mcneely @mcneely@librem.one

fedi, for all its problems, has proven the value of the structural advantages of a decentralized system built on public standards and open source software. it is immune to capture and sabotage and monetization alike, in ways that corporate services can never achieve. we design distributed systems like this not only because it befits our values of autonomy and free association, but because it works, it scales — it fucking wins

We're hiring a Staff Frontend Engineer for Glitch — an extraordinary role, because we intend to keep innovating wildly on the frontend experience of Glitch, and because the team is deeply caring & thoughtful. The role is U.S. remote, salary is $169,000 to $245,000, I've found Fastly's benefits to be exceptional, well-managed & inclusive, and we have a warm, collaborative ethos within both the team and community. Consider joining us if you want to make something wonderful!
https://www.fastly.com/about/jobs/apply/?gh_jid=4732318

Then along came Elinor "Lin" Ostrom and her 1990 work "Governing the Commons." In it, Ostrom presented game theory approach to commonly owned resources, explaining how people as self-interested rational actors could avoid the logical trap of over exploitation. And then she did Hardin one better: she detailed the workings of actual extant commons which, according to Hardin and every neoliberal since, should not exist.

Ostrom illustrated what anthropologists and people in stateless societies have known for generations: people are perfectly capable of working out rules to sustainably manage shared resources. In her book, Ostrom detailed one common pasture in Switzerland that has been in continuous use since the 1500s. She also described shared fishing rights in Turkey, shared agricultural and forest land in Japan, and shared irrigation systems in Spain. There is no tragedy.

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#BlackMastodon When I started off in engineering, I told a senior colleague that I wanted to have a career a generalist instead of specializing in one area of expertise. His response was dismissive "Jack-Of-All-Trades. Master of none."

I've since come to find out that the actual full quote is:
"Jack of all trades is master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."

With respect to all the specialists, don't let anybody shame you for being a generalist.

Just realised that I can use :has() to lock page scrolling under modals and menus without toggling classes with JS. Handy!

People who use the #accessibility stack on Linux, do you use anything other than Orca?

I'm trying to map out unused code paths in at-spi2-core, and so far I'm considering orca/dogtail, but I'm sure I'm missing something.

#Union #BlackMastodon #Strike #Solidarity

Union staffers at the NY Times will be on strike all day tomorrow (Thursday). Please don't cross digital picket line. No clicks!

"The historic work stoppage is set to go in effect at midnight on December 8 and last for an entire 24 hours. Instead of filing stories, employees will be seen picketing outside The Times’ offices at 1pm, with prominent journalists such as Nikole Hannah-Jones set to speak during a solidarity rally."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/media/new-york-times-union-negotiations-reliable-sources/index.html

When I participated in approving the Cryptographic Autonomy License, the only FOSS license that provides users guarantees of data portability, I thought that this conversation might start to shift. That we'd recognize that running distributed systems at the scale of what users have come to expect cannot be performed by individuals, and that we needed to shift the conversation towards how we can protect users' digital autonomy and inherent rights without them needing to become systems administrators.

Yet there has been no forward progress. I just can't associate myself with "software freedom" while it cares more about software, a tool, than the rights of people, the only reason the tool exists.