@bob @baldur I remember in late 1990s there was a political riot in Malaysia during the Asian olympics; the BBC tried to film this and send the footage to London but on govt instructions Telekom Malaysia cut off all the EBU satellite uplinks. So they instead transcoded the analogue video to MPEG1 and sent it via ISDN; it was impossible for Telekom to cut *that* off without shutting down the banks/finance companies of Kuala Lumpur...

@calliandra

Unless there is serious violence, or kilos of drugs being sold or thousands of pounds of property stolen, prison sentences in UK are generally not very long. But even a short one reduces chances of employment to 33% (I was told this by a reliable source who worked for an NGO specialising in finding employment for ex-offenders), and there is (as yet) rarely enough mutual aid to fully support comrades after they have served time...

@calliandra in some countries (particularly UK/Northern Europe) the Establishment is smart enough *not* to put activists in jail directly for "political" stuff.

Instead the charges are such things as criminal damage, theft, fraud, drugs etc of a nature that is harder to explain away in later life when trying to get work, or even to join a voluntary group where DBS (background check) is required due to working with kids/vulnerable people >>

@feoh @hairylarry

TBH for those of us who grew up outside USA (and/or maybe are slightly younger?) even seeing a CP/M machine was rare, you often only got to use machines with hard drives (or even floppies!) at high school, and there were *multiple* different file system standards (Acorn used a dot as a separator for directories, files didn't have any extension).

BBC Basic was very powerful (and the built in assembler was a bonus)

@nawordar @foxhkron

I think the tweet was /intended/ as a joke, but other Americans replying genuinely believe Northern Europe is "communist" and we can't afford cars (rather than some cities having better transport options!)

Even on youtube comments about cars/driving, they also are convinced our MOT/APK/TÜV inspection tests are part of govt policies to force people to reduce car use; rather than a safety precaution!

@atomicpoet one particularly cursed situation is when rights owners get decades old recordings taken down but won't even release legit sales of the items or have one long deleted DVD release, happens a lot with old British TV shows, particularly those aimed at younger generations (which often have very patchy archives to start with), mostly caused by arguments over rights and repeat fees/royalties..

@atomicpoet stuff disappears off YouTube all the time, and it's often good content like music, recordings of old TV shows that "copyright feds" catch up with, or interesting things like the Bavarian greaser refurbishing and repainting alloy wheels for a modified VW Polo on a home made rig with near 0 PPE and a cig in his mouth, I can't find his channel anywhere (I hope nothing bad happened to him health-wise)

@sundogplanets I remember reading somewhere that Britain's Meterological Office still extensively use Fortran, and indeed they do...

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/weather/weather-science-it/fcm

@clacke

>Solo voy con mi pena
Sola va mi condena
Correr es mi destino
Para burlar la ley
Perdido en el corazón
De la grande Babylon
Me dicen el clandestino
Por no llevar papel

Pa' una ciudad del norte
Yo me fui a trabajar
Mi vida la dejé
Entre Ceuta y Gibraltar
Soy una raya en el mar
Fantasma en la ciudad
Mi vida va prohibida
Dice la autoridad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0PjuPu78rQ

@atomicpoet there is new music, but its a lot more underground (the bulk of it seems to be on Bandcamp, and there is a *lot* on Fediverse)

However, those Gen Z who are living in shared houses may not be able to play music loud on hifi systems (as their roommates are working long hours or studying etc), or they still live at home with Gen X parents (who might tolerate or even encourage loud music, but are equally likely to play their own, so genres keep getting recycled..)

@natecull @aral

I was very cynical about the poll as "things can only get better" was used as a tagline by Tony Blair and New Labour in the late 90s. That said, what I am currently seeing isn't "end times" but a rollback to political and social conditions of late 1970s/1980s which are sub-optimal but survivable (I've lived through them before!), it just seems more annoying that humankind is choosing to repeat past mistakes..

@naikodemus @onepict @TheGibson

the religious wingnuts work across borders to roll back the "permissive society" and have been playing a long game at this since before any of us were born (I turned 50 this year).

I still remember Franco on the coins in my lifetime, my parents owned a launderette (in UK) in 1970s and they were often substituted for 5p coins (which suggests both that Brits had 0 problem holidaying in Franco's Spain, and possibly the Royal Mint also made the coins for ES)

@atomicpoet

there's a handful of journalists (mostly tech journos), the occasional politician (usually from various European left wing parties) and a German TV presenter (who is regularly on national TV, usually presenting science/educational shows) pops in here from time to time, but they don't actively seek to draw attention to themselves over and above anyone else..

@atomicpoet in UK and some other European countries, Facebook has blocked all access to "public" sites without an FB login, making them useless for any small businesses and community groups to attract attention from non FB users
(who have been increasingly using them instead of independent websites)

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz

this reminded me to pay this years tax for my car (the equivalent of "tags" in USA) - out of curiosity I had a look at the source of the govt website and it is legit simple HTML and only a small amount of Javascript.

Also the font is carefully selected, its a digital version of the same easy to read font used in every traffic sign in Britain (the whole govt website uses it, not just the transport related sections)

@t54r4n1 @maffsie

I've seen reports of various Mastodon instances being misused as C&C for botnets and even some control function of a mod pack in a computer game (this last being not as bad as full on malware but still taking the piss and pushing a burden on to someone else rather than developing their own servers)

@volt4ire its been tried in USA as well, and is now also (unsurprisingly) featured on lists by councils and health authorities worldwide of "bad practice" and "activities to be forbidden/discouraged in the interests of public safety"

@strypey if I'm not listening to traditional linear radio I only listen to MP3s in the car; whilst my sound system will do Bluetooth streaming it means dealing with the further distraction of the mobile phone app which is unsafe (in some cases outright illegal under UK traffic laws), lots of countries are starting to clamp down harder on distracted driving (and rightly so)

@swansinflight @strypey

although telephone calls are a distraction (I try and avoid them when driving even with full Bluetooth handsfree capability) the real problems are caused by messaging, social media use and even scrolling through music apps/playlists.

Round here they use cops on motorcycles, one plain one and one uniformed to catch out drivers using their phones at the wheel outside of a hands free system...

@fitheach

this is *exactly* what is happening with the radio scene and younger presenters, some told me themselves they just pick the tracks recommended to them from whatever apps they use on their mobile phones. TBH the only place I get to hear about new/alternative music nowadays is either the Fediverse or the old "steam radio" of Radio Caroline (and some of our older volunteers on Ipswich Community Radio)

@clacke