Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

So, Microsoft decided to break lots of people's computers:

https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-cracking-down-dodging-windows-11-system-requirements/

Any "security improvements" that require people to buy a new computer (or phone) is a security upgrade that poor people and/or people in the third world don't benefit from.

It is worse than useless, it is discriminatory, it is obscene. It throws people under the bus, causes us great economic duress, for the sake of other people's security. It erects a walled community and keeps us out, and pretends things are safer by removing us from the statistics.

Choose your phone!

Your options are:
- company that seeks rent on every transaction that happens through the phone
- company that tracks your location, habits and usage to build detailed profiles on you to inform advertising
- custom ROMs that can’t run your banking app

a lot of processes in the industry i work in now rely on spreadsheets

like really janky ones with hours of people's lives burned away by copy/paste weekly or daily and pointing and clicking, following a checklist

so i think "aha! i can help!" and i replace the spreadsheet with an automated process

and hours per week are saved and i am a hero and it feels great

but then they need to make a little change and they can't, they have to go through me, i have effectively taken their power away

Every time I hear the “novelty and creativity is rare” line I get so angry I have to stand up and pace to calm down

Language, art, and media are massively combinatorial. We’ve barely been able to scratch the surface of what’s possible because we’re locked in economic systems built on uniformity and in industries that always choose the broken and bland to boost short term profits

The absence of novelty is down to economics and your mindsets. The media themselves are as unexplored as the galaxy

Remember when we were all at awe at how we can access all the information we want like 10 years ago with the internet and phones

Well looks like the party is over with all the algorithmic intelligence poisoning SEO crap

Remember when Wikipedia was considered an unreliable source

@aud right??? like nobody's saying it's easy, but if it's an important problem, we have to start by assuming we're going to succeed. that reduces it to the task of figuring out HOW.

is this a large effect? well, it depends on the subject matter

is this the only thing that's needed to bring about change? almost never

is it a big deal that helps a lot? yes, definitely

the world is just a collection of people who talk to each other. we all, including ourselves, tend to default to mirroring the attitudes we see around us back at others unless we've specifically taken the time to self-reflect and choose otherwise.

therefore, the way we talk about problems affects the people around us, which affects the world.

please remember, always: the future is not written, and we all have the power to change it.

it is not inevitable that something will keep happening just because it has been happening.

when we talk about large-scale problems in public, it's probably a good idea to talk in ways that remind everyone of our own ability to choose, of the options we have, that express hope.

The way software development's shifted from people wanting to do it better to people wanting to get rich reminds me of how contemporary music schools shifted from people wanting to get better at making music to people wanting to get famous.

There's a real X Factor feel to the common discourse, with lots of folks obsessing over levels of commercial success they're never going to experience - too busy preparing for hypothetical stadium tours to learn scales.

https://zeroes.ca/@broadwaybabyto/112969540678197342

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