good thing there's a cryptographic chain of trust that prevents me from setting the font on my own device without completely replacing the operating system
> The Taliban in Afghanistan have imposed a nationwide shut down of telecommunications, weeks after they began severing fibre-optic internet connections to prevent what they call immorality.
Interested readers may note that "disruption measures", including access restriction orders, form the backstop of the UK's Online Safety Act.
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@neil Fundamentalist religion is never about a personal relationship with some god or pantheon, it is always about imposing your personal fantasies on others. Especially the unbelievers. Giving people like that power is always a spectacularly-bad idea.
Over next 1-2 weeks,I'd appreciate an extended thread re: #FrameworkLaptop, #mntreform, & #FOSS.
TL;DR on my idiosyncratic needs:
* minimize binary firmware blobs¹
* Having 2 disks in RAID-1²
* Runs stock Official #Debian stable³
* Understanding best current replacement keyboard options⁴
* Form factor that works for my travel needs.
Is @frameworkcomputer or @mntmn better for me?
I'd be glad if ∃ active engagement on this!
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@bkuhn so, you briefly saw my framework at GRCon (you have an email waiting from me!). That's the smaller Framework 13, and that only has one M.2 nvme slot, but you could add a second, also pcie-attached (though tunneled through USB4) nvme via one of the expansion ports (at the cost of 1 HDMI, USB A or USB-C port). I don't know whether that's 100% the thing I'd go for for RAID-1?
Weight is < 1.4kg, "pretty leightweight". Screen is really rather good and evenly lit.
The 16" version has 2×M.
@bkuhn dunno about the Reform, but only the 16” Framework has the option of more than one full-sized NVMe drive, with the expansion bay. The UEFI software is proprietary. I’ve run Debian Stable just fine on the 13 and 12. @frameworkcomputer @mntmn
@bkuhn @frameworkcomputer @mntmn I can't comment on your technical needs, but I convinced my partner to buy one, there were problems, and their customer support treated us terribly, when it was still under warranty. Other people have had good luck, but we did not. Your mileage may vary.
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@murph @bkuhn @frameworkcomputer which customer support? ours (MNT) or framework?
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@murph, thanks for clarifying as your messaged ended up ambiguous because I at-mentioned both @frameworkcomputer and @mntmn, and your pronouns made it confusing since Mastodon default is carry through all at- mentions.
I suspect I'm going to end up using both brands in future. My big worry is the MNT may not be the form factor that will fit all my travel bags which I've carefully chosen to accommodate my hectic & complex travel.
RN that & the keyboard are my concerns with the MNT.
Cc: @mjw
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@bkuhn @murph @frameworkcomputer @mjw regarding the form factor, do you mean the classic mnt reform or the new mnt reform next? or both too thick?
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@mntmn @murph @frameworkcomputer @mjw I have the classic only rn. I will do some measuring. Thanks for engaging on the thread!
² I realize having 2 disks in a laptop in RAID-1 sounds weird.
I've done it for nearly 20 years & it is amazing! 😯
* when traveling w/ X200, I would yank a drive from the T500 & leave a current backup at home in 10 seconds — rebuild array as soon as I get home.
* To preserve a long term backup 2x/year, yank out a drive & write the date on it & put it on shelf, buy a new disk.
* Linux software RAID-1 code does an amazing job optimizing parallel reads when in sync. I/O noticeably improves.
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@bkuhn doesn't this compromise write performance noticeably though?
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@mbacarella No, I think the Linux RAID-1 code is really strong in that it buffers writes to the second disk until idle moments. It's also why a crash does sometimes leave you out of sync upon reboot.
I have never noticed write slowdowns when in sync.
(Admittedly everything is kinda sluggish during sync, but it does a reasonable job, again, to pause sync work if userland needs I/O.)
@dianea free open source software on my hardware is something more akin to #droidian and getting away from an android project that is dependent on Google’s aosp -with an uncertain future, also powered by google hardware.
Graphene has a lot of dependencies on google being generous and those gifts are drying up quickly.
We need to be supporting more TRUE open source solutions. More #linuxmobile options and focus is what we need.
The year is 2025
There are five browser cores:
- webkit
- chromium
- gecko
- servo
- youtube-dl, which ended up implementing a full-fledged browser in python to keep successfully downloading videos
“We are not saying we are going to boil the ocean in one go as the public would be really sceptical of that. We startering with right to work checks first but there are loads of other applications for digital ID.” Josh MacAlister. They are literally saying there will be future function creep of digital ID and this is about merging records across Government.
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@Cyclist That’s it they aren’t even being quiet about their real plan. https://www.tiktok.com/@gbnews/video/7554814368270044419
I wish that I had discovered dark mode on ereaders sooner.
I find it far more pleasant when reading in bed at night.
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@neil I got myself a new lamp set up for books, have some orange lighting filter on a directional lamp tucked out of the eyeliner but in the book line.
@neil It's the way all computer interactions should be - the 70s nailed TTYs and anyone pushing white document backgrounds is just wrong and needs to be burned at the stake.
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@matthew @neil Holy shit, this here is a masterclass in nought-to-100 😂
https://1040ste.net/@djnavarro@hachyderm.io/115286021520946362
Finally found the spoons to get back on the RSS train with @NetNewsWire
Taking the old style web back one tiny step at a time by curating my own experience more carefully. Now to populate my list of feeds…
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So far I have the absolute basics from here, I think. The list currently sits at:
Also a few I have from elsewhere:
pluralistic.net
undeadly.org
daringfireball.net
I can’t help but feel I’m missing a lot that I used to read, but which time has erased from my mind. Suggestions are more than welcome.
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@taf
My list has expanded since I wrote this, but this might help?
https://neilzone.co.uk/2024/05/expanding-and-sharing-the-list-of-blogs-i-follow-via-rss/
I’m not a fan of doing this but it is for a good cause.
Hi, as you might know blahaj.social 
is a small vulunteer ran incomeless part of the fediverse 
We built it several years ago with recycled servers and network equipment.
Our @sysadmin haj has been working hard but our core switch and one of our HDDs refused to come online after a power cut.
Donations to purchase a replacement are very welcome at https://blahaj.social/about (shark pictures are also very welcome 💕)
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Smal blahaj coming our of rack holding ethernet cables
UK politics, digital ID [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
Dear Estonian government: could you please schedule an embarassing leak of all digital ID records for sometime in the next few weeks? That would really help us out.
OV is saying goodbye to his beloved ICR! Bye bye single deck international VIRM 😢💕
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OV on table with goodbye pin
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So, after blockchains, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, metaverse, VR, AI-for-everything... what is the next bubble?
Any chance that it will be small, sustainable, local computing?
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@neil Nope, but I think the cybertrope of direct neural implants is going to get big and ugly, although that might still be a couple of hype cycles off.
@neil "If you use our framework, your customers' social presence can be infinitely bespoke at scale!"
@neil hopefully not, because tech bros have ruined basically all of that stuff, and I don’t want to see local computing get fucked up too.
@neil the survival in the face of civil, economic, and planetary collapse bubble. Expect a lot more polytunnels, solar panels, shotguns, and a resurgence of through the hole soldering. Oh, and lots of people taking about potatoes and food preservation.
I wish I was joking.
@neil
It has to tick some boxes:
- high energy consumption
- defy common sense
- not living up to expectations
- fancy name
@neil I know not on what technologies the next great financial crisis will be built, but I know the one *after* will be built on small, sustainable, local computing.
@neil problem is small sustainable local computing *actually* works so it can't be made into a bubble. If you blow it up to societal-consuming scale you don't get a bubble, you get infrastructure.
@neil small container based nuclear generation, easily transportable for festivals and the like. Glowing reports already.
@neil Bubble As A Service. Choose from one of our hundreds of templates or build your own market manifesto from scratch. Press the big button. Machine go “brrrrr”. Automate all the hype on your path to profit.
@neil There is ALWAYS another date for the Rapture right around the corner, and with Peter Thiel et al trying to pivot silicon valley behind their strain of Dominionist Christofascism, my money is on the next bubble targeting the wallets of the Screaming Jeezus People.
@neil the philosophy of Walter Benjamin comes to mind.
Progress not as a linear path to improvement but as a continuous cycle of suffering and oppression that benefits the victors and rulers while ignoring the plight of the oppressed.
The goal could be to break the cycle of progress (as defined by our capitalist overlords)
@neil
Guillotines.
The market for guillotines will absolutely explode. Incredible potential. Get in the guillotine business now!
@neil It'll be small and more local by necessity, because I'm guessing we'll have bombed all the larger factories and supply chains into oblivion.
@neil
Nah, anything good is made through grass root movements not hype bubbles and "small, sustainable, local computing" sounds good.
@neil Whether it's a local instance or a single-user one, the Fediverse is exhausting. It's full of nerd types who start by shutting everything down just because it doesn't require any special skills.
I washed my hands of those kinds of niche communities 10 years ago.
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@neil it's finally time for smell "printers", with the inevitable wave of branding smells and companies renaming themselves to include smell related words. Sniffluencers rise. Smelffiti fights back, but then starts to sell for astronomical figures. Scentsorship of the press. A political party smells its way to victory. Easily transmissible mild infections that block your sense of smell become fashionable, then an industry, then nosemageddon.
@neil The next bubble will be the one's we have to live in because of AI's massive energy needs leading to more environmental damage
@neil
Eye used to have enormous respect and appreciation for you, Neil.
Now Eye can't even begin to express to you how disappointed Eye am that you've revealed yourself as just a shill for Big Small Sustainable Local Computing.
(Eye kid!)
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@neil bless you for hoping, but no, it's either going to be quantum, anti-quantum, or something vaguely medbed or bio-engineering related.
I mean local Internet ( LoRa et al ) and solar might become a thing, but not a bubble.
Will the proposed UK government ID require an Apple/Andoid phone:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-id-scheme-to-be-rolled-out-across-uk
Entrenching that duopoly so far that government services rely on it sounds dangerous and anti-innovation.
@openrightsgroup do you guys already know the answer to this?
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@jonquark @openrightsgroup It is definitely a significant risk, I think the HO eVisa app works like this. And of course, eVisas don’t work except on an app; in both cases the systems will make some people very dependent on relatives or partners who are abusive.
# Digital ID cards to be compulsory for all UK adults under government plans
*sigh*
Tiny details, like what to do about people who don't have a compatible smartphone, still need to be worked out..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g54g6vgpdo
(Fixed link)
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@neil Or whether you can use it from a non-Google Android smartphone, or whether you can also use it with a Linux machine.
Why are they actually doing this?
I don't have a problem with them out of principle, but the implementation is going to be hugely important whether I'm OK with this specific version of them.
I wonder how quickly this will morph into:
"You must keep on your person, switched on, the phone on which your government ID is installed. You must be capable of unlocking that phone."
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@neil
Won't be long before there is wording that UK police forces must be capable of unlocking the phone to see the digital ID
@neil Well if they do copy Estonia, it seems to have a choice of physical card, 'Mobile ID' which is something SIM based (?) and Smart-ID which is some App abomination.
I'm sure nobody will drop their phone in a toilet and suddenly be considered a non-citizen because they can't prove their identity. Because everybody has the same phone for their entire lifetime. Or they use the same phone all the time (rather than using a small phone for portability and changing the SIM to a larger phone when on-call for work or whatever).
So much ick in this idea.
@neil They'll have to update the current guidance on electronic tags. It currently says:
"Which tag you get is decided by the court, prison governor or parole board."
They need to add a note that it could also be mandated for everyone by the Prime Minister for the crime of existing.
@neil As I have said else where every UK Adult has 2 definite numbers attached to them, NI and NHS numbers, they may have a 3rd, driving licence number. Children presumably have an NHS number from birth. Issue Pin and chip cards with these numbers and we do not need smartphone based digital ID-unless the plan is more nefarious then admitted.
@neil
I've already got one burner phone! Am I going to have to get a second one, for my official government ID app?
@neil considering you already can get locked up until you remember your password, I'd wager before it even gets voted on :(
"Thank you for visiting xxx.example.com.
To verify your eligibility to view the content on this site, please log in using your UK government digital ID."
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"Your operating system does not meet the minimum requirements for UK government digital ID.
Please upgrade to a supported operating system."
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@neil Where "minimum requirements" are "services the personal-data supply contract my cousin signed with Meta".
"Your operating system does not meet the minimum requirements for UK government digital ID."
success. done. ;)
@neil My computers and my phone run Linux. Thats not changing any time soon. So I'll happily exist in the same space as my 80 year old non smart phone owning parents.
I wonder how digital ID will work for people who share a smartphone.
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@neil yes or my relatives in their 70s/80s who either don't have a smart phone or who have one but can only really use it to make calls. Something tells me this isn't going to be universally accessible, which is evil if it is mandatory.
@neil Same way that joint email accounts work to identify people called johnandjoanmastodon@yahoo.com
@neil You have now officially put more thought into this potential issue than the UK Government has.
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@onqueerstreet I will await my knighthood.
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@neil I'm not sure they hand those out for demonstrating critical thinking skills...
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@neil No problem. The same wonder-tech that allows end-to-end encryption but with backdoors totally only all the trustworthy people on our side have access to will solve this problem. Next.
@neil or old people who still talk about The GPO and carry a dumb phone that their children forced them to have?
@neil I feel like this will pull the classic late-stage capitalism principle of using this law to once again criminalise being poor
@neil That will almost certainly be in place on launch. 0 chance of it not requiring Google play integrity.
@neil "Goverment finally admits that ID card database has been breached"
The details of every uk citizen have been available on the dark web for the last year. No bank or insurance company has accepted it as a form of ID for the last six months."
Hashtag Headlines from 2027
@neil This is really the whole fallacy around the idea: it is just another fingerprint. Cue the XKCD one about there being too many standards, so someone makes another...
@neil "Precise location services must be enabled for the Digital ID to function correctly".
This plan probably nixes the idea of leaving your smart phone at home and carrying a simple one if you visit the US, for example.
@neil "Sorry, you cannot disable microphone, camera, or location services on this device. Please consult law enforcement for more information."
😬
And suddenly I feel quite comfortable with my German paper and plastic "Personalausweis" ID-Card.
(Not that our folks won't be watching those endeavours with very eager eyes...)
@neil using Windrush as justification is a bit much: windrush happened *because* of id digitalisation. they destroyed the boarding cards
@neil ahh yes. Make it required to carry a smart phone, then make it a requirement to track all smart phones.
💙💛@neil judging by the experience of using ID Check app for immigrants to set up or confirm e-Visa details, those people are likely to be disregarded...
@neil I would like to refer Sir Keith to the closing lyrics of this masterpiece by Messrs. Commerford, de la Rocha, Morello and Wilk.
@neil What about ppl with 2 names eg women who work under 1 name & family life under another?
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@neil still waiting for the punchline - "the scheme is to be administrated by Fujitsu Services Limited", perhaps.
@neil this announcement baffled me on a few levels.
The tech side of it, I see being a complete disaster, given how shit govt are at IT. I mean they can't even agree on a single signon system.
But, why does a PM with such pitiful ratings, think proposing an unpopular plan is going to help him. It's almost like he wants to sink the Labour party.
@neil
I think @davidallengreen posted once something like ‘whichever party is in power, you get the government’?
The complete 180 both parties have done on this issue, just makes a mockery of any actual ethical stance in politics.
@neil Truly, the only redeeming feature of the whole national ID farce was that it could provide an option for people who can't get or afford a photo ID.
With it being digital, the people who are most likely to be excluded from existing ID systems - those who are older, poorer, homeless etc - will still be excluded, no matter what design decisions are made further down the line.
@neil my husband. He doesn't have or want a smart phone. He already can't use some car parks. Old people are being edged out of daily life
If you are expecting revolt against government in the not too far future, then yes, authoritarian moves is what you are going to expect from government.
This speaks to their idea of the future and how the masses will need to be controlled with big brother technology.
@neil
My phone will never be compatible with this, or any phone I will own in future.
The thing that makes this unworkable is there is a sizable number of people (like me) who will just refuse and reject this no matter how 'mandatory' they try to make it.
UK Authoritarian Government [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
@neil I've been considering ditching my smart phone for a while.
@neil Not going to hold my breath, but I signed the Petition against it today and I also tried to raise a few of these issues with my local (labour) MP.
@neil this might just be the thing that pushes me beyond the point of strongly worded letters/emails.
We're in a cost of living crisis and Labour wants to bring in digital ID cards for everyone 🤡 They're risking turning the UK into a pre-crime state where we constantly have to prove who we are to go about our daily lives.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/25/keir-starmer-expected-to-announce-plans-for-digital-id-cards #precrime #digitalid #idcards
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@openrightsgroup Surely the extra costs of expanding the Police to go after the old people and teenagers who don't have smartphones, plus the costs of outsourcing development, won't help keep Government spending under control.
@openrightsgroup So according to Starmer the far-right is injecting a poisonous discourse and instigating a violent struggle for the nation. And his response to that… is to control borders and immigration, and immigrants… by requiring everyone to have ID that proves who they are?
If he’s trying to fight the far-right, I’m not convinced he’s taking the right lessons from 1930s Germany there…
smh
"By investing in #opensource, Europe can support small businesses, universities, and public institutions, giving them tools to compete with global tech giants.
Despite this importance, the budget proposal does not include specific funding for open source… The omission is alarming as Europe pushes to increase #digitalsovereignty, strengthen cybersecurity, and boost competitiveness."
It was *much* easier than I had expected to get rid of parking apps (UK).
The three that I use - RingGo, PayByPhone, and JustPark - all have usable enough web interfaces, which I have bookmarked.
One step closer in terms of using postmarketOS (for which there are no such apps), and the benefit of fewer apps anyway.
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@neil I wonder if that's a reasonable bit of digital legislation that could be implemented 🤔
"Services cannot be provided purely through a downloaded app and there must be feature parity between a mobile-optimised web application (to be accessible through a browser of the user's choice) and any developed mobile application."
I've just had my credit card forceably moved from Sainsburys Bank to Nat West. Nat West asked me to select a four digit code and a twenty characters password.
All routine stuff so stored the password in my password manager (using a password it offered me so a random string of characters) and then tried to log in.
(1/2)
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"Enter characters 4, 9, and 20 of your password"
Oh FFS!
So I can't fill using the password manager. Instead I have to open it, find the entry, reveal the password, and then painfully count to the right characters.
Think it's time to move credit card company.
(2/2)
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@tallpaul Yes, this is a nuisance, and also one of the reasons why I quite like Bitwarden's ability to display passphrases with the corresponding character number above each character!
The Channel Tunnel wasn’t as long as I was expecting it to be. And why did only me, your bags, and your watch go through it? That wasn’t the Channel Tunnel? What was it? A theatre? What’s a security theatre? I didn’t see anyone performing.
Can someone explain the context I'm lacking for all of this? Non-UK person here 😅 Thanks!
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UK Politics, flags [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
I'll do my best from my perspective (based in London, I don't want to speak for everyone or other nations in the UK).Generally speaking, many in England find nationalistic flag-waving distasteful (with the exception of England playing in a major sporting event, or, for some, when there's a royal event).
In the last few weeks, far-right groups have tried to push the narrative within their circles that "we are 'not allowed' to fly the flag and 'be proud of our country'" (dog whistle for ethnic nationalism and anti-immigration + anti-asylum viewpoints). This led to people putting up flags on lampposts, spray-painting it on pedestrian crossings and bus stops etc. Councils initially started taking them down off lampposts, but then the far-right people were able to say: "look, it's proof that we're not allowed to fly our flag" (aka "the 'true Brits' are being suppressed by the 'others'") so councils have largely backed off.
I think it is essentially used as a dog whistle to make "others" feel unsafe. Certainly that is how I feel when surrounded by these flags.
That is not to say that everyone is putting them up for these reasons, but if you are putting them up now, I think it is a way of showing a particular point of view.
People are rightly upset with another Musk intervention in British politics. Yet so many Polticans, organisations and journalists still use X. Polticans and organisations should ditch the platform. Move to federated services and alternatives. Be the change they want to see. #Musk #X #Fediverse #ukpol
Installing #munin on a new server, wondering why it is not generating graphs.
Hmmm, everything is working fine if I callmunin-crondirectly, graphs are generated, and the cron entry is there in/etc/cron.d, so what's going on? Why is it not getting run from cron?
$ sudo service cron restart
Unit cron.service could not be found.
$
Huh? What is up with systemd? Why can't it find cron? Oh, hang on a second...
$ apt search cron | grep -i installed
$
D'oh!
There's something so wrong about it ultimately not respecting your choice.
Mozilla seems to have compromised its values. I don't think it's wrong to struggle with that. It reminds me of one of Karen Sandler's excellent talks on when to say no to funding:
We are fighting to make improvements in the areas that we think are so important, and if people think that that's important, they will get on board and help you find money, and help donate to you - and if they don't, well, you know, maybe it wasn't that important, and you'll have to find something else to do.I feel the same about the forks. I really hope, with all the new browsers with real community involvement, that better days are ahead of us.But, if you don't stay focused on that mission, and you're willing to compromise around the corner, you will never build trust for your organisation, you'll never be able to get the volunteers you need to keep going, and your funding will then constantly be on a downward spiral towards things that take you further afield from the reason you got started to begin with.
feed2exec!I love how flexible it is. I wanted to download each article to a file so I could copy those back and forth between devices. The man pages gave me everything I needed to write a simple plugin to do this, and it was well worth taking the time to learn.
Now I have the ability to do completely crazy and arbitrary things to my feeds before reading them! Well, I'm probably not going to do anything with that, but it's nice to know I can 😀
vidir, available from the moreutils package in #Debian.I can't believe I didn't know about it already! I frequently have to rename many files, and vidir lets me apply my keybinding and hacky macro knowledge to yet another task :D
Censorship creeps onwards 🤐
Ignoring issues with the UK Online Safety Act, the government is using Henry VIII powers to engulf more content.
Aimed at blocking 'self-harm' content, algorithms will misidentify support resources and content will vanish behind age gates.
https://www.digit.fyi/uk-gov-to-toughen-online-safety-act-against-self-harm-content/
#onlinesafetyact #onlinesafety #osa #censorship #freespeech #freedomofexpression #ukpolitics #ukpol
@BBCNews So much of this relates to the tabloidification of social media. Which is about disempowered users, who cannot choose their moderators and prioritisation engines,
@ret 100% especially when you add that the far right are inevitably quite happy to forget FX once they have the power to restrict speech they do not like. We are watching that happen in real time.
The Open Rights Group is working on an amendment to the OSA which would propose a small site exemption, for sites that are maintained without a view to profit, with a small number of active users, and which the owner reasonably believes to pose no risk to users.
If you want to give thoughts on various parts of the potential amendments, there's a form here:
https://cloud.openrightsgroup.org/nextcloud/apps/forms/s/dQB6GSRQ4jHzGjxiYG5tAnDB
Any sufficiently large node on a decentralised service should be treated with the same caution as a centralised service.
@generalx@freeradical.zone @id@fedi.4x31.dev @prosodyim@fosstodon.org I use a PostgreSQL backend and it works fine for me. Granted, my server has ~5 users :)
General purpose computer --> limited purpose computer --> appliance --> haha it is really our computer so pay up for your subscription like a good little cash cow and pray we don't alter the deal further no wait we are of course going to do that
MCC codes used to restrict what Aslyum Seekers can purchase https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/30/home-office-bans-asylum-seekers-from-buying-luxury-goods-and-services digital borders within a state where access to goods or services is denied by data
@philpem I’m getting a premonition… 🔮 “Labour vows to crack-down on unmonitored ‘self-hosted’ sites” - BBC, June 2027
Just turn the mount anti-clockwise. It will feel like you're breaking something, but all will be well.
Replacing the bathroom light:
Whatever you do, DO NOT turn the mount! Definitely don't do it at the beginning of a bank holiday!
I created a Facebook messenger account with minimal detail and got promptly suspended.
In order to unlock the account, I needed to upload a video selfie. Because of the kind of guy I am, I uploaded a video of this baby. Which worked. Account unlocked.
I'm not sure which future we're living in, but it is truly amazing.
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Photo old a bald, baby doll. Has various marks, bits of grub, and no clothes from being around with small children for a decade. Looks nothing like me or a real person.