171–180 of 396 posts
Great rabbit hole but the flaw is the bulb might not be obvious but the book would be on a network scan someone suspected electronic dead drops.
“As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth’s final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to informatio…
The "information wants to be free" discourse of just under 30 years ago feels so charmingly naive now that we've seen how lies are also information and can travel even better using the same flow.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the paradox of tolerance. There are a few suggested "resolutions", the most common being "tolerate everything except intolerance".
With “intolerance”, of course, being defined however the person advocating for this resolution pleases, making the outcome indistinguishable from any other form of authoritarianism.
It’s one of those things we will never get perfect but I find we generally do it well enough to continue advocating for it. The problems start when people with extremely polarized beliefs fixate on marginalized groups that are not actually causing issues (transphobia), or they find something incredibly fringe then deliberately twist it and use it for fear mongering (satanic panic). Neither is done in good faith. They’re looking for a tool to project their moral frameworks in an aggressive, invasive manner.
“Live and live” is a pretty good role of thumb to live by for most people in most cases
[flagged]
I was actually thinking this could be used to fight against US book bans and other preventions of freedom of speech https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/22/us-libraries...
Android loves to auto-disconnect you from any Wifi network that doesn't provide Internet. You need to go through a bunch of arcane settings to disable that feature.
This was my thought as well. I think the workaround is to have the device present itself as a captive portal type of thing, like you might encounter at a Starbucks, so that when the user is prompted to "Sign In" they immediately find the dead drop. However I haven't actually played with this and don't know if that would work, or if the network would require DNS to function properly.
“As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth’s final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to informatio…
The "information wants to be free" discourse of just under 30 years ago feels so charmingly naive now that we've seen how lies are also information and can travel even better using the same flow.
Some of us remember when they assured us that the novel virus in china was not to be afraid of.
This project and especially one of the closing notes[1] reminds me of a more mature DIY project to make a mesh node using a simple solar lamp[2]. I love the creativity on display here and I especially appreciate all the links to the other blogs and sites that helped you along the way. 1: > I was talking with a friend about this idea and the storage limitation and he thought it would be cool to have these devices form…
In the USA, the books that are banned are for public schools. They talk about topics like (gasp) LGBTQ and sex things! Now where the USA censors routinely is financial censorship. If you can afford the thing thats fincially banned, the sure, its not banned. But if you cant afford it, youre screwed. And, if you work for a company, they can fire you for any/no reason, INCLUDING your speech off work. In the USA, its "fr…
The book that is commonly at the number one spot on "banned book" lists has what would always be called hardcore pornography in the middle of the book. It depicts fellatio literally (not just implying it). It has no educational value, and is meant, within its context, to be erotic/lewd. I can link directly to it on archive.org, I can link to that exact page even. I do that sometimes in these arguments, and I'm downvoted until my comment is hidden but not before a bunch of jackasses say "and what does it matter"...
Sorry, don't want my 10 yr old looking at it in the school library. No, take that back... I'm not sorry. And you're all awful people for wanting that in the school library. Or dumb for not realizing that it's in the book. What I've come to realize as I've gotten older, is that some people think they have a right to show smut to my young children behind my back and want to call me a Nazi if I object.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was actually thinking this could be used to fight against US book bans and other preventions of freedom of speech https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/22/us-libraries...
What bans? Are the publishers banned from selling them, or are the buyers banned from buying them? Or both?