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firstbabylonian

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yeehaw

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It’s also something that has been historically true over and over, sadly. All ‘nice’ pacifist societies ended up getting wiped out or subjugated by their uncaring neighbours. Sustainable niceness does not exist. I wonder if we should accept this fact rather than continue to fight it.

Does it not get exhausting to swim against the current all the time? Don't you ever wish you could let you go and let your inner little mind take control, if not just for a moment? What you describe as being genuine and authentic and open minded sounds like a cross you have decided you must bear. It's okay. You are not Jesus. You don't have to do this.

Yes, I edited the original comment, because I realised that you took offence in it and thought that I was addressing "you" — or the OP — specifically. It was a hyperbolic statement. Does the edit make it clear?

My argument is simple: the internet today is very broad, and humanity — let's face it — on the whole is not very nice. It's admirable to try to create pockets of positivity in it anyway. I simply want to highlight that it is futile, and maybe a more realist perspective is what we actually need to find a way forward.

ability to install an app off an unsigned IPA file for free

I feel like the thinking is that there must be an entity — somebody running an app store — who could be held legally responsible for any damage caused by malware distributed via their channels. Regular non-tech-savvy users cannot be trusted with such delicate software as apps running on their personal phones.

The world is harsh and uncaring. Today's internet reflects that. What used to be a safe space for dorky techies is now a cross-sectional slice of the entire society, a live reel of human nature in motion.

Clean, sensible, introverted living is overrated.

There's something deeply human in the whole 'awkward dance'. Not everyone is born a great dancer, but this doesn't mean that dancing is a stupid and pointless activity.

People have been trading with one another (and often tricking or getting tricked in the process) for millennia. The 'Grand Bazaar' you evoke stands for something timeless — a promise of wealth earned with wit. In a twisted way, our American love for capitalism and these sleazy dealerships are chasing the same ancient dream.

May as well be a part of it.

I don’t know how you can expect English speakers to care about this sort of thing, when the vast majority of them don’t even pay attention to how their own language is displayed in software they develop.

Every organisation I’ve worked at meets attempts to correct apostrophes and curly quotes in their English copy with such an intense mixture of indifference, confusion, and annoyance, that anybody who tries is quickly convinced that they are the insane ones to pay attention to such inconsequential nonsense. Use of tabs vs spaces is easier to turn into a legitimate problem with business impact by comparison.

[dead] 3 years ago

The Silicon Valley elite lives in a bubble, what else is new

Somehow I feel that changed recently (post-COVID?).

I remember having lots of random conversations with my seatmates on planes, and I’m not the type to talk to strangers myself.

It used to be normal to always ask something along the lines of “where are you headed?” and maybe let that evolve into a chat about shared experiences about cities and places. I still remember some of the fascinating people I met this way and will never see again.

But in the last couple of years all my flights have been purely transactional where not a single casual word is ever exchanged with anyone.

This solution effectively comes down to "get regulators to police big tech more, in this particular way".

How much luck have we had with meaningful regulation in the tech industry recently? Doesn't feel like much, if any. Everyone hates GDPR and the cookie banners. Restriction of advertiser tracking — the closest thing to a consumer win that comes to mind — was not a product of policymaking but of Apple's competitive action.

I personally love the idea of government regulation but America clearly doesn't. This market needs solutions that don't involve top-down control.

Thanks. Yeah, telling apart websites from web apps is a pain. It may be clear to a web engineer which URLs might work and which URLs almost certainly won't, but to a normal user that's far from obvious.

A blocklist sounds like a great idea. It would definitely help corner that case.

In NoScript.it, are you using an existing open source list or building one out?