wakingrufus @wakingrufus@mastodon.technology

It's disappointing to see Mozilla pushing a proprietary micropayment/subscription product rather than spearheading FOSS ones https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21192048/firefox-better-web-scroll-subscription-ad-tracker-blocker-publisher-payment

Facebook/Instagram will reduce video quality in Europe to take some load off the internet, too (Netflix and youtube already have)

How about everyone shutting down Advertisments and tracking, wouldn't that help, too? :D

i'm now basically of the opinion that Java is fine and Kotlin is pretty cool

Let's build less backends and more stuff that works on our machines

Sure, we want data to be synced between multiple devices; let's use decentralized technologies for that

Before anyone sinks into warm feelings about JSTOR allowing free access for a period of time, remember they played a part in the events that lead up to the extreme legal harassment which drove Aaron Schwartz to suicide.

What was he accused of? Trying to make JSTOR articles available for free.

Don't know him? If you've used Reddit, Markdown, Creative Commons license, RSS, or podcasts (RSS backend) you've used something Aaron helped create.

When people tell stories about widely used open source projects going quiet when its developers are no longer being funded to work on the project, it's very, very, true.

I still have funding which allows me to keep some lights on at SVN. But most of the other devs don't, and the camel's back will break at some point.

Yes, SVN is still heavily relied upon. Ask developers working in industry, finance, and manufacturing.

Where is this bullshit late 90s open source "revolution" when you need it?

You are here.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2020/03/11/you-are-here/

I don't know what's wrong with the tech industry but they made "compiling a webpage" a thing and I just don't know if we should give important decisions to people who make choices like that.

I realize that the more I program in #Kotlin, the more I like functional-style. I almost have hives now, the rare times I have to reassign a variable. I think I'm ready for #Haskell 🤔.

#programming #MyLifeAsADev

So I was recently asked why I prefer to use free and open source software over more conventional and popular proprietary software and services.

A few years ago I was an avid Google user. I was deeply embedded in the Google ecosystem and used their products everywhere. I used Gmail for email, Google Calendar and Contacts for PIM, YouTube for entertainment, Google Newsstand for news, Android for mobile, and Chrome as my web browser.

I would upload all of my family photos to Google Photos and all of my personal documents to Google Drive (which were all in Google Docs format). I used Google Domains to register my domain names for websites where I would keep track of my users using Google Analytics and monetize them using Google AdSense.

I used Google Hangouts (one of Google’s previous messaging plays) to communicate with friends and family and Google Wallet (with debit card) to buy things online and in-store.

My home is covered with Google Homes (1 in my office, 1 in my bedroom, 1 in the main living area) which I would use to play music on my Google Play Music subscription and podcasts from Google Podcasts.

I have easily invested thousands of dollars into my Google account to buy movies, TV shows, apps, and Google hardware devices. This was truly the Google life.

Then one day, I received an email from Google that changed everything.

“Your account has been suspended”

Just the thing you want to wake up to in the morning. An email from Google saying that your account has been suspended due to a perceived Terms of Use violation. No prior warning. No appeals process. No number to call. Trying to sign in to your Google account yields an error and all of your connected devices are signed out. All of your Google data, your photos, emails, contacts, calendars, purchased movies and TV shows. All gone.

I nearly had a heart attack, until I saw that the Google account that had been suspended was in fact not my main personal Google account, but a throwaway Gmail account that I created years prior for a project. I hadn’t touched the other account since creation and forgot it existed. Apparently my personal Gmail was listed as the recovery address for the throwaway account and that’s why I received the termination email.

Although I was able to breathe a sigh of relief this time, the email was wake up call. I was forced to critically reevaluate my dependence on a single company for all the tech products and services in my life.

I found myself to be a frog in a heating pot of water and I made the decision that I was going to jump out.

Leaving Google

Today there are plenty of lists on the internet providing alternatives to Google services such as this and this. Although the “DeGoogle” movement was still in its infancy when I was making the move.

The first Google service I decided to drop was Gmail, the heart of my online identity. I migrated to Fastmail with my own domain in case I needed to move again (hint: glad I did, now I self host my email). Fastmail also provided calendar and contacts solutions so that took care of leaving Google Calendar and Contacts.

Here are some other alternatives that I moved to:

Gmail → Fastmail → Self-hosted (via Cloudron)
Google Contacts → Fastmail → Nextcloud Contacts
Google Calendar → Fastmail → Nextcloud Calendar
Google Search → Bing → DuckDuckGo
Google Maps → Bing Maps → OpenStreetMaps and OsmAnd
Google Analytics → Matomo Analytics
Google Drive → Nextcloud Files
Google Photos → Nextcloud Files/Gallery
Google Docs → Collabora Office (Nextcloud integration) and LibreOffice
Google Play Music → Spotify / Plex → Spotify / Jellyfin
Google Play Movies/TV → Plex → Jellyfin
Google Play Audiobooks/Books → Audible/Kindle
Google Play Store (apps) → F-Droid / Aurora Store
Google Android → Lineage OS → Ubuntu Touch on PinePhone (coming soon?)
Google’s Android Apps → Simple Mobile Tools
Google Chrome → Mozilla Firefox
Google Domains → Hover
Google Hangouts → Matrix and Nextcloud Talk
Google Allo → Signal
Google Podcasts → PocketCasts → AntennaPod
Google Newsstand → RSS
Google Wallet → PayPal and Cash App
Google Voice →Ting Mobile

Migrating away from Google was not a fast or easy process. It took years to get where I am now and there are still several Google services that I depend on: YouTube and Google Home.

Eventually, my Google Home’s will grow old and become unsupported at which point hopefully the Mycroft devices have matured and become available for purchase. YouTube may never be replaced (although I do hope for projects like PeerTube to succeed) but I find the compromise of using only one or two Google services to be acceptable.

At this point losing my Google account due to a mistake in their machine learning would largely be inconsequential and my focus has shifted to leaving Amazon which I use for most of my shopping and cloud services.

The reason that I moved to mostly FOSS applications is that it seems to be the only software ecosystem where everything works seamlessly together and I don’t have to cede control to any single company. Alternatively I could have simply split my service usage up evenly across Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple but I don’t feel that they would have worked as nicely together.

Overall I’m very happy with the open source ecosystem. I use Ubuntu with KDE on all of my computers and Android (no GApps) on my mobile phone. I’ve ordered the PinePhone “Brave Heart” and hope to one day be able to use it or one of its successors as a daily driver with Ubuntu Touch or Plasma Mobile.

I don’t want to give the impression that I exclusively use open source software either, I do use a number of proprietary apps including: Sublime Text, Typora, and Cloudron.

https://www.kylepiira.com/2020/01/09/why-i-quit-google/

Yes, of course I want a rotary cell phone.

The power switch is an actual slide switch. No holding down a stupid button to make it turn off and not being sure it really is turning off or what. http://justine-haupt.com/rotarycellphone/

So... I've managed to develop a deep disdain for LinkedIn, to the point where I won't even use it any more. If someone uses it to contact me, I'll work out their email and contact them directly instead of via the platform. Soulless blech.

Someone is trying to build a #language learning app like #duolingo, but it's free software. Maybe you want to help out?: https://github.com/kantord/LibreLingo https://librelingo.app/ #librelingo

Oh help ahahaha not only the birdsite wants to rip off the fediverse terminology. Turns out there's a new Thiel-funded startup doing that, too: Column. This pitch deck is wild.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.technologyreview.com/p/pub/docs/COLUMN.pdf

tried using codecov.io for my #kotlin tests but after two days of being unable to get a valid report.xml to parse and their cust serv telling me to get bent, i decided to strike out on my own. in just a few hours i replaced codecov with a custom gradle task writing to a gist which is read by a runkit script to produce a badge. also learned a ton about the gradle build system
gh -> https://github.com/ssoper/Zebec/compare/57cf51b..f4862d4
runkit -> https://runkit.com/ssoper/5e22183145a0a7001a9e8ebd

Mozilla just laid off 70 fantastic people. If you can help them - open positions, offering helpful conversations and references, anything else - please say so.

Use #MozillaLifeboat as an umbrella tag for easy finding. (It's already flowing on the birdsite.)

If you've been affected, I'm happy to chat directly. Also have some open positions (see rest of this thread). But doesn't have to be today - take time to recover if you can.

Most of all: thank you folks for making the web better.

This is your monthly message to remind you to check your apps and what permissions they have. Especially if you gave permission to microphone and location and you noticed your battery gets drained quickly

no, you fuckers, i am not downloading your app just because i am looking on my phone. i have a whole-ass web browser

introducing zebec, a static site compiler. 100% #kotlin. also my first time building a jar and publishing a maven package https://github.com/ssoper/Zebec