Special shoutout to the repair site iFixit who are now on the Fediverse, you can follow them at:
They provide repair forums and free repair guides for phones, computers, consoles, kitchen equipment, tools, medical devices, cars etc. They also review and tear down new gadgets to see how repairable they are.
Repairing your existing stuff is much, much better for the environment than buying replacements.
I don't talk about #AI but I'm not rly a fan of it now. I see three major ishs that need fixing before I am comfortable with it.
1) Energy use. AI is a huge energy user and stuffs.
2) #Privacy. Sharing with commercial AI means giving corpos your art, writing, etc for use. And granting all the licenses for them to abuse.
3) Exploitation at the outset. No AI that I have seen has respected ppl's work. They all steal images, art, etc to train, so until fixed they are all bad IMO.
Looks like it might be about time to throw those Echos out!
Amazon is getting rid of the option for Echo devices to process Alexa voice requests locally
When it comes to blogs, Ofcom says one thing, the UK Online Safety Act says another.
This lack of clarity over whether blogs with comments are exempt will push small sites to shut down completely.
We need the UK government to tighten up the definitions and exemptions in the Act.
Read our explainer for more detail 
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/save-our-sites-deadline-17-march/
Under the UK Online Safety Act, small blogs, forums and fedi instances are faced with disproportionate requirements to:
️ Check if they have UK users
️ Do a risk assessment on whether kids might access the content, or if CSAM or terrorist material might be posted in the comments
️ Put themselves at the risk of fines, and even prison sentences, if they fail to comply with Ofcom’s future directives
The UK Online Safety Act burdens small sites with duties and penalties that they can't shoulder. They'll shut down instead, stripping us of net plurality.
There’s a simple solution:
Exempt small, safely run blogs, forums and fedi instances The government can do this now
The duties start TOMORROW – Write to your MP 
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
A new @ThisWeekinLinux has dropped! (302) 
https://thisweekinlinux.com/302
@MichaelTunnell talks about KDE Devs launch a company, CrossOver 25, Garuda Linux, & more Linux news on Your Source for #Linux GNews!
Why I Care So Much About the Fediverse by Ayo Ayco (@ayo) | https://ayos.blog/why-fediverse/
Every part of this Echo privacy massacre is downstream of [the US's pro-monopoly "Consumer Welfare"] policy choice: "growth stock" narratives about AI, twiddling, DMCA 1201, the Darth Vader MBA, the end of legal privacy protections. These are material things, not ideological ones. They exist to make a very, very small number of people very, very rich..." - @pluralistic
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114166991733057284 #tech #business #SurveillanceCapitalism #uspol
Under Trump, AI Scientists Are Told to Remove ‘Ideological Bias’ From Powerful Models
A directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.”
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-safety-institute-new-directive-america-first/
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28
Amazon is killing a privacy feature to bolster Alexa+, the new subscription assistant.
Fear and resignation after ‘world’s most powerful company’ pays Trump a $100 billion ‘protection fee’
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/tech/taiwan-tsmc-us-investment-reactions-intl-hnk/index.html
'Don't let your kids be on Roblox', Roblox CEO tells parents, before comparing himself to Walt Disney and declaring the platform 'the future of communication'
Will you join over 1.9k people who’ve signed our petition to keep what’s stored on Apple iCloud encrypted?
The UK government is gambling with our security and playing into the hands of hackers and criminals.
Send a message: save encryption before more services are hit with technical notices.
Sign and share now
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-our-apple-data-encrypted
‘Absurd’
When you have the press and civil society camped outside the courtroom, the secret might be out 
Even so, we’re still denied the reasons why the UK government wants to take a battering ram to our security and privacy.
It shows contempt for the public interest in the Apple encryption case.
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to #Amazon starting on March 28
"Since Amazon announced plans for a generative AI version of Alexa, we were concerned about user privacy. With Alexa+ rolling out to Amazon Echo devices in the coming weeks, we’re getting a clearer view at the privacy concessions people will have to make to maximize usage of the AI voice assistant and avoid bricking functionality of already-purchased devices.
In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon apparently sent the email to users with “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” enabled on their Echo. Starting on March 28, recordings of everything spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud."
TikTok deal to keep it in U.S. will come by April deadline, Vance says
Vance was tapped by Trump to find an approved buyer of under terms of a forced divestment law passed under the Biden administration that would otherwise see TikTok shut down.
#business #law #politics #US #Tech #USNews
https://globalnews.ca/news/11083088/tiktok-us-deal-april-vance/
Previously: The committee, made up of seven Republicans and four Democrats, unanimously passed an amended version of the bill on Thursday, setting it up for a vote on the Senate floor. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-bitcoin-strategic-reserve-senate-bill-21/
