aral

aral, 9 months ago to technology

If the thing you’re making wouldn’t exist if people had to opt in instead of having to opt out, maybe the thing you’re making shouldn’t exist.

#technology #humanRights #consent #respect

aral, 8 months ago to random

The fuck kind of headline is that, The Independent?

“OLD Biden has told Zelensky US will give Ukraine long-coveted ATACMS long-range missiles, report says”

https://www.inkl.com/a/WMRGyqcygzy

aral, 1 year ago to internet

Was just asked by a friend if I wanted a #BlueSky invite.

My reply?

“Thanks but no thanks.”

Why?

Because I don’t need to see the app. I know the people behind it and what they stand for. The app can only ever be a manifestation of (or an initial misdirection from) that.

Expecting the wolf that took a bite out of you last time to this time act in your interests is how you end up as its dinner.

#BlueSky #JackDorsey #billionaires #SiliconValley #decentralisation #lipService #crypto #bullshit

aral, 1 year ago to random

A billionaire does things for many reasons. None of those are in your interests unless you also happen to be a billionaire.

The sooner you learn this, the sooner we can start doing something about it.

aral, 3 months ago to fediverse

#FediBlock snarfed.org and brid.gy for bridging fediverse folks to Bluesky against their will (and in likely contravention of GDPR in the EU) with typical Silicon Valley techbro sense of entitlement:

“[O]pt in results in far fewer users, and users are critical for a bridge to be useful.”¹

Relevant GitHub issue: https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/835

¹ https://snarfed.org/2023-11-27_re-introducing-bridgy-fed

HT @homegrown

#bridgy #snarfed #fediverse #mastodon #bluesky #bridging #optOut #optIn #consent #gdpr #eu #SiliconValley #techbros

aral, 7 months ago to mastodon

Can we please have a setting in the administrator panel to set the character limit for a Mastodon instance?

The current lack of such a setting does nothing apart from create a two-tier fediverse where folks who have the time to maintain their own Mastodon fork and folks who use other ActivityPub servers can write as much as they like whereas everyone else is limited to 500 characters. We’re not kids; make the option accessible and let instance owners decide for themselves.

#mastodon

aral, 2 months ago to mastodon

I’m seeing a lot of people badmouthing Facebook/Meta and saying we shouldn’t federate with Threads.

Mastodon.social is owned by Mastodon gGmbH and run by the author of Mastodon. Mastodon.social federates with Threads. If Facebook/Meta were toxic, do you think they would? Of course, not.

Facebook/Meta has Mastodon’s author’s (& the original Mastodon server’s) seal of approval. So you should all shush because clearly you’re mistaken.

https://www.platformer.news/mastodon-interview-eugen-rochko-meta-bluesky-threads-federation/

#mastodon #meta #facebook #threads

aral, 11 months ago to norge

Folks, apparently a Norwegian instance (snabelen.no) won’t be “associating with” me because of my position on not welcoming Meta and surveillance capitalists to the fediverse (https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/110621068046632124)

Please feel free to consider whether you want to associate with them accordingly:

https://mastodon.ar.al/@cbt@snabelen.no/110621662756744170

#NorskTut #allheimen #Norge #noreg #surveillanceCapitalism #bootlickers #fediverse #mastodon #meta

aral, 9 months ago to random

Mozilla is a for-profit not-for-profit. And that’s all you need to know to explain everything that doesn’t seem to make sense about the chasm between what they say and what they do.

#mozilla #hypocritical #bullshit

aral, 8 months ago to random

Enshittification isn’t things that were not shit becoming shit; they were always shit, you just didn’t feel it.

Surveillance capitalism isn’t some horrible corruption of capitalism, it’s just capitalism in the age of the ubiquitous digital network.

The problem isn’t things that were good becoming bad. The problem is things that have always been bad finally negatively affecting even those with bucketloads of privilege who are now attempting to explain away why they were ok with it all before.

aral, 11 months ago to random

Here’s an idea: let’s build a system where we all suffer the consequences of a handful of jerks fucking everything up to enrich themselves.

aral, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to climate

These fuckers are content to watch us die.

This bullshit is going to condemn our species to extinction unless we find a way to depose these sociopaths.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/03/back-into-caves-cop28-president-dismisses-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels

#cop28 #copOut #ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange

aral, 1 year ago to random

A timely reminder that “punishable by fine” means “legal for the rich.”

aral, 1 month ago to Germany

German police prevent Irish people from speaking and singing in Irish in Germany.

But hey, at least we still have the Single Market™, amirite?

EU, you’re doing amazing, sweetie!

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/berlin-police-ban-irish-protesters-from-speaking-or-singing-in-irish-at-pro-palestine-ciorcal-comhra-near-reichstag/a234500393.html

#germany #eu #ireland #democracy #irish #israel #palestine #gaza #apartheid #ethnicCleansing #genocide #iDidNaziThatOneComing

aral, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to random

There’s No Such Thing As a Smart Fascist

“The ideology itself is about as clever and complex as a rock to the face … Fascists, and their larval form, conservatives, simply do not give one single lonely fuck for rules or conventions or the system in which they flourish.”

https://catvalente.substack.com/p/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-smart-fascist

1. Read this blisteringly powerful article.
2. Shout it from the rooftops.
3. Follow @catvalente and support her work.

Should be required reading in schools.

Please boost.

#fascism

aral, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to threads

There goes the neighbourhood.

#threads #meta #facebook #fediverse #mastodon #surveillance #capitalism #PeopleFarming

aral, 9 months ago to firefox

If you’re switching to #Firefox, remember Firefox is not private by default. Consider the #LibreWolf fork, which is. Otherwise, go into your settings and adjust its tracking features (like having #Google as the default search engine), turn off telemetry, “experiments”, etc.

(Also, if you all switch and Google goes bankrupt, #Mozilla will go bankrupt too because they exist thanks to half a billion dollars a year from Google. So remember Google must survive for Mozilla to survive.)

#chrome

aral, 10 months ago to random

So how’s infinite growth with finite resources workin’ out for y’all?

#capitalism #growth

aral, 7 months ago to random

Israel-Hamas war: Israeli military orders 1.1 million in Gaza to evacuate south ‘ahead of operation’

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/10/13/israel-hamas-war-latest/

This is prelude to genocide. Gaza is an open air prison with 2 million people, nearly half of which are children. The places being told to evacuate include hospitals. There is nowhere to go.

You cannot condemn the barbarism of one group while cheering on that of another.

aral, 7 months ago to Israel

Israel-Hamas war leaves thousands of Palestinians in Gaza facing ‘death by starvation,’ aid group warns.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestinians-face-death-by-starvation-aid-group-says/

#israel #palestine #gaza #genocide #ethnicCleaning #crimesAgainstHumanity

aral, 4 months ago to random

Folks promoting Bluesky on the fediverse is like the three little pigs doing public relations for the big bad wolf.

But, hey, clearly some folks still haven’t gotten the message that VC and billionaires are bad and that non-corporate spaces have to be protected from corporate ones.

I guess something has to keep the folks who write “what went wrong/if only we’d known” articles in business.

🤷‍♂️

aral, 1 year ago to fediverse

Hmm, I would have thought a post starting with @mention would not be visible on the main timeline but only under posts and replies but apparently not.

I guess it’s “full attention of everyone following you” or “direct message.” Would be nice to have “public but I’m not shouting it to all my followers” as the default for @mentions.

#mastodon

aral, 9 months ago to random

Oh ffs, why do I even look into these things? I think I’m being harsh and then it’s always worse than I thought:

FairPhone has taken venture capital.

https://www.fairphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Crowd-Notification.pdf

They’ve been invested in by, among others, Invest-NL (currently three exits, all IPOs¹) and Quadia (also three exits, all acquisitions²).

I would just like it if for once – fucking once – it wasn’t just about making money.

sigh

¹ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/invest-nl/recent_investments
² https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/quadia/recent_investments

#VentureCapital #VC #FairPhone

aral, 11 months ago to fediverse

“Some of your posts have been reported by a user and I resolved it so far.

In the future. Please make sure not to insult others and be rude.”

Here’s my suggestion to the moderators of mstdn.social: Stop tone policing people on other instances. I’m not on your instance and I’ll speak my mind as I like on my own one. If anyone has a problem with that, they can block me. It’s not your job to tone police the fediverse even if you are a mega instance.

#fediverse #mastodon #moderation #tonePolicing

aral, 1 year ago to random

“According to a recent poll, more than 70 percent of Britons under the age of 50 are indifferent to the coronation. Even so, a staggering 250 million pounds ($315m) of magicked-up taxpayer money will be spent on this single day even as thousands of nurses, doctors, teachers and other key public workers have been told for months there is no money in the coffers to offer them a meaningful pay rise.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/5/5/with-charles-iii-coronation-colonialism-is-coming-home-to-roost

#monarchy #uk #inequality #letThemEatCake