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#castopod — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #castopod, aggregated by home.social.

  1. :haacknet: Haack's Networking :haacknet:

    ✅️ I am currently in my 20th year in education and over the years I've worked in both secondary and college. I've been a sysadmin longer, having started at the NM Coalition for Literacy in 2000 while finishing college on the "long plan." I pivoted in 2018 back to the private sector and then back again to education in 2022. I've maintained this side company/DBA, Haack's Networking, throughout the entirety and I still have clients to this day that I began with in the early 2000s.

    ✍️ I've always been struck by the prohibitive cost of software. As a young kid, I remember my father purchased me MetroWorks CodeWarrior for learning C for my LC475 68K mac. I read somewhere in 1992 that I should learn C so that's why I asked for it. Over those next few months, it's hard to explain the frustration I felt at trying to keep the abstractions separated. Open firmware, vs. mac's OS at that time, vs., the IDE and C I was supposed to be learning. It helped at disambiguating abstractions, but was useless at teaching me C. I still suck at C. The package was pretty costly nevertheless.

    📻️ While in my early days as a sysadmin, I remember the Adobe suites, Microsoft suites, etc., that we were obligated to keep up to date and purchase for our non-profit. We also had tons of macs, 5 laser printers, early flat panel displays, an early NAS, and a hard firewall (Sonic something). It was not sustainable for this non-profit whatsoever. After the prior Director left - who I still consider a mentor and friend to this day - others took over who made an effort to reduce spending and keep the tech lifts in line with reality. It was slow and painful, but/and I learned that costly is not better.

    🔗 Public Services: haacksnetworking.dev

    💡 It turns out that costly is still not better. In the link above, I share floss-based services I freely host for the community. Registration is open; there are associated and differing TOS/COC. I welcome community members to come by and/or join. We have a nice Matrix community and a small but dedicated Masto #community - Costs should not prohibit end users from using compelling solutions. And, of course, those solutions should also respect user freedom. Consider signing up!

    🔗 Donate: liberapay.com/oemb1905/

    #mastodon #matrix #peertube #castopod #navidrome #jellyfin #pixelfed #gitlab #nextcloud #floss #debian #opensource #linux #selfhosted #smallbusiness #educator #education #freesoftware

  2. Destroying Autocracy – July 24, 2025

    Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.

    It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.

    DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.

    FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.

    Featured Item

    TechDirt writes:

    Over the last year or so I’ve seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump train.

    Yes, there are the big name folks who everyone knows about and who didn’t really surprise anyone—Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Elon Musk (pre-fallout)—but the more troubling trend has been watching younger entrepreneurs and VCs listen to their podcasts, read their posts and books, and slowly nod along to the idea that democracy is holding back innovation.

    Fascism For First Time Founders

    We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.

    The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery

    BleepingComputer reports:

    Ukraine arrests suspected admin of XSS Russian hacking forum

    Radio Free Europe reports:

    Drone Attacks Even The Odds For Ukrainian Frontline Units

    BitDefender reports:

    Europol targets Kremlin-backed cybercrime gang NoName057(16)

    Bruce Lawson reports:

    CMA designates Google and Apple, proposes measures

    TechCentral reports:

    Italy takes Meta, X and LinkedIn to court over unpaid tax

    404 Media reports:

    Hacker Plants Computer ‘Wiping’ Commands in Amazon’s AI Coding Agent

    Archivists Recreate Pre-Trump CDC Website, Are Hosting It in Europe

    The Register reports:

    Radio geeks reveal how to access crucial hurricane data after US Department of Defense cut it off

    The Register reports:

    AI data-suckers would have to ask permission first under new bill

    Laptop farmer behind $17M North Korean IT worker scam locked up for 8.5 years

    TechPolicy reports:

    The Case for Europe’s Backing of Digital Civil Society Groups

    Open_Future shares:

    Licensing, Levies, and the Limits of Copyright

    Open Forum Europe announces:

    OFE Publishes Landmark Study Calling on Funding Europe’s Open Digital Infrastructure through an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF)

    DarkReading reports:

    Stop AI Bot Traffic: Protecting Your Organization’s Website

    Speaking of your websites, LocalGhost has:

    This page is under construction: a love letter to the personal website

    Hamish Campbell has:

    The Open Media Network: More Than Just a Tech Project

    This is what your site could be a part of.

    Neutral

    TechPolicy reports:

    Brazil Has a Bridge to Defending the Internet

    The Financial Times:

    UK government seeks way out of clash with US over Apple encryption

    When you have three sets of c^nts involved, it’s hard to know who to route for.

    TechPolicy opines:

    Enforcement of EU’s Tech Laws Should Not Be Traded Away

    And they are right.

    The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

    So-called newspaper, The Wall Street Journal reports:

    White House Prepares Executive Order Targeting ‘Woke AI’

    MIT Technology Review reports:

    America’s AI watchdog is losing its bite

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

    Axon’s Draft One is Designed to Defy Transparency

    EuroNews reports:

    UK online legislation could threaten Wikipedia volunteer safety, group to argue in court

    Pariah States

    The Register reports:

    UK uncovers novel Microsoft snooping malware, blames and sanctions GRU cyberspies

    Silicon Valley engineer admits theft of US missile tech secrets

    Four new Android spyware samples linked to Iran’s intel agency

    TechCrunch reports:

    A surveillance vendor was caught exploiting a new SS7 attack to track people’s phone locations

    Hackers exploiting SharePoint zero-day seen targeting government agencies

    BleepingComputer reports:

    Microsoft links Sharepoint ToolShell attacks to Chinese hackers

    Big Media

    Today in Tabs reports:

    Billionaires Destroyed American News Media On Purpose

    Mother Jones reports:

    Colbert’s Cancellation Is a Dark Warning

    Akademie shares:

    Investigating AI datasets: A journalist’s guide

    Big Tech

    Where’s Your ‘Ed shares:

    The Hater’s Guide To The AI Bubble

    🙂

    The Next Web reports:

    ChatGPT advises women to ask for lower salaries, study finds

    404 Media reports:

    A Startup is Selling Data Hacked from Peoples’ Computers to Debt Collectors

    Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs From Dead Artists Without Permission

    Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain

    Grindr Won’t Let Users Say ‘No Zionists’

    EuroNews reports:

    Meta ran ads that fundraised for Israeli Defence Forces, analysis shows

    Meta won’t sign EU’s AI Code, but who will?

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

    Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance

    Ars Technica reports:

    Researcher threatens X with lawsuit after falsely linking him to French probe

    xAI workers balked over training request to help “give Grok a face,” docs show

    TechCrunch reports:

    Microsoft says it will no longer use engineers in China for Department of Defense work

    For privacy and security, think twice before granting AI access to your personal data

    Terror

    The Register reports:

    IRL Com recruits teens for real-life stabbings, shootings, FBI warns

    Cybersecurity/Privacy

    TechCrunch reports:

    Serial spyware founder Scott Zuckerman wants the FTC to unban him from the surveillance industry

    BleepingComputer reports:

    CISA and FBI warn of escalating Interlock ransomware attacks

    DarkReading reports:

    Translating Cyber-Risk for the Boardroom

    Fediverse

    Connected Places has:

    Fediverse Report – #126 July 22, 2025

    Bonfire is:

    Exploring a Bonfire Geosocial Extension

    MarkWrites reflects on:

    Being a Mastodon Moderator

    Mastodon announces:

    A nudge to fund our future

    If you are on the Fediverse please donate to your instance’s maintainers. Especially if they ask nicely.

    Aphyr opines:

    The Future of Forums is Lies, I Guess

    Fediverse favorite, Elena Rossini shares:

    The Future is Federated: Year 2

    ActivityPub for WordPress has an update:

    7.1.0 — Polishing Tables

    We Distribute has details:

    WordPress-ActivityPub v 7.1.0 Introduces Following Capabilities

    Randall Black show us:

    How to Install and Set Up Castopod for Your Podcast

    TechCrunch reports:

    Threads adds improved content performance metrics for creators

    Slightly Federated Social Media

    The Register reports:

    Selling your digital soul to use Bluesky’s DMs isn’t just a bad idea, it’s the law

    CTAs (aka show us some free love)

    • That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
    • Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS.

    Keep fighting!

    Ringleader, Battalion
    Reuben Walker
    Follow me on the Fediverse

    #126 #ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress

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