"big tech" implies a nebulous conspiracy organized by tech workers and executives. it is like the "deep state."

the monopolistic behaviors of google, amazon, microsoft, etc are real, but we must identify these behaviors specifically in order to have any hope of actually addressing them.

@ariadne I don't know if this is solvable, because in addition to the conference ticket, there is travel and hosting. Local conferences do better on these metrics but I feel like we're hitting a contradiction in terms, i.e. gathering contributors from all over the globe to a central place so they can collaborate in person - that's not a local event 😅

On top of all that, personally I think global conferences the way we do them today are an unsustainable practice. Idk if they can be fixed :/

@ariadne Attended KubeCon EU a few years back, but it felt more like a BigCorp sales event for other BigCorps, but with the occasional food truck and swag.

Not really targeted for an OSS mindset or for maintainers to exchange.

@ariadne I've always considered FOSDEM the hobbyist free software summit (and even then it's increasingly more inhabited by corporate folks)

@ariadne @postmarketOS @alpinelinux Is there a blog post or something about this new init system plan?

@ariadne @postmarketOS @alpinelinux

If everyone is going to get on the systemd bandwagon, then it is important to focus many thousands of eyes on the source code.

I would look for race conditions.

They will not be obvious. While studying the code, you have to think outside the box, and ask yourself:

How can this be attacked?

@ariadne Adélie would have switched a few years ago if journald wasn't still joined at the hip with it. If there was an effort to make a systemd without journald I'd be all-in. So tired of dealing with OpenRC bull.

See also my thought piece on it: https://catfox.life/2024/01/05/systemd-through-the-eyes-of-a-musl-distribution-maintainer/

(while i do not personally find crypto to be a good investment, i do think that this person might have a good case for suing canonical!)

this is bad, really bad. it is bad because an attacker can exploit qemu, and then break into a user account which has direct access to other customers' data.

@ariadne oh yea I cant imagine anything goingwrong

@ariadne [Insert "can piracy itself be the right course" quote from Pirates of the Caribbean here]

incidentally, this is why i prefer physical media or, at the very least, DRM-free media which i can preserve for my use forever

@ariadne if renting a car does not convey permanent rights to use that car, then stealing that car isn’t theft.

@ariadne @eff I disagree. EFF is, as usual, taking the long and broad view, and they are right. As far as I can tell, KiwiFarms does not have a contractual relationship with with Hurricane Electric. So they are not bound by their TOS/AUP. I know nothing about KiwiFarms except what's in the EFF article. They sound horrible. But we do not destroy bridges because some awful people use them.

@ariadne @eff the EFF clearly states their understanding is that KF is not a customer and would not have signed an AUP. Are you refuting that factual claim or are you suggesting that Crunchbits AUP signature makes them liable for all of their customer's use?

(for the record I'm happy to see any disruption to KF in isolation)

@ariadne @eff I have no comment on the technical aspects (you clearly have a much better grasp on that than I do), but I'd like to add two points that might be persuasive to some:

1. If the concern is "fascists will use this principle against good speech in the future" - since when do fascists care about principles?
2. The speech in this case - harassment and doxxing - is itself the harm that needs to be stopped. So yes, there is a real, actionable difference between KF and other websites.

@ariadne Oh wow. RIP. I can't think of another piece of software that I use so frequently. The sheer number of people that use Vim... I wonder what the future of it looks like without him.

@ariadne oh no

@ariadne vim is one of the pure unalloyed goods in this world. Bram, thank you. Rest in peace.

@ariadne I can't help but think that preserving it might also be dangerous in quite a few countries.

anyway, `dereferenced.org` is now fixed

@ariadne would boost but no alt text

@ariadne dumb fucks

@ariadne Yeah that tracks with current behaviour.

@ariadne finally, federated pixelfed thots

@ariadne is sbcglobal part of the AT&T internal network.

oh my god its even worse on the inside

@ariadne You ain't kidding. One winter I had one of those sitting in a cold kitchen sink when I dumped hot water from the stove into it. Glass *everywhere*.

@ariadne definitely do not refill with hot sauce

@ariadne the Japanese says “or do whatever you want, I’m soy sauce, not a cop”

@ariadne Why on earth did we make Google de facto rulers of the internet

@ariadne Dear lord.