@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

lightweight

@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz

FOSS, OER, & CC. Nerd on many levels Democratising HigherEd by day, increasing digital, intellectual, & physical autonomy, equity, & agency always.

I build, read (mostly scifi), bake, percuss, sing, strum, ponder, advocate, & use OxfordCommas.

SelfHost w/ DockerCompose & Linux DoughnutEconomics Degrowth Equity
AntiColonial Herpotology Biodiversity Cycling SwingDancing Ultimate DiscGolf.

In Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa NZ
#searchable

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Just had a #DogWalkFlashBack to '94, the week I first arrived in Aotearoa. I installed Linux for the first time, on my desktop computer (486 dx2 66MHz, 32MB RAM, monitor was 800x600 pixels, common at the time). I remember the giddy feeling of realising that I had actual real multi-tasking, and I could log into my system from outside the Lincoln Uni campus. Plus I could log into my old account at UW (Seattle) & from it back into my desktop. Heady days. People came from all over campus to see it.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Those were the days when most people ran crappy old Windows 3.1 or, if they were very lucky and extravagant, a Mac 'doorstop' (as we used to call the little towers). A monitor that could do 1280x1024 pixel resolution cost over $1000. One that could do 1600x1200 cost $2500 & required you to reinforce your desk to be able to hold it up. The graphics cards (Matrox were a market leader back then) came with a few MB of RAM & you bought a separate CreativeLogic sound card to get more than squawks.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

I can still remember how privileged I felt being one of probably just a handful of people in Aotearoa running Linux in those days - we were a small, tight-knit community. There were 2 other people on Lincolns campus where were doing it. I remember getting called into Royston Boot's office (the aptly named Lincoln IT manager) because I'd been saturating the Uni link trying to download the 25 floppy disk images required to install Slackware... Took me a week got get valid images copied to disks.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

30 years later, I still feel fortunate every day to have this embarrassment of riches that is #libre | #FOSS | #openSource (I vastly prefer #Copyleft) software, & that I've been been able make it a viable, even prosperous careers. Because I know that if I can do it, others can too! More details: https://davelane.nz/my-open-history

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Every day, I also think of the fact that the computer systems I run every day & through which I provide useful, gratis, non-exploitative services to many people (& make a reasonable living) are entirely dependent on code written by thousands of clever, generous, dedicated people - with a hugely disproportionate number of neuro-diverse and transgender folk among them - who've quietly poured their hearts & souls into that work. Making it way better than closed code written purely for profit.

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

"More than 180 New Zealand public agencies have transferred masses of data to Microsoft cloud computing servers in Australia for storage and processing since 2019. Sensitive courts data could be headed that way."

#PhilPennington, 2024

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/495883/growing-government-reliance-on-offshore-cloud-services-has-security-experts-worried

#PublicService #PublicData #DataSovereignty

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey yup, the cavalier naivete of these gov't decision makers is pretty breathtaking. (and heartbreaking)

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Fascinating... just saw an ad on Facebook that Thrifty (car rentals) have gone 100% EV... I wonder what they know that the rest of the population don't...

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Given the plethora of at-least-as-good #libre messaging platforms (see Matrix, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Mattermost, NextCloud Talk, etc.) that aren't

  • exploiting your data,
  • pestering you to pay more,
  • reducing 'free tier' features (to get you to pay $),
  • blocking integrations you want,
  • failing to live up to their security promises, or
  • simply being painful to use.

Why does anyone bother with MS Teams, Salesforce Slack, or Discord? Just doesn't make any sense to me.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Kids repurposing/revitalising old hardware with software (KDE!) for people on modest incomes. https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2024/02/22/rhode-island-teens-are-fixing-junked-computers-and-learning-valuable-tech-skills/72340312007/ We should see this sort of programme at every secondary & tertiary institution. It's a huge learning opportunity for all involved, and great for the planet, too!

lightweight, to TeslaMotors
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Blimey - according to https://thedriven.io/2024/01/25/worlds-largest-ev-battery-maker-set-to-cut-costs-in-half-by-mid-2024/ the world's largest battery manufacturer, China's CATL will be halving the price of its Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries this year. "This means the price of an average 60 kWh battery pack will have dropped from $US6,776.00 to just $3,388.00 in just 12 months, saving EV manufacturers over $3,000 per vehicle."

Our (MG4 Excite) has a 51kWh pack... So we could replace a future (post 7yr warranty) failed pack for well under US$3k...

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

For perspective, the average ICE car costs NZ$3-4k in petrol per year... or maybe US$2k - so replacing the entire battery pack, good for 7+ years driving, would cost about as much as a year's worth of petrol. That's in the worst case. These batteries are predicted to last much longer than that, perhaps 2-3 times.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik yup - suspect you're quite right.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Ouch, my former employer is caught up in the gov't service downsizing: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/516748/about-30-jobs-to-go-at-crown-forestry-institute-scion

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik heh, nope. Strikes me that all this 'austerity' is a great way to push privatisation down the track.... which is, I believe, what this gov'ts real constituents want to see...

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik yep. The only downside is that everyone else (the mere 99%) is worse off, and their quality of life diminishes.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik of course not - that's part of the Commons and should (according to this gov't's playbook) be privatised for the exclusive profit of the ruling class... who aren't us (here in the Fediverse).

ThisCJ, to random
@ThisCJ@mastodon.nz avatar

Why I don’t use the Oxford Comma:

“Flutter apps can work on Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, and the Flutter UI and rendering engine, included with every app, translates everything to the OS layer.”

The Oxford comma before “and Mac OS” means that one can’t easily discern the end of the list. If, instead, it read “…Windows, Linux and Mac OS, and the Flutter UI and rendering engine,“ one would know that the Flutter UI and rendering engine were not part of the list but a separate clause.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@billbennett @leighelse @ThisCJ I dunno. The coder in me, for whom lists with clear relationships between elements are very important, thinks that an Oxford comma is always right. I haven't yet seen an instance where it's inappropriate, although I'm open to examples.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Wanting to breathe new life into an Android-powered phone? See https://www.sustaphones.com/ ! I've been running LineageOS (and CyanogenMod before it) on all my phones for the past decade or more... but it's a hassle to set it up... this new system promises to make it much more accessible to less technically confident folk: https://openandroidinstaller.org/ You can install your preferred OS ROM... I'm planning to use it when I upgrade my OnePlus 6T from Lineage 20 to 21 in the next few weeks.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@Datenproletarier @GrapheneOS I don't see any evidence that GrapheneOS currently supports any OnePlus phones... am I missing something?

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@Datenproletarier @GrapheneOS ah, I know little about the original site or its allegiances.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@GrapheneOS @Datenproletarier dunno, only see it once at this end...

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@GrapheneOS @Datenproletarier hmm - saw a duplicate of my last message - this Mastodon instance (I run it 😂 ) is a bit overtaxed (making a routine system backup) so it might've encountered some sort of helper bug (race condition or similar)... Apologies for the duplicates. Hoping this one only appears once.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Went out for a walk last evening around dusk in my parents' neighbourhood in Pennsylvania... lots of big houses, lots of US flags, lots of big pickups/SUVs. Only saw one TV on in a house as I walked past... but it was playing Tucker Carlson. This is bible thumpin' Trump country. How can people here really be so disaffected, credulous, & ignorant? (I'm no Christian, but how can you claim to be a Christian and not revile Trump?!)

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Took this photo near my folks' place... Honestly cannot believe how people could think this OK, unless their entire world view is (mis)shaped by FOX News and their associated mind-numbingly idiotic pundits.

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

I would expect (and hope, dearly) that someone in Aotearoa voicing such views would be pitied and/or have substantial peer pressure applied on them by their community to pull their heads in - and given urgent psychological aid (via the public welfare system, while we've still more or less have one)...

lightweight,
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vfrmedia not sure if it it's better or worse that people here feel empowered to share their depraved pro-MAGA views.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • everett
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • ngwrru68w68
  • khanakhh
  • slotface
  • InstantRegret
  • mdbf
  • GTA5RPClips
  • kavyap
  • thenastyranch
  • DreamBathrooms
  • magazineikmin
  • anitta
  • tacticalgear
  • tester
  • Durango
  • cubers
  • ethstaker
  • cisconetworking
  • modclub
  • osvaldo12
  • Leos
  • normalnudes
  • megavids
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •