byron @byronalley@mastodon.social

@deejoe @enkiv2

It really worries me that so many programmers sneer at Excel and Access. Those tools exist because they allow users to do programming; yet somehow this is not cheered, but seen as an enemy of 'proper' programming.

(of course then systems programmers sneer at 'mere web developers', etc)

I don't understand the division and I never have. It doesn't seem to be about wanting to make the tools better - more a resentment that user-accessible programming tools exist AT ALL.

RT @codepo8@twitter.com: http://Webhint.io – hinting at a better web
https://christianheilmann.com/2018/08/07/webhint-io-hinting-at-a-better-web/
Sonarwhal is now Webhint and got a massive upgrade. Much faster, much smaller and still open source and customizable to your needs.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/codepo8/status/1026926370369228800

Please consider writing your hashtags in upper camelcase so screen readers have a chance at figuring them out.

#whyistayonmastodon sounds like an giant undecipherable mess of sounds.

#WhyIStayOnMastodon reads out "Why I Stay On Mastodon" 😄

(Reason #44 I stay here: my previous requests like this have been generally well-received, proving that most people are awesome.)

Image courtesy of @doctorow

#Mozilla announces changes to their #bugbounty program https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2018/08/01/safe-harbor-for-security-bug-bounty-participants/

Finding alternatives to proprietary online tools with @Framasoft https://opensource.com/article/18/8/framasoft

Idea: a distributed filesystem for recycling old hard drives. Ram a lot of them into one storage rack, and sacrifice some amount of storage space on redundancy based on each drive's condition.

Is there something like this in the wild?

We’ve been talking about a national grid for years. It might be time to do it. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/8/3/17638246/national-energy-grid-renewables-transmission

u can haz open source digital freedoms. Pay what you want for the Linux Geek Bundle and benefit EFF!
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/linux-geek-books

23andMe Sold Access to Your DNA Library to Big Pharma

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwkaz3/23andme-sold-access-to-your-dna-library-to-big-pharma-but-you-can-opt-out

If only some of us had seen this coming and warned people… oh, wait…

#SurveillanceCapitalism HT @hjdraper8

There's an amazing number of #ActivityPub #alternatives now available or under development:

Twitter -> @Mastodon and #Pleroma

Instagram -> @pixelfed and @anfora

YouTube -> #PeerTube ( @Chocobozzz )

Soundcloud -> @funkwhale

MeetUp -> @GetTogetherComm

Medium -> #Plume ( @BaptisteGelez )

Reddit -> @prismo and Anancus ( @tuxether )

LinkedIn -> @cloutstream

Google Calendar -> @calendar_social

Anything missing from the list? What else is needed?

#Federation #Fediverse

@kensanata posted a list of books for learning the "C" programming language

Here is my list (most are available online):

* Build Your Own Lisp (in C) http://www.buildyourownlisp.com/contents

* C Interfaces and Implementations https://sites.google.com/site/cinterfacesimplementations/

* The C Book http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book/

* The Definitive C Book Guide and List
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/562303/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list

* C Elements of Style http://www.oualline.com/books.free/style/index.html

* The GNU C Programming Tutorial http://www.crasseux.com/books/ctut.pdf

* Modern C http://icube-icps.unistra.fr/img_auth.php/d/db/ModernC.pdf

Portugal abandoned austerity and, amazingly, its economy got better https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/business/portugal-economy-austerity.html

It's official. Mastodon is now part of FontAwesome.

#fontawesome #fonts #typography #mastodon #logo

Worth it: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/linux-geek-books

#gimp #inkscape #blender #linux #python

Oh great: the #intel #backdoor in everybody's computer has severe bugs so that anybody might able to take over your computer via network: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00112.html
And you can't do anything against it.
#intelME #security

I liberated a friend's computer with Ubuntu Linux recently. She was fed up with Windows 10 after an update caused some of her usb devices to stop working. This friend is a computer novice and I chose the distro that I felt would be the "easiest". So far, she has not had to ask me for much help at all. This further lends to my argument that GNU/Linux is actually to install and use than either Windows or Apple these days.

Facebook put out a patent application for a face recognition system that will match your face in stores and correlate it with your social media profile to assign you a shopper trust level.

That's some seriously dystopian shit right there.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/technology/facebook-facial-recognition-privacy.html

Problems we are having with #Signal:
* It is and will remain centralized (clear strategy of *not* federating servers)
* It requires strong identifiers/selectors (phone#) to use
* Author disallows distribution by anyone but Google, although free/libre
* It keeps pushing away verification of fingerprint in interface
* It relies on Google+Amazon infrastructure
* Its funding is shady (OTF = Radio Free Asia = USG)

= clearly unethical choices, unjustifiable by accessibility or technological reasons.