FOSS ROMS and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad State of Native Messaging on Android
Now that I've piqued your curiosity with an reference to a children's book I've never actually read (because I'm an alien, apparently), let me pause the narrative train by carefully defining some terms:
- FOSS: Free and Open Source Software
- ROMs [sic]: Custom builds of the Android mobile operating system from …
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Mozilla and the Death of Virtue
A fedifriend mentioned me yesterday on a post about a recent kerfuffle regarding some decisions that Mozilla has been making, particularly in regards to buying an advertising company (and integrating advertising into the browser) and adding "A.I." features into recent builds of Firefox.
I had intended to reply with …
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The Toxicity Dance
There's been some kerfuffle today on the fediverse over the issue of toxicity in the Linux and Open Source community. "Toxic" is one of those trigger words that immediately gets fingers a-pointing. The great irony is that just to mention the word "toxic" can in itself be a toxic statement …
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The unfolding horrors of Toxic Masculinity
Content Warning: This post deals with the issue of toxic masculinity. If that (or the discussion thereof) is upsetting to you, please skip this one. Also, a minor bible reference is included.
I thought I had a pretty fair grasp on the idea and archetypes of toxic masculinity. I am …
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Freedom
Content Warning: this is all coming from a fairly Christian worldview, and so may seem a bit like proselyting to those from other traditions and beliefs. I'm just putting out what I'm mulling over, so as always, you're welcome to read it, or wait for another nerdy UNIXy post a …
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Use what works for good
Exactly a month ago, I wrote an article challenging the prevalent pragmatist-argument for choice in the digital world.
I'd like to refine that thought a bit further, based on recent experiences.
A little over a week ago, I started crafting an article covering FOSS keyboards for Android. This is one …
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The KGB, the Computer, and Me
Last night, I re-watched The KGB, the Computer, and Me, a 1990 episode of NOVΛ chronicling Cliff Stoll's efforts to catch a West German hacker who was using the Lawrence Berkeley Labs' computer systems to hack into military computers in the late 1980s.
I say re-watched, because I …
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LLMs are Perfect
LLMs (Large Language Models, colloquially referred to as "A.I.") are perfect...
Perfect exemplars and the very embodiment of the brain-rot of our society.
Much like so many loud voices in society today, the LLM is incapable of discerning reliable from unreliable sources, identifying the origin and validity of a …
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Web 1.0 is (unironically) going great
I resolved never to put a web browser on this machine, which is a Thinkpad X200t from early 2010 with the Libreboot firmware flashed to it, and the wifi card replaced with a FOSS-driver-loving atheros-based card. Ever since I got it in early 2019, it's been my "writing machine …
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On the Fediverse and FediFriends
You may have seen me mention The Fediverse or "FediFriends" in previous posts. Now, I anticipate that 100% of my readers are already in the Fediverse (or within a rounding error of 100% 😄), but just in case someone doesn't know, the following is a succinct description and discussion of the …
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