Tootfinder

This is as good a time as any for a thought experiment.
You're in Nazi Germany. You know about the camps, you know what they do, you see the ash fall, you smell it. People who resist alone are killed, some are sent to the camps too. You're afraid to even talk to people about it for fear that they'll turn you in.
You think back to when the camps were being built. You had all the warning signs, but you didn't know how to interpret them. You could believe it would happen. You thought you'd have a chance to vote him out. You thought there might be another way. You thought maybe things would turn out differently if you just sat tight, kept your head down, kept yourself safe.
You see a family being dragged from their home. You know they will be killed. You want to fight, not just for them but for yourself. You opposed Hitler, and at any point you know you could be on the list... Even if you do nothing.
You wish you could rise up, shoot the SS, open the gates, fight it all. You know you aren't alone, but you don't know how to connect with the people who want the same thing.
Using the knowledge we have now, what should you have done in the preceding months and years to connect, to build a community that would open up all paths of resistance?
There were people who resisted. We know it wasn't enough.
Gun laws in Nazi Germany were very similar to US laws in that Nazis were largely free to own guns and everyone else was not. Unlike the US, where "others" have historically controlled using the fear that they might be randomly executed, Germany did codify it. Red flag laws were one more step in the US towards that codification, and there will be more.
When Nazis were taking away those guns, the social networks didn't exist to make resistance possible for most folks. But some Jews were able to resist.
It wasn't the guns that made the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising possible, though they definitely helped. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was made possible by labor organizing in the precessing years.
If there were more uprisings like that, the Holocaust could have been stopped if not prevented. Social networks make resistance possible. Guns are only useful tools to resist authoritarianism *after* you build a community able to support that resistance, and they are only one of many tools made useful by that community.
Getting guns is easy, and not always necessary. Building community is hard. Guns won't keep you safe. Community will.
Single acts of resistance may slow the machine down, but to actually bring down a monster you need to be able to attack more than once. You need a society of resistance. If you are afraid now, build that. Talk to people while it's still safe to do so. Ask them where their red line is. Talk to neighbors. Figure out your network.
Take the steps you need now to keep your neighbors safe, to keep yourself safe.
#USPol

Crazy... After a week of continuous use with Debian (with daily reboots in the morning), my Logitech MX Mechanical keyboard suddenly started acting up: some letters got stuck and were displayed dozens of times while I was typing. Other keys weren't registering at all.
Well, I thought, maybe there’s something wrong with the keyboard—dirt, crumbs, dust, or something like that. So I switched keyboards to an MX Keys—exactly the same issue. No improvement even with a third keyboard (Che…

So I was pretty enthusiastic about #DNS4EU at first.
Then I've discovered it blocklisted some random pastebin. Well, it happens. I mean, pastebins frequently get into trouble because of people pasting random shit. So I've filed an unblock request. I've suddenly got a mail to confirm registration in some random company's system — I suspect it was related to DNS4EU, but no clear indication. I've ignored it.
Then they've blocklisted my mail provider, for no apparent reason. It's still blocked. I've switched to the "unfiltered" version to be able to access my mail again.
Today I've gotten a mail via my backup MX. My main MX is up. My educated guess is that sysadmins using DNS4EU now get my mail redirected to their "site blocked" server. Isn't that great?
PS. Maybe if more people filed unblock requests for "poczta.ftdl.pl", it would help. It's a non-profit e-mail provider.
#DNS #ItsAlwaysDNS

I've seen a bunch of "the CA age verification law is the best way to do a bad thing and so we shouldn't oppose compliance" takes, which others are rightly pointing out is a bad stance because it's blindingly obvious that compliance now sets the stage for compliance later and the clearly set up later is mandatory verification of age data. Even if you think that, for example, California's current "progressive" government won't go there, we're all currently seeing just how easy it is for a new government to pick up the oppressive tools the "good" government was using "restraint" with and put them to worse ends.
On the other hand, I'll freely admit that distros *do* need a way to shield themselves from liability right now. The clear (to me; IANAL) correct solution is to say on your website "don't download this OS if you're in a jurisdiction where it's not legal for us to provide it."). Assuming this does put you in the clear liability-wise, it has several positive effects:
- Stops zero people from downloading it.
- Makes it clear that your project will not collaborate with fascists/oppressive regime enjoyers.
- Means that when the next law makes verifying user ages mandatory (and/or explicitly requires using Palantir-adjacent services to do so) you've already got a strategy in place and there's no need for a "debate" in your "community" about compliance.
- Gets users more practice with "the law is malicious/needlessly bureaucratic/oppressive; let's ignore it" which to be honest people in general clearly desperately need at this point.
- Is the most effective political move if you want to resist the way things are going. Forcing the other side to explain why "California bans Linux" is good rhetorical strategy. Make *them* try to explain "well it's actually not so harmful since we let users set it themselves" and answer your follow-up "but what if next year the requirements change; I just refuse to go along with this slippery slope stuff and I'm not bothered if that means you want to *ban* me."
#AgeVerification

same, Hulk, same

The Avi Lewis AMA on Reddit this afternoon was interesting. He didn't answer my question, and I'll eventually get over it, but he was swinging for the fences with his ideas. His responses would resonate I think with MastoCanucks as they pretty much call for the government to get more involved in providing real solutions. Including building 1M public homes, tackling U.S. ownership of our media, getting rid of FPTP with electoral reform, guaranteed income programs, publicly owned options for major business categories (banks, grocery, phones, etc). Those big ideas could wake up and excite voters while at the same time facing huge opposition from big businesses and wealthy Canadians who would face a new wealth tax.
I hope he wins the leadership. At the very least he'll push the Liberals to be bolder, and maybe even lead a minority government that could bring some of his ideas to fruition.
#CanPoli #NDP
https://www.reddit.com/r/onguardforthee/s/fwKRmDPSvd

Hmmm.... Guess I need to figure out why my Ubuntu sometimes slows to a crawl and doesn't recover. The mouse can barely move. I end up needing to hard reboot.
Alt control f1 doesn't do anything for me.
I've yet to find an app that will show me important events in a simple way to debug.
#ubuntu

I've decided to open the #DualShock and try cleaning it up.
Took me about an hour to find the right tools and disassemble it, getting to the analog stick potentiometers. Used compressed air (read: lungs) to clean them up. Found a bit of cat hair. Took me about half an hour to figure out how to reassemble it properly, with my back aching already. After reassembly, it turned out that side triggers randomly… well, trigger.
Disassembled it again. Started reassembling while making sure that the mainboard is tightly in place. After putting the battery back in, noticed that I didn't connect the touchpad ribbon. Disassembled again, reassembled. Miraculously, it works.
The analog stick causes no trouble so far, so maybe it won't need replacement for a while still. After all, I'm not using it much.

A Small Oil Company Polluted Midland’s Water Reserve. The Cleanup Has Dragged on for Years. - Inside Climate News https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18012026/west-texas-oil-cleanup-drags-on/

A Small Oil Company Polluted Midland’s Water Reserve. The Cleanup Has Dragged on for Years. - Inside Climate News
Cleaning up oilfield pollution in arid West Texas is costly and complicated. The bankruptcy process allows companies to move on while the public pays the price.