SDF Chatter

I needed that to installl NetBSD on a low cost VPS, then decided to share it.

Totally vibe coded

Found an adorable pair. Baby is under mom in the first pic but I got one of them both escaping my gaze.

In OpenBSD, the syslogd(8) system logger has already for a while now fork(2)ed the privileged from the non-privileged parts.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54557065

Op-ed by Tommaso Franco, geopolitical analyst, member of the IISS and Chatham House, and a Junior Fellow at the Swiss Institute for Global Affairs (SIGA).

Archived

[...]

Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, the CCP pursues a policy of “sinicization,” a systematic strategy to forcibly assimilate the Uyghur population. What was once a peripheral province is today China’s most militarized zone: a veritable open-air prison. Michelle Bachelet, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently acknowledged “serious human rights violations” committed in Xinjiang that could constitute “crimes against humanity.” As early as 2005, Human Rights Watch raised the alarm, claiming that the systematic repression of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is a deliberate political strategy that ultimately benefits the state of China.

Most importantly, what happens in the Xinjiang re-education camps extends beyond China’s borders and encroaches on the international community. China is demonstrating to the world that cultural and religious identity can be rewritten or erased in the name of state stability and economic development. If the “Great Wall of Iron” system prevails without meeting cohesive global resistance, the risk is that the Xinjiang model will become an export product: a world where technology serves not to liberate humanity, but to perfect its imprisonment.

[...]

The heart of the Xinjiang system is “grid-style social management.” This massive control apparatus rests on a sophisticated digital surveillance system and predictive policing. Through a massive database called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), the state used AI to cross-reference personal information data such as private messages and spending habits in order to create lists of “suspicious” people. Cities are fragmented into zones, each monitored by a pervasive network of facial recognition technology and police stations. Big data, smart cameras and biometric databases track every breath of daily life.

[...]

One example of how Beijing is isolating the Uyghurs is China’s relationship with Afghanistan. Following the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the subsequent fall of Kabul in 2021, China has taken a proactive turn in its Afghanistan policy. Beijing is moving to fill the strategic vacuum left by Washington. For China, Afghanistan is a fundamental piece in stabilizing the Xinjiang border and for securing BRI trade corridors. China had already woven a dense diplomatic network with the Taliban. This is evidenced by over 140 diplomatic meetings between Afghanistan and China and the welcoming of Chinese Ambassador Zhao Sheng in Kabul.

The pact is clear: oil, humanitarian and technological investments in exchange for security and silence. China has eliminated tariffs on Afghan goods, signed a $540 million oil contract (which has since been broken) and pledged $13 million in humanitarian aid. This support is the price for a guarantee of vital importance: the Taliban have ensured that Afghan territory will never serve as a base for Uyghur militants of the ETIM [The separatist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement fighting for the independence of East Turkestan, called Xinjiang in China]. It is a game Beijing knows well, having already woven similar threads with Mullah Omar, ex-supreme leader of the Taliban, in 2000.

[...]

The Taliban, while presenting themselves as defenders of the faith, have cynically sacrificed the Uyghur cause in exchange for economic oxygen and international legitimacy. This collaboration allows both regimes to proceed with internal repression without interference. Beijing offers Kabul a crucial lifeline to mitigate UN sanctions while the Taliban grant China privileged access to Afghanistan’s vast and unexplored mineral resources.

[...]

The use of security rhetoric to justify the destruction of an identity creates a disturbing bridge between Beijing’s strategies and other dark pages of history and recent events. Xinjiang was made to be a model of digital authoritarianism, and now that model is being exported. China is challenging the foundations of international coexistence. The immense scale of the repressive operation in Xinjiang rules out the possibility that this is an isolated case of abuse. Absolute stability has been prioritized over fundamental rights, and such a strategy will not stop at Chinese borders.

The apartment lease was a temporary solution to a logistical problem: I needed to be in one place long enough to get some medical procedures done.

I'm working the program but it's slow. I've scribbled down some thoughts on the timeline and future plans in the blog post.

BTW: yay, lemmy.sdf.org is back up again!

please caption this in whatever way you see fit, and attach your edit in the form of a comment

Anyone even remembers me? My account and all posts got NUKED. Will post some comics again soon (between 1 and 64 weeks).

Bonus pics

In the latest upheaval at the mayor’s office, Mayor Katie Wilson’s communications director, Seferiana Day, is out. Day, who was out of the office for nearly two months due to a medical issue and has been on intermittent leave, was asked to resign after turning down an offer to take on a new role overseeing council-mayor relations, according to sources. The office will also undergo an internal reorganization, reassigning existing staffers to new positions and making Esther Handy Wilson’s permanent chief of staff (Handy is currently serving in an interim role.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/54504338

Archived

In our human rights work on China’s black jails, it has been extremely difficult to obtain photos or video of the facilities. These are secret places. No phones, no lawyer, no journalists, no family are allowed inside. Even the locations are kept hidden—typically a bag is placed over a prisoner’s head when they are moved in or out.

So far, we have relied on first person testimony to understand what these black jails are like.

But then we searched Douyin, China’s Tiktok (both developed by Beijing-based ByteDance) and we found something very surprising.

B2B companies that make equipment for China’s security services are advertising their suicide-proofed apparatus on the platform. For the first time, we can see up close what a brand-new Liuzhi cell probably looks like. We searched for the terms “留置” (Liuzhi, one of CCP’s two types of secret jail) and words related to suicide-proofing, such as”软包墙面” (ruanbao qiangmian, padded walls).

What we saw was just as horrifying as we’ve been told.

Welcome to the insane asylum

We found videos by three companies on Douyin showcasing their suicide-padded furniture and fittings, such as tables, chairs and walls, marketed specifically for Liuzhi.

The images produce an unsettling sense of being in an insane asylum. The scripts are chilling; they seem to take delight in point out the capacity for torture their products offer.

And, ironically, they do a much better job of describing Liuzhi than we ever could.

The basic facts of inhumane treatment we have heard about are confirmed in the videos:

• the isolation,
• the 24-hour surveillance by two guards,
• the always on lights, and,
• the need to ask for permission for everything, even the slightest movement.

The videos’ voiceovers describe how:

• Liuzhi cells are “heavy with the suffocating air of confinement,” the prisoner feels “forgotten by the world”
• Their padded furniture and walls prevent “accidental injuries during interrogation sessions,” hinting at physical torture
• Prisoners’ screams are simply swallowed up by the room
• One video boasts: “Not many people can survive a place like this without losing it.”

[...]

What black jails does China run?

In recent years, China has legalized two black jail systems: (1) Liuzhi or retention in custody, which is focused on CCP members and state workers, and (2) Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) for everyone else (many human rights activists and rights lawyers are locked up here).

Prisoners are kept for months or more, in complete isolation, subjected to extended interrogations and watched 24-hours by two guards. Any windows are blacked out. It’s constant, unending strip lighting. The psychological torture these conditions produce drive some to try to kill themselves. The authorities know this—it’s intentional to coerce a confession—so they suicide-proof the cells.

[...]

if there's anything else you'd like me to do, just let me know

i'm sound of mind, not ill, not planning on taking any trips, and if anything happens to me, it was not suicide

Love watching these two hop across the yard 😊