Newsletter: In a media landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds that aim to manipulate and extract, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is choose to read what you want, when you want, without anyone watching over your shoulder.

Here’s how to use #RSS.

https://www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-rss/

About time a search engine did this.
Picture research is time-consuming enough without also having to trawl through page after tedious page of false, redundant, pointless imagery claiming to be something it isn't.
#FuckAI #duckduckgo

“The difference between the IT bubble in the 1990s and the AI bubble today is that the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 today are more overvalued than they were in the 1990s.”
https://gizmodo.com/wall-streets-ai-bubble-is-worse-than-the-1999-dot-com-bubble-warns-a-top-economist-2000630487

So this is how Newgrounds is apparently handling age verification RE: UK's Online Safety Act.

Their ultimate solution is... unique.

Good day all! Episode 33 of Fireside Fedi is now live on Peertube and Castopod. Thank you again to @quintessence for joining me and discussing #trust & #safety on the Fediverse as well as #mentalheath . You can find the sources below.

#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live/w/qFNiiX2NZ9e3UQGUQTVpWW
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live/@firesidefedi/episodes/quintessence-hachyderm-nivenly-trust-and-saftey-livestream-2025-07-28

#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaJ15PXgRihoPku7JMdDnsw

All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live

#stream #owncast #live #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #fedicast #livestream #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree

If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now!

(comic) I am busy https://workchronicles.substack.com/p/comic-i-am-busy

Killantringan Lighthouse
#DumfriesAndGalloway #stranraer #sunset #photography #fotografia #fotografie #canon

oh BRILLIANT - we use mightynetworks.com at work as a forum to connect with beach nesting bird managers across the UK & Ireland. It works great, connecting folk in a very niche job working in many different organisations.

Now guess what! They've blocked UK access thanks to the OSA. Unbelievable. Not even sure we can let our Irish colleagues know what's happened?

I fussed around with the finish for a long time. There were a lot of mistakes and indecision and learning... but eventually it ended up just kinda black and glossy. I wish the wood grains were visible but I'm happy enough with this. Grandpa's guitar is whole again. 🎸

If you want to make sure your rc.conf / rc.conf.local has the correct syntax you can simply run it via /bin/sh like so:

$ sh /etc/rc.conf

Any wrong declaration will then be reported from the shell.
(Since the settings are nothing more then shell variables)

#FreeBSD

"Why does it say the hospital is equipped for stroke emergency? We were there. They denied!"

"Maybe you should contact them that their website is wrong. This is dangerous."

"It wasn't on their website..."
*starts googling a specific question*
"Weird now it says no instead of yes."

I go to take a look and realise with horror, yes: Google AI summary.

Google AI summary made my parents-in-law visit the wrong, unequipped hospital for a potential stroke emergency. 🙃

Yey, I saw gotosocial is adding the 98 theme, so I stole the preview to add to my user css, sadly I had to delete some comments to get it to fit into the number of characters for the custom css, but at least now my page looks fancy :D

https://polymaths.social/@sotolf

And here a link to the PR

https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/pulls/4348

Oh yes, UK news sites are rolling out warnings about the security risks of VPN apps. At the same time they haven't been pointing out all the security risks created by the requirement to have everyone give their ID etc to any old random website/service. They aren't talking about the Online "Safety" Act vastly increasing the chances of data breaches of people's ID documents.

The Future is NOT Self-Hosted

https://www.drewlyton.com/story/the-future-is-not-self-hosted/

…over the past few weeks – with the help of a growing group of rebels fighting to take back ownership and control over their digital lives – I did something radical: I built my own cloud.
[…]
self-reliance isn't freedom — it's the luxury of retreating from a system that others can't escape.

wholesome https://youtu.be/xRky6OTiBvE?si=wmpSO0EddZqvEBNS

My latest piece for The Register describes my experience turning on DNS security (easy) and the overall progress on securing DNS across the Internet (poor). https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/systems_approach_column_dns_security/

“Jade Hurrell’s son is one of a growing number of unvaccinated children to have fallen seriously ill from the disease. She wants other parents to understand the danger”
https://www.thetimes.com/article/e14603ea-2870-476a-a8e8-38a524540650?shareToken=5dea0ee431f6297057bfe509791923a3

Microsoft, AWS, and even France-based OVHCloud say that they can't keep the US Government's hands off your data, if requested under the CLOUD Act.

👉 You can't guarantee data sovereignty using a provider that is subject to US law, even if your data is housed outside the US.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/microsoft_admits_it_cannot_guarantee/

見上げたらパラレルワールド！

If you use #genAI you can no longer claim to "care about quality". That is just a contradiction. You actions are saying loudly that you do in fact not give a shit about anything of the sort.