category_mirrory @category_mirrory@qoto.org

RMS said he's sorry for the people he's sexually harassed and maybe instead of pointing fingers you should say sorry for the people you've sexually harassed.

>That said, we should really insist more on teaching how to use computers in schools. With computers you create, with smartphones you consume.
>I agree. But I do believe that if you want to you use technology more and more in the modern world, you can’t dumb down the computer system, you have to educate the populist
The ability to read and write is inseparable with escaping corporate slavery.

>I agree, especially because we can have both:
>Simple, accessible programs and advanced programs. Everyone can be happy (at least when we are free to create alternatives and not limited by proprietary stuff)
Likewise we can have both simple accessible **AND** advanced books; at least when they aren't deliberately obfuscated to maintain proprietariness. #YearOfTheFediverse #YearOfDecentralization .

@ranfdev @alcinnz @joerebelloharley@tilde.zone

``Solar Sharing``
#YearOfHybridization

>what exactly IS it going to take for people to **abandon** that wretched platform ?

>In computer graphics, ``double buffering`` is a technique for drawing graphics that shows no (or less) **stutter, tearing, and other artifacts**. It is difficult for a program to draw a display so that pixels do not change more than once. For instance, when updating a page of text, it is much easier to clear the entire page and then draw the letters than to somehow erase only the pixels that are used in old letters but not in new ones. However, this intermediate image is **seen by the user as flickering**.

It's easier to do something fun and **new on a new** website than to try and do something **old on a new** website.

Nice poster. #YearOfTheFediverse #YearOfDecentralization

@zleap @sl007 @dsfgs

Welcome to **2021年**.
Chinese Spring Festival.
Feb 11-17 Thu-Wed.
#YearOfDecentralization
#YearOfTheFediverse

pa**R**T**y** **t**I**m**E P**a**rTy T**I**m**e** pAR**t**y ti**m**E p**A**rt**y** TI**m**e **P**ar**t**y Ti**M**e **p**A**R**Ty t**i**Me p**a**Rt**y** tim**e** Pa**R**T**Y** **t**i**m**e par**T**y **t**i**M**E **p**A**R**ty T**I**m**E** pa**R**ty **T**i**M**e p**a**rTy TIm**E** **P**A**r**ty t**i**m**e** par**t**y ti**m**e **P**A**R**ty **T**IME ParTY TI**M**E **p**ar**T**Y T**I**Me **p**a**r**ty TimE **p**a**r**T**y** time pa**r**T**Y** **t**Ime **p**a**R**Ty TI**M**e **P**ar**t**Y **T**Ime **P**ARTy **T**I**M**E pAr**T**Y TI**M**e **p**arT**y** **T**IMe **P**A**R**T**Y** **t**Ime **P**a**R**T**y** T**I**M**E** **p**A**r**T**Y** **T**I**m**E

H**a**p**p**y Bir**t**hd**a**y to **y**o**u**!
**H**a**p**py **B**i**r**th**d**a**y** **t**o **y**ou!
**H**a**p**py **B**i**r**th**d**a**y** **d**ea**r** jwi**l**deb**o**e**r**!
**H**ap**p**y Bir**t**h**d**a**y** t**o** **y**o**u**!

A**n**d ma**n**y mo**r**e**,** on Cha**n**nel **4**!
**A**nd **S**coo**b**y D**o**o, **o**n C**h**ann**e**l **2**!
And st**a**rs w**i**l**l** **b**e, o**n** Ch**a**nnel **3**!
**A**nd S**e**ve**n**-**E**le**v**e**n**, **o**n **c**h**a**nne**l** **7**!
A**n**d **F**rankenst**e**in**,** **o**n C**h**annel 9!
**A**n**d** a **s**in**g**in**g** **l**a**d**y, **o**n **C**hanne**l** 8**0**!
An**d** **a**ll t**h**e **r**e**s**t, on C**B**S!
@jwildeboer @clayogra @kmic @cjd @einziggurat @SystemSock @cereal @m0n5t3r @cos @rozenglass @wolf480pl @alcinnz @MangoMamba @z428 @Kitkat @mikulas_peksa @urien2 @humanetech @StampedingLonghorn @Hyolobrika @jos @seasharp @clacke @torresjrjr @vera @cwebber @zleap @silmathoron @mray @VictorVenema @dsfgs @openscience

"Politics is **downstream** of culture."
Bonus points:
"Culture is **downstream** of ____________?"
#YearOfDecentralization @dozens

Why do I need this? ❓ ❔ https://paste.ircnow.org/paste/tq0iek04td19

>Software is like recipes.

I like simple **metaphor**s.
Been arguing for software **literacy** frequently recently.

More in-depth thinking about "types". Specifically a "fixed-point/recursive" type that changes over time.

More in-depth thinking about "**type**s". Specifically a "fixed-point/recursive" **type** that changes over time.
For example a "block" **type** in minetest.
At the beginning you will just start with a set of simple block **type**s like "dirt", "stone", "brick" which differ in nothing but texture.
You may also build some simple tool **type**s to deal with the simple block **type**s like worldedit to save and copy builds or rollback to restore them.
But soon you will want all kinds of additional block **type**s like "trampoline", a block with a motion property; or "sign", a block with a text property; or "water", a block that flows; or "mesecons", a block that conducts electric flow.
Conceptually, these are all still the same "block" **type** at the beginning; yet programmatically their invariant "sub-**type**s" have changed --- meaning all the tool **type**s like worldedit and rollback will have been broken by them.

@raboof

Hello! You are mentioned because of your participation in the thread here: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@ignaloidas/103704527515615251 @ignaloidas

@toast @trickster@mastodon.technology @einziggurat Wow this is awesome thread! So we have several "variations" on The UNIX Philosophy here. (It's okay to reinvent the wheel because a wagon wheel is not a street bicycle wheel is not is not a racing bicycle wheel is not a car wheel is not an airplane wheel):

1. The Original UNIX Philosophy
2. Suckless
3. Small Technology
4. Trivial Technology
5. Techs Should Factor (my slogan)

I collected the "position statements" on a wiki [here](https://wiki.ircnow.org/index.php?n=Debate.UnixPhilosophy) that anyone can edit.

Anyway I love TT, obviously! I see EXTERNAL.md has a list of other projects. The ["DIY epi pencil"](https://fourthievesvinegar.org/) looks interesting. N.B. idk if it's legit! Not medical advice!

>10. Minimize the amount of "meta-work" required.

This is definitely good. However what "meta-work" is, is content dependent. E.g. "send me your public ssh key" is trivial for me to understand, but can take an hour of handholding to get to someone that has never heard of PuTTY before!

>no, that actually increases cognitive load, you're thinking of computational load; the two are often at odds
you can write TT in most languages

I suggest generalizing this **cognitive** vs **computational** distinction to dependency management as well:

>things the reader does not need to understand:
- internal implementation details of the deps
- the platform upon which things run (e.g how linux works internally, otherwise we have a recursion problem)

A project should of course try to minimize "**cognitive** dependencies", but when "**cognitive** dependencies" do exist it should list them as prerequisites: e.g. do you need to know what a Fourier Transform is to make use of this software or not.

Then of course at a meta level projects can be sorted by their **cognitive** dependences as well, and possibly even matched with educational modules "satisfying" said **cognitive** dependencies (althought the educational modules would of course themselves be dependent on additional **cognitive** dependencies...)

#YearOfDecentralization #YearOfTheFediverse !!

@toast @trickster@mastodon.technology @einziggurat @uniq @kingannoy @Antanicus @ignaloidas @sylveon

>price fixing bio-optical organized K-maps

So that's why Alexander Elbakyan got purged by Twitter under the cover of the "War on Terror".

@mangeurdenuage @redfrog

We can perhaps generalize the concept of "UI" here to any "I" in general; with "interface" also being a synonym for "standard". Then [this paper](http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/utah2000.html)'s words metaphorically apply:

>To be a viable computer system, one must honor a huge list of large, and often changing, standards: TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, XML, CORBA, Unicode, POSIX, NFS, SMB, MIME, POP, IMAP, X, ...
>A huge amount of work, but if you don't honor the standards, you're marginalized.
>I estimate that 90-95% of the work in Plan 9 was directly or indirectly to honor externally imposed standards.
>At another level, instruction architectures, buses, etc. have the same influence.
>With so much externally imposed structure, there's little slop left for novelty.
>Even worse, commercial companies that "own" standards, such as Microsoft and Cisco, deliberately make standards hard to comply with, to frustrate competition. Academia is a casualty.

Sometimes, when climbing rocks (or just the monkeybars), you have to just **let go** of the last thing that's stabilizing you in order to lunge to the next thing that will stabilize you. And hopefully not plunge to your death.

Perhaps certain "standards", including but not limited to certain "UI" expectations, have to be similarly **let go**. One considers the choice of higher-level languages to discontinue goto: support, or the choice of gemini to abandon full support for rendering arbitrary html (said support in the form of web browser requires 40 core-hours merely to **compile**, making it the domain of the rich and corporate).

I close with a quote: "Ask people what their problem is, but **don't** ask them for their proposed solution." UX constitutes expectations not just on the program but also expectations on the literacy of the user, and in some cases it is easier to plan and execute changes on the user side than the program side.

@alcinnz @cjd @aral

Chesterton's Fence
https://fs.blog/2020/03/chestertons-fence/

@MangoMamba @vortex_egg @wolf480pl @cjd

>overly complex solutions from the past

This is true. We've simplified and standardized our language, and also made it easier to read with
1. **bold**
2. *italics*
3. lists

and other ``annotations`` to add emphasis, when the ancient greeks wrote in all caps with zero punctuation - not even spaces!

However, this does not mean our language is "easy" to read. It still takes 12 years of schooling to do so. This is simply our expectation of "basic literacy" (for an adult) as a culture. It wasn't always our expectation, back when people lived as farmers in monarchies, but it is now. And now, I argue, we must also form an expectation of "basic computer literacy" as a culture.

>not everyone needs to be able to write a Shakespeare play

But we **do** expect that everyone be able to **write**. Not only to transcribe their words but also to elaborate and compose their words into sentences and paragraphs. And this is NOT an easy skill. It seems easy when you already know it, but just try teaching it to someone else and see how difficult it is to explain or convey.

Writing, too, is something that takes 12 years of schooling to do. Writing, too is simply our expectation of "basic literacy" (for an adult) as a culture.

I think a good role model might be something like Calc Spreadsheet, or MatLab. Both are designed for non-computer people, yet both (ultimately) encourage and expect an ability to understand and write code; even if that code is just an internal domain-specific language.

@z428 @szbalint @carcinopithecus@x0r.be @xj9@merveilles.town @derHennefer@bonn.social

Counterpoint: An illiterate citizenry begets a monarchy. Politics is downstream of culture.

There's only so many books you can write with 100 words. And that works fine if a mystical priest-class keeps the calendar and everyone else just follows orders.

But for the hoi polloi to actually have **agency** in their own society, they just are HAVE to going to learn to read. And that's going to take a culture that's centered around (tech-)literacy being a necessity in the modern world.

@szbalint @z428 @carcinopithecus@x0r.be @xj9@merveilles.town @derHennefer@bonn.social

Beautiful! #YearOfDecentralization!

#YearOfTheFediverse! #YearOfDecentralization! @StampedingLonghorn

cjd's original meme is the meme template of "working together" with the captions of "the left" and "the right" working together towards "decentralization".

I made two additions:
1. Point out **who is NOT** working together towards the goal of "decentralization"; intended to be the "useful idiots" on both the left and the right who, in their Hegelian Dialectic of "opposing" each other; are both enabling corporations.

2. Add an (already-existing) "three-party model" diagram, whose thesis is: The main problem in a naive implementation of either lib-right or lib-left utopias is they always **assume** many small independent actors but never **guarantee** this assumption. When power becomes concentrated in large bodies (corporation just means a body i.e. corporeal), then it doesn't matter whether the bodies are "public" or "private", everybody gets fucked.

In short, #YearOfDecentralization is key. #YearOfTheFediverse is my New Year's Resolution, for anyone who will listen (referring to my outreach efforts on twitter/discord/facebook alts, etc.; obviously people here are good).

@Hyolobrika