@mike805 Now that makes it clear to me, thank you. Wasn't aware some of these pre-configured boxes are based on Kodi.

"People have always used tools to reduce mental effort. Notes preserve information. Calculators automate arithmetic. Search engines locate facts. Cognitive scientists call this cognitive offloading: moving part of a mental task into the external environment. Offloading is not automatically harmful. It becomes risky when the outsourced process is the same process a learner needs to practise."

https://www.notion4teachers.com/blog/the-ai-learning-divide-when-technology-supports-thinking-and-when-it-replaces-it

France has made planned obsolescence a criminal offense, becoming one of the first countries in the world to treat deliberate product shortening as a serious crime.

Manufacturers caught intentionally designing electronics, appliances, or other goods to fail prematurely or become unusable, whether through hardware flaws, software updates that slow performance, or other engineered limitations, now face steep penalties: up to 2 years in prison and fines reaching €300,000, or as high as 5% of their average annual turnover in the most serious cases.

This landmark law, building on France’s earlier consumer-protection framework and reinforced by high-profile scandals (such as the 2017–2018 investigations into smartphone “battery-gate” slowdowns), explicitly targets both physical and digital tactics used to push consumers toward frequent replacements.

The legislation is more than just punishment, it’s a cornerstone of France’s broader “right to repair” agenda. By criminalizing practices that drive premature disposal, the government aims to:

- Slash the massive environmental footprint of electronic waste,
- Protect consumers from hidden “forced upgrades,”
- Encourage manufacturers to prioritize durability, repairability, and longer-lasting support.

France’s tough stance sends a clear message to global tech and appliance companies: the era of disposable-by-design products is ending. By leading the charge on sustainability and consumer rights, the country is helping shift the world toward a more circular economy, one where goods are built to last, repaired when needed, and discarded only when truly necessary.

@mike805 @mcc @jplebreton

That compression algorithm was called Jbig2 and it was the crux of a zero-click iMessage remote execution exploit: https://projectzero.google/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html

Sleep tight.

@BastilleBSD this keeps reminding me of what a old friend said they went through at marine training : their instructor was showing them different weaponry

1. this is your future rifle it can shoot 3xxx feet per second

BUT since we ARE the MARINES we dont discount effiency

2. this is a crossbow it shoots at 400 feet per second (laughter from a recruit)

Instructor gets THAT LOOK and VOICE and gets up in their face:
CAN,
YOU,
RUN,
FASTER?

One thing I agree with some so-called 'sovereign citizens' about, is that the law ought to distinguish between private and commercial activity, and apply most of its enforcement to the latter.

Laws that bind citizens in their private activity are only democratically valid if they arise from a broad public consensus (eg which side of the road to drive on). Whereas making money is a strong incentive, that needs an equal and opposite disincentive to avoid it encouraging antisocial behaviour.

(1/2)

@mike805
> Elon Musk basically did that for the Far Right. That was a major ideological coup in that he took away a key piece of Leftist infrastructure and repurposed it for "his side."

I'd say *centrist* infrastructure, rather than leftist. A lot of leftists used to get kicked off Titter too, for failing to tow the centrist party line (eg criticising the Clintons, defending Palestinian rights). But otherwise I agree 100%; buying Titter was a political play, not a financial one.

@cy

@mike805
> But who maintains the infrastructure and does the work?

You asking that on a social network maintained mainly via volunteers and donations. As is Wikipedia. Yes, they have a handful of paid staff, but there's no way they could pay for all the hours of work that goes into writing, editing and community decision-making.

> Those people have to be incentivized

You say that as if getting paid is the only way to do that, but clearly that's not the case.

@cy

@leavex
Can't answer for the EU commission but AC and solar power is quite the match made in heaven; when the need for cooling is the greatest the solar energy matches. So build more solar in anticipation of more AC rollout in the EU.
@EUCommission

Je n’avais pas encore pris le temps de partager avec vous cette illustration de Sirène au bain réalisée le mois dernier !

Si elle vous plaît, elle est disponible en quelques exemplaires seulement sur la boutique en ligne en print A5 :

🧜‍♀️https://amandebleue.sumupstore.com/product/print-sirene-au-bain

#illustration #art #mastoart #artist #fantasy #fantasyart

On continue avec les derniers modèles en stock, avec cette affiche A4 de liseuse 📚🌷

Il n’en reste qu’une ! Si elle vous plaît, vous la retrouverez par ici :
📖 https://amandebleue.sumupstore.com/product/affiche-liseuse-aux-fleurs

#illustration #art #artist #mastoart #booklovers #book

Il ne reste plus qu’un seul exemplaire de cette affiche A4 de Gorgone, qui ne sera plus réimprimée !

Si vous voulez en profiter, retrouvez-là par ici:
🐍 https://amandebleue.sumupstore.com/product/affiche-gorgone

#illustration #art #mastoart #artist #mythology
#fantasy

The kids are alright. From an email I received today:

I am writing to express my huge appreciation for your incredible work and dedication to maintaining curl—one of the most essential building blocks of the modern internet.

I am a 16-year-old IT student from Poland. Inside my home server laboratory, your tool is a vital part of my daily life. Whether I am writing backend web tools, integrating APIs, or creating system automation scripts, curl is always the absolute backbone of my setups.

@mike805 @ai6yr if you want to make minidisc mixes with track information from your 200 cd jukebox, its your lucky day! I have some circa 1998 Perl code and a 2.4 kernel driver parallel port s-link interface that pulls data from cddb to do it all: https://web.archive.org/web/20010307021608/https://jukebox-control.sourceforge.net/

@markmetz @mike805 Well the issue is these companies act in some really law skirting ways, a lot like tobacco companies. the Drilled podcast is excellent and covers a lot of great reporting around this

ok this is so cool. this LED manufacturer designed maybe the coolest demo brochure possible for their COB LEDs, its a ringed binder where each of the pages is a PCB that you plug in and can control via touch to toggle which strips are on :o
#electronics

@mike805 @markmetz How about some sort of happy medium where we acknowledge we need these products and have a market for them but we can still regulate the anti-social anti-environmental bits?

This badass woman should be all over the news but sadly her accomplishment is under-reported.

The linguistics summer school in Leiden attracts the smartest, hardest working, most sincere and driven students imaginable. Every one of them wants to learn, wants to master their field and wants to make new meaningful advancements. I’m in awe of them.

And you know what I haven’t seen once all week? Haven’t heard anyone even mention using all week, among these people who love languages the most?

Large language models.

@mike805 my loads are done in 90 mins - less than a vented dryer. But the important thing is that the energy used by them is extremely low. @kcarruthers @corduroy