friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I like how S. Zoutewelle puts it:

Sure we need to survive, but let’s acknowledge the desperation under this drive to take everything we do, are or think and try to get cash for it. It reminds me of a young child who shows her father a drawing. He playfully offers her a dollar for it and 15 minutes later she comes back with 5 more. What got lost there in between the first spontaneous artwork and the 5 subsequent calculated ones?

artcalling.wordpress.com/2007/…


Why I don’t like marketing

Why don’t most artists like marketing? What is it about this activity and its underlying values that tend to clash with artistic ideals?  Answering for myself, art is based on my soul values …
Art Calling
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mastodon - Link to source

Microsoft is paywalling features in NOTEPAD. Let me say that again so it sinks in. Microsoft is _paywalling_ features in _NOTEPAD_.

My god this is so stupid.

pcworld.com/article/2614943/mi…


Microsoft is paywalling these features in Notepad and Paint

Two iconic Windows apps will have certain features restricted if you don't have an active Microsoft 365 subscription.
Laura Pippig (PCWorld)

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Can someone give me some pointers for telling #Substack from non-Substack websites of the "newsletter" type? Unfortunately (for my purposes), #Ghost (and at least one other substack alternative that I know of) duplicate the look and feel of Substack seemingly exactly, down to the /p/ in the URL. If I do a "view source" on a page, what would be telltale signs of "a Substack?" Do Substack pages in all cases contain the string "substack" somewhere in the source code?
#substack #ghost
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mastodon - Link to source

I think what's happened to America is downright hilarious.

Russia influenced the government through with same means and same tools that Saudi Arabia and Israel have traditionally used to influence Democrats and Republicans alike.

1. Easily influenced for-profit media
2. Shady PACs
3. Shady corporate influence
4. Troll farms

Russia *did better* than the historical influencers because they only had to bribe one party mind you.

Americans could have elected anyone else. They didn't.

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mastodon - Link to source

Didn't realise that last boost of the 404 Media article was paywalled. Here's the cited Amnesty research.

amnesty.org/en/latest/news/202…


Serbian authorities using spyware to hack activists and journalists

Serbian authorities are using spyware and Cellebrite forensic extraction tools to hack journalists and activists in a surveillance campaign.
Amnesty International

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mastodon - Link to source

Apologies to anyone waiting for me to describe my antics trying to decrypt my Kindle books but...

I stayed up until 2am last night trying to sort it out. I got some of it done, but I've given up. Pretty sure I can get there with Calibre+DeDRM+KFC Input but if the truth be known, I just can't be arsed. I'd have to spend way too much time in Windows and it's 'orrible.

I don't actually have many Kindle books. I never embraced the idea, always slightly fearing I wasn't being allowed to own the things. You want to take my physical books away, you have to fight me at least.

So I'm instead looking at my small collection and thinking I can pirate or even buy physically (shudder) the ones I want to keep.

Thanks Amazon, no more Kindle sales from me!

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in reply to Ghost of Hope

mastodon - Link to source

Bob Jamieson

My answer is a program called Kindle DRM Removal which I run in a copy of Windows 7 on Virtualbox VM. This requires you to enter the serial number of your Kindle to prove ownership.
I boot into Virtualbox Windows 7 with a single click from Linux Mint, copy my Kindle files to a Windows folder, run Kindle DRM Removal, tick the box with the Kindle serial, load in the file which is processed and dumped in another folder. I can then process it in Calibre.
The program was on Pirate Bay
in reply to Ghost of Hope

mastodon - Link to source

Bob Jamieson

This is working for me with the current Kindle drm, and I don`t think you need a pre-2.41 Kindle. It is some time since I installed it, but I do recall being frustrated by previous apps that I downloaded from Pirate Bay which could not remove the latest drm. This one does work and only requires a registered Kindle serial number although my Kindle is old so I cannot guarantee that it will work.
It is listed on Pirate Bay as:
Kindle DRM Removal v5.0.2.264 with Key [TorDigger]
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Ghost of Hope

mastodon - Link to source

Bob Jamieson

The problem is it cannot remove drm from .kfx files so it cannot work with files taken from a kindle. It does work easily with .azw3 files downloaded from Amazon using their "download and transfer over usb" option on their website, and it is this option that they are ending on 26th February, so the first thing to do would be to download any books you want to keep from the website.
As a Linux user, I am pissed because there is no Kindle for Linux option available as for PC.
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mastodon - Link to source

I admire pacifists but I'm not one, because others might pay the price of my being one.

There are figures on the left right now saying we shouldn't re-arm because we should spend money on our people instead of weapons. I sympathise. But this is going to be about avoiding a war, and winning it if it kicks off. The alternative will be eventual occupation, and unless you're a rabid Zionist I think you'll agree that the recipients of occupations don't do well.

Don't fall for chequebook economics or people talking about magic money trees. Defence spending now is going to be about stability, not stealing from the poor. The Tories of all colours have managed the latter anyway.

And allow me to register my extreme distaste at taking this position with a hearty fuck you to Putin, Trump, and all the other absolute bastards who're making me effectively just side with those who actually *want* to make weapons

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mastodon - Link to source

There are those things that used to be "the fringe people on the internet", and there were a few of them, and you could chuckle, because nobody was going to take them seriously right

Like "we should remove democracy and install a CEO king"

Nobody's ever going to take THOSE people seriously right

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in reply to Christine Lemmer-Webber

mastodon - Link to source

Christine Lemmer-Webber

Similarly, I remember reading A Confederacy of Dunces and pretentious medievalist studies student Ignacius J. Reilly tells his mother that he opposes a democratically elected republic and would prefer a monarchy.

"Ain't nobody ever wanted no king, Ignacius", his mom says, and I thought, well of course nobody ever wanted a king, this part of the book is just silly, that wouldn't happen

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mastodon - Link to source

I didn’t call this talk technofascism but I could have. Maybe “surveillance capitalism” just wasn’t scary enough a term?

inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=k2Go4uP…

#surveillance #capitalism #SiliconValley #BigTech #fascism #USA #technofascism

Cyborg rights activist, designer & lead developer Aral Balkan | Creative Ville 2019

On November 22nd 2019, Cyborg rights activist, designer & lead developer Aral Balkan was a keynote speaker at the main stage of the inspiration and networking conference Creative Ville, organised by Flanders DC in de Handelsbeurs in Antwerp, Belgium.
Flanders DC | Invidious
#capitalism #fascism #surveillance #USA #bigtech #siliconvalley #technofascism
This entry was edited (3 days ago)

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mastodon - Link to source

You should never for any reason whatsoever include the size in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, or petabytes of the file on the "download" button (link) or especially anywhere visible on the page offering said download.

NO REASON WHATSOEVER

dig?

#youCanProbablyGuessWhatPromptedThisRant

#youcanprobablyguesswhatpromptedthisrant

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mastodon - Link to source

The totalitarian shitshow In the US continues to have downstream effects, in fueling "culture wars" in NZ and emboldening our worst people. We've reached the stage of violent daytime assaults on queer people and families now.

Brian Tamaki and his Destiny Church goons will not stop unless they ARE stopped.

#uspol #nzpol

#uspol #nzpol

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glitchsoc - Link to source

When you hear “Make America Healthy Again” please remember who the Nazi’s targeted first.

They wanted to make Germany healthy and “pure”

The Aktion T4 program mass murdered people with disabilities. They tested the gas chambers on us.

Please do not obey in advance. Speak out. Save lives.

#maha #uspoli #disability #eugenics #ableism #aktiont4 #disabilityjustice #fascism #resist #donotobeyinadvance

#fascism #disability #ableism #uspoli #eugenics #resist #disabilityjustice #donotobeyinadvance #aktiont4 #Maha
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mastodon - Link to source

Like most American tech giants, Google is a fascist company.

“De-googling” can sound daunting, but you don’t have to do it all at once. Step one should be abandoning the Google Chrome browser.

12½-minute video
youtube.com/watch?v=m4UInu03jZ…


Goodbye Google | My Degoogling Adventure Begins

In this video, I share my decision to start degoogling my life and the initial steps I'm taking to reduce my reliance on Google services. I discuss switching...
YouTube

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friendica - Link to source

There's never a States Rights conservative around when you need one.

Edward Hasbrouck

2025-02-15 00:58:01

mastodon - Link to source

Men in MAGA hats, DOGE shirts demand access to files at S.F. City Hall:

"Three men dressed in Department of Government Efficiency T-shirts and red Make America Great Again hats entered multiple offices at San Francisco City Hall today, Mission Local has learned, demanding access to files before being rejected and fleeing the building. The sheriff’s department, which responded to the incidents, said it believes the men were impersonating employees of DOGE."

missionlocal.org/2025/02/sf-ma…



Men in MAGA hats, DOGE shirts demand access to files at S.F. City Hall 

Three men purportedly impersonating employees of DOGE, Elon Musk’s federal task force to cut spending, were refused City Hall access today.
Eleni Balakrishnan (Mission Local)

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mastodon - Link to source

Mastodon, is there a good tool or site you recommend for watching overall internet health, like BGP routing failing, ip blocks disappearing, etc.

Because I feel like over the last year I've been noticing more and more wacky outages, weird traceroute changes, lots of sites at once becoming randomly inaccessible from a VPN endpoint and then later not...

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)

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mastodon - Link to source

I really, really hated GW Bush. To the point where I had to turn off the TV or radio if I even heard his voice. I disagreed with him on every point. But that was based on a fundamentally different world view. I think he believed he was doing the best he could for the country IF his world view was valid. (Which it wasn't.)

But DJT doesn't even have a world view. He only has a "me view." The rest of the world is irrelevant if it doesn't benefit him personally. That makes him so much worse.

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in reply to Sean Kleefeld

mastodon - Link to source

Patrick

Bush Jr is more what made me question everyday Americans more than the Presidency; as an outsider, I don't have any illusion that the kind of person who becomes President is a nightmare human being who ought to be shunned.

That man made me realize Americans are all in on it too, gladly willing to excess death 800k+ Iraq civilians just so that their mercenary soldier class can get dental care and a college degree. Mismanaging everything so badly that ISIL almost took over?

No good.

in reply to Sean Kleefeld

mastodon - Link to source

Sean Kleefeld

@PatrickoftheG I recall once getting into an argument with someone, several months after the initial invasion, about how it was a wrong-headed, bad idea. She parroted the "we have to prevent their use of Weapons of Mass Destruction" line and I countered with, "If they have WMDs, why haven't they used them?" and she just looked stunned. It just never occurred to her to think even that far, even months into the invasion.
@Patrick
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mastodon - Link to source

In other news, as a thumbs up for the company I work for, during the CEO town hall someone asked about DEI, and our CEO and Chief of Human Resources both reinforced their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In a follow up newsletter they shared that our code of ethics and our integrity are not in place just to satisfy laws, but are core to what the company represents, so they stand by them even if the legal landscape changes.

I've got 99 problems with my work, but this ain't one.

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qoto - Link to source

"several projects advocating tolerance and equal rights on #Codeberg have been subject to hate attacks"

web.archive.org/web/2025021219…

We stay strong against hate and hatred — Codeberg News

Codeberg is currently suffering from hate campaigns due to far-right forces,...
web.archive.org
#codeberg

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mastodon - Link to source
“The public servants who are defying and contesting the Trump-Vance-Musk coup are putting themselves, their jobs, their careers, and in some cases the well-being of their families on the line. They are doing so because they believe in the importance of their jobs in protecting and helping the American public, and they justifiably believe Trump and Musk are violating the law.”
masto.ai/@rbreich/113995816080…

Robert Reich (@rbreich@masto.ai)

Attached: 1 image Profiles in courage https://robertreich.substack.com/p/profiles-in-courage?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
Mastodon

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mastodon - Link to source
Summer and I haven't been feeling our oats today.
We started out with big plans to get things done.
But.
Earlier today, my daughter and grandkids expressed their preference for us all to limit our purchases to businesses not aligned with Trump or his agenda.
For me, this is a big project.
But after hours of deleting and finding new suppliers I will be able to source all of our needed medical supplies without using Amazon.
I know these billionaires won't miss my $$, but when you see how important this is to four young people, who need their elders to resist with them, you know it makes all the difference in the world.
I had already ditched Starlink, and many other undesirables, but today we purged the rest. Lucky for us we don't own a Tesla.
Summer gave me a high five and my husband agrees.
Golden lab lying on her blue and white blanket and blue pillow. She appears to be lounging while her dinner is cooking. She is on a black sofa.
in reply to Norcal Gma 2

mastodon - Link to source

MightyBigCar

@ai6yr all this reminds me that I need to take a sawzall to our starlink. We cancelled the service last year, and the damn thing is just clutter now. But if it goes to electronic recycle intact there is a strong possibility it'll get scavenged and put back into use. So best to render it inert first.
@AI6YR Ben

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mastodon - Link to source

Two reflections on how the press should be covering the Trump administration — and isn’t. Both of these were on Substack newsletters, so I won’t be linking,

From @froomkin: “The first essential step is to fully and intentionally go into crisis mode. That means constant, round-the-clock, top-of-the-homepage coverage until the crisis is resolved.”

From Oliver Darcy, quoted by Dan: “Think about how it covers natural disasters and terror attacks. ... It’s time to break out those six-column front page headlines and interrupt regular programming with special broadcast news reports.”

h/t @inthehands #journalism #uspol

#uspol #journalism @Paul Cantrell @Dan Froomkin/presswatchers.org

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mastodon - Link to source

Whenever I hear about Trump's authoritarian idiocy about the "Gulf of America," or invading Greenland and Canada, all I can think of is this "Simpsons Treehouse of Horror" clip in which Bart renames America into "Bonerland."

Of course, Trump and his henchmen are such nasty and oppositionally defiant children that even Bart and Nelson would shun them.

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mastodon - Link to source
There is a balance between defending yourself and being a bully. One the one hand, it is important to one’s emotional well-being to stand up for yourself. On the other hand, if you never bend no matter whether you are justified in holding your position, you may simply be abusing others. It can be difficult to see your way out of this morass during difficult moments. Wishing you all the best of luck in your interactions and decisions. 🙂

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mastodon - Link to source

In March 2018, #Trump introduced #tariffs on the importation of iron and steel of 25%. He incorrectly insisted that foreign nations pay the tariffs he imposed, rather than the reality that American importers paid them.

A May 2019 analysis found Trump's tariffs were equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in the U.S. in decades. Further studies found that Trump's tariffs reduced real income in the United States, as well as adversely affecting the U.S. GDP.

People have short memories.

#trump #tariffs

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