barefootstache @barefootstache@qoto.org

#humor #foundontheinternet #genalpha #skibidi #toilet

I really need to get around to publishing my "#Microsoft are bad landlords" post where I rip into them for doing absolutely nothing with #npm to make it more secure (and also owning VSCode, GitHub and all the other tools that make supply-chain attacks easy)

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/11/javascript-developers-targeted-by-hundreds-of-malicious-code-libraries/#comments

Right now, here is the real problem - all the major cloud vendors are US companies.

Even with data centres in Europe, these companies will be complicit in whats coming - like IBM of the 1940's - they will enable Project 2025 to fulfil it's needs through technology.

They've set the whole system up so their is no choice, and Europe has been absolutely useless in setting up anything independent of this.

Prototype Fund is going on!
We can now officially confirm that we‘re continuing to fund #OpenSource software projects over the next 4 years.
While some things will stay the same, we‘ve also changed a lot: There’s more money for teams, new funding sums and scope. You can apply as an European team as long as one of you lives in Germany and there‘s also no need to (AI) translate your applications anymore, as they are accepted in English too.
More in our blog:
https://prototypefund.de/en/the-prototype-fund-is-going-strong/

Smart TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to track what’s on screen—shows, ads, movies—and build user profiles. Opting out can stop ACR data traffic, though privacy settings are often hidden. Do you trust your TV? https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.06203v1

#ReligionIsPoison

New Blog post: From ZeroVer to SemVer: A Comprehensive List of Versioning Schemes in Open Source

A summary of 15 different versioning schemes I've found across open source, did I miss any?

https://nesbitt.io/2024/06/24/from-zerover-to-semver-a-comprehensive-list-of-versioning-schemes-in-open-source.html

Boring Web Development:

Web development is boring—or should be more boring. On us tending to celebrate the wrong side of web development.

https://meiert.com/en/blog/boring-web-development/

#webdev #priorities

Back when Windows 95 came out you could drag "The Internet" icon to the bin and it'd pop up a message that said "Are you sure you want to delete The Internet?" and we thought it was hilarious but in hindsight maybe one of us should have said "yes".

The people that think collaboration can't happen remotely are also the ones who only get their ideas implemented by being loudly wrong and basically a bully. They need face to face interaction because how else will they float around, sprinkling their bad ideas, and pushing for features that both no one asked for and don't meet user's needs.

I'm working on a post for @thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange highlighting positive things happening in the fediverses. Of course there's also a lot of stuff that isn't so positive, which (not unreasonably) draws a lot of the attention ... but Mastodon in particular can be a very negative place, so it's useful to notice that hey, it's not all bad.

Here's some of the things I've got on my list of good things happening ... what's on yours?

The Website League is a great example of focusing on the social aspects of social networking, and I'm really impressed with how they're starting with the right priorities from the beginning, learning lessons from the past, and doing their best to avoid common pitfalls (including anti-Blackness). Just as exciting to me is the network topology they're using: an "island network", taking an allow-list approach to federation. Consent FTW!

@gotosocial@superseriousbusiness.org release 0.17, with interaction controls and a lot of other improvements. I've been consistenty impressed by GtS's focus on smaller instances, privacy by default, and security; I also think they've made some great decisions including not providing their own web UI (there are plenty of great UI's out there) and having a flagship instance. This is their first beta release, and i'm excited enough that I made the jump and am setting up my own instance -- in fact I think I'll even tag @jdp23@gotosocial.thenexus.today to see if it works.

DAIR Institute's PeerTube page, including videos of their Data Workers Inquiry and Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 (hosted by @emilymbender@dair-community.social and @alex@dair-community.social) is a great example of a fediverse presence from world-class researchers taking an anti-oppressive approach. Today's fediverse lets them provide surveillance capitalism-free access to this anti-oppressive work, and interact with people in multiple languages (thanks to Mastodon's easy-to-use in-app translation), how cool is that?

And speaking of world-class researchers, @bonfire@indieweb.social is working with Nibö and others on Open Science Network. Bonfire's also some very doing interesting work on Prosocial Design Patterns, and the combination of their flexible framework and a focus on the social aspects of social networking opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Bandwagon, an open community for musicians and fans, has a chance to fill a major void as Bandcamp continues to deteriorate – and is built on Emissary, one of several new platforms and toolkits that could potentially make it easier for people to build ActivityPub-based applications

#Letterbook is continuing to make progress, and their recent moderation survey -- shared broadly with the moderator community -- is also a good example of starting with the right priorities from the beginning. As Letterbook's @jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io said last year, "Tools are also reciprocal with culture. We build tools, but we are also shaped by the affordances of those tools. There's no magic to this, either, and nothing changes overnight. But when you change what's possible, what's easy, what's visible, you can change behavior. Changing behavior changes culture. And everything is downstream from culture."

WEIRD is making a prosocial network based on personal websites and the combined principles of local-first and peer-to-peer. They're using the LEAF Protocol (based on Willow), and it's great to see explorations of alternatives to ActivityPub.

And speaking of alternatives to ActivityPub, things are hopping in the ATmosphere, the fediverse based on Bluesky's AT Protocol. FrontPage, a link aggregator, is now open to the public ... hmm, maybe I'll try posting a link to this article there. (Update: it worked!) Over the last few weeks @laurenshof@indieweb.social's Last Week in the ATmosphere on @fediversereport@mastodon.social has covered chat service Picosky, linktree alternative linkat.blue, and audio space app Bluecast, which is big in Japan and has recently added karaoke. Plus, all the Brazilian Portuguese in my feed is definitely flexing my language muscles kkkkkkkk!

There's a lot more going on of course ... what's on your list?

#fediverse

I think gig working services are a great example of how capitalism's main point of innovation is making things worse in every way imaginable, while convincing people to just kind of deal with it.

It went from you could call your local takeout, they'd offer free deliver within a certain range, then you just tip some high school kid $6.

Now you get doordash, who charge the restaurant a 30% commission, which the restaurant passes on to you. then you pay a service fee, delivery fee, benefits fee, credit card fee, coming up with new fees fee, and a tip on top of that.

Then, despite the delivery costing more than my entire order, the driver makes less than minimum wage, my food arrives cold, and the restaurant takes the heat for any delivery issues.

I've got to the point where I've just started stealing gig workers. I offer to pay them directly to run errands for me. They make more than the service/agency pays them, I save money not funding some techbro's yacht, and they do a better job because there's an ongoing relationship.