“software can’t just ignore laws it doesn’t like” it literally can.

[bstacey@icosahedron.website]

@zzt Strangely, no government wants to pass a law that says an OS has the *option* of offering an age attestation prompt at account creation, that websites and apps have the *option* of requesting an age-bracket signal, and that in any suit involving alleged harms to a minor, it is an affirmative defense on the part of the app/site that they received a signal indicating the user to be an adult. I mean, I can still see ways that could be bad, but it would push the whole deal a lot closer to workable and constitutional. (Like how we do movie ratings. They're not required by law and can't be.)

[zzt@mas.to]

“it’s just a column in a database, aren’t you being dramatic” thanks fucker, believe it or not I know how software works and I know perfectly well the type of horrid crap we can build on top of a simple backend if it’s encapsulated in the right type of system

[chiraag@mastodon.online]

@zzt Genuine question: who uses systemd-userdbd? Because that's where this is implemented. Debian for sure doesn't use it by default (unless I missed something).

[zzt@mas.to]

@chiraag gentoo, arch, everything else that uses logind including debian if you configure it to do so https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/15175

genuine answer though: you’re missing the point by a mile

[jwz@mastodon.social]

@zzt "It's just a column in a database" is also a great rebuttal to any commentary about the Federal Reserve.

[zzt@mas.to]

@jwz I’m trying hard to not bring up the prison industrial complex or IBM’s role in automating concentration camps but shit these assholes really need the reminder

[pixelrobot@neopaquita.es]

@zzt Relax, man. It's just a numerical identifier in a database. It's harmless.

Edwin Black: Infamous Auschwitz Tattoo Began as an IBM Number

[Edwin Black is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of IBM and the Holocaust, and the forthcoming book, The Plan--How to Save America the Day after the Oil Stops— or Perhaps the Day Before (Dialog Press, September 2008). This essay was adapted from a 2001 article which originally appeared in the Village Voice and syndicated thereafter, which received the award for Best Investigative Article of the Year by American Society of Journalists and Authors.] In August 1943, a t

HNN (www.historynewsnetwork.org)

[perigee@rage.love]

@losttourist @zzt @MrBerard "just accept this tiny fragment of shit in your cereal. I promise you'll hardly taste it" (later, having accepted the shit) "now that we've established you'll accept a little shit, all your meals will consist of 50% shit as a cost containment strategy".

[perigee@rage.love]

@PixelRobot @zzt I'm sure it won't turn into something devastating later. That never happens in exploitative capitalism. </s>

[zzt@mas.to]

@perigee @PixelRobot the only time we can push back on something bad is when it’s far, far too late

[sinvega@mas.to]

@zzt "it's just a little x, it's just one y"

IT IS NEVER "Just" ANYTHING IF IT IS MORE THAN NOTHING. FUCK YOU.

[zzt@mas.to]

“it’s just a column in a database” said presumably a full grown adult whose ability to live under capitalism is a column in their bank’s database

[anthk@neopaquita.es]

@zzt @MrBerard Good luck enforcing that to retrosystems such
as FreeDOS and Minix, or ITS. You can access to these services right now even
over telnet.

[zzt@mas.to]

@anthk @MrBerard I can tell you’re not into retrocomputing because you haven’t watched collector fuckers snatch up all the hardware that’s worth a damn, but also lol @ telnetting into sdf and fucking around in emacs being the solution to uhhhh any of it

[cap_ybarra@beige.party]

@zzt tbqh i'm surprised they are actually implementing the field instead of just asking an llm to guess my age and then never bothering to check if it works

[davidgerard@mas.to]

@zzt @anthk @MrBerard this guy is only allowed to use mastodon via ITS from now on

[zzt@mas.to]

“they can’t force FreeDOS or ITS users to implement age verification!” you know, I don’t think the fascists give a single fuck if you spend a relatively short period of time jacking around on increasingly expensive retro hardware before it dies and/or is priced out of your grasp. I think if they force you to do that as the only way to experience a computer you control, they’ve won.

[zzt@mas.to]

I cannot believe ITS got brought up as a counterpoint but welcome to mastodon I guess

[zzt@mas.to]

@cap_ybarra that’s effectively red hat’s mission statement at this point

[anthk@neopaquita.es]

@davidgerard @zzt @MrBerard Not ITS but
telnetting to SDF with Emacs it's a solved problem for Mastodon
once you install 'mastodon' from ELPA.