Notices by Matthew Lyon (mattly@hachyderm.io)

@emmettoconnell thanks for sharing this stuff, our kid turns 9 in a handful of weeks and the number one thing they want is a smartphone

we both think it’s too early for that, but the threshold is probably approaching faster than we’re really comfortable with

our kid uses video games to help with self-regulation, but tv or ipad time has been somewhat contentious, we’ve definitely got a fine line to walk

@alisynthesis I’ve been meaning to write something up about doing light/dark mode in pure css, and an approach to color for those; maybe I should tackle that soon

@alisynthesis I dig the purples, I’m into them myself (at least for dark mode)

My partner really helps me tame my baser impulses

a summary of yesterday's thread about a file syncing program that happens to be p2p:

me: why is <program> doing <thing>?
whole lotta nerds: because it needs to for <some weird thing I don't want>
me: ok cool I'm gonna use something else, I don't want that, and by the way <program> could be more upfront about <some weird thing I don't want>
whole lotta nerds: YOU'RE WRONG YOU SHOULD WANT IT! EVERYONE SHOULD WANT IT! WE KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU <proceeds to nerdsplaining>

@puppygirlhornypost2 @dch me: why is it doing <thing>
nerds: well because <technobabble>
me: ok I don't want that I'll find something else
nerds: but you should want it, we know what's best for you

(apologies @dch this isn't directed at *you* but rather more a sentimental response to the mass of ire this thread has directed my way)

@janl it's cool don't worry, the thread got a lot of attention before you boosted it

I have a knack for noticing and getting caremad about things most people wouldn't even *notice*, that somehow triggers a certain type of contrarian computer toucher

this has led to standoffs and burnout in my professional work. I've tried simply *not caring* but that's fundamentally at odds with who I am

@anthropy yes I understand that now. Their homepage is not forthright about this

@bodil @janl I will even argue that this sentence:

Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it’s transmitted over the internet.

suggests that the relay behavior should be OFF by default. It is not letting me choose whether to share my data (encrypted, sure, but still sharing) with some third party, it just assumes I want to do that

@bodil @janl show me where on this page is says syncthing is a p2p program

you have to read between the lines

if you're telling me that I should be doing more research about the programs I'm using, well, that's fair, but I also expect those programs to be more forthright about their behavior

@janl I'm considering deleting it, and that's actually making me considering leaving this place. Instead, as part of being more comfortable with a public presence outside of my circles and how to deal with randos, I'm starting to learn that using the blockhammer is a tool for sanity

what I've learned from this thread is that there is a class of people who are both very into FOSS and very against the idea of controlled networks – it's all encrypted who cares! – but I personally will never get that, especially since, well, encryption is hard, and who knows what other side channels are left open by virtue of just dealing with rando network traffic

@duncanbeevers perhaps, but even so I don’t think they’re very up front about the design choice or those trade offs. Nothing from the sun thing homepage indicates to me it’s a p2p program, and if it had I would have known immediately it wasn’t what I wanted

@rm it’s not advertised as that, it’s advertised as a file sync program. I see nothing on Syncthing’s homepage indicating it’s P2P. My use case doesn’t require that, and the architecture actually works against my use case

@janl @janvhs oh thanks I’m using the web client and it’s default is to over type other parties

@rm if it looks like malware and talks like malware…

@janl yes it’s Little Snitch

If you want to save the money, BlockBlock by Patrick Wardle https://objective-see.org does the same thing with an uglier UI and it’s free; I support his Patreon anyway because he’s got so many great little utilities

This app could have been a website

@puppygirlhornypost2 don’t get me started on username colors

@pathunstrom I'm paraphrasing of course, but this is just reinforcing my belief that "the product role is that of abitrating the values of the project"

and if your values are "we just want something cool to hack on", well, congrats

the general consensus seems to be: Phones aren't reliably connected, therefore phones can't be truly peer-to-peer devices, therefore you shouldn't try to sync files with phones

I really need to get around to writing my "an interface is an ideology" essay