Oh, absolutely. Despite my word choice in the article, that's been my biggest point of contention with Marxist friends (and is partly what prompted this article). There's a tendency to say that this or that theory of outcome is "correct," with little to no basis. What's interesting, I think, is observing current trends and then working back. Not as much: where is this certain to go, but "what led us here?"
Then, there's also the predictive exploration of my favorite genre: science fiction. It often gets things hilariously wrong, but also tends to get other things eerily right.
I guess I really just think that finding out how these systems are operating - and what tendencies exist within a system - is interesting. Inevitability is, admittedly, a buzzy sort of word, but why a system consolidates or collapses is so very interesting. Enough pressure applied in one area could absolutely create a neo-feudalism of tech giants, but what would the expanding repercussions of that be?
Really impressed with how far AnyType has come in the last year. As I predicted in my article from the Alpha version, it didn't take long at all for this app to match Notion for everything I needed to organize important aspects of my life.
It still has a bit of a learning curve and some sticky areas, but it's fully functional, secure, and streamlined enough to pick up with just a few hours of practice setting up a course schedule for my classes in the Summer/Fall.
@sharan If you need that independent backup, that would be a factor for sure. P2P sync and local storage shouldn't have a limit. And I think it's possible to self-host a sync location as well.
@sharan That is one of the biggest flaws of a LOT of really cool software. The UX is so often TERRIBLE from a non-techie perspective (or even a techie one, lol). Anytype's actually improved since their alpha version, so I'm hoping they keep headed in that direction. More accessibility, fewer bugs, clearer language, and a better introductory tutorial.
In short, what the "1 GB limit" actually is, is just this: You can transfer unlimited data between your devices while they are on the same network. If you wanted to have live syncing away from home, you'd need one of the following:
A paid plan.
A self-hosted "node" (a transfer point linked to the Internet where the data can be transferred through).
A VPN like Nord with something called "Meshnet" which makes your devices think they're all on the same network.
Now, if only Anytype's PR people would actually hire me, I could explain all of this to everyone, lol.
If you're a fan of the Great British Bake Off, you should check out The Big Brunch on HBO Max. It might be better than Bake Off. I haven't finished the season yet, but so far it's great.
Tried watching "For All Mankind" but it's just...so...relentlessly...depressing. A large part of this is just facts of the era it's set in. but the tone of the show's drama is wedged into this very claustrophobic experience of that setting; we're never delivered a reprieve, the family drama is miserable, people are dying, the government is horrifying (I mean, that's fully realistic) - there's just no let up.
I found a camera card in the sand out on the dunes last weekend and I'd love to get it back to it's owner. Newest photos are from 2009. If these people look familiar to you, please pass along contact information. Please boost for reach.
Another Question re: PeerTube. Is there a reasonable paid hosting service that anyone uses with PT? Preferably, one that sets it all up for you with an app install? 😅
For those unaware, not only are #posts from people #NewHere who add #Hashtags like this in the bod of posts, #annoying for everyone... they make it REALLY HARD for people with screen readers (since most reading technologies will read the hashtags out loud).
Put your hashtags at the end of the post, and use CamelCase to make life easier for everybody.
This might be something for a future Mastodon update, actually. The way Tumblr creates a space for hashtags at the bottom of posts could be a handy feature to adopt here, for instance.
@LouisIngenthron It's a consistent issue I've encountered when speaking to people with visual disabilities, and, from what I understand, the issue's relatively complex. There may be people out there who can better explain why than I can, as well as suggest resources to help.
The mass enshittification of every major Internet platform hasn't exacty been a slow and subtle process, but I feel like generative AI has really slammed down the gas pedal (Twixter, Reddit, GitHub are prime examples).
I'm wondering (and kinda depressed) about YouTube being next, because there really isn't anything comparable out there. Vimeo's the only one with like quality, but their model creates an access barrier. Dailymotion? ha! And PeerTube's name makes it sound like an XXX broker, to say nothing of massive quality limitations, rampant low-quality conspiracy nonsense, and a whole bunch of (completely understandable) limitations regarding size and number of files.
@schizanon That's a great question, and one I'd be interested in seeing as well. I think the numbers might end up being equal, but because YouTube is known and fairly ubiquitous, there's no entry cost. An advertiser might even reach out to you. With PeerTube, I'd want to take my 1k followers and do a deep data assessment with a full graphical profile of the data: how much am I engaging my audience, how deep does that engagement go? It seems like it might just mean the creator has to pitch a lot harder. But that's just guesswork, of course.
I've done writing for small tech sites before and even those were catching attention of companies (I still get emails asking if I'll review products should they send along a free sample). So one other aspect might just be getting it out there to the PR teams for companies that, "hey, I'm here, I want to review your stuff and I've got this audience, can we talk?"
@schizanon And, re: the last point: That scam-base is partly why I keep having trouble setting up on PT myself, lol. I'd need to push a pretty large backlog of content really quickly, and maintain consistency in posting, to feel like I could showcase something of quality amid all that nonsense.
@schizanon Yeah, that makes sense. I think the end catch is just figuring out either A). how to join an instance with a strong local community, and then intentionally building links to the larger federation from there, or B). trying to self-host and regulate the local community to meet your needs (but this requires resources that, while I might have in terms of hardware, I really don't have in terms of time/available expertise).
I love-love-love how the federation works though, and that's what really exciting: potentially, one little PeerTube channel could have a much larger engaged audience than a comparable YT channel, simply because it can cross through and be connected with so many different network types. But, I also haven't seen that happening for a lot of PeerTubers... which I suppose is a data-gathering expedition I need to plumb one of these days.
@schizanon That's one of the factors that's also gotten me thinking of being a creator for PT, lol. I want to be part of the social good, even if that just means mirroring our YT at first.