Bonum Certa Men Certa

Fun Weekend, But Very Slow News

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 19, 2024

Steak Cooking On The Grill

There's no holiday (here or in the US) this week/end, but news is very slow/scarce, at least in English. We're struggling to find much journalism and something that resembles exclusive, investigative reporting. This leads to a shortage of ideas (or topics to cover).

We have a lot of material to publish next year, but that's work in progress and it'll need patience. It will surely come out when the time is right.

If you wish to suggest an idea of/or some topic we can cover, come to IRC and tell us. soylentnews.org (SoylentNews) has been having severe IRC issues lately, but we've had persistent uptime for over a year and are active all day long.

Topic suggestions through IRC make sense because we don't do "comments" anymore. Hackaday explained nicely just 7 days ago what comments mean to their people. To quote:

You know what your mom would say, right? This week, we got an above average number of useless negative comments. A project was described as looking like a “turd” – for the record I love the hacker’s angular and futuristic designs, but it doesn’t have to be to your taste. Then someone else is like “you don’t even need a computer case.” Another commenter informed us that he doesn’t like to watch videos for the thirtieth time. (Yawn!)

What all of these comments have in common is that they’re negative, low value, non-constructive, and frankly have no place on Hackaday. The vast majority are just kind of Eeyorey complaining about how someone else is enjoying a chocolate ice cream, and the commenter prefers strawberry. But then some of them turn nasty. Why? If someone makes a project that you don’t like, they didn’t do it to offend you. Just move on quietly to one you do like. We publish a hack every three hours like a rubidium clockwork, with a couple of original content pieces scattered in-between on weekdays.

And don’t get us wrong: we love comments that help improve a project. There’s a not-so-fine line between “why didn’t you design it with trusses to better hold the load?” and “why did you paint it black, because blue is the superior color”. You know what we mean. Constructive criticism, good. Pointless criticism, bad.

That's not to say IRC is invulnerable to bad behaviour; but IRC moderation is different and "hit-and-run" attacks take a lot more effort than just typing a malicious comment.

Anyway, we've got lots of free time this weekend (all weekend tasks have been completed), so we welcome topic suggestions/recommendations.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Judgment: French army vanquishes German FSFE on Hitler's birthday, Microsoft contract dispute (1716711)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Projection Tactics - Part IV: SLAPP by Americans Against Techrights (UK) to Hide Serious Abuses Against American Women
"PRs need to stop being complicit in suppression of information via SLAPPs"
The Grapevine Says IBM's American RAs (Mass Layoffs) Soon to Follow European RAs, PIPs and "Reviews" as Pretext for a Likely Baseless Dismissal
The days of honourable corporations and work ethics are long gone it seems...
 
Richard Stallman's First Talk in US College Since 2018: Videos and Photos
There are some backstories
Judge Richard Oulevey (Grandcour Choeur, Tribunal Vaud) & Debian shaming abuse victims and witnesses
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
EDPB/CNIL privacy expert Amandine Jambert (cryptie, FSFE) implicitly admitted lying about harassment when she resigned admitting conflict of interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 24/01/2026: TikTok Controlled by Alt Reich in US Now, White House Shares Fake, Manipulated, Misleading Images Already
Links for the day
Dirty Laundry at Debian and Elsewhere
We cannot just brush aside real issues involving real people and their families
Illegal, Unconstitutional Kangaroo Court for Patents Drops the Masks, Shows Its Real Purpose is to Serve Multinational Monopolists and Crush European SMEs
Europe (or the EU) is rapidly becoming a corporate project, not a unified governance initiative
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part X - EPO Strikes to Begin Next Week
Things gradually escalate this month
Gemini Links 24/01/2026: Snow, Boxing, and Lisp is Fun
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 23, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, January 23, 2026
Senior management and HR email privacy: Martin Ebnoether (venty), Axel Beckert (xtaran) & Debian abuse in Switzerland
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Pierre-Elliott Bécue, ANSSI & Debian cybertorture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
MJ Ray, Micah Anderson & Debian on drugs, prostitution at DebConf6 fight
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Excellence in Ethics: a list of victories for the truth
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman Giving Public Talk, Answering Questions From the Audience
We understand (from the organisers) that there will be a video of the talk
Forbes Covers in 2026 What Was Already Clear for Over a Decade: Microsoft's BitLocker 'Encryption' is a Back Door
One that's promoted by the loudest boosters of UEFI 'secure boot' as well
Links 23/01/2026: Minus 24 deg C in South Korea, "Iran Internet Blackout Passes Two-Week Mark"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/01/2026: "Witch Watch" and English on the Net
Links for the day
Reminder That "Linux" in the Site's Name (and Domain) Does Not Imply Authentic Journalism About GNU/Linux
the sad fact that some once-legitimate sites became slopfarms
Further Comments Illuminate Observations Regarding IBM's Layoffs (RAs) Plan for Europe
Some shed light on the expected scale
Links 23/01/2026: Growing Censorship, Intel Falls (Another Bubble, Propped Up by Cheeto Bailout), and Huge GAFAM Layoffs Continue
Links for the day
Working for Freedom Makes You a Target
it's not about what you do but about who gets served
Appeasing Bullies Doesn't Work
The reason we're still here and very active is that we're good at what we do
Claim That IBM Mass Layoffs Began Again in Europe, With Rumours It'll Close Offices
Unless IBM issues a statement (admission) to the media or issues WARN notices (in the US), the lousy media will simply assume - however wrongly - that nothing is happening and there's nothing to report
How Microsoft Will Tell Shareholders That the Business is Failing in a Few Days
It'll resort to "AI" storytelling (lying about slop having potential for some unspecified future year)
Flying to See Today's Talk by Richard Stallman
It's probably not too late to reserve a seat for today's talk
The Fall of Freenode Didn't Kill IRC and the Web's Issues (Not Limited to LLM Slop) Didn't Kill Everything
As long as there are enough people willing to keep the simple (or "old") stuff it'll refuse to die
GAFAM Layoffs by Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) Hide the Real Scale of Their Financial Troubles
the "official" numbers of layoffs will never tell the true story
'Domesticated' Animals Not More Valuable Than Free-range Wildlife, Proprietary ('Commercial') Software Isn't Better Than Free Software
the proprietary software giants (companies like SAP or Microsoft) have a lot of lobbyists
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part IX - EPO Budget Funnelled Into Cocaine and Moreover Rewards Cocaine-Addicted Management for Getting Busted by Police
Any day that passes without European media and European politicians doing anything about it merely discredits the media and the EU (or national governments)
Richard Stallman Won't Talk About "AI", He'll Talk About Chatbots and LLMs Lacking Any Intelligence
This really irritates people who dislike the message; so they attack the person
Slopfarms Still Fed by Google, Boosting Fake 'Articles' That Pretend to Cover "Linux"
At this point about 80-90% of the search results appear not to be slopfarms
Gemini Links 23/01/2026: The Danish Approach to Deepfakes and Random vi Things
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 22, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 22, 2026
Five Years Ago, After We Broke the Story About Richard Stallman Rejoining the FSF's Board, All Hell Broke Loose (for Me and My Family)
They generally seem to target anyone who thinks Richard Stallman (RMS) should be in charge or thinks alike about computing
Links 22/01/2026: Slop Fantasy About Patents, Retirement in China Now Reached at Age Seventy
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/01/2026: Why Europe Does Not Need GAFAMs, XScreenSaver Tinkering, FlatCube
Links for the day
Salvadorans' Usage of GNU/Linux Measured at Record Levels
All-time high
Links 22/01/2026: Ubisoft Layoffs Disguised as "RTO", US "Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting To GAFAM", Americans' Image Tarnished Among Canadians (Now Planning to "Repel US Invasion")
Links for the day
10 Easy Steps to Follow for Digital Sovereignty in Nations That Distrust GAFAM et al
When "enough is enough"
No, the Problem at IBM/Red Hat Isn't Diversity
Microsoft Lunduke also openly shows his admiration for Pedo Cheeto
Do Not Link to Linuxiac Anymore, Linuxiac Became a Slopfarm
now Linuxiac is slop
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why Slop Companies Like Anthropic and Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Basically Plunder and Rob People
This article was published last night at around 10
Richard Stallman (RMS) at Georgia Tech Tomorrow
After the talk we'll write a lot about "cancel culture" and online mobs fostered and emboldened in social control media
Software Patents by Any Other Name
There is no such thing as "AI" patents
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 21, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 21, 2026
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part VIII - Salary Cuts to Staff, 100,000 Euros to Managers Busted Using Cocaine (for Doing Absolutely Nothing, Just Pretending to be "Sick")
Today we look at slides from the union
Gemini Links 22/01/2026: Forest Monk, Aurora Observation, and Arduino Officially Launches the More Powerful Arduino UNO Q 4GB Single-Board Computer
Links for the day
Next Week is Close Enough for Wall Street Storytelling About 'Efficiency' by Layoffs for "AI"
This coming week GAFAM and others will tell some creative tales about how "AI" something something...
Google News Still a Feeder of Slop About "Linux", Which Became Rarer in 2026
Our main concern these days is what happened to Linuxiac. Bobby Borisov became a chatbots addict.