01.03.23
Posted in Site News at 8:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: We’re fast becoming a very large player in the IPFS space; there’s an extensive catalogue of objects going back to 2020
Just over two years ago we adopted IPFS. On a daily basis we add 9 objects to it, i.e. 3,285 per year. It was therefore inevitable that we’d pass 7,000 by now. Later this year it will be 10,000. We currently operate two IPFS nodes. One will be changed over to fibre-optics at the start of February.
IPFS makes us a lot more resistant/resilient/robust to censorship attempts. It lets us publish information other sites are afraid to publish or struggle to publish (and then keep online). █
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12.31.22
Posted in Site News at 4:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Starting in the edge of the east:
Happy new year, everybody!
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12.28.22
Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Site News at 11:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum ebac88a1014e13df9980a23c925b196a
Universities Gone Astray
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: When institutions of higher education (colleges/universities) are occupied by people who cannot build and maintain systems the whole institutions are likely to be hijacked by ‘surveillance capitalism’ companies that work for the American government
EARLIER today we published part one (of four parts) from 'Digital Vegan' Andy Farnell (visiting professor specialising in sound and security), who bemoans the situation at universities’ IT departments. These used to be specialised and well-trained/highly-skilled departments, but nowadays they’re dumbed-down bureaucracy which became increasingly about selecting vendors to outsource to, i.e. not about technology at all. This is getting worse really fast, owing in part to the exodus of geeks and the influx of buzzword slingers (e.g. “Clown Computing”).
“Today’s universities seem to attract the very worst sysadmins, maybe those who could not find employment elsewhere.”“FOSS is useful in mitigating or even reversing the dystopian trends,” an associate has said to us after we published part one, adding that the culprits are “corporate flunkies working against the university, and double handful of resellers too.”
In the video above I tell my personal experiences, dealing with IT departments at universities from 2000 until 2012. I can still recall (from a decade back) some truly embarrassing stories. Today’s universities seem to attract the very worst sysadmins, maybe those who could not find employment elsewhere. █
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Posted in Site News at 1:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Quite the “living arrangement”…
Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ has a polygamy problem and people aren’t allowed to speak about the professional and technical issues that leads to
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12.03.22
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Site News at 12:07 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum 5fc22241d0ba2771d8eb8d960d4e13de
Start of Sirius Series
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: Sirius has not been functioning properly for years, but this year it got a lot worse and the story ought to be told; there are many aspects in it that may be applicable to other companies, including those that engage in openwashing for marketing purposes (opportunism)
THIS is the second video regarding the company I left yesterday. It was not a pleasant departure; it was the result of a weeks-long conflict. It started a month ago after I had done just one single (yes, just one!) shift in November.
Someone’s feelings were hurt, so a vendetta began, never mind why those feelings were hurt in the first place (context matters). More details will be supplied later, but today we start the release of a detailed report.
“…nobody took the bait, so a campaign of witch-hunts (vendetta) began.”For a number of months already the managers were looking to downsize (disguised euphemistically as reorganisation) with an external HR firm advising them against staff’s interests, as one might expect. There were attempts to deny severance/compensation and these attempts were rather obvious right from the start. But nobody took the bait, so a campaign of witch-hunts (vendetta) began.
The vendetta cannot be understated. This wasn’t done to some opportunists or some “tourists” in the company but to devoted, long-serving staff. To put it in context, in almost 12 years never — not even once — did I take sick leave (not ever!), but that does not seem to matter. These was a bogus “scoring” exercise and a divide-and-conquer effort, orchestrated by a company that became incompetent and unethical because it was running out of money (or losing the ability to borrow more money). All those things are of course connected; they’re connected by institutional demise.
“These was a bogus “scoring” exercise and a divide-and-conquer effort, orchestrated by a company that became incompetent and unethical because it was running out of money (or losing the ability to borrow more money).”So this month I get to tell my story, starting in early 2011 when I joined. As a long-term worker, I would be entitled to compensation, but abusive management is using fake nonsense to avoid paying severance, knowing that if it gets sued the company is already registered (partly) in another country and is too broke to even fight in court. The managers know this, but they’re fakers and posers at this point. They’ve evaded liabilities in other areas too. Clients are being misled about it. Clients deserve to know. █
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11.27.22
Posted in Site News at 7:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: As we quickly approach the last month of the year, here’s a look back at a wonderful year for Techrights (but not for the world in general) and a look at the year ahead
WE recently published the 35,000th blog post and celebrated 16 years.
This long weekend (owing to Thanksgiving) has given plenty of time for reflection and planning. It’s not a secret that there are many changes afoot, but overall those are positive changes and they will make this site better. Not just a Web site, but so much more…
In-Depth Investigations
Site migrations are already underway, but it takes time as we still focus on publication of material too (we don’t want to halt that). The GitHub/Microsoft series will go on next year; there’s plenty of material we’re eager to publish. There are several other “big stories” (or series) in the making, but they take time to properly prepare and fact-check. Stay tuned.
Tor, GNUnet, and More
If all goes according to plan, Tor/Onion will be supported next year. IPFS and Gemini have good resilience already and are robust to downtime (with spare nodes and hardware). GNUnet is still being considered. It’s a promising project. It seems like Mumble too is gaining adoption (it’s mentioned a lot online this year) and at the time of writing there are “514 known IRC networks” of significant size with a third of a million people online (counted across those networks).
Personal Life
As a researcher by training (and profession too; I was a postdoc for a few years) I like to examine the facts for myself and properly assess the evidence rather than blindly rely on what corporate press keeps saying. The media gets a lot of things wrong, but it tends to get away with it.
The way things are looking right now, this post-Brexit economy in a state of pandemic (that many are already in denial of) won’t recover any time soon. Maybe there will be an upswing — however small — rather than ongoing downturn some time in the next 5 years. Maybe. In the meantime, for a lot of people there’s a daily fight over necessities; it’s about survival. The national health service (NHS) is under perpetual attacks (aside from privatisation), the press is rapidly collapsing (not many people are still willing to pay for news; some cannot afford such a “luxury”), so we’re left with tabloids and oligarchs-owned “news” (sometimes the same as those tabloids).
Then there’s the health crisis, aside from mental health crisis.
How Deaths Have Soared This Year (Compared to Pre-COVID-19 Levels)
A topic I typically write about in my personal site is worth echoing here, at least in passing. There’s a mortality and morbidity crisis, which many are aware of while the media is suppressing or stonewalling or vainly gaslighting.
The relevant data is available from official (government) sources:
Recent weeks’ total deaths in England and Wales:
These numbers are very high, especially so in recent months.
This affects ALL age groups and has come to the point where some weeks have have more than 2,000 additional deaths compared to the 2015-2019 average (in week 20 it was more than 2,500 higher).
Here’s 2022 (the unit in the X grid is week number):
The high numbers (or very tall vertical bars) are number of deaths higher than pre-COVID-19 average number of deaths (for any given week).
Data: All deaths by week 45 versus pre-COVID-19 average (ODF)
That’s just based on the data. No need to argue with the data, unlike interpretations of it. Stay cautious regardless.
With more time spent indoors, and with more time available in general, Techrights will grow and thrive. █
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11.25.22
Posted in Protocol, Site News at 6:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum c4347cecba35ade34aa83ed01c9608b2
Gemini Growth in 2022
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: From less than 500 capsules to 2,900 capsules in 24 months? That’s how quickly Gemini is spreading.
THE end of November is fast approaching and the shortest day (in the northern hemisphere at least) is 4 weeks away. People may use the holidays to explore Gemini, not just as surfers but also as hosts.
“Techrights will have been on Gemini for two years some time later this winter.”Gemini is still growing in terms of the number of unique hosts (it was 2878 at the middle of this month and now touching 2900), though it seems not so likely to exceed 3,000 (known to Lupa) capsules by the end of this year.
Techrights will have been on Gemini for two years some time later this winter. Back then there were only hundreds — not thousands — of known Gemino capsules. █
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11.18.22
Posted in Site News at 6:39 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Yesterday another milestone was reached; we have 35,000 blog posts and soon 43,500 Gemini pages
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