Links, November 8, 2024
Malleable Systems Collective
A manifesto, of sorts, for a vision of software that I can get on board with:
Modern computing is far too rigid. Applications can only function in preset ways determined by some far away team. Software is trapped in hermetically sealed silos and is rewritten many times over rather than recomposed.
Plan B it is
In which case, the idea was to investigate ways of building software that would tolerate systemic chaos, failing institutions, and hostile environments:
- Working in an industry whose governance and institutions are at a constant risk of failing.
- Local-first web dev, even if it requires more front-end JS.
- Investigations into peer-to-peer, distributed, and federated approaches.
- Making software that tolerates large-scale failure.
Yes, you can live without Big Tech
The Opt Out project has a bunch of great resources for those looking to become more independent in their computing.
How to turn on Advanced Data Protection for iCloud
If, like me, you’re an Apple user and are going to have a hard time getting off their cloud services or messenger entirely, this is the next best thing.
Bluesky and enshittification
Maybe you tell yourself, “If I do this, I’ll live to fight another day. I can only make the service better for its users if the service still exists.” Of course you tell yourself that.
As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of Doctorow’s bombastic style, but I’m going to start reading him more frequently.
The End of Independent Publishing And Giant Freakin Robot
Google’s engineers were adamant that there is no problem with our website or our content. In fact, some of the geeky Googlers there regularly read our articles and seem to genuinely like us. However, my take away was that we don’t fit in with the search monopoly’s new business model, and so we won’t be shown to anyone.
I don’t expect this to get better any time soon.
Is there a crisis of seriousness?
This is the flip side of our culture of artificiality. Anything that threatens the dominant fakeness with reality stirs up an intense backlash. The dreamer does not want to awaken from the dream.
So are you surprised that everything in culture has a feeling of unreality right now? It’s like cotton candy that shrinks to nothing as soon as you put it in your mouth, just leaving a brief sickly sweet taste.
We can’t afford to be climate doomers
If you announce that the outcome has already been decided and we’ve already lost, you strip away the motivation to participate – and of course if we do nothing we settle for the worst outcome. It often seems that people are searching harder for evidence we’re defeated than that we can win.
There’s No Welcome Guidle to the World of Chronic Illness - But There Should Be
Chronic illnesses are poorly understood. Western medicine is designed to treat acute medical problems. We are excellent at solving sudden emergencies like broken bones, car accidents or appendicitis - but we are terrible at managing chronic conditions.
My aunt passed away in August, 28 years after her diagnosis for Sceloderma, for which she was given an 8-10 year prognosis. Despite this, she was an incredbily grateful person who took each day as a gift. As a part of honoring her memory, I’ve taken it on myself to better understand how these types of illnesses affect people’s lives.
I’ve had a change of heart regarding employee metrics
Those tools I wrote 20 years ago didn’t really indicate who was slacking at working tickets or whatever. What they actually indicated was that the management at Rackspace, by and large, had no clue what was going on right under their noses. And, hey, while that was true, that can be a dangerous thing to say! You want enemies? That’s a great way to get them.