anahata's recent activity

  1. Comment on Zoom acquires Keybase and announces goal of developing the most broadly used enterprise end-to-end encryption offering in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    Uploading any private key anywhere is a terrible idea.

    Uploading any private key anywhere is a terrible idea.

  2. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    anahata
    Link Parent
    You don't see how the dismissive, snide comment by RMS about cosmetics are gatekeeping? If you don't see how privilege is a factor here then I think you need to learn what privilege is and examine...

    You don't see how the dismissive, snide comment by RMS about cosmetics are gatekeeping?

    If you don't see how privilege is a factor here then I think you need to learn what privilege is and examine your own.

  3. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    anahata
    Link Parent
    It's about how they say it and the context in which it's said. If we can agree that the rest is gatekeeping, then saying "let someone else do it" takes on a different meaning for me. "Keep the...

    It's about how they say it and the context in which it's said. If we can agree that the rest is gatekeeping, then saying "let someone else do it" takes on a different meaning for me. "Keep the newbs out, but I guess if they want to do this thing to make it easier for them to use it, they can, but we (the people who are best qualified to do it) aren't going to". It's very much a "let them eat cake, let them help themselves, pull yourself up by your bootstraps" kind of attitude.

    There's a balance between the volunteerism of open source and the requirement for software to be accessible. If you want more people to use your software (not wanting this is gatekeeping by definition), then you need to compromise. This refusal to compromise is part of the problem.

  4. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    anahata
    Link
    The gatekeeping by RMS here is staggering. And then more from others: Yeah, you are saying that emacs is only for a snooty elite when you say that, you just don't realize it because you're blinded...

    The gatekeeping by RMS here is staggering.

    Perhaps we should implement a mode that puts cosmetics on Emacs so it will appeal to those who judge by the surface of things.

    The code to interface Emacs to X-based GUIs needs rewriting by an expert, and has needed it for decades. Until it gets that rewrite, changes in it are likely to break something.

    And then more from others:

    Yes, make Emacs appealing and user friendly. But don't forget that a masterful tool in the end requires mastery, which can't come for free. I certainly draw the line at saying Emacs is for everyone. I'm not saying it's only for some sort of snooty "elite" but I am saying that it's for those who are willing to learn, seeing some extra work as the aforementioned long-term investment, and who have the patience reach a worthy goal a little later rather than right this very minute.

    Yeah, you are saying that emacs is only for a snooty elite when you say that, you just don't realize it because you're blinded by your own privilege. And of course RMS agreed with this. There's also a lot of "sure, someone can do this, but it's definitely not me".

    All of this reminds me a lot of another older open source software community that's declining: Perl. Lots of gatekeeping and "we cannot change how we've been doing things for 30 years because we might break 30 year old code". No, really, words to that effect have been posted many times to the developer mailing list. The Perl community is pathologically afraid of breaking backwards compatibility and is convinced that its way of doing things is the One True Way™ (ironic for a language whose motto is "There's More Than One Way To Do It"). Like its barebones approach to object orientation (which isn't, really, in a number of ways; Rust is more OO than Perl). Lots of middle-age white men who don't want to change because they don't want to change, and they expect others to fix all the problems they see.

    emacs and perl are products of another time, and they refuse to adapt because of the staggering amount of gatekeeping and privilege of their core developers / users. I don't expect either tool to have much currency once the current userbase retires. They're becoming the new COBOL.

  5. Comment on Zoom acquires Keybase and announces goal of developing the most broadly used enterprise end-to-end encryption offering in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    Keybase: Also keybase: I don't think so, Tim.

    Keybase:

    you don't need to trust our servers

    Also keybase:

    please upload your private keys to us

    I don't think so, Tim.

  6. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link Parent
    You have not managed to communicate the issue you see with this term and I have failed to ascertain where your objection is, or even that you have one worth making. Like with hungariantoast, I...

    You have not managed to communicate the issue you see with this term and I have failed to ascertain where your objection is, or even that you have one worth making. Like with hungariantoast, I feel that the objection is overblown and exaggerated without any basis in reality. I have to ask whether you seriously, sincerely think that someone on this site won't know what the term original content is. It's not like we're inventing some new term that no one else uses, and then forbidding those who don't know what it is from participating. That's gatekeeping, that's what a shibboleth is. It's something you can easily find on the web with a quick search and then you can participate more fully.

    This feels like bikeshedding (to illustrate my point, the first dozen results on DDG go into this in some depth) at this point.

  7. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link Parent
    I have to admit that I'm not seeing any ambiguity. And I seriously, sincerely think that people are assuming people are way dumber than they actually are, especially people who are here. Do you...

    I have to admit that I'm not seeing any ambiguity. And I seriously, sincerely think that people are assuming people are way dumber than they actually are, especially people who are here. Do you seriously think that people here won't understand what original content is? Really?

    It's not "giving in to internet trends" to use a standard term for something. I feel that you're being contrary for its own sake without much justification for your objection.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link Parent
    You're ascribing motive where there absolutely isn't any. It's not a shibboleth. It's basic vocabulary for discussing content on the internet. You're still allowed to participate if you don't know...

    You're ascribing motive where there absolutely isn't any. It's not a shibboleth. It's basic vocabulary for discussing content on the internet. You're still allowed to participate if you don't know the words, things just won't be as clear for you.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link Parent
    Asking someone to educate themselves on something is not creating a walled garden. That's more than a touch of exaggeration.

    Asking someone to educate themselves on something is not creating a walled garden. That's more than a touch of exaggeration.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link Parent
    It takes ten seconds to educate yourself. This is not an onerous request.

    It takes ten seconds to educate yourself. This is not an onerous request.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link Parent
    A ten second search engine query and then you know what the term means. I think it's entirely reasonable to expect this kind of thing so that we can use consistent words everywhere. I've had...

    A ten second search engine query and then you know what the term means. I think it's entirely reasonable to expect this kind of thing so that we can use consistent words everywhere.

    I've had similar discussions with folks about genres in video games, and I have the same view there. It's worth making the new person search a bit, once.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Self promotion vs. Original content vs. Own content vs. User created vs. ...? in ~tildes

    anahata
    Link
    I also really dislike "own content". As a native English speaker, it's in that linguistic uncanny valley that non-native speakers sometimes fall into. That said, we already have a precedent for...

    I also really dislike "own content". As a native English speaker, it's in that linguistic uncanny valley that non-native speakers sometimes fall into.

    That said, we already have a precedent for this, one that I've used here and that seems the obvious choice: original_content. This is what I use and it's what a lot of other people use, including on other sites.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on There's no such thing as a dangerous neighborhood in ~life

    anahata
    Link
    This article is seriously missing the point. It's not just "violent" crime that's a problem; it's all crime. I don't feel comfortable outside of center city / university city Philadelphia--north,...

    This article is seriously missing the point. It's not just "violent" crime that's a problem; it's all crime. I don't feel comfortable outside of center city / university city Philadelphia--north, south, or west. East is Camden, and I am not going there. I might occasionally do something in north, south, or west Philadelphia, but Camden is absolutely not something I will do. It's not just the violent crime, it's all crime. If the point is that only violent crime makes a neighborhood dangerous, then I'm not sure I can relate to this writer.

    Their study also doesn't cover Camden, nor Philadelphia, not even NYC. Missing such large swaths of urban America, and such large swaths of urban crime, makes me wonder how applicable their findings are.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    Fair enough. I should point out that 1Blocker does support whitelisting URLs. I have a few whitelisted in a few different ways to work around some bugs.

    Fair enough. I should point out that 1Blocker does support whitelisting URLs. I have a few whitelisted in a few different ways to work around some bugs.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    I explained what content blockers are in my comment. What parts of it are unclear?

    I explained what content blockers are in my comment. What parts of it are unclear?

  16. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    Firefox doesn't integrate with the OS, it doesn't feel native, the UI is a mess, memory usage is still ridiculous, it doesn't integrate with other devices running other operating systems, ...

    Firefox doesn't integrate with the OS, it doesn't feel native, the UI is a mess, memory usage is still ridiculous, it doesn't integrate with other devices running other operating systems, ...

    2 votes

  17. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link
    An explanation of what a "risk premium" is would've been nice. We're not all economists.

    An explanation of what a "risk premium" is would've been nice. We're not all economists.

    5 votes

  18. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    A few of those are matters of opinion. The first, third, and fourth I find useful. Where else would you put a search dialog in the current Music.app UI? There's nowhere to go with it besides the...

    A few of those are matters of opinion. The first, third, and fourth I find useful. Where else would you put a search dialog in the current Music.app UI? There's nowhere to go with it besides the bottom. This is consistent with other iOS apps.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link
    Music.app is GARBAGE. Every time I open it, I find several new, different bugs (I wish this was an exaggeration but it's really not; every. time. I open it, it fails in a new, bizarre way)....

    Music.app is GARBAGE. Every time I open it, I find several new, different bugs (I wish this was an exaggeration but it's really not; every. time. I open it, it fails in a new, bizarre way). Immediately after Catalina's release, I found at least one distinct bug every day for a week. I cannot remember the last time an Apple software update has so totally and completely failed like Music.app has (which is not surprising since it's not actually Apple; it's the Beats devs, who Apple acquihired). It is so bad that it is utterly unuseable. It's to the point that I don't even bother listening to music on my Macs or controlling my HomePods with my Macs; it's all through my phone or tablet. I tried getting iTunes back via Retroactive, but I'm noticing bugs there, too, especially around Apple Music.

    I really hope we see a software update that either brings iTunes back (which would really be a Scott Forstall-level event) or that makes Music.app actually fit for purpose. Right now it's a waste of disk space.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    anahata
    Link Parent
    Content blockers are strictly better from a technical perspective, actually. They perform better and respect your privacy better. Plus they're available cross-platform (with cross-platform config...

    Content blockers are strictly better from a technical perspective, actually. They perform better and respect your privacy better. Plus they're available cross-platform (with cross-platform config syncing). This kind of thing is why I'm never, ever going to look at another browser. Nothing else supports this kind of thing.

    1Blocker is what you want these days, by the way. /cc @Ember

    5 votes