Happy New Year & Public Domain Day!

https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2026/01/public-domain-day-2026

My resolution for 2026 is just to do the best I can.

@sidereal Strongly agree. I don't like wireless because I use headphones constantly and hate having to charge them. And I'm a scatter brain so I'm constantly losing that tiny little adapter for wired headphones.

Taking my headphone jack away may be the worst thing Apple has ever done to me personally.

@wesdym @mcc Admittedly I need to learn more about it. From what I understood there were many Chromium options but Firefox was limited. I also thought a fork could go forward free of Mozilla dependency. Again, I obviously need to learn more about browsers.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a law that would require every Texan to prove their age before downloading apps while forcing minors to get parental permission for each individual download and purchase.

The Act is akin to a law that would require every bookstore to verify the age of every customer at the door and, for minors, require parental consent before the child or teen could enter and again when they try to purchase a book.

#privacy #ageverification

https://volition.angiebowen.com/texas-age-verification-block/

RE: https://mastodon.world/@oldrawgabbit/115798242681526219

I'm a big fan of being an extraordinarily boring person.

"The Bible Says So" Bill introduced in Florida

“A school district may not discriminate against or penalize a student on the basis of expressing a religious, political, or ideological viewpoint or for engaging in religious, political, or ideological expression in the same time, place, and manner and to the same extent that other similarly situated students may engage in speech or express views at a public school,”

https://www.joemygod.com/2025/12/florida-republicans-intro-the-bible-says-so-bill/

MTV died. All the cool, unique artists like off “120 minutes” are now fighting the blandest algorithms imaginable.

We wanted a place to watch weird stuff you can’t see on mainstream channels. So….

Fedi MTV goes live in ONE HOUR.

https://tv.theindiebeat.fm/

#FediMTV #TIBtv #music #nowPlaying #FediTips

Getting sick with an autoimmune disorder is always rough. It's been two weeks and my head has finally stopped feeling wonky. I still get out of breath doing small things around the house though. And still too fuzzy brained to do any writing. At least school is on hold. But I really want to get some writing for Volition done during this break. Okay, end ramble.

@mcc They should fork Firefox before it turns AI. Let us keep a non-Chromium alternative without the future Firefox enshittification.

I've made a new post up on my blog!

"Data Rights: a model for cyber liberation" is up at https://riverseeber.net/blog/post/data-rights/

I talk about trying to find a way to explicitly tie the movements related to #privacy, #DRM, #enshittification, and #interoperability together into something more meaningfully coherent.

I also discuss the ways that corporate power plays into this.

Boosts appreciated!

#antitrust #capitalism

RE: https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/115763239718391783

This is horrifying. I can't imagine this happening to me and just having to live with it.

@jaredwhite @slashdot I'm a renter and I deeply fear the day when smart locks will no longer be optional.

I don't want any part of my house to be connected to the internet.

Well Being in Times of Algorithms

https://www.ssp.sh/blog/well-being-algorithms/

#HackerNews #WellBeing #Algorithms #MentalHealth #DigitalWellness #TechImpact

According to The Epstein Transparency Act, the Department of Justice can ONLY redact names and faces of victims or withhold child sexual abuse material.

And so they released more files. But what they overlooked is, some of the documents have already been released, and by comparison we can now see how they have redacted the files:

Picture 1: Document previously released in 2024.

Picture 2: The same document, but now with Trump's name redacted, as released recently by the DoJ.

THIS IS ILLEGAL.

SCOOP: Flock left at least 60 of its AI-powered, people-tracking surveillance cameras exposed and livestreaming to the open internet. We tracked ourselves. The exposure highlights the power of these cameras and types of things they're tracking. Not just cars.

https://www.404media.co/flock-exposed-its-ai-powered-cameras-to-the-internet-we-tracked-ourselves/

Phew. Got the flu during finals week. But I survived, managed to pull out A's, and now I have a whole month off before next semester starts.

Still feeling kind of blah, but I can scroll today without feeling nauseous. That's a plus!

“Though Match Group claimed to a survivor who reported Matthews that they had “permanently banned” him, the suit contends, he remained active on Hinge — and was even promoted as a “Standout” match. ”

Edit: I should have included a trigger warning for this.

https://themarkup.org/impact/2025/12/16/dating-app-rape-survivors-file-lawsuit-accusing-hinge-tinder-of-accommodating-rapists

I've been silent both here and my website for the past week. It's a shame because a ton is happening right now that I should be talking about. Alas, finals week demands exclusive attention. One more week then a much needed break.

I feel like this is the future of creativity online. Collaborative and financially equitable to those whose primary work contributed to the project.

https://blog.metalabel.com/this-book-is-a-financial-experiment/?ref=the-metalabel-blog-newsletter