Latest FOSS Academic post is: Oops! All Microslop. Or, Trying to Write with Microsoft.
https://fossacademic.tech/2026/01/06/oops-all-microslop.html
It's a post in which I see what it's like for me to try to create a blank document with York University's Microsoft 365 subscription.
TL;DR version is: it's all about Copilot, and starting a blank Word doc is actually kinda... hard.
The post is a bit long, but it does have a lot of screenshots + a dash of anger.
Your quip about the "fat checks" that universities are sending off to tech giants reminds me of a public records request I had sent to UW-Madison about spending on Microsoft 365
2021: $50,237.51
2022: $1,142,568.68
2023: $1,289,228.34
2024: $1,795,932.66
(From what I can tell, between 2021 &2022 the university switched to a new vendor/supplier, so that's why those years' totals have such a sudden jump)
The original files the university provided to me are here:
http://web-media.benpettis.com/uw-madison-cloud-costs
@rwg I never ended up doing much with these spreadsheets, but the rapid acceleration of AI slop and enshittification is a sign I need to revisit this
I'm running an assignment this year where students request and analyze data through public records requests -- think I'll try to see what I can get from other universities and use that as a demo/example
@rwg my tuition dollars at work!
Btw your reference to the End of History brought to mind this RATM lyric that seemed too on the nose not to mention:
For it’s the end of history
It’s caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one that made you ill
@sakhavi Zach also said, "Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now controls the past
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?"
