State of the Bird September 2025

The State of the Bird is a recap of what has been happening in the project.

You can find the previous posts via the #state-of-the-bird tag.

Retrospective

Our last State of the Bird was October 20th 2025 and can be found here.

Metrics

We have a number of metrics we keep an eye on which you can see below.

Contributors

The number of contributors continues to fluctuate a bit, but that's expected for a volunteer project.

If you're interested in contributing you can find some documentation here including ways that don't require knowing how to program.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#db3a83,#e76a2a,#4cdc8b" title="Contibutors" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08 | 2025-09 | 2025-10Developers | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |Crazy Patch Writers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |Casual | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |[/chart]

Review Requests

Review requests are what we call our code reviews and is the way that all code is accepted into our code bases. This is a look at how many were open and closed each month.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#db3a83,#e76a2a" title="Review Requests" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08 | 2025-09 | 2025-10Open | 26 | 20 | 42 | 61 | 48 | 47 |Closed | 22 | 25 | 39 | 57 | 56 | 45 |[/chart]

Issues

This is a look at the number of issues that were opened in our issue tracker as well as how many were closed by month. We don't create issues for everything we do, this is still good to look at as it will include bugs and other issues users have brought to our attention.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#db3a83,#e76a2a" title="Issues" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08 | 2025-09 | 2025-10Open | 6 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 6 | 7 |Closed | 5 | 10 | 3 | 11 | 7 | 19 |[/chart]

Commits

This is a break down of commits to each project per month. In most cases a review request is just a single commit, but this chart helps to see what projects are being worked on.

As you can see, Pidgin 3 activity continues to dominate everything else.

[chart type="bar" backgroundColors="#ed207b,#9eb83b,#e5bb13,#0088cc,#b3b5b4,#8c6238,#231f20,#f1592a,#ffea61,#bf1e2e,#0088cc,#57e389,#7f007f" title="Commits" xAxisTitle="Time Frame" ]2025-05 | 2025-06 | 2025-07 | 2025-08 | 2025-09 | 2025-10 |Pidgin 3 | 15 | 10 | 25 | 51 | 46 | 33 |Pidgin 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |Gaim 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |GPlugin | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |HASL | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |Birb | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 4 |Xeme | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |Ibis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |Hiya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |Myna | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |Seagull | 0 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 |Traversity | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |retro-purple | 38 | 48 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |[/chart]

Infrastructure

Jetbrains Hub, our Identity Provider, and Reviewboard have been moved from Kubernetes to a VPS to help deal with the on going AI scrappers and other malicious users. More services will probably be moved in the future but these two had to be done sooner too keep development running.

Also registrations are currently disabled in Hub due to these issues as well, they will open back up eventually, but right now it's easier to just leave them disabled.

#pidgin3

Pidgin 3 is our next generation universal chat client whose goal is to give you the best experience possible when using modern chat networks.

Retrospective

There was a lot of maintenance this month, but we still found time to clean up a lot of the conversation window and continue working towards the new account settings API.

Highlights

• Fixed some issues scan build found (RR 4195)
• Updated the metafino.xml file so things will appear correctly in app stores (RR 4193)
• Modernized PidginPresenceIcon (RR 4210)
• Show presence messages in the members lists of conversations (RR 4216)
• Implement XEP-0302 for coloring names for all users (RR 4211)
• Added a tool-tip showing the number of available and unavailable members to the search entry in the conversation members list (RR 4217)
• Added an icon for the streaming presence primitive (RR 4218)
• Added a Purple.Connection.set_presence virtual function to tell protocols when to change their presence (RR 4219)
• Removed the Purple.Connection:protocol property (RR 4221)
• IRCv3: Clear presence messages for contacts switch to an available presence (RR 4228)
• Updated Purple.PresenceManager to track the active presence by an index (RR 4226)
• Moved a number of virtual functions from Purple.Protocol to Purple.Connection (RR 4225)
• Added a badges property to Purple.Conversation (RR 4231)
• Updated the credential providers to use the account id and name instead of username. (RR 4238, RR 4239, RR 4240)
• Removed the KWallet credential provier (RR 4241)

Releases

None

Future Plans

• The account options API is in the process of being replaced by a new AccountSetting API.
• Finish getting presence implemented.

The following items are still in the works from the last state of the bird.

• Add persistence to the scheduler.
• Add persistence to the contact manager, this needs to be done so we can fix some issues with direct messages being restored correctly.
• Gary has started an out of tree protocol plugin to help figure out how the voice and video API will work.

As always, you can view the burn down chart for our next release here.

#pidgin2

Pidgin 2 is our stable "production" release of a universal chat client. Meaning that you can use it as a single interface to many chat networks!

Retrospective

We're still planning on doing a 2.15.0 release, but we haven't moved forward on this at all this month.

Highlights

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

We still need to finish up the build environment packages so we can upgrade GTK on windows and get that all into the installer. We also need to remember to update the spell checking dictionaries as we haven't done that in awhile.

#gaim 3

As announced in the last State of the Bird, we've started an additional user interface to keep the look and feel of Pidgin 2 and Gaim before it in GTK4 and we've chosen to name it Gaim.

Retrospective

No new work this month. We've put things on pause until the account settings rewrite is finished. We need to be able to create accounts to move forward and don't want to write a bunch of code just to rewrite it very soon afterwards.

Highlights

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

Once the account settings API is finished up we're going to start moving pretty quickly here.

#gplugin

GPlugin is our GObject based plugin library that is used in Pidgin 3.

Retrospective

Nothing much this month, everything is working well enough for now.

Highlights

Nothing notably

Releases

None

Future Plans

We're going to continue moving forward with the GLib.List -> Gio.ListModel changes and eventually have GPlugin.Manager implement Gio.ListModel.

#hasl

HASL is the Hassle-free Authentication and Security Layer library. It implements SASL in a modern and easy use way compared to the existing libraries.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Highlights

Nothing notable

Releases

None

Future Plans

We have been in the progress of implementing the SCRAM Mechanisms which will be included in the next release.

#birb

Birb is a library of GLib utilities that we use across all of our projects.

Retrospective

We're getting ready for the next release and doing some cleanup to get there.

Highlights

• Add Birb.str_matches (RR 4230)
• Remove Birb.Filter and Birb.CustomFilter (RR 4236)

Releases

None

Future Plans

We have an open review request (RR 4235) which adds a base helper class for formatting a Pango.AttrList to various formats. We will add some basic HTML and Markdown formatters in the future as well.

#xeme

Xeme is our XMPP integration library. It is the basis for both the Link Local Messaging (Bonjour) and XMPP protocols in Pidgin 3. It is still early in development and has not yet had a release.

Retrospective

No activity this month.

Highlights

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

Everything! Seriously though, we're looking to get back to this in the near future.

Ibis

#ircv3-library is our IRCv3 integration library. It has seen a lot of active development as it is used in the IRCv3 protocol plugin in Pidgin 3.

We are nearing known feature completion on it and expect to do a 1.0 release in the near future.

Retrospective

No notable activity this month.

Highlights

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

Continue working through the open issues and watching new IRCv3 specifications for things we should be including.

Once the formatting API lands in Birb we will be adding outgoing formatting support.

#hiya

Hiya is a new client abstraction library for mDNS. It was created to help make implementation of the Link Local Messaging protocol easier as we would have to abstract out the different platform implementations and by putting it in a library that abstraction can be used by other projects.

Hiya has not yet had a release.

#myna

Myna is a new integration library for Matrix. It is still extremely early in development.

#sqlite3-helper-library

Seagull is a new library we created to make working with SQLite feel more like a GLIB/GNOME library and force usage of prepared statements with named parameters and other similar things.

Retrospective

Only a few changes this month driven by some serialization requires in Purple 3.

Highlights

• Fixed some issues scan build found (RR 4207)
• Add suport for GLib.TimeZone (RR 4208)

Releases

None

Future Plans

We have a few features to fill out yet and a few ideas that need a bit more time in the oven.

More specific details can be found in our open issues.

#traversity

Traversity is a new library for traversing NATs. There are many different ways to traverse a NAT and the goal of Traversity is to hide that from developers who just need to traverse a NAT.

It is still early in development and has not yet had an official release.

#retro-prpl

retro-prpl is a new repository we've created on GitHub. This repository contains all of the abandoned protocols that have ever lived in our code base and is meant to make them easier to study and for people to use with services like Retro AIM Server, escargot, and NINA.

Retrospective

Nothing to report on this month.

Highlights

None

Releases

None

Future Plans

Right now we didn't add any support for protocol specific emojis because we completely forgot about them. Anyways we're looking at creating a custom emoji theme that will include everything for these retro protocols.

We're also trying to make sure that you can actually use this to connect to the self hosted clones, but we haven't gotten through verifying that and fixing what doesn't work.

Closing

We have a lot to do going forward but we're still striving hoping that the Experimental 5 release which is due 2025-12-31 will actually be Alpha 1. The distinction is whether not not we think the protocol specific APIs are stable enough for third party protocol developers.

We don't have this well defined yet, and it's more of a feel than anything, but we've had a few people tinkering with third party protocols with moderate success which is absolutely amazing!! So as they continue working on their protocols we're getting good feedback on basically everything which is extremely helpful!

We hope you all are enjoying the new format and if you have any questions of comments please leave them below!

Discuss this on our forum.

Matrix.org

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications

^matrix.org

"The new device is built from arrays of resistive random-access memory (RRAM) cells.... The team was able to combine the speed of analog computation with the accuracy normally associated with digital processing. Crucially, the chip was manufactured using a commercial production process, meaning it could potentially be mass-produced."

Article is based on this paper: nature.com/articles/s41928-025…

Precise and scalable analogue matrix equation solving using resistive random-access memory chips - Nature Electronics

An analogue matrix solver that combines low-precision matrix inversion and high-precision matrix–vector multiplication can be used to solve inversion problems involving 16 × 16 real-valued matrices with precision comparable to 32-bit floating point.

^Nature

A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack on Halloween weekend.

Authorities with the FBI and in Michigan have offered few details about the case, however as he announced the arrests on Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said more information would be released. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.

https://apnews.com/article/detroit-michigan-halloween-terror-plot-fbi-patel-d4758edbde0b18c19ca7b38f9e836904

Nearly 50% of 30 busiest airports facing absences as staff are forced to work without pay and shutdown hits 31st day

Nearly 50% of the 30 busiest US airports faced shortages of air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday, leading to flight delays nationwide as a federal government shutdown hit its 31st day.

The absence of controllers on Friday is by far the most widespread since the shutdown began, with one of the worst-hit regions being New York, where 80% of air traffic controllers were out, the agency said.

At least 35 FAA facilities, including several at the largest US airports, reported staffing problems. Airports affected included facilities in New York City, Austin, Newark, Phoenix, Washington, Nashville, Dallas and Denver. At some airports, delays averaged one hour or more.

Flights delayed across US amid air traffic controller shortages as shutdown drags on

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

Una cultura di egoismo sulla strada mette in rischio tutti con mezzi più leggeri. In questo contesto, tanti trovano sicurezza in mezzi ancora più pesanti, ma alla fine si trovano bloccati in enormi code.

Ci vuole poco per vedere oltre, ma non può succedere senza almeno un minimo di volontà.

A Milano in bici si rischia la vita tutti i giorni

Si investono in ciclabili solo 20 euro per abitante. La mappa degli incidenti che coinvolgono chi pedala mostra una città pericolosa (+36%...

^{Marta Abbà (MilanoToday)}

At least a

out of this.

The unexpected deer

Every generative AI bot makes the occasional mistake, but you’ll probably not notice every one. When the AI hallucinates about your daily life, however, it’s more noticeable. There’s no reason Google should be confused by my smart home setup, which features a couple of outdoor cameras and one indoor camera—all Nest-branded with all the default AI features enabled—to keep an eye on my dogs. So the AI is seeing a lot of dogs lounging around and staring out the window. One would hope that it could reliably summarize something so straightforward.

One may be disappointed, though.

In my first Daily Brief, I was fascinated to see that Google spotted some indoor wildlife. “Unexpectedly, a deer briefly entered the family room,” Gemini said.

Gemini does deserve some credit for recognizing that the appearance of a deer in the family room would be unexpected. But the “deer” was, naturally, a dog. This was not a one-time occurrence, either. Gemini sometimes identifies my dogs correctly, but many event clips and summaries still tell me about the notable but brief appearance of deer around the house and yard.

This deer situation serves as a keen reminder that this new type of AI doesn’t “think,” although the industry’s use of that term to describe simulated reasoning could lead you to believe otherwise. A person looking at this video wouldn’t even entertain the possibility that they were seeing a deer after they’ve already seen the dogs loping around in other videos. Gemini doesn’t have that base of common sense, though. If the tokens say deer, it’s a deer. I will say, though, Gemini is great at recognizing car models and brand logos. Make of that what you will.

In questo nostro magico paese — che, lo sapete, a me tutto sommato piace… ma è chi ci vive a non piacermi — quando, relativamente a questioni informatiche, escono fuori problemi veri… tipo, che ne so, Piracy Shield oppure Chat Control… l’individuo medio (normaloide) sembra sempre cadere dal perone dello zio a riguardo. Ma, a […]

octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…

minioctt

2025-11-01 20:40:41

quando il governo spereta, la gente dorme, ma quando blocca il porno, la gente muore…

In questo nostro magico paese — che, lo sapete, a me tutto sommato piace… ma è chi ci vive a non piacermi — quando, relativamente a questioni informatiche, escono fuori problemi veri… tipo, che ne so, Piracy Shield oppure Chat Control… l’individuo medio (normaloide) sembra sempre cadere dal perone dello zio a riguardo. Ma, a quanto pare, se qualcuno tocca i fottuti porno, allora anche i cretini si svegliano… ma nel senso che smettono appena di dormire, eh, non nel senso che prendono la proverbiale pillola rossa e iniziano a vedere la vera realtà, quello non sia mai… 🤥

Quindi, eccoci qui: benvenuti in Italia, vietato scopare, è il caso di dire, perché dal 12 novembre, meno di 2 settimane, entrerà in vigore la nuova norma AGCOM di cui si è inizialmente parlato 6 mesi fa, per cui diverse piattaforme dedicate alla pornografia dovranno verificare che gli utenti siano effettivamente maggiorenni; questo tramite un accesso astruso con un’identità digitale riconosciuta dallo Stato… nel nostro caso, CIE e SPID, ma questa roba non riguarda solo l’Italia, e in realtà il calderone bolle, per farla breve, in buona parte dell’Unione Europea. 🐸

• Al via la verifica dell’età per siti porno e vietati ai minori: ansa.it/sito/notizie/cronaca/2…

Al di là di tutto, la cosa fa molto ridere, perché è stata implementata in modo molto italiano. L’AGCOM non ha inizialmente diffuso la lista iniziale di siti su cui il provvedimento sarebbe dovuto essere applicato, e non avrebbe nemmeno notificato i diretti interessati… Però, per via di qualcosa del Digital Services Act che non ho capito bene, si è trovata ora a doverlo fare… e, a quanto pare, concedere di conseguenza anche ulteriori 3 mesi di tempo alle piattaforme tirate in causa per permettere a queste di effettivamente implementare i requisti. Quindi, se tutto va bene, della pratica se ne parlerà il 12 gennaio, e già qui… Ma, la cosa proprio spassosa è vedere questa lista magica (PDF) di ben 48 siti… ci sono dettagli sorprendenti, ed altri meno. 🤗

Innanzitutto, a parte una manciata di colossi, tra cui PornHub e le sue proprietà, mi sorprende vedere quanti siti piccoli apparentemente presi a caso ci sono… o meglio, a giudicare dagli URL, questi sembrano avere in comune l’essere o localizzati anche in italiano, o addirittura interamente indirizzati al pubblico italiano… ma nessuno di questi è italiano, nel senso che nessuna società che li possiede è italiana. Un (1) singolo sito effettivamente italiano c’è qui in mezzo, hentai-ita.net, che è di proprietà di una società lombarda, e ok… Ma che cazzo di diritto morale hanno invece tutte queste altre aziendine, localizzate in culo all’Europa, di creare siti con nomi italiani, facendo credere sia roba nazionale che dà da mangiare a dipendenti italiani e contribuisce alle casse dello Stato, e invece con noi non c’entra una minchia? Praticamente il problema dell'”italian-sounding”, ma qui sounding potrebbe significare un’altra cosa (NSFW). 🤯

La cosa divertente, però, sono gli esatti URL che sono stati inseriti. Per alcuni siti c’è la normale pagina indice, mentre altri hanno per qualche motivo URL “sporchi”, che o rimandano a pagine fin troppo specifiche — per esempio, qualcuno rimanda a specifiche categorie, e qualcuno a pagine di termini di servizio… perché? — o includono parametri query specifici alla richiesta — come hash di sessione… che no, non è una cosa grave per la privacy come alcuni finti colti dicono, ma è sintomo di siti programmati a casaccio, spesso in PHP; anche phpBB ha questo comportamento — o… uno in particolare rimanda ad una ricerca specifica: [em]/gay-porno?q=daddy[/em]. Il tizio lì dell’AGCOM che si è messo a girare per ‘sti siti ha insomma deciso di fare proprio questa ricerca su uno, e non l’ha tagliata dall’URL prima di includerlo nel documento, che proprio boh… in questo caso, gusti discutibili, ma per tutti gli altri URL è sintomo di skill issue (non conoscere gli standard de-facto di routing nei siti web, quindi quali parti di un URL sono utili e quali no). 🥴

Infine, di contro, non mi sorprende che in questa lista ci siano finiti solo siti normie; si, tanti decisamente mai sentiti per me, oltre a quelli grandi, ma comunque nulla che sia usato da non-normaloidi. Per esempio, spicca sicuramente la mancanza di rule34; ma non è questione di pornografia reale o meno, perché anche di vari booru e siti di quel tipo, che hanno anche (e qualcuno solo) immagini reali, non c’è l’ombra… ma mi chiedo se ciò sia per ignoranza, per realismo pratico, o per evitare un’insurrezione popolare da parte di weeb ed affini. Decisamente, però, godo a vedere che OnlyFans rientra nella lista, e così finalmente tutte quelle famose sanguisughe anche nostrane, che immoralmente seducono uomini deboli e sfigati spillandogli centinaia o migliaia di euro al mese, troveranno un ostacolo in più per farlo… (E no, imporre anche ad OnlyFans la verifica non è superfluo solo perché la piattaforma obbliga a collegare carte di credito, perché non basta; basti vedere le storie dei minori che caricano roba a pagamento lì sopra, per dire.) 😼

Ovviamente, lo sapete già che a me freca meno di zero, non solo perché per me la pornografia farebbe bene a sparire direttamente dalla faccia della terra, ma perché non è che ci voglia granché a superare questi blocchi; dall’anno prossimo sentiremo certamente anche da noi, come in Regno Unito, parlamentari che scoprono dai nipoti cos’è una VPN… almeno, per ora. Io sono ben più che d’accordo con l’idea di bloccare la pornografia ai minorenni, ma c’è un problema… da un lato, che ‘sta roba non funziona, non ha mai funzionato… e, dall’altro, costituisce con certezza matematica un pendio scivoloso che porta all’erosione dei diritti digitali dei cittadini. 😭

Lasciando anche da parte i rischi per la privacy di queste verifiche di età online, perché a dire il vero la situazione qui non è una schifezza come tra UK e USA, e il sistema per cui questa verifica sarà fatta qui mi sembra effettivamente ben architettato in tal senso — con l’identità degli utenti che è gestita da fornitori già accreditati a livello statale per gli altri accessi sicuri, e il permesso di accesso che viene passato ai siti per mezzo di token temporanei anonimizzati… Il primo vero punto è che, per fare questi accessi, serviranno app mobile di merda: o la nostra IO, che è sì open-source, ma un sacco di roba (tra cui questa, temo) non ci funziona senza Play Integrity, che è una dipendenza spyware closed-source di Google, che è un’azienda statunitense… oppure, quella che dovrebbe cacciare fuori Bruxelles, che non ho idea di come sarà, ma non ho affatto buone speranze. 😖

E poi, ovviamente, c’è sempre il rischio dell’abuso da parte dei potenti… che però, in questo caso, non è previsto da mere supposizioni, ma storie reali accadute in altre parti del mondo. Nel Regno Unito si è appunto messa la verifica dell’identità per piattaforme social, ma anche roba come Discord, e in quell’Online Safety Act c’è andata di mezzo pure Wikipedia… mentre, in Australia, si vorrebbe imporre la verifica dell’età anche a fottuto GitHub — perché fornisce funzioni di collaborazione che dai coglioni al potere sono interpretate come social — e addirittura ai motori di ricerca web! Ci rendiamo conto??!! Ma, ovviamente, il popolino di queste cose non se ne preoccupa prima che sia troppo tardi; solo se c’è il sesso di mezzo ne parla, sennò vaffanculo, chi se ne frega se ci trattano come bambini terroristi pretendendo di poter spiare le nostre chat e di bloccarci l’accesso a metà del web legale… Ma io ve lo giuro, cari italiani: Pignio non richiede verifica, ma le foto dei miei piedini lì sopra non ce le troverete MAI!!! 👿🖕

#AGCOM #blocco #DecretoCaivano #identità #minori #porno #pornografia #privacy #provvedimento #verifica

Age verification is coming to search engines in Australia – with huge implications for privacy and inclusion

New rules will radically change the way we use the internet in Australia, and not just social media

^{Samantha Floreani (The Guardian)}

the democratic party is releasing a guide for how to actually start winning elections again. i read most of it and i believe it's a good start:

• Focus our policy agenda and our messaging on an economic program centered on lowering costs, growing the economy, creating jobs, and expanding the social safety net.
• Advocate for popular economic policies (e.g., expanding prescription drug price negotiation, making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour) rather than unpopular economic policies (e.g., student loan forgiveness, electric vehicle subsidies, Medicare for All).
• Convince voters that we share their priorities by focusing more on issues voters do not think our party prioritizes highly enough (the economy, the cost of living, health care, border security, public safety), and focusing less on issues voters think we place too much emphasis on (climate change, democracy, abortion, identity and cultural issues).
• Moderate our positions where our agenda is unpopular, including on issues like immigration, public safety, energy production, and some identity and cultural issues.
• Embrace a substantive and rhetorical critique of the outsized political and economic influence of lobbyists, corporations, and the ultra-wealthy, while keeping two considerations in mind: First, voters' frustrations with the status quo are not the same as a desire for socialism. And second, criticizing the status quo is a complement to advocating for popular policies on the issues that matter most to the American people, not a substitute.

Deciding To Win – Toward A Common Sense Renewal of the Democratic Party

Deciding to Win aims to provide the most comprehensive account to date of why Democrats lost and what our party needs to do to win again.

^{Deciding To Win – Toward A Common Sense Renewal of the Democratic Party}

I'm one of those hipsters who doesn't use streaming services.

I did, a while ago, but I quit using them because the experience is kind of awful, and I'm happier now for it. I collect physical media and watch it using Jellyfin on my Linux-based home theater PC, and I'm completely satisfied with how it works.

I'm making this video because I am really troubled by algorithmic helplessness, and I feel like corporate-centralized streaming media makes that worse. Maybe this video will encourage someone else to cut the cord and rediscover an appreciation for owning your media and being choosy about what to "watch next". Or maybe I'm just wasting time. Who knows? I suppose, you know, you're reading this description, right?

If you read the description, say "algorithmic helplessness sucks" in the comments. That'll make me feel better.

Oh right, I need to tell you about the things I mentioned in the video.

Software:
- MakeMKV: makemkv.com/
- To support MakeMKV and get all the advanced features: makemkv.com/buy/
- That LibreDrive forum post on the MakeMKV website which is hard to find (contains list of LibreDrive compatible drives): forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewto…
- Handbrake: handbrake.fr/
- Asunder: littlesvr.ca/asunder/
- Jellyfin: jellyfin.org/
- Kodi: kodi.tv
- Finamp (via GitHub): github.com/jmshrv/finamp

Hardware I mentioned - not sponsored and no affiliate links.
(These drives might not be currently available at Micro Center, but I'm providing these links as they're probably the most helpful if you want to find one yourself.)
- My LG portable Blu-Ray drive, a BP60NB10: microcenter.com/product/607144…
- And my internal Asus BW-16D1HT drive: microcenter.com/product/435513…
- FLIRC receiver (I don't remember if I bought it here but maybe): pishop.us/product/flirc-rpi-us…

Other links of note:
- 13 minutes of videotaped footage of the Wii Netflix app:
- Video about smart TVs by @LonSeidman :
- My PeerTube (watch this video without ads or tracking): tinkerbetter.tube/c/veronicaex…
- My blog post about how I use Handbrake: vkc.sh/handbrake-2025/

Lastly, links to support my very unsponsored videos:
- Patreon: patreon.com/VeronicaExplains
- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/VeronicaExplains
- Bandcamp: thestopbits.bandcamp.com

Chapters:
0:00 My motivation for ditching streaming
3:21 Physical media is awesome
4:05 Ripping media
5:59 Serving with Jellyfin
7:09 Bookstores and libraries are lit (get it?)
8:10 I don't want an algorithm programming us.

vkc via PeerTube

2025-11-01 15:32:46

I stream nothing, and I am happy.

I'm one of those hipsters who doesn't use streaming services.

I did, a while ago, but I quit using them because the experience is kind of awful, and I'm happier now for it. I collect physical media and watch it using Jellyfin on my Linux-based home theater PC, and I'm completely satisfied with how it works.

I'm making this video because I am really troubled by algorithmic helplessness, and I feel like corporate-centralized streaming media makes that worse. Maybe this video will encourage someone else to cut the cord and rediscover an appreciation for owning your media and being choosy about what to "watch next". Or maybe I'm just wasting time. Who knows? I suppose, you know, you're reading this description, right?

If you read the description, say "algorithmic helplessness sucks" in the comments. That'll make me feel better.

Oh right, I need to tell you about the things I mentioned in the video.

Software:
- MakeMKV: makemkv.com/
- To support MakeMKV and get all the advanced features: makemkv.com/buy/
- That LibreDrive forum post on the MakeMKV website which is hard to find (contains list of LibreDrive compatible drives): forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewto…
- Handbrake: handbrake.fr/
- Asunder: littlesvr.ca/asunder/
- Jellyfin: jellyfin.org/
- Kodi: kodi.tv
- Finamp (via GitHub): github.com/jmshrv/finamp

Hardware I mentioned - not sponsored and no affiliate links.
(These drives might not be currently available at Micro Center, but I'm providing these links as they're probably the most helpful if you want to find one yourself.)
- My LG portable Blu-Ray drive, a BP60NB10: microcenter.com/product/607144…
- And my internal Asus BW-16D1HT drive: microcenter.com/product/435513…
- FLIRC receiver (I don't remember if I bought it here but maybe): pishop.us/product/flirc-rpi-us…

Other links of note:
- 13 minutes of videotaped footage of the Wii Netflix app:
- Video about smart TVs by @[url=https://indieweb.social/users/lonseidman]Lon Seidman / Lon.TV ☑️[/url] :
- My PeerTube (watch this video without ads or tracking): tinkerbetter.tube/c/veronicaex…
- My blog post about how I use Handbrake: vkc.sh/handbrake-2025/

Lastly, links to support my very unsponsored videos:
- Patreon: patreon.com/VeronicaExplains
- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/VeronicaExplains
- Bandcamp: thestopbits.bandcamp.com

Chapters:
0:00 My motivation for ditching streaming
3:21 Physical media is awesome
4:05 Ripping media
5:59 Serving with Jellyfin
7:09 Bookstores and libraries are lit (get it?)
8:10 I don't want an algorithm programming us.

The Free Software Media System | Jellyfin

The volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached.

^jellyfin.org

Does anyone want this old and lightly dusty 20 volume set of books?
They have been with my family since probably that date, but nobody wants them anymore.

I like to horde cool stuff and encyclopedias have always felt like a big wealth of random knowledge. But I am cleaning things out and don't want to have responsibility for these being destroyed in a flood or something.

I will ship them all for free to anywhere up to $100 in shipping cost. I pay for shipping. I just want them gone but safe.

Would really want somebody who is actually interested in taking care of or handling these books well.

My other option is of course my library, but it feels more personal to give a Lemmy user first dibs.

Please share so I can find a new owner quickly. Thanks.

Edit: will ship anywhere in the world up to $100

A pledge form from Trump’s team has been circulating to seek donations for the ballroom and gave donors the option of withholding their identities, according to the outlet, which obtained a copy of the form.

• Kidney care company Vantive - undisclosed
• Extremity Care, which has previously donated to Trump’s super PAC, donated $2.5 million to the ballroom fund, according to the newspaper.
• BlackRock, which in May acquired a stake in the company that operates ports near the Panama Canal — a move which was supported by Trump.
• Billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass
• Nvidia -The company could benefit from a Trump trade deal with China.
  Names publicly disclosed included Big Tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, HP and Microsoft, along with cryptocurrency businesses Coinbase and Ripple, the Winklevoss Twins, Comcast, Lockheed Martin and Palantir Technologies.

  T-Mobile, Union Pacific Railroad, oil baron Harold Hamm, the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and members of the Glazer family, which owns Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are also contributing, according to a list of donors previously released by the White House.

White House withheld names of some donors to Trump’s $300M ballroom, report says

A list of donors released by the White House omitted more than three dozen contributions and names of individuals and companies who are backing the project, the report claims

^{Rhian Lubin (The Independent)}

Guess we can always rely on the good old fashioned ways to make money...

Honestly, I think its pretty awful but im not surprised.

Sam Altman Pushes Back on OpenAI’s Foray Into Smut

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defends his flip-flopping on erotica by saying the company is not the "moral police."

^{Rae Witte (Futurism)}

Clint Curtis is overseeing a 4 November ballot that could add five Democratic seats and reshape US politics

When Clint Curtis was appointed to oversee voting in California’s Shasta county earlier this year, the Florida-based lawyer and election skeptic pledged to “fix” the voting process.

Curtis had never before administered an election and didn’t live in this rural northern California region. But he was well-known to followers of the US election denialism movement, who believe the voting system is not secure and that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Curtis, a former congressional candidate, described himself as an expert in elections law and had long argued that voting machines could be hacked and that the government could manipulate the results of elections.

The ultra-conservative majority on Shasta county’s board of supervisors was hopeful he could overhaul their elections and set an example for the rest of the US.

Now, that vision is being put to the test.

California is voting on redistricting. An election skeptic runs the process in one county

^{Dani Anguiano (The Guardian)}

Finally, Atre caved and offered to write two new paychecks, but on one condition: Lindsay and Charters had to perform between 300-500 pushups each, which they did. “They were humiliated in front of people doing pushups,” Santa Cruz County detective Ethan Rumrill testified.

Im always surprised that characters like this are real. Seems like the typical bad guy in pop-corn movies.

Murdered Tech CEO Was Cruelly Bullying Employees Before His Death

A six-year investigation has helped uncover the brutal working conditions Tushar Atre's employees suffered under his hand.

^{Joe Wilkins (Futurism)}

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-reveals-vera-rubin-superchip-for-the-first-time-incredibly-compact-board-features-88-core-vera-cpu-two-rubin-gpus-and-8-socamm-modules

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/5165

A court ruling will force the Administration to use emergency funds for SNAP benefits. But the money will run out in weeks. What then?

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From naked capitalism via This RSS Feed.

Preface: I personally don't care if it's legal or not, I'm gonna do it anyway. But, I wanted to pose the question here to people who are smarter than me to get your opinions. Plus, my partner is completely anti-piracy so I can only enjoy it by myself and it makes me kind of sad to do so. So it'd be nice to give them a reason to consider it. Also also, I am not knowledgeable enough to even know if this is a stupid question, so please be kind.

I saw an old post/comment chain that the stremio + rd + torrentio combo is "technically" legal in the states due to some workaround about distributing vs consuming. You're also not downloading anything or torrenting anything. I know that on their own, Stremio and RD are perfectly legit sites. But adding Torrentio into the mix is where it gets the spicy flavor. Now that some years have passed and that post might be outdated, what are your thoughts now? Is there a case to be made in favor of this being legal?

One of the best pieces of self-hosted software ever to exist.

Edit: This is Immich! for the folks who don't know.