#we are under surveillance

[iwatcheditbegin]

I hate how everyone is really in our business now. This is my house and y’all need to leave

[pushing500]

Mechi's new munchkin cat has been patrolling the containment chamber frequently, keeping the entities in line. She's DOCTOR Charlotte now. She has doctorates in Itty-Bitty-Leggies and Cuteness 101.

Thanks to unlocking the "power" psycast from Vanilla Psycasts Expanded, Mechi can now paint with all the colours of psychically-powered electronic equipment.

A prisoner quest from a local tribe gives us juuust enough glitterworld medicine to cure said prisoner Paul's paralytic abasia if we wanted to... which we don't.

Hello Paul, welcome to Sparks. Settle down and get ready for seven days of nutrient paste and staring at the stark white walls under fluorescent white lights. You'll love it.

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[back-in-a-bit]

wow i'm just looking at roy's thought process in the lead up to this call:

he's just gotten a ridiculous amount of flowers from the armstrong intelligence agent and he needs to do something with them, and his mind immediately goes "give them to riza".

like, bradley JUST called this man's ass out for wearing his heart on his sleeve and yet he just. keeps simping.

(you know what that is folks? king shit.)

(maybe he thought since he's not her boss right now he could get away with it. high key obsessed by that manga panel in the 'selim b is homunculus' convo where roy asks her out and riza shoots him down not having a CLUE that's what he's doing:

man's REALLY trying to shoot his shot pray for him y'all.)

and not only does roy decide to give her the flowers he decides to start off the call doing a goofy little bit.

like, my precious subordinate must be super stressed working under wrath! i know, i'll bring her some flowers and also use them as an excuse to check in on her and i'll ALSO honk my clown nose to get her to laugh or roll her eyes fondly at me! yes boyfriend of the year right here

i repeat, roy knows riza's going through a tough time and his game plan is to bring her flowers and try and make her laugh.

i'm frankly amazed these two weren't written up for fraternization before this. only the bad guys ever bring it up and no-one else ever calls them out on it in-universe but these two are NOT subtle.

[sendmyresignation]

truly nothing on this earth is more foul than supernatural familial abuse discourse but specifically the discourse people have about if sam or dean "had it worse" like ok cool you have already missed the point of this show very hard.

[kakusu-shipping]

I wasn't even keeping up with the MHA manga but I did read the last three chapters without context and I've already decided how to fix the ending for my Self Insert

[bit-b]

The Pi's gone bad...

TL;DR: Raspberry Pi showcased police surveillance and police activity in a positive light. And that makes the Bit upsetti spaghetti. ------------------------------------ I don't know how many people on Tumblr are into geeky computer tech, but I felt like making a blog post to vent my frustrations about a recent goings-on. There's a company called Raspberry Pi that's been around since 2011 (with early development of Raspberry Pi starting around 2006). They're known for making small micro-computers the size of a credit card. It was originally an education initiative to get kids interested in coding. These computers run Linux, have a variety of ports for various uses and flexibility, and have a very low introductory cost. They've been utilized in all sorts of places. -Hobbyists used them in custom builds for robotics and automation. -Coders have used them to create all sorts of programs that help with entertainment, productivity, internet security, etc. -Educators have used them to help teach the fundamentals of Linux to students. It's a group and product that I've supported for a long time.

WELL, on December 8th, Raspberry Pi made a news post on their site announcing that they've hired a new person. Which is totally fine. It's good to see company growth. Only, this person was an ex-policeman in the UK surveillance division.

In the interview for the article, this ex-policeman said: “I used to be a police officer tackling serious organised crime and terror threats across the east of the UK. I was a Technical Surveillance Officer for 15 years, so I built stuff to hide video, audio, and other covert gear. You really don’t want your sensitive police equipment discovered, so I’d disguise it as something else. The variety of tools and equipment I used then really shaped what I do today.” "I started playing with Raspberry Pi hardware at home around the same time I started using Linux at work. I have used Raspberry Pi a lot in various police tactics over the years. They were dependable, low-cost, portable, and supported by such an awesome community. I tried almost every ‘fruit-based’ single-board computer out there, but I always came back to Raspberry Pi." Now, I don't blame Raspberry Pi for their computers being used as surveillance devices. It's a very open-source type of device. People are gonna get ideas. And sadly, using a micro-computer for this kind of job makes sense. HOWEVER, Raspberry Pi have full control over who they choose to hire. AND they have full control over what they choose to post to their website. If this hire and this information are things that they are happy to showcase to the world, I can't interpret this any other way than them endorsing their product for secret surveillance. Others saw it the exact same way. People went to the replies on Twitter and Mastodon to voice their concerns. But the social media manager chose to start blocking and hiding posts from people that were talking negatively about the ex-policeman and/or the article. To be fair, there were a LOT of hateful and trollish posts. And I DO NOT in any way support the harassment of anyone. Still it's not a good look to silence criticism on something so potentially contentious. It's ESPECIALLY not wise to word your replies to these comments in a dismissive and antagonistic way.

I don't know if they're still blocking people and hiding comments at this point. There seem to be plenty of angry comments left under their Twitter post. So I'm gonna guess they decided it wasn't worth trying to fight. On top of this issue, people continue to point out that it's legendarily difficult to purchase a new Raspberry Pi computer nowadays. The retailers that sell individual units can't seem to keep steady stock. This means that you either have to be VERY lucky when a supply drop happens, or you have to buy one of the scalped units being sold on either eBay or Amazon. The deluxe model is routinely sold for twice it's normal price.

That being said, if you're a business and want to buy a bulk shipment of Pi computers, that option is still readily available. Seems like the Pi company is more than happy to move inventory around if it means getting bulk batches out the door for businesses that want to stick Pi computers in random things (whether it be service devices or consumer products). And that's who I think Raspberry Pi's current REAL customers are: big businesses with big pockets. I don't completely believe that they hired this ex-policeman for the sole purpose of pushing the idea of using Pi computers in covert surveillance to law enforcement. That hinges on conspiracy talk. But I DO have a suspicion that someone in the marketing department saw the opportunity. The interview at times has an ere of advertisement. It puts Raspberry Pi computers in a position of looking like the perfect solution for police equipment. This is all my own interpretation. I can't really know 100% what their intentions were with this. I could be completely off on my assumptions, and they could turn around and say that it was a complete misfire on the PR side of things. What I do know is that I am now much more wary about Raspberry Pi. I once had interest in seeing how their newer units performed. But now I can't in good conscious hand my money over. I'm a major advocate of only allowing the police what they need within reason. And surveillance like this steps over that boundary. I was one of the first people who ordered the OG Raspberry Pi. I have great memories of learning Linux and tinkering around with it. It's one of the big reasons why I'm so interested in Linux today. I hope the Raspberry Pi company takes a minute to remember where they started. To remember their original goal. Making learning and computing accessible to all.

[grand-line-shenanigans]

haha Oops

[6mayhem]

google how to stop being convinced that the world will end in 2030. google how to stop thinking we are barreling towards the end of the tracks and everything will explode. google

[tariah23]

I didn’t know that they were making a movie/doc on Latasha Harlins…… unfortunately, they have a light bright playing her.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

does anyone ever gif the dashcam sequence from the beginning of ep1 because that shit is so fucking good.

[corvids-corner]

Fuck my dad, and fuck my dependence on my stupid phone 😤

[tovaicas]

recent dev comments got me malding I'm sorry

[casualjster]

so like. when do we hit the “something gives” portion of late stage capitalism. because surely something’s Gotta give. right??? it can’t just be this Forever????

[thinaiir]

Ok I might sound weird for this but one thing I do not like about female-female interactions is how comfortable women are with making comments on one another's bodies (whether it's positive or negative) it just makes me uncomfortable

[ohimsummer]

Alright honeydew, time for our date 😌 . You choose:

▪️ fancy dinner

▪️stargazing

▪️ movies at home

▪️walk in the park

▪️ something else you want and I haven't thought about it

( all options can end up 🔞 😉)

honeydew omg- ANON UR GONNA GET ME KILLEDDDD