@Mr Penguin
CEO of ThinkPenguin, Inc and co-host of syndicated radio show Free Talk Live.
Relays (1)
- wss://relay.ditto.pub โ read & write
Recent Notes
We have instituted a new policy @ ThinkPenguin! We will NOT comply with domestic or foreign age verification laws for either our PenguinVPN services NOR systems. This is an extension of already established policies of the LibreCMC project of which we're the primary sponsor. LibreCMC is a free software distribution that is geared at embedded distributions.
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-t4-gnulinux-laptop
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-t4-gnulinux-laptop
"'Children cannot be left with the responsibility for staying away from platforms they are not allowed to use,' Karianne Tung, Norway's minister of digitalization, said in the statement. 'That responsibility rests with the companies providing these services.'"
And why shouldn't they be allowed to use them? This is dumb. There is nothing wrong with a bit of social media use. The problems stem from a lack of other activities and personal responsibility. I'll be the first to say that people at large are TOO attached to their phones, and I don't even have a phone with a SIM card (though I do use wifi on the go here and there). Point is though there is no good reason to blame tech for your personal failures and life choices.
If there were blame to go around I'd call out these very politicians for FORCING phones on us through things like automated tolling and parking meters that demand you pay them with your smart phone.
And why shouldn't they be allowed to use them? This is dumb. There is nothing wrong with a bit of social media use. The problems stem from a lack of other activities and personal responsibility. I'll be the first to say that people at large are TOO attached to their phones, and I don't even have a phone with a SIM card (though I do use wifi on the go here and there). Point is though there is no good reason to blame tech for your personal failures and life choices.
If there were blame to go around I'd call out these very politicians for FORCING phones on us through things like automated tolling and parking meters that demand you pay them with your smart phone.
"'We want a childhood where children get to be children,' Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in the statement."
Really???? Your calling TEENS children???? Ya know in my dads day he was driving at 14 and working before even that. So was I for that matter.
Historically 13 year olds and were getting married and getting pregnant... and now we're calling them children???
This infinttization of youth has gotten ridicules. It was ridicules when before, but this is just outright absurd.
Hell, we even sent kids to WAR @ 14-16 throughout the ages.
Even if you can fathom a rational reason to ban tikes (0-5) from screens... and even if we took it to a bit of an extreme and upped that to 6-7 it would still be far less ridicules than these bills.
Bans never work and the appropriate response is getting back to the basics and teaching kids about personal responsibility.
God- I hate that choice wording- but it is what it is.
We should lower the working age or eliminate it and then make kids earn their keep with employment and the likes. I don't mean teens either. Like actual children. Putting kids to work is just part of growing up as play is. The lack of life skills has been demonstratively dangerous to society and we're heading toward economic collapse and poverty.
I'm not against all social or progressive ideas, but teaching kids restraint is a far better solution since you can't pass law after law that regulates normal human behavior. Sometimes people just need to take their own interests into account and do whats best for them. What is best for me is not necessarily what is best for you and one size fits all NEVER works. This is exactly that. A one size fits all solution that will NEVER work. Plus some collateral damage.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-24/norway-wants-kids-to-be-kids-with-social-media-ban-for-under-16s
Really???? Your calling TEENS children???? Ya know in my dads day he was driving at 14 and working before even that. So was I for that matter.
Historically 13 year olds and were getting married and getting pregnant... and now we're calling them children???
This infinttization of youth has gotten ridicules. It was ridicules when before, but this is just outright absurd.
Hell, we even sent kids to WAR @ 14-16 throughout the ages.
Even if you can fathom a rational reason to ban tikes (0-5) from screens... and even if we took it to a bit of an extreme and upped that to 6-7 it would still be far less ridicules than these bills.
Bans never work and the appropriate response is getting back to the basics and teaching kids about personal responsibility.
God- I hate that choice wording- but it is what it is.
We should lower the working age or eliminate it and then make kids earn their keep with employment and the likes. I don't mean teens either. Like actual children. Putting kids to work is just part of growing up as play is. The lack of life skills has been demonstratively dangerous to society and we're heading toward economic collapse and poverty.
I'm not against all social or progressive ideas, but teaching kids restraint is a far better solution since you can't pass law after law that regulates normal human behavior. Sometimes people just need to take their own interests into account and do whats best for them. What is best for me is not necessarily what is best for you and one size fits all NEVER works. This is exactly that. A one size fits all solution that will NEVER work. Plus some collateral damage.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-24/norway-wants-kids-to-be-kids-with-social-media-ban-for-under-16s
"Norway Set to Become Latest Country to Ban Social Media for Under 16s"
You know the nanny state is in full swing they start mandating seat belts, and then helmets for under 14s.
But for christ sake- social media? Weren't we suppose to be pushing kids to be more social, not less???
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/norway-government-plans-social-media-051028496.html
You know the nanny state is in full swing they start mandating seat belts, and then helmets for under 14s.
But for christ sake- social media? Weren't we suppose to be pushing kids to be more social, not less???
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/norway-government-plans-social-media-051028496.html
Headline: "France Confirms Data Breach At Government Agency That Manages Citizens' IDs"
And soon every app, site, OS, and device will be demanding your ID.
If you think age verification is a good idea your an idiot.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/22/france-confirms-data-breach-at-government-agency-that-manages-citizens-ids/
And soon every app, site, OS, and device will be demanding your ID.
If you think age verification is a good idea your an idiot.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/22/france-confirms-data-breach-at-government-agency-that-manages-citizens-ids/
In relation to the story of the attorney general in Florida going after an AI company because their product provided information that helped a school shooter.
A comment elsewhere I found:
"As for the makers of ChatGPT being stupid -- no I don't think that either. They're among the smartest people on the planet. If anything I'd say they were careless, for not building a red-flag alert into their product that reports suspicious behavior. Maybe there should be laws that require such a thing."
Seriously? Was a manufacturer of a library card catalog also careless for not getting the library to sign off on a statement saying they'd have someone constantly supervising visitors using the card catalog ??? I mean, someone could look up a book on explosives! Heaven forbid.
No, in a free society people can use tools in ways they weren't intended and it's the liability of the person using said tool, not the liability of the toolmaker to jump through hoops to make sure a product isn't used improperly.
There may be some argument for warning users of said tool about risks when using said tool or improper use of said tool even, but liability for foreseeable misuse is certainly not something that aught ever be extended to the tool maker. The danger there is enormous and puts the economics of tool development at risk. We do want car manufacturers to continue making cars don't we? We want hammer manufacturers to continue making hammers don't we? If we continue down this path our economy will come to a standstill and we'll see even more people ending up in poverty.
We already have major poverty because of the excessive regulations/laws. If you can't start a business without scale you end up with mon/du-opolies/unemployment & out of control costs of living.
A comment elsewhere I found:
"As for the makers of ChatGPT being stupid -- no I don't think that either. They're among the smartest people on the planet. If anything I'd say they were careless, for not building a red-flag alert into their product that reports suspicious behavior. Maybe there should be laws that require such a thing."
Seriously? Was a manufacturer of a library card catalog also careless for not getting the library to sign off on a statement saying they'd have someone constantly supervising visitors using the card catalog ??? I mean, someone could look up a book on explosives! Heaven forbid.
No, in a free society people can use tools in ways they weren't intended and it's the liability of the person using said tool, not the liability of the toolmaker to jump through hoops to make sure a product isn't used improperly.
There may be some argument for warning users of said tool about risks when using said tool or improper use of said tool even, but liability for foreseeable misuse is certainly not something that aught ever be extended to the tool maker. The danger there is enormous and puts the economics of tool development at risk. We do want car manufacturers to continue making cars don't we? We want hammer manufacturers to continue making hammers don't we? If we continue down this path our economy will come to a standstill and we'll see even more people ending up in poverty.
We already have major poverty because of the excessive regulations/laws. If you can't start a business without scale you end up with mon/du-opolies/unemployment & out of control costs of living.
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq05gxtz00vfxzdela6xrhyvtqxmaxqz65d9hws3d56e72trqgcmvsxk52hs nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpqz06laf0rhhwzd7h0y303hfp6e7r29e8...
@Q.U.I.N.N. @nprofile1q...
Yea, there are a lot of problems with it. Same with facial recognition and that's when you have a database of drivers licenses for comparison. It doesn't even get into the cameras.
It's humorous in that while the technology is scary and orwellian in and of itself it's so much worse when law enforcement actually uses it. People don't understand how truly dangerous law enforcement is to the ordinary individual nor how bad our criminal justice or court system(s) are. We've wrongly trained our 4 year olds that law enforcement is your friend. They're not. Law enforcement is actually terrible and would get an F if properly evaluated like other government entities. They are more of a threat to the public than the small bit of risk that other bad actors are and we're entertainingly (?) funding them through taxation.
Yea, there are a lot of problems with it. Same with facial recognition and that's when you have a database of drivers licenses for comparison. It doesn't even get into the cameras.
It's humorous in that while the technology is scary and orwellian in and of itself it's so much worse when law enforcement actually uses it. People don't understand how truly dangerous law enforcement is to the ordinary individual nor how bad our criminal justice or court system(s) are. We've wrongly trained our 4 year olds that law enforcement is your friend. They're not. Law enforcement is actually terrible and would get an F if properly evaluated like other government entities. They are more of a threat to the public than the small bit of risk that other bad actors are and we're entertainingly (?) funding them through taxation.
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Apparently they rolling out this technology that scans our eyeballs online and forcing people to prove their a 'real human'. I thought the constant harassment of captchas was bad. Somehow they've made things even worse.
2
Fingerprint reader support in GNU/Linux is getting better every day. ZorinOS and Trisquel now support our USB fingerprint reader and there is additional documentation for each to reflect some slight differences on how to enroll given the different software of each distribution. There is also actually a difference between ZorinOS Lite and ZorinOS Core documented as well.
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/optical-usb-fingerprint-reader-gnulinux-edition-tpe-f4500
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/optical-usb-fingerprint-reader-gnulinux-edition-tpe-f4500
"Is Linux Mint In Trouble?"
Talk about a click bait headline!
umm, changes that are a consequence of Canonical f'ing things up don't equal a doomed distribution. Clem (lead developer) and team (like umm yea they have multiple full time paid developers) have done an excellent job overall and most of what is needed to make a Debian base of Linux Mint work well are already being done by MX Linux.
Linux Mint should switch to the Debian base, then import the graphics stack from MX Linux Advanced Hardware Support (AHS) repository to get back the sole real benefit that building off Ubuntu offers. That is the LTS enablement stack which basically consists of improved hardware support (graphics and kernel). Either from the repository if manually installed or via point releases.
Talk about a click bait headline!
umm, changes that are a consequence of Canonical f'ing things up don't equal a doomed distribution. Clem (lead developer) and team (like umm yea they have multiple full time paid developers) have done an excellent job overall and most of what is needed to make a Debian base of Linux Mint work well are already being done by MX Linux.
Linux Mint should switch to the Debian base, then import the graphics stack from MX Linux Advanced Hardware Support (AHS) repository to get back the sole real benefit that building off Ubuntu offers. That is the LTS enablement stack which basically consists of improved hardware support (graphics and kernel). Either from the repository if manually installed or via point releases.
1
"Microsoft Reveals Major Price Increase For All Surface PCs"
I just want to put out a reminder that most PCs still cost less than a car, but that won't be the case shortly. If you think you might be needing a new computer in the next 3-4 years you might want to purchase one while you can still afford it.
A few months ago a nice PC might have run $2500. Today you'll probably be paying $5,000 or more.
Tomorrow ... well.. when there is no supply remaining (and this time is coming shortly) there will be no amount of money you can spend to get a new PC.
Why am I putting out this reminder? I've been having to check our prices on components every few days to a week or two to ensure they're in line with the market. We had to just update some of prices on the higher end 2.5" SSD drives that my company sells. In just ~1-2 weeks we went from being a little bit on the high side price wise for these drives to losing money on 4TB and 8TB SSDs.
I should also point out they're not even going to be making 8TB SSD drives shortly. The one company that produced these drives I do believe announced they were exiting the consumer market.
Do you want a new car or a new computer/phone/graphics card/etc? You're probably going to have to pick one or the other in the months to come. Or at least the vast majority of us in the middle class will be facing that real world decision.
I just want to put out a reminder that most PCs still cost less than a car, but that won't be the case shortly. If you think you might be needing a new computer in the next 3-4 years you might want to purchase one while you can still afford it.
A few months ago a nice PC might have run $2500. Today you'll probably be paying $5,000 or more.
Tomorrow ... well.. when there is no supply remaining (and this time is coming shortly) there will be no amount of money you can spend to get a new PC.
Why am I putting out this reminder? I've been having to check our prices on components every few days to a week or two to ensure they're in line with the market. We had to just update some of prices on the higher end 2.5" SSD drives that my company sells. In just ~1-2 weeks we went from being a little bit on the high side price wise for these drives to losing money on 4TB and 8TB SSDs.
I should also point out they're not even going to be making 8TB SSD drives shortly. The one company that produced these drives I do believe announced they were exiting the consumer market.
Do you want a new car or a new computer/phone/graphics card/etc? You're probably going to have to pick one or the other in the months to come. Or at least the vast majority of us in the middle class will be facing that real world decision.
1
