Notices by Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)

Recommendations please: Which VPN protocol should I study?

I'm getting overwhelmed with the options!

I want something with a spec, & in common use. Ideally a simpler protocol.

(I'll discuss it in the context of my hypothetical hardware, not that that'd make much difference)

20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 1) - Ploum:
https://ploum.net/2024-10-20-20years-linux-desktop-part1.html

The Rise and Fall of ChatGPT? - Gary Marcus: https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-chatgpt (Substack)

Visiting OpenAI - Jill Walker Rettberg: https://jilltxt.net/visiting-openai/
I guess its OpenAI's job to be unrealistically optimistic...

The value-destroying potential of AI - Sam: https://apperceptive.substack.com/p/the-value-destroying-potential-of (Substack)

Supervised AI isn't - Cory Doctorow: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/23/automation-blindness/

Ugly Numbers from Microsoft and ChatGPT Reveal that AI Demand is Already Shrinking - Ted Gioia: https://www.honest-broker.com/p/ugly-numbers-from-microsoft-and-chatgpt (Substack)

Reverse-engineering the division microcode in the Intel 8086 processor - Ken Shirriff: http://www.righto.com/2023/04/reverse-engineering-8086-divide-microcode.html

This strikes me as the same algorithm Ben Eater wrote on the 6502 to stringify numbers: https://invidious.tiekoetter.com/watch?v=v3-a-zqKfgA

Stable Diffusion is a really big deal - Simon Willison: http://simonwillison.net/2022/Aug/29/stable-diffusion/#atom-everything

A Base64 Surprise - Cendyne: https://cendyne.dev/posts/2022-01-23-base64.html

If you ask me, the most vital projects at this point to help FLOSS succeed is to create and share art! Entertainment! This fiction doesn't have to be about software freedom, just as long as you don't sell out to DiRM-peddlers.

Undermine ideology that DRM's necessary to fund storytelling, that large capital is necessary to achieve high production quality! And, if you want, show what free software's capable of whilst ensuring it is capable of that.

Also, we need libre smartphones...

1/2

How Better Performing Websites Can Help Save the Planet - Jack Lenox @ Wordcamp Europe 2019: https://videopress.com/v/TNnN0TTm

An old favourite...

Software freedom isn’t about licenses – it’s about power - Alyssa Rosenzweig: https://rosenzweig.io/blog/software-freedom-isnt-about-licenses-its-about-power.html

She talked about the state of libre GPU drivers last year at LibrePlanet2021! Since she made some major contributions to that space.

I finished reading World Wide Waste by Gerry McGovern. I'd consider it essential reading for anyone working with computers!

https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/world-wide-waste/

It's well cited (though I still need to check those citations) & uses maths effectively to make it's point.

That computers + (surveillance) capitalism is actually worse for the environment than the predigital era. That we can and must move slow and fix things, and fund that vital work directly.

Don't get me wrong, computers can absolutely help us regain our environmental efficiency. They just *aren't*.

Not as long as we're:
* constantly syncing everything to the cloud,
* expecting same-hour delivery,
* funding our clickbait via surveillance advertising,
* buying a new phone every year,
* using AIs because they're cool rather than useful,
* running bloated software & webpages,
* buying into "big data"
* etc

Computing is environmentally cheap, but it rapidly adds up!

Free Markets - Cory Doctorow "Locus Mag": https://locusmag.com/2021/03/cory-doctorow-free-markets/

The challenge of opening a file downloaded from the web on mobile absolutely disgusts me, I go in the exact opposite direction in my browser engine dev!

Access to Tech, Tech to Live - Molly Watt @ beyond tellerrand Düseldorf 2021: https://inv.riverside.rocks/watch?v=o1sDnFZkfQA (YouTube via Invidious)

Everything you ever wanted to know about the accessibility tree - Russ Weakley @ A11y Bytes: https://invidious.namazso.eu/watch?v=Kv2l_u4NDB8 (YouTube via Invidious)