From the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Update: The Associated Press sued White House officials today over ban on its access to White House events, Oval Office and Air Force One because wire service continues referring to “Gulf of Mexico.”

It asked court for emergency order rescinding ban:

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ap-reporters-barred-from-white-house-events-over-editorial-style-policy/

I have one prediction for 2025 that I am most confident about.

2025 will be the hottest year on record (since 1850), just like the two years before it.

#climateCrisis

Tiny Apocalyptic Time Tip 🌐✨

If you too feel uneasy about
the state of the world,
and you too worry about losing access to one of the greatest knowledge treasure of the internet,

Know that you can download an
offline copy of Wikipedia!

Here's how 📚👇

1. Download the free and open source software Kiwix (this will be your reader): https://kiwix.org/en/applications/

2. If you want smaller versions of Wikipedia, you can download them within Kiwix.

Within the app, go to "Categories" in the menu on the left, then browse to a topic/version you want. Scroll to the bottom for Wikipedia mini, for example. Click on it then click "Download" on the right

3. Once you have downloaded a database, click on "Opened" on the left > database you want to search > "Open Main Page" on the right.

4. You can use the Search field on the upper-right to find topics like on online Wikipedia! 🔍

5. If you want the full English version of Wikipedia (110GB), you might want to download it from the torrent file instead. Install a torrent client of your choice (I use Transmission).

Then, go to this page, click on "Download - 109.89 GB" blue button on the first result (size may vary overtime), then select "Torrent file": https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng&category=wikipedia

6. Once you have the torrent file, open it with your torrent client to start the download. This is BIG! Be patient! 📦

7. Once the download is completed, open your Wikipedia `.zim` file with Kiwix!

8. Magic! 📖✨

Extra Tip: You can download many other awesome knowledge files from the Kiwix Library! Personally, I also got the iFixit knowledge base! ⚒️

#Wikipedia #Kiwix #Offline #KnowledgeIsPower

Alt...

Screenshot showing the application Kiwix with the open Wikipedia entry for Kiwix. Very meta.

Of everything they could've questioned Tulsi Gabbard about, Dems chose to grill her for past support of whistleblowers and the Fourth Amendment.

Because now's a great time to signal hostility to people who may leak evidence of government criminality.

https://freedom.press/issues/trump-attacks-oversight-dems-attack-whistleblowers/

New blog post: Three years of #SecureDrop

https://blog.legoktm.com/2025/01/31/three-years-of-securedrop.html

This is the longest I've ever held the same position at a job, so a few notes on what I've been up to over the past year and what I enjoy.

Congratulations to the ACLU, EFF and everyone else involved in this significant win for the Fourth Amendment.

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/court-rules-warrantless-section-702-searches-violated-the-fourth-amendment

Happy #NYC #CongestionPricing Eve!

MaggieAppleton/digital-gardeners: Resources, links, projects, and ideas for gardeners tending their digital notes on the public interwebs

https://github.com/MaggieAppleton/digital-gardeners

#DigitalGarden #SecondBrain #TiddlyWiki

Using Python uv tool as a replacement for Poetry for a small Python utility I'm writing. It feels a lot like Rust's Cargo.

All that I can say for now is that it is certainly a better experience than setting up a virtualenv manually.

I am writing this proprietary tool for a team of JavaScript developers. I think they will feel that it is just as easy to use as npm/yarn or whatever is the new hotness this week.

#Python #RustLang

A look at Uber Shuttle, the shared bus service that has rolled out in over 20 cities and completed ~30M trips globally, as Uber awaits approval in Bengaluru (Anisha Sircar/Rest of World)

https://restofworld.org/2024/uber-shuttle-india-shared-bus/
http://www.techmeme.com/241207/p8#a241207p8

To everyone when they see horrible privacy news about Microsoft replying with:

"I don't care, I use Linux"

Sure, you do. But does your medical clinic do? Does your therapist do? Does your family member typing a personal email to you in Word before sending it do too?

This is a systemic problem.

You cannot protect your own data only by using Linux yourself. You must also demand stronger regulations and enforcement to obligate organizations around to protect your data as well.

#Privacy #Microsoft

Problems with Free and Open Source Software
https://njoseph.me/blog/posts/foss-problems/

My last blog post for September. After not writing any blog posts for 4 years, I wrote 4 in one month!

#FreeSoftware #OpenSource

New blog post!

Using small AI tools on Debian GNU/Linux
https://njoseph.me/blog/posts/small-ai-tools-debian/

I am using the word #AI as it is meant to be used, as click-bait. 😉

#accessibility #stt #tts

check out this beautiful post by @jimmyhmiller on What It Means To Be Open

https://jimmyhmiller.github.io/raised

I'm not a Mozilla insider or anything but I took a look at their bylaws and afaict they have a self-perpetuating board, which means they're not formally accountable to anyone.

I prefer a member elected board (like the PSF has). It's hard for leadership to stray too far from member values when they're elected by members.

I know too many self-perpetuating boards who destroyed what they were supposed to be safeguarding, or even enabled abuse.

Governance matters.

I would like to unironically thank Elon Musk for taking an almost unimaginable amount of wealth from this list of terrible people and vaporizing it.

Alt...

Infographic: How much value X investors have lost: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud 2024 value: $529.2M Loss: −1.4B Jack Dorsey 2024 value: 280M Loss: −720M Larry Ellison 2024 value:280M Loss: −720M Sequoia Capital 2024 value: 224M Loss: −576M Vy Capital 2024 value: 196M Loss: −504M Binance Loss:−360M Andreessen Horowitz Loss: −288M Qatar Investment Authority Loss: −270M Source: Analysis using Fidelity Investments data. Fidelity recently valued what was initially a $19.66 million Twitter stake in its Blue Chip Growth Fund at about 72 percent less than when Musk purchased Twitter, a valuation that has remained relatively steady. The Post applied the 72 percent drop to the initial investor stakes reported in filings to the SEC as well as public comments and individual confirmations of entities’ involvement.

I have started quoting liberally in my linkblog (subscribe via RSS).

https://njoseph.me/shaarli/

Earlier, I was only writing my own summary or opinion of the subject, but quoting adds more context. This is inspired by the writing style of Pixel Envy blog. https://pxlnv.com

New Debian Developers and Maintainers (May and June 2024) https://bits.debian.org/2024/07/new-developers-2024-06.html