Notices by Drew DeVault (sir@cmpwn.com)

Many times, I've seen arguments made like this: "I'd try Mastodon, but I already have Twitter followers", or "I'd like to use OSM, but Google Maps has better data for my city", or, in my case, "I'd like to use sr.ht, but GitHub has better discoverability".

Platforms for which popularity improves the utility of the service are skewed in favor of the incumbents. New platforms face a chicken-and-egg problem. You have to decide - will you help it, or exacerbate it? Those are the only two choices you have.

Don't let that cool new platform die in obscurity while you wait for it to become popular.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution

@wizard why are you questioning my rejection of copyright, instead of the system which makes authors depend on copyright to get FOOD?

Mixing ads with real notifications that need your attention is the darkest of dark patterns

Just to be explicit, if you skipped over that link when it crossed your feed, you need to go back and click it right now. Here it is again:

https://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/

Reposting some old comments on UEFI, since I got riled up about it again:

UEFI is perhaps the single most egregious pile of garbage ever concieved by humans. I don't think it's possible to overstate how awful it truly is.

Here's how BIOS works: basically, the computer loads the first 512 bytes of disk into memory and jumps to it. The OS takes over from there and does whatever it needs to, like bootstrapping stage 2 and loading the kernel from the filesystem. The spec[0] is 46 pages long and you are granted the rights to reproduce, distribute, and implement it free of charge.

Want to know how UEFI works? The spec[1] is a 2,899 page PDF which you have to pay to use in any way, including writing an implementation.

Every copy of this specification should be found and burned. The ashes should be buried deep in a dark place and the earth above salted.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20110715081320/http://www.phoenix.com/resources/specs-bbs101.pdf

[1] https://uefi.org/specifications

Today Sourcehut celebrates the 1 year anniversary of it's public alpha beginning 🎉 🎉 🎉

https://sourcehut.org/blog/2019-11-15-sourcehut-1-year-alpha/

Quick reminder that "Don't be evil" *used* to be Google's motto, and they deliberately changed it

Reminder not to beg for money on the fediverse, or boost those who do

@dashie https://drewdevault.com/2018/12/04/How-to-abandon-a-FLOSS-project.html hope this helps

The #makeablog initiative is back on 🎉

https://drewdevault.com/make-a-blog

Been meaning to make a blog? First 20 people to start a tech blog get $20 now and another $20 for writing 3 more posts within 6 months.

Got my flu shot today. Don't forget to get yours, too.

RaptorCS's redemption: the POWER9 machine works

https://drewdevault.com/2019/10/10/RaptorCS-redemption.html

GNU extensions aren't just dumb, they introduce a security vulnerabilities

On a POSIX system, this is totally safe:

grep -e foobar "$userdata" /path/to/file

Because the first non-option argument (foobar) disables further option processing in same way -- does. On GNU, if $userdata is "-f/etc/passwd", well, you've fucked up.

A good piece of software exists and is enjoyed by many users. It's basically done and development has slowed down, but it nevertheless continues to be useful to its users.

Later, a new piece of software enters the same market to solve the same $task. It has to rewrite everything from zero, which may take years. As they make improvements over the years, each announcement keeps them on top of the news cycle, with each inch they move towards the finish line.

Result:

$newproduct erodes the mindshare from $oldproduct. It has been present at the forefront of the public's minds and quickly gains marketshare, and users who were familiar with $oldproject prior to the introduction of $newproject start to age out of the market.

This happens even if $oldsoftware is free/open-source and $newsoftware is proprietary, if $newsoftware is missing important features of $oldsoftware, if $newsoftware is a gear in the capitalist machine and will eventually spit its chewed up users out when they get sold to the highest bidder, etc.

https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

aerc 0.2.0 released:

https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/aerc-announce/%3CBVVZUNEKQFE2.HQ0LK8VY88O7%40homura%3E

@matias I recommend hydroxide by @emersion instead. Don't use proprietary software

@Hyolobrika this implies all information should be present, and it should not be. Old information is available for reference in your archives. Only quote the important parts of the previous message.

https://useplaintext.email/

Use plaintext email!