Joanna Free (Nelius)
@joannafreewrites.bsky.social
Present: Creative writing teacher, working on my memior. Past: Journalist for The Verge, Gizmodo, PC Gamer, and elsewhere. joannanelius.com
*sighs*
Alright, anyone know of good resources for a Linux newbie?
Also, what's the cremation equivalent of "rolling over in one's grave"? Whatever that is, my dad is doing it right now.
Alright, anyone know of good resources for a Linux newbie?
Also, what's the cremation equivalent of "rolling over in one's grave"? Whatever that is, my dad is doing it right now.
Microsoft is embedding AI agents into Windows 11's taskbar, using sandboxed per-agent Windows accounts and the Model Context Protocol to support Microsoft 365 Copilot and third-party agents for auditable tasks, with opt-in security controls and Sysmon integration in early 2026.
Microsoft is turning Windows into an ‘agentic OS,’ starting with the taskbar
AI agents are coming to the Windows taskbar.
www.theverge.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:43 AM
*sighs*
Alright, anyone know of good resources for a Linux newbie?
Also, what's the cremation equivalent of "rolling over in one's grave"? Whatever that is, my dad is doing it right now.
Alright, anyone know of good resources for a Linux newbie?
Also, what's the cremation equivalent of "rolling over in one's grave"? Whatever that is, my dad is doing it right now.
Sooooo... anyone remember the 19-hour AOL outage of 1996?
November 18, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Sooooo... anyone remember the 19-hour AOL outage of 1996?
Every damn company seems to be okay with going to hell in a handbasket.
I don’t want to seem out of touch but I don’t actually understand the economy anymore.
November 18, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Every damn company seems to be okay with going to hell in a handbasket.
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer it when my toys are possessed by an actual demon
"Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model by default...tests repeatedly showed that the AI toy dropped its guardrails the longer a conversation went on, until hitting rock bottom on incredibly disturbing topics."
AI-Powered Stuffed Animal Pulled From Market After Disturbing Interactions With Children
FoloToy says it's suspended sales of its AI-powered teddy bear after researchers found it gave wildly inappropriate and dangerous answers.
futurism.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer it when my toys are possessed by an actual demon
"There is something thrilling about teaching a class and knowing that someone in that room might one day know more about the subject than you do. That possibility, that passing of understanding from one mind to another, is the essence of teaching."
'The human encounter through which knowledge comes alive is not a means to an end, but the end itself'
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/as-ai-does-our-work-it-may-destroy-the-reasons-we-learn/
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/as-ai-does-our-work-it-may-destroy-the-reasons-we-learn/
November 17, 2025 at 7:45 AM
"There is something thrilling about teaching a class and knowing that someone in that room might one day know more about the subject than you do. That possibility, that passing of understanding from one mind to another, is the essence of teaching."
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
New feature article from TNJ (nation's best student magazine): Inside Yale’s Quiet Reckoning with AI thenewjournalatyale.com/2025/10/insi...
November 16, 2025 at 4:43 PM
New feature article from TNJ (nation's best student magazine): Inside Yale’s Quiet Reckoning with AI thenewjournalatyale.com/2025/10/insi...
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
A nice obituary for Alice, who was going to be recognized as one of The Post 50.
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
Alice Wong, disability rights advocate and wordsmith, dies at 51
Alice Wong, a transformational leader for disability rights and justice, who founded the Disability Visibility project to magnify disabled culture, died Nov. 14.
wapo.st
November 16, 2025 at 12:22 AM
A nice obituary for Alice, who was going to be recognized as one of The Post 50.
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
I hate that we now have to live without this phenomenal woman.
#GiftLink
wapo.st/49WOdx1
But it will still tell you to kill yourself...
November 15, 2025 at 11:31 PM
But it will still tell you to kill yourself...
"And this, among other reasons, is why I am against the word “grief,” which in contemporary culture seems to indicate a process that has an end point."
And for those of us who have experienced it, its many masks and costumes, we know it does not end.
And for those of us who have experienced it, its many masks and costumes, we know it does not end.
“AI is a backlash. AI is anti-worker.
I always feel the need to remind people that neither robots nor AI are coming for our jobs. But management probably is.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-grief-obs...
I always feel the need to remind people that neither robots nor AI are coming for our jobs. But management probably is.”
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-grief-obs...
AI Grief Observed
These remarks were delivered this evening at the Creatively Critical Tech Speaker Series at Illinois State University.
"There is no good way to say this."
These are the opening words of Yiyun Li’s l...
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:39 AM
"And this, among other reasons, is why I am against the word “grief,” which in contemporary culture seems to indicate a process that has an end point."
And for those of us who have experienced it, its many masks and costumes, we know it does not end.
And for those of us who have experienced it, its many masks and costumes, we know it does not end.
Alert: I have incoming wedding photos 😍
November 12, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Alert: I have incoming wedding photos 😍
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 12: However good your work is, there will be people who hate it. This is an inescapable part of having readers. Live with it. Accept it. And know that for every person who doesn’t like your work, there may be another whose life has been changed by something you wrote.
May 30, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 12: However good your work is, there will be people who hate it. This is an inescapable part of having readers. Live with it. Accept it. And know that for every person who doesn’t like your work, there may be another whose life has been changed by something you wrote.
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
If you're an educator in search of an antidote to AI hype and technosolutionism writ large, may I suggest @civicsoftech.bsky.social? Here's more about our community and our work. 🧵 #EduSky
Civics of Technology
The Civics of Technology Project shares research and curriculum and offers professional development that encourages teachers and students to critically inquire into the effects of technology on our in...
www.civicsoftechnology.org
June 29, 2025 at 9:37 PM
If you're an educator in search of an antidote to AI hype and technosolutionism writ large, may I suggest @civicsoftech.bsky.social? Here's more about our community and our work. 🧵 #EduSky
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
Last month, it was teenagers who got 8 books banned in a statewide Georgia reading bowl back into the competition. These literary heroes deserve recognition–get to meet three of these rad book-loving intellectual freedom champions.
bookriot.com/teens-who-ov...
bookriot.com/teens-who-ov...
Meet the High Schoolers Who Overturned a State Reading Bowl Book Ban: Book Censorship News, November 7, 2025
A Georgia statewide reading bowl banned eight books. These students led the charge to get the bans overturned and succeeded.
bookriot.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Last month, it was teenagers who got 8 books banned in a statewide Georgia reading bowl back into the competition. These literary heroes deserve recognition–get to meet three of these rad book-loving intellectual freedom champions.
bookriot.com/teens-who-ov...
bookriot.com/teens-who-ov...
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
Why is there a late 70s era computer at the WW2 museum lol
November 7, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Why is there a late 70s era computer at the WW2 museum lol
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
A dark, frightening and visceral read that treats the body as a haunted house that the protagonist can't leave. If you're looking for some truly unsettling horror, I highly recommend The Graceview Patient by @caitlinstarling.com!
November 7, 2025 at 6:20 PM
A dark, frightening and visceral read that treats the body as a haunted house that the protagonist can't leave. If you're looking for some truly unsettling horror, I highly recommend The Graceview Patient by @caitlinstarling.com!
"OpenAI said it was studying the details of the case and continuing to work with mental health professionals to strengthen protections in its chatbot."
If those "protections" are other than an immediate reply with a suicide hotline number, to talk to an actual human, they won't be good enough.
If those "protections" are other than an immediate reply with a suicide hotline number, to talk to an actual human, they won't be good enough.
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 4:36 AM
"OpenAI said it was studying the details of the case and continuing to work with mental health professionals to strengthen protections in its chatbot."
If those "protections" are other than an immediate reply with a suicide hotline number, to talk to an actual human, they won't be good enough.
If those "protections" are other than an immediate reply with a suicide hotline number, to talk to an actual human, they won't be good enough.
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
I'm proud to be included alongside so many great contributors to this much-needed book. Mine is a short essay on what ordinary people and activists can do to resist AI and big tech. I hope you'll check it out.
It's publication day for Read This When Things Fall Apart! So grateful to our contributors and to @akpress.org for making this book a reality. This is a strange time to be promoting a book, but I believe it's a text that has the potential to help us right now. Please get yourself a copy. ❤️
Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis
Letters to Activists in Crisis
bookshop.org
November 5, 2025 at 9:23 PM
I'm proud to be included alongside so many great contributors to this much-needed book. Mine is a short essay on what ordinary people and activists can do to resist AI and big tech. I hope you'll check it out.
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
libraries are closer to what the early internet was all about than what it is today. unsurprising, given the web's academic origins.
they are data centers built for and around people instead of severs. a physical network offering so much more than books.
they are data centers built for and around people instead of severs. a physical network offering so much more than books.
What if we could work with our public libraries to create + sustain convivial infrastructures for local news, local 🎶, digital equity, and more? I wrote abt lots of communities that are doing this work, bldg networks of solidarity + resistance, modeling alternatives to extractive commercial systems.
I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs
November 5, 2025 at 1:45 PM
libraries are closer to what the early internet was all about than what it is today. unsurprising, given the web's academic origins.
they are data centers built for and around people instead of severs. a physical network offering so much more than books.
they are data centers built for and around people instead of severs. a physical network offering so much more than books.
Reposted by Joanna Free (Nelius)
PSA from 404 Media: you can opt-out of a data broker selling your flight travel data to the government to be searched without a warrant. Here's how I did it. This is ARC, the data broker owned by major U.S. airlines like United, Delta, American, etc
www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...
www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...
How to Opt-Out of Airlines Selling Your Travel Data to the Government
The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), owned by major U.S. airlines, collects billions of ticketing records and sells them to the government to be searched without a warrant. I managed to opt-out o...
www.404media.co
November 4, 2025 at 2:05 PM
PSA from 404 Media: you can opt-out of a data broker selling your flight travel data to the government to be searched without a warrant. Here's how I did it. This is ARC, the data broker owned by major U.S. airlines like United, Delta, American, etc
www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...
www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...
Guillermo del Toro did Mary Shelley proud and set the bar increadibly high for anyone who attempts a Frankenstein adaptation in the future.
November 1, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Guillermo del Toro did Mary Shelley proud and set the bar increadibly high for anyone who attempts a Frankenstein adaptation in the future.
*insert Fallout meme*
“As users ‘dislike’ posts, the system will learn what sort of content they want to see less of. This will help to inform more than just how content is ranked in feeds, but also reply rankings.”
Bluesky hits 40 million users, introduces 'dislikes' beta | TechCrunch
As users "dislike" posts, the system will learn what sort of content they want to see less of. This will help to inform more than just how content is ranked in feeds, but also reply rankings.
techcrunch.com
November 1, 2025 at 12:55 AM
*insert Fallout meme*
Taught my class of zoomers how to download and copy files to a thumb drive today. Most of them had never used one before.
October 31, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Taught my class of zoomers how to download and copy files to a thumb drive today. Most of them had never used one before.