Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links - Education Watch, BBC Apologizes for Selling Out, BP Oil Lingers

Reader's Picks



  • Science



  • Health/Nutrition



  • Security



    • Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery

      Copy is not theft. Most of the privacy problems people have are Windows exploits and the power non free software owners help themselves to in the first place. As usual, the NYT is lost in a maze of details and misses the big picture.





  • Defence/Police/Aggression



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



  • Anti-Trust



  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules
      Independent revealed programmes were made by third-party in pay of governments and firms

      Techrights has written a lot about Microsoft BBC corruption. The apology is a good first step. The BBC should abandon broadcast to focus on publicly financed program production and public domain distritution to free itself from money problems. More money, not less should be provided for this.





  • Privacy

    • Austrian Law Student Faces Down Facebook
      In less than a year, Mr. Schrems's one-person operation has morphed into a Web site, Europe Versus Facebook, and a grass-roots movement that has persuaded 40,000 people to contact Facebook in Ireland, where its European headquarters are located, to demand a summary of all the personal data the U.S. company is holding on them... Mr. Schrems filed the grievance after using a provision of Irish law to obtain from Facebook a copy of all of the information the company had been keeping on him. ... Facebook was routinely collecting data [1,222 pages worth] that he had never consented to give, like his physical location, which he assumes was determined from his computer's unique address identifiers, which can be traced geographically. Facebook was also retaining data he had deleted...




  • Education Watch

    • The F-word of Ed Reform — and its unholy alliance with right-wing union-busting
      There is a word for this kind of anti-democratic collaboration between business and government, but we haven’t used it much since the 1940s: fascism.

      This article is a good run down of what's going on in the world of civil servant union busting and "education reform"



    • More Anti-Charter School Resolutions in Washington State

      It looks like a good backlash it on the way. That's good for Washington state and a good example for the rest of us.



    • 60% Teach for America , Inc. recruits and 40% credentialed teachers in Lousiana

      Louisiana would have money for their schools and other things if government had the guts to tax the multinationals that run cancer alley.



    • New Orleans: Beachhead for Corporate Takeover of Public Schools
      New Orleans is important in the national education debate, but not for the reasons we commonly hear; it is important because it is the beachhead for a national movement to remove schools from local democratic control and accountability. The privatization trade-off is that the public sacrifices control of schools for a privatized system that delivers better education for the same tax dollar. While the citizens of New Orleans certainly lost control of their schools [after Hurricane Katrina], it cannot be said that they have received a better education, if that also means an equitable education, nor can it be said that it came at the same cost. ... Hurricane Katrina was the perfect storm for the corporate education movement: No democracy, no unions, and a goal of 100% privatization of all public schools. It is no mystery why they chose New Orleans as their beachhead.


    • The Myth of “Choice” in New Orleans: How the Recovery School District, Through the Charter School Movement Has Cheated Nearly 5000 New Orleans Students Out of Access to Real “Choice”


    • An essay by a former Teach for America recruit: Why I did TFA, and why you shouldn’t
      I’m glad I ‘did’ TFA. Twenty years ago they filled a need. Putting a few hundred barely trained teachers into the toughest to serve schools was one of those concepts that was ‘so crazy, it might just work.’ We weren’t always doing ‘good,’ but we also weren’t doing much harm. Our five or six hundred teachers were pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. Over the next twenty years, TFA did a lot of growing, but not a lot of evolving. They replicated their institutes and increased their regions. The 2011 corps is nearly 6,000, twelve times as big as the cohorts from the early 90s. Unfortunately, the landscape in education has changed a lot in the past twenty years. Instead of facing teacher shortages, we have teacher surpluses. There are regions where experienced teachers are being laid off to make room for incoming TFA corps members because the district has signed a contract with TFA, promising to hire their new people. ... TFA has participated in building a group of ‘leaders’ who, in my opinion, are assisting in the destruction of public education.


    • Occupy the DOE in DC from March 30th to April 2nd
      The key lever is the vaunted score on high-stakes state standardized tests, used to justify a slew of controversial decisions. As a result of ten years of this kind of reform, we are experiencing schools just as segregated by race and social class as they were in the 1950s. We in the United States are also experiencing a teaching profession that is constantly undermined and under attack. The culture of punishment and competition created under No Child Left Behind and now Race to the Top has proven to be a massive failure.


    • The NAACP Resolution on Charter Schools: Segregation is Not Innovation




  • ACTA

    • ACTA bombshell: Germany refuses to sign anti-piracy treaty amid protests [Update]
      With protests against the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) set to rage across Europe on Saturday ... More recent reports suggest Germany is simply delaying its decision on signing ACTA until a later date, rather than refusing to sign the treaty outright. This is a lesser victory for ACTA opponents, but still a sign that the public outcry against the agreement is having an effect.

      Go protest till they kill it properly.









  • Recent Techrights' Posts

    Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
    Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
    Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
    The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
    The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
    The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
    Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
    days ago they hired a new US editor
    Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis"
    Links for the day
     
    Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
    Links for the day
    Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
    That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
    Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
    Unlike so many other sites
    The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
    I decided to check how they're doing as a business
    Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
    Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
    IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
    For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
    I myself know, from personal experience
    Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
    Links for the day
    Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
    Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
    HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
    When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
    New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster
    It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
    Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital
    Links for the day
    They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
    They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
    The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
    The future of the Web does not look bright at all
    Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
    Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
    YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
    Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
    We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
    Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
    'Tech' is Not Technology
    Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
    IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
    The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
    Yes, Master
    Gaslighting by actual racists
    Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
    Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
    Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
    Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
    Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
    Bobby Borisov got lazy
    10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
    In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
    IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
    A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
    Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
    Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
    Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
    Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
    When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
    Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
    Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
    Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
    Links for the day
    Links 24/07/2025: Convicted Felon Quits UNESCO, "Vibe Coding Goes Wrong", and Signalgate Gets Worse
    Links for the day
    Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
    Links for the day
    Misinformation is Not Intelligence
    It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
    Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
    Links for the day
    Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
    So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
    Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
    Busted.
    'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
    In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
    BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
    Fagioli takes the work of other people
    [Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
    Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
    The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
    Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
    Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
    Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
    New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
    "Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
    Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
    When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
    Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
    A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
    PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
    PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
    Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
    The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
    Getting More From AnalogNowhere
    Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
    Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
    LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
    Over at Tux Machines...
    GNU/Linux news for the past day
    IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
    IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
    Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
    Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
    Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
    Links for the day
    Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
    At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
    Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
    "Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled