Today in Techrights

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 24, 2026

Updated This Past Day

1. The Grapevine Says IBM's American RAs (Mass Layoffs) Soon to Follow European RAs, PIPs and "Reviews" as Pretext for a Likely Baseless Dismissal

   The days of honourable corporations and work ethics are long gone it seems...

2. Links 23/01/2026: Growing Censorship, Intel Falls (Another Bubble, Propped Up by Cheeto Bailout), and Huge GAFAM Layoffs Continue

   Links for the day

3. Working for Freedom Makes You a Target

   it's not about what you do but about who gets served

4. Claim That IBM Mass Layoffs Began Again in Europe, With Rumours It'll Close Offices

   Unless IBM issues a statement (admission) to the media or issues WARN notices (in the US), the lousy media will simply assume - however wrongly - that nothing is happening and there's nothing to report

   New

5. Senior management and HR email privacy: Martin Ebnoether (venty), Axel Beckert (xtaran) & Debian abuse in Switzerland

   Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock

6. Pierre-Elliott Bécue, ANSSI & Debian cybertorture

   Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock

7. MJ Ray, Micah Anderson & Debian on drugs, prostitution at DebConf6 fight

   Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock

8. Excellence in Ethics: a list of victories for the truth

   Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock

9. Richard Stallman Giving Public Talk, Answering Questions From the Audience

   We understand (from the organisers) that there will be a video of the talk

10. Forbes Covers in 2026 What Was Already Clear for Over a Decade: Microsoft's BitLocker 'Encryption' is a Back Door

    One that's promoted by the loudest boosters of UEFI 'secure boot' as well

11. Links 23/01/2026: Minus 24 deg C in South Korea, "Iran Internet Blackout Passes Two-Week Mark"

    Links for the day

12. Gemini Links 23/01/2026: "Witch Watch" and English on the Net

    Links for the day

13. Projection Tactics - Part IV: SLAPP by Americans Against Techrights (UK) to Hide Serious Abuses Against American Women

    "PRs need to stop being complicit in suppression of information via SLAPPs"

14. Reminder That "Linux" in the Site's Name (and Domain) Does Not Imply Authentic Journalism About GNU/Linux

    the sad fact that some once-legitimate sites became slopfarms

15. Further Comments Illuminate Observations Regarding IBM's Layoffs (RAs) Plan for Europe

    Some shed light on the expected scale

16. Appeasing Bullies Doesn't Work

    The reason we're still here and very active is that we're good at what we do

17. How Microsoft Will Tell Shareholders That the Business is Failing in a Few Days

    It'll resort to "AI" storytelling (lying about slop having potential for some unspecified future year)

18. Flying to See Today's Talk by Richard Stallman

    It's probably not too late to reserve a seat for today's talk

19. The Fall of Freenode Didn't Kill IRC and the Web's Issues (Not Limited to LLM Slop) Didn't Kill Everything

    As long as there are enough people willing to keep the simple (or "old") stuff it'll refuse to die

20. GAFAM Layoffs by Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) Hide the Real Scale of Their Financial Troubles

    the "official" numbers of layoffs will never tell the true story

21. 'Domesticated' Animals Not More Valuable Than Free-range Wildlife, Proprietary ('Commercial') Software Isn't Better Than Free Software

    the proprietary software giants (companies like SAP or Microsoft) have a lot of lobbyists

22. The "Alicante Mafia" - Part IX - EPO Budget Funnelled Into Cocaine and Moreover Rewards Cocaine-Addicted Management for Getting Busted by Police

    Any day that passes without European media and European politicians doing anything about it merely discredits the media and the EU (or national governments)

23. Richard Stallman Won't Talk About "AI", He'll Talk About Chatbots and LLMs Lacking Any Intelligence

    This really irritates people who dislike the message; so they attack the person

24. Slopfarms Still Fed by Google, Boosting Fake 'Articles' That Pretend to Cover "Linux"

    At this point about 80-90% of the search results appear not to be slopfarms

25. Gemini Links 23/01/2026: The Danish Approach to Deepfakes and Random vi Things

    Links for the day

26. Over at Tux Machines...

    GNU/Linux news for the past day

27. IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 22, 2026

    IRC logs for Thursday, January 22, 2026

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