squirrel @squirrel@mastodon.org.uk

Yay! I just learned that MozillaVPN with a GUI for Linux ubuntu(+) and cool integration with firefox has dropped. I'm all about supporting Mozilla at $5 a month to help them get over all financial dependence on google. https://launchpad.net/~mozillacorp/+archive/ubuntu/mozillavpn

@stevenroose @Gux

Yes, your satoshis are owned by you and cannot be stolen outside of someone getting hold of your private key.

That's completely besides my point though. The network is permissionless and anyone can set up a node and interact with it. Nobody can stop you from sending and receiving sats. That's because the network and the Bitcoin-core source code is a commons.

Not sure how many people are aware of this but there is a project called Lemmy which is basically an open source federated Reddit which at least appears to care about moderation on the surface.

Its alive and in the wild too!
https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy

Here is an instance
https://lemmy.ml/

Why Sci-Hub matters: new empirical study shows that "articles downloaded from Sci-Hub were cited 1.72 times more than papers not downloaded from Sci-Hub...the number of downloads from Sci-Hub was a robust predictor of future citations"
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-020-03806-w

I find this highly discriminating... where's the "I'm totally a robot, thanks for noticing" checkbox?!

If my silly unscientific prediction comes fully true, we can hope for a future where USA politics are more aligned with the rest of the world. In truth we are shifted far to the right compared to most developed countries.

As I've said before, the Democrats are not actually a liberal party. They are a center-right party in coalition with a liberal wing. And even the liberal wing consists of 'Progressive' and 'Socialist' factions.

Anyway, we can hope…

[fin]

#Calligraphy #Art #FediArt #MastoArt and a little bit of #Lisp

#WIP

TL;DR city in Brazil had a ~76% immunity, but after 7-8 months an unexpected new insurgence happened. The researchers see 4 possible explanations: (1) overestimation of the immunity (taken from blood donations), (2) immunity doesn't last 7-8 months (previous UK study confirmed immunity lasted 6 months but didn't test longer), (3) new strains overrule immunity of old strains and (4) new strains are just generally more contageous so R0 is higher

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00183-5/fulltext
#covid19

I love that someone somewhere believed that this is a sensible alternative to rewriting some websites.

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/south-african-government-releases-its-own-browser-just-to-re-enable-flash-support/

There is no such thing as a backdoor that only lets the good guys in. Together with Tresorit, @threemaapp and Tutanota, we are calling on EU policy makers to rethink anti-encryption proposals that would introduce backdoors in encryption platforms: https://protonmail.com/blog/joint-statement-eu-encryption/

"In a room full of top software designers, if two agree on the same thing, that's a majority"

-- Bill Curtis

No broadband at home for your child's homeschooling?
The government can help: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/about-increasing-mobile-data?fbclid=IwAR1U57y5ff4xVnxdylYl6GCAnHxRpJWuzHUYFtSGM7BFPSxjSLMfsHrEiT4

4,295,426 accounts
+75 in the last hour
+5,839 in the last week

WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using the app

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/whatsapp-users-must-share-their-data-with-facebook-or-stop-using-the-app/

In 2016, WhatsApp gave users a one-time ability to opt out of having account data turned over to Facebook. Now, an updated privacy policy is changing that. Come next month, users will no longer have that choice.

Et en français :

WhatsApp pourrait fermer votre compte si vous refusez de partager vos données avec Facebook

https://www.developpez.com/actu/311610/WhatsApp-pourrait-fermer-votre-compte-si-vous-refusez-de-partager-vos-donnees-avec-Facebook-une-Maj-de-ses-conditions-d-utilisation-lui-permettent-de-collecter-presque-toutes-vos-donnees-personnelles/

Wipeout 2097 (aka Wipeout XL) had a pretty awesome soundtrack. It's amazing to think the game is almost 25 years old