⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️ @falken@qoto.org

This week's net.wars, "Slop", marks iRobot's bankruptcy and sale; wonders why, if generative AI is so great it has to be forced on us; and deplores the CBP plan to demand an unrealistic amount of "high-value data" as part of the price of visiting the US: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/12/19/slop/ #NetWars #privacy #robots

"The Expanse" turns 10 this week. Find out what other shows are celebrating milestone anniversaries in Hotchka's TV by the Decade!

https://hotchka.com/tv-by-the-decade-380

#Hotchka #TVByTheDecade #TheExpanse #Entertainment #Television #TV #Streaming

noyb WIN: The Austrian Supreme Court has ruled that Meta must give users full access to their data. All of Meta's claims of trade secrets or other limitations were rejected, leading to unprecedented access to the inner workings of Meta.

https://noyb.eu/en/austrian-supreme-court-meta-must-give-users-full-access-their-data

Something that hasn't been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features.

We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this.

…

TIL why Sun Microsystems (Bill Joy and all) bought an office suite company in 1999. 🤨

"In August 1999, Star Division was acquired by Sun Microsystems[81][82] for US$59.5 million (equivalent to US$112 million in 2024), reportedly because the acquisition was less expensive than licensing Microsoft Office for Sun's 42,000 employees.[83][84]"

😄

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice#History

And that's how eventually LibreOffice became available for many. 😇

#SunMicrosystems #staroffice #openoffice #libreoffice

"What Mozilla leadership has continually demonstrated for the last several years is that they not only fail to understand the values of those who believe in and use the product, but they also have no intention of figuring out a non-parasitic financial basis for the organization to operate."
https://blog.kingcons.io/posts/make-me-ceo-of-mozilla.html

Danish head of government IT (left) hands over the first "microsoft-free" computer to the head of Danish Traffic control, December 2025. They are testing Linux as the primary OS, with open source alternatives for stuff like office, on peoples work computers in government agencies. Traffic control gets to be our first test subject. This is gonna be put in the hands of somewhat tech-illiterate people.
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1pohupu/danish_head_of_government_it_left_hands_over_the/

The EU is slowly becoming tech independent from *big tech* :)

@GossiTheDog "don't make me open mspaint" is a threat I plan on using in catastrophically dumb meetings.