(posting now instead of for Lazy Reading cause it ought to be fixed by then.)

I’m not trying to turn this into real income, so I haven’t been plugging it – but a number of people have been contributing and I really appreciate it.  I have my own reoccurring Patreon pledges, and this is a good time to point you at Linda Medley (cause I have a number of her books), ABBADON (for Kill Six Billion Demons), and Cooking Issues (cause their podcast is fun).  None of that is BSD or even computer related.

Luckily, there’s an RSS feed for this podcast.  That, plus this simple script on my DragonFly system, means I can pull it down whenever I’m ready:

fetch -o – http://feeds.podtrac.com/zKq6WZZLTlbM | grep enclosure | cut -d ‘”‘ -f2 | xargs fetch -m

So, it’s a matter of running that script, and syncing off my own local storage, on my own schedule.  FolderSync Lite will happily sync back to my phone using sftp.

Thanks to the generosity of a bunch of people, I’ll get a C720 and an SSD too.  Thank you all very much, people I have never met but would like to shake the hands of.

http://rochester.craigslist.org/sad/4400416990.html

The PRISM disclosure, which I am going to assume everyone is familiar with at this point, is another facet.  Every time you use another company for your email, your entertainment, your software, and so on, their information on you can be accessed.    This isn’t a problem that can be fixed by going from one webmail provider to another.  You can shop around, but notice that the author in that link effectively throws his or her hands in the air and says, “there’s no way out” by the end of the article.  This is because corporations work as collecting agents for the government, even if they don’t plan to do so.

That sounds drastic, but there’s legal frameworks in every country for governments to require companies to give up data on any person, on request.  It happens.  I’ve seen it myself; I worked for Time Warner for several years, tracking down cable modem user information and handing it over as compelled by law.  I know the lawyers at TW Corporate didn’t like doing it, but they didn’t have a choice.  (I have some horrifying stories about what people would do to themselves and each other.)

Companies are increasingly working to create services to sell, not products to buy.  A service never stops being consumed, so it forms an ongoing revenue stream.  I’m not saying this is bad; I firmly believe that a financial incentive to be paid improves services.  However, as only a consumer, you can end up not owning what you use.  Other people have pointed this out, and I don’t want to sound like a frothing crazy person… but it is relevant, though not necessarily as catastrophic as some people pronounce.

What I’m working towards here is a reminder that you should run your own software, and running it on DragonFly is the best way.  (Or some other operating system, I guess.  If you have to.)  Instead of trying to figure out what the least-bad commercial option can be, run it yourself.  Good for privacy, good for learning.  I know that’s not an option for everyone; fighting with Sendmail (for instance) is not an activity that many people pick voluntarily.  But, if you’ve been thinking of setting up a replacement for Google Reader, or hosting your own mail, or own blog, etc… there’s never a better time than now.

(Follow all those links for some good information; consider it an early Lazy Reading post)

ascii     OIIIIIII

becon     IOOIOOOO

bowling   OIIIOIOI

burger    OOIIIOOI

cat       IIIOOIII

eightbit  OIOIOOII

pong      IOOOOOOI

rocket    OIOOOIOI

simone    IIOIOOII

song      IIOIIOII

space     OOIOIOIO

synth     IOOOIOOO