(Someone stumbled upon my 2010 decade retrospective post and suggested I write a followup…) This has been a big decade for me. Ten years ago, I’d been in an increasingly stale job for several years too long. I was tired of living in the city, and had a yurt as a weekend relief valve. I had the feeling a big change was coming. Four months on and I quit my job, despite the ongoing financial…
External feed Read More at the Source: http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/2020_hindsight/
Comparing population growth to growth of traffic explains the fallacy in the “self-soothing” conceit that your children will make the world better (unlike most other people’s children). “‘Thinking your child will be part of the solution, not the problem, is hubris.’ We are the collapse. Our children are the collapse. That article is brilliant, but the author’s reasoning errs at the end when she asserts that her only choice, aside from reproducing and regretting the…
2019 has been an eye-opening, transformative year for free software and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), bringing some major changes both internally and in the world around us. As we navigate these changes, we are guided by the FSF’s founding vision — the four freedoms that define free software, and our mission to make all software be compatible with human freedom. It must be honest, transparent, and shareable, and it must truly work in service…
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/bringing-the-free-software-vision-to-2020
2019 has been an eye-opening, transformative year for free software and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), bringing some major changes both internally and in the world around us. As we navigate these changes, we are guided by the FSF’s founding vision — the four freedoms that define free software, and our mission to make all software be compatible with human freedom. It must be honest, transparent, and shareable, and it must truly work in service…
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/bringing-the-free-software-vision-to-2020
I live in a large apartment complex (it’s literally a city block big), so I spend a disproportionate amount of time walking down corridors. Recently one of my neighbours installed a Ring wireless doorbell. By default these are motion activated (and the process for disabling motion detection is far from obvious), and if the owner subscribes to an appropriate plan these recordings are stored in the cloud. I’m not super enthusiastic about the idea of…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/53968.html
I live in a large apartment complex (it’s literally a city block big), so I spend a disproportionate amount of time walking down corridors. Recently one of my neighbours installed a Ring wireless doorbell. By default these are motion activated (and the process for disabling motion detection is far from obvious), and if the owner subscribes to an appropriate plan these recordings are stored in the cloud. I’m not super enthusiastic about the idea of…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/53968.html
We recently posted a lengthy write-up of the licensing team’s activities in 2019. Although we have been really busy, we didn’t want to miss the chance to share some specifics about our activities in October. That month, members of our licensing and campaigns teams headed down to North Carolina to spread the message of software freedom. First, on the 14th & 15th, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) staffed a booth at the ATO conference where…
We recently posted a lengthy write-up of the licensing team’s activities in 2019. Although we have been really busy, we didn’t want to miss the chance to share some specifics about our activities in October. That month, members of our licensing and campaigns teams headed down to North Carolina to spread the message of software freedom. First, on the 14th & 15th, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) staffed a booth at the ATO conference where…
The passage — through MEPs erroneously pushing the wrong buttons! — of the new EU Copyright Directive last March means that online platforms operating in the EU will have to implement filters that allow anyone, anywhere, to claim anything as their copyright, whereupon the platforms will have to detect any attempt by anyone else to upload those claimed works and block them. Julia Reda (previously) was an MEP during the passage of the Copyright Directive…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/20/fat-fingered-disaster.html
Sycamore Brewing received a spanking from North Carolina’s Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE), which will punish the brewery for making a beer can with cartoon reindeer having sex. From Vice: [T]he label likely violated the agency’s rules prohibiting obscene material, and the brewery didn’t submit it for approval before producing the cans either. As a result, Sycamore will most likely face a fine of between $500 and $1,000. “We’re in a moment in our country where…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/07/candian-beer-company-in-troubl.html
The .ORG top-level domain and all of the nonprofit organizations that depend on it are at risk if a private equity firm is allowed to buy control of it. EFF has joined with over 250 respected nonprofits to oppose the sale of Public Interest Registry, the (currently) nonprofit entity that operates the .ORG domain, to Ethos Capital. Internet pioneers including Esther Dyson and Tim Berners-Lee have spoken out against this secretive deal. And 12,000 Internet…
On December 5, U.S. District Court Magistrate John T. Johnston heard oral argument in Montana Green Party v Stapleton, 6:18cv-87. The chief issue in the case is the unequal distribution requirement for the party petition. The Green Party successfully gathered 5,000 valid signatures, which is required. But the law also requires that the petition contain the valid signatures of between 55 and 150 signatures in each of thirty-four state house districts. Montana is the only…
External feed Read More at the Source: http://ballot-access.org/2019/12/05/oral-argument-held-in-montana-ballot-access-case/
Enlarge / Bar graph of climate data. (credit: Global Carbon Project) Large oceangoing ships turn very slowly, which can be frustrating to someone accustomed to speeding around on nimble watercraft. Those eagerly watching for progress on climate change can relate. Every year, another batch of stats on greenhouse gas emissions comes in, and we’re left to wonder whether we’re turning things around yet. This year’s update was just published as part of the Global Carbon…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1628651
Pam Cowburn from Article 19 writes, “Our new report shows that digital freedom of expression – defined as our ability to speak freely online – is at a ten year low. The report states that this decline is due to a rise in digital authoritarianism with governments taking control of internet infrastructure, increasing online surveillance and controlling content.” The core threats that are contributing to the decline in digital freedom of expression are: * Internet…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/05/xpa.html
The Right Livelihood Awards celebrated their 40th anniversary Wednesday at the historic Cirkus Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, where more than a thousand people gathered to celebrate this year’s four laureates: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; Chinese women’s rights lawyer Guo Jianmei, Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa and the organization he co-founded, the Yanomami Hutukara Association; and Sahrawi human rights leader Aminatou Haidar, who has challenged the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara for decades. The Right…
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/5/edward_snowden_amy_goodman_interview_sweden
The remains of Baltimore’s once-thriving Chinatown are now so sparse that most who venture into the city might not realize it’s there. All but one Chinese restaurant along Park Avenue, the historic core of Chinatown, have closed, leaving behind deteriorating facades with the Eastern-architectural touches that have become synonymous with Chinatowns worldwide.Yet after several decades of neglect, a renewed vibrancy has emerged: Many of the ornate facades have been supplemented with Ethiopian flags and Amharic…
“Look at the camera,” a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer told me as I approached the primary inspection point at the Paso del Norte port of entry. “Is that the face recognition technology?” I asked. “If so, I want to opt-out.” “Look at the camera.” “I want to opt-out.” “Look at the camera.” On the evening of November 25, 2019, I crossed from Mexico into the United States. Signs in the port noted the…
Ring may be holding off on adding facial recognition tech to its already-problematic security cameras, but that’s not stopping any of its not-exactly-end-users from doing it for themselves. Ring is swallowing up the doorbell camera market with aggressive marketing that includes the free use of taxpayer-funded services. It calls over 600 law enforcement agencies “partners.” In exchange for agency autonomy and free cameras, police departments all over the nation are pushing cameras on citizens and…
Obama brought McKinsey and Co, the giant management consulting firm, into ICE to effect an “organizational transformation,” so they were already in place when Trump took office, and as Trump pivoted to concentration camps, McKinsey had some suggestions to save money: cut back on food, medicine and supervision. Propublica sued the US government and obtained 1,500 pages’ worth of McKinsey/ICE memos thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. They document how McKinsey’s sole focus was…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/03/ibm-at-auschwitz-4.html
Homeland Security also clamping down on H1-B visas The Trump Administration is planning to fast-track a new policy of compulsory facial recognition at the border, and including US citizens and permanent residents in its plans for the first time.…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/03/facial_recognition_visas/