Notices by Michela Marie 🏳️‍🌈 (michelamarie@mastodon.social), page 21

@danyork Really incredible to see this progress. Let's Encrypt is definitely making the world a little safer and more just.

@superruserr @gid Thanks for sharing. I'll remember that. I need a new backpack too. I'm fairly thin and carry a 12.5" laptop. Everything I've seen so far is to bulky or too flimsy.

@vascorsd hah. I don't know. I'm pretty sure I would much rather be in the modern age, with all it's faults. That is, if there were some way to truly compare what my life would be like in each of them.

@dpwiz No one has suggested any of that -- not I and not the article I shared.

I don't know what you mean by "pissing on corporations," though it seems quite safe to say that it would definitely not be an anti-Trump thing. He's clearly a fan of people urinating on stuff.

@dpwiz ya. I did already say that I don't take issue with that either. 😉

I'm also quite sure *no one at all* is complaining about pizza ads, or anything of that sort.

@dpwiz Additionally, I don't think there are too many more important problems than those affecting social networks at this time, because they are causing grave harm to democracies.

Nevertheless, society can tackle more than one problem at a time, as we always have done. Just because there exist one or more other important problems, does not mean we should not address a given problem.

@dpwiz Well, I'm not talking about their advertising of goods or services, while I take issue with many forms of user targeting.

It appears out disagreement is around regulation, which you characterise as "misplaced."

I see regulation as a vital and central component of a properly functioning capitalist economic system. Without strong and comprehensive regulation, the system and society break down.

@dpwiz Sorry. I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Do you mean that political advertising on social networks should be banned? If so, I agree. 🙂

I also believe that corporate power over society has become far too great. As such, firms should be further regulated, and prevented from growing too large. That includes breaking up those, which become too large.

"Elizabeth Warren could not have asked for a better illustration for her point" [after Facebook actually blocked her ads advocating the firm's break-up.]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/11/elizabeth-warren-facebook-ads-break-up-big-tech

@hcs That's a really good idea, though I block ads (I imagine a lot of other folks here do too). So I usually don't know how many ads a site I am on has, which is wonderful now that I think about it.

@grufwub btw: where did you get that rad wallpaper?

@grufwub ha. I'm actually learning regex now, as part of a programming course I'm taking, and *just* finished watching some videos on it. Getting the basics, at least, isn't hard.

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python has a good, short chapter on it. The author, Al Sweigart, also has a friendly video on YouTube called "Yes, its time to learn regular expressions."

I feel empowered already, with just the basics, and wish I had started learning regex sooner!

@thurloat Ah. That was probably a good use for it. 🙂

Yah. I really like that old logo too.

@thurloat Wow. What were you running on it?