Notices by Liam Proven (lproven@social.vivaldi.net)

Forking frenzy ensues after Euro-Office launch sparks OnlyOffice backlash

https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/02/eurooffice_forks_onlyoffice/

Meanwhile, Collabora splits from LibreOffice amid claims TDF ejected 'all Collabora staff and partners'

← by me on @theregister

I Decompiled the White House's New App

https://blog.thereallo.dev/blog/decompiling-the-white-house-app

The official White House Android app has a cookie/paywall bypass injector, tracks your GPS every 4.5 minutes, and loads JavaScript from some guy's GitHub Pages.

@xs4me2 @shadur @dynamite_ready @reading_recluse

Child slavery had uses, too.

5 year old chimney sweeps could get into places adults could not.

4 year old miners could get into tiny seams.

But that does not excuse their use.

@xs4me2 @shadur @dynamite_ready @reading_recluse

> I think you are wrong…

You are not spelling out who is wrong, or wrong about what.

LLMs can't be trusted. They do not "sometimes hallucinate". They _always_ hallucinate, 100% of the time. They cannot do anything else, and cannot be made to do anything else. Making up new text that resembles the input is how they work. It is all that they do or can do or will ever do.

Yes, critical thinking is always needed... but the problem is that LLM use destroys critical thinking ability. They do not save time: they waste the users' time, and make them spend _more_ time and _more_ effort on checking...

While destroying people's ability to check.

https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/

@xs4me2 @shadur @dynamite_ready @reading_recluse

"This is a bad thing. Do not use it if you have any choice."

That is my professional, considered opinion after studying the tech, how it's build, how it works, the companies selling it, and its effects on people and business and the environment.

It is bad. There is not a good side to this, overall.

LLMs have uses. They are good for translation. They are very useful for people with some disabilities such as low or no eyesight.

But LLMs are not AI, will never _be_ AI, and everyone selling them as AI and claiming they are AI is bad.

There is no room for nuance here.

It is bad. Bad means bad, not "not great", not "OK sometimes", it means "not good, not ever."

GNOME 50 debuts with X11 axed, Wayland front and center

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/19/gnome_50/

Most Ubuntu desktop users will be looking at this until at least 2028

<- by me on @theregister

Have a Fucking Website

https://www.otherstrangeness.com/2026/03/14/have-a-fucking-website/

«
If you’re a hair salon, or a tattoo artist, or a restaurant, or whatever, please just have a fucking website where I can go and see your rates and hours. Not all of your potential clients are on these platforms, and I suspect that even many of the ones who are appreciate a simple, unadorned site that tells them what they need to know at a glance.
»

EnKITTification

Artist: bruised_blood

b3ta.com/board/11426454

From the '80s Tech Today' challenge
https://b3ta.com/challenge/80stechtoday/popular/

#80sTechToday

RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion — 1+1 'value pack' offers desperate psychological relief as the memory shortage worsens

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/fake-ram-bundled-with-real-ram-to-create-a-performance-illusion-for-amd-users-1-1-value-pack-offers-desperate-psychological-relief-as-the-memory-shortage-worsens

<- "FFS" seems inadequate TBH

A.I. Isn't People

https://www.todayintabs.com/p/a-i-isn-t-people

<- We know EXACTLY how LLMs work. It is not that complicated. You can express it in 200 lines.

They absolutely, canonically, by definition, are not aware. They cannot think. This is not controversial or hard.

Linux PC vendor System76 tries to talk Colorado down over OS age checks

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/10/foss_age_verification_2/

Don't celebrate yet – more states are considering them

<- by me on @theregister

RT @ghidraninja

Simple age check for Linux:

Just have the shell ask the user to check the host IP on first boot.

If they type ifconfig they are old enough, if they type ip addr they deserve to be restricted from their computer 😇

Global Warming has Accelerated Significantly

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389855619_Global_Warming_has_Accelerated_Significantly

«
… after 2015, global temperature rose significantly faster than in any 11
previous 10-year period since 1945.

The years 2023 and 2024 have been Earth’s hottest on record.
»

An expat in Dubai has a startling revelation: the Stephen Collins cartoon

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/picture/2026/mar/03/expat-dubai-startling-revelation-the-stephen-collins-cartoon?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

GhostBSD to ditch Xorg for XLibre as Red Hat's Wayland crusade leaves X11 fans out in the cold

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/24/ghostbsd_plans_to_adopt_xlibre/

FreeBSD's friendliest desktop distro bets on the controversial fork

<- by me on @theregister

@xs4me2 @reading_recluse

> can be useful to digest and explore information at great speed

Nope. Still wrong. This is in fact something they are extremely and *dangerously* bad at.

@xs4me2 @dynamite_ready @reading_recluse But it can't be used for brain surgery.

No, this is not a skills issue. It is based on profound misunderstanding. No they are not good search tools. No they are not good for research or learning, because they work only and entirely by *making stuff up* and if you're learning then you're not an expert and you can't tell true from false.

'The EU runs on Microsoft' – and Uncle Sam could turn it off, claims MEP

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/eu_foss_fears/

Open source gains urgency as Europe reassesses reliance on US tech

<- by me on @theregister

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

― Frank Herbert, _Dune_

Discord is running a survey about integrating generative "AI" into its service. Please do go tell them what you think.

https://discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5BGtstVUidXadts