Pluralistic: 15 Apr 2020

Today's links

Jailbreak for CPAP machine reveals hidden ventilator functionality: A $700 CPAP becomes a limited BIPAP through a software patch.
State treasurers demand ventilator manufacturers publish manuals: Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Delaware, and Rhode Island want the Right to Repair.
Ten graphic novels for kids, teens and adults in lockdown: My picks for True North Comics.
One person is in charge of oversight for $2.2T in stimulus: Bharat Ramamurti is the sole member of the Congressional Oversight Commission.
Universities want to infect students’ laptops with undetectable rootkits: Invigilation tools + shared laptops + overstretched IT departments = Bad, bad news.
I Void Warranties for a Living: Name-your-price stickers.
2600 Magazine hit hard by pandemic: Bail 'em out by buying the current ish as a download.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Tacocat, a free print-and-play game from the Exploding Kittens team: Super smart endgame!
Adafruit offers open source PPE manufacturing: They're retooling and available to help.
It's time for a coronavirus jubilee: Debts that can't be paid won't be.
Medicare for All is an economic stabilizer: Private health insurance turns recessions into depressions.
Private Kit, a free/open app to give you control over your location history: Doing contact tracing without invading privacy.
Italy's mayors berate quarantine-breaking citizens: "Does your dog have an inflamed prostate?"
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

TSA boss doubles down on taking away health care from part-time screeners: They're touching your junk with diseased hands.
Akil Augustine on Radicalized: My book's Canada Reads champion lays out the case for Radicalized.
A former top Cigna exec rebuts Joe Biden's healthcare FUD: Wendell Potter is the prodigal corporate villain.
Ars Technica's Covid-19 explainer is the best resource on the pandemic: Beth Mole has outdone herself.
Boeing is even worse at financial engineering than they are at aircraft engineering: The $43B they incinerated through stock buybacks would sure come in handy about now.
Senate Republicans kill emergency sick leave during pandemic: Sick leave is cheaper than pandemics, but pandemics generate cost-plus contracts for the donor class.
The EU's new Right to Repair rules finally come for electronics: Snoods cocked at Apple and other US Big Tech monopolists.
How to run a virtual classroom: Masterclass from the 14-year-old Stanford Online High School.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Jesse Jackson endorses Sanders: "I stand with him because he stands with you."
Choose Your Own Adventure was Milton Friedman for Kids: There Is No Alternative.
Woman sues TSA over "pat-down" that penetrated her vagina: Las Vegas airport's finest.
Shat-out pig pedometer sparks farm-fire: Beyond Thunderdome, free range
UCSC strike prompts systemwide student and faculty solidarity strikes: Meanwhile, the regents are deporting striking TAs.
An open syllabus on "housing struggles": Detailed resources from the Pirate Care collective.
Yanis Varoufakis on how austerity leads to fascism: And how "constructive disobedience" can win support for alternatives.
John Deere is Right to Repair's archnemesis: Digital feudalism has reinvented the tenant farmer.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

EU airspace is full of empty planes: Flight slots are use-em-or-lose-em.
European Right to Repair for phones is finally on the horizon: Will the EU finally defy Apple?
Patagonia offers tutorials and supplies to fix your clothes: Companies that guarantee their products for life have different incentives.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
Warner Chappel discoved a new form of copyright fuckery so dense it blew a wormhole into another dimension: From the people who fraudulently claimed to own "Happy Birthday" for decades.
RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
Copyright experts' panel on fair use removed from Youtube: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading