Month: January 2019
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A plea for protocols
The antidote to the abuses of big tech is the very thing that gave birth to the Internet itself: decentralized, neutral technical protocols. The thought that inspires my work. Ever since I started work on Nupedia and then Wikipedia, a thought has always inspired me: just imagine the stunning possibilities when people come together as…
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We need to pay more for journalism. A lot more.
I’m going to say a few obvious things, and then then a few unobvious things, about the business model for news publishing. Obvious thing #1: One of the most consequential facts of the Internet age is that news content has become free of charge. We all watched in morbid fascination in the 1990s and 00s…
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Further, alarming evidence of Larry’s creeping geekhood
Yes, I’m another one who has plunked down unnecessary amounts of money just to get a keyboard with keys that bump, click, and have precise activation points, and with switches that people care a lot about, changeable keys, etc. So far, I don’t regret the purchase one bit and I’m rather happy with it. And proud,…
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Why Racism Is Wrong
Denial of individual humanity The problem with racism is the collectivism—the tribalism—the treatment of people as mere tokens or representatives of their races. That, as it turns out, is a profoundly appalling and consequential attitude to take. Treating people as mere tokens of their race literally dehumanizes them. Why? Because it ignores, often accompanied by…
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How to delete Ruby and Rails (and other gems) from Ubuntu 18.04
In order to install Ruby and Rails on Ubuntu 18.04, first I had to completely wipe my first, abortive attempt. That proved to be harder than expected. So, in order to save others the effort I had to go through, here’s what I did. This worked for me…who knows if it’ll work for you, though?…
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Eric the Omnipotent
I’ve been making up a bedtime story for my boys (ages 12 and 8). I decided to start writing it down. What I have below is the first few evenings’ worth. I have a fair bit to catch up; there will be adventures at school, making money, and trips here and there. I thought I’d…
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How and why I transitioned to Linux—how you can, too
First published Jan. 17, 2019; updated Nov. 15, 2019 Let me briefly tell my Linux story. If you’re thinking about moving to Linux, and wondering how you’d do so, it might give you some pointers and inspiration. The back story My first introduction to the command line was in the 80s when I first started…
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Why does information privacy matter, again?
It’s not just because you are a criminal and the coppers might catch you. Or because you really, really hate big corporations who just want to sell you stuff more easily. Or because you’re paranoid. If that’s as far as your thinking goes, when people start talking about “privacy” on the Internet, you really need…
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Stop giving your information away carelessly!
27 tips for improving your cyber-hygiene Who is most responsible for your online privacy being violated? You are. Privacy is one of the biggest concerns in tech news recently. The importance of personal privacy is something everybody seems to be able to agree on. But if you’re concerned about privacy, then you need stop giving your…