@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

jrm4

@jrm4@mastodon.social

John R. Marks, IV, Technically an attorney; practically I teach IT at FSU for a living.
I run a nonprofit that teaches stem; for a while my company Vivergent managed the official website for the Black News Channel, RIP.

Huge FOSS/Linux/Free Software guy as well. Harvard undergrad, Columbia law.

Also I like the old school rappity rap.

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jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

Touchy, difficult but important conversation going on over at twitter right now re: the (IMHO most often dangerously false) presumption of homophobia in straight black male spaces, namely "the barbershop."

I can't exactly put my finger on why -- but I literally can't imagine that conversation happening at all here on Mastodon

thor, to random
@thor@berserker.town avatar

"how could you work as an employee on the Death Star? what is wrong with you?"

"look, i needed the money, and sent my resume to various companies."

"the Death Star though. didn't this clue you in?"

"i sent in 150 applications and they called me in for an interview."

"but you're working for evil!"

"i am working to pay rent. the guy in the mask is nuts. i know. but it pays the rent. and no one says i have to do a good job of it. i play stupid. if the hero walks in, i pretend to not notice him. if they ask to shoot to kill, i do a lousy job of it."

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@thor

I love this canonical idea, in pretty much the same way that I love the idea that "impractical skimpy fantasy lady armor" comes from confirmation bias (e.g. like the "Where should you put the armor on airplanes" fallacy)

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

US Politics: My time here at Mastodon is making me increasingly grateful and appreciative for Democrats, esp the Black ones, and all the souls who are actually doing shit to try to make things better

and giving me reasons to generally gloss over most people using the word "fascist" to describe US politics -- it's not that the word is entirely inaccurate, but the people who use it seem to not have much useful to contribute to the conversation

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

More; it feels like "fascist" is literally a "call to inaction." It's such a huge scary thing to call someone.

There's only one REAL response to an ACTUAL fascist, and that requires equipment and action that VERY few of of y'all are going to actually get into or even think about. And right now that's fine -- I think calls for violence toward ANYONE are unnecessary and dangerous, and I hope that doesn't change.

Private
jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@janechen @academicchatter

Non-tenure line full time instructor here;

Often, the cause of "impostor syndome" is the fact that there REALLY IS an impostor afoot

it just aint YOU

majorlinux, to random
@majorlinux@toot.majorshouse.com avatar

If Threads is showing me people that they think I want to see, they have absolutely no fucking clue who I am.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@majorlinux

fuckin taylor swift ALL OVER MY SHIT

shoq, to random
@shoq@mastodon.social avatar

I still find it remarkable that so many still don't see how unreasonably fussy and limiting the "quoted posts" debate was—and remains. Do you see anyone complaining that I almost always include an image of what I'm quoting? Not a single complaint yet!.

A "boost" is nothing but a mystery-meat referral to something someone has to click to understand. Any librarian can attest that a citation without a description, recommendation, or annotation, will be a mostly unread artifact.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@shoq I remember seeing this debate elsewhere but not really following up.

Where/who lets you do this? I'll probably bounce

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

One of the Twitter competitors that black (black?) folks are talking about is called Spill.

It presently has no android version, which makes me 100% comfortable in saying Y'ALL ARE ABSOLUTELY ABOUT TO GET PLAYED. GET OUT.

jrm4, to mastodon
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

Hey folks, looks like we're getting another wave of people to .

Those looking for and :

Well meaning lefty types who pioneered this space still have a LOT to learn about actually being welcoming to black folks.

I genuinely wish us all the best, this is the best model and we should try to get everyone here.

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

If you're the sort that says "Biden could ___ with the stroke of a pen," I am now aware that you are not a serious person

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@jztusk

Nice. I gotta say, I'm still on Twitter (for now) and the most positive thing I've seen there (and here too) is that before, hardocre lefty "Everybody is terrible we need a revolution despite the fact that I won't ever actually touch a gun" used to go unchecked, and now there's a good bit of "Actually, Biden's solid, lets fight fights that actually matter"

cabel, to random
@cabel@panic.com avatar

This is your periodic reminder that, unless you buy and download the music you love, it will absolutely disappear out from under you at some point.

I failed to heed my own advice! This album is pretty obscure, sure, but now it's grayed out on Apple Music, and totally gone from the iTunes Store, so too late there. Bummer.

A screenshot of Music app saying "Something went wrong. Please try again later."

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@cabel

if you want to get technical, the "buy" here is unnecessary.

Whether or not its ethical is up to you

GrimmReality, to random
@GrimmReality@beige.party avatar

I just saw the mercs referred to as Wagnerians and the idea of a bunch of fash shitheads on either side shooting the fuck out of each other to "Ride of the Valkyries" seems pretty properly denouement-y for all this shit.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@GrimmReality

not da old minty, but...

oliphant, to random

People saying "you shouldn't block people in the spirit of democracy" is like.... do you fucking know me at all?

Like my position is literally the opposite of that. If you want to preserve democracy, you send the people who want to divide and conquer and punch down on marginalized groups out the fucking airlock.

They can return (maybe) when they've learned how to behave and that's no different from literally any other space you'd walk into in the real world.

Like come get your people, the door is closed here to shit like that.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@oliphant

Maybe this isn't for you?

It's software, it's your server, obviously it is technically true that you can run it how you want.

But I think your stance would be toxic to making a big space where everyone is; which I think is the best use of the Mastodon protocol.

What you may want, a smaller thing, can be done in other ways.

jrm4, to fediverse
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

Hey

Anyone getting set up with or Just curious as to how/where you're starting.

rasterweb, to random
@rasterweb@mastodon.social avatar

People who are like "The migration to Mastodon has failed!"

No it hasn't. I literally migrated to Mastodon from Twitter, and I don't use Twitter anymore, but I do use Mastodon every day.

I call that a successful migration.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@rasterweb It hasn't failed, but it hasn't succeeded.

As I've said elsewhere -- I do believe Mastodon achieving something like world domination is actually very important; more important than a few of you finding a happy place (which is fine, but doesn't require Mastodon)

The purpose of the protocol is to be huge; and if there's always going to be a huge thing, it should be on THIS model, not owned.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@rasterweb Weird question.

That's like asking if democracy is bad because voters can be influenced by corporations.

Yes, it's a danger -- but the literal point of the protocol is to attempt to prevent it. This is the battle Mastodon was designed to fight.

atomicpoet, to internet

Just bought the domain notmeta.social.

It will likely run as a server.

As the domain implies, it will not federate with .

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@atomicpoet @chris

I support this, strongly.

I've said this a bunch elsewhere, and others may disagree -- the best and highest purpose of the Mastodon protocol really is to make ONE BIG UNIVERSAL FEDERATED space (that isn't owned and doesn't suck), not to create a bunch of little deals, which can be done by other tools.

governa, to ChatGPT
@governa@fosstodon.org avatar

It appears that and Google give you free valid Pro keys. :thinkhappy:

It appears that ChatGPT and Google Bard give you free valid Windows10 Pro keys.
It appears that ChatGPT and Google Bard give you free valid Windows10 Pro keys.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@governa

sure, if i was an ai hellbent on destroying the world, I too would try to spread malware as quickly and efficiently as possible

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

I do sincerely hope the anti 3rd party energy I'm seeing among black folks re: the next Presidential election is real and keeps up.

I love and respect Cornel West forever, but I'm in no mood to seriously have to contend with pie-in-the-sky progressivism when the time comes.

jrm4, to linux
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

Shoutout to Linus Torvalds, @torvalds , creator of Linux and one of the best people in tech FOR NOT PLAYING WITH YALL, NOT TODAY

(also, this is why we need 'retweets' here)

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

again, why i'm not leaving twitter and how can we get folks here, thread

(tl:dr, commenting about liking Run The Jewels remix album better and El-P himself chimes in and I get to thank him)

https://twitter.com/jrm4/status/1665112059191631873

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

Watching the discourse on black voting get MORE INTELLIGENT since Elon took over is confirming why I think most everyone, ESPECIALLY here, misunderstands the best ways to do social media.

Conflict is good. Reacting to things is good. Reacting to things YOU HATE is good.

Trying to stamp out things you hate, probably not so much.

jrm4, to random
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

I think this is like white (IRONIC) blood cells reacting to damage, ... my Black issues related Twitter feed has improved immensely since Elon took over.

It's controversial and spicy as we react to the things

AS WE DO, AS IT SHOULD BE

davidnjoku, to random
@davidnjoku@mastodon.world avatar

A cousin I grew up with in Nigeria is visiting. He's a great guy, but chatting with him has reconfirmed my that there's no such thing as a "reasonable person". It's a kaleidescope that shifts depending on where you are.

I, a "reasonable" British man, believe in gay marriage and tolerance. And I think Elon is an arse.

My "reasonable" Nigerian cousin, disagrees on all of that.

And we both think our views are uncontroversial and common sense.

jrm4,
@jrm4@mastodon.social avatar

@KFuentesGeorge @davidnjoku

Every black person who has gone to law school has had their "what the fuck" moment on "reasonableness"

"Would a reasonable person walk down an alley in a dangerous neighborhood at night?"

Yes, because that's where my grandma lives you fucking noodle

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