chris

I'm a 40-something blind guy living in the Pacific Northwest of the US.
I write, maintain, and advocate for free software.
Utopian dreamer, vegetarian, and amateur philosopher / historian.

Public Key

npub1cfmc9zmyvltll34x63zdr0d2zxeas3zaksz0pdxfvvnwgmv59kfsdfmm05

NIP-05 Address

chris_at_s.the-brannons.com@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvyauz3djx04llc6ndg3x3hk4prv7cg3wmgp8sknykxfhydk2zmycpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qhturq6

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relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1cfmc9zmyvltll34x63zdr0d2zxeas3zaksz0pdxfvvnwgmv59kfsdfmm05

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Last Notes

2024-04-03 08:57:14

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@npub1trd…ussx Love these; they always make me smile.

2023-12-03 18:46:34

My partner Deedra reported an accessibility issue in the Monal XMPP client
recently, and their reply included the following help request:
> If you are aware of an open source enthusiast with a bit of experience
> in writing SwiftUI as well as accessibility, please let him/her/them
> know that we would love some help.
I don't know anything about this stuff, but I hope I can find people who do.
Any takers?
Probably you should reach out to the project directly via email, to
info at monal-im dot org.
Please boost far and wide.
Mentioning @npub15a4…qzna as well, here.

2023-11-29 04:35:40

Things like https://4mt.me/hcaptchastory are a direct consequence of
what I'll call the Google model of customer service. That is to say, no
accountability. Google didn't really pioneer this. Corporations have
always been a means of dodging accountability, more or less. Google
and Silicon Valley just took it to the next level.
Megacorps are not and have never been a good idea.
People talk about the enshitification of the web. What I see coming
are unheard-of levels of enshitification in physical space, unless we can
put a stop to it. Also enshitification is inversely correlated with autonomy / control.
AI? Virtual reality? These are tools that will be used to steal autonomy
from people, and enshitification is the inevitable result of that.

2023-09-18 11:18:11

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@npub1trd…ussx Also, perpetual war.
Then there was the time the US government tried to do a Babylon 5 style
Night Watch, with the TIPS program.

2023-09-06 06:08:03

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@npub1ysu…2jyl I saw the surveillance issues coming 20 years
ago, when the bank remotely repossessed my girlfriend's car because she
had missed some payments. They literally locked her out of it using
a satellite transponder. We can't trust capitalists and authoritarians
of any stripe with digital tech.
Bikes are cool and we need more of them on the streets. But not all
of us can ride. Walkable cities FTW. Though I don't see why
bike-friendly cities wouldn't be foot friendly. And for the people
who say, "not everyone can walk", a city without cars is also friendly
to personal mobility devices of all sorts.

2023-08-31 07:00:55

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@npub1trd…ussx @npub1t66…eayl That would be
nice. Perhaps a really young ticket, featuring AOC and someone else.
AOC would be just barely old enough to run. She's smart, a Social Democrat,
and ticks multiple "identity" boxes for the identity-focused democrats
in this country. It'd be harder for them to smear her fans as "AOC bros"
or whatever. And did I mention she's young? She obviously has stakes
in the game for many more decades.
My guess, though, is that they'll do something bone-headed like run Chelsea
Clinton and put all of the DNC resources behind her. She'll be a smidge
older than her daddy was when he won the presidency. That's my prediction,
Chelsea Clinton 2028.

2023-08-15 14:29:51

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@npub1hw3…apg6 @npub1ysu…2jyl Well, you probably
can't if you're blind. The oldest braille book I've seen was a copy of
the Gospel of Matthew from the early 1930s. It wasn't in good shape
circa 1990 when I found it. Braille on thermoform has even less of a
lifespan.
OTOH I can download a book from Project Gutenberg produced 40 years ago
and read it with `less`.

2023-08-14 16:23:18

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@npub1trd…ussx @npub12ek…2d5k
The funny thing is, Wahhabists would be the sort to be offended by a
band naming themselves that, too.
Kansas, Kabul, wherever; stick-up-the-ass no-fun-at-parties Puritans
are essentially the same regardless of what label they adopt
or what banner they fly.

2023-08-10 07:38:31

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@npub1sg4…xslc @npub18vn…narj
Attaching a typescript with the command line and a log.
https://s.the-brannons.com/media/fbff07569ea3ed69b258c8fea66abce2ff12779c249329be232c6483ffa63337.txt

2023-08-09 23:08:52

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@npub1sg4…xslc @npub18vn…narj
FWIW, this crashes with a general protection fault when booted under qemu/kvm.
Not sure whether that is expected, so mentioning it in case it isn't.

2023-08-06 15:05:04

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@npub1trd…ussx I still say the 2009 reboot film was straight-up
parody by someone who actively disliked or even hated Trek.
SNW, at least, has its moments. But the whole Gorn arc is terrible. Obviously
someone failed to carefully watch the TOS episode Arena and get the point of
it. There was some real nuance there, and I'm not fond of how they turned
them into just another "big bad".

2023-08-04 05:33:09

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@npub1trd…ussx @npub1q8n…kct8 @npub1ks4…x88p
For the most part, conservative empathy is limited to their in-group(s).
But that's not a safe assumption. For instance, I remember my "dad",
about as conservative a person as you can imagine, giving money to random
homeless people and just generally being a decent guy in how he treated
folks. Then again, he suffered *a lot* in his life. He advocated for
single-payer health insurance here in the US (AKA Medicare for All).
Dude could have been a great socialist if it weren't for his deep hatred
of certain outgroups. We watched the film *The Corporation* together
and loved it. But if the conversation ever veered too much to socialism,
he'd be like "but human nature" or "but the <insert racial slur> are a
bunch of takers". So close, yet so far away.
People are complicated.

2023-07-29 10:56:44

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@npub1trd…ussx
Here in the US,
Occupy was actively squashed by the state, while the Tea Party movement was allowed
to flourish and gather crazy conspiracy theories to itself. Like:
the Obama is a foreign Muslim conspiracy theory, Pizza Gate, and eventually
Qanon. The algorithms of Facebook and Youtube helped these things spread.
Add a crazy fascist politician whose rise to power was directly enabled
by corporate media in search of attention dollars.
Then there's the inept Democratic party which has repeatedly failed
to inspire people or make any systemic change.
Here in the US, we have two parties spouting an identity
politics line. On the Democratic side, it's about minority identities
or oppressed identities. On the Republican side, it's about white
identity, narrowly defined Christian values, whatever.
So everything has devolved into culture war.
Nobody at all is speaking a clearly universalist message, and whenever
anyone does, they get crushed. See "We are the 99%",
a universal message.
The universalist answer to identity politics is human rights. That doesn't
mean we don't talk about things like race, or gender, or sexual orientation,
or disability, or whatever. It doesn't mean we minimize them.
But the basic message needs to be universal human rights, not "vote for me
because you're in <insert name of identity group> and I'm your defender".

2023-07-20 05:03:42

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@npub1trd…ussx My GF hates AIC. No idea why.
We joke-fight every time I play anything of theirs. "WTF is wrong with you?"
She'll listen to Nirvana though, and likes Pearl Jam. I had no appreciation
for Pearl Jam in my teens, but that has changed somewhat now.
I'd also recommend (not strongly, but worth a listen) the group Mad Season.
For 90s vocals, my faves would be: Mazzy Star (I would listen to Hope Sandoval
if she sang passages from the phonebook). Screaming Trees. Radiohead.

2023-07-14 05:58:09

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@npub1trd…ussx @npub1hyk…3p33 @npub17x8…gr2x
I keep going back to what Dr. King said to his jailers. Essentially,
you should be marching with me, not fighting me. The same guys who are
oppressing me are oppressing you too. We're really on the same side here,
even if you don't know it yet. Now there is a guy that the latte liberal
set loves to quote and refuses to hear.
He was such a threat to the status quo that they defanged his memory.
Enough people were listening, almost. Now every weaksauce centrist tries
to claim him as one of their own.
On the other hand ... we call them names like Nazi, sure. But the race-based
dehumanizing rhetoric that I soaked up like a sponge while growing up
in the southern US is so, so much worse.
And the people listening to
that rhetoric have demonstrated a willingness to use violence
to get what they want, even though they have no idea why they want it and no
idea why it is not in fact the thing that would solve their problems.
If you want to know what dehumanization of the other really looks like,
go find -- not buy -- a copy of The Turner Diaries and read that puppy cover to cover.
TL;DR: it's a blood-drenched fantasy wherein everyone who isn't certified
100% Aryan by the American Kennel Club is referred to as "subhuman" or
"humanoid" on almost every page.
Now I will not claim that everybody in the southern US is a dyed in
the wool racist who sleeps with a copy of the Turner Diaries or Mein Kampf
under his pillow.
Far from it. In fact, a lot of good ol' boy racists are justifiably horrified
by the Turner Diaries.
But I can assure you that the number of people who resonate with a
statement like "Mexican immigrants are here to steal our jobs and rape
`our` women" is very far from zero, and it's a short leisurely stroll from
there to "Hey dudes, let's do a Turner Diaries IRL."
Climate change will exacerbate these problems, as even more
people go looking for a racial or ethnic other to blame for their trouble.
Contrary to the fantasies of some hairshirt-wearing hippies, it will not
cause us to
willingly and gladly rush to embrace the joys of voluntary
simplicity in a bucolic setting,
while channeling our inner Thoreau and E.F. Schumacher.
Three generations back , my cracker hillbilly forbears were one or two steps
up from serfdom. Voluntary simplicity is a fantasy for the privileged.

2023-07-13 23:29:35

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@npub1trd…ussx @npub17x8…gr2x @npub1hyk…3p33 Oh, the deplorables are quite real. I was raised to be one. I know right-wing talking points so well that I could probably have a successful run in conservative talk radio or journalism and receive some of that sweet, sweet wingnut welfare.
But then there’s also the fact that a lot of the bigotry you see from the “basket of deplorables” is literally just based on fear and ignorance. A lot of these people are deeply hurting. The person who raised me to be a racist shitlord certainly was. People who are hurting are even more vulnerable to fear. Add to the mix that there is a class of fear-stokers in the media, pointing the finger at some other powerless group, be it gay people, or black people, or whoever, and saying “Don’t mind the man behind the curtain who is literally robbing you blind. Look at these people over here instead. They want to destroy your way of life blah blah blah.” Divide and rule, a time-tested strategy.
Oklahoma – the place where I grew up – had a very healthy socialist movement and political party in the early 1910s. It was destroyed by World War I and the Red Scare of the early 20s. Part of the reason Oklahoma is full of deplorables now is that the ruling class destroyed the alternative almost a hundred years ago.
And none of this should be taken as an excuse for or endorsement of the behavior of so-called “deplorables”. I don’t wanna dialogue with these people. The ideology that I was exposed to from a very young age quite literally destroyed my soul. It explains, but not excuses.
We need a society that works for everyone. Once we have it, my suspicion is that the “deplorable” mindset will wither on the vine. The fire will die out for lack of fuel.

2023-07-11 04:43:35

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@npub1qzc…yetl
So true. For me, a blind person, this is a human rights issue as well
as a climate issue. Yes, electric vehicles are awesome. I love riding
in them. When I take Lyft and the driver has an electric, I nerd
out and ask them a bunch of semi-technical questions.
It's very superior to internal combustion.
But it would be so much better to live in a world built for people,
not for cars. A world where I didn't feel like I was literally taking
my life into my hands every time I walked down a busy street.
Here in the US, we have this mindset that every problem can be solved
by consumption. Just buy some shit and the world will be better.
We saw it after September 11, when Bush got on TV and told people to
go shopping. Detroit, orSilicon Valley, or whoever -- has a solution
for whatever your problem is, and all you have to do is buy it.
By the same token, the opposite -- and to some, equally alluring -- trap is a sort of hair-shirt
anti-materialism / anti-consumption that says individuals can change
the world through enough self-flagellation. That's another post entirely,
though.
My point is these are collective problems and we have to solve them
collectively.

2023-07-04 16:29:20

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@npub1ysu…2jyl Yeah I've been on Unix for most of the last
25 years. Longer if you count dialup shell accounts. Used Windows 95 back
in the day some, and DOS some. In the last decade or so, I started noticing
just how terrible error messages were on smartphone apps and webapps. I
hadn't realized Windows started the trend.

2023-07-04 16:20:12

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@npub1ysu…2jyl
That is an absolutely terrible error message. Go go OpenSSL!
In fairness to it, I might be able to decipher it with effort.
It's a little better than "Error: success", maybe, and a vast improvement
over the sort of error messages a lot of apps and webapps give. "There
was an error. Try again later." Those kind are all too common and just
inculcate learned helplessness.

2023-06-27 06:33:39

TIL that on FreeBSD, the interpreter in the shebang line of a script must be a binary executable (presumably ELF), not a script or similar. On Linux, using a script as an interpreter is totally cool. The fix is easy: just use #!/usr/bin/env in the shebang line, which is probably a good idea anyway. If your shebang line does happen to point to a script, execution doesn’t fail. Oh no. Instead, the system shell is invoked with whatever you were trying to pass to some other interpreter. This is absolutely terrible. Instead of getting a sane error message like “Sorry Dave, I can’t do that, and here’s why”, you’ll get some bizarre syntax error from the shell … if you’re lucky! If you are particularly unlucky, then who the fuck knows what will happen. Your guess is as good as mine.
Somewhat relatedly, the following has made its rounds on HN and Lobsters more than once: Actually Portable Executables. For people who haven’t seen it, this is basically a technique to create a “polyglot” x86 binary that runs on Unix, DOS/Windows, Mac, bare metal, and so forth. On Unix, this works by exploiting an ancient misfeature that has evidently been codified in bloody POSIX. Here’s a longish quote from the post:
One day, while studying old code, I found out that it’s possible to encode Windows Portable Executable files as a UNIX Sixth Edition shell script, due to the fact that the Thompson Shell didn’t use a shebang line. Once I realized it’s possible to create a synthesis of the binary formats being used by Unix, Windows, and MacOS, I couldn’t resist the temptation of making it a reality, since it means that high-performance native code can be almost as pain-free as web apps. Here’s how it works:
There are already plenty of ways to use the wrong interpreter on the wrong code. This one would be easy to prevent. But nope, likely not gonna happen, at least on POSIX systems.

2023-06-27 00:54:39

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@npub1trd…ussx That phrase "reacting from our own psychic wounds"
hit me like a ton of bricks just now. I've been doing it my whole life.

2023-06-26 10:38:56

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@npub1ysu…2jyl
Along similar lines,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENOTTY#Occurrence

2023-06-07 15:15:00

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@npub1ysu…2jyl
I ran away screaming from Arch years ago, when one of their people said:
"We're going to do whatever Fedora does." I don't miss this sort of
random breakage, not one tiny bit.
One of the arguments I used when convincing an Arch fan to switch to Void
was: "You won't have random binaries with missing shared libs, because
the package manager and build system take pains to protect you from that."
In fairness, that's only true of stuff you install with the package manager.
I had to fix my from-source install of Nominatim earlier this week, because
it was missing some old boost library.
I suspect I wouldn't miss dynamic linking if it went away completely.

2023-06-03 05:39:43

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@npub1trd…ussx
Not a fan of all the glum dour hung-up Puritanism on the left.
Nor, for that matter, of a lot of what has come out of leftist academia
in the last 50 years or so.
I tried reading Herbert Marcuse about 10 years back. My time would have
been better spent watching paint dry.
Between the Puritans and the navel gazers, we're in a deal of trouble,
and ill-equipped to fight the forces of oppression.
I get my leftism from logic, my heart, my inner voice, dreams ...

2023-05-05 08:49:44

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@npub1trd…ussx The single positive thing I can say about Zoom is that at least they let you dial in with a telephone number. So I can fire up my trusty SIP client and join one of those things using my VOIP provider.
Granted, I don’t get video that way. That’s fine; I’m blind, so it is useless to me. I don’t care about outbound video, because frankly, people being able to see me when I cannot see them gives them a sort of power over me. Having no video evens the playing field. It’s the same reason I fell in love with text chat as a teen in 1994 or so.
What’s terribly ironic is that so much of big tech is powered by GNU/Linux. Free software won, even though the corporate crowd rebranded it as open source. But wait! Actually, it didn’t win. They just changed the rules of the game, so that they deal in services rather than software.