@aral@mastodon.ar.al
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

aral

@aral@mastodon.ar.al

I make small things.

My posts are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

đŸ‰đŸŒ» đŸłïžâ€đŸŒˆ đŸłïžâ€âš§ïž

#SmallWeb #SmallTech #web #tech #privacy #humanRights #personhood #democracy #aral #fedi22 #searchable

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flying_witch, to random
@flying_witch@kafeneio.social avatar
aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Al-Aqsa Massacre 1990
Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 1994
Jenin Refugee Camp April 2002
Gaza Massacre 2008-09
) Gaza Massacre 2012
Gaza Massacre 2014
Gaza Massacre 2018-19
) Gaza Massacre 2021
Gaza Genocide 2023 still ongoing (2/2)

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Hello, I am a new startup!

I’m funded by venture capital and free to use.

Please come and make me valuable by using me. Make my numbers go up!

Once you do, I’ll have everything I need and I can do whatever I want with the time and effort you’ve put into making me successful.

Not happy? Fuck you, I don’t need you anymore (network effects FTW, amirite?)
 I’m laughing all the way to the bank.

Goodbye!




Hello, I am a new startup


When are we going to learn to say “no” at the start?

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

A startup cannot enshittify if you don’t allow it to start up.

Once it starts up, gains traction, and the network effects kick in, you lose the power to do anything about it.

The only time you can kill a venture-capital funded startup is at the very beginning.

The way you kill a startup is by not using its free services at the start.

The correct answer to a venture-capital funded startup is always “no, thank you!”

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

If you want to understand how startups and venture capital work, go to 26:24 on the recording of my talk “Excuse Me, Your Unicorn Keeps Shitting In My Back Yard, Can He Please Not?” from 2016:

https://ar.al/talks/#excuse-me-your-unicorn-keeps-shitting-in-my-back-yard-can-he-please-not

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@imsnif Having made and maintained a tracker blocker for quite a few years, it’s a losing game.

The surveillance capitalists control the browsers. You can only be as effective in policing them as they allow you to be (see what’s happening with Chrome, etc.)

And it doesn’t even have to be free for this to apply. Venture-capital-funded is the core issue. Because with VC you’ve already sold your company,you’re just waiting for the sale to mature (the exit) – which it will do if you’re successful.

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@imsnif It’s not just the ads; it’s the tracking. Sure the ads are the visible symptom. Many ad blockers (e.g., adblock plus) are actually part of the advertising industry and they unblock folks like Google for money (that’s their business model – see “acceptable ads”). And they usually don’t block trackers, opting for a cosmetic approach. (Assuming you use uBlock Origin, which is good.)

These folks don’t limit themselves to tracking you on the web either. They buy data from brokers, etc.

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@Walrus @imsnif You’re up against trillion-dollar budgets. The best approaches, in my opinion are:

  1. Regulate them (hard, because institutional corruption – revolving doors, lobbying, etc.)

  2. Create – decentralised, free and open, etc. – alternatives (see Small Tech: https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology and Small Web: https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/)

aral, (edited )
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@petpet Thanks. And yes, it’s clear that nothing is going to change unless we make viable alternatives and people start using them. Not easy to do with zero funding but some of us are trying. Statistically speaking, though, we don’t exist.

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@db0 I hear you.

This is why must fund things for the common good from the commons. But we’re not. Not really. Not as we should be. (We’re in the same boat with Small Technology Foundation as we build the Small Web with zero EU funding.)

This is what I told the EU parliament a few years ago. It hasn’t made a difference as far as I can tell:

https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/

PS. Thank you for your kind words about the talk :)

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@petpet Indeed.

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@petpet Yep. Institutional corruption – lobbying and revolving doors – make it nigh on impossible to regulate effectively. That, and the EU Commission’s “single market ĂŒber alles” framing.

I had a go at them a few years ago but it was just a drop in the bucket: https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/

michelle, to random
@michelle@front-end.social avatar

Wrote a thing: https://humanewebmanifesto.com/

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@michelle Nice :)

Some additional resources:

‱ Small Technology: https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology
‱ Small Web: https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/

💕

lapcatsoftware, to random
@lapcatsoftware@mastodon.social avatar

Holy shit, I think Apple has fucked up the payments on the upgrade bundles?!? I’m actually LOSING MONEY on them now, because Apple is subtracting the full price of StopTheMadness but only adding the difference with the bundle price.

Apple wasn’t doing that on my statements from 2 months ago.

This discrepancy is costing me thousands of dollars per month! It’s insane.

https://mastodon.social/@lapcatsoftware/112414247200497613

aral,
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

@lapcatsoftware @baldur Poor Tim Apple needs another yacht.

clive, to random
@clive@saturation.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @xerge @clive They all fly private.

    aral, to SmallWeb
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    Lots to do yet but the new KittenÂč settings section (that’s common to all Kitten apps / Small Web places) is coming along nicely. (With the general style/layout borrowed from DomainÂČ.)

    (It’s currently a single page and I’m breaking it up into multiple ones because it’s time.)

    Once I’m done with this I should really record a screencast of Kitten’s new backup and restore feature/data portability.

    Âč https://codeberg.org/kitten/app
    ÂČ https://codeberg.org/domain/app

    delta, to random
    @delta@chaos.social avatar

    Delta Chat is an in-between project: often ignored as a messenger by e-mail companies/experts and then ignored by messenger companies/experts because of its use and interoperability with e-mail. As Heinz von Foerster once said: "If you are doing something genuinely new then don't ask the experts. If you do something that has already been done, then, by all means, ask the experts." FWIW many experts have verified Delta Chat's security mechanics https://delta.chat/en/help#security-audits :)

    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @delta Oh, I know this feeling all too well :)

    💕

    aral, to random
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    Capitalism is an economic theory that posits that a relative handful of greedy fucks gorging themselves is how we provide adequate nutrition to the population at large.

    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @Tak “Trickle down”

    aral, to LGBTQ
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    Not sure I put them on as elegantly as possible but I do love my new rainbow laces :)

    (If you’re in Ireland you can get your own pair at SuperValu. All proceeds go to Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland.)

    đŸłïžâ€đŸŒˆ đŸłïžâ€âš§ïž

    thomasfuchs, to random
    @thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io avatar

    “In a year from now, AI will be sentient”

    Yeah no

    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @thomasfuchs @dan613 Three lakes were drained for this answer.

    aral, to random
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    Dear @EU_Commission,

    Wild idea: how about you don’t poison us for profit?

    “The European Commission is planning to allow for wide-ranging exemptions from a proposed ban on substances known as PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals’, to protect key industries, German newspaper Welt reported on Wednesday.”

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-commission-eyeing-exemptions-forever-chemicals-ban-welt-reports-2024-05-08/

    aral, to Israel
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    That feeling when even a certified asshat like Piers Morgan has apparently had enough of Israel’s bullshit.

    https://indymotion.fr/w/3hA1adbgj3T7RcAfvfBvZn

    Via @vincib

    aral, to random
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    I don’t know what’s worse, that a worm ate part of R.F.K. Jr.’s brain or that it died after eating it.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html

    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @freediverx Sadly, yes.

    paninid, to random
    @paninid@mastodon.world avatar

    The precede the .
    https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/112399989793545485

    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @dgavin @paninid @gerrymcgovern How about we fix leaky pipes AND stop wasting water on AI? We can do two things at once. One doesn’t stop the other also being a problem.

    aral,
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    @dgavin @paninid @gerrymcgovern That’s the thing, though, it’s not crumbs, it’s significant: https://theconversation.com/ais-excessive-water-consumption-threatens-to-drown-out-its-environmental-contributions-225854

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