Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 14/06/2023: Flatpak’s Sandboxing Works and Social Web



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: AILQYUT Wordo: CHURN
      • Random Japan Thoughts

        1. A cultural difference that I notice is that it would appear Japanese people have a much better sense of their place within a larger whole than Americans do. We are so obsessed with individuality and uniqueness that we miss the value of our place in the whole. Thusly, we often lack pride in the larger things we are a part of, like our country, culture, home.

    • Science

      • Mad movement on main

        I've been thinking lately that I need to be more vocal about my feelings on the mad movement/mad pride and my criticisms of psych as a field.

        I'm always frustrated by how controversial it seems to be to point out that a lot of psych is still pseudo-science, systems of control and bigotry dressed up in p-hacking and wishful thinking.

        I don't know.

        I feel like I often get treated like I'm anti-science when I say these things but I'm not. I just think there's a lot in the past century of history that's flawed and needs to be rebuilt off of different foundations. This doesn't seem controversial to me. I've worked in sciences like physics that are full of reinventions and massive re-understandings of the field, and that's about comparatively simple systems to---say---a living thing.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • [Older] Invidious: Make Youtube cool again

        I have a complicated relationship with Youtube like, I imagine, a lot of people. While I really dislike everything that Google is doing with the platform and their idiotic algorithm, there are tons of exceptionnaly good content on the platform.

      • Working From Alone

        Before the pandemic I did what everyone else did: I came into the office five days a week only to mostly spend most of my time at a computer, with headphones on to block out the noise; we would talk at lunch. For a while we played Switch games together once a week.

        I even worked with a team based in another country, for well over a year, from the office. I would come in every day to my desk in an open plan office full of people working on entirely unrelated projects. It simply didn’t occur to me that it would make more sense to work from home.

        [...]

        Then everything changed. We had to work from home. I got lucky, very lucky: we had just moved from a just-big-enough apartment to a house with room for an “office”. So, I got my new working space—in the basement, but with a pretty nice window.

        [...]

        I love being able to focus on my work: to put on music, if I want; or not, if I want; to dance or do push-ups or sit for a while if it gets to be too much.

        There’s a trend back towards working in offices, or at least there seems to be a push for it coming from somewhere.

        That’s fine for some, I guess. I have discovered what I like, and it’s working from home; to be alone with my thoughts then to step outside my office and be with my family. Bliss.

      • Flatpak's Sandboxing Works

        Flatpak is an alternate distribution method for Linux. By default, programs are sandboxed from the rest of the system.

        An often made statement by critics of Flatpak is the insistence that this isn't real security, because a package maintainer can change its security settings to poke holes in the sandbox. (This is allowed because some software relies on it for functionality.)

        Recently, malware was released through Minecraft mods on CurseForge, and possibly other modding platforms. It was a wide attack that ended up causing several mods and modpacks to be affected. Installing and running any of the mods causes the system to be infected.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Social Web

          I'm sat in the garden today. It's very warm; breezy too, but the breezy just brings a slightly different kind of warmth. We have a weather warning for thunderstorms later, so we'll see what that brings.

          I'm encouraged at the moment by the social web and the fediverse. There's a growing understanding that the fabric of our online lives can't be run in a VC-backed, for-profit manner.

        • More Social Media

          I've really been enjoying Mastodon. Compared to other social media, there is undoubtedly more of an initial effort to be made in uncovering interesting people to follow. I've been dropping into a few other instances to find those interesting people; FOSS and gamedev related. I guess it'll take a while to understand and refine the process, but it's fun to follow the chain of people and topics ever-deeper.

          [...]

          I've also been liberally using the block button, mainly on bot feeds which are just polluting the water with low-effort RSS spam.

        • Back in the saddle?

          It was fairly easy a transition: except for the part where I could access my capsule for about three minutes, but *too* soon couldn't again for over half an hour, making me wonder if I'd completely wasted my time, and possible others' time for having announced my new capsule address. Egg is never far from one's face online....

        • New setup for the web

          New setup! When visiting the site from the web, you’re no longer being redirected to port 1966. Instead, Apache now acts as a reverse proxy.

          The following config requests new certificates from Let’s Encrypt automatically thanks to mod_md.

          HTTP requests are redirect to HTTPS. HTTPS requests for “/.well-known” URLs are left untouched for the Let’s Encrypt renewal to work. All other HTTPS requests are proxied to the old port 1966.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Behind an Economy of Fake 'Worths' and Fictional 'Valuations' or 'Market Caps'
They normalise white-collar crime and say "everyone is doing it!"
Links 18/01/2026: "South Africa is Running Out of Software Developers", Companies Spooked to Find Slop is a Major Liability
Links for the day
Place Your Bets: Who Will Die First? Microsoft or IBM?
Not even joking; make a guess
Restoring Professional Pride in the Tech Sector
Rejecting slop isn't being a Luddite
Slop Bubble "Is Worse Than The Dot Com Bubble"
Edward Zitron Says It like it is
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 17, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, January 17, 2026
Microsoft Lunduke Keeps Distracting From the Real Problems With Rust
Microsoft Lunduke is stigmatising critics
Stack Ranking Against IBM/Red Hat Staff and a Signal of Mass Layoffs (RAs) Justified by Red Hat and IBM as Poor Performance/Misconduct/Other
Working in an atmosphere like this sounds like a nightmare
 
GNU/Linux Still up (statCounter Says to 6%) in Bosnia And Herzegovina
Let's see where it is at year's end
Making Layout Changes
Feedback can be sent to us
Eventually the Joke (and Financial Fraud) is on Microsoft, Stigmatised for Slop
Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide?
GNU/Linux Leaps to All-time Highs in Virgin Islands
it seems to have started around the "end of 10"
'Cancel Culture' Doesn't Work (in the Long Run)
Despite all the attacks, I'm enjoying life, I'm keeping productive, and our audience continues to grow
Making and Keeping the Sites Accessible
Sometimes less does mean "more" (or "MOAR")
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part IV - How Europe's Largest Patent Office Recruited Drug Addicts, Antisemites, and People Who Absolutely Cannot Do the Job (But Know the 'Right' People)
To better overlap industrial actions we might delay/postpone/pause this series for a bit
Benefiting by Adding Presence in Geminispace
As the Web gets worse, not limited to bloat as a factor, people seek alternatives
Google News Recently Started Syndicating Another Slopfarm, Linuxiac
Even if Google is aware that there is slop there, it's hard to believe that Google will mind
Software Patents and USMCA (or NAFTA)
We recently pondered going back to issuing 2-3 articles per day about patents and common issues with them
IBM Sued Over PIPs
PIPs are "performance improvement plans"
Sites With "Linux" in Their Name That Are in Effect Slopfarms and Issue Fake Articles
We try to name some of the prolific culprits
Gemini Links 18/01/2026: Raising Notifications From Terminal and Environmental Sanity
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Links 17/01/2026: Internet Blackout Normalised, Russian Attacks Civilians by Causing Massive Blackouts
Links for the day
Linuxiac Has Become a Slopfarm, Calling Them Out Isn't Fixing That
What a shame. A once-decent site about "Linux" bites the dust.
Luzern Lion Monument, Albanian Female Whistleblowers: Swiss jurists were cowards
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Splinternet is Already Here, Owing to the Militarisation of Technology (Slop, Social Control Media, Back Doors, and More)
you know what's gonna happen next...
Gemini Links 17/01/2026: Slow computing and Environment Leak
Links for the day
Links 17/01/2026: US Censorship and Violence Crisis, Growing Anger Levels Against Slop Sold as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Microsoft's "valuation depends on infrastructure that does not exist."
Indeed
The Typical Trajectory: Datamation Began Experimenting With LLM Slop for Fake Articles. Then Datamation Died. (Last Month)
It's always ending up this way
Accounts or Devices (e.g. Phones) That Get 'Burnt' Have Many Pitfalls
Embassies and consulates habitually fail at this
Avoiding the Spooks (Nobody Watches the Watchers, They're Practically Unaccountable)
If more people adopt encryption, it'll be easier for us to deal with whistleblowers
Protecting Whistleblowers Requires Technical Knowledge/Skills
even the highest media judges aren't aware of how to protect sources
At Least 5 Women Quit Brett Wilson LLP in Recent Months. It's the Firm That Attacked My Wife and I on Behalf of Americans (One of Them Strangled Women).
It seems like good news that the women escape this workplace
Slop About Slop and Slop About "Linux"
In short, avoid slopfarms
Report/Benchmark Says 'Vibe Coding' Results in Security Holes
There are risks they don't like talking about
EPO Abuses Covered in Spanish
Knowing what we know (and heard/saw), the sinister silence of the media is perceived by some to be complicity of the lower order.
Richard Stallman Encourages "ICE Out For Good" Protests, His Opponents Do Not (Passive and Uncaring About Human Rights)
He has done a lot philosophically, politically, and so on
Record Traffic in Geminispace or Over Gemini Protocol
it's never too late to join
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part III - Europe's Second-Largest Organisation on Strike, Protests, Other Industrial Actions to Come Impacting Over 95% of the Workforce
The EPO's management is highly evasive, weak, and vulnerable
Claim That IBM Marked 15% of its Workforce for Potential Layoffs
No wonder we keep hearing from Red Hat people who say they hate IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 16, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, January 16, 2026
Great Reset at IBM, the Company That Pulps Red Hat
In 2026 many workers are RTO'ed, PIP'ed, and at Red Hat many have effectively 'left the company' and now start afresh as "IBM" staff
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part II - Breakout of Discontent This Winter in Europe's Second-Largest Organisation
So far we've caused a lot of panic and stress inside Team Campinos
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part I - An Introduction to the Mafia Governing the EPO
Are some people 'evacuating' themselves to save face?
J.H.M. Ray Dassen & Debian, Red Hat, GNOME unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
At Microsoft, "Firing People is a "Cheat Code" to Pump the Stock Short-term But They Are Literally Destroying the Company's Soul Long-term."
They frame layoffs as a "success story"
Gemini Links 16/01/2026: "Porting My Main Website Over to Gemini" and Seeed Studio DevBoard
Links for the day
IBM Stacked and Ranked Badly, Maladministration Dooms the Company
Now they stack people up for PIPs and layoffs ("RAs")
Google News Poisons Its Own Index With More Slopfarms (Including "filmogaz")
Naming and shaming lazy slobs who rip off other people using LLMs can work, eventually
Links 16/01/2026: UK Royal Family's "Legal Team Accused of Dishonesty, Fraud and Misconduct", OSI Still Controlled by Microsoft (the OSI's Spokesperson is on Microsoft's Payroll, Not Interim Executive Director, Deborah Bryant)
Links for the day
Writing About Corruption
Fraud is everywhere
The B in IBM is Brown-nosing and Buzzwords (or Both)
International Buzzwords Machines
Naming Culprits in Switzerland
Switzerland is highly secretive about white-collar crime
IBM's 'Scientific-Sounding' Tech-Porn Won't Help IBM Survive (or Be Bailed Out)
Who's next in the pipeline?
IBM Was Never the Good Guy
its original products were used for large-scale surveillance, not scientific endeavours
The Bluewashing is Making Red Hat Extinct (They All Become "IBM", Little by Little)
IBM does not care what's legal
Slopfarms Push Fake News About Microsoft Shutdown, 30,000+ Microsoft Layoffs Last Year Spun as Only "15,000"
The Web is seriously ill
Countries Take Action Against Social Control Media and 'Smart' 'Phones', Not Slop (Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems or P.I.S.S.)
None of this is unprecedented except the scale and speed of sharing
Sanitised Plagiarism as "AI" (How Oligarchy Plots to Use Slop to Hide or Distract From Its Abuses, or Cause People Not to Trust Anything They See/Read Online)
This isn't innovation but repression
Sites That Expose Corruption Under Attack, Journalism Not Tolerated Anymore (the Super-Rich Abuse Their Wealth and Political Power)
Sometimes, albeit not always, the harder people try to hide something, the more effective and important it is for the general public
Recent Layoffs at Red Hat (2026 the Year of Ultimate Bluewashing)
I found it amusing that Red Hat's CEO has just chosen to wear all blue, as if to make a point
Links 16/01/2026: Social Control Media Curbs in Australia Underway, MElon Still Profiting by Sexualising Kids 'as a Service'
Links for the day
More People Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux"
We still see many distros and even journalists that say "GNU/Linux"
LLM Slop on the Web is Waning, But Linuxiac Has Become a Slopfarm
I gave Linuxiac a chance to deny this or explain this; Linuxiac did not
More Signs of Financial Troubles at Microsoft, Europe Puts Microsoft Under Investigation
The end of the library is part of the cuts
Team Campinos Talks About SAP Days Before EPO Industrial Actions and a Day Before the "Alicante Mafia" Series (About Team Campinos Doing Cocaine)
EPO staff that isn't morally feeble will insist on objecting to illegal instructions
Pedophilia-Enabling Microsoft Co-founder Cuts Staff
Compensating by sleeping with young girls does not make one younger
Microsoft Shuts Down Campus Library, Resorts to Storytelling About "AI" to Spin the Seriousness of It
Microsoft is in pain
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Back to Advertising the Talks of Richard Stallman
A pleasant surprise
Stack(ed) Rankings and Ongoing Layoffs at Red Hat and IBM (Failure to Keep Staff Acquired by IBM)
IBM is mismanaged and its sole aim is to game the stock market (by faking a lot of things)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 15, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 15, 2026
Gemini Links 16/01/2026: House Flood and Pragmatic Retrocomputing Dogfooding
Links for the day