The Death of the Mind

Academics, legal experts, and authors explained the thoughtful reasoning and compelling need for libraries to engage in Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) at a webinar hosted by the Internet Archive and Library Futures on February 11. A recording of the session is now available. The panel dispelled myths about CDL, the digital lending model in which a library lends a digital version of a print book it owns. Emphasizing the limited and controlled aspect of the practice, the speakers said CDL allows libraries to fulfill their mission of serving the public in the digital age. The global pandemic only underscores the importance of providing flexibility in how people can access information. Isn’t CDL digital piracy?…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2021/02/11/mythbusting-controlled-digital-lending-community-rallies-to-fight-misinformation-about-the-library-practice/

On February 10, the Second Circuit refused to enjoin the new New York definition of a qualified political party. SAM Party of New York v Kosinski, 20-3047. Here is the twenty-page opinion, which was written by Judge Michael H. Park, a Trump appointee. It is also signed by Judge Robert D. Sack, a Clinton appointee, and Steven J. Menashi, a Trump appointee.
The new definition requires a party to poll 2% of the presidential vote to retain its qualified status. The decision says there are two state interests in the new, more difficult requirement: (1) to improve the chances that the winner will get a majority of the popular vote; (2) to save money, because the state…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://ballot-access.org/2021/02/10/massive-ballot-access-defeat-in-new-york/

The recent announcement by Facebook that it would “reduce the amount of political content” on its platform is part of the drive by the US ruling establishment to block the spread of progressive, left-wing and socialist ideas on social media.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/10/poli-f10.html

Never forget the IoT device you invite into your home may become the state’s witness. That’s one of the unfortunate conclusions that can be drawn from Amazon’s latest transparency report.

Amazon has its own digital assistant, Alexa. On top of that, it has its acquisitions. One of its more notable gets is Ring. Ring is most famous for its doorbells — something that seems innocuous until you examine the attached camera and the company’s 2,000 partnerships with law enforcement agencies.

Ring is in the business of selling cameras. That the doorbell may alert you to people on your doorstep is incidental. Cameras on the inside. Cameras on the outside. All in the name of “security.” And it’s only…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210204/09284546183/amazon-transparency-report-indicates-multiple-iot-devices-are-juicy-targets-law-enforcement.shtml

NEW YORK—Noting that the structures along the city’s sidewalks had adopted technology that appeared to come from at least 200 years in the future, local restaurant patrons observed Monday that outdoor dining solutions were now the most technologically advanced aspect of human civilization. “Since autumn, patio service…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/city-s-outdoor-dining-solutions-slowly-advancing-beyond-1846199404

Quite a few managers or clients expect DBAs to type away a few commands to fix a sluggish PostgreSQL instance. If only things were that simple. Unfortunately, debugging a sluggish instance that was previously running optimally requires analysis at many levels. In this blog, I will attempt to help that debugging process on Linux by identifying tools, tips and tricks that one can use when digging away a performance issue. I thought I could cover all the relevant topics in a single blog, but there is just far too much to write, so expect a series instead and this blog to be the first in the series of blogs. Remember, a lot of things can go…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/4_Z

Article note: As someone on the board of a hosting cooperative, this is pretty concerning: limiting Section 230 protections for companies where the user is the product might make some sense (I’m still iffy on that too, as it could be similar to the speech bans on folks Alex Jones that have since snowballed into regular censorship for anyone outside of the mainstream), but revoking protections for services the user pays for is extremely dangerous and would have disastrous effects on political dissent.

A proposal to reform section 230 of the CDA would have sweeping disastrous
consequences.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#8_February_2021_%28Section_230%29

Akku.scm version 1.1.0, a language package manager for R6RS
and R7RS Scheme, is now generally available. It can be downloaded
from GitLab. This version adds support for Guile 3.0,
Digamma, and includes some bug fixes and new features.

Akku is a language package manager designed for Scheme. In Scheme,
libraries can be analyzed to find their names, exports and imports.
Akku uses this information, plus knowledge of how the various Scheme
implementations work, to automatically install libraries where they
will be found. Libraries can come from the current project or from
packages downloaded from the Internet.

Akku installs libraries to a per-project library directory that works
across all supported Scheme implementations. On top of this there is a
traditional package index and a dependency solver. Packages are
manually reviewed…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://weinholt.se/articles/akku-scm-1-1-0/