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#61 2020-10-14 13:31:33

Destry
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From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

bici wrote #326364:

i have heard back from number of friends that they wanted to reduce their online presence since viewing The Social Dilemma film.

I was going to share this last month but decided to spare everyone. Now I have no choice.

Why is the world going to hell? Netflix’s The Social Dilemma tells only half the story

Cook’s a good writer. I’ve been enjoying his articles for that reason alone.

After reading this article, I didn’t need to watch the documentary, and have not; it would just make me more angry at the gullibility of most humans. Though I might make the rest of the family watch it.

Last edited by Destry (2020-10-14 13:32:38)

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#62 2020-10-14 15:22:18

Bloke
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From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
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Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

That’s a great article. Thanks for sharing, Destry.


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#63 2020-10-14 19:07:56

bici
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From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,071
Website Mastodon

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

Destry wrote #326381:

Why is the world going to hell? Netflix’s The Social Dilemma tells only half the story

thanks. i will be passing this on to others. I agree that the netflix doc is a bit rudimentary but at least it’s a very useful film to get people to think. I need to work harder on my daughter-in-laws to give up their FB/Instagram nonsense… my sons don’t use either of those.


…. texted postive

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#64 2020-10-15 05:28:19

bici
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From: vancouver
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 2,071
Website Mastodon

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

gaekwad wrote #326376:


I’ve got Pi Hole running at the DNS level, along with AdGuard at the device level where it’s viable, and that takes care of most stuff or me.

i am surprised that PI Hole is not on MacOS which is a unix system after all …


…. texted postive

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#65 2020-10-15 08:37:09

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,134
GitHub

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

bici wrote #326393:

i am surprised that PI Hole is not on MacOS which is a unix system after all …

It could be run in a container on macOS, sure – but having it attached to a network gives extra advantages:

  • all devices that have configurable DNS servers can use it
  • it can handle DHCP requests just fine
  • a single board computer (e.g. a Raspberry Pi) is much cheaper to leave on 24/7 than a laptop or desktop

I’ve set my router to handle DHCP (which is normal), and use the Pi as primary DNS, with Quad9 as the secondary DNS…so if the Pi goes pop stuff will still work seamlessly. The Pi in turn is set to round-robin DNS requests to 5 providers, and cache them for a certain time. This means fewer DNS lookups to the internet, though the benefit of this is minimal at a local network level.

A more obvious side benefit for me is having IoT stuff use it (albeit from a separate vLAN for safety) and be able to see exactly where’s it phoning home to. Those Kindle Fire sticks…they’re very chatty to Amazon. Visitors can join their own vLAN so the house/office stuff is isolated, but they’re still benefiting from some level of ad & tracker blocking.

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#66 2020-11-04 10:02:19

colak
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Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

When web developer Joel Galvez quit Facebook, he realized he had no accessible overview of events anymore – ‘newsletters and Instagram are just not the same, they give glimpses, but they don’t tell you what you could do this Saturday’. That’s why he started his project Public Data for Public Events (publicdata.events), a simple, low-tech, FLOSS solution, where you can curate your own calendar based on the event data that institutions made publicly accessible – all you need is their domain-name. And most importantly, all of this is completely open source and independent from closed platforms such as Facebook.

Designing the Politics of Public Data for Public Events


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#67 2020-11-20 10:03:14

Destry
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From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

bici wrote #325048:

fookingoogfarcebook.com . . . Lets Get Busy!

Do we take the high road or the low road?

The high, I guess, would be a .com domain as you suggest. Fill it with a steady stream of all the damaging news of these companies we can find, behind a core message like ‘kill big tech’ or ‘delete your accounts’ or whatever. At the same time we load up the site with all their socmed buttons for max distribution and exposure, fill pages with shameless advertising of every noxious variety, cater to AMP markup, and make an ironic bundle while grinning through our teeth.

The low row would be a .info tld, a more ethical and watchdog like tone behind the same message, a low-impact construction, and a firm no-tracking stance that gains nothing from the effort but altruistic satisfaction.

The low road somehow sounds like more work and less fun, if not soul-burning.

Better to take the no-road, perhaps.

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#68 2020-11-20 10:05:40

Destry
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From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

Speaking of AMP, it no longer gets you anything worth bothering with, lol. Not that I ever bothered with it, nor have given a crotte for a long while about goog search and seo.

Oh, and YouTube will now put ads in your videos but not give you anything for it unless you’re already a high-valued bread winner.

Maybe all those lawsuits are cumulatively paying off and goog is trimming sails as it watches the horizon.

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#69 2020-11-20 10:06:29

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,134
GitHub

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

There’s also the build-your-own road: ipfs.io – you could also get DIY hosting and have a .onion site, but you’re limited to Tor audience (arguably already converted to the cause to a lesser or greater extent).

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#70 2020-11-20 10:20:30

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

gaekwad wrote #326952:

There’s also the build-your-own road: ipfs.io

Interesting link, Pete. Thanks. I have to say I’m mildly curious about these alternative web technologies these days. It makes the web somewhat interesting again for this burnt out dog. You may have saw my Gemini post. Combine these notions with the idea of low-impact publishing as Low-Tech mag pursues and it all stirs my curiosity indeed. (Not that I have the spare time to really pursue exploring it.)

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#71 2020-11-20 11:16:59

gaekwad
Server grease monkey
From: People's Republic of Cornwall
Registered: 2005-11-19
Posts: 4,134
GitHub

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

Destry wrote #326953:

(Not that I have the spare time to really pursue exploring it.)

I’m cherry picking this sentence to expand on a point, not dismissing anything else you’ve written. What follows is my 2c, any posturing or snark is unintended and certainly not directed at you.

This spare time thing is the crux of the issue for me. I am not an activist in the traditional sense, I dislike some organisations / platforms / ideologies and tend to adhere to a scale of avoidance from total to minimal. My dislike of social media is my current main beef, mostly because of the impact it’s having on people as a whole, but also having insight into some of the inner workings of how it all works (i.e. devs working on dopamine-driven design, the data mining involved, that sort of thing) is a compounding factor.

Bluntly, I can’t run a digital agency and eschew social media. I won’t survive. Likewise, I can’t tell clients to avoid Google, they’d laugh me out of the tender process. I can work with these platforms with a sensible level of involvement, and advise clients on where to draw the line. I don’t subscribe to any Google services, and my Gmail account is a holdout from the early days when it was launched (2001? I forget) that I still have since some ancient services I’d forgotten about still use it. I received a Paypal commission from some site or other I was working as an affiliate when my earned total topped 200 bucks, so there’s an intrinsic psychological value associated with this account…I know it’s not rational, but $200 in a year that my business has basically been shredded to nothing with COVID was very graciously received.

I don’t use WhatsApp, I don’t use Facebook, I don’t use Instagram. I have clients that use all three actively as part of their online presence. Crucially I don’t let them live in my head rent-free, if I’m asked I give my opinion on them, and go about my day. What Pete thinks isn’t going to change the mind of the masses one iota, and I’d much prefer to have a rational conversation (not a debate) with someone who’s interested in reducing their reliance on such-and-such to help them on their way.

There are a few threads relating to Google / Facebook around here that I’m subscribed to. I get the opposition, I really do. I signed up for it by getting involved in a project that essentially assists with owning what you write & create, empowering you to do it more freely and / or more often, and making it wicked fast. All you need is your own hosting. Here’s the software, here’s the manual, deep breath, go invade. Trouble? We’re here, don’t be a stranger.

I used to be a big Apple fan. My favourite laptop ever was the 12-inch G4 PowerBook. Perfect machine. Things slipped in recent years, attention has been on iPhones and iPads, Macs get less of a look-in, and the macOS experience has, for me at least, been lacking. I am used to being ribbed or mocked by Microsoft people. That’s fine. I don’t use Windows actively but I have clients that do, so I have to know it, to a lesser or greater degree. Microsoft Windows. Not Micro$oft Winblows, or MicroShaft. I see Apple referred to as Crapple still, and this whole company renaming thing just smacks of…well, it makes me wonder how much mind space they have that people are so venomous towards them. Back to the rent-free thing. WordPress. I do WordPress for clients, too. I am often baffled by how it works, but I use it because it runs a lot of the web and people who ask for help usually just want some help and don’t give two shits what you think about the thing they want help on.

This thread (all seven pages of it so far) pops up now and again in my inbox when the more activist-oriented and vocal forum folks bump it with updates. Some days I click the link to see what’s up, others I just delete it because I can’t handle it. I’m not ever consciously telling people what to do and not to do – I started minding my own business in about 2006 and I thoroughly recommend it – but I can say my life is much more bearable by choosing who / what has space in my head, and whether they pay rent or not.

I told myself I’d spend more of my spare time reading and writing this year, but sadly this hasn’t panned out as I’d‘ve liked. I have had a mostly positive Textpattern experience this year, despite the challenges that Real Life has thrown my (our) way, so I’d like to close by thanking you and everyone else for some valuable insights into your respective worlds. For completeness, some other posts / threads have given me a good laugh and made me audibly question whether the author is of sound mind or the tin foil has some bald spots…but then it wouldn’t be a forum without the personality, right? Good times.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

— Pete ‘gaekwad’ Cooper, user ID 7456, post number 3208, fifteen years and one day since joining this forum.

Last edited by gaekwad (2020-11-20 11:30:45)

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#72 2020-11-20 12:57:46

jakob
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From: Germany
Registered: 2005-01-20
Posts: 4,578
Website

Re: Fookin' GAFM, again

Pete, I echo your sentiments in almost every way, and loved the way you wrote that too!

I’m probably not quite as principled as you, but still I try and choose as wisely as possible for myself where I can, and advise others on other ways where possible and viable. I’m fortunate to be able to work in contexts where I can sometimes influence decisions to a degree.

And, I agree too that threads like this, and other general/off-topic threads on this forum, are valuable for the added insight, and like you, some arguments/threads/insights I find compelling, others draw me into rabbit holes I can’t pursue and still others set off alarm bells in my head.

When’s the next TED talk? I’ll be there ;-)


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