Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

After people get used to tech without lock-in, companies will need new tech that allows them to rewrite the rules. I suspect VR/AR will be the the technology that will allow companies to lock folks back in. It is the next evolution to make a computer that is even more personal than a smartphone.

This is clearly why Meta is all in on this tech and why Apple is exploring the space as well. Whoever controls this tech controls the portal into the virtual and real world. We will need to be vigilant.

Why bring this up now? Because it feels like the pendulum is swinging back toward open standards much like after the first dotcom bust. People (some for the first time) are getting a taste of the benefits of open standards. I think we will see a similar era of open standards and tech on the Internet, at least for awhile. But there will be similar attempts to find ways to embrace and extend these standards and lock people back into portals.

So why did it change? There are a few causes, and this pendulum between open and closed tech is always swinging, but to me the single most important cause was the advent of the smartphone.

Smartphones allowed tech companies to rewrite the rules around standards, software, lock-in and #privacy as Big Tech companies all sought to control the new personal computer with rules people would have rejected on their laptops. The rush to control SMS and news portals killed XMPP and RSS, respectively.

After the dotcom bust 20 years ago, there was a shift away from attempts to turn the Internet into a portal owned by a single company (AOL, Yahoo, etc) using incompatible and proprietary tech, in favor of open standards.

This spawned a heydey for things like self-hosted blogs, RSS and XMPP powered by Linux. People rejected lock-in and embraced the benefits and freedom open standards brought. Even Big Tech embraced these standards.

#federation #decentralization #OpenSource #FreeSoftware

@Viss This has been lagering for a few weeks because I've been too busy/lazy to keg it. I also have all the ingredients for a dark Mexican-style lager just waiting for me to get around to brewing it.

Time to keg some porter. #homebrewing

@scattermoon And when she knows what she wants for uptime
And when she scales up and makes it five nines
She'll see it's not so tough
That's because it's been done by an
Uptime girl

@katherined @mortendk @shawnp0wers I mean let's just take a snapshot of yesterday:

* Swapped out WiFi cards in my mobile phone
* 3D printed a single-print toaster model with working levers and bread
* Tied fringe on handwoven cloth
* Played chess while listening to Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier
* Read a vintage 1930 book on the history of French weaving by the light of an oil lamp

#nerdlife

@katherined @mortendk @shawnp0wers As if I needed a reminder... #nerdlife

Here is the fabric off the loom. The brown portion in the center will be the bottom of the tote and the tweed-like pattern will be the background along the sides with the purple pattern forming a band around the center. It will be easier to visualize when it is sewn together. #weaving

@evacide I've seen some people use the #histodon and #histodons hashtags in their introduction posts to identify that interest on here.

@schwascore Welcome!

@firdarrig What project is next?

@firdarrig I really like the mirrored twill patterns separated by those borders. Is this a design you came up with or is it from an existing pattern?

@tivasyk For any proprietary software or network: you must anchor your trust in that organization and its employees and you are dependent upon their ability to secure their property.

@shawnp0wers If someone had enough trust from the community and there were sufficient demand I could actually see that kind of service where someone performs strong identity verification and vouches for accounts from their site.

I really like the green checkmark system in Mastodon, but when relying on them for trust it's important to keep in mind *what* you are trusting:

* The security of the remote site (hacked site could vouch for an attacker)
* The security of the Mastodon instance (same)
* The integrity of the Mastodon instance (a modified version could let the owner disable the remote check)

This is one reason why I like self-owned instances on the account owner's domain.
#security #trust #GreenCheckmark

@shawnp0wers I think the context of what site is vouching for you is important and that would be something missing from an unlabeled checkmark next to your name.