think Rianne and I share the feeling that many companies (not just GAFAM) hide their true debt, fire people in secret, and basically bluff their way in this increasingly fake economy where “everyone is doing it!” (Cheating)

We spoke about this with Rianne’s parents today. It’s too easy to be critical of the likes of Amazon, IBM, and Google. Rianne brought up Microsoft as well.

It seems like legal action is heading IBM’s way now.

“If you have any questions at all,” one organiser told me ahead of the first such talk since 2018. “please don’t hesitate to reach out. We have several questions prepared for RMS during the Q&A, and if there’s anything you’d like us to raise as well, I’d be more than happy to include it!”

At the time I was too busy dealing with bullies.

To the host, Georgia Tech, there was a political burden. Quoting the organiser (definitely not a Cheeto fan): “P.S. I also really love that y’all hate on our Grand Cheeto Master. I know you’ve mentioned not being fond of air travel on your blog, which I completely understand – but if you ever find yourselves visiting the South, we would be more than happy to host you here at Georgia Tech for a session! Until then, we look forward to continued collaboration with y’all remotely – and, of course, welcoming the “devil” down to Georgia soon…”

“Thank you again for your time and support.”

I was not too far from Georgia on my last trip to the US, but that was 20 years ago and I don’t plan to come to the US again (not any time soon).

I hope RMS will visit the UK some time soon and preferably not too far from here (he was in Oxford).

Today: 08:23:41 up 963 days, 23:35, 2 users, load average: 7.52, 7.19, 7.07

New epic record on the way. Should a reboot be done after then?

T seems clear to me that IBM, the company that existed like 70 years before I was born (by another name though), is going to vanish in a number of years. There’s nothing in the pipeline, only massive cuts and downsizing.

What will we say to future generations about “the company that once existed” and was “called IBM”?

don’t think the quote above has anything to do with Snowden and an actor claiming to be Snowden is just a for-profit Hollywood production.

Unverified quotes are not a new problem. It’s not an LLM slop issue, wherein they call it “hallucination”. Even decades ago one could easily find false “wisdoms” and fake (or misattributed) quotes online. Those were not satires, though sometimes people passed off satires sans the disclosures.

The best solution is to check the credibility of the sources or trace quotes back to their source.

I derive much pleasure from writing. It hardly costs a thing.

“On a more practical note,” a friend told me, “there really is a minimal income necessary for comfort and health.”

Simple life reduces worry and reduced worry contributes to happiness. High-paying jobs are typically not compatible with simplicity in life. But there is an alternative way to look at it – and one who wrote about Om Malik perishing captured that when saying:

I had a tougher week than usual. Someone I deeply care about had a bad fall, followed by the passing of Om. It made me think again about the impermanence of life: the mundaneness of every day can seem like this can go on forever, but suddenly in just a moment everything may change.

I can’t help but keep thinking about Om and how he was writing so much till the end. Sometimes I feel like I take my writing for granted. It seems to be always there. But what if one day it wasn’t?

There is always some self-consciousness involved when publishing a public blog. Will I be flooding people’s rss readers if I post too much? Why would anyone read this obscure topic? Do people really want to know *my* opinion?? Omg people are going to get so tired of my posts on covid cautiousness.

But mortality has this ultimate clarifying effect. Pride, embarrassment, self-consciousness, etc – what are they in the face of mortality?

[...]

(of course, this website may not survive beyond my death, but that is another problem.)

It links to this older post about “website graveyards”, stating 6 years ago: “I am hence thankful to my partner – I have never understood how essential it is to have a witness until these recent years, or at least at this point in my life when everything seems so shaky and transient, how much it means to me that my ongoing existence is being witnessed. That all of this is real, someone is seeing my pain, my struggles. I think this is the outcome of feeling not being taken seriously my entire life. ”

It says: “Websites shouldn’t have to go offline once their creators are dead, yet they mostly will unless they are hosted on a free service that will likely sustain long-term into the future (i.e. wordpress.com or github)”

This did not age well because github is not doing well and wordpress.com shares a bed with sloppers.

The real solution might be friends who can help run a site for you, like Aaron Swartz did.

The above blogger (anonymous except in domain name) should know sites can outlast people by decades, as many have.

think technology is a good thing, but it depends which.

Some weeks ago I chatted with the man who came to check our electric+gas readings. It was a nice chat and a nice lad/pal. He explained that in some of his visits he encounters tampered-with meters, typically in homes that break other laws (e.g. growing weed indoors).

Thankfully we never had such meters installed. It was never obligatory (they were pushy) and our resistance paid off.

When it comes to water, however, it’s not the same. They can do anything they wish outside the home and beyond the fences. So about a month ago they forewarned everybody – by leaflet at the doors – that they’d take out the “old” (mechanical) water meters and replace them with “smart” (digital) ones.

It seems like today, belatedly, they finally did that.

Some “smart” water meters save work for the measurer, they say it is more tamper-proof, but those things can also store info (personal data) on how much water is used WHEN. So that’s a spying opportunity.

We don’t get to give water treatment (“United Utilities” in our case) firms any input on this matter, so the outlet is my blog.

EVERAL years ago I wrote about the spamming I had been receiving about spy meters. I must have been nagged about it about 100 times already. It’s very time consuming at this rate and frequency. They even phone us sometimes to nag us about it.

By their own admission, more than a third of their clients do not want spy meters. So we’re not some tiny minority or a ‘fringe’.

Anyway, in recent days they kept spamming me some more and even a day after they told me it would stop they carried on as usual. See below.

E.ON Next wrote on 19/02/2024 15:20:
> Hi Roy Schestowitz,????
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> I am Shameemah Your Energy Specialist that will be assisting you today.
>
> We have reviewed your account and due to what you have mentioned we have updated your email address on the account to the one you have provided us with [...].
>
> We have done a few health checks on the account and we can see that we do require up to date meter readings this is to avoid your readings being estimated and we need regular readings to bill your account accurately to that you won’t be under or over charged as this could lead to future debt onto your account and we do not want that.
>
> To avoid this I know the days can get busy and can forget we do see that you are eligible to have a free smart meter installed its not complicated basically like the normal meter, however with a smart meter we will be getting readings automatically without you have to send manual readings regularly, your account will be billed regularly and accurately, you will also receive a free in home display a monitor which you will be able to monitor your usage.
>
> Before I can book your appointment there are just a few questions I need you to answer so I can ensure the appointment is correct and the engineer has all the information they’re going to need on the day.

I already told you, REPEATEDLY, to stop spamming me about this.

You agreed but didn’t keep the promise.

You’re still doing this.

Please STOP.

Ross from E.ON Next wrote on 19/02/2024 18:42:
> Hello Roy.
>
> I will remove correspondence about this from your account.

Nonsense. The SPAM continues just less than 24 hours later.
I will relay to you the SPAM.

At this stage I might just terminate the contract with you and report the SPAM, or unsolicited mail.

Notice the date on this email

——– Forwarded Message ——–
Subject: smart meters
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 11:30:47 +0000
From: Shameemah from E.ON Next <shameemah.bowers@eon-next-cabac46b5ea2.intercom-mail.com>

Hi Roy Schestowitz,????

Thank you for your email.

I am Shameemah Your Energy Specialist that will be assisting you today.

We have reviewed your account and due to what you have mentioned we have updated your email address on the account to the one you have provided us with ….

[then pushing for spy meters again]

Really? A “whopping” less than 2 thirds? That’s far less than they had us believe.

‘Smart Meter’ are failing to be adopted after a decade of FUD and scare tactics.

NEED to clarify upfront I do not believe the 2020 election in the United States was “stolen” and I do not support Donald Trump. He disgusts me.

The United States is still “using fraudulent voting machines” with back doors, a friend has reminded me. But the media giants aren’t talking about and “associating opposition to fraudulent voting technologies/products with crazies. Other crazies will defend fraudulent voting technologies/products for no other reason than those two crazies are opposed to them…”

Techrights did at least 2 “statements” on this issue [1, 2] just to clarify voting machines are no good regardless of news sites’ rhetoric.

Quit using opaque electronic voting machines and then lessen the likilohood of armed fanatics storming government buildings in an act of overt insurrection.