Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

@f1337 I believe so.

@hehemrin Thank you!

@katherined Thank you!
It just has a simple black fabric lining (I didn't weave the lining, I actually got a few yards of good-quality-but-cheap fabric from a local thrift store).

I did use the antique sewing machine to sew the sides and also the box stitch for the bottom of the tote. Since there was no interfacing at that point the thickness of the fabric wasn't much of an issue.

The rest of the sewing (the hem and handles) I hand stitched, which was pretty tough w/ the interfacing.

@andrewmriley Thank you!

My handwoven tote bag is done! I wasn't sure whether my plan for the tweed background and purple krokbragd pattern stripe would work but I'm really happy how it turned out.

This time I used raw leather strips for the handles which meant an extra hour punching holes in leather. Like my previous tote this is lined and has interfacing so it can stand up on its own. #weaving

Hey @Wildbill for some reason I was thinking of this Linux Journal article tonight... https://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/pointcounterpoint-twitter

@freckledfiber@artisan.chat My floor loom is an unbranded heavy-duty 40" 4-harness jack loom I got for free from Craigslist (https://social.librem.one/@kyle/109246581769869637).

It's wide so I never feel limited there, but 4 harnesses are sometimes limiting when I see interesting 8-harness patterns I want to try.

If I had the space, I'd love to have a drawloom or a dobby loom as they are even more versatile in what they can make. Check out the Glimakra line of drawlooms (their Julia is small) and the Louet Magic Dobby as well.

@f1337 That would be wonderful! I think the most useful contribution at the moment would be looking to adapt the patches made to our smilodon fork (https://source.puri.sm/liberty/host/smilodon/) that disable DMs and local/federated timelines etc, to the recent 4.0 release so we can upgrade to it.

My thread here yesterday about this cycle between open and closed protocols inspired me to write a longer-form piece on the subject:

https://puri.sm/posts/swinging-back-to-open-standards/

#fediverse #foss

@kashhill Very important files (such as my wife's writing) get backed up to multiple locations via different methods (in case one fails) but the main disaster recovery backup is to a hard drive in our camper van, which we have kind of set up as the center of our main emergency response plan.

@kurtseifried @valhalla The beauty of open standards, open protocols, and services built on free software is that it provides the option for folks who are able to, to self-host, most can't/won't, so with sufficient demand, others who are able and willing to, can offer their own hosted services to potential customers (either free or for a fee/donations/etc).

The consumer can then choose the service (and service provider) that best serves their needs, ability, and budget, just like with email.

@micahflee Congratulations! Looking forward to hearing more when it comes out.

Will this be your first book?

@kurtseifried In this discussion I'm talking more about open standards than I am self-hosting. You were able to move your email to Gmail so easily because email is an open standard. You could move sites to S3/CF because of the open web standards the services and browsers communicate with.

People who are moving to Mastodon have to wholesale rebuild things from scratch because they were moving away from a closed standard. The lock-in and friction to leave a platform to a competitor is by design.

@StryderNotavi @maikelthedev@fosstodon.org They are *getting* that education now.

The last time around, I think many folks were not using the Internet and computers during the previous era of lock-in so they had no reason to understand the future harms and risks of embracing it.

It takes time for a company to abuse lock-in it for more money/marketshare in a way that the customer feels. The walled garden seems great unless you want to leave it. The cloud-dependent appliance is great while the service is up.

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