Bonum Certa Men Certa

Turning 13.5 and Why We're Needed in the Age of Misinformation and PR as 'News'

Web in January 2020



Tim Schwab on Gates
Yesterday's remark from Tim Schwab, who closely studied these matters



Summary: Now that many if not most news sites are in the business of selling something (not information but agenda) our work here is needed more than ever; we're turning 13.5 this week

THIS WEEK we turn 13.5 years. I was 24 when the site started, working towards finishing my Ph.D. thesis at the time.



Shane and I met in Digg.com -- a site many consider to be the first real "social network". The idea of Boycott Novell was his and he wanted me, a SUSE user at the time, to join him. I soon did. Believe it or not, back then in 2006 the site's theme was more or less identical to what it is today (we've tweaked it a little since) and mostly the scope expanded. From writing short posts without pictures we soon evolved -- seeing a sharp growth in traffic -- to long form, complete with pictures and lots of additional stuff. By 2008 we already needed to leave shared hosting and have our own virtual machine. Nowadays we have a dedicated physical server, albeit shared with Tux Machines.

"Last month we modernised the site at the back end by adopting containers."Over the weekend, despite not publishing much (new articles), we still delivered an average of over 2GB of traffic per hour. We actually saw an increase this past year and since the pandemic began we've seen no noticeable difference. We carry on going.

Last month we modernised the site at the back end by adopting containers. That also meant some upgrades and we now have a more stable system which should have fewer and shorter downtimes. Last week we spent a number of hours updating the Wiki, bringing more of it up to date (to the extent feasible). Many EPO insiders (and outsiders alike, to a lesser degree) use the wiki as an index of news about their workplace. We totally support EPO staff in the face of Campinos/Battistelli tyranny. Oddly enough, we've been focused on this issue since the summer of 2014, which means almost half the lifetime of this site. Last year, after working on workflow improvements, we returned to covering Free software and software freedom perils on a more frequent basis. It was long overdue, considering the age of the entryism, including the abduction of GitHub in 2018.

"In terms of stability, we're doing alright and our morale is high."Today, or overnight, I am toiling or hacking on some code, trying to make things more efficient; anything that can be automated, e.g. IRC logging (and generation of HTML logs), is being increasingly automated. That leaves us more time for writing. A decade ago we managed to produce about 10 daily posts, on average, but with a full-time job (to pay the bills) I cannot do that anymore. Looking over at Phoronix, Michael too seems to be struggling somewhat. Aside from the fact there's not as much stuff to cover (the pandemic means fewer announcements are made), his wife recently lost her job, months ago they had their first baby, and the economy in general went down the toilet. This sort of 'downturn' is guaranteed to kill a large number of Web sites, as every recession does. The same is true for businesses of all sorts. We still don't know when -- if ever -- we can go back to the gym. Life may never feel the same after this pandemic. "Consumer confidence" as they call it hit rock bottom; people feel reluctant to spend money and more importantly they don't feel safe enough going outside, except for essential tasks like food-buying. People don't want to get ill, either, knowing that hospital wards are already full and may be too contaminated to be worth the risk (going to the hospital for non-critical issues may be more dangerous than staying home because of risk of contracting something else). As it stands, cancer diagnosis rates have gone down, quite likely due to reduced capacity to screen and detect. So there's an inadvertent and indirect death toll, too. Historians may assess that one day.

In terms of stability, we're doing alright and our morale is high. Many people out there are starting to lose their sanity (various factors contribute to this) and boredom leads people to nutty conspiracy theories that the online "conspiracy industry" can reaffirm. Back in February we wrote about the role of envy (when empires decline or altogether fall it's easy to become jealous of those who pick up the pieces, inheriting what was built).

Please be very well aware that the Web is becoming polluted with unbacked conspiracy theories; we're almost embarrassed to see some of the people who link to Techrights, distorting what we actually said. We gave some examples before. We're more strict than ever about fact-checking and some articles take weeks to write because of the research they require. We're hardly being bashed online anymore and that's a positive sign. We intend to keep it that way.

Recent Techrights' Posts

'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
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
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
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
 
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
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)
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
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
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day