Musings

A response to The Web Is Fucked.

My blog here started in entire agreement. In fact, I started with 100 days to offload. I was using fosstodon regularly. I ventured into an entire subculture I was never going to kick it with under the guidance of MAMA G.

And that's just it.

I've had a great time since leaving MAMA G by the wayside. MAMA G is not the web. MAMA G is the “compassionate” welcoming committee to the web. MAMA G doesn't want to own the web, but operate it.

MAMA G can only operate the web with attention.

I've been starving MAMA G and I've stopped suckling at her teat.

I've grown up. I've moved out of the house.

I did this all with an enormous amount of help from the web.

Just yesterday, I filed an issue on my linux distro and with a little friendly communication, it was fixed on my machine with a standard update in seconds. That fix also resolved someone else's on-going issue that was stagnant.

That was pretty neat.

The cool thing about the web now is that it is SO BIG. That makes it so there is more bad stuff every year. But there's also more good stuff than there ever was.

And the cool thing about the web is that it lasts forever. Sometimes things decay and die and go away, but those things were never the web. They were the last throes of imperialism.

I've used the web as therapy this past year. My biggest piece of advice is that the internet is a very, very, very, very simple formula.

vibes in equals vibes out

Like, you reap what you sow. You get back what you put in.

If everything is fucked, you'll only see fucked things.

Sure, things are broken and we can't fix them, but those things were never ours to fix. Maybe we should focus our collective attention on the things we can change.

There's enough of us now to make some really cool things happen if we let them.

The web is pretty okay.

Cyberpunk 2077 0-Day Exploit: boot2web4you

In the video game Cyberpunk 2077, there is an network with various websites. One of those is: netdir://ncity.executiontime.pub

I have taken ownership of this website in the year 2021.

https://ncity.executiontime.pub/

boot2web4you is a plea for equality and compassion, which is the antithesis of the website in the year 2077.

We're just getting started, but I believe the Right to Repair includes software.

Let's talk specifics. Extrapolate later.

I have a Google Pixel. It was my main phone for a time. Before the ball dropped on that last night of 2020, I deleted my Google account.

Maps and YouTube stopped working. No account, no service.

This made me wonder— When purchasing a $1,000 phone, is my money or my data the currency for an application?

I moved on.

Imagine trying to call an emergency line (e.g. 911 in US).

Imagine it not going through.

Should it matter what software is or is not installed on a phone?

Should it matter whether any application is “logged in”?

Well, there is currently a bug, where if you have the Microsoft Teams app installed on your Android phone and it is not logged in, 911 emergency calls will not go through.

This isn't software malice, but it is software malpractice. Sadly, that is not a valid reason the doctor can leave under “cause of death”.

When is a phone a phone?

I got called a “Recovering Christian” the other day.

No single two words have ever cut me so deep.

My aunt texted me the other day and quoted a verse from Revelations at me in what I assume was good faith and encouragement.

The context to me was anything but.

I left the church after realizing I was complicit in manipulation and abuse; as a leader.

My friends left the church after standing alone when choosing peace over power; betrayed.

The remainder that stayed did so for personal gain or out of desparation; shame and sorrow, respectively.

I was always at the bottom. I was supposed to stay at the bottom.

I never knew my place down there.

Do I believe the premiere message of Jesus is that The State and The Religion will cooperate to oppress and crush the outliers of society and the only way to survive it is together with love? Hell yes, count me in.

This “Recovering Christian” and “Come to Jesus” bullshit though. That's textbook othering and I'm not here for it, I never was, and I never will be.

Instead of trying to “win me to your team”, come help me change the world.

We're all just squids in a game here.

Write like your biggest fan needs to translate word for word from your native tongue to their native tongue.

I've been working as a Software Engineer. I've been building internet things. Things in the realm between the tangible and intangible.

I might look like an engineer, but I am actually a designer.

I like to dream. I like to invent. I like to believe that things that haven't happened yet can still happen. Then I prove they can happen.

I like things in the realm between the intangible and the invisible. Then I like to heighten the tangibility of the invisible further into our reality.

And I like to do this with other people. People that like to imagine.

People that would have worked with the Imagineers.

Like, Imagininers. Imagination Designers.

I skate the airwaves. I surf the screens. I carve the senses.

I don't like all the things that go into draining the data lakes into data silos and wallets though.

I like it when the whole process is collaborative. With a team effort and transparency.

I like discovering neat things and sharing them with others. And experiencing their discoveries in return.

I live at the intersection of human-and-computer interaction.

I just don't like being a human that interacts with the computer in ways that are against my consent.

I like technology that is designed. Created freely by ideas, not negotiated in a black box.

I'm a Software Designer.

The Founding of The 'Verse

We used to call it the metaverse. It was an idea. A lowercase m.

We've since dropped the inside joke to be more inclusive.

We're clique-less. Free of cliques. Free from clicks.

More dramatically, we're free from our clicks being tracked to categorically castrate us into cohorts.

We were forced to make a name change. We are not amused.

Signed, Anonymous

I got a raise at work. Concerning growth areas, I could be more proficient in TypeScript, React, and GraphQL. My raise could have been bigger if I wasn't so... whatever I am.

I don't care though. Here's my persona.

The year is 2008. I'm a college student with a heavy Tuesday/Thursday course load to work data entry Monday, Wednesday, Friday and the bowling alley on the nights and weekends.

Through grit, hustle, eccentricity, and luck I was gifted a brand new MacBook Pro by Apple. Came with the Adobe Suite and Final Cut Pro.

I sold it to pay for three months of rent. I was surviving off ramen and instant mashed potatoes.

My logic was simple. If I get addicted to Apple products, I'll have developed an expensive and exclusionary habit. I'd rather help build the web.

Later that year was the first time I tried Linux.

Fast forward to 2018, I got laid off from the data-is-the-new-oil startup I'd been drinking the kool-aid at. In turn, I'd lost my MacBook Pro that I was happy to utilize on the company dime. It had been my main and only personal computer since 2014.

I challenged myself.

I bought the cheapest refurbished laptop available from NewEgg that could run Linux with a desktop environment. This was that computer I'd use to get a new job in Silicon Valley. The Ol' Dell Latitude.

Regretfully, I do wish I accepted the offer from Roblox after seeing their IPO. Hindsight is 50/50. However, I think I did pretty well by landing on my feet at Netflix.

I digress.

Last night was the first time I booted up The Ol' Dell Latitude in a long while. I wrote some software I wanted to try on it.

My software wouldn't run though, as the dependency I was trying to use is incompatible with 32-bit hardware.

Thankfully, I'm building for the web. I was able to swap out Deno for QuickJS no problem. I lost my bundler in the process.

Thankfully, I'm building for the web. All my client software runs natively in text-only environments and progressively enhances to be fly-as-hell in modern browsers.

Here's the punchline though.

I wasn't able to update my Linux install. I mean, I was, but for the sake of argument, let's say I gave up and went back to Windows as a result.

What went wrong?

Three years ago when I was job searching, I installed VS Code on the Ol' Dell Latitude. As voted the most popular text editor by engineers I personally surveyed, I figured I should be up to speed on the hottest tool in the industry.

To do so, I needed to add a Microsoft domain to my package manager. This is software that downloads and installs updates for all of my software packages.

At some point in the last three years, Microsoft deleted the public key that they sign their packages with that my package manager uses to verify the authenticity and, therefore, the integrity of the software that gets installed onto my machine.

Let's rephrase that into a more human example.

Imagine Microsoft is the King and my computer is a soldier in the King's army. The Soldier and the King agree on a wax seal for dictating commands. Letters addressed to the Soldier with the correct wax seal can be trusted as sent directly from the King.

So, should the Soldier receive a letter with instructions to commit genocide without the seal of the King, they should not commit the genocide. Even with the seal, the Soldier should not commit the genocide and should instead devote their allegience to a realm of higher ideals.

Again, I digress.

When Microsoft deleted their key, my computer couldn't update anymore. Most people switch from Windows to Linux. Many return to Windows after encountering any amount of friction on Linux.

The solution is to remove the Microsoft repository from my package manager. An easy change, but it is not obvious to a beginner. And it only affects anyone trying to bring their comfort zone with them into new and unfamiliar territory.

It's just a damn shame that comfort zone has never sufficiently paid their anti-trust taxes.

I was angry for a long time.

I was scared for even longer.

I pushed people away. While I was hurting, I hurt others.

I wrote about my fears here. I lashed out, as honestly as I could.

I'm not sorry for anything I wrote. I'm not sorry for how I felt.

I'm processing.

In presenting more myself and feeling more myself, I found people didn't care.

They didn't care from a place of hate. They didn't care from a place of ignorance.

People didn't care because I never told them how I felt. I never let myself open up to be vulnerable.

I mean, there are a lot of people that think I'm going to hell for one reason or another. And there are a lot of people that think I'm the most spiritually grounded person they've ever met.

I'm a spectrum.

We all deserve the right to be ourselves. That's why I'm supporting the walk out today.

If you're mad about something, don't stay mad.

You'll hurt yourself, then others.

Just be honest with who you really are.

Blessed be.

---

Let's make no mistake about this: The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods. If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. And to do that, we must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living. To sit on the front steps—whether it's a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city—and to talk to our neighborhoods is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living-room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color.

And I hardly need to tell you that in the 19- or 24-inch [10-foot] view of the world, cleanliness has long since eclipsed godliness. Soon we'll all smell, look, and actually be laboratory clean, as sterile on the inside as on the out. The perfect consumer, surrounded by the latest appliances. The perfect audience, with a ringside seat to almost any event in the world, without smell, without taste, without feel—alone and unhappy in the vast wasteland of our living rooms. I think that what we actually need, of course, is a little more dirt on the seat of our pants as we sit on the front stoop and talk to our neighbors once again, enjoying the type of summer day where the smell of garlic travels slightly faster than the speed of sound.

— Harvey Milk

When you first meet your new friend, get their name. Pronounce it correctly. Laugh together on how many times it takes.

Ask them 3 questions that are infused with their name.

Say farewell.