Dave Lane @lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz
- blog
- https://davelane.nz
- tech blog
- https://tech.oeru.org
- I self-host (or on behalf of NZOSS & OERu)
- Docker NextCloud/Collabora Discourse WordPress Drupal MediaWiki Silverstripe Moodle Rocket.Chat Mastodon GitLab Mautic Wallabag & others plus full email services
- I play
- Lots. With my tech, guitar, voice, kids, family, friends, myriad implements of percussion, and a bit of bass.
Admin
FOSS & CC guy, nerd on many levels, working to democratise higher education by day, increasing digital, intellectual, & physical freedom always. Oxford commas. Spreading joy & confusion.
Joined Apr 2017
Dave Lane
boosted
@space_cadet @lightweight For me the truly hope-inspiring message of Star Trek is that humans have achieved an egalitarian, affluent and democratic global society *before* we destroyed our planet's ecosystem.
Although we did apparently render humpback whales extinct 😓
Our focus should be on prosperity and quality of life, not growth. Most gov'ts are actually presiding over fragile ponzi schemes - I hope that much is now clear to us all.
Will the current crisis finally be the thing that breaks us of our "growth" addiction? We need to be thinking about doughnuts. (see Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics - https://kateraworth.com )
Hah, forgot I'd made a video, which I attached to the last post by accident. Here're some pics...
And my wife made her first ever batch of focaccia bread. Success, big time!
Just turned all our leafy green veggies (silverbeet, kale, and capsicum) into Bhaji. Quite a lot of onion and other stuff, too. Yum!
Dave Lane
boosted
@sir couldn't agree more. I even wrote about it a few years ago when I started noticing this trend:
https://blog.ovalerio.net/archives/1357
At the time (on the post) I gave the benefit of the doubt to Discord, but nowadays I think that, in the presence of better and open alternatives, it is a bad choice for this use case, just like Slack.
Dave Lane
boosted
@Phaserune @sir Slack is objectively garbage-tier in communication. And the company behind it is doing the standard tricks of luring people in, then changing terms and functionality to force worse conditions on its users. *In addition to that*, it's also closed source.
Dave Lane
boosted
@Phaserune there is a spectrum, and free software projects with free software dependencies and free software-driven communities are firmly planted on the far end of that spectrum. There are grey areas, but given that the far end is perfectly viable I'll be staying over there and encouraging others to do the same.
Dave Lane
boosted
@Phaserune expecting users to run your proprietary software on their own computers is unethical. Doing so because it makes it easier for you to slurp up and sell their data is extremely unethical. Likewise for shuttering APIs and chasing down third-party clients for users who just want to connect on old hardware or without signing over their privacy is unethical. Subverting existing ecosystems of free and open protocols and software with capital-driven questionable marketing tactics and exploitation is unethical. Hoarding user data - which belongs to the user, and not you - and then making them pay you to get it is unethical. Gaslighting open technologies by trying to redefine their terminology to include your proprietary replacements is unethical.
Slack and Discord have both done all of these things and more.
Dave Lane
boosted
When the government demands new high-tech surveillance powers, we have three questions: Has the government shown it would be effective? Would it do too much harm to our freedoms? Are there sufficient guardrails? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/how-eff-evaluates-government-demands-new-surveillance-powers
A bunch of people meeting here now: bbb.nzoss.nz/b/dav-fp4-4yz for Friday drinkies/social hour.
A guilty funky pleasure https://invidio.us/watch?v=fiShsfvbFUA
Impressively funky tap https://invidio.us/watch?v=gNbPoQBm0zM
I'd like to propose an NZ Friday virtual drinkies event, starting at 5pm today (NZ DST). The venue is https://bbb.nzoss.nz/b/dav-fp4-4yz all welcome - no software install required, just a modern browser (or Safari if you're on iOS :) ) like Chrom(ium|e), Firefox, Brave. Charge your glass, don headphones (& clothing, it's a family show!), fire up your webcams and join us! We're keen to stress test our BigBlueButton... so far our max in a session is 40+, but we're going for 100-200...
Not sure what I mean about Zoom's problems... start with these: https://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2020/03/27/zoom/ https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018741034/zoom-a-national-security-threat & https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/01/zoom-doom/
To all the NZ schools out there who're (quite rightly) worried about privacy and security problems with Zoom (not to mention cost) - here's a local community-run alternative that's easy and free: https://nzoss.nz/learnfromhome
Goodness. What a stunning day we have in Christchurch today.
Speaking of farcical - was reminded of this thought (circa 2012) - an essay about "informed consent" and "I ACCEPT" for proprietary cloud web services. https://davelane.nz/i-accept-and-personal-privacy-cloud
- blog
- https://davelane.nz
- tech blog
- https://tech.oeru.org
- I self-host (or on behalf of NZOSS & OERu)
- Docker NextCloud/Collabora Discourse WordPress Drupal MediaWiki Silverstripe Moodle Rocket.Chat Mastodon GitLab Mautic Wallabag & others plus full email services
- I play
- Lots. With my tech, guitar, voice, kids, family, friends, myriad implements of percussion, and a bit of bass.
Admin
FOSS & CC guy, nerd on many levels, working to democratise higher education by day, increasing digital, intellectual, & physical freedom always. Oxford commas. Spreading joy & confusion.
Joined Apr 2017
