Today in Techrights

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 05, 2025

Updated This Past Day

1. Links 04/12/2025: "People Hooked on [Slop] Far Are More Likely to Experience Mental Distress", Monopolies in Europe, and "Blogging Makes Me Feel Like A Worse Writer"

   Links for the day

2. Dr. Andy Farnell: Can we regain control (of technology)?

   "Technology as spiralling mass hysteria has the unsettling potential to draw even rational sceptics like myself into disaffection"

3. Links 04/12/2025: "Hey Hi" Implosion and Half of Europeans See Cheeto Trump as Enemy of Europe

   Links for the day

4. Communication Needs Open Standards and Open Data

   Standards are imperative

5. The "Hey Hi" House of Cards

   The "Hey Hi" bubble is living on borrowed time (days or weeks) and it can implode any time now

6. Supporting the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Also Supports GNU Development

   The FSF is mostly raising money to pay salaries

7. IBM's "AK Sez" Campaign

   In today's media, to be characterised as important and smart one needn't be important and smart

8. Microsoft's Vista 11 Not Gaining, Just Plateauing or Even Going Down (Over Time)

   "Desktop Windows version Market Share Worldwide"

9. Bubbles Popping, "Hey Hi" (AI) a Passing Fad

   "Microsoft slides amid report it's cutting software sales quotas tied to AI"

10. At The Register MS, "Exclusive Webinar" Means Sponsored Video Ad Disguised as an Article

    Why would one choose to watch these?

11. IBM Forces Staff to Sign an NDA If They Want Severance Package, in Effect Bribing Them or Denying Them Money They're Entitled to If They 'Disparage' IBM

    We wrote about the legality or illegality of this in relation to Microsoft two years ago

12. IBM and Red Hat Not Done With 2025 Layoffs ("RAs") Yet

    IBM isn't quite done laying off people this year, with only 3 weeks till Christmas

13. Gemini Links 04/12/2025: Christmas Looms, Devuan, and Programming

    Links for the day

14. Over at Tux Machines...

    GNU/Linux news for the past day

15. IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 03, 2025

    IRC logs for Wednesday, December 03, 2025

    ---

    The corresponding text-only bulletin for Thursday contains all the text.

    Top-read articles (excluding bot/crawler visits):

    Span from 2025-11-28 to 2025-12-04

    3834	/about.shtml
    3007	/n/2025/11/29/Thrown_Under_the_Bus_XBox_Consoles.shtml
    1822	/n/2025/12/01/Investigate_Europe_Should_Investigate_Europe_s_Second_Largest_I.shtml
    1751	/n/2025/11/30/Disconnected_From_Cyber_Monday_and_Other_Fake_Holidays.shtml
    1663	/index.shtml
    1513	/n/2025/12/01/Let_s_Hope_Slopwatch_Has_Become_Obsolete.shtml
    1492	/n/2025/12/01/Links_01_12_2025_Dumping_Microsoft_GitHub_Files_Expose_Britain_.shtml
    1453	/n/2025/12/02/Links_02_12_2025_Microsoft_SharePoint_Exploited_Openwashing_Sti.shtml
    1427	/n/2025/11/25/Court_s_Decision_Misused_in_Attempt_to_Hide_Transphobia_Censori.shtml
    1345	/n/2025/11/29/Fake_News_and_Disinformation_on_the_Web_Isn_t_Always_LLM_Slop_S.shtml
    1302	/n/2025/12/01/We_Keep_Seeing_Evidence_That_IBM_RAs_Impact_India_as_Well.shtml
    1289	/n/2025/12/01/Short_Survey_of_Past_Media_Coverage_About_Campinos_EUIPO_and_a_.shtml
    1257	/n/2025/11/29/Plausible_Claim_That_IBM_Advertises_Fake_Jobs_to_Marginalise_La.shtml
    1154	/n/2025/12/01/Nokia_s_Linux_Journey_Nokia_770_Internet_Tablet_Turns_20_a_Time.shtml
    1147	/n/2025/12/01/Links_01_12_2025_National_News_About_Politics_Economics_and_Civ.shtml
    1119	/n/2025/12/01/Preparing_for_Potential_Pre_Christmas_Staff_Strike_at_the_Europ.shtml
    1107	/n/2025/11/23/Over_at_Tux_Machines.shtml
    1082	/n/2025/11/29/Links_29_11_2025_David_Lerner_Dies_Growing_Awareness_of_Energy_.shtml
    1077	/n/2025/12/01/Call_for_Media_Awareness_and_Action_Bears_Fruit_European_Patent.shtml
    1012	/n/2025/12/02/The_Mafia_at_the_EPO_Now_Attacks_Staff_That_Points_Out_Miscondu.shtml
    968	/irc.shtml
    942	/n/2025/12/01/Links_01_12_2025_US_Regime_Cracks_Down_on_Scholars_Floods_a_Gro.shtml
    915	/n/2025/12/01/Gemini_Links_01_12_2025_Romania_s_National_Day_Labels_in_Gemini.shtml
    893	/browse/latest.shtml
    841	/n/2025/12/02/Keep_the_Pressure_Up_at_Europe_s_Second_Largest_Institution_the.shtml
    826	/n/2025/12/03/Fake_Security_and_Free_Certificates_as_a_Trap_of_Planned_Obsole.shtml
    806	/n/2025/11/28/Article_in_Valnet_Publishing_Group_Says_Ubuntu_Has_Become_a_GNU.shtml
    804	/n/2025/12/03/So_Far_Rust_in_Ubuntu_Has_Turned_Out_to_be_an_Expensive_Mistake.shtml
    774	/n/2025/11/29/Gemini_Links_29_11_2025_Thanksgiving_2025_and_The_Internet_Used.shtml
    768	/n/2025/11/29/Tomorrow_We_ll_Explain_How_the_Media_in_Europe_Failed_EPO_Stake.shtml
    765	/n/2025/12/03/The_Next_Stages_of_EPO_Coverage_and_Why_That_Matters.shtml
    759	/n/2025/11/30/Links_30_11_2025_Many_Data_Breaches_Unnecessary_Escalations_in_.shtml
    749	/n/2025/11/30/Asking_Spanish_Speaking_Techrights_Readers_to_Contact_Spanish_J.shtml
    748	/n/2025/11/29/Slop_Feels_Like_a_Smashed_Bubble_or_Bottle.shtml
    744	/n/2025/12/01/Infatuation_With_GUIs_is_a_Misguided_Fool_s_Errand.shtml
    726	/n/2025/12/04/Communication_Needs_Open_Standards_and_Open_Data.shtml
    719	/n/2025/11/29/Selective_Enforcement_Selective_Media_Coverage_Part_II_A_Nose_f.shtml
    717	/n/2025/11/29/Links_29_11_2025_Hey_Hi_AI_Textbooks_Disaster_Talk_About_Fraudu.shtml
    715	/n/2025/12/01/An_Almost_Depressing_Lack_of_Reliable_News_Sites.shtml
    710	/n/2025/11/29/Vista_11_is_11_Percent_and_a_Lot_of_Metrics_Are_Frauds.shtml
    710	/n/2025/12/02/Many_IBM_Layoffs_Revealed_This_Week_Probably_to_Peak_Last_Day_D.shtml
    705	/n/2025/12/02/The_News_is_Sponsored_and_It_Lies_for_Money_It_Even_Makes_Up_Ph.shtml
    704	/n/2025/05/24/Free_Software_as_a_Culture_of_Resistance.shtml
    701	/browse/index.shtml
    686	/n/2025/11/28/Loads_of_IBM_Departures_So_Far_Today_Buy_Nothing_Day_IBM_Pays_P.shtml
    678	/n/2025/11/28/KDE_and_Plasma_Probably_Won_t_be_Wayland_Only.shtml
    676	/n/2025/11/30/Over_at_Tux_Machines.shtml
    646	/n/2025/11/28/Two_Months_Since_EPO_Cocaine_Bust_and_One_Month_Since_We_Began_.shtml
    644	/n/2025/12/01/German_and_Austrian_Media_Publishers_Need_to_Cover_European_Pat.shtml
    642	/n/2025/11/29/IBM_Turns_Smart_Hard_Working_People_Into_Dinobabies_and_Discard.shtml
    639	/n/2025/11/28/The_End_of_the_Road_for_Many_at_IBM_and_Red_Hat_Kyndryl_Etc.shtml
    635	/n/2025/11/29/After_Days_Offline_Soylent_News_is_Back_Online.shtml
    632	/n/2025/12/01/Over_at_Tux_Machines.shtml
    628	/n/2025/11/28/Gemini_Links_28_11_2025_Mark_Shuttleworth_on_Late_Night_Linux_a.shtml
    622	/n/2025/12/02/Tomi_Ahonen_s_Site_is_Gone_Memory_holed_by_Typepad_s_Shutdown.shtml
    621	/n/2025/12/02/Links_02_12_2025_Around_500_million_PCs_are_holding_off_upgradi.shtml
    620	/n/2025/12/01/Silent_Layoffs_at_IBM_Still_Using_PIPs_to_Hide_Full_Scope_and_E.shtml
    613	/n/2025/11/28/EPO_Wasting_Energy_and_Violating_Data_Protection_Rules_With_Ame.shtml
    613	/n/2025/11/28/Qwant_Made_a_Partnership_With_Microsoft_It_Already_Regrets_This.shtml
    612	/n/2025/11/29/Mozilla_Firefox_is_Pushing_DRM_Falkon_Does_Not_and_Librewolf_Do.shtml
    608	/n/2025/11/30/Gossip_or_Rumours_Say_Another_Large_Wave_of_IBM_Layoffs_Starts_.shtml
    608	/n/2025/11/28/Fake_Security_Cults_Trying_to_Impose_Rust_and_Wayland_on_Everyo.shtml
    608	/n/2025/11/29/Linux_11.shtml
    595	/n/2025/11/28/IBM_Red_Hat_Laying_Off_Lots_of_Staff_in_the_United_States_Durin.shtml