Keith Whyte @keith@tic-ac.org

Os voy a contar algo.

Soy pobre como una rata. Al nivel de mirar el precio del papel higiénico al céntimo para tirar la menor cantidad de dinero por el inodoro.

Salvo en una ocasión que estaba muy, muy justificada*, no he usado ni pienso usar imágenes generadas por IA para ilustrar nada. Porque no lo necesito. Porque hay suficientes imágenes en bancos de stock gratuitos y con licencia creative commons como para cubrir mis necesidades.

Diré más. Uno de los motivos por los que me fui de un trabajo donde estaba cobrando una cantidad bastante significativa fue que, desde cierto momento, me *obligaban* a usar imágenes generadas por IA. Una línea roja nítida y clara que no podía atravesar.

*fue para mostrar la ausencia de rigor de esas imágenes, que es otra historia.

@eff and @ConsumerReports have a great tip list going for #OptOutOctober. Bookmark this site and also check out the wonderful Security Planner tool.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-out-october-daily-tips-protect-your-privacy-and-security

https://librephone.fsf.org/

Free the last bits of "anything Android"?

My positive thought about this is that #PostmarketOS and #MobileLinux in general will profit from any public knowledge about hardware it could run on.

If I understood correctly the money for doing the work on the #Android blobs is donated by John Gilmore. His Money, his decision where to put it. And there is a positive effect, but there is also a negative one:

Android is based on ideas by #Google. To free it we'd need to fork it and adopt it to different ideals and goals. Android is designed to maximize the profit of Google.

It is not designed with the users well-being and interests as the primary goal.

Just replacing blobs in Android keeps the ecosystem the same, promotes Google and their goals and leaves the control over design decisions for Android in Googles hands.

Once a device is freed by hard work of a few engineers it will be old, it will be uninteresting for people looking at Android and the latest shiny hardware running it.

But still - Mobile Linux will make good use of those devices as free OSes in general do when it comes to hardware left behind by commercial OSes.

@fsf@hostux.social @fsfe@media.fsfe.org

@EUCommission We have a good start, an agreement on a physical connector. Now, hopefully, we can tighten the rules on how that connector is used.
-I have devices that only charge on non-PD chargers.
-I have devices that only charge on PD chargers.
-I have devices that require specific PD voltages.
-I even have a device that requires a specific uncommon PD current.
-I have devices that refuse to charge on multiport chargers.

Tongue in cheek joking aside, I saw someone mention Distrosea and that's a fantastic idea. Cool stuff https://distrosea.com/

Nueva incorporación a los listados del #VamosJuntasListados

En esta ocasión son algunas cuentas de @peertube , para recodar y celebrar que el Fediverso no solo es Mastodon y que está interconectado no solo entre instancias del mismo tipo.
La gracia de ActivityPub es que podemos seguir cuentas de #Peertube, Pixelfeed o cualquier otro tipo de servicio compatible con el.

Principalmente pondremos cuentas y no los sub-canales de esos proyectos (que es como se organiza Peertube la cuenta lo alberga todo y se divide por canales para más granularidad), pero puede haber alguna excepción en el futuro.

Para empezar el listado cuenta con:
@kde_es
@thelinuxexperiment
@fediversetv
@atareaouser
@opensciencevids
@linuxuserspace
@gnulinuxvalencia
@24h24l
@vkc
@pepesan
@linux_para_gente
@ivangj
@podcastlinux

Pero lo iremos ampliando a otras temáticas.

Si tenéis recomendaciones ponerlas con la etiqueta #VamosJuntasPeertube y vemos de añadirlas.

#ElFediversoEsDivertido

Please stop using #Spotify. In the US, they’re running ICE recruitment ads. Stop supporting Spotify.

Anyone who goes through my post history, knows I work for Meta (Facebook).

I am "Consumer Content Administrative Manager". My primary duties include content appeals, account appeals, account reviews, and some peer review.

It is no surprise that my job depends on people using Facebook. Today, I am going to suggest, you not do so. I can make that suggestion because we have a user base of billions, and I know most people would keep using Facebook even if the Devil ran the company. People are strange.

But if you feel you can truly live without Facebook, do so. Internally, things are changing, and not for the better. You should especially consider leaving Meta if you are a minority, woman, LGBTQ+, trans, or identify as progressive, politically. If facts matter to you, and misinformation is something you do not want to be subject toward, you should especially consider leaving, Facebook.

You have no privacy from Meta, while using Meta. None. I do not care if you believe you disabled a "feature" or "opt out" of something. You only seem to have done so. And even if you're going to continue to use Meta, uninstall the app (all of them). We collect data on you, even when you're not using the app.

#Meta #Facebook #Instagram #WhatsApp #Threads

A list of digital service providers located outside the jurisdiction of the United States. This is a public project, and contributions are encouraged.

https://codeberg.org/Linux-Is-Best/Outside_US_Jurisdiction/src/branch/main/Index.md

#DigitalSovereignty #Sovereignty #USJurisdiction #HumanRights #FreedomOfSpeech #Justice

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Reflect Orbital's fucking stupid giant mirror satellite, with absolutely NOTHING useful to offer, which will cause countless safety issues, ecological disasters, and destroy the night sky, is going to launch.

A bunch of astronomers and I have sent out a fact sheet about them to a bunch of journalists, but very few are going to write about this. So, let me try posting it all here.

Here's what I know about Reflect Orbital and all the downsides:

For 15 years, F-Droid has been the antidote to Google Play: no trackers, no ads, just open source apps. Now, Google wants to kill it.

Under the guise of "security", Google is forcing devs to register, pay, and surrender control. F-Droid can’t comply without betraying its principles. Thousands of apps could vanish overnight.

Fight back: demand sideloading rights, pressure regulators/Parliament, and defend one of the safe harbors for ethical tech.

https://f-droid.org/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html

@marcprux @fdroidorg

Old enough to remember when #YouTube was NOT Google, and was obscure enough we had to send direct links, because the usual wantonly dumb people with a (windows) computer and an (AOL) internet account did not know how to find it with a simple search.

This is a sub toot about people disparaging #PeerTube / #MakerTube and other #FOSS media streaming venues, for being relatively small, and still obscure.

@sundogplanets Maybe you already saw this article in Earth and Sky about Starlink space junk reentries every day. It quoted your Mastodon posts.

https://earthsky.org/human-world/1-to-2-starlink-satellites-falling-back-to-earth-each-day/

Still liking not using LLMs or genAI, in any aspect of my research, engineering or creative practices. Continuing to get high on interesting problems, developing myself in the process of solving them, or even not solving them and being augmented/extended/refined by insights along the way.

I don't see 'AI' tooling as empowerment. Quite the opposite.

Very pleased to have been a part of this project - a great collaboration.

My contribution, an article, was specifically on helping chart a pathway for climate-facing organisations to shift from big tech platforms to self-hosted and sovereign infrastructure.

You can download the book free, or pre-order in print.

https://tacticaltech.org/replaybook/

#climate #selfhosting #infrastructure