Everyone is now realizing that WhatsApp is evolving towards its latest form (archive.md/L3W74). If you value secure messaging, you may want to check out @signalapp or @matrix (wich is #federated). EPFL also has its own Matrix instance at matrix.epfl.ch (use @element as a client).

#SecureMessaging #WhatsApp #WhatsappAlternative #Signal #Matrix #Element #Privacy #SelfHosted

Another dubious entry for #SciArtSeptember Day 1: Fluid

Water drew this irregular yellow squares. I think photographing natural processes, to bring attention to them, can be #SciArt

What happened here is that everything was covered in pollen, then it rained and watter puddles formed in the slightly concave tiles. The floating pollen in the puddles was slowly deposited on the tiles as water evaporated, registering the movement of the fluid.

#pollen #PhonePhotography #NaturalProcess #rain

#Toronto @ChristineMalec is hosting The Description-Rich Story Hour on Saturday, September 27, 2-3:30pm on the land currently occupied by Lee Lifeson Art Park in North York. This is attached to her podcast "Described Toronto".

Let's go check it out!
torontoartsfoundation.org/even…

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

Big News! The completely #opensource #LLM #Apertus 🇨🇭 has been released today:

📰 swisscom.ch/en/about/news/2025…

🤝 The model supports over 1000 languages [EDIT: an earlier version claimed over 1800] and respects opt-out consent of data owners.

▶ This is great for #publicAI and #transparentAI. If you want to test it for yourself, head over to: publicai.co/

🤗 And if you want to download weights, datasets & FULL TRAINING DETAILS, you can find them here:
huggingface.co/collections/swi…

🔧 Tech report: huggingface.co/swiss-ai/Apertu…

After #Teuken7b and #Olmo2, Apertus is the next big jump in capabilities and performance of #FOSS #LLMs, while also improving #epistemicresilience and #epistemicautonomy with its multilingual approach.

I believe that especially for sensitive areas like #education, #healthcare, or #academia, there is no alternative to fully open #AI models. Everybody should start building upon them and improving them.

#KIMündigkeit #SovereignAI #FOSS #ethicalAI #swissai #LernenmitKI

🚨 Google is killing Android freedom.

Starting 2027, unverified apps can’t be side-loaded.

➡️ F-Droid harder to install
➡️ Custom APKs blocked
➡️ Google decides what runs on YOUR phone

Google’s Android is becoming Apple: Your device, their rules.

It’s time to switch to open alternatives: Graphene, Calyx, Lineage. ✊

tuta.com/blog/android-side-loa…

Sign the petition to stop Google from limiting APK file usage: change.org/p/stop-google-from-…

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Tuta reshared this.

in reply to Tuta

Still, y'know, best of all worlds:

Google provides the justification for many leading manufacturers to produce a variety of devices.

Then the best of those devices get support from third party OS's.

I mean yes, of course Google sucks the big sausage. But Asus and Lenovo and Samsung etc. wouldn't be making all this great hardware for reasonable prices if Google weren't out there pushing Android. And we all benefit when we install LineageOS and similar on those devices.

Abschiedstränentage. 🥹
Wie werde ich dieses Leben vermissen:
on the road oder an einfachsten, wechselnden Orten,
mit meinem wenigen Kram,
mit immer der gleichen Kaffeetasse und oft simpelsten Mahlzeiten
an verschiedensten Tischen & Stühlen,
mit Begegnungen als Geschenk rund um die Uhr.
All die Zeit ganz bei und in mir selbst,
im Dialog mit mir und meinen Fragen, meiner Neugier,
mit innerem Frieden als rotem Faden dieses Jahres.
(In 48h werde ich im Flugzeug sitzen.)
#ostenohneplan 🚴‍♀️🏕 #sabbatjahr

I have fiber at home. Gigabit to the major speed test sites, nearly as much to OVH VPS. Much slower to my servers on other networks.

Away from home: on a hotspot or WiFi getting hundreds of megabits per second in tests AND to my home ISPs own Speedtest, I still struggle to get 10mbit to home -- direct or tunneled through the VPS.

It's crazy, they really limit your bandwidth through terrible peering to anyone they deem unimportant

Someone needs to Luigi an ISP CEO

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

AI is a weapon wielded by the wealthiest to control the masses. It is their coup de grâce to gain absolute control of The Internet, something that was intended to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.

This is why they dump billions of dollars into AI and do not care how inaccurate or dangerous to mental health it has turned out to be for the billions of users.

Whichever AI captures the most users in its trawl nets wins. Musk exploited this when he purchased Twitter AS A WEAPON. Until that time it was Zuckerberg unchallenged as the obvious "favorite". Now Thiel has the full backing of the most powerful and corrupted government in the world. He will win unless something unfortunate befalls him.

What part are you playing in this hostile takeover of humanity?

I completely underestimated how widespread the issue of servers not supporting TLS 1.3 is. Tests in the beta channel gave no indication.

I regret not working harder to at least make the error message better.
The error message in master has been improved, but I can't push that fix as long as I have ongoing disputes with Google (putting it out by temporarily admitting to collecting email addresses resets my spot in the queue to maybe talk to an actual person).

in reply to Daniel Gultsch

ouch.
Yes, I know that I need to update my ejabberd. ...

Maybe - next time - it would have been a good idea to include a test in compliance.conversations.im

So I felt lucky with my 95% of compliance and wondered why my users aren't able to connect any longer. ...

Now I know, and beside of the exact timing it definetively is a good idea to upgrade my server.

#Songs that you would recommend for the big global party - when Trump or Netanyahu or Putin or Xi or Modi - drops dead.

Drop the track name or video or song link, here.
Thanks for helping to create the hooray, the #dictators are dead!, party #music #playlist.

All music genres, welcomed.

*This thread will stay alive until one or more of the above listed dictators, drops dead. I added Modi too.*

#Antifa #FreedomForThePeoples
Requested by me, Que "Puncher of a Cop" Banh.

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to JulieR

Agree with the other comments - You say yours are images of text files. What are you making the text files in? One of the best ways I've found for making accessible PDF files is by exporting from Word documents seems to work well. Exporting from other programs likely can also be made to work - there are some PDF creators and office copier / scanners which do create those "photographs of pages" type PDFs. You can type the text out, or use an OCR program like Abbyy FineReader

Ok guys I've gotta say as much as I'm excited to try this computer science program, my anxiety is through the roof. I keep having to remind myself that this was designed for people who don't really have any coding experience, I mean, my math skills aren't even great either. No idea what the workload will be like yet, I guess I'll find out in a few days. Trying not to panic too much lol.

Word spread through social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had reportedly checked into two Long Beach hotels.

Within the hour, a small contingent of local residents had arrived at both establishments.

They were there to make sure ICE agents didn’t sleep.

This was one of several
“No Sleep for ICE” events
that popped up during the month of June.

In a time when large-scale protests often dominate headlines,
a different kind of resistance is taking root across Southern California.

Small, decentralized networks of community members are using stealthy tactics and real-time coordination
to monitor, disrupt, and expose the movements of federal immigration officers.
truthout.org/articles/in-south…

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Happy Labor Day. Although many of the blind workers in workshops for the blind were not officially organized in the late 1880x-1960s, that did not stop them from organizing strikes, work-stoppage protests, or picketing. Because they were not organized, the leaders lost their jobs and were blocked from other blindness shops, agencies, and services. We have come a long way, but our rights are not assured.

Today, I remember and honor the early blind men and women who fought for a fair wage.

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