FruityPotato🍐 @ze4os@computerfairi.es

@dankwraith people who major in computer science should be forced to take classes on

a) ethics, in general and specifically with regards to how it can go wrong in tech (dark patterns, biased data producing exacerbated bias in machine learning
b) the limits of "logic," including the that whole bit you mentioned about math proving that it can't prove all things that are true and various other crises of pure logic
c) basic sociology
d) more ethics

So I was recently asked why I prefer to use free and open source software over more conventional and popular proprietary software and services.

A few years ago I was an avid Google user. I was deeply embedded in the Google ecosystem and used their products everywhere. I used Gmail for email, Google Calendar and Contacts for PIM, YouTube for entertainment, Google Newsstand for news, Android for mobile, and Chrome as my web browser.

I would upload all of my family photos to Google Photos and all of my personal documents to Google Drive (which were all in Google Docs format). I used Google Domains to register my domain names for websites where I would keep track of my users using Google Analytics and monetize them using Google AdSense.

I used Google Hangouts (one of Google’s previous messaging plays) to communicate with friends and family and Google Wallet (with debit card) to buy things online and in-store.

My home is covered with Google Homes (1 in my office, 1 in my bedroom, 1 in the main living area) which I would use to play music on my Google Play Music subscription and podcasts from Google Podcasts.

I have easily invested thousands of dollars into my Google account to buy movies, TV shows, apps, and Google hardware devices. This was truly the Google life.

Then one day, I received an email from Google that changed everything.

Just the thing you want to wake up to in the morning. An email from Google saying that your account has been suspended due to a perceived Terms of Use violation. No prior warning. No appeals process. No number to call. Trying to sign in to your Google account yields an error and all of your connected devices are signed out. All of your Google data, your photos, emails, contacts, calendars, purchased movies and TV shows. All gone.

I nearly had a heart attack, until I saw that the Google account that had been suspended was in fact not my main personal Google account, but a throwaway Gmail account that I created years prior for a project. I hadn’t touched the other account since creation and forgot it existed. Apparently my personal Gmail was listed as the recovery address for the throwaway account and that’s why I received the termination email.

Although I was able to breathe a sigh of relief this time, the email was wake up call. I was forced to critically reevaluate my dependence on a single company for all the tech products and services in my life.

I found myself to be a frog in a heating pot of water and I made the decision that I was going to jump out.

Today there are plenty of lists on the internet providing alternatives to Google services such as this and this. Although the “DeGoogle” movement was still in its infancy when I was making the move.

The first Google service I decided to drop was Gmail, the heart of my online identity. I migrated to Fastmail with my own domain in case I needed to move again (hint: glad I did, now I self host my email). Fastmail also provided calendar and contacts solutions so that took care of leaving Google Calendar and Contacts.

Here are some other alternatives that I moved to:

• Gmail → Fastmail → Self-hosted (via Cloudron)
• Google Contacts → Fastmail → Nextcloud Contacts
• Google Calendar → Fastmail → Nextcloud Calendar
• Google Search → Bing → DuckDuckGo
• Google Maps → Bing Maps → OpenStreetMaps and OsmAnd
• Google Analytics → Matomo Analytics
• Google Drive → Nextcloud Files
• Google Photos → Nextcloud Files/Gallery
• Google Docs → Collabora Office (Nextcloud integration) and LibreOffice
• Google Play Music → Spotify / Plex → Spotify / Jellyfin
• Google Play Movies/TV → Plex → Jellyfin
• Google Play Audiobooks/Books → Audible/Kindle
• Google Play Store (apps) → F-Droid / Aurora Store
• Google Android → Lineage OS → Ubuntu Touch on PinePhone (coming soon?)
• Google’s Android Apps → Simple Mobile Tools
• Google Chrome → Mozilla Firefox
• Google Domains → Hover
• Google Hangouts → Matrix and Nextcloud Talk
• Google Allo → Signal
• Google Podcasts → PocketCasts → AntennaPod
• Google Newsstand → RSS
• Google Wallet → PayPal and Cash App
• Google Voice →Ting Mobile

Migrating away from Google was not a fast or easy process. It took years to get where I am now and there are still several Google services that I depend on: YouTube and Google Home.

Eventually, my Google Home’s will grow old and become unsupported at which point hopefully the Mycroft devices have matured and become available for purchase. YouTube may never be replaced (although I do hope for projects like PeerTube to succeed) but I find the compromise of using only one or two Google services to be acceptable.

At this point losing my Google account due to a mistake in their machine learning would largely be inconsequential and my focus has shifted to leaving Amazon which I use for most of my shopping and cloud services.

The reason that I moved to mostly FOSS applications is that it seems to be the only software ecosystem where everything works seamlessly together and I don’t have to cede control to any single company. Alternatively I could have simply split my service usage up evenly across Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple but I don’t feel that they would have worked as nicely together.

Overall I’m very happy with the open source ecosystem. I use Ubuntu with KDE on all of my computers and Android (no GApps) on my mobile phone. I’ve ordered the PinePhone “Brave Heart” and hope to one day be able to use it or one of its successors as a daily driver with Ubuntu Touch or Plasma Mobile.

I don’t want to give the impression that I exclusively use open source software either, I do use a number of proprietary apps including: Sublime Text, Typora, and Cloudron.

https://www.kylepiira.com/2020/01/09/why-i-quit-google/

thinking about the pkmn sword dex entry for Wooloo that straight up claims that their fleece is basically so good at absorbing shock they can fall off cliffs and basically stand up again utterly unharmed.

but now i'm imagining like a screensaver that's just a bunch of balls bouncing around a screen slowly coming to rest... that but softly, gently bleating wooloo's tumbling about the screen, rolling around, wigglin' li'l peeties and then trotting off once righting themselves again

Say it with me!

Education 👏 does 👏 not 👏 equal 👏 intelligence 👏 👏 👏

French is in italics

I swear i didn't arrange this on purpose. They line up to stare at me when they're hungry

you can read the dwarf fortress changelog and it's just full of mastodon award winning shitposts

there's a patch note like this:

Mulling over long-term memories can lead to shifts in intellectual values and personality changes

and then the very next thing on the list is something like:

Stopped dogs from being sad because they can't have a religion

Well, what I thought was a lunch date was a pyramid scheme presentation

Why is it always the cute bois?

"That's not what I expected," the knight said.
"What?" said the princess. "It's a dragon hoard."
The knight tried to count the dragons cuddling in a pile.
"How?"
"I started with one, then found a couple of strays." The princess shrugged. "I guess I just started collecting them."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

My youngest child declared himself ACE and wanted a black ring, so this morning’s project was to machine a ring to size and fire blacken it (what else would a #blacksmith do?)

I started with some 22.5mm round high torsion stainless bar and machine out the centre on the lathe. I then progressively snuck up on the right size with a dremel and hand sanded to finish before heating and quenching in oil multiple times to blacken it.

#metalwork #jewellery #ring

"Why, here in America, the seeds of racism are so deeply rooted in white people collectively, their belief that they are `superior` in some way is so deeply rooted, that these things are in the national white subconscious. Many whites are even actually unaware of their own racism, until they face some test, and then their racism emerges in one form or another." - Malcolm X

Still. Fuckin. True.

I can’t wait until January 2nd, when I gorge myself on half-price goose and discount champagne

At least the rich are predictable