Tom Ryder @tejr@mastodon.sdf.org
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
—T. S. Eliot—The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Tom Ryder
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I still find it a bit amusing how when someone tried to take over freenode everyone just... left and made another network
Tom Ryder
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@elb Ah, I had been wondering if was just me.
Tom Ryder
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Like a bat out of hell
Tom Ryder
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It looks like a #SDF #Mastodon update at the end of 2021 caused a number of instances from other parts of the #fediverse to lose follower/following status from SDF users. I lost about half of the accounts I was following and a somewhat smaller proportion of followers.
If I was following you, or you were following me, and the connection was lost, it wasn't intentional! Please re-follow or remind me that I used to follow. I'd hate to lose that good #retrocomputing or #floss content!
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven
I’ll come crawling on back to you
Tom Ryder
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reject twitter embrace fediverse
Tom Ryder
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Owning a computer? God, no, I'm just a humble developer. All computers belong to the King, though he may grant some computers to his loyal vassals to rule in his name. We just work our liege lord's spreadsheets in exchange for some processing and storage.
“Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
“These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”
—Matthew 15:17–20 (KJV)
Tom Ryder
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@sneak Well, I’m rather fond of this one, at any rate: https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Mastodon
Tom Ryder
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Tom Ryder
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computer grousing, subtype calendar
i know date math is hard and calendars are hard for all kinds of reasons, but sometimes i think about how "marking out blocks of time on a grid of days or hours and other people can see it" is a problem you can only have a computer help you with if you agree to do everything inside a box owned by one of like 3 or 4 billionaires, and then i think about how many smart people are hard at work making it so everything that isn't like this will be like this
Tom Ryder
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@liamdiprose re unformity: here's an argument I made related to gov't use of tech https://openstandards.nz/ Gov'ts tend to 'simplify" tech issues by mandating a single solution. It's a flawed gambit: monocultures are fragile, expensive & always stagnate.
Instead, they would gain many advantages by embracing some addition complexity adopting a set of independent standards, allowing anything meeting those standards to participate. It creates a far richer, more robust & innovative ecosystem.
I am lurking in this conversation and I just want to tell you both how enormously refreshing it is to read an actual real civil political/philosophical debate.
Tom Ryder
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i remember some dude here typed an essay about nuclear power before, and i hope that dude sees this
Tom Ryder
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WordPress: what a strange world where 39% of the web is running one of the most successful Free Software platforms, including the majority of paid plugins, creating Free Software jobs, Stallman is wiping a tear of happiness from his eye, but it’s in a programming language we don’t like.
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