Mᴬᴺᴰᴿᴬᴷᴱ @wion@writing.exchange
Editor. Father. Deliriant. Likes handcrafted quality, time alone, and exercise. Me kids think I’m cool. Wife thinks me a fool. Must be doing it right. #nobots
Divinin' Tᴴᴱ Bᴬᴿᴼᴺ ? Cast the bones, deal the cards, or gaze into me limpid pool of tags.
#history (obscure is good)
#research (doing my own)
#ecology (naturalist at heart)
#woodworking (my exit plan)
#writing (long-form especially)
#infodesign (broad interests)
#reading (dark ecology stuff lately)
#calisthenics (my opium)
#offgrid (would like to attain it)
#minimalism (in everything)
Free-thinkin'. Non-conformin'. Believin' in the barter system, and doin' it yourself.
Settle it with axes
"Both Bitcoin and Ethereum mining are very centralized, with the top four miners in Bitcoin and the top three miners in Ethereum controlling more than 50% of the hash rate.
The entire blockchain for both systems is determined by fewer than 20 mining entities."
In other words: decentralization in the crypto space is a myth, just as it is a myth that cryptos are currencies at all.
http://hackingdistributed.com/2018/01/15/decentralization-bitcoin-ethereum/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-tech-avengers-1530285064
TL;DR Industry insiders aren't going to save anyone from anything. Tweaking around with "screen time" or interface design or adding extra "street cred" from a younger generation doesn't address any of the real problems with Sillicon Valley.
If any of these rich morons were actually sincere they would have to abandon their business models and start again with federated and distributed systems with no data concentration. But of course they're not going to do that.
'Material force must be overthrown by material force.' – Marx
And therein lies the rub of oppression.
When the oppressor has all the material force. You're screwed.
Welp, family is not home yet (no word either, typical), so it looks like my mini-vacation is extended.
/crosses fingers/
Listen, this is Alsace. The cabbages are grown like poison ivy. Nobody cares if the row by the bike path thins out.
My kids are getting too big now, sadly, but one thing I always wanted to hustle them back and forth to/from school was a cargo bike. The options and styles for which are mind-boggling...
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cargo+bike&iax=images&ia=images
I still want one of these badly, for going to the market, stealing cabbages and pigs, etc.
Wasn't Quora founded by FB employees, or something? Probably.
Oh, I forgot... Fuck you, Quora!
So if you do a general web search for whatever, and get a Quora result, you can read the Quora question and associated replies.
But copy a particular reply link (the reply permlink) and try to view that, and you're faced with all kinds of centralized barrier agreement bullshit.
And that's what it is -- a bunch of bullshit.
Rest In Pieces, general-purpose computing.
While I wasn’t watching (because, seriously, life’s too short to care about the train-wreck of an operating system that is Windows), Microsoft apparently outdid Apple last year by releasing an app-store-only flavour of its desktop OS & now it’s expanding that as an option to its other versions (Home and Pro).
Soon devs may be left as a special privileged class able to use Windows machines as general-purpose computers.
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/03/07/windows-10-s-mode-coming-soon-editions-windows-10/
The book that is mandatory reading at every data collection and aggregation company
Honestly, I don't give a damn about soccer, but I do follow the Cup. It's only every 4 years, after all. That's how the Superbowl should be -- every 10 years.
I'm happy to see some giants fall so far. I hope to hell Brazil doesn't win. That Naymar guy irritates me to no end.
I'm pulling for my Mexico, but would love to see a Japan win too. Underdogs, baby! Always.
In reality, however, it could very well be Belgium.
Goodbye Argentinaaaaa ... La-la-la-la-la-la-la-laaaaa...
How does the song go?
Did somebody score in soccer? The whole neighbourhood just erupted.
New favourite word: ptomaine
'Stinky fucking amines in decomposing rot.'
Also, the (actual) definition that just crossed my Mac's screen is the exact same word-for-word definition used in the Oxford Dictionary of English. Just verified.
There you go, Mac dictionary source.
Hey Merriam-Webster, 🖕
I'm in a good mood, really. :)
It's just... damn, the house got hot!
I fucking hate hot days. I'm glad I'll be dying before the meltdown.
Forestry CMS gives you a complimentary six cookies upon first visit. For what fucking reason?
PriceMinister hits you with 26! No surprise.
Adobe, 17! Really Adobe? I don't own a single product.
It goes on and on...
The whole cookie thing is out of control. The world seems to think tracking people is an obligatory part of having a website.
That's where education needs to focus. I mean, come on, are they teaching exploitation in schools now?
Yipes. I opened up the Forestry CMS website, the fans on the computer went apeshit. I closed the Forestry tab. Fans still going crazy.
Sigh.
DECEIVED BY DESIGN
How tech companies use dark patterns to discourage us from
exercising our rights to #privacy
https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-27-deceived-by-design-final.pdf
An impressive report on a situation not at all surprising.
