Marc Madness @marcmadness@librem.one

We love freedom 0, the freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose. Boost this post to share this freedom! Read more at https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

Probably not a lot of people know this now, but Mastodon's web app started out with "Publish". In 2016 a famous YouTuber jokingly offered to support Mastodon's Patreon forever if I changed the button to say "Toot" instead. Needless to say, this was a really early, and not very informed decision. The first glimpse of attention and financial support. As a non-native speaker I had no idea there was another meaning.

ME: ...and I'm also a Certified Mythical Hacker.

JOB INTERVIEWER: You mean, Certified Ethical Hacker?

ME: *polishing my phone screen with the Golden Fleece while a leprechaun thumbing through the Book of Thoth pops out of my laptop bag to hand me Excalibur* I know what I said.

the only valid use of face recognition software is using it to modulate a guitar player's effects chain based on the degree of guitar face they are exhibiting at any moment. that's it, that's the one valid use. nothing else.

Required Grace Hopper viewing: her 1986 interview with David Letterman in which she explains why a length of wire is "a nanosecond" and is a real kick in the head besides. It's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA33wW5LaNY

#GraceHopperDay

Everyone's cool enough for free software! Help us build the movement with 500 FSF associate members by December 31: https://www.fsf.org/appeal/u.fsf.org/fall21

We are looking into packaging a new #Signal client made with Rust and Kirigami, called SignalRs. Should be hitting unstable branch tomorrow.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The scientist hanging a clock,
Who knew on that date,
That fortune and fate,
Would reveal so much more to the Doc.
Doc Brown, Doc Brown, he did invent
Such objects of folly, with good intent,
He tumbled and fell in his lavatory
But soon after took to his lab'ratory
For though he’d been woefully injur'ed
A vision unfurled in his bruis'ed head
Great Scott! Great Scott! From this disaster
Great Scott! Great Scott! The Flux Capac'tor!
And what did he do with it? Build it!

#BTTF #BackToTheFuture

god I love The Register's headline writers https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/23/software_freedom_conservancy_mastodon/

Someone recommended to me that I should ask prospective employers pointed questions about how company culture supports queer and trans folks, people of color, etc. and it's been outstanding advice

I've already bailed on three companies because those questions opened the door for a manager to utterly show their ass

And I found out today that one of those instances at a smaller org led upper management to clean house and start a formal diversity program (probably I was just the proverbial last straw, but hey!)

I'm kind of annoyed that "self-care" has become conflated with "treat yourself". Yes, sometimes treating yourself can be an act of self care

But most of prioritizing self care is meeting your core needs. It's telling yourself it's ok to take time to eat a healthy meal or take a shower. It's making sure you put the things you need to be healthy at a higher priority

The whole "self care is luxuries" captialist takeover of an important mental health concept just chaps me

Under His Eye – Edward Snowden on how Apple just declared war on your privacy

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/all-seeing-i

Also, see: Apple is trying to redefine what it means to violate your privacy. We must not let it.

https://ar.al/2021/08/08/apple-is-trying-to-redefine-what-it-means-to-violate-your-privacy-we-must-not-let-it/

#apple #privacy

Check out this new book release: "Designing Ebooks With Free Software," by Bruce Byfield! Available as a hard copy or as a free download in EPUB, MOBI, and ODT format: https://www.designingebooks.com/

For people asking about #PineNote panel's EMR pen response time, here is a short video.

Is it time yet to acknowledge how entirely goofy and counterproductive this whole proof-a-computer-did-math-as-token-of-value lark has gotten, and all just go back to trading for stuff we want with shiny rocks off the ground or pretty seashells or whatever?

When you write hashtags, remember to use CamelCase (where each word has a capital letter).

This makes it much easier for blind and partially-sighted people's screen reader apps to read the hashtag out loud, and makes your message much more accessible.

For example #DogsOfMastodon is easier for a screen reader to say out loud than #dogsofmastodon, as CamelCase makes it obvious where the words are.

#FediTips #MastoTips #Accessibility #A11y #Hashtags #ScreenReaders

Hey, folks..

It seems that there will probably be an in-person #defcon this summer, which means that #badgelife will be a thing.

I have a limited number (not more than 50) hand-made #badgelife things that I'm giving away for free. Yes, free. Those extra badges are cool, but they get expensive real fast, which means that a lot of folks get locked out of talks, tracks, some villages, and parties. This is for the not-rich, not rockstars, not super well connected folks in the community who want to find each other and do cool stuff together.

DM me if you're interested. I can give away up to three per person if you promise to give the extras away to folks who'd like them.

The #hacker community is just that - people.

Please boost?

#hacktheplanet

The dream of modern computing was that a user was someone who could use and modify and create programs. Somewhere we departed from that and made a "programmer/user" dichotomy. And as both computers and programming tools have become more accessible (free, easier to use, etc.), somehow that divide keeps getting worse

Computers are seen as tools only for programmers and as appliances for everyone else. IMO this is bad for society. Being able to program your computer at a basic level should be seen in the same light as basic literacy and numeracy.

RT 🔒: main question I have about Amazon running MGM is what happens with both their fastidious restoration work on their film archive *and* their easygoing relationship with independent theatres and boutique blu ray printers... when Disney took over Fox, everyone got fucked