ajroach42

ajroach42, 16 days ago

If you can't install your own software on it, from the source of your choice, you are at the mercy of the person who decides what software you can install.

This is bad!

ajroach42, 16 days ago

If you can't install your own operating system on it, from the source of your choice, you are at the mercy of the person who decides what operating system you can install.

(This is bad, but it's also super common. How many mobile devices only run android or lineage/free-android? How many can't even run lineage?)

ajroach42, 16 days ago

If someone else is in charge of what you can publish, or what you can read, or who you can connect with, you are at the mercy of the algorithm. This means you watch what google (or Amazon, or Netflix, or Comcast, or Zaslav) wants you to watch, you read what facebook (or google, or Microsoft, or Elon Musk) wants you to read.

If someone else controls your distribution pipe, you can only publish what google, or facebook, or Elon Musk want you to publish, and it can only be seen by the people they want to see it.

ajroach42, 16 days ago

And there is another way. We're here, in this place, because we needed another way.

ajroach42, 16 days ago

But this other way?

Right now, it mostly depends on the kindness of strangers, and it imposes a somewhat significant additional cognitive barrier to entry.

Picking an instance feels hard. Self hosting can be complicated.

Remembering that your username has to include a URL (and that you might end up with a username like kenkyuusentaipodcastrangers@meet.communitymedia.network that takes up two full lines of the compose box? That's hard.)

Being responsible for outages, for backups, for infrastructure, for Payment.

It's all hard.

ajroach42, 16 days ago

I haven't used a microsoft OS for anything other than interfacing with printers and industrial equipment in almost a decade.

(unless you count windows 3.1, but I'm not going to.)

I haven't used iOS outside of work basically ever, and I'm not working anymore.

I use popOS, Debian, and occasionally when I've made bad choices in the past, I end up with Ubuntu somewhere. (Or Ubuntu Studio, which is less of a bad choice and more of a compromise)

Eventually, if things continue in the direction they're going, I'll have Debian most places.

But I have the ability and the privilege to make those choices. Not everyone does.

ajroach42, 16 days ago

But the shape of the world is changing quickly, and some of these tech companies, Microsoft in particular, are not only Too Big To Fail, they're also too big to be allowed to continue to exist without significant external governance.

Google, Amazon, Facebook... I mean, these companies shouldn't exist. Their products, such as they are, should be ripped apart and rebuilt as a million tiny things.

But Windows? I think Windows has it's place, or at least I think that it has so completely captured the modern technological world that we're worse off without it.

Which is what makes things like AI PCs that take a screenshot of your workload every 10 seconds so dangerous.

Windows is too big to continue to be owned by any company.

ajroach42, 16 days ago

(And yet, it is owned by a company, and we're at their mercy. And even those of us who have opted out of their ecosystem have to suffer under their decisions.

Because we're all a community. The things that happen to one of us cascade.

Microsoft exists. They can inflict a huge amount of harm at a whim and no one can stop them from doing it, and even I who have spent decades trying to escape them still depend on them for various core aspects of my life.)

ajroach42, 16 days ago

So what do we do?

Well, we keep doing what we've been doing here on the fediverse.

We keep building things like Peertube, and using things like peertube to build things like #NewEllijayTelevision and https://communitymedia.video and, when we can afford to do so, we financially support the people who make the software that provides an alternative to these closed worlds.

Dual power. We build the future in the rotting husk of the present.

ajroach42, 16 days ago

The same is true in media. I've written about that part extensively ( https://communitymedia.network ) and media plays as big a role in tech in most people's lives (to the point that, in many ways, the two are one and the same.)

ajroach42, 16 days ago

@rose_alibi I tend to be, yeah. Frankly, it's a problem.

I'm too soft on most folks.

ajroach42, 17 days ago

Damage appears to be minimal, but he hit the fucking building with his truck.

ajroach42, 17 days ago

This is the latest of a series of disasters that have plagued me so far this month.

We had 4 tornadoes, a failed AC unit, massive water damage, a friend got stranded in TN for several hours earlier today because our Van wouldn't start, I was harassed on the street by a small scared man, and now someone has driven a garbage truck into the corner of our antique store, and then driven off without leaving his insurance info.

ajroach42, 17 days ago

I wrote this blog post this morning about these unexpected calamities, https://ajroach42.com/some-surprise-expenses/ and in the time since I wrote it, our van broke down 2 hours from here and a man drove a truck into our antique mall.

ajroach42, 17 days ago

It's just not my week.

ajroach42, 17 days ago

The man who did the hit and run is back, and sulking outside. He has not entered the building. I'm waiting on the police to arrive. I only called the police because insurance required it, but God damn what a day.

ajroach42, 17 days ago

New Blog Post - General Status Update: https://ajroach42.com/status-update-may-22nd/

ajroach42, 17 days ago

New Blog Post - Some Surprise Expenses:

https://ajroach42.com/some-surprise-expenses/

ajroach42, 18 days ago

We're still working our way through lots of unexpected expenses from the first half of the year, and getting things stable going forward.

We have plans for the future. Things will be a lot better eventually, but we've got a deep hole to climb out of.

If you want to help us out:

https://hemlockbazaar.com

https://mountaintowntoys.com

https://gamountaincoffee.com

https://analogrevolution.bandcamp.com

https://cassettesfor.me

https://newellijay.tv

https://cowabungavideo.com

Probably other places too?

Thanks!

ajroach42, 18 days ago

@tuckerm I like the look of that one.

ajroach42, 18 days ago

@Adam_Cadmon1 You'll find way more info on this website from @ifixcoinops https://www.gamedad.club/

But yeah, it played Crazy Taxi without any issue. I was able to play a DS game, a playstation game, and an N64 game at full speed with minimal (but occasional) stuttering or hiccups.

I haven't pushed far beyond that.