Neil Brown
Neil BrownWikimedia Foundation -v- Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and TechnologyRather limited success for the Wikimedia Foundation's #OnlineSafetyAct challenge, but - on the basis of a quick skim - still some useful commentary in there.
Neil BrownNew #blog post:
"Fixing my Pixel 6's USB port issue with a trimmed down cocktail stick"
The title rather says it all, really.
I am pleased to have extended the useful life of my phone.
Thanks to all of you who chatted about this with me yesterday!
https://neilzone.co.uk/2025/08/fixing-my-pixel-6s-usb-port-issue-with-a-trimmed-down-cocktail-stick/
#repair #GrapheneOS
Neil BrownNew #blog post:
"'Here's what I do' versus 'You should'"
A bit of a gripe about people who tell others what they should do.
https://neilzone.co.uk/2025/08/heres-what-i-do-versus-you-should/
#fedimeta #Linux #FOSS
Neil BrownWhat a beautiful spot, on Brownsea Island.
With decent 4G and occasional 5G coverage.
Neil BrownWelcome to the fediverse.
Neil BrownApparently the UK's Department for Science, Industry, and Technology has told some service providers that they are Online Safety Acting incorrectly, and have to do more to protect freedom of expression.
Parliament chose to implement only token protections for freedom of expression, against far more substantive obligations around restriction of expression, so really no surprises here.
Enforcement will, I suspect, be rather challenging.
#OnlineSafetyAct
Neil Brown'Self-host it' is not the answerI wrote this three years ago, and it remains my view (despite, or perhaps because of, my preference for self-hosting pretty much everything).
Neil BrownI appreciate that people may have their reasons, but, as someone whose devices make no noise, boy is it stressful to come to a place where multiple phones and computers make noises for notifications all the sodding time.
Messages.
Calls.
Email.
News alert.
Weather alert.
Webpages.
Camera movement.
It is incessant.
Neil BrownAge verification could make the internet more dangerousI contributed to this short podcast about the #OnlineSafetyAct.
Neil BrownEvery so often, I see some spam which baffles me.
Today, someone offering to sell me "AI-generated posts" for my blog.
Mate, if I wanted to use AI-generated posts, why on earth would I be paying you for them?!