zero323 @zero323@mastodon.social

Today, the Tor Project is launching a new campaign to help censored users, and we need you. 🙌

How? Run a Tor Bridge! 🌉

Our goal is to add 200 new obs4 bridges to the network from November 18 - January 7, 2022, & we're offering prizes for running a bridge.

https://blog.torproject.org/run-a-bridge-campaign/

Given @McCoySmith declined to debate @bkuhn_ebb_org on this matter at #ossummit, we're curious how McCoy responds to our points: (a) GPLv2 installation requirements haven't changed since 2003 & (b) don't work the way he says. See: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/25/install-gplv2/ https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/jul/23/tivoization-and-the-gpl-right-to-install/

the delicious irony: creators of industrial language models are now worried about no longer being able to use the web as their "commons" (i.e. other people's labor that they appropriate and commercialize) because their own outputs are "polluting" it (via https://mailchi.mp/jack-clark/import-ai-266-deepmind-looks-at-toxic-language-models-how-translation-systems-can-pollute-the-internet-why-ai-can-make-local-councils-better)

Littleone started virtual school today and it is the jankiest shit you ever did see.

She's had a protonmail account for about a year now, but the school went and made her a google account because all their laptops are chromebooks. First thing the machine teaches her is to accept all the t&c's without reading them, because you've no choice but to accept them or drop outta school.

Really mad about this Linux kernel - academic research kerfuffle. See: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-nfs/YH%2FfM%2FTsbmcZzwnX@kroah.com/

TL;DR: researchers at UMN introduced patches to Linux kernel that contained known-buggy code TO WRITE A PAPER and the UMN IRB didn't consider it human subjects research

Wtaf were these researchers thinking? How did the IRB not consider this human subjects resaerch? How did someone think this was an ethical thing to do?

Announcing Breadchain, a response to the rightwing dominance of the crypto / blockchain space...

Full Announcement on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/cryptoleftists/comments/mya058/announcing_breadchain/

Full Announcement on Twitter: https://twitter.com/breadchain_/status/1386350924285759491

Presentation at Money Lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fiwwEPi6zI

Newsletter to stay up to date: https://breadchain.mailchimpsites.com/

The "lawful interception" industry is a hive of scum and villainy: these are powerful, wildly profitable companies who search out defects in widely used software, then weaponize them and sell them to the world's most brutal dictators and death squads.

Their names are curses: The NSO Group, Palantir, and, of course, Cellebrite, who have pulled publicity stunts like offering $1m bounties for exploitable Iphone defects that can be turned into cyberweapons.

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"Wanting it badly is not enough" could be the title of a postmortem on the century's tech-policy battles. Think of the crypto wars: yeah, it would be super cool if we had ciphers that worked perfectly except when "bad guys" used them, but that's not ever going to happen.

Another area is anonymization of large data-sets.

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RT @ReclaimYourFace@twitter.com

🎉BREAKING!
61 MEPs from different political groups just asked the EU to ban biometric mass surveillance, days before @EU_Commission@twitter.com proposes new laws on AI.

https://reclaimyourface.eu/61-meps-urge-eu-ban-biometric-mass-surveillance/

#ReclaimYourFace #BanThisBS #ArtificialIntelligence #Biometrics #MassSurveillance

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ReclaimYourFace/status/1383024311192186880

Today we're kicking off the #GNU Assembly!

https://gnu.tools

This is a new umbrella for GNU people seeking transparent decision-making and built around consensus. It's the result of a decade of struggle to make #GNU inclusive, transparent, and community-driven.

#GNU contributors: consider joining!

#FreeSoftware activists: help us spread the word!