Notices by Chris Gioran 💔 (chrisg@fosstodon.org), page 2

How can I _only just now_ notice that DBMS is an anagram for BDSM?

Also, why does it make so much sense?

Pro tip: If you can "legally justify" bombing a refugee camp, then the only conclusion is that your legal framework is inhuman and morally bankrupt.

@aral It could suck, wouldn't it?

How hard can it be to name it something else than ext7?

The year is 2030.

Computers boot directly into the browser. IDEs are just a web app now, running in the GPU. No one knows why. Or how.

All programs run in 4 nested containers on top of a hypervisor abstracting over the 5 major computational clouds. The last time a branch was predicted correctly, in any CPU anywhere, was 4 years ago.

Cloud costs are withdrawn directly from your retirement fund.

Ext7 just came out, it's written in Javascript and uses AI to guess what the file may contain.

I find it hilarious that the ToS update from #Zoom is assumed to be about training AI but it just as well could be about owning all of your stuff that goes through their service.

And there is no way to tell the difference.

Mocking Google for their totally-not-an-attempt-to-DRM-the-Web is the right thing to do.

Open issues on the proposal repo and let them know what you think.

Politely.

But, don't be fooled. Even if they take this back, it doesn't change how they think. This is their intention. They just failed to slip it by this time.

The answer is to take power away from Google. Stop using their stuff. Build alternatives. It's not easy, but it's the only way.

And mock them. That's always fun.

Techbros: Here's the detailed technical plans for a working Torment Nexus.

Everyone: Building a Torment Nexus is a horrible idea.

Techbros: Why won't people focus on the technical merits of the proposal.

@Chronotope

Yeah, ok, that's probably true. It's a small part of the whole story anyway, but it's fair to point out that it isn't necessarily nefarious.

@aral

A tangent from Google's DRM-the-entire-web-proposal.

The people who put their name on it and are currently genuinely defending it seem like accomplished professionals. They have shipped technically demanding software. They don't seem randos.

Just in case you needed further proof that a person's technical achievements say _nothing_ about them or their beliefs.

@oblomov

I am certain their worldview is that any non technical comment is noise, so it doesn't surprise me that 1) they say this and 2) they genuinely believe it.

@jherazob @aral

@aral Closed as completed? Looks like a won't fix to me.

@jherazob

Google: Here's a proposal to DRM the entire web.
Everyone: We don't want you to DRM the entire web.
Google: The proposal is not final so you cannot judge it as an attempt to DRM the entire web.

@aral

@aral It's a small thing, but it caught my attention that this is under the repo of an individual contributor, not an "official" google account.

Shameful? I think so.

We are not three bunnies in a trenchcoat.

I. I am not three bunnies in a trenchcoat. I want to make that clear.

@aral This hits incredibly close to home for me.

That's exactly why i quit my job. I want to build _something_ that gives people the opportunity to be creative without being beholden to an exploitative system rotten to the core.

I think it's possible. Perhaps i want to believe it's possible. But if its not, then it's still worth doing.

I am so fucking pumped to be in these conversations. ✊

@aral Huh, that's an excellent point.

I had never thought about it, but if I, in the position of privilege that i am, notice something as being systemically bad, then imagine how many other, less privileged people have been impacted by it, for who knows how long.

And, not the most important bit, but kind of telling that we claim the discovery of it for our own by making up words for it. We really should check first if the most affected by it already have a term for it.

@mike805

Absolutely. I am not under any illusion that people will jump on a standalone piece of software just because of the morals it supports.

But a free, decentralized, anti capitalist software movement requires a lot of effort and moving pieces. And if we don't put in the work, then it will definitely not happen.

So i want to try, even if the odds are massively against me. At least i am having fun while doing it 🙂

@aral @laura

@mike805
The problem i am identifying is not technical, but political. It's about what are the intentions behind the infrastructure we develop, and my position is that we need to encourage a new wave of free software built specifically against centralization.

So yeah, we have the tech today to build small sites. SQLite is an excellent example of that. What we need is a widespread, explicit movement against big tech.

Shout out to @aral and @laura who (AFAIK) spoke about this idea first.

[...] a massively decentralized Internet, consisting of a huge number of small communities, requires database management systems that are built from the ground up for the purpose.

The systems available today are built to support massive, centralized, owned datasets, at immense complexity and cost, with intentions that go against the principles of a free and open Internet.

#asmalldbms

@aral I want to believe. I really do. I can see that people increasingly see guillotines as the correct answer.

The only thing that keeps me from being optimistic is that too many people take the fascist route and side with the rich folks, wittingly or not. Look at Greece and the last election there.