Paul Sutton @zleap@qoto.org

The thing I like about having a blog: when I have an important (well, to me anyway) observation to make about one or more of the world's ills, or a wry rejoinder to an ill-conceived comment from someone else, I can iteratively refine the wording of said observation/retort to ensure it does justice to the original inspiration, rather than being stuck with whatever half-baked, incomplete, typo-ridden off-the-cuff rendering I originally posted. I'm similarly pleased with Mastodon's "re-draft".

being allowed to be an asshole is freespeech too. But youd better learn how to set up an instance yourself if you care about being able to be that

Covid-19 Was 'A Preventable Disaster,' WHO-Ordered Report Says
https://www.wbur.org/npr/996284927/covid-19-was-a-preventable-disaster-who-ordered-report-states

(submitted by disabled)

Don't get me wrong, computers can absolutely help us regain our environmental efficiency. They just *aren't*.

Not as long as we're:
* constantly syncing everything to the cloud,
* expecting same-hour delivery,
* funding our clickbait via surveillance advertising,
* buying a new phone every year,
* using AIs because they're cool rather than useful,
* running bloated software & webpages,
* buying into "big data"
* etc

Computing is environmentally cheap, but it rapidly adds up!

Set up a VPN on your phone in under 10 minutes (yes, you need one) https://www.cnet.com/how-to/set-up-a-vpn-on-your-phone-in-under-10-minutes-yes-you-need-one/

Building bridges between social groups who have different ideas about power is a thankless task.

But without bridges, we have the normal outcome of irrelevance and decay or at best struggle with the possibility of war.

Looking back on the timeline if you are interested in understanding the bridge metaphor.

It's an issue in meany areas, am mediating this in #londonboaters and #fediverse, and it's a mess with no easy good outcome.

Clean Up The Web!

https://cleanuptheweb.org

New:

- Italian translation by Alain Mauri (https://github.com/wildeng)

- VSCod(ium) code tour for translators by Tomas Ekeli (https://github.com/TomasEkeli) who also wrote the Norwegian translation

- French translation improvement by goofy-mdn (https://github.com/goofy-mdn)

Thank you all :) 💕

#CleanUpTheWeb

#FollowFriday / #FF recap of this week's recommended follows:

🌟 @hannahcomb - Surreal drawings often inspired by medieval works

🌟 @joplinapp - Free open source notes & to-do app

🌟 @BenjaminBrinckmann - Creates naturalistic digital paintings

🌟 @pixelfed - Fediverse's alternative to Instagram, you can follow PixelFed accounts from Mastodon and vice versa

🌟 @Fairphone - Manufacture fairtrade self-repairable modular smartphones

🌟 @TranslateScience - Promoting translations of scientific works

EFF30 Fireside Chat: Surveillance, with Edward Snowden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxVpQHTyqKo

I’m currently looking for work. If anyone has any programming contracts available, please let me know.

At this point in time, if anyone can help me by supporting me on Patreon I’d greatly appreciate it while I persue a stable income.

https://www.patreon.com/chrisgnome

Update time! LibreOffice 7.1.3 is now available, with over 100 bugfixes and compatibility improvements. Learn more and download it: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/05/06/libreoffice-7-1-3/

Wow the inventor of JSON is on the fediverse! Hey @douglascrockford glad to see you here!

https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/05/03/the-risc-v-foundation-to-give-away-1000-risc-v-development-boards/

RISC-V foundation gives away devboards. You can apply too!

Android 11 Custom ROM List – Unofficially Update Your Android Phone Because Even The Old Samsung Galaxy S III Can Get The Latest Updates!

It's just not true at all that most older phones cannot be updated regularly to the latest versions of Android. Manufacturers choose not to support those devices as they want to sell a new phone to you.
But 3rd party custom ROMs do exist for older phones and often give you the choice of whether to install the Google apps or not. Apart from getting the latest features (hardware permitting) and patches, these ROMs are often include extra features that you don't see in standard Android, and you also usually have a more privacy orientated OS.
The downside is you usually have to do a manual flashing the first time, but after that most ROMs will auto update just like standard Android does.
The site below lists the phones that can install these custom ROMs.
See Android 11 Custom ROM List - Unofficially Update Your Android Phone!

https://www.xda-developers.com/android-11-custom-rom-list/ https://squeet.me/objects/962c3e10f58832b34c46467a9254a1dbc1677b9a

Try opening a Microsoft e-book. It breaks because they closed the DRM servers.

The books stopped working.

PS3? Wii? Same story.

The only way to get the same freedom and privacy with digital media we had with physical media, is piracy.

We got scammed.

https://nofilmschool.com/apple-movie-buys

I'm close to a Libreboot release. I've opened port 80 on my local development web server: http://81.187.191.155/

Thoughts welcome! I'm still updating a lot of old/obsolete info on pages. Certain build docs are missing. It'll be done soon, and uploaded to libreboot.org

This is not the live version of the Libreboot site. I will close port 80 again once this is moved to the official website.

Liberapay is a free open source alternative to Patreon. It allows people to make recurring donations to their favourite projects or people. You can follow at:

➡️ @Liberapay

The website is at https://liberapay.com

Liberapay itself is non-profit and supported by donations.

#LiberaPay #Patreon #Alternatives #Payment #Donation #FOSS #FLOSS #Libre #FreeSoftware #OpenSource

US owners find American-style greed doesn't play well in European soccer
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2021/04/20/european-super-league-us-owners-find-greed-doesnt-work-europe/7310165002/

(submitted by bdz)