Good morning (albeit late) and tzag. It was a busy weekend and busy start of the week. Wife and I went to a local brewery for burgers while the teen went to a college student meet and greet downtown last night. WFH today and Bible study tonight.
How're you doing?
when people are making a fuss because some free software made political choices, for example implementing an Easter egg for the Trans day of visibility, they:
- are trying to gaslight you, because any piece of software that is used by many people is political, in its design choices, in its very existence, etc
- want to profit from free labor without ever having to think about any consequences, all is totally absolutely free for them as if it were obvious that everything was at their free disposal
- they don't want to think about WHO is creating and maintaining the software for them, and spoiler, its often marginalized people. so they want to profit from oppression without compensation
- want to justify their nauseating bigotry with false neutrality. nothing is neutral in this society
in this case i'm talking about the hilarious "oh no a trans flag in my totally neutral software? is my server being hacked?!":: forum.yunohost.org/t/am-i-hack…
for full disclosure i AM part of the dev team of this software, YunoHost
and YunoHost has been openly political for a decade, with many anti capitalistic conferences
and many public political statement on our fediverse account:
toot.aquilenet.fr/@yunohost/11…
toot.aquilenet.fr/@yunohost/11…
Am I hacked or is this something new?
What type of hardware are you using: VPS bought online What YunoHost version are you running: 12.0.12 How are you able to access your server: The webadmin SSH Other(?) Are you in a special context or did you perform specific tweaking on your Yun…YunoHost Forum
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Welp, I'm enjoying this new-to-me song.
youtube.com/watch?v=PWf5xipouu…
Islander - What A Time To Be Alive (Official Music Video)
Islander - What A Time To Be AliveVideo Produced by : Plastic Magic MediaVideo shot by : ISLANDER Edited by : Mikey CarvajalSong produced/mixed/mastered by :...YouTube
Open letter to anyone with a protest or rights-based website:
PLEASE get rid of Facebook and Google SSO login options and analytic tracking codes from your sites.
You are literally handing over your user data to unscrupulous players that are in direct opposition to your cause. These sites can and do hand over user-specific data.
To everyone, stop using these options. Set a strong password. Use an alias email. Use a VPN.
#indivisible #democrats #plannedparenthood #privacy
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Good morning, tzag, and happy Saturday. After tea I've got some yard work planned for the morning. After that I'll be working on some projects. This afternoon my wife is taking the teen and her bestie prom dress shopping. I may head to Silver Spring for a black owned collab beer release. Plus they also have two stouts I'd like to try.
How's everyone else doing today?
Good morning, tzag, and happy Friday. I'm sleepy, as I stayed up way too late working. Fortunately today's a WFH day so the cat and I were able to sleep in a bit. After work some friends are coming over for dinner and an online Bible class.
How's everyone else's Friday going?
Good morning and tzag, fedizens. It's a beautiful day here in Maryland. I didn't get much sleep last night. Commute was alright. It's my only day in office this week, which is great. This evening I'm doing a Virtualmin install and a Nextcloud migration.
How're you doing today?
Afternoon and tzag. I've been absolutely slammed today at work, and fighting with trying to make a Stripe payment. Tonight is Bible study at church.
It's definitely one of those 'Which will I have first, a third tea or second beer?' type of afternoons.
How is everyone else doing?
Good morning and tzag. Up early to give the cat some medicine, then dropped him off at the vet for a dental cleaning. Back to work today with nothing but catching up from the long weekend on on the agenda. This evening I'll be continuing a server migration.
How is everyone today?
#Kagi Nord theme:
github.com/jcrabapple/kagi_nor…
GitHub - jcrabapple/kagi_nord_light-dark
Contribute to jcrabapple/kagi_nord_light-dark development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
The image displays a dark blue background with a search engine interface. At the top center, the word "kagi" is prominently displayed in white lowercase letters. To the right of the text, there is a cartoon illustration of a dog with long ears, labeled "Kagi Dogge by Lynn." Below the logo, there is a search bar with the placeholder text "Let's fetch..." in orange. To the right of the search bar, there is a "Search Options" link. At the bottom center, there is a blue "Search" button. The bottom right corner contains the copyright notice "© Kagi. Humanize the Web."
―
The image displays a website interface with a minimalist design. At the top center, the logo "kagi" is prominently featured, accompanied by a cartoon dog character named "Kogi Doggo by Ludo," sitting next to a yellow ball. Below the logo, there is a search bar with the placeholder text "Let's fetch..." and a search button labeled "Search." The search bar includes a "Search Options" link on the right. The background is a light gray color, and the overall design is clean and modern. At the bottom of the page, there is a navigation menu with links to "About," "Blog," "Changelog," "Live Stats," "Swag," "Privacy & Terms," "Help," "Feedback," "Support & Community," and a copyright notice stating "© Kagi, Humanize the Web."
Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Ovis2-8B
🌱 Energy used: 0.606 Wh
Blog Questions Challenge: Technology
stevenbrady.com/blog-questions…
#BlogQuestionsChallenge #IndyWeb #Blogger @Blog Questions Challenge Bot
Good morning, fediverse. Wife and I are heading to Virginia today for a concert. We're also going to do some brewery hopping before the show.
How is everyone?
Volume EIGHT of Scrolls is out, with all the usual #indieweb #fediverse and #infosec goodness.
shellsharks.com/scrolls/scroll…
If you haven't already, you can subscribe to Scrolls via #RSS here --> shellsharks.com/feeds/scroll-f…
Thanks to all the fine folks who have created or shared content this past week that has been featured in this week's edition! 🧡
@LouisPretends @cmdr_nova @philip @sydseter @ApisNecros @sylvia @daj @kolev @hamatti @anders @steven @cascremers @Em0nM4stodon @anewsocial @indigitalcolor @betula @flamed
(More folks to thank in a second toot ➡️ - GtS does not want to let me @ this many folks in one 🤷♂️)
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Wait. Is this reading correct?
"Under current law, content produced entirely by AI immediately enters the public domain, allowing unrestricted commercial use."
synthtopia.com/content/2025/03…
Other news coverage:
"Because many of the Copyright Act's provisions make sense only if an author is a human being, the best reading of the Copyright Act is that human authorship is required for registration."
reuters.com/world/us/us-appeal…
#news #technology #TechNews #copyright #PublicDomain #AI
AI-Generated Works Are Public Domain, Court Affirms
A recent court case affirms that works generated by AI, without human involvement, are not eligible for copyright protection.Synthtopia
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I see only two possible things a court could decide, neither are good for AI companies:
- AI-generated works are not creative works and are therefore not subject to copyright (seems to be the prevailing opinion).
- AI-generated works are derived works of the training set and are therefore subject to all license restrictions on everything that went into the training set.
The second would be much worse for AI companies (all outputs would be subject to copyright, but not owned by the end user or the model provider unless they have explicit license terms for everything used to train the model).
I would expect the second to be more consistent with copyright law. A poor-quality JPEG of a photo of a painting is a derived works of the painting and not independently copyrightable. Generative AI is lossily compressing a load of things and then running the decompresser with a seed value. I doubt anyone taking these things to court so far wants to argue that side though.
@vostrik Not the same, just a derived work. Normally, you defend against this by having clear process that lets you argue that your team didn’t have access to the original. This is why, for example, Microsoft has a six-month cooling off period for people working on Windows after working on the Linux kernel: it makes it easy to argue that nothing they did was copied.
If you don’t know the training data used for an LLM, then you can’t argue that a particular source was present. If the output passes the substantially similar test, then the owner of the original may be able to make a solid claim for infringement. Note that this doesn’t apply to just copyleft licenses. Most permissive licenses require attribution. If your generated code is copied from som BSD-licensed training data and lacks attribution, that remains copyright infringement. The remedy is simpler (add attribution), though only if you can enumerate all of the things that are copied.
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What influence does Meta has over AP? Where can we check that?
You can track the SocialCG's public discussions at w3.org/wiki/SocialCG - it has links to the email list and meeting notes. Here's an example of somebody from a Meta-funded non-profit (who's got a major role in the discussions going forward) attempting to shut down criticisms of Meta on the email list. lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/p…
The SocialCG is currently in the process of coming up with a charter for a Working Group to create the next version of the ActivityPub spec. Things to look for: does Meta have a representative on the working group? (Since they're a dues-paying W3C member, they're entitled to one, so presumably the answer will be yes.). How many people from Meta-funded non-profits (or organizations that take funding from Meta or Meta-funded non-profits) will be in the group? What roles will they play, publicly and behind the scenes? How many people critical of Meta will be involved -- and what roles will they play?
I've been wanting to get back into the freelance game for a while now. I finally got around to making a page to showcase my skills. Audio is my specialty but I can also help with some video, writing, pretty much whatever you see at TNO. If anyone is interested, feel free to contact me.
There is a growing sentiment that the US shouldn't be relied upon for the technologies that many people and businesses use every day.
While we prefer to focus on technical guarantees like strong end-to-end encryption over matters like jurisdiction, these issues still matter, and the United States certainly does not have a monopoly on the best technologies.
We've compiled a list of some of our favorite and highly recommended European privacy tools, to highlight how easy it can be to take your data back from American Big Tech companies: privacyguides.org/articles/202…
#EUTech #EuropeanTech #Privacy #USElection2024 #EUCloud #EuropeanAlternatives #PrivacyGuides #Article
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A problem could be distros heavily sponsored by a single US company, like Red Hat. But it would still be possible to set up a clone or switch to another somewhat similar Linux distro. Compare this to switching away from Apple or Microsoft - there is no other source for MacOS or Windows.
@privacyguides
@Mik3y indeed, openSUSE is probably the best option if this is important to you (and I did note that in the article actually), but this is probably something I’d be less concerned about for all the reasons @niels shared.
We have a pretty good sense of what’d happen if RedHat mismanaged Fedora, because a few years ago when people took issue with RedHat’s CentOS changes, the community stepped in with Rocky & Alma Linux, and people formerly on CentOS had a pretty easy pathway out. Very likely something similar would happen with Fedora if things really went badly for whatever reason.
Hey, this is great!
WP Workbench version 1.0.1 released for Virtualmin Pro
forum.virtualmin.com/t/wp-work…
WP Workbench version 1.0.1 released (Pro repos only)
Howdy all, I’ve rolled out WordPress Workbench, a project Ilia has been working on for a while, to the Pro repos.Virtualmin Community
Blog Questions Challenge: Travel Adventures
stevenbrady.com/blog-questions…
#BlogQuestionsChallenge #Blogger #IndyWeb @Blog Questions Challenge Bot
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My need for a new job has gone from “I'm unhappy and need a change" to “I don't hardly have any savings and if I don't get a new job ASAP I will be bankrupt in a month or so”, because I was laid off today.
So:
Hi! I'm Jamie. I write code in Swift, with the exact target/platform not mattering to me so much. I own a powerful Mac so I can contribute to indie/smaller projects without any particular investment. I also have experience managing teams, and I can quickly pick up new skills.
The role would have to be remote or located in the Baltimore, MD area as I have a mortgage that I can't just get out of.
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Travel adventures:
What's the silliest souvenir you've ever brought back from a trip?
If you could teleport anywhere right now, for a day trip, where would you go?
What's the weirdest food you've ever tried while traveling?
What's the most memorable "wrong turn" you've taken on an adventure?
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Thanks to the magic of the Streisand effect, I just heard about #CarelessPeople - a book by former Meta employee Sarah Wynn-Williams.
Apparently the company is FREAKING OUT and seeking legal ways to stop its promotion. I can see why. This article about it in the Times made my jaw drop: web.archive.org/web/2025031022…
I will definitely order it at my local bookshop.
🔗: bookshop.org/p/books/careless-…
Edit: included non-paywalled link (thanks @gemlog)
Book Review: ‘Careless People,’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams
“Careless People,” a memoir by a former Facebook executive, portrays feckless company leaders cozying up to authoritarian regimes.Jennifer Szalai (The New York Times)
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@geos I mean I knew they were terrible, but the book is taking down their status and dignity about 100 notches.
They are embarassingly immature and self-centered and the myriad of anecdotes about their ineptitude and shallowness are sure to sting (in the eyes of the public, too)
Just started using Ghostwriter today, and I'm really liking it.
ghostwriter - No excuses. No distractions. Just write.
No excuses. No distractions. Just write.ghostwriter - No excuses. No distractions. Just write.
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I rebuilt my website using Drupal instead of Ghost, so with that my /Uses page has been updated.
D4S3
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Lien Rag
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •The fact that they can should be enough to convince, but people not already convinced are extremely daft about those topics, so a good source would be useful...
The Privacy Foundation
in reply to Lien Rag • • •@lienrag
nytimes.com/interactive/2019/0…
And SSO works by handing off data. Facebook and Google can identify users on and offline actions and whereabouts.
Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries (The New York Times)The Privacy Foundation
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Blort™ 🐀Ⓥ🥋☣️
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Blort™ 🐀Ⓥ🥋☣️
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Karmalakas
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •stony kark
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •The Privacy Foundation
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •On VPN usage...
Hypothetically, any system on the web that you interact with can "know" you. And while it is true that VPNs are no different, the reality is that using a paid ProtonVPN or similar non-US based service would require that service to cooperate internationally with a warrant. Proton does not store where you visited. Good luck getting that info operationally into the hands of ICE as part of a dragnet.
#Proton #Security
The Privacy Foundation
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Using an encrypted password manager + a strong password + a VPN is FAR safer security-wise than using SSO. Users of these sites are\can\will be actively targeted by the US. Every hurdle put in their way is good.
Agree that TOR is good, in fact recommend @tails which will hide identity behind additional randomized parameters. TOR can also be used incorrectly.
The goal of this post is practical in nature.
@keepassxc @protonprivacy
John K.
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •John K.
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Tariq
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Agree 99% with this. Thank you.
The only thing I would cautony against is Proton given their CEO's pro maga statement.
Also, how do you know proton doesn't log where you went to via their vpn?
That's a significant statement to make.
The Privacy Foundation
in reply to Tariq • • •Tariq
in reply to Tariq • • •Tariq
in reply to Tariq • • •For non-technical activists reading this, let me put it like this.
Hey I'm offering a VPN service. Use me!
All your interactions on the web go via me. That means I know which sites you went to.
And if I were hacked, or simply handed that info to a tyrant, you're compromised. And especially if I offer a "free" service, I gotta sell something to make money. Data about YOU.
And because ALL your internet activity is via me, it's easier to build a fuller picture of you.
The Privacy Foundation
in reply to Tariq • • •Proton VPN’s no-logs policy confirmed by an external audit
Andy Yen (Proton VPN)Tariq
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •josh g.
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Coral
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •GeneralX
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Catherine is not giving up.
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •Algorithms are promoting obvious fake information. Troll farms that have acreage Del Monte would envy. I clicked on multiple profiles and if they weren’t trolls they were bots with sketchy links.
It is another level of X with more subtle propaganda.
Michael Vilain
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •TheJen is ready to fight
in reply to The Privacy Foundation • • •