It keeps happening
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@researchfairy I setup a self-hosted RSS feed reader the other day.
I had to manually set the User-Agent to get it to read CBC feeds. And it plain old doesn't work with some links that did in other commercial ones.
Like... there's no way. Forget it.
@researchfairy You know what I don't see a lot of is the tech population making an honest effort to understand why the ecosystem of this stuff is so fucking bad.
I don't really know either, but one of my hypotheses is a bottom-up kind of selfishness, where the belief that by addressing personal needs and sharing is good enough.
What's missing there is the appreciation of institutions and the role they play in social cohesion. Instead: "address my needs, others will follow."
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"You use Signal? What's wrong with Whatsapp? What kind of stuff are you into if you need that level of privacy?"
"Oh, you know how to use URLs? Do you use that for the dark web? What kind of stuff are you even looking for if you need that?"
@researchfairy If someone says "I've got nothing to hide" I always follow up on asking them their latest illness, wage and invite them to share their browser history with me.
Usually gets the point across.
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@researchfairy You know what I don't see a lot of is the tech population making an honest effort to understand why the ecosystem of this stuff is so fucking bad.
I don't really know either, but one of my hypotheses is a bottom-up kind of selfishness, where the belief that by addressing personal needs and sharing is good enough.
What's missing there is the appreciation of institutions and the role they play in social cohesion. Instead: "address my needs, others will follow."
@GeoffWozniak @researchfairy FOSS isn't viable as long as there's still dudebros saying stuff like:
- we don't provide binaries, just compile it yourself
- that's fixed in the next release (date TBD), until then just run it from source
- standardalternative is deprecated, use standardfork instead (version beta 0.1 since 2017)
If I need to download 20 gigs of tooling and/or read three giant tomes that are incomprehensible to anyone without a compsci degree, it's neither free nor open.
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@GeoffWozniak @researchfairy FOSS isn't viable as long as there's still dudebros saying stuff like:
- we don't provide binaries, just compile it yourself
- that's fixed in the next release (date TBD), until then just run it from source
- standardalternative is deprecated, use standardfork instead (version beta 0.1 since 2017)
If I need to download 20 gigs of tooling and/or read three giant tomes that are incomprehensible to anyone without a compsci degree, it's neither free nor open.
@GeoffWozniak @researchfairy and of course my anti-favourite Linux moment ever, which was when someone asked how to run a software they downloaded by double-clicking on it and the answer on the Debian forums or wherever was:
"What's the use case for this? No hypotheticals please."
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@GeoffWozniak @researchfairy FOSS isn't viable as long as there's still dudebros saying stuff like:
- we don't provide binaries, just compile it yourself
- that's fixed in the next release (date TBD), until then just run it from source
- standardalternative is deprecated, use standardfork instead (version beta 0.1 since 2017)
If I need to download 20 gigs of tooling and/or read three giant tomes that are incomprehensible to anyone without a compsci degree, it's neither free nor open.
@amberage @GeoffWozniak "It's only free if your time is worth zero dollars"
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@GeoffWozniak @researchfairy and of course my anti-favourite Linux moment ever, which was when someone asked how to run a software they downloaded by double-clicking on it and the answer on the Debian forums or wherever was:
"What's the use case for this? No hypotheticals please."
@GeoffWozniak @researchfairy and "I made this for free, I don't owe you features" is all fine and dandy, if it weren't coupled with this "if you use anything proprietary you're a bluepilled worm" mentality.
If someone offers a software with the aspiration and claim to be a replacement for proprietary product X, then they've made their bed of owing bugfixes and ease of use, now sleep in it!
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I guess what I'm saying is that the "vote with your feet" or "vote with your dollars" plan is not working
Direct Action, i.e. setting up my own server, using alt tech solutions, swimming upstream constantly
This isn't cutting it
This is a network/coordination problem, not a "I can choose for myself" problem
And we're losing and the solution is that the tech companies need to be regulated, and I don't know how to make anyone listen or care
@researchfairy I’ve often felt the “your” in “vote with your feet or dollars” is implicitly singular, and that the phrases reject solidarity and collective action.
A friend who was an MPP for a while has talked about the tripod that it takes to get legislation (such as regulation) through, and one leg of that is a popular movement.
Yes, we need some kind of Social Media Users Union (though perhaps not phrased that way).
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@researchfairy I’ve often felt the “your” in “vote with your feet or dollars” is implicitly singular, and that the phrases reject solidarity and collective action.
A friend who was an MPP for a while has talked about the tripod that it takes to get legislation (such as regulation) through, and one leg of that is a popular movement.
Yes, we need some kind of Social Media Users Union (though perhaps not phrased that way).
@wlonk Yeah, the EFF sometimes hits those notes, but it would be nice to have a group that has some actual power, that tech companies are obliged to talk to
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It keeps happening
Tech company makes an anti-human/pro-capital decision
There's no way for regular humans to push back because the system is undemocratic
You can opt out or work around it, sure
You don't have to go along, sure
The old way still works, sure
But 99% of us don't have the energy to swim upstream
And then negative consequences show up from the tech company decision, but by now, everyone who still does it the old way is a "weirdo" with suspect motives and the tech company wins
@researchfairy Así es, la inteligencia artificial es una herramienta más del sistema, incluso Palantir se encargó de decirnos claramente el objetivo de la tecnología en su manifiesto neo fascista. Conocimiento, libertad y privacidad sin necesidad de pagar por ello... Los derechos que ahora nos toca defender, son en contra la tiranía de las suscripciones, la publicidad y espacios públicos seguros, recuerden, ¡Nos mintieron, ningún mercado se regula sólo!
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@GeoffWozniak Yeah I mean, I got a Raspberry Pi under my desk running Nextcloud that I use for music streaming, filesharing, my calendar, RSS, like 75% of my digital life
It's fantastic and I love it and I can't recommend it to anyone else because step 1 of setting one up is: configure your router to allow incoming https traffic on ports—
@researchfairy @GeoffWozniak Possible business opportunity?
I'm all for disciplining the oligarchs and their goon squads. But competition can exist on many levels, maybe even including their own playing field? Sure it's a tilted field, but it's a flawed system, and it can be hacked.
There are not enough virtuous heroes in the market. The good have ceded the field. Just like in politics. Everyone wants to shout and boo from the sidelines.
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@researchfairy hi, I'm a GenX woman with a Humanities education who uses Windows and Android and then as many free/ethical/open/indie programs as possible. Just for background.
I have been telling techie types that if there is sand in supermarket bread, I don't want to go to a gourmet bakery and I can't learn to make my own bread. I want a law that punishes sand on my bread.
Beautifully put!
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