"Online" documentation should be offline
I'm noticing a troubling trend among FOSS projects, even terminal-only utilities: no manpages (or a 1-paragraph useless one), barely any help screens, and a link to a wiki site like a github page or "readthedocs."
The thing is, the whole ethos behind so many terminal utilities is a hearkening back …
Read More
"Ableism" and the Linux Aristocracy
Being an armchair FOSS advocate, there are a lot of anti-FOSS arguments I've become quite used to seeing and answering. Some of them are honestly just pretty dumb:
eloquent_FOSS_apologia();
Well, I just don't CARE about that!
Well …
Read More
How I Watch YouTube
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, TuxJam the other day, and they were discussing ways to watch YouTube without the annoyances that Google has added to the experience, namely ads and the inability to download videos for later viewing (also, YouTube stopped letting you listen to videos …
Read More
You Really Can't Go Home
Content warning: This post deals with religion and politics
This is in response to my fedifriend's toot:
Sit down next to the fireplace my friend, as I spin my yarn...
In January 2016, after over two years of searching, I finally found a church home. I loved where I …
Read More
What We Lost Along the Way
As I was "delightscrolling" (the opposite of doomscrolling) around on the Fediverse yesterday, I came across this toot that perfectly describes how a lot of us are feeling these days:
I loved computers.
I loved what technology promised.
This wasn't that long ago!
Now it just makes me sad and …
Read More
My Every Day Carry, Part V: What's on My Phone?
In Part IV, I discussed wristwatches. In this article, I'm jumping back into my pocket, so to speak, with a look at what's on my phone itself.
This was a rather exhausting article to write, because I have a lot of apps on my phone. I have even been ridiculed …
Read More
What is FOSS?
Note: This article was originally written last December, and was sidelined because I didn't feel it was finished. Reading through it this morning, I realized reason that I never "finished" it is because the next step would've been to write a 1280-word chapter, which is no small feat. But honestly …
Read More
The Joy of Bespoke Hashtags
In Part II, I described the protective function of hashtags. I will now delve into a more entertaining aspect of how they can be used.
Whenever I share a blog post I've just written on the fediverse, I always use the hashtag #rlDaneWriting. It's an easy way for me to …
Read More
Hashtags, Part II: Global Search and the Right to Not Be Discovered
In Part I, I spoke humorously on the linguistic value of hashtags. I'd like to now go over why hashtags are useful for search on the Fediverse, and why global search is a bad idea.
Reply guys. That's it. End of blog p— Oh okay, okay!
I've noticed that there …
Read More
How to love your neighbor...
...in the midst of... all this
You're driving to work and you see them. A bunch of people holding up signs in favor of the human being (if they can be truly described as such!) that you loathe the most on the entire earth.
Your blood boils.
You air out …
Read More