I am strongly considering shutting down Pomf because the US Department of Justice continues to manufacture outright lies against people who are innocent until proven guilty.

Running the service (despite my best efforts to mitigate risks well beyond what the law would require me to do up to and including full fledged cybersecurity research) exposes me to some level of legal or criminal threat to my livelihood. I knew this going in five and a half years ago, and the calculation at the time was acceptable because even if the feds came knocking at my door, I was confident the evidence would be in my favor and that a reasonable and functional court system would make the right decision. I was also confident that what happened to Les De Ridder almost eight years ago (archive.is/PJTzS) wouldn't happen here in the USA, because Europe was a communist shithole and we had rights over here.

Well, as the US continues to backslide into a fascist regime with a completely captured judicial branch that is utterly subservient to the executive branch, my evaluation of that risk level compared to my maximum tolerance of risk continues to inch closer and closer to parity, and when that risk exceeds it, I am out. If I am not convinced that I can adequately defend myself against potentially spurious claims and threats due to a corrupt and unequal justice system, then my next defense mechanism is to remove any and all ammunition from those who would try to harm me, and the largest weapons cache someone can bring to bear against me at this time is undoubtedly Pomf. I have never considered the government to be part of my overall threat model, but now I do, and I do not have the energy or resources to fight an entire government at this time despite it being morally the right thing to do.

If this does happen, there will be a reasonable and well defined sunset period, with a final archiving of all Pomf content to cold storage in hopes that in the distant future the risk comes down to a level in which I am comfortable bringing it all back online. I would never wipe Pomf - only make it unavailable at worst.

One last thing - if you think I am some big baby or think I have nothing to fear, consider this simple statement:

If they can do it to them, they can do it to you.

I see Node.js tries to solve the AI slop issue on hackerone like this:

require a Signal of 1.0 or higher

nodejs.org/en/blog/announcemen…

Node.js — New HackerOne Signal Requirement for Vulnerability Reports

Node.js® is a free, open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that lets developers create servers, web apps, command line tools and scripts.

^nodejs.org

For the last decade, the #EU has been funding #Mastodon #KDE #Phosh #Nextcloud #OnlyOffice #PixelFed, #Libreoffice, #CryptPad, #Kdenlive, #Lemmy and many other Open Source projects you know and love through its #NextGenerationInternet programme.

But now that programme is ending and they are thinking about its successor.

They want to hear from you on what it should look like: Share your feedback to make sure the Commission keep funding amazing Open Source projects!

[JM]ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-r…

AI is the recuperation of the anti-copyright critique.

“Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it.” Lautréamont, 1870
1/8

#TheGeneralTheoryOfSlop

A woman who I follow on the fediverse just had to delete a post due to sexual harassment.

Men if you want more diversity on the Fediverse you need to speak up and call in your peers. You need to educate them and if they persist ban them. Make it clear they aren't welcome.

Otherwise you're making it clear we aren't welcome.

It shouldn't just be us doing the work

dotart.blog/cobbles/the-silenc…

#sexism

Rust 1.93.0 has been released! 🌈 🦀✨

This release includes a new musl version for the *-linux-musl targets, adds support for #​[cfg] inside asm!(), and adds [T]::as_array, VecDeque::{pop_front_if, pop_back_if}, Vec/String::into_raw_parts, fmt::form_fn, and more! ✨

Check out the blog post and release notes for all the details: blog.rust-lang.org/2026/01/22/…

Announcing Rust 1.93.0 | Rust Blog

Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software.

^{blog.rust-lang.org}

U.S. firm involved in Quebec's digital health records is sued by Texas

> A U.S. software engineering firm that’s responsible for Santé Québec’s two pilot projects involving digital health records is being sued by the state of Texas [...] and is maintaining a monopoly that has proved costly to taxpayers.

> Santé Québec, however, is standing by Wisconsin-based Epic Systems despite cost overruns for its projects of nearly $135 million to date.

montrealgazette.com/news/local…

#qcpoli

U.S. firm involved in Quebec's digital health records faces major lawsuit in Texas

The lawsuit alleges Wisconsin-based Epic Systems restricts parental access to children's medical files and is maintaining a monopoly.

^{Aaron Derfel, Montreal Gazette (Montreal Gazette)}

REM had 17 outages in past 2 months

ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/mo…

‘We had higher expectations’: Montreal’s REM plagued by outages

The company responsible for operating the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) is apologizing to users who were left out in the cold Tuesday morning.

^{Matt Gilmour (CTVNews)}

I’ve held
Stone
Warmer
Than your
Words,
Softer than
Your intention.

#poetry

Ja, "klicken Sie nicht auf unbekannte Links" – auch nicht auf solche, die mit "Scanne jetzt" beschriftet sind.

Das Zeug kommt hier täglich vorbei. Der Link führt zu einer Domain, der man also getrost unterstellen kann, mit Malware infiziert zu sein. Möchte jemand raten, welche das ist? Eine vage Idee haben einige jetzt bestimmt schon, also kann ich auch "Butter bei die Fische" geben:

storage.googleapis.com

Jupp. Deren Betreiber ständig meint, wir wären befallen 🤦‍♂️ Keywords: Fegen, Tür, eigene

Gajim 2.4.3 has been released! 🎉

This release brings some important bugfixes.

Thank you for all your contributions ❤️ Let us know what you think!

Support Gajim's development: liberapay.com/Gajim

#gajim #xmpp #chat

gajim.org/posts/2026-01-21-gaj…

Gajim 2.4.3

Improvements and Fixed Issues An error which prevents adding new contacts has been fixed Issues with creating new accounts have been fixed Feedback box on error reports is shown again Have a look at the changelog for a complete list.

^gajim.org

RE: chaos.social/@SylvieLorxu/1159…

Also don't miss:

* at around 10:10 a full minute on IzzyOnDroid (though more the client written by Sunil)
* short mentions at around 08:54 (our "Get it on" badge) and 14:03 (in context of Obtainium).

I was just a bit confused of what the narrator meant when saying "app store" (hint: not the store, but always the client app) 🙈

And as Sylvia writes: our download stats are now included with both, #NeoStore and #Droidify – and of course with stats.izzyondroid.org/

Sylvia

2026-01-22 17:40:00

Oh hey, didn't expect our new #IzzyOnDroid download stats to be covered by people this quickly. Guess people really love it!

youtube.com/watch?v=VR-MEwPDw4…

4:48 - 5:40

Seems this video was made just before #Droidify launched 0.6.8 with download counts, so it calls download stats as #NeoStore-exclusive, but oh well, still cool :)

Top 12 App Stores that are Better than Google Play Store

12 of the Best Alternative App Stores to the Play Store! Enjoy!______________________________________­ PATREON▣ HowToPersonalize - https://www.patreon.com/ho...

^YouTube

FOSDEM 2026 (Brussels): Sun Feb 1, 09:35 CET, UB5.230 (my last talk)

Accessible Sovereignty: Why the Four Freedoms Depend on Inclusion (Community devroom)

Thesis: the Four Freedoms are not real if people with disabilities cannot use the tools, study them, share them, and improve them in practice. Accessibility is the operational layer that makes software freedom exercisable.

Event: fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…

#FOSDEM #Accessibility #FOSS #Community

FOSDEM 2026 - Accessible Sovereignty: Why the Four Freedoms Depend on Inclusion

^fosdem.org

FOSDEM 2026 (Brussels): I am speaking (again) Sat Jan 31, 16:05 CET in K.3.401.

“We Need to Support Authors Better to Deliver Accessible Content”
Track: Collaboration & Content Management 

Thesis: Many accessibility errors are introduced when documents are authored.

Audits just record the damage.

fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event…

#FOSDEM #Accessibility #ATAG #WCAGEM #FOSS

FOSDEM 2026 - We Need to Support Authors Better to Deliver Accessible Content

^fosdem.org

Remember. When you try to block the Copilot user on GitHub, you get a 404 page.

Get. Fucked. Satya.

This bizarre, hurried cut-and-paste Bluesky clone called "W" (wsocial.eu) says it will fill this huge gap in Europe where no social media platforms exist.

Meanwhile... umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/f…

I am speaking with Maurice Hendriks at #FOSDEM:

“Procurement Is the Biggest Form of Fundraising for FLOSS”
Track: Funding the FOSS Ecosystem 

Thesis: donations are optional and fragile. Procurement is structural. If public buyers require open deliverables and upstream work, they create durable funding for maintenance and security.

Event: fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event… 
“Public Money, Public Code” context: publiccode.eu/en/ 

#FOSDEM #FOSS #OpenSource #Procurement #PublicMoneyPublicCode

Public Money, Public Code

Public Money, Public Code - A campaign for releasing publicly financed software as Free Software

^{publiccode.eu}

Next week in Brussels, I'm speaking at Drupal4Gov EU as part of #EUOpenSourceWeek

The #WAD, the #EAA & #Drupal. Now what?

The June 2025 deadline has passed. The risk now is false confidence & operational debt.

10:35am, Jan 29, 2026

drupal4gov.eu/

#Drupal4Gov #OpenSource #FOSS #Accessibility #EAA

Digital Europe - Powered by Drupal

Join us for a day of knowledge sharing and networking in Brussels

^{drupal4gov.eu}