Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@freakazoid The tendency of technology to serve as a power multiplier *is* something that concerns me.
I'm not entirely convinced it's a universal tendency, and tech can absolutely disrupt *existing* powe centres.
It just seems to usually replace them with one even more powerful.
A possible counterexample is the devolution of monarchic power in England, starting with the Magna Carta, onwards. Generally to a wider class of nobility, but since ~19thc, also commoners.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
I'm not burned out, I'm pissed off
...I'm pissed off at the state of information security. I'm pissed off that our tooling is falling behind. I'm pissed off that my clients don't seem to take it seriously, and I'm pissed off that the vendors don't seem to want to help. Let me ask you: is the state of information security really any better today than it was 8 years ago when I started? The easy answer is no. The better answer is, it's worse....
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
Twitter inactive accounts purge: what archival tools exist for preserving public tweets?
A friend asks elsewhere if I know of tools or archives for preserving public Tweets from inactive accounts, specifically of users who've died and whose Twitter accounts will likely be purged in coming days....
https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/e2br7g/twitter_inactive_accounts_purge_what_archival/
(Boosts welcomed, as are shares elsewhere.)
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
With Twitter purging inactive user accounts -- including potentially numerous notable dead former users -- preservation and archival are again concerns.
There are serveral extant public archives:
http://www.archive.org/details/twitter_cikm_2010 (2006-2010)
http://www.archive.org/details/2011-05-calufa-twitter-sql (2011 -- 90 million user scrape)
https://archive.org/search.php?query=twitterstream (Archive Org)
All from the ArchiveTeam page:
https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Twitter
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
Affordances
Fiction, for now, possibly. By Cory Doctorow.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@woozle Major, though relevant, segue:
I've been looking at naming, namespace, ontology, and taxonomy systems for the past few years. Example problem: how can you *USEFULLY* name a large (10ks -> 100m+, possibly billions) of computer files relating to documents?
How do you classify all of human knowlege? A question facing encyclopaedists and #librarians through the ages.
Hell: what *is* an ontology and how's it differ from a taxonomy?
Hint: DAGs.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
The Utah Statement: Reviving Antimonopoly Traditions for the Era of Big Tech
A new framework for holding private power to account
...[A]nti-monopoly tradition ... has been part of the U.S. system since the Declaration of Independence and the original anti-monopoly tea-party protest. The result has been decades of economic consolidation across industries....
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
To #India and other #newbies: How to find people and be found.
ENGAGE. Toot, respond, boost.
The best way to see, be seen, and engage, is, well, to get out, look for things, and be visible.
DON'T over-share. 1-10x daily? Pretty good. 10-100x daily? Excessive. Less than a few times a month? Where'd you go?
Hashtags. Use them AND search them. Search tags you used for others with like interests.
Be human. Self-promotion, rudeness, single-topic obsession, goes badly.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
Much of the inertia and irrationality around large institutions is, I think actually this _persistence machinery_ in action. The parts which seem so often wasteful or inefficient seem to be the same parts which ensure that the mission persists.
Related: when designing systems, *especially* social or political ones, keep in mind what WILL happen when control falls to adversaries who wish either to corrupt or dismantal it. Build in resilience, support, and integrity.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
#GitLab good-news follow-up:
> Biz U-turns, unbans office political chat, will vet customers
There's a line somewhere and we may just draw it
Revised policies "allow GitLab to shun customers that engage in unlawful behavior, threaten or disparage the GitLab community, and encourage violence or discrimination against legally protected groups. Political discussions are no longer banned by fiat but are politely discouraged to avoid unnecessary friction."
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/17/gitlab_reverse_ferret/
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
Neither #GitLab nor #GitHub appear to be accepable choices any more.
Sigh.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/16/gitlab_employees_gagged/
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@craigmaloney A common element of virtually *all* online services (and much software and technology generally) is MINDSHARE.
That's not something you can code.
It _is_ a common resource, and a commons, which tech monopolists enclose and profit by.
Which doesn't make it any easier to disrupt, though disruption does happen.
A chief question ought be "why is this situationb and how can we avoid those perils in future?"
Craig Maloney ☕
Folks, the one thing that #meetup solved was not "RSVPs for events", it was getting events in front of a motivated community and promoting them. Rebuilding the RSVP functionality isn't going to wrestle anyone from Meetup's new changes. What we need are folks who are willing to try out alternatives and report back to their community on what works best for them.
http://gettogether.community already exists and has users on it. Try that first and let's get the "community" part of meetup started.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@clacke Again, that's been my default position for some time. #DataAreLiability being a frequently-used hashtag / phrase here and elsewhere.
I'm considering the alternative as a counterpoint / falsifiable premise.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@Ninjatrappeur I'd liken large screens (which I like) to index cards (dittos): if *entirely* under my control *and* used to present presently-relevant information, a net boost.
Though as I noted in another discussion, the realm of computers is complexity management, though by reducing costs they ultimately *increase* viable complexity.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@Ninjatrappeur ... "ecosystems" are also a major distraction. I find I've nearly zero tolerance for any level of advertising in audio, video, or print, and block or avoid virtually all of it.
I've gone to the extent of avoiding venues or retailers which advertise pervasively, or play adverts on in-store PA systems.
Most of my music is classical or jazz, either noncommercial stations/streams, or my own collection. Virtually no pop is tolerable any more.
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@Ninjatrappeur ... multi-pane view, usually: code, output, error, and a manpage or other reference.
Elsewhere:
- Removing cruft ("link litter", "related" boxes, ads!, persistent headers, etc.) on Web pages has a *highly* notable and *immediate* calming effect.
- Stream-based (rather than curated/static) content is much more disruptive.
- *Not* having the ability to manage large reference sets (~15k articles, ~5k books) is a constant drag on me.
- Ads-driven, distraction-based ...
Doc Edward Morbius ⭕
@Ninjatrappeur Much of this depends on *what information is present*. I don't think having more *relevant* information present is necessarily bad.
As I write this, I'm on an Android tablet (single-app-at-a-time present), looking at a multi-column Mastodon screen, with music playing, a podcast I've just paused, and others stirring in the office.
The extent to which additional stimuli can be distracting is something I'm keenly aware of. Though if I'm coding, I'll usually throw up a ...
neville park
@aral @maarteuh @gitlab "vetting customers is time consuming and potentially distracting"
If you think vetting customers is "time consuming and distracting", wait till you experience the consequences of NOT vetting your customers
Aral Balkan
Dear @gitlab, after reading this, I am ashamed to be using your product:
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/merge_requests/30656/diffs
We will stop using it as soon as we can manage to and I will stop recommending you to others. Unlike you, we don’t associate with folks incompatible with our values.
Shame on you.
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