RT @tmcw
okay i mulled over this idea in my head for a month and then just sat down and wrote this in one pass without switching tabs so here it is, raw and extra spicy:
"Second guessing the modern web" https://macwright.org/2020/05/10/spa-fatigue.html
@aral I know these 700 solutions for one problem are sometimes really annoying. But keep in mind: Software ecosystems work just as natural ecosystems, diversity brings stability. I one fails you, you can use another. That's one big advantage in contrast to non-free systems!
@craigmaloney
Welcome To Windows, where installing apps gets reinvented with each app
@aral
(cont.)
Security is hard. Decentralization is hard. Usability is hard.
Being first to market is *easier* if you drop some, or most, of these.
So, shitty startups get to market first, and then crowd out the decent-but-necessarily-slower projects.
Every time you recommend a tool that follows this pattern of abuse, you are enabling it. You, personally, become a part of the problem. You, personally, help a shitty startup crowd out a decent project.
(cont.)
(cont.)
3. startup makes a horrible business decision or gets bought up by someone onerous; it's inevitable, it's a startup.
4. everybody's shocked, shockedâ˘, but still go with "using it for non-sensitive stuff, too late to move on"
5. rinse, repeat.
Do you know why we don't get a proper, decentralized, easy to use software solutions? This is why. Because we keep letting shitty startups crowd out the good projects.
(cont.)
For me this only shows that FLOSS by itself is just one factor you have to consider when selecting a solution. (do note that Keybase was not entirely FLOSS because the server was closed source: https://github.com/keybase/client/issues/6374).
Decentralization is good but also: one factor in the overall equation. But do remember that you can have a decentralized protocol thatâs patent-encumbered. Better aim for specifications that follow good practices (like IETF process).
You also want the project to be actively maintained, providing good UX, inclusive and supported by smart people.
Achieving high points on all scales is incredibly hard thatâs why we see all combinations of these factors. E.g. 1) Signal, that has reproducible builds and good clients with clever crypto but no regard for decentralization or 2) XMPP thatâs IETF standard but has UX deficiencies on some platforms or 3) Matrix thatâs âopen standardâ (not IETF but rather controlled by single party) and a company that produces good clients.
And what someone else said: check the money trail of the project. If itâs a VC and âfreeâ to use by anyone it should immediately raise a red flag (not necessarily evil but donât rely critically on it).
@kravietz
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure - "26,000 dead from flooding, 145,000 dead from subsequent famine and epidemics, 11 million homeless."
More here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hydroelectric_power_station_failures
Making electricity is dangerous. Nuclear is the safest method as per kW energy produced.
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan evacuate 70k people after a hydro dam broke... but nobody will make news of it since it's not #nuclear
It is amazing, and also depressing, watching national- and global-level strategic health/science/politics communication being done over Twitter, a platform expressly designed to make communication hard.
People resorting to Tweeting screenshots of Tweetstorm essay screenshots, because they need to discuss and fact-check complex logical arguments line by line, and Twitter just didn't think that was an important use-case and actively wanted to disincentivise it.
That makes my programmer soul sad.
covid19 apps
@feonixrift
Yeah, we known that #google and the like collect location data of most phones already (location history), they know who you are (registered phone numbers), and that govt has access to that data already (prism), and that countries can share this data already (5/9/14 eyes)... I guess countries not part of the eyes will still pursue the covid app to get similar powers.
I have written a post about the #rust library and command-line tools that I have developed. These are using the ASN database from https://iptoasn.com/ and can help protect websites from bots.
This toot is okay I guess but it would be much cooler if it were a reactive Python AI microservice inside a Docker container in a Kubernetes cluster inside a hypervisor inside Javascript that's running on Sir TIm Berners-Lee's original vintage NeXT which was used to create the Web, all of which is being glimpsed in a reflection of the iris in a photograph of one of the replicants in that "enhance" scene in Blade Runner: Director's Cut
@sir
Running small website, it is actually hard to find free tools that scale down well - most coming from Google, Facebook and the like.
So you want to know about how starships work, huh? Well you came to the right place.