Notices by Marty Fouts (martyfouts@mastodon.online), page 2

@dalias @codefolio @lucasmz @linux_mclinuxface Any license can be revoked. There’s nothing special about open source except that the GPL explicitly waivers that right under most circumstances. No other license does. If you can’t legally revoke a license once granted then section 8 of the GPL would be unenforceable. There is nothing nasty or FUD about correctly stating how copyright law works.

@lucasmz @linux_mclinuxface Yes, alas, with a bunch of caveats about jurisdictions varying. If redis owns the copyright on all of the code they can change the license going forward at any time. Revoking the license on already licensed code is tricky but technically allowed under the BSD license.

@thomasfuchs While you mean to highlight a behavior of the protocol, the problem of people replying without having read the thread has existed at least since Usenet, and is common on centralized forums as well. There are two aspects, one technical and one social that suggest to me that the benefit of changing the protocol would not justify the cost.

@dogfox @danhulton “fiduciary responsibility” is a term of art in law that does not mean “maximize profit”. It means putting the owners interests before your own interests when you make a decision for the company. Friedman’s argument that the owner’s interest was only to make a profit is not legitimate.

@AdrianRiskin The anti capitalist can be just as naive in the opposite direction, attributing to capitalism problems like slavery that predated it by millennia. Ending capitalism isn’t sufficient to solve any of those problems but so few anti capitalist offer any credible alternative. Capitalism is bad but so are all of its historical predecessors and contemporary isms.

@SallyStrange @AdrianRiskin Chattel slavery existed in ancient Egypt. The Greeks and native Americans had inter generational slavery. What makes the European slavery of Africans more horrible was the inhumane treatment. It was European racism that caused this not capitalism.

@SallyStrange @AdrianRiskin . . . Was the consequence of European racism, something that predates capitalism. (Although the concept was formalized at about the same time capitalism was introduced.)

@SallyStrange @MisuseCase @CorvidCrone @AdrianRiskin When I have tried that argument in the past I got pushback from anti capitalists claiming that no capitalism is recent. Does not effect the point about racism though since Aristotle predates merchantilism

@SallyStrange @MisuseCase @CorvidCrone @AdrianRiskin No. my premise is that if X is older than Y, Y is not the cause of X. Racism is linked to capitalism but it won’t go away if you remove capitalism. It will find another outlet.

@MisuseCase @SallyStrange @CorvidCrone @AdrianRiskin They have tried that in China, Russia, various South American countries and parts of Africa. It doesn’t work out very well.

@thomasfuchs Its examples are dated but they were well considered for the time. I have long thought it needs an update to accommodate how the sociology of programming has changed. I am sure that you will like it.

@thomasfuchs oh AI researchers have always over promised but under delivered, starting with Herbert Simon’s 1956 claim that human translation would be eliminated in 10 years. Surprisingly few books have addressed this. But Weinberg was concerned with something far more fundamental: the failure to treat programming as a psychological activity. That failure continues to this day.

@thomasfuchs That part of “The Psychology of Computing Programming” might be read that way now but it’s not what Weinberg was talking about in context. He was referring to the emergence of software methodologies that didn’t take into account psychology.

@cstross nuclear is only carbon neutral if you ignore mining and refining. Oh and construction and fuel transport.

@photos_floues @cstross you might want to look into the carbon consumption of mining. Also note that there are only finite quantities of nuclear materials so sustainable doesn’t apply. Nuclear is also a huge source of waste heat. It is only somewhat better than fossil fuels once you account for all of the downsides.

@w3c could we not minimize the contribution of at least a dozen people involved in inventing the original ARPAnet? Cerf did major work but so did Jon Postel and others. No single person invented the internet.

@pfefferle the thing that would make it more attractive to me is probably out of scope for you: I host my blog at Dreamhost and their tools mean that your plugin won’t work out of the box there. I don’t have the bandwidth to debug this so I don’t use the plugin.

@tchambers @fediversenews No. It doesn’t feel now like it did in 1983. We built the internet more or less in a vacuum with a relatively small number of people from very similar backgrounds with very similar goals. This is happening in the context of millions of internet users with prior experience and expectations.

@goatsarah @elithebearded @yacc143 @robcornelius There are active and passive assistance systems. Passive systems like backup cameras and blind spot warning are safer than no assistance. I don’t know specifics of active systems but they seem to vary widely in quality. But certainly they can all cause problems especially lane following and automatic emergency brakes. I have had a Subaru attempt to counter my steering on ice and nearly crashed as a result. Traction control makes me cringe.

@yacc143 @goatsarah @robcornelius There are roughly 70 companies researching driving automation here in the Bay Area that provide data to the state. Safety of these vehicles peaked around 3 years ago with the best performing cars having 5 times as many accidents per mile as the average driver. They appear to have reached the asymptote of the improvement curve.