Notices by Your weary 'net denizen (cstanhope@social.coop), page 3

I like how Apple's "Gatekeeper" name says exactly what it is. It's cool how we sleep walk into a computing world where you are only allowed to trust somebody as long as Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. also trust them.

https://hackaday.com/2024/11/01/apple-forces-the-signing-of-applications-in-macos-sequoia-15-1/

(Note I had dalliance with Apple products a long time ago. I don't currently use Android. And I only use Windows at work because its a requirement there. But dealing with one or more of these corps are largely unavoidable to most of us.)

Step by step they're enclosing computing. Pick your preferred monopolist gatekeeper.

Between individuals like myself and whole communities of people helping each other out there in various ways, I suspect that's a large part of what allows the modern complex tech stack to actually continue to exist. If corps actually had to bear the entire burden of technical support for their products, could they continue to exist in their current form?

I used to think of it as technical support for family and friends, and now I realize it's really more like I'm volunteer technical support team for big corp. I wonder how many anonymous technical support dopes like me there are. 🤔

Movin' slow and fixin' things.

Reading about the situation with PFAS and how 3M knew it was being found in people's bodies as early as 1970s and knew it was toxic but buried the information.

How many more examples do we need of corporations doing things that are antithetical to life itself? It seems clear that no set of laws, regulatory pressure, or good people on the inside will ever stop it. The problem is in the very structure of these companies. They can't do the right thing. They're not designed to.

I landed on a web page for an oscope vendor about half an an hour ago, and they had their product images sloooowly creeping for some reason. After a couple of minutes, I felt nauseous and have continued to feel that way. What the heck? 🤢

TFW you try to fake it 'til you make it only to realize you were already unknowingly faking it, so now you're faking squared and very confused.

@djsundog Happy fediversary! 🎉

A new Ani DiFranco album on May 17th!

https://anidifranco.bandcamp.com/album/unprecedented-sh-t

@craigmaloney I've been wondering how you're doing. Thank you for the update, and I am also sending good vibes and good wishes.

Throwback Wednesday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oct2xKMGOno

Wow! I accidentally timed this one right.

https://worldfrogday.org/

FTC reminding people that price fixing with a computer is still price fixing:

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fixing-algorithm-still-price-fixing

Some VC backed techbros somewhere: "But my price fixing as a service business!"

@craigmaloney It's good to hear you're able to get discharged today.

@craigmaloney I don't want to hate on that person because that's just not good for me and not worth the energy, but geezus why go to the world to discuss how maybe you'll have to come out of retirement at *46* to work because you can't generate enough passive income to cover your lavish choices of expenses... Oh. Wait... He's advertising for the consulting business he's about to start, isn't he? Never mind... smh

@theruran I look forward to reading anything you might write. We are sorely in need of new ideas around these topics. At the moment, with few exceptions, the software commons seems to have been successfully enclosed by corp interests, which is why we keep seeing articles like the one above.

I read an article like this, and I can't help but think, "Maybe if we keep doing things the same way, it'll be different this time."

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/959069/b435cd2bd38c0192/

I'm not saying Corbet is saying that. It's just that these articles crop up relatively often, and yet... It seems precarity in open source is an essential feature of how it is currently being organized.

(I get it. I have bills to pay too, and I'm certainly not out there creating co-op foundation for those aspects of free software I want to see maintained.)

@erosdiscordia I would find doing that very challenging. Very, *very* challenging.