Owen King

Today it was announced that the US Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), created in 1968, will dissolve.
https://deadline.com/2026/01/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-dissolves-trump-1236664444/
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/business/media/corporation-for-public-broadcasting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CVA.ziN2.toF-U2q2425S&smid=url-share

In the 2024 US presidential election, Trump won 91% of counties considered "news deserts".
https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2024/12/05/trump-wins-news-deserts-in-landslide/

The end of the CPB means more news deserts.

#CPB #journalism #publicmedia

"If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open source app distribution sources as we know them today," said Prud'hommeaux.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/29/googles_dev_registration_plan_will

Over the last 12 years, F-Droid has been my only source of Android apps I could confidently trust not to be full of antifeatures. This is a big step backwards.

#FDroid #antifeatures #Android #Google #FOSS

For archives and libraries folks: Should descriptive metadata record the processes by which collections have been described? I've been arguing that it's important for finding aids to include information about who created the descriptions and how they've been revised over time.

An article I wrote came out last month: "Archival meta-metadata: revision history and positionality of finding aids"
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-024-09443-z

#archives #metadata #positionality

@FediFollows

➡️ @amarchivepub - American Archive of Public Broadcasting

#PublicBroadcasting #PublicBroadcasters

Great news for #reddit users (especially those with low vision)!

As most people know, new restrictions on use of the reddit API are forcing most 3rd-party apps to shut down. However, the #FOSS app #RedReader has been granted an exemption for non-commercial #accessibility focused apps. This is because lots of folks have put lots of effort into making RedReader work with screen readers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedReader/comments/145du4j/update_4_redreader_granted_noncommercial/

Just got a fresh can of the good stuff.

#eletronics #repair #rightToRepair #DeoxIT

Dear Microsoft, please be aware that you cannot achieve #groundedness for your hallucinating LLM by simply hyperlinking each of your output sentences to the top Bing result for that sentence.

Since Amazon announced the end of the #AmazonSmile program, I've been turning to eBay for some online purchases. It turns out that eBay can be quite good for used books!

For purposes of detaching more from Amazon, I'm wondering what other vendors people like, especially for books and #used goods.

@mmasnick @adamghill
Oh, wow, this is lovely. I just started using it, and it felt natural.

I really like how the link at the bottom left of the toot takes you to a view of it from your own instance, allowing you to interact with it.

If only #fediview was another tab I could click, besides "Home", "Local", "Federated", etc!

I pay for access to the NYTimes. I like to read it on my phone, in a web browser.

For every single article I read, it gives me this damn notification asking me to install and use their proprietary app. And every single time, I click "No Thanks." It's getting old. I wish they'd chill.

#antifeatures #nytimes

which makes me especially grateful to the #CatsCradle for using #Etix instead of TicketMaster.

#Carrboro #ChapelHill #localMusic

I was giving a computing ethics lecture about #FOSS and #antifeatures around 2014. Lots of folks there had never even heard of #FDroid. Maybe it's still not well-known?

F-Droid is a repository and platform for FOSS on Android. Their app can manage your other apps, much like you do with the Google Play Store.

When I need an Android app for something, I always check F-Droid first, just because the apps are trustworthy.

@fdroidorg

I'll reply with a few of my favorite apps on F-Droid... 🧵