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. Oxford commas. Spreading joy & confusion.
Joined Apr 2017
Dave Lane
boosted
@lightweight IT IS PERFECT!!!! DOWNLOADED AND USING!!!
(one happy camper here!!!)
Dave Lane
boosted
Thanks to all the contributors to the #Fediverse creating a decentralised network based on #FreeSoftware which I can also use today to say thank you on #ilovefs
Dave Lane
boosted
Dave Lane
boosted
And a big thank you to all the #FreeSoftware (#OpenSource) contributors out there, whom I was not able to mention specicially yet.
Thank you for your work for #softwarefreedom ! And I hope you will receive some explicit #ilovefs thank you messages from others today.
Just looked at my Twitter account for the first time in a few weeks... I feel like I've now gotten through the withdrawal period. I no longer feel a part of the Twittersphere. Relief.
The same sense of despair & dread many people feel when they see others (esp loved ones) engaging in self-destructive behaviour (excessive risk taking, smoking, heavy drinking, etc.) is what I feel when I see people running MS Windows. It's quite a heavy weight to carry.
US federal gov't: you suck holistically, and in particular, the GOP elements.
The saddest thing is that you represent the values and thinking of corporate USA.
Dave Lane
boosted
I continue to really like #rust as a programming language. Even though I'm writing more #raku these days, I still love Rust (and am writing something in it right now).
That said, it's increasingly clear to me that Rust is _primarily_ targeted at the Big Tech usecase (aka "at scale") and only secondarily interested in the Free Software usecase.
Today's news that the Rust Foundation is reserving *half* of its board seats for Big Tech provides additional confirmation.
https://foundation.rust-lang.org/posts/2021-02-08-hello-world/
Dave Lane
boosted
@lightweight I think "simplified like a Fisher Price toy, beyond any sort of usefulness" pretty much sums it up.
But I think the key to its success, or at least proliferation, is that "most people" are on that "Fisher Price" skill level of using a computer as a tool.
The difference, of course, is that M$ markets it as some amazing creation instead of just a plastic wrench with no sharp edges that you definitely cannot choke on.
Dave Lane
boosted
Open Source is a double-edged sword. It is a betrayal and a watering-down of Free Software ideology, but it is also a Free Software double agent.
Each day, another poster on Medium discovers that "true Open Source" has been "lost", without realizing that what they heard was "Open Source", but what they wanted was Free Software.
It's easy to be smug toward them, but I think it's better to be happy. Less "told you so" and "get off my lawn", and more "You're one of today's lucky 10'000!" #xkcd1053
I think their cries are testament to the pro-Free Software strategy of Open Source working. How do we gently introduce them to the rest of "true Open Source", a.k.a. Free Software?
... and get them off Medium?
Each day, another poster on Medium discovers that "true Open Source" has been "lost", without realizing that what they heard was "Open Source", but what they wanted was Free Software.
It's easy to be smug toward them, but I think it's better to be happy. Less "told you so" and "get off my lawn", and more "You're one of today's lucky 10'000!" #xkcd1053
I think their cries are testament to the pro-Free Software strategy of Open Source working. How do we gently introduce them to the rest of "true Open Source", a.k.a. Free Software?
... and get them off Medium?
Whoa, cautiously optimistic that I might've just successfully replaced the battery on my wife's old Garmin Vivoactive watch (turns out it's *not* waterproof if the water happens to be a hotspring), possibly restoring it to usefulness... now to find #FOSS code to deal with the telemetry and data... any pointers welcome!
I'd actually assert that perhaps the least user friend app I've ever had this displeasure of having to help Windows users wrangle is MS Outlook. Most people it. Some think they like it (mostly because they've never used anything else). It's horrible - simplified like a Fisher Price toy, beyond any sort of usefulness, but still a hot mess.
I don't think either Microsoft or Apple software is particularly "user friendly". And certainly not more than most open source software. I think it's just a) familiar (to people who use it), and it's b) incessantly marketed that way.
At best, some of the software on each platform has some superficial visual similarity which I guess is like friendliness, but ultimately, I think it creates an expectation of consistency on which it usually fails to deliver.
"And to those of you who, like me, find countless useful articles online that someone has taken the time to write (usually after learning a particularly hard lesson) and saved me from the same fate by doing so, I encourage you to hold them up as the unassuming paragons of virtue and kind humanity they are." https://davelane.nz/current-digital-dark-age
Dave Lane
boosted
So, my job is 'requiring' us to take a survey through a 3rd-party service if we are interested in getting the vaccine.
I don't like that service's privacy policy.
I'm going to confront someone about this
I don't like that service's privacy policy.
I'm going to confront someone about this
We have to acknowledge that perhaps the single greatest success of modern societies is the democratisation of literacy, with many societies approaching 100%. The investment of nations & individuals in making this happen is huge, & the compassion it demonstrates should inspire us all. Literacy is table stakes for participating in the digital age. Those who are not will increasingly be both a cost to their societies & miserable in a society in which they cannot effectively participate.
- 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. Oxford commas. Spreading joy & confusion.
Joined Apr 2017
