Tilde Lowengrimm

I believe in the life-enhancing and capability-extending possibilities of technology as well as its potential to surveil, control, and misdirect. I work towards tools which are respectful, trustworthy, and safe enough to be used even by the most vulnerable among us, even when those with power oppose that freedom.

🌸 "High-end nondescript." 🌸 #Nonbinary 🏳️‍⚧️ #Trans 🌈 #Queer 🧠 #Disabled 🕍 #Jewish 🌹 #Socialist 🏴🚩 #AntiFascist 🏙 #Urbanist 🗄️ Guerilla #Archivist & #Pirate 🏴‍☠️⛵.

💻 #Technologist 📣 #Activist & ☔ #ProductManager in 🤫 #Privacy, 🔒 #Security, &. 👁️ #TrustAndSafety. 🛡️

💼 Currently: available for work.

⌛ Previously: ♦️ @redqueen 🌷 Tall Poppy, 🦁 @brave, 🔥 Committee to Protect Journalists, 🧅 @torproject, 🦖 @mozilla.

🎠 Volunteering &c: 🧭 Explorers Guild, 💬 Meta Encryption & Privacy Roundtable, 👁️‍🗨️ Cornell Clinic to End Tech Abuse, ⛵ Call of the Sea, ✨ Techies for Reproductive Justice, 💻 Stanford Center for Internet & Society, 👟 Journey to the End of the Night, 🚑 Redacted EMS & Technical Rescue.

Last Notes

2025-05-01 16:58:21 UTC

- reply

Because I'm as pedantic as y'all are, I want to get in here and um actually myself before anyone else does. Technically, the Supernote A6 X2 Nomad supports all of these specs except for the frontlight, which is very much the softest requirements. So why am I ignoring it? Well, I'm not ignoring it, I have a Supernote A6 X which I use all the time and carry with me every day. But. Although you can easily run Android apps on these devices and Ratta even provides instructions and tells you to go nuts with sideloading if that's your kink, the app support is in practice extremely poor. There's a reason it's not officially supported: the device's specs just aren't cut out for mainstream Android apps. Most apps kinda work basically, but many (including important-to-me ones like Reader) are basically unusable with how slow they feel on this device. I know that the A6 X2 Nomad is somewhat faster, but I have it on good authority (numerous Reddit complaints) that it's not actually fast enough to run Android apps in general — as opposed to being able to sideload things and having a few apps which are usable and many which aren't. So, honorable mention to Ratta's devices which I absolutely love. And I absolutely applaud their commitment to repairability and to building a device which meets their exacting standards (there's no frontlight, for instance, because it would make the writing experience worse). But for now, I'm planning to get the new Boox unless Ratta release a faster Supernote A6 and an EMR stylus with a little flashlight in its tip to compensate for the lack of frontlight.

2025-05-01 16:47:42 UTC

- reply

Good news! Boox announced an updated second generation of their Go 7 Color tablet. (Do not get me started on their product naming conventions.) It looks like a mild software update to Android 13 and the addition of stylus support.
The addition of stylus support means that Boox is the first to make a device to hit the truly unreasonable and demanding spec intersection of: small (7-8"), color epaper display, frontlight, SD card slot, Android apps, Bluetooth/Wifi, and hand-written notes. We've had the technology, folks, it's just taken a while for someone to integrate it! Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to use a standard Wacom EMR digitizer — the stylus they sell for it has a USB-C port and needs to be charged. Maybe that's just the tradeoff they made for having a frontlight?
All these Android-based epaper tablets are truly embarrassing in terms of Android OS versions. A brand new device on 13, two versions behind? Please, I'm begging you, hire another Android engineer. I will pay more for the device if you port your custom support and OS skin up to the current OS/API version.
No word yet on release date. shop.boox.com/products/go7 infosec.town/notes/a23x0gnyytc2hwf4

2025-04-18 01:08:27 UTC

OH: "There are three sorts of computer experts: furries, transfems, and wizards. They are not mutually exclusive."

2025-01-22 22:22:23 UTC

I’ve been thinking lately (always a mistake) about all the cultural works to which we don't have access. Everything removed from streaming; everything locked behind DRM so that most libraries and archives won't have copies which can redundantly survive disruption. Sometimes I get real sad about the future readers and historians and others who just won't be able to find copies of the incredible things made during the current digital dark age.
As ever, I try to let this radicalize me rather than lead me into despair. I know that there are lots of horrors worth raging against, but this is one I feel well-positioned to work against. It's low-stakes enough that I won't feel self-loathing if I burn out or need to take a break. It's no secret that I like to read and organize books so this is a topic close to my heart and one which can bring me joy and allow me to share it with those around me too. There is a fair bit of tech nerd stuff to it, enough that I have an opportunity to learn & practice new things, but not so much that I’m totally out of my depth. And there are plenty of communities out there to help and share strategies.
But the big thing I see missing from my understanding and many of the conversations about shadow libraries and unauthorized archivism is the social and professional practice of librarianship rather than mechanical practice of data storage. I don't have space to go to library school, but I could definitely stand to read (and archive) introductory books on the topic, or take an online class. Friends who know: what are some of the better places to get started with an introduction to library & information science and archive science? #libraries #librarian #archivist #archives #archivism #archivist #libraryScience #informationScience #archiveScience #culture #repositories