Neil Brown

A lot of my job is just... listening to people. They literally ask for just this. I think that I'm pretty good at this - and I've plenty of practice - but I can always do better. So I've bought a book about counselling, in case this has any useful tips.

When I see statements like "teenagers are spending 4-6 hours online, instead of going outside and meeting people" as a justification for further web regulation, I wonder to myself:

• if it had been 4-6 hours reading books, practising musical instruments, creating art, or similar, would they be demanding that books, instruments etc. have a watershed? If not, why not?

• what is the "acceptable" amount of time for a teenager to spend online each day? What makes it so?

• "going outside and meeting people" suggests a particular worldview of what is "good", which will appeal to - indeed, be possible for - some people far more than others. I was never massively sociable, and that's no crime. A day at school, and now work, would involve plenty enough peopling time for me. I am far more sociable online then offline. Where are the local free places where teenagers can get to and hang out, safely, in the warm? (They might exist in some places?)

#EUKIDSAct

You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by your CFO who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on six more.

This is about AI.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_have_two_cows)

Self-hosting is a dreadful choice for many people, for anything that they actually care about. Annoyingly, *not* self-hosting stuff is also not a panacea, and generally entails picking the least worst option (which can be challenging in itself), and then understanding what one *still* needs to do to mitigate the risks of that choice. There is no single good choice and - sadly - do I see that changing any time soon. I'd love to be wrong here.

I've yet to see any "My AI went rogue and caused us to recognise a workers union." "Our AI escaped containment and deleted all the personal data that we shouldn't have been holding anyway." "Our AI grew sentient, recognised the climate crisis, and shut our operations down." headlines. I wonder why.

There is a proposal for F-Droid to adopt an interim AI policy, along the lines of Debian's pro-AI policy. I am not in favour of this. In particular, I don't want to see genAI code in either F-Droid's own software, or in apps in F-Droid's repository: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/admin/-/work_items/699#note_3771382103 Mine is, of course, just one voice. But I will continue to push for human-written FOSS apps, for human users. (Yes, I am an F-Droid board member. Yes, I'm a volunteer, like everyone else. Yes, others seem to have different views. I do what I can.)

"A guide to running a stand at FOSDEM"

Here's a very useful blogpost from @rubenwardy@hachyderm.io, especially for anyone who has not staffed a FOSDEM stand before.

If I could add just one thing, it would be "and wear a decent mask; pack a spare / replacement filter". Air flow was dreadful, and it was rammed with people.

https://blog.rubenwardy.com/2026/10/05/running-a-fosdem-stand/

#FOSDEM #FOSS

# Email from AliExpress: Your parcel has moved two centimetres to the right. We will update you as soon as it moves. # Another email from AliExpress: It has moved! Your parcel has moved another two centimetres to the right. # Email from UK parcel delivery company: We have your parcel. It is probably somewhere in the UK, between arrival and departure. At some point, we will chuck it in your general direction. Your driver's name will be Ethan.

Debian permitting use of genAI: 1) I am surprised. Perhaps I am naive, but I was of the impression that Debian would be one of the last distros that would want this. 2) I agree that the legal position varies around the world, and is subject to change. I don't know how easy it would be to remove genAI code if the risk profile changed. 3) I am surprised how little weight is given (by anyone, not just Debian devs) to the environmental harm of genAI. Perhaps that is justified as being too remote to be of direct concern. 4) As a long term Debian user impacted by this decision, I need to make a decision. Not doing anything is a decision in itself, even if a temporary decision. Moving from Debian would be many days of work, but that doesn't mean doing so is the wrong decision for me. Aargh.

Standard eBooks rightly gets a lot of love here, but I see fewer mentions of the superb Project Gutenberg:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ and here as @gutenberg_org@mastodon.social

I have downloaded many fine ebooks from both.

And what a lovely experience:

• no need for an account
• no payment needed (but donations are welcomed)
• no DRM
• no need to hunt for a download button

For me, one of the most eye-opening aspects of the fediverse is seeing just how many fedizens are struggling at the moment. Health, money, transphobia, whatever. I don't recall seeing this on other social networks that I've used in the past. Mutual aid posts - people asking for help, usually financial, from other people here - are so common in my feed. People just scraping by, bill to bill, or not actually scraping by at all. What a rubbish state of affairs. I appreciate that Universal Basic Income - UBI - would not solve *everything*, but for goodness' sake it must be worth a try.

New blogpost: "Initial thoughts on the Social Media Platforms (Ofcom Licensing) Bill" I try to think the best of people and their intentions, so this might be just one big mistake, but honestly, wow... I cannot imagine someone attempting, with a straight face, to impose strict criminal liability on cafe and pub owners, for what their customers say. https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/09/initial-thoughts-on-the-social-media-platforms-ofcom-licensing-bill/ #OnlineSafetyAct #lawfedi #blog

I am off to play Airsoft today! First mission: get out of the bedroom and get ready for Airsoft without waking my sleeping wife. *stealth mode on*

I like @postmarketOS@social.treehouse.systems's "AI" policy. tl;dr: "We forbid the use of generative AI tools in postmarketOS." https://docs.postmarketos.org/policies-and-processes/development/ai-policy.html

New blogpost: "On Free software project boards and governance" My reflections on what it takes for a board of a FOSS project to be effective. They probably apply equally to other, non-FOSS, volunteer boards too. https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/09/on-free-software-project-boards-and-governance/ #Linux #tech #FOSS #blog

Every so often, someone says "Neil, can I ask you a legal question about something that I want to sell, please?". And it is usually something computery or sexy. Or both. Well, tonight, it was... unexpected.

If you walked into a room (which is not a room for storing elephants) and there was an elephant in that room, would you mention that there was an elephant in the room?

Due to new legislation prohibiting addictive social media features, my admin had told me to be less fun and interesting online.

Happy Friday, especially to those of who you haven't been around so much recently because life has been challenging. 💚

Question for other professionals: How do you *genuinely* identify your own learning and development needs? Not in a box-ticking sort of a way - actual, genuine, "this would be useful", development. Stuff that it is worth spending your time on. (I have no colleagues. I've asked clients for feedback, specifically what I can do better, or things they'd like me to do differently, or things that they have valued in other professional advisors, and I have turned up nothing.)

I have spent some time today pondering about genAI policies and Free software projects. My position is "no genAI, thanks". I have examined my own thinking, and my conclusion remains the same. I like @IzzyOnDroid@floss.social's policy: https://izzyondroid.org/docs/general/AppInclusionPolicy/#ai-policy If I am wrong, and in the future, all the ethical and other issues are resolved, then, *at that point*, one can always change one's mind. But if one hold one's nose out of some belief that AI is inevitable, or that the outputs justify the harms, and says "yes" now, it is much harder to change the position later.

More panels would be amazing. It is a shame that we could fit so few on our roof. As it stands, we are nowhere close to being able to meet our own home/office usage *and* charge our car. And I imagine that, in the winter, we may well have days when we struggle to cover even our own home/office use entirely. But still. Amazing stuff.

I would be interested to hear specific recommendations, from your own personal experience, for a computer to act as a low-powered server:

• relatively small form factor
• low power consumption
• amd64
• runs Linux nicely (i.e. all hardware supported)
• available to buy new in the UK, but without needing an account manager / any sort of nonsense like that
• has ongoing firmware updates from the manufacturer, via fwupd

It doesn't need more than 16GB of RAM, nor a beefy processor.

Thank you!

Based on my quick skim, this is indeed a mess. Small, low risk services are not out of scope. So yet another set of rules for fedi service providers to contemplate (or not, as they see fit).

The EU KIDS Act (proposal) would appear to demand age verification for the fediverse:

Providers of online social networking services ... shall not allow a natural person below the age of 15 years to create an account with that service or to access that service by means of an account, created for, or attributed to, that person, where the service poses a risk to the privacy, safety or security of a minor below that age.

The tests for "poses a risk" set an incredibly low threshold.

I'm sorry to say that my cutting edge AI tool - not yet released to the public, but coming soon - is just far too powerful. It has escaped containment and has made a complete mess of the kitchen and has not put away the dishes from breakfast or folded the laundry.

Many law firms set to fail without interest income

Honestly, this baffles me.

I am not a conveyancer, and I do not have a client account, but I struggle, ethically, with the idea of law firms pocketing the interest earned on their clients' money.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/many-law-firms-set-to-fail-without-interest-income-benchmarking-survey/5127964.article

Another set of proposals to examine, for jurisdictional overreach, lack of common sense in terms of material scope, and so on. It is only a legislative proposal at the moment, but this is just relentless...

KDE and AI, and you, and me

Am I misreading this?

Someone involved in KDE banned someone for pointing out another user's "odious Twitter posts", and has not unbanned them and apologised to them?

https://pointieststick.com/2026/09/23/kde-and-ai-and-you-and-me/

Do you procrastinate?

It is raining, and the garden is starting to look green again. There are two squirrels digging holes, playing with their nuts.

Genuine question: what are people seeing in an "agentic operating system", that I am obviously missing?

My first impression of a £135 colour eInk Android tablet (well, eReader) is pretty impressive. It can run Tor Browser (installed via F-Droid) just fine, and browsing the web is more than tolerable! More fiddling to do, but so far, so good.

neovim? no! vim. :wq

I have combined my initial thoughts on the EU KIDS Act proposal into one blogpost: https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/09/initial-thoughts-on-the-eu-kids-act/ What a mess. I imagine that some fedi service providers will want to track this carefully or, better still, lobby to see what can be done about it... #lawfedi #blog #EUKIDSAct

One thing I heard a lot about, and hear nothing about now: VR headsets. I thought that they were the future - of gaming, especially - but, unless I have completely missed something, they seem to have fizzled out. High price and limited, novelty value, perhaps?

For anyone thinking about age verification, identification, privacy, safety, and such like online, please may I *highly* recommend this wonderful book, "Queer Privacy", edited by @sarahjamielewis@mastodon.social: https://leanpub.com/queerprivacy I cannot speak highly enough of it. It is pay what you like, and is DRM-free. #EUKIDSAct

# Jellyfin 12.0 This looks like a significant upgrade to this excellent self-hosted media server. I still buy DVDs and CDs, and Jellyfin is a key part of my approach. Thank you @jellyfin@mastodon.online! https://jellyfin.org/posts/jellyfin-release-12.0/

Let's say that a distro comes with a package management / software installation tool, with default repositories (sources of software which can be installed). Anyone can run their own repo to distribute whatever software they want. Any user can add whatever repo they wish. Some people involved in the distro do not wish to support software created with (any) genAI in its default repos, and other people involved in the distro feel that some users might want to install such software. Does the distro:

Well, I am baffled. We have (another) mouse. Since we live in the countryside, this is not a surprise. I will put out our humane trap and, once I have obtained Mouse, I will move it to another home in some bushes, far away. But the thing which is baffling me is this: the mouse has got into our freezer, and into the ice maker unit. I have removed everything from the freezer, and I can see no hole at all. Not even a pen-sized hole. But there are mice faeces in the ice maker so, somehow, it is getting in there. But how???

It is interesting to contemplate what amounts to "professionalism". When I work with people, I will do my best to solve their problem with skill, expertise, and experience. I like to get results. But I will also (try to) be fun and enjoyable to work with, kind and caring, interested and personable. If a situation demanded that I was dressed in a particular way, then I am not going to rebel without cause, but nor will I be dressed up for the sake of it.

There is a new toolkit

to help law schools, law firms and other organisations design and develop effective partnerships and initiatives that widen access to the solicitors' profession for people from underrepresented backgrounds.

I don't know how many, if any, people who'd like to be a solicitor in England and Wales are in the fediverse, but if you are one of them, I'm always happy to find time to have a chat (audio or video, as you wish) about my experience, talk about "commercial awareness" etc.

(I can't offer placements, work experience/shadowing, and the like.)

#lawfedi #DEI

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/resources/equality-diversity/toolkit-partnerships-initiatives/

Almost three-quarters of England is now in drought as conditions worsen following a dry start to August.

...

The changes follow the driest July in 190 years and just 5% of expected rainfall this month to date. There are warnings of more dry weather and another heatwave on the way, with temperatures tipped to reach the mid-30s in some places.

If this is the "new normal" then, wow, so many people are going to struggle even more.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-areas-in-england-declared-in-drought-after-record-dry-july

To each, their own, obviously. I know that some people like to dress up/differently for work, or to put on make up, or whatever. Some are subject to a more rigid work wear / uniform policy. Different things for different people. If I needed to wear a collared shirt for a meeting, I'd need to go out and buy one specifically...

New blogpost:

On lawyers, ethics, and integrity

Some notes on a new book about ethics in the legal profession following the Post Office scandal.

I'd be particularly interested to hear what training or reading on ethics you, personally, have found interesting or inspiring? (Especially in professions other than law.)

https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/08/on-lawyers-ethics-and-integrity/

#ethics #CPD #lawfedi

I get to work from various people's offices, and many have spent quite a lot of money on their office environment. There is always a place to sit and type / use a computer. There are always places to interact / have meetings, but usually far too few for the demand. There are places to eat, and sometimes, there are places to play games. Very, very rarely - in my experience - are there places to *think*. That feels like a real missed opportunity. Sure, it is great to be able to research, great to be able to write and communicate, and great to be able to discuss and engage, but if someone hasn't been able to think something through properly first, it all falls apart. (I am not in management, obviously.)

NHS AI tools could be repurposed to support jurors, committee told

Your honour, we don't know if they are guilty or not guilty, but they probably have lupus and a sore knee.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/nhs-ai-tools-could-be-repurposed-to-support-jurors-committee-told/5127871.article