maxolasersquad @maxolasersquad@mastodon.baucum.me

Great alternatives to Google Maps that use #OpenStreetMap data:

- Qwant Maps: website, has directions. Highlights the fact that data is from #OSM, providing links to view and edit the data.
https://www.qwant.com/maps
- F4map: website, 3D views of cities.
https://demo.f4map.com/
- MAPS.ME: mobile apps with a neat vector renderer. Minimalist. Works offline. More obviously profit-oriented.
- OsmAnd: mobile apps with lots of features. Offline too. (Too?) many customisations and options available.

Another way to keep yourself safe before going to a protest: Download and use Tor Browser for Android.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2020/06/tactics-to-secure-phone-before-a-protest/

Many of you have asked, and we explain. Tor Browser ships with a defense called Letterboxing that prevent fingerprinting your screen dimensions. It adds margins to the window and it stops websites from identifying your exact screen size. Browse safely!

https://support.torproject.org/tbb/maximized-torbrowser-window/

🔄 Time to update: A new version of Tor Browser is out now.

Tor Browser 9.0.10 updates Firefox to 68.8.0esr, NoScript to 11.0.25, and OpenSSL to 1.1.1g. This release also features important security updates to Firefox.
https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-9010

The US Dept of Health and Human Services has a new vaccine czar, through whom all vaccine decisions are funnelled. His name is Brian Harrison, and he is, by vocation, a labradoodle breeder.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/brian-harrison-dog-breeder-coronavirus

Harrison only ended his labradoodle-breeding career when he went to work for HHS Secretary (and former pharma lobbyist) Alex Azar as Chief of Staff.

Harrison's signature policy initiative to date is excluding FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn from the vaccine task force.

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The amazing people at the Internet Archive maintain a digital lending library: they buy and scan one copy of every book (pretty much every book, ever) and lend it out to one person at a time.

They've just announced that during the crisis, they are lifting the one-borrower-at-a-time restriction and allowing unlimited borrowing, "to meet the needs of a global community of displaced learners". They call it the "National Emergency Library."

https://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/

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Hey! I wrote a picture book and Matt Rockefeller illustrated it. It's called POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER and it's about a little girl who tears apart her girly toys and turns them into field-expedient monster-killing weapons that she uses to hunt monsters in her room at night.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1228033537867014145

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