mastodon - Link to source

Unbelievable

#ElonMusk’s US #DOGE Service are feeding sensitive data into #AI software via #Microsoft’s #cloud

#Musk’s US #DOGE Service have fed sensitive data from across the #Education Dept into #ArtificialIntelligence software to probe the agency’s programs & spending….
The AI probe includes data w/personally identifiable info for people who manage grants, & sensitive internal financial data…

#law #security #InfoSec #CyberSecurity #NationalSecurity #Trump #TrumpCoup
washingtonpost.com/nation/2025…

#infosec #Trump #security #microsoft #AI #law #education #cybersecurity #cloud #musk #elonmusk #artificialintelligence #nationalsecurity #doge #trumpcoup

hometown - Link to source

Well what do you know

Marko Elez, one of the young software guys Musk has illegally turned loose to alter critical government high-tech services ...

... was, just back in December, posting on X about how he wanted there to be a "eugenic immigration policy" ...

... how "you could not pay me to marry outside my race" ...

... and "Normalize Indian hate", referring in this case to folks from India

the Wall Street Journal just broke the story (gift link): wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resi…

A screenshot reading: The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a “eugenic immigration policy” in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September, according to a Wall Street Journal review of archived posts. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.

mastodon - Link to source

I’m going to be at the Berlin XMPP Meetup on Wednesday, February 12th, chatting about what happened at the XMPP Summit.

I’ll either be discussing it with friends who were there or, if you want to join us, we’d be happy to share a summary of what’s new in the world of #XMPP!

mov.im/community/pubsub.movim.…

Explore • What's on in Jabber? Report from XMPP Summit and FOSDEM

What's on in Jabber? Report from XMPP Summit and FOSDEM Conversations, Dino and Ejabberd…
mov.im
#xmpp

mastodon - Link to source
The following happens all too often. I just tried using the cool new app from Mistral.ai called Le Chat. I was able to sign in, but this is where accessibility ended. Can't even start the basic chat. apps.apple.com/us/app/le-chat-… How can developers totally be ignorant about #accessibility these days? This state of affairs does get depressing at times. We put so much energy into building tools, education, awareness and what do we get back? Of course, I left a rereview. (1/2)

‎Le Chat by Mistral AI

‎Le Chat combines powerful AI with extensive information on the web to help you rediscover the world. Enjoy natural conversations, real-time internet search, comprehensive document analysis, and much more.
App Store
#Accessibility

mastodon - Link to source

Hardest thing I've had to write in quite some time:

about.iftas.org/2025/02/06/fun…

tl;dr - we are running out of money and will not be able to pay our bills in April. As such, unless we can secure funding by end of February, we will be closing down some services and re-examining our scope of activities.


Funding Challenges and the Future of Our Work

Over the past two years Independent Federated Trust and Safety (IFTAS) has provided crucial support to independent, decentralised social media moderators, administrators, and community managers. Ou…
IFTAS

hometown - Link to source

Ira Glass on learning to create:

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

Via @sacha

sachachua.com/blog/2025/02/loo…

Looking at landscapes; art and iteration :: Sacha Chua

sachachua.com
@Sacha Chua

mastodon - Link to source

Converting an old Windows Point-Of-Sale device to Android 14 in under 10 minutes, with #noMDM needed (secure SSHD & VNC baked in)

Who'da thought 🤔

youtu.be/iJT6_4uLtg0?si=VH9N0T…


Bass OS (A14) AIO - Install and setup in under 10 minutes

This video shows us converting an old SAM4S Point of Sale device (2015) from Windows to Android 14 in under 10 minutes. I also discuss some of the options av...
YouTube
#nomdm
in reply to Jon West

mastodon - Link to source

IzzyOnDroid ✅

Oh, we should use our synergies there. Maybe have another "call" to talk about your education (material) there? We're setting up documentation and hints here where we can refer developers to. Good instructions on specific topics (like split-APKs, where I only have rough notes on) are always welcome. You can see the "developer best practices" and "reproducible builds" sections in our wiki on what we already have established: gitlab.com/IzzyOnDroid/repo/-/…

Home · Wiki · IzzyOnDroid / repo · GitLab

The F-Droid compatible repo at https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/
GitLab

mastodon - Link to source

I'm disabled & queer, living in extreme poverty. I need food, hygiene, medication, clothing, etc. Disability benefits aren't enough to ensure survival or comfort.
Donate: ko-fi.com/qpthepurplesnep
Ko-Fi supporters get regular updates.
Wish List: amazon.ca/hz/wishlist/ls/2H98Z…
💕💸

Went to my dentist appointment and got the first round of fillings. I can now smile without wanting to hide my teeth!

I have more appointments coming up that will require more bus fare.


Support QuyetPawz on Ko-fi! ❤️. ko-fi.com/qpthepurplesnep

Support QuyetPawz On Ko-fi. Ko-fi lets you support the people and causes you love with small donations
Ko-fi

mastodon - Link to source
In what appears to be a first, a strain of malware that can secretly steal screenshots from smartphones has infiltrated the Apple App Store. pcmag.com/news/rare-screenshot…

Rare Screenshot-Grabbing Malware Found on Apple App Store

Kaspersky says: 'This is the first known case of an app infected with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) spyware being found in Apple’s official app marketplace.'
Michael Kan (PCMag)

mastodon - Link to source

Last night – Wednesday night – was the first journey of European Sleeper’s new service from Brussels to Venice. Except it wasn’t because the Italians decided Tuesday that they sadly couldn’t let the train into Italy, without giving any reason. So it only travelled as far as Innsbruck. ÖBB agreed to take passengers onwards which likely will cost European Sleeper dearly.

Details in Dutch (I hope it
stays free): telegraaf.nl/nieuws/2130911382…


Nederlandse nachttrein naar Venetië valt in duigen: ’We mogen plots de grens niet over’

Italië zit een nieuwe nachttrein door Nederland dwars. Woensdag vertrekt de nieuwe lijn van het Nederlandse European Sleeper vanuit Brussel naar Venetië, maar daags ervoor belden de Italianen dat er toch geen ruimte is. „Er kwam stoom uit onze oren.”
onze correspondent (De Telegraaf)

mastodon - Link to source

#AndroidAppRain at apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid today brings you 15 updated (10 RB) and 1 added apps:

* Perceived Stress Scale: Take the test to find out how stressed you are 🛡️

Number of apps in the repo: 1242
RB status: 422 apps (34%) (1 app failed RB today, will hopefully be brought back soon)

Enjoy your #free #Android #apps with the #IzzyOnDroid repository :awesome:


IzzyOnDroid F-Droid Repository

This is a repository of apps to be used with your F-Droid client. Applications in this repository are official binaries built by the original application developers, taken from their resp. repositories (mostly Github, GitLab, Codeberg).
IzzyOnDroid App Repo
#android #free #apps #AndroidAppRain #izzyondroid

mastodon - Link to source
Maak kennis met Meredith Whittaker, de baas van Signal en de grote uitdager van big tech open.decorrespondent.nl/15854/…

Maak kennis met Meredith Whittaker, de baas van Signal en de grote uitdager van big tech

Honderden miljoenen mensen gebruiken Signal, het privacyvriendelijke alternatief voor WhatsApp. Signal-baas Meredith Whittaker laat zien dat big tech fundamenteel anders kan: haar app verkoopt je data niet en heeft geen aandeelhouders, geen winstmoti…
Maurits Martijn (De Correspondent)
in reply to De Correspondent

mastodon - Link to source

Mathijs

toch blijf ik het een onverstandig idee vinden om alle communicatie via een enkele instantie te laten lopen. Zeker niet als die instantie onder juristrictie valt van een buitenlandse overheid. Momenteel heb ik geen reden om aan te nemen dat signal stiekem iets onbehoorlijks doet, maar hoe kunnen we garanderen dat dat niet ooit veranderd, wanneer iedereen op signal zit?

mastodon - Link to source

On the little server I have running here at home, I'm now helping @internetarchive back up US Government websites and data.

You can help, too:

1. Download and run the ArchiveTeam Warrior
2. Set the selected project to "usgovernment" (or select US Government from the available projects in the web interface)

I'm running Warrior as a container with podman, but there are various other ways to run it.

More details at wiki.archiveteam.org/

Archiveteam

wiki.archiveteam.org
@internetarchive

gotosocial - Link to source

Fediverse friends, I'm looking to collect tips, advice and resources related to the following...

  • Trusted news sources
  • Social media not controlled / influenced by corporations, billionaires or governments
  • Guides on self-hosting
  • Private & secure communication tools/apps
  • Guides on digital security, privacy and "OpSec"
  • Ways to support your community (e.g. mutual aid, donations, etc...)
  • Anything else really

I will be adding them to this guide I've published and already started compiling (shellsharks.com/surviving-the-…). I've seen a lot of these things flying around in the wake of... well everything, and I've wanted to centralize it all in one place. For myself and for anyone else out there. Honestly I don't think there can be TOO many of these types of things. This info needs to be disseminated to everyone and made redundant.

Please forward anything you know about or have saved to me so I can add! Feel free to boost so others can contribute if they feel like it.

Most importantly, stay safe out there!

#askfedi #fedihelp


Surviving the Brave New World

It's a dangerous world, learn to protect and educate yourself.
shellsharks
#askfedi #fedihelp

mastodon - Link to source
Hey everyone!
I know it’s been a bit quiet on our end, and a few of you have been asking for an update, so here it is!
The new TweeseCake is definitely still in the works. A lot of the core framework is up and running, and things are looking really promising so far. I’m pretty excited about where it’s headed!
Instead of jumping straight into the Mastodon session, I decided to start with the feeds session. It’s more basic, which gave me a chance to focus on building out the core framework before tackling the bigger stuff; and I’ve gotta say, it’s working pretty well so far!
But don’t worry, Mastodon hasn’t been left behind. I’ve built a brand new in-house module to interact with the Mastodon API (no more outdated third-party stuff!), and all tests have been successful so far.
I can’t give a solid timeline for testing or release just yet; TweeseCake is still an unpaid project for me, and I’ve got other work and projects (both paid and unpaid) going on. Progress is steady and frequent, but not as fast as I’d like it to be.
That said, I’m really proud of how far it’s come. I’ve put a lot of effort into making the core framework solid, so adding new services (like Mastodon) should be a lot smoother from here on out.
For little teasers and random ramblings, feel free to follow my personal account @josh; don’t worry, I’m not one to spam your timeline.
Also, a few people have asked about donations. While there’s absolutely no pressure, any support is super appreciated (and helps fuel my caffeine intake ☕). If you’d like to chip in, here’s my ko-fi link ko-fi.com/joshms
Thanks so much for sticking with us; I can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on!

Buy Josh a Coffee. ko-fi.com/joshms

Become a supporter of Josh today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love.
Ko-fi
@Josh S

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
There was a recent article about how it's reasonable to complain about big packages or many dependencies, but not both. v5.chriskrycho.com/notes/big-p… As I look at vulnerability scanner results, I'm leaning toward small packages, and keeping the dependency count in check via some mix of conditional features and favoring lower layers of abstraction (all else being equal). For example, I think I'd rather depend directly on an MP3 encoder plus a thing for concatenating MP3 files, not all of ffmpeg.

Big Packages or Many Dependencies — Sympolymathesy, by Chris Krycho

Dependency graph breadth and depth are inversely correlated with package size; vendoring and authoring yourself don’t change this. Pick your poison!
v5.chriskrycho.com
in reply to Matt Campbell

iceshrimp.net - Link to source

🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦

Ffmpeg is an interesting example. I use some software that only claims support for mp4 video. But it’s just using ffmpeg, so it’ll take whatever I throw at it. As a user, I’d be upset if it really did require mp4. I get saying mp4 is the only supported format to lower support costs. But bigger packages allow software to be more adaptive to user needs the developer didn’t care about. Similarly, we see what always happens when accessibility features are made optional dependencies: they are always excluded. I’d rather developers use packages with all the bells and whistles. Even if they don’t expose the functionality I need, at least I am more likely to be able to hack it in one way or another.

mastodon - Link to source

The new 1Password Community is live! 🎉

We listened to your feedback and rebuilt the 1Password Community with a dedicated developer space so that you can:

- Quickly troubleshoot issues via developer docs and discussion forums.
- Share projects and integrations with other developers and 1Password customers.
- Join the SDK User Group to connect with other developers building secrets management integrations.

Learn more 👉 blog.1password.com/1password-c…

Introducing the new 1Password Community | 1Password

Learn about the 1Password Community, and how you can join to get support, connect with peers, and get the most out of 1Password products at work and at home.
Agile Bits, Inc.

wordpress - Link to source

“A Luddite Criticism of Open Source” at FluConf


On February 1st I had the privilege of getting to speak at the first Fluconf about Open Source and why that whole movement might not do as much good for as as we might want it to. It’s not that Open Source is “bad” but that it is sometimes presented as a solution to sociopolitical issues it is not capable (nor even trying) to fix.

The talk description was:

“People interested in Fluconf will also be interested in Open Source or to be more precise Free/Libre Open Source Software. Everyone has been using Open Source for many years but many from this community have shifted to trying to run their personal infrastructures on non-proprietary pieces of software and some even hardware.

This is already an important shift towards freeing ourselves and each other from corporate dominance but is it really doing enough? Are our licenses protecting the values we actually care about?

Coming from a luddite background I want to dive into a a bit of a critical reading of the values that we use codified mostly as licenses: Are they really enough? Which aspects are they missing and why? And what are the consequences of those omissions?

I’ll try to end up looking at mechanisms of integrating luddist principles in software projects. Can they offer additional safeguards?

This sessions doesn’t claim to have all the answers. But hopefully some good questions and a few ideas of where to go.”


I embedded a copy of the video on Youtube but you can also watch it on Archive.org for less tracking and everything.

youtube.com/watch?v=_Ew_MlA5Hb…

Liked it? Take a second to support tante on Patreon!

Become a patron at Patreon!

CC BY-SA 4.0This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

#fluconf #luddism #openSource

Screenshot of my talk including a slide "There's no King but King Ludd"

Get more from tante on Patreon

creating writing about the digital sphere
tante (Patreon)
#opensource #fluconf #luddism
This entry was edited (10 months ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Just a reminder, especially in this wild time we live in. DO NOT INSTALL WORK MDM ON YOUR PERSONAL DEVICE.
If your work requires Microsoft Intune or similar MDM, to get email/teams/slack. don't accept it. It opens your device up for them to access private data and disable/delete your phone (even if they say they wont, they can)

blog.cdemi.io/never-accept-an-…

#privacy #android #iphone #work #email #outlook #microsoft


Never accept an MDM policy on your personal phone

In this new age of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), employees can bring personally owned devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc...) to their workplace, and to use those devices to access privileged company information and applications.
Christopher Demicoli (blog.cdemi.io)
#android #email #privacy #microsoft #iphone #outlook #work
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