Notices by funnymonkey (funnymonkey@freeradical.zone), page 2

My thoughts and reactions to AI Snake Oil (and thoughts and reactions on how AI fits into the broader context of aggressively hyped tech) is available here:

https://snaikoil.com

This was a personal project, and it was useful for me to clarify my thoughts, and I'm sharing it out in the hope that someone else finds it useful as well!

And if you think I've missed something, let me know!

10/10

Age assurance is generally a really bad idea, and this version of it turbocharges the stupidity and the harm.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/colorado-lawmakers-push-for-age-verification-at-the-operating-system-level

This is so incredibly fucked up.

Can we do Universal Basic Income already?

Can we implement Medicare For All?

Income inequality is literally sucking us dry.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/americans-sell-plasma-inflation-middle-class-expenses-economy-rcna258390

Peter Thiel wants your face.

Discord is here to help him get it.

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/oh-good-discords-age-verification-rollout-has-ties-to-palantir-co-founder-and-panopticon-architect-peter-thiel/

Conferences need to put a ban on Meta glasses into their codes of conduct.

Mark Zuckerberg and his minions at Meta see our slide into fascism -- which Zuckerberg actively funds, and Facebook actively profits from -- as a good product launch opportunity for facial recognition stalkerware goggles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/meta-facial-recognition-smart-glasses.html

Local police funneling data from cameras on school grounds to ICE to support ICE kidnappings.

This is why phones in schools are good things. Yes, the distractions are real, and yes, big tech apps are abusive.

But when local cops give school data to federal thugs, people in schools -- especially kids -- need to be able to document what happens.

https://www.the74million.org/article/ice-taps-into-school-security-cameras-to-aid-trumps-immigration-crackdown-74-investigation-shows/

Our taxpayer dollars are funding retaliatory harassment against a child and his father.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/us/us-deportation-liam-conejo-ramos-minnesota.html

In America under Trump, Republicans, and the christian nationalists and technofascists who support them, this five year old child spent longer in jail than any of the billionaires in the Epstein files.

@chris
And really, for me anyways, the second feels less like stress and more like a group of people working together to solve problems.

I'll do that all day if I'm in a place where we have each other's backs.

I remember explaining this exact use case to Very Serious People at multiple non-profits who had received literal millions of dollars to research privacy, and these Very Serious People assured me that could never happen.

I quit these places with joy because these folks were myopic assholes who allowed their privilege to exacerbate harms.

One of these fuckers told me "but I like the ads - they help me see what sneakers I should buy."

https://www.wired.com/story/ice-asks-companies-about-ad-tech-and-big-data-tools/

ICE beat a person and then executed them in the street.

There is video.

Don't watch it. It's confirmed.

Defund ICE. Defund DHS. Prosecute them all.

Europe and Canada (and the rest of the world) need to stay firm (and as united as possible) and refuse to appease Trump at all.

Deny everything.

Boycott the World Cup. Boycott the Olympics. Sanction US tech, and create non-US alternatives.

And if that happens, it will motivate more people in the US who are disgusted by the policy choices of Trump and his Republican, tech industry, oil industry, and media enablers.

@anildash I don't know if this is me just noticing more of your posts, or you writing more posts of late, but I have really been loving and appreciating your recent work.

This piece on how to identify if a job will crush your soul was the one I just read. Thank you for this.

https://www.anildash.com/2026/01/12/will-that-job-crush-your-soul/

Question for the Fediverse Hivemind: does anyone have good numbers on how widely chromebooks are used *outside* K12 education?

My gut is that they are primarily used in K12, but I'd love to see numbers from some form of a reliable source.

#edtech #askfedi

@anildash
I can't count the number of variations I've had on this conversation.

Thanks for putting this out there.

Because Chromebooks were the cheapest device that could run required standardized tests, schools went all in on Chromebooks.

Now, schools can't disable the AI "features" rolled out on Chromebooks.

So, yeah - that third grader with a school-provided Chromebook also gets Google-mandated AI.

I'd like everyone involved in this highly predictable own goal to give themselves a well deserved golf clap.

Hello, privacy loving fediverse hive mind!

I am looking for some of the most adtech-driven "mainstream" sites on the internet.

You know -- sites that a normal person, a tech civilian, might visit, that ostensibly perform some useful function but are crawling with adtech and trackers.

Some of my "favorites" - weather.com, cnn.com, HuffingtonPost, WebMD.

Hit me up with some of the best!

(and by best I mean absolute worst!)

Thank you! (I think lol)

Shorter version. We are all asshats. You all will suffer because of it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy7vrd8k4eo

ICE thugs shutting down Girl Scout food drives and pepper spraying 1 year old kids in Chicago.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/11/09/1-year-old-pepper-sprayed-by-federal-agent-in-cicero