Gentleman Technologist

@GentlemanTech@cyberplace.social
74 Followers
166 Following
1.5K Posts
Wandering technologist, building stuff while travelling. Interested in the business and social impacts of technology. Anarchist tendencies. Opposed to crypto, billionaires, plagiarist LLMs, christo-fascism, and runaway capitalism. Unusual opinions for someone with an MBA. Supports gender-neutral writing, people being able to do whatever they like as long as it's consensual, world peace.

This is your reminder to cancel all those subscriptions you signed up for on sale at the end of 2024 that are about to renew at full price next week.

#adhd

> This new form of riches [--finance--] is based on gambling. [97% of it literally is gambling.] What does it mean about us that we reward so generously this work which does so little? What kind of society are we really? And what does it mean that we think about this so little?

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n17/john-lanchester/for-every-winner-a-loser

(Thanks to @pluralistic for linking from https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/18/self-licking-ice-cream-cone/ )

John Lanchester · For Every Winner a Loser: What is finance for?

In our society the classic three ways of making a fortune still apply: inherit it, marry it, or steal it. But for an...

London Review of Books

I find myself incredibly angry about the Bondi shooting.

Obviously this is a direct result of religion. One bunch of theists shot another bunch of theists based on their religious identity.

But no-one is saying that. No politician is suggesting that we ban religion. No-one is condemning religion for deliberately cultivating alienation and sectarianism. No-one is suggesting that Australia stops all religious education in schools.

And they fucking should be.

Why the UN's Next Decision on Internet Governance Matters for Everyone - Internet Society
https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2025/12/why-the-uns-next-decision-on-internet-governance-matters-for-everyone/

It is critical that countries reaffirm their longstanding support for including the global Internet community’s stakeholders in its governance

Why the UN's Next Decision on Internet Governance Matters for Everyone  - Internet Society

It is critical that countries reaffirm their longstanding support for including the global Internet community’s stakeholders in its governance

Internet Society

So fellow Aussies: thoughts and experiences on the social media ban for under-16s so far?

Early days I know, but genuinely curious.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/social-ban-experts-blog-media-under-16/106118846

#SocialMedia #Auspol #Australia

Live: We ask the experts your burning questions on the under-16 social media ban

Ten major platforms are now expected to check the ages of all their Australian users and prevent anyone found to be under 16 from holding an account. We've asked experts how to best navigate it. Follow live.

ABC News

I see that Mastodon is not included in Australia's social media ban for under 16s.

I can think of 3 plausible reasons why that might be:

1. Australian lawmakers considered it far less harmful than Twitter, Facebook, etc, and felt no need to ban it

2. They'd never heard of it so didn't think about banning it

3. It's simply impracticable to ban people from a decentralised service.

Anyone know which is the correct explanation?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce86381p70eo

#SocialMediaBan #AusPol

Australia's social media ban for children has left big tech scrambling

The policy is the culmination of years of pressure on firms over online safety.

BBC News

"So in a very real way, the tech broligarchy is trying to use the power of the US government to subjugate the EU the same way the United Fruit Company once used the power of the US government to subjugate Central America.

In truth, Europe is much closer to being Reagan’s shining city on the hill than Trump’s America."

"Is This The End of the Free World?" — Paul Krugman, https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-this-the-end-of-the-free-world

Is This The End of the Free World?

Trump wants to MAGAfy Europe, too

Paul Krugman
It is really very simple. Putin does not fear NATO (he has lived with it in Turkey for decades and knows that it is a purely defensive alliance), he hates the EU for spreading the idea of democracy and the rule of law (even if imperfectly) Silicon valley hates the EU for attempting to regulate it (even if with little success so far). American "Republicans" hate Europe for showing that social democracy works (publicly funded health etc). Europe's core values are anathema to these people.
Gosh, who knew. I never expected to see this sort of thing in a #flatpak repo, but there you go. https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.nonpolynomial.intiface_central
Install Intiface Central on Linux | Flathub

Buttplug Frontend Application

Three more British MEPs from Nigel Farage’s bloc are alleged to have “followed the script” given to a colleague who was being bribed by an alleged Russian asset.” #Trump is a Russian asset. #Farage is Trumps very own #MiniTrump So surprised? #Russia #Reform