. But it's not clear if all AI stuff is internationally, in the public domain or if things could change soon! So I'd be careful!
Plus all the other reasons not to engage with slop code.
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@cwebber 💯 though the other reasons will soon (are already?) the most relevant ones in practice, as the US Copyright Office has pretty much settled on LLM output being public domain and the EU is going in that direction as well (the Berne Convention extends way beyond EU+US, but still).
@cwebber While I of course acknowledge that there are several other reasons to reject LLM/AI-generated contributions, I don't think it being automatically in public domain means it can integrate with free software licenses. The FSF says the following on this:
"If source code does not carry a license to give users the four essential freedoms, then unless it has been explicitly and validly placed in the public domain, it is not free software.
Some developers think that code with no license is automatically in the public domain. That is not true under today's copyright law; rather, all copyrightable works are copyrighted by default. This includes programs. Absent a license to grant users freedom, they don't have any. In some countries, users that download code with no license may infringe copyright merely by compiling it or running it.
In order for a program to be free, its copyright holders must explicitly grant users the four essential freedoms. The document with which they do so is called a free software license. This is what free software licenses are for.
*Some countries allow authors to put code in the public domain, but that requires explicit action which can vary among jurisdictions.* In most cases it is better to copyleft your code to assure that freedom reaches all users of the code."
From: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NoLicense
These days mobile OSes obscure everything from the user, actively punishing them for rooting their devices or instaling custom builds.
Linux on the other hand feels like ~2008. You have apps for daily needs (like you did on PDAs back in the day), you can consume media (reading books, watching movies, listening to music).
But if you're a curious person... there's a terminal. You can see exactly what your device is doing and how it works. You want to know which GPS satellites can see you? No problem, just query the modem-manager or use simple GUI app that will tell you the name of a satellite and which system/country it belongs to (turns out my device supports GALILEO, neat!).
Im really enjoying it. Two years ago I would say it was still unusable, but now (despite WiFi, Audio and Cameras not working on my device yet) it's... neat.
(Post written from xiaomi-pyxis running postmarketOS with Plasma Mobile while walking back home from a supermaket btw)
Can you run Signal with basically no iOS or Android devices right now and still do the (mandatory) prove-your-phone-id steps?
It feels like very near future I, and everyone else who cares about computing autotonomy, we're all gonna have to start runnin' the Linux phones, no matter how non-ideal that user experience is right now
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Older...
@cwebber question, aren't there degooled Android versions that would also work? That's been my backup plan since I have a pixel and I think that's the line that they do the most work on... or am I missing something obvious?
I could do it with Waydroid - even though that is obviously still not ideal - when I ran Ubuntu Touch on my phone.
Edit: I now dual boot Android with PostmarketOS but the bootloader for the latter is messed up since an update, but I think it should be possible to do the same there as well. The only limitations on my phone are that camera and other hardware doesn't work in Waydroid on close-to-mainline Linux, so the linking might be out on that specifically.
@cwebber I once talked with someone who had set up a Signal account while trying not to use any Android or iOS devices. I believe part of what they did was use some emulation, including the Android SDK. There's a step where one has to scan a QR code. To get around that: the SDK includes a sandbox for testing camera functionality, and lets the user "walk" around a little "room" -- and you can put specific images on the "wallpaper".
@cwebber the prove-your-phone-id and ios/android requirement is precisely why i don't use signal 🙃
i really hate how certain parts of society require a phone number at all. i have a google voice number from like 17 or 18 years ago at this point that i got before i even had a phone. i would prefer not to use it, but unfortunately my medical provider requires sms 2fa and only supports sms 2fa. banks are also notorious for this.
@cwebber not that it would be anywhere near a normienormie-friendly solution (or the prove-your-phone issue wouldn't be an actual issue unless there were explicit Signal upstream support) but this made me wonder what happened to Bunnie's Precursor and... apparently it just quietly died two years ago?
https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/precursor
@cwebber Google isn't going to listen to petitions for "Keep Android Open", and we're trending towards a world where your device has to be locked down and untampered with before you can access any services or communication networks. Oh and it'll be your form of ID too, so no more anonymity on the internet.
At that point even good functioning Linux phones will not save us.
@cwebber Here's Signal Android running on that Linux phone I got at FOSDEM (FuriPhone FLX1s) and signed in with my usual phone number
I wasn't able to get local message transfer working from another one of my devices (their cloud backup would probably work?) but the sign-in at least worked okay
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Signal screenshot (described in post)
@cwebber It can be done with flare (https://flathub.org/en/apps/de.schmidhuberj.Flare) and with signal-cli.
@cwebber I've already offloaded the overwhelming majority of my comms and computing to computers I own. I try to install the fewest apps possible, no social apps or anything. I'm so sick of smartphones
@cwebber
1. A person withouT smartphone I know runs signal-desktop on their laptop, bootstrapped with signal-cli. Needs regular `signal-cli receive` invocations to stop the desktop client being unliked.
2. For SailfishOS, there is an alternative implementation called Whisperfish. https://gitlab.com/whisperfish/whisperfish
This could serve as a basis for other mobile linux flavours.
@cwebber not to add to the list of difficulties, but I'm on one of the Linux phones now, and am ·really· missing the Android Google Maps app…
(on the plus side [since I don't actually use Signal regularly], that's pretty much the only thing I'm really feeling the absence of? I guess that's good…)
ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper (led by @groceryheist) that explains why people often engage in multiple groups with overlapping topic and membership, and which helps explain why competition between online groups seems to be rare. https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/why-do-people-participate-in-similar-online-communities
Thank you, #OnlineSafetyAct for failing to regulate #AgeVerification in any way at all. Now Discord users must hand their data to a Peter-Thiel-of-Palantir-linked system.
“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,”Quoted from an internal memo by Meta about their surveillance glasses.
Wow!
We welcome today's UK High Court ruling on Palestine Action.
The proscription not only criminalised political #protest but had far-reaching consequences for free speech online and counter terrorism programmes like #Prevent.
The government must change the Terrorism Act so future ones don't make similar proscriptions with worse consequences.
With the ban still in place, we need to hear how Ofcom expects platforms to remove #PalestineAction content.
@bureaucrhaj my friend the professor solved that problem a while ago! Even @rosahaj in her younger days liked bikes!
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Shak in back basket in backpack on bike
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Blahaj lying on bike
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Rosahaj in bag on bike sneaking our
RE: https://mastodon.social/@sovtechfund/116056808593765766
If you're a FOSS maintainer working on standards or following them, we would love to hear from you! Please share and boost in your circles.
Blåhaj medical
Yeah! Feeling cuddly great!
Can you see I've new stuffing???
But now finally NOMPF!
#Blahaj #surgery #stuffingReplenishment
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A Blåhaj cuddly shark sitting on a table with a plate with two Dutch cheese sandwiches in front of them. A Smolhaj cuddly shark and a small black crotched octopus with colourful bead tentacles are watching.
Glad everything went well! And the scar is neat. And it seems you are already recovered! Amazing!
Wanted to see me speak at #FOSDEM but couldn't make it? Here's the two talks I gave!
How to Level Up the Fediverse
(co-presented with ActivityPub co-author @tsyesika !) https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/HVJRNV-how_to_level_up_the_fediverse/
Lisp is Clay: the Power of Composable DSLs https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/HDE7JZ-lisp-is-clay/
Can't get enough? Need more #spritely talks? We gave a bunch... 🧵
Another FOSDEM and hackathon are in the rear-view mirror, and it is hard to find words to describe how amazingly productive and fun the experience was! We met so many people at the postmarketOS stand, in the FOSS on Mobile devroom and at dinners in the evening. As always it is fun to put faces to nicknames and to talk about the Linux Mobile ecosystem, and figure out how to improve it in person.
Find photos and what we got done in the blog post:
https://postmarketos.org/blog/2026/02/10/fosdem-and-hackathon/
Thanks to all who came by or contributed towards making this possible! 
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@postmarketOS Moin. My English is not so good. Please note also in other Lamguage-Support. ex. DEU - Deutsch , DAN - Dansk , NED - Nederlands , . . . Thank you very much. 🦄
How Australia’s social media ban is having a negative impact on children with disabilities https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/06/ive-lost-my-friends-advocacy-groups-warn-australias-social-media-ban-risks-isolating-kids-with-disabilities #exclusion #authortarianism #socialmedia
Loads of FOI requests going into Ofcom about how they are monitoring VPN use. They are refusing to answer most of them. We know they are paying Apptopia and the contract is here https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/affd2903-bba4-42fa-a96a-f65e7ff23329
FOI responses can be read
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/freedom-of-information/foi-responses
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Screen grab of Ofcom’s FOI response page
The first step forward 👀
#librem5 #mobilelinux #linuxmobile #linux #shotonlibrem5
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A Librem 5 phone displaying a terminal app with the output of "uname -a" command showing that it's running a 6.12.68-based kernel tree.
Following the Railways and Open Transport track at #FOSDEM 2024 #Transitous got started. Just two years later Transitous is mentioned in more than a fourth of the talks there today.
https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/railways-and-open-transport/
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Isabelle de Robert presenting the Mobility Database
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David Koňařík presenting the state of open data in Czech public transport.
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Adam Pioterek talking about Bimba.
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Jonah Brüchert talking about crowdsourcing delay information.
We're excited to share that we have just $$26,594 left to raise in our match challenge!
We're in the stand at FOSDEM today, keeping track of the number, so you can give online or even just give some cash in person and we'll keep updating the number throughout the day!
Donations made to lower that number will be doubled!! Can we get to our goal here at #FOSDEM?
https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/
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Karen Sandler and Tracy Homer standing at the FOSDEM stand. The table has a green tablecloth and you can see an OpenWrt One and various stickers and informational materials on the table. Tracy and Karen are pointing towards a sign that says "Your donation matched! Left to go: $26,594, with a higher number crossed out.
We had our social in Manchester last night, catching up with supporters.
Fancy another one?
We’ll be in London next Monday. Come along, chat on and hear about our campaign for UK digital sovereignty.
🗓️ 2 Feb
🕕 6:30-8:30pm
📍Newspeak House, E2 7DG (UK)
Sign up now ⬇️
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/org-london-meet-up-2/
While unfortunate to have a cancellation, I'm excited to announce that we will have an "audience choice" session in the Legal & Policy Devroom at #fosdem. You can either fill out the online form to suggest a topic, or just write it on a piece of paper and hand it to one of the Devroom organizers. We want to hear from you!
https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/RJPLXP-hot_topic_audience_choice/
Where do I apply for one of these "paid agitator and insurrectionist" jobs I keep hearing so much about? I keep doing it for free so it would be nice to get a pay check.
The only relevant feature for any instant messaging app (or social app, for that matter) is: Are my friends using it? People will gladly overlook minor inconsistencies or missing features as long as they can communicate with their friends. We shouldn’t recommend #Signal as a stepping stone before Jabber/XMPP becomes "good enough," if goodness is defined by the number of people using it.
help I've been programming in lisp for too long, I don't remember how to put commas after arguments anymore. I can't add a semicolon to the end of a line
Rip up trade deals with the US. They're not worth the paper they're written on anymore.
Repeal anti-circumvention laws; allow companies in every nation to reverse engineer US tech, and sell better, cheaper alternatives, even to Americans - this would create leverage over the USA.
Cory Doctorow raised this idea at his 39c3 talk, recently. I agree. Those trade deals promise low/no tariffs and we let US tech walk all over us. Well now there is nothing to lose (never was).
Every time I install a new piece of infrastructure for my homelab as part of becoming more independent from Big Tech, I see a hint on the homepage of that new piece of infrastructure that mentions they received sponsorship from @nlnet almost as if NLNet has been silently preparing Europe for #DigitalSovereignty with Open Source projects ;) I like!
If a casual chat about #Linux and #FOSS over a curry sounds fun, please come join us! Just reply to me by the end of 21 January so I know numbers for the booking.
Time: 24 Jan, 19:00
Address:
Kings Cross Tandoori
341 Gray’s Inn Road
WC1X 8PX
Hope to see you there, and any questions feel free to ask.
🆕 blog! “Why my NFC passport didn't work at Heathrow's eGates”
I travel a fair bit. My passport is usually quickly scanned and I can enter or leave a country without delay. But every time I use the eGates at Heathrow Airport to get back in to the UK, my passport is rejected and I'm told to seek assistance from Border Force. Today, I think I discovered why!
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/why-my-nfc-passport-didnt-work-at-heathrows-egates/
⸻
#nfc #travel
New blog post is out, with a look at our finances in 2025. Most importantly:
Thanks to your donations, we can now start the Contributor Support Programme to make developing postmarketOS more sustainable. 
https://postmarketos.org/blog/2025/12/19/contributor-compensantion-and-financial-update/
One of the things that makes #phosh look a bit unfinished is the fact that we don't show a representation of launching apps in the overview (while they show a splash screen).
We have a merge request for that now and it will hopefully land for 0.52 (or 0.53). This also fixes not being able to interact with apps while one is launching. Together with some pending activation fixes that should make things look more polished and will allow us to fix some other long standing bugs.
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A screenshot from phosh's overview. The running apps carousel shows the authenticator app to the right and the launch splash of the "App Icon Preview" app in the center.
Shall I get it for you? I'm going to FOSDEM and can hand it over to someone you know there?