For absolutely no reason at all, here’s a nice recent guide to setting up an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server.
Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.
-
Setting up an IRC server
-
Build Your Own Breadboard NES
Extremely cool. You can find the code and instructions on GitHub. I would love to build something like this sometime…
-
Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month
This is just all kinds of fucking stupid. Unless you give Discord, a company which leaked 70,000(!) peoples full government IDs less than 6 months ago, now wants everyone’s ID. Don’t do it. Take your community somewhere, almost anywhere, else.
Here’s a good look at some of the top alternatives, ranked by Functionality, Openness, Security, Safety, & Decentralization.
Posted in Links -
Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance
Matthew Guariglia for the EFF DeepLinks blog:
Ring is rolling back many of the reforms it’s made in the last few years by easing police access to footage from millions of homes in the United States. This is a grave threat to civil liberties in the United States. After all, police have used Ring footage to spy on protestors, and obtained footage without a warrant or consent of the user. It is easy to imagine that law enforcement officials will use their renewed access to Ring information to find people who have had abortions or track down people for immigration enforcement.
Don’t use Ring. Don’t let your friends use Ring.
-
X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok
The French offices of Elon Musk’s X have been raided by the Paris prosecutor’s cyber-crime unit, as part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child pornography.
No additional comment necessary, but… why is X still available on the App Store? Apple is deliberately allowing a CSAM app to be downloaded. Their credibility is shot.
-
Coconaut Hotel
When I read the description for this game, “Run a madcap hotel in this Marx Bros management sim” my eyes turned into cartoon heart shapes.
Posted in Life -
Icons in Menus Everywhere — Send Help
Jim Nielsen (no relation) waxes design-philosophic on the atrocious menus in macOS Tahoe. Unfortunately you can’t solve this one with accessibility settings.
-
Why Isn’t Online Age Verification Just Like Showing Your ID In Person?
A good and thorough explanation by Lisa Femia for the EFF blog, helpful even if you know the deal already.
Posted in LinksTagged free speech -
Humans May Be Able To Regrow Teeth Soon
-
Public Domain Day 2026 Around The Web
Good news, everyone! It’s January 1st, and among other things, that means it’s Public Domain Day here in the United States of America. A bunch of great works from the past are now no longer under copyright, far fewer than should be if not for the interference in our legal system by massive copyright rent-seekers like Disney, but it’s still something. Here are some of the newly-free works that I think are worth your time, along with links to some more collected lists.
- The works of P.G. Wodehouse, one of the funniest and sharpest writers I’ve ever read. His Jeeves series is just tremendous. Yes, this is where calling all butlers “Jeeves” comes from in popular culture.
- The works of jazz composer, saxophonist, and bandleader Charlie Parker.
- The work of Hannah Arendt, an incredibly important writer on history and philosophy. Her most known work is probably The Origins of Totalitarianism which is still as vital today as it was when she wrote it post-World War II. Perhaps moreso.
- The Sam Spade detective story The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.
- The Skeleton Dance, the first Silly Symphonies short made by Ub Iwerks for Walt Disney.
- Blackmail, the first sound film by Alfred Hitchcock
- Singin’ in the Rain, the seminal musical
- Rhapsody in blue by George Gershwin
As of right now all of these works are now free to use, distribute, and display in public free of charge in the US! You can find a bunch more to dig through at Public Domain Review, Everybody’s Libraries, and the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University.
As always, the absolutely essential Internet Archive is the best place to find copies of all these things in various formats for streaming, reading, downloading, etc.
Posted in Posts
