Notices by Dave Lane 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz), page 3

Ok, this is superbly ingenious. https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=Qf-D1Upn-KU or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-D1Upn-KU #helpingThoseWhoNeedItMost #openScience #trivialCostTech

@smallcircles seems to me that the way to make Free Software sustainable is to make proprietary software unacceptable. I think that's a relatively easy thing to do, because proprietary software sucks. I've explained it at some length: https://davelane.nz/proprietary I think that slowly, almost imperceptibly, the EU is coming to that realisation. @atomicpoet

@alcinnz I think if a person's motivated by solving problems and doing the right thing, they can achieve a lot of good in the #FOSS world despite a huge 'opportunity cost' if they were to 'sell out'. If ones expectations of reward are modest, it doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice, and, in hindsight, it doesn't seem so bad... but it's really going against the grain from the perspective of those who're motivated by material wealth.

It's interesting how some people deride those who sacrifice to 'do the right thing' and actually live up to their values as quaint and privileged, calling that behaviour a 'luxury'...

It's especially interesting when the people doing the deriding have put expedience over principle, exploiting people, and achieving material wealth in the process.

Perhaps it's echoes of the person's former but-largely-suppressed idealistic self lashing out.

Ruru/Morepork hoot detecting software... https://www.2040.co.nz/blogs/news/moreporks-automatically-identified and, yeah, it's #FOSS. Very cool!

@be reminds me of Microsoft's "PlaysForSure"[R] format - which their flagship 'iPod-Killer'... didn't support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure

Corporations *all* suck.

Wow, reading this: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/my-daughters-school-took-over-my-personal-microsoft-account seems that Microsoft is even more inept than I thought (and I thought they were heroically, indefatigably inept). Seems to me that they did you a favour, @geerlingguy@mastodon.socal - my life's definitely been much better (and about 1/15th the cost) without MSFT Azure in it. Hoping you haven't lost full access to your personal stuff, but seems like a good nudge to exit that (broken) monoculture regardless.

Earlier today, I saw a news article breathlessly trumpeting (something like) "Industry can now replace entry-level software developers with AI!"

Who's going to be the one to break it to 'Industry' and the breathless media where 'experienced software developers' come from?

This, my friends, is why we can't have nice things (or sustainable societies).

Yup. https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-02-2023/the-side-eye-a-climate-change-reality-check #WeNeedToChange We haven't got time for more of the same. We need progressive, drastic action on both environmental and social justice. Never Nats. No more Labour. No more conservative anything. It's way too late for that. We need collective, constructive action. We need leaders who do hard things rather than pandering to the current power brokers.

Quite liking (self-hosted, via #Docker-Compose) #Forgejo! Very pretty, and quite complete. Imported a bunch of repos from my Gitlab (Community Edition) repos...

Welp, just created a full environment (domain, email (fully compliant, including SPF, DKIM, & DMARC) and a content managed website with secure cert) on my own infrastructure in NZ in a few minutes. 100% #FOSS. It would've taken this person much longer and they probably would've got locked into some overseas proprietary tech that would expose all their visitors & correspondents to surveillance capitalists. This is serious power (for good!).

@alcinnz I think it's fair to be discontent with the idea that people, in large part, have responded to the learnt helplessness they feel with technology 'the system' has imposed upon them, by abdicating their inclination to be 'expert' in the tools of their trade. I'd say there's never been a time in history when so many people depend on tools that vanishingly few understand in any useful sense.

Listening to MediaWatch on RNZ, and the head of RNZ said he'd love to see all media in Aotearoa NZ collaborate on creating collective resources... I'd be delighted to see that, especially removing the foreign pseudo-media mega-tech-corporations from the loop. Stuff like *local* streaming services, social media...

@alcinnz I agree that interface can be an educational tool... but it depends largely on how much foundational knowledge is required to even understand *why* you're using the software. Sometimes, the user simply hasn't got that foundation... and there's not enough of the scaffolding (understanding of related/more basic concepts) available to achieve understanding. @dn

@alcinnz sometimes things we're trying to do with computers are quite complicated. They require a lot of conceptual scaffolding which our schools don't teach. There is no way to make a good interface to provide foundations in, e.g., what a network is and how it operates/fails, how privacy works/fails (e.g. CC vs BCC in emails), how online 'etiquette' works/fails, etc. We've got a course that's trying to teach it. https://oeru.org/learning-in-a-digital-age/ It's won int'l plaudits:: https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2021/open-infrastructure/oerfs-digital-learning-ecosystem/

@alcinnz as an engineer, I fully embrace the idea of designing everything I do to be 'as simple as possible, and no simpler'. The problem is, many times with software we give people power to do things for which they have *no valid mental model*. They have no insight into its use, no idea of implications of choices, no appreciation of alternative ways to do the same thing that could be better/safer/lower cost. I'd consider that situation to be pervasive in all fields adjacent to technology.

Periodic reminder for those who've ever used "it's not user-friendly enough" when refusing to use software... back in the 80s and early 90s, secretaries (generally without any computing instruction) became wizards at using early text-based 'word processors' like WordStar with arcane markup, obtuse printing requirements, and only a command line interface. I'd say that nowadays people sell themselves short because they no longer feel the need to be craftspeople with the tools of their trade.

@teleclimber in my experience, people, in fields where their role *depends on their digital capabilities* resolutely refuse to learn. It's both risky (short-sighted for people with those role responsibilities) and a pathetic abdication. They tend to lack pride in their skills and competence.No wonder people get such little job satisfaction because they're voluntarily disempowered. 1/2

@teleclimber Sowing pervasive Learnt helplessness was perhaps Microsoft & Apple's greatest triumph. Almost no one knows enough now to criticise the digital slop foisted upon them. Not even those doing the foisting.

2/2

@dznz also worth remembering that Free and Open Source Software apps (usually free of cost, but free of exploitation & restrictions) don't generally do this. @heyrochelle