As pointed out on an irc channel, yet another example of kernel developers having to do crazy things to paper over hardware bugs: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f076ef44a44d02ed91543f820c14c2c7dff53716

December again. Christmas is getting near, winter is coming*, and... The call for proposals for the eBPF Devroom at FOSDEM'26 is about to close. Today is your last chance to submit! If you have things to say about eBPF, send an abstract ⚙️ 🐝

https://ebpf.io/fosdem-2026.html

* Subject to availability in your hemisphere

#fosdem #fosdem2026 #eBPF

In 2017 Randall Munroe posted a strip called "Seven Years" about being the caregiver for a loved one dealing with cancer:

https://xkcd.com/1928/

That strip literally made me cry, it was such a clear telling of what that experience is like; much of it could have been about my own life.

Except that my own experience had a different ending.

Today he put out "Fifteen Years":

https://xkcd.com/3172/

This one made me want to cheer. What a joy to see a story that has played out so differently, so much better. I have never crossed paths with Mr. Munroe, but I rejoice in his and his family's good fortune as if he were a good friend.

Here's to many more years.

@GrapheneOS is being threatened by French authorities for refusing to add backdoors and they're dealing with coordinated attacks in French media right now. They're pulling out of France entirely, moving all their servers, and fighting off a wave of bullshit one-sided reporting that makes them look like they're helping criminals.

They need us to fight back. Support them however you can, whether that's a dollar, sharing their story, pushing back on the garbage news coverage when you see it, or just telling someone you know about what's happening. All of it matters because they're drowning in attacks from governments and media and bad actors who want them gone.

This is the only Android OS that actually makes me feel like privacy isn't just marketing. They fight for us now they need us to fight for them.

The EU is allowing this, governments think they can just threaten developers into compliance, and if we stay quiet we're letting it happen. Show up for them in whatever way you're able to.

#grapheneos #Privacy #NoBackdoors #encryption #security #chatControl

Recent discussion about the perils of doors in gamedev reminded me of a bug caused by a door in a game you may have heard of called "Half Life 2". Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.

I feel this needs to be repeated 🍪

The annoyance of cookie banners
doesn't come from the regulations, but from the malicious compliance of the corporations who want to exploit your personal data.

No data-harvesting cookies = No banner.
Simple.

My websites have no cookie banners,
because they don't use any non-essential cookies and don't track visitors.

Yours shouldn't either.

#Privacy #Cookies #PrivacyLaw

In a depressing tale as old as time, we're seeing the sole dev who made the #Pokemon ROM hack called Pokémon Lazarus (who goes by 'Nemo') stepping back from the public

They shared their 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 work free, and the vocal minority crawled out of the sewers and spewed hatred

Homophobia (because there is one scene with pride flags), bigotry, even disgust at Nemo deigned creating audio tracks from the ground up

You can read my thoughts on it here:

https://gardinerbryant.com/pokemon-lazarus-when-a-fan-game-becomes-a-conversation/

Unsure Calculator: calculate with numbers you're not sure about

Pretty neat!

https://filiph.github.io/unsure/

#LibreQoS is an example that you can develop a world changing startup from the borderland. We are thankful to KTSM 9 NEWS for highlighting our work on fixing #latency, #bufferbloat & #jitter for Internet Service Providers and their customers around the world:

https://www.ktsm.com/news/el-pasoans-operating-software-startup-designed-to-improve-internet-connectivity/

We would like to dedicate this to our beloved colleague #DaveTaht (1965 - 2025) that was instrumental in the global effort on fixing these issues for the #ISPs & their customer everywhere!

#OpenSource #FLOSS

One of the best pieces I've read in awhile. Emily Bressler in @mcsweeneys.net writes "I Work for an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person":

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-work-for-an-evil-company-but-outside-work-im-actually-a-really-good-person

The current Pope in 1982. He's even from Chicago: obviously a Blues Brother.

As someone elsenet remarked, "He looks like he spent the 80s hunting undead gangsters and complaining about the wind."

After six momentous passes in a small aircraft, skydiver Gabriel C. Brown completed his mission. He and his photographer friend Andrew McCarthy created this stunning image that shows the adventurous subject falling in front of the sun.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/11/andrew-mccarthy-skydiver-sun-image/

#photography #nature

"If you're not on board with AI you're going to get left behind"

Boost if you'd like to be left behind and would consider paying extra for a life without this bullshit.

Mozilla announces more AI in Firefox, still failing to understand that at this point their market share is made of tech savvy people who do not want that.

Mozilla, please. Stop chasing the fads. Get your own values.

People use Firefox to get access to an open web, use a sturdy browser, and not to be tracked. Build in that direction and that direction only.

Nobody from your current user base will recommend Firefox with AI to their friends.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-window/

#firefox #ai #privacy

Pepper & Carrot, Episode 39: "The Tavern" is finally out!

This 11-page webcomic is a standalone episode that you can read in five minutes. It's about courage and an experiment with sound in the comic medium. Translations are already available. We've got English, Français, Deutsch, Español, 中文, Nynorsk, and Toki Pona, thanks to some great contributors. And a big thank you to my 1106 supporters for giving me the time to create this one.

https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/webcomic/ep39_The-Tavern.html

#webcomic #krita #peppercarrot

free software without progressive politics is just free labor

End of Japanese community at Mozilla due to the introduction of AI-based translation.

The community members have expressed disappointment and frustration that their long term volunteer efforts and local knowledge were being replaced by machine translation, which they felt did not match the quality of human provided support.

This is why Mozilla sucks so much, they are going crazy like rest of the industry.

Source
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/717446

Added screenshot in case Mozilla decided to remove it

# DHH and Omarchy: Midlife crisis – Rust in Peace

https://blogs.gnome.org/alatiera/2025/11/06/dhh-and-omarchy-midlife-crisis/

"But until I see a male writer asked that question, I am going to respectfully decline to answer it.”

Source:
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/07/lauren-groff-on-florida-as-a-state-of-mind/

Back from vacation, I caught up on discussions about the kernel and had nice chats with my @igalia colleagues.

At the end of the day, I published a blog post about my Kworkflow talk at Kernel Recipes 2025 with speaker notes and live demo script. So that, you can check what I presented in more details.

https://melissawen.github.io/blog/2025/11/03/kworkflow-talk-at-kernel-recipes-2025

This blog post also reminded me how fun the #KR2025 days were.