Links for 2017/11/25

November 25, 2017 ยท 2 minute read

Back on track, sort-of. Links from just two days, lots of stuff left out.

Alice’s NNTP Server

This is a bit of nostalgia, a bit late for Thanksgiving. (Younger readers should take note that the “free speech” debate in the 90s was very different from the one going on now, and you should not, therefore, assume that the writer of this filk is a Nazi.)

Google’s Eric Schmidt admits political censorship of search results

A bit of info from the WSWS, which doesn’t exactly match the headline. Schmidt is proud of working to fight “fake news” and “weaponized content”. Since these categories include entirely accurate news from politically unacceptable sources like WSWS, it’s fair to call it political censorship, but they should do a better job making the connection in the lede of the article.

This should really not surprise anyone. I’m in search of a solution, but all the available ones make pretty bad compromises.

Ethical Tech Giving Guide

Want a computer or mobile device that really doesn’t spy on you, and really isn’t evil? Maybe try one of these refurbished older devices with pure Free Software distributions. They’re (IMO) overpriced for what you get, but that’s partly a knowledge/time/money tradeoff.

We can’t trust Facebook to regulate itself

More on surveillance capitalism. Basically, points out that keeping user information secure is not profitable for Facebook, and costs them money. They’d rather only do it to the extent it’s necessary to get scandals out of the news.

We reward the wrong things

More from the Web Of Shit.

Maybe the link is that gender is bullshit, and autistic people are not good at pretending bullshit doesn’t stink.