I am a great fan of open-source software and have been for over a decade now. Recently I've been asking myself a few questions, regarding the state of FOSS and how much of it we truly get to rely on in our everyday lives. Note that this post will be a bit long, and might require a good understanding of hardware and firmware in general (I'm not above average at this chapter myself).

Many of us choose to install and use open software for various activities: Some of us have a FOSS operating system (Linux instead of Windows), others just use free alternatives to commercial software for their work (LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office), some gamers prefer free games over commercial alternatives (Xonotic instead of Team Fortress), and the list goes on. I'm among those who take...
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I've recently been pondering a pretty scary theory, yet one that's looking more likely by the day. If my belief is correct, I couldn't stress the urgency of sounding the alarm as quickly as possible and asking everyone to spread the word about this. I know I'm going to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but people need to be aware of this possibility.

I'm slowly growing certain that what's been happening to the web recently may be part of a worldwide initiative to undermine the open internet, which has been carefully planned and coordinated by governments worldwide for years. The proof in my view is how the web as a whole came under fire starting last year, in basically every part of the democratic world and for seemingly unrelated reasons. To list only the most well known...
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Firstly I ask that you consider sharing this post to spread the news: Everyone needs to be warned about this sort of thing and know that it's happening! Anyone can be a victim of such practices, and since it comes from trusted companies they won't even have a reason to suspect it. Victims can have their usernames and passwords actively stolen and their accounts compromised!

https://torrentfreak.com/flight-sim-com ... rds-180219
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... alware-drm ...
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So here is some positive news for a change. Over the past few months and years, I've dealt with enough disappointment to stop believing that anything good could ever be possible for me again... yet something amazing and unexpected recently happened, that I really wouldn't have anticipated and didn't see coming.

After posting a photo roughly two weeks ago, showing my apartment on the public debt list of our block, several people jumped in to help. One of them made the amazing donation of 500$, whereas another person made the also amazing donation of 100$. Combined, they were just enough to cover this debt and bring us back to zero... something we haven't been able to do in over 3 years if I remember correctly.

Other than a huge "thank you", I really don't...
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I've finished the last major Patreon change I had planned for the month. I was going to work on better descriptions as well, but found myself too busy to have the time for that one. Next month I should have new sneak peak screenshots of yet more projects, as well as a status update on my situation once I'm sure everything is clear.

My Patreon now has two ongoing goals, meaning their rewards are offered for as long as the goal remains reached: While I'm over 400$, I'll be additionally uploading art and animation sources for Gimp and Blender... and while I'm over 600$, I will be offering whole game demos for small games if they aren't already hosted on a public Git repository. So far I've never published actual sources and demos (excluding Git), only screenshots and information...
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As the world descends further and further into tyranny and madness, I continue asking myself what I can and should do to end this insanity. Germany and with it the European Union are coming after the internet: Germany just passed a law known as NetzDG, by which the state can fine social media into silencing whatever speech the state deems illegal... censorship has already spun out of control there in a matter of days, with websites now censoring users for parody out of fear of being punished. The EU wishes to do the same thing, and yesterday had a meeting with social media representatives demanding faster and more efficient censorship.

I do not wish to alarm anyone. But I'm reaching the point where thoughts are going through my head... that people should normally not have to...
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I'll start with a quick situation update: For reasons still unknown to me, I continue losing more and more patrons each month. I'm down from $400 to almost $200 at this point. Part of me wants to say "fuck it" at this stage and stop even trying, as it seems nothing I do matters to anyone. This hasn't yet happened so don't worry... slowly but surely I continue working on various projects which I'll hopefully have sneak peaks of soon. All in all, me and my mother are at the point where we'll no longer be able to buy food in favor of paying bills and the rent: I logically don't see how we're going to stay alive for long, but honestly I've reached the point where I can't be bothered to even care (at least in my case).

The situation implies I need to make some changes...
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Over the years I've dealt with a good amount of crazy. I've seen more shit in nearly 3 decades than I imagined I could in 10 lifetimes, as far as sheer human madness is concerned. In the last few years it has rapidly gotten worse, and recently it seems to have reached new unprecedented heights.

In this episode, it's my displeasure to present to you the sentient computer... A.K.A. machine learning, A.K.A. artificial intelligence. No folks we aren't talking about a physical electronic brain... which may actually be possible one day, once scientists figure out how to reconstruct all neurons in the human brain and map them to a circuit of quantum bits. We're talking classic binary code running on your average 64 bit processor (C++ / Java / Whatever) which is supposedly capable of...
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https://blog.patreon.com/not-rolling-out-fees-change/

I'm not referring just to the fact that they decided to delay the service fee changes, which is in and of itself a wonderful thing! The reason I've always been and continue to be a huge fan of Patreon is their attitude toward the user... who isn't seen as just a money making machine, but as a partner and somebody who actually matters. I knew from experience that they do listen to our feedback, and I'm glad their latest blog post proves that I'm still correct.

To creators who have been saying "if Patreon doesn't improve I'm moving to something else" the past few days: Do let me know if you find...
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To start off: The issue with PayPal was FINALLY resolved today, after nearly 3 months of struggling with the verification process. It's definitely a relief to see all warnings and limitation lists erased, and have just been able to withdraw the money frozen in my account to pay some of my overdue rent.

The help came from an unlikely source: I received my Patreon payout through the card I have with Payoneer (a bank and payment processor similar to PayPal). Payoneer offers the option to download card statements in PDF format, which thank goodness happens to be formatted in a way that meets all the criteria PayPal wants (company name and logo, my full name and address, date of issue, recent transactions). I decided to upload it to PayPal, and this time the issue was solved within...
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