Notices by Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)
-
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2020 05:44:31 CET 
Mike Gerwitz
I'm sorry to say that I've decided to cancel my plans to attend #LibrePlanet2020 this year. My wife has had a rough pregnancy so far and will be just about in her final month during the conference, on top of having to care for our other two children solo for the weekend, and I don't want to put her in that position.
I hope to see everyone next year, and I'm sorry again to those I was going to meet up with. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Thursday, 02-Jan-2020 06:11:59 CET
Mike Gerwitz
Looking back on 2019, one thing I'm happy to see is that #privacy concerns are becoming much more mainstream.
When I gave a talk at LP2017 just three years ago, I began by saying "this is not a tinfoil hat presentation". If I were to give that talk today, I could confidently omit that line, because 2019 has created a far more fucked up narrative than I ever could have.
(On the downside, I haven't been able to keep up with the deluge of privacy related issues over the past year.) -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Jan-2020 08:10:36 CET
Mike Gerwitz
I chose not to submit a talk this year because I'm too busy, but I'm still planning to attend #LibrePlanet2020. I'm excited for the extra social time that I'll have---the previous four years I've confined myself to rehearsing my talk in my hotel room.
If you're planning on attending, please lmk. If not, then please consider! FSF Associate Members are not charged for admission, and the FSF offers a travel fund to help those who may not otherwise be able to attend.
https://libreplanet.org/2020/ -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Jan-2020 06:45:24 CET
Mike Gerwitz
Happy GNU year, everyone! -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Tuesday, 31-Dec-2019 06:50:51 CET
Mike Gerwitz
Over the past year, my GNU Social timeline has gone almost completely silent; it seems that many people have moved to Mastodon and maybe those instances have stopped federating.
Further, GNU Social development has been stalled for a long time.
So this seems like an inevitable decision to give Mastodon a try. I'll start by following people and will post both on here and GNU Social initially. See https://mastodon.mikegerwitz.com. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Friday, 11-Oct-2019 04:22:41 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
Actually, trying to clarify a potential misinterpretation may have opened up another.
To be clear: I continue to support the FSF, and I respect the opinions of the GNU maintainers who signed the statement. And to those who support rms: please note that he has called for people to support the FSF as well. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Friday, 11-Oct-2019 03:38:44 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
I'm deeply disturbed and disappointed by the hatred, bigotry, and tribalism I've observed from certain groups over the past number of weeks.
The free software community should know better than most that people have differences in opinion---we fight for freedoms many people don't even see as something worth fighting for. Every day is a brutal, uphill struggle against forces many times more powerful than we are. But we persist, undeterred.
Yet many can't handle differences of opinion within our own community?
People are upset. But if your posts feel like you're waging war, please take a step back and consider what you're doing. I don't care what side you are on, or what position you hold---if you spew intolerance, then I condemn your words even if I'd otherwise support your cause. Think of what example you're setting for future advocates and activists looking to join us in our cause.
And, since this statement could be easily misinterpreted as supporting those I'm speaking out against: the FSF is not the enemy. A collective of GNU maintainers are not the enemy. In fact, if you see any "enemy" in any of this, I urge you to take a deep breath and step away for a bit.
One useful strategy is to write what upsets you, but don't send it. Sit on it for hours, maybe even a day. Return to it when you're calm. I've deleted or re-written countless messages doing this. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Sep-2019 04:59:59 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
Holy shit...
I'm going to continue to withhold public comments until I get more information, and more thoughts in order. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Monday, 16-Sep-2019 04:23:10 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
Mischaracterization of an individual is an injustice regardless of your differences. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2019 05:55:47 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
Those times where you spend nearly 2h writing, proofreading, and re-writing a fairly short email that should have probably taken ~5m, and then decide to stash it in your drafts and possibly never send it at all, and then complain about it on social media as if that'll somehow make your time feel a bit less wasted even if you never send the message.
I suppose I could take this time to say something vague about how painting cultural taboos in black and white and subjecting it to groupthink chills speech and makes it very difficult to have constructive conversations. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Wednesday, 11-Sep-2019 03:45:06 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
ACLU: "Should You Buy a Ring Doorbell Camera?"
https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/should-you-buy-ring-doorbell-camera
This article presents a number of good, important issues with these devices. And to be clear on my position: no, you absolutely should not buy a Ring camera.
In my LibrePlanet 2017 talk, I asked surveillance camera owners to make sure that they are only recording their own property, not sidewalks or streets and such. Ring wasn't a thing back then, and it all but ensures that you capture passerbys (unless your doorbell isn't visible from the street). Now I consider it one of our greatest practical privacy threats. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Thursday, 29-Aug-2019 06:14:03 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
I'm really pleased to see this, @lxoliva! Congrats! -
Free Software Foundation (fsf@status.fsf.org)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Aug-2019 19:14:16 CEST 
Free Software Foundation
Exciting news: Alexandre Oliva, chief developer of the GNU Linux-libre project, and recipient of the 2016 Advancement of Free Software award, has joined the FSF board of directors! Let's all give him a warm welcome. https://u.fsf.org/2wi https://status.fsf.org/attachment/1337982 -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Monday, 19-Aug-2019 05:00:25 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
I find it difficult to express how much I enjoyed this video on APL from 1975, using a teletypewriter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DTpQ4Kk2wA
(YouTube requires non-free software to run; please consider entering the URL in your favorite video player or downloader instead.) -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Tuesday, 13-Aug-2019 05:08:50 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
ACLU: "Say No to the 'Cashless Future'":
https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/consumer-privacy/say-no-cashless-future-and-cashless-stores -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Aug-2019 04:20:22 CEST
Mike Gerwitz
Another good article from Cory Doctorow about adversarial interoperability, this time about IBM and the Phoenix BIOS:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/ibm-pc-compatible-how-adversarial-interoperability-saved-pcs-monopolization
All umeHack social content and data are available under the 