Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

I've started to really enjoy writing tests for the code I'm working on. They are fun when you view them as a puzzle with a clear end, unlike most of software development. It used to be so hard to think of how to write them, with practice, it has gotten a lot easier.

Starting this week, I want to try something new in the #fdroid weekly meeting slot (Thursdays @ 11:30 UTC): I'll have "office hours" so anyone can come and ask any question, either via the regular chat channels, or realtime voice in https://meet.jit.si/fdroid

#Thanksgiving: "Celebrating the day Americans fed undocumented aliens from Europe"

And yet another disappointing but unsurprising pick by #Biden, wasn't he supposed to be better on #ClimateChange?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/19/senior-biden-adviser-set-for-key-role-has-ties-to-oil-and-gas-climate-activists-warn

Or in other words: https://politics.theonion.com/jubilant-reaction-to-trump-defeat-quickly-soured-by-new-1845551327 #Biden #Trump

Now that#Biden has won, it is important to remember what he has done. He called for war with Iraq starting in the 90s:
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-iraq-war-history/

As VP, he helped #Maliki's party stay in power even when his party lost the election. Maliki then went on to persecute the "multi-sectarian and moderate" Al-Iraqiya party which had won 51%. Many point to this as a key event that helps ISIS flourish. He did with executive power. He's now the chief executive.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/524551-a-biden-victory-would-be-a-loss-for-iraq

#Technology gives us #power, that is the key reason why we seek and use new technology. What is rarely discussed is how the uneven spread of this new power will affect society. When good people get it first, it can trigger huge improvements. When bad people get it first, they use this power for personal gain at the expense of everyone else.

#CriticalMass #Vienna #Praterstern

#NPR your "Data Protection Choices" screen is really disingenuous. The "Decline" button does not take you to the article even!

"Adtech's bogeymen are tracking everything - even your web visits to mental health charities, claim campaigners... So says Pro Privacy after automatedly gazing at 82,000 sites" https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/11/charity_websites_ad_trackers/

Thank you #ArsTechnica for reminding us how #BillGates made his fortune: by building a cut throat #monopoly https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/revisiting-the-spectacular-failure-that-was-the-bill-gates-deposition/

#philanthropy is “a form of power that is largely unaccountable, un-transparent, donor-directed, protected in perpetuity and lavishly tax advantaged" https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/08/how-philanthropy-benefits-the-super-rich

A better solution is more #decentralization, #FreeSoftware, and access to technical education. When people do not want to use software because of its bias, they can build their own using free software building blocks, rather than starting from scratch. If they do not personally have the technical skills, people can be hired to implement designs. But this is difficult because of #SiliconValley #monopolies run by quite homogeneous people control vast swathes of the #internet and #software. 2/2

https://www.projectsbyif.com/blog/how-to-measure-representation-in-a-data-set-and-protect-peoples-privacy/ this post proposes #DataCollection and measurement as a solution for #race bias in #software. But the bias comes from the people making the software, who would then be reviewing the data. They would still bring their inherit bias to the analysis. For example, Google Image Search has a race bias because it was trained that way, and very few black people were involved in the training, most likely because there are few black employees and therefore the social network.1/2