We celebrated May as Maintainer Month the last few years.

But Big Tech gets ever more extractive: we're seeing reductions of in-kind and financial support of FOSS foundations and maintainers. And all the people who founded Maintainer Month have been laid off by their employers. Employers, it should be said, who talk a big game about supporting FOSS.

A better world is possible, but we ain't getting there through capitalism or for-profit tech companies.

Now's a good time to dig into co-ops.

Rachel Carson on writing:

"Writing is a lonely occupation at best. Of course there are stimulating and even happy associations with friends and colleagues, but during the actual work of creation the writer cuts himself off from all others and confronts his subject alone. He moves into a realm where he has never been before — perhaps where no one has ever been. It is a lonely place, even a little frightening."

More at https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/08/28/rachel-carson-house-of-life-writing-loneliness/
4/n

Kara Deloss and I kickstarted Maintainer Month –though Kara and Abby Mayes really carried it these last few years – and it was always meant to be bigger than us or our employers. And I hope it carries on.

But people need to know that, though we were true believers in the cause, the corporate commitment was never any deeper to maintainers than it was to, say, equity and inclusion.

It's a systems problem that we're not going to solve within the current system.

Our local "newspaper" (San Diego Union-Tribune) didn't have the guts to print this cartoon Sunday. Shame on them.
#ChunderRoad

Enough was a long time ago.

https://www.forever-wars.com/if-we-were-in-hell-would-we-see-more-children-burn-than-we-see-in-gaza/?ref=forever-wars-newsletter

@thepawhavenrescue I feel like I'm being judged.

I really believe this. We were told capitalist entities will act to minimize costs and maximize profit. But what corporations actually seek to do, for whatever reason, is minimize *labor* cost. They prefer to bear any other kind of cost. They will minimize labor costs even if it increases overall costs and/or hurts profits

I'm sorry but requiring me to ask permission before entering Nick Cleggs house, going into his fridge and making a Scooby Doo-style sandwich then leaving with all of his valuables and his wife would 'kill' my desire to eat a Scooby Doo-style sandwich from the contents of Nick Cleggs fridge and run away with his wife

I just want to bring up a brief point. I see a whole lot of extremist MAGA politicians asking us patriots whether or not we "believe that illegal immigrants should be afforded due process the same as a US citizen".

The correct answer to that question is NO.

No, as in NO, I don't "BELIEVE" that, for the same reason I don't "believe" that 1+1=2, or that the word "Dog" starts with a "D". It's not a question of belief. It's just a straight up FACT that the United States Constitution in the Fifth Amendment says "...nor shall ANY PERSON be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process".

"Any person" is not subject to the whims of belief, interpretation, or manipulation. It means any person.

Cats and string. Always a great combo. The Wonder Twins, Sir Wobbles and Cupcake. #caturday #CatsOfMastodon

It's an interesting fact that fewer than 17 % of Real cats end their lives with the same name they started with. Much family effort goes into selecting one at the start ("She looks like a Winnifred to *me*"), and the as the years roll by it suddenly finds itself being called Meepo or Ratbag.

Terry Pratchett, The Unadulterated Cat

#GNUTerryPratchett, #SpeakHisName, #Discworld

Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...

Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

#GNUTerryPratchett, #SpeakHisName, #Discworld

It looked like the sort of book described in library catalogues as
"slightly foxed", although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had beed badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well.

Ah, but has it been hedgehogged?
Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

#GNUTerryPratchett, #SpeakHisName, #Discworld

If your corporation's business model relies on lawbreaking, your corporation has no legal legitimacy.

We don't let narcotic cartels and trafficking rings list themselves on the stock exchange: why should OpenAI or Facebook be any different?

North Carolina voted for Trump in all three of his POTUS elections.

As North Carolinians struggle to recover from Hurricane Helene, Trump just denied their FEMA request.

Conservative voters: Understand this—he does not care about you. He never has. Stop voting for him. He will destroy you, too.

If they wanted to,

Congress could impeach or invoke the 25th

The Supreme Court could reverse his policies

The media could report his lies and illegality accurately

U.S. billionaires and corporations could stop funding and bribing him

They don't want to. The problem isn't him. It's them.

I stopped using Reddit because the company was feeding my words into a large language model, and I stopped using StackOverflow because the company was feeding my words into a large language model, and I will stop using Discord if the company starts feeding my words into a large language model

https://www.theverge.com/apps/673208/discord-ai-forums-anniversary-gamechat

OF EXTRAORDINARY BEAUTY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-nJwKmtk9U&t=19

Community Heroes: Sari Esther served thousands of meals to flood victims post-Helene

#SariEsther #CommunityService #Helene #Volunteerism #ComingTogether #BeautifulSoul

@jarkko Kind of interesting, but it bugs me the way the number pad doesn’t fully cover the screen when closed.

Upon further consideration, I feel should point out that many low-cost or "free" VPNs very much do route other peoples' traffic through your system. This is an incredibly common practice among "free" or low-cost VPN providers. Just understand that running a VPN is not cheap, and anyone giving it away for free probably does not have your best interests at heart.