France has a history of social revolution

HE citizens of France want changes and they reckon that a bit of a mess (unrest if not localised chaos) can bring about those changes.

I am sceptical but supportive as I recognise that without modest disruption of some kind (not only criticism) no meaningful change will come about.

At the EPO, for example, there are industrial actions right now.

When did something innocent turn from benign (e.g. Charlie Chaplin) to malicious or “warning sign”?

believe I purchased my first (maybe only) bowtie in 2001 (possibly 2000) at a shop called Manchester Wippell (of Manchester). Or maybe “J Wippell & Co. Manchester”; some people I know call them “Wippells” (with an S) . There’s a very long history to these folks. It moreover seems that they still exist and operate in the same address (9-21 Princess St, Greater, Manchester M2 4DN). They’ve survived a lot. The name and reputation matter. I also got a silk handkerchief there once.

I recently wrote about James Bottomley, the Microsofter who helps Microsoft inject back doors and kill switches into Linux.

Bottomley became “known” for wearing bowties; it’s like he attempted to make these garments of clothing/apparel his “signature”, I honestly don’t know why (the bizarre logic of it).

Like “normal” ties, they serve no practical function, they only ever get in the way (e.g. inside some food), but those are class or hierarchy symbols (worn at the expense of one’s comfort).

I dress casually every day. I don’t try to project “value” using cotton and leather.

Like many of his background, Bottomley seems pretentious and uncarting about Software Freedom, he’s just chasing money. Money, money, money.

Because of this man (Bottomley), I nowadays associate bowties (in the context of software) with bad people. I think I’ve now worn a bowtie for well over a decades.

Even when Bottomley was at IBM/Red Hat/Novell I already didn’t like and didn’t trust him. I had good reasons to feel that way.

Numbers on paper. Mostly debts.

oday I heard about US elections. It turned out that voting had gotten harder. There’s an active effort to suppress voters, especially those who wish to vote against dictatorship.

“Anyway,” a friend said, “to sum up “The Nerd Reich” in an overly short sentence: the US cannot have both billionaires (or trillionaires) and democracy. But I’ll add that the billionaires are mostly paper tigers and only appear rich through accounting tricks involving massive debts. Any government with a backbone could force them to blink. However, the Citizens United case means that bribery is legal in the US for now and thus no backbone will be present.”

This new report shows the allegedly richest person in the world borrowing money. To quote:

SpaceX reportedly intends to borrow $40 billion to procure 360,000 Nvidia Rubin Hey Hi (AI) accelerators, infrastructure.

Why would a billionaire (or trillionaire) borrow so much money?

There’s a clue somewhere in there.

His companies mostly lose money, so how can billionaires (or trillionaires) exist on top of debt? MElon is on drugs, he’s no business genius. He cheats everywhere, all the time.

I was reminded of this verse: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.”

Another is Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

I’m nonreligious, but this is about greed in general.

Reject bots, ask to speak to a person

was confronted by (or faced with) an effort to do a process with a voice bot earlier today, but asking to speak to a person worked again, as before, provided I was willing to wait for a human to become available.

So even though businesses try to force us to waste time with nonsense, there’s still an “opt-out” for those insistent enough.

Crossposted from Techrights

Sirius no more

here is an ongoing effort to finish off “Reform UK”, which is a company disguised as a political party that breaks the law and panders to racists – a “skill” mastered by Farage and his enablers.

The boss of SIRIUS OPEN SOURCE LTD (not founder!) is probably still hiding in the US (from the engineers that he robbed; he had engaged in pension fraud) and being a “Conservative” that he is (and has long been), maybe he even supports Reform UK.

Will their fate be similar?

“Hi,” an old mate said today, “hope you’re both well!”

My wife received this too.

“The latest Sirius news is that they’ve been liquidated by HMRC,” we got told, so we’ve checked.

Read on

It’s coming

HIS morning it was a horrible weather over here, but since around 11AM it has been nice and sunny, so we’ve taken full advantage. At the moment I am reading some comments about IBM layoffs, posted in reply to something I had published.

“Don’t forget,” someone pointed out, “tomorrow we’re also getting rid of all those bloody Anderon lot which, of course, isn’t a layoff, wink wink. Enjoy your last day as IBMers, lads. I can’t wait to just ghost the lot of them, give them the cold shoulder, and be done with the whole sorry bunch of rejects.” (Source)

Another one said: “I think they are going to be good but a little poking and investigating deeper into the numbers will reveal that is all bullsh-t and accounting games TO make them look good. We love to play this three-card monte with our financials.”

So it looks like the layoffs tomorrow are broader and will be hidden.

This is the state of “IT”. Hidden layoffs, silent layoffs, covert layoffs.

Almost 15

oday is a cloudy day and it looks like I’ll be leaving while it’s still rather dark. We’re not even in October yet!

I recently realised that my bicycle turns 15 in a matter of months, maybe about 19 months. It still works OK. It’s a German brand, but I think it’s built and assembled in Taiwan based on a German design.

I need to inflate my tires again today. There are particular things we need to buy and some of them are quite heavy.

I believe this bike can turn 20 and still be used. That’s better than many ‘modern’ cars.