Even if you do know code, nobody reads all the source code when trying something out.

We still rely largely on trust, and herd protection. Lots of stars on github? Been around for a while? Keeps showing up in “Top lists” and on those posts on social media where people list the foss software they use? Issues get solved reasonably quickly and there’s no ancient and ignored posts on there? It hasn’t changed hands recently to somebody with a new account and no history? It’s probably a good project.

It is still a risk, but a managed one.

Or wear a star on your jacket for everyone to see.

I’ve been playing with computers and writing code since 1981, so have seen a few things change, and the past couple of years have been alarming from a world new stage, but that’s not so much about tech as global unrest.

It started with the cookie banners… “We value your privacy” == “Of course, it’s worth money to us” The internet has shifted a lot over the past couple of years particularly, and it was inevitable. Just as inevitable is the loss of the small internet (I speak as someone who runs several small websites that get scraped and stolen from constantly), and the attempts of governments to control it. That was all going to happen, and just as inevitable is the impossibility of complete control - it’ll just make life harder for the honest person.

We’ve seen some shitty changes to software too through global business. With hindsight, that was inevitable too - it took a long time for someone to realise just how locked in the likes of vmware’s customers were. How cloud and then AI additions were reasons to charge more for features we don’t like. There’s a lot of fear about global instability for obvious reasons, and that’s hard to shake.

But also… People haven’t changed. For every big name enshittification, there’s people sprouting two more things without such controls. Where we are now - founded largely because of shenanighans at Reddit. You mention Linux - again, most of it free and accessible and those are baked into it. (We’ll skip over Redhat here, I think, perhaps the exception that proves the rule). There’s a lot of free software projects that are born out of love for the free and open community. A place where respect is more common than rudeness.

So I’m certain there’s a balance. Yes, crappy things. But also good things. I’m constantly amazed at new inventions and how tech is genuinely improving life for many people. I grew up in England in the 70s and the quality of life today is better despite what we might think, but it’s also far more complicated, and makes us feel helpless and small. Back then, our world was small, we knew people. A disaster on the other side of the world took days to arrive on our newspapers, and we weren’t made to feel like we should do something about it.

Perception may be playing a big part in your view here, and you sound both burnt out and depressed. Not uncommon with the bombardment of badness in the news that we can do nothing about. Understanding that, and stepping outside of the doom cycle, definitely helps.

Ultimately, you’ve got to do what’s right for you. If tech is a hobby to you, then it’s the same as any other hobby. When it stops being fun, it’s time to find something else that you enjoy instead of, or as well as. Hope you find a better balance.

End of NSA dependence

Former allies are being unpredictable, and reliance on existing intelligence sharing arrangements are falling apart. It’s not so surprising that countries want to continue using the access they already have, even if one door is closed to them.

I doubt it’s just Germany drawing up contingencies after the past year.

Holding in the farts.

It doesn’t need the Dockerfile to run.

Thanks for the feedback, always interesting to hear how people might use a tool like this.

I do have email notifications in the roadmap, but to be honest, I’ve struggled to visualise how that might work for two reasons:

1. One of Taskpony’s goals is that it’s as easy to install and run as it could be. Configuring email settings takes a lot of detail (especially when running in docker where you can’t rely on a local smtp). I’ve thought about other tools like ntfy.sh, which I love, but the whole ecosystem of dozens of systems and tools for DM style notifications is too wide to support.

2. I wouldn’t use it like that, I’d use a calendar for distant events, and there’s no plans to support “Task must be done by” style timers, as again, I think the interface would get too complex. I keep Taskpony in a tabbed browser, and also as one of my daily bookmark folders, so it shows up regularly enough to show me.

Out of interest, how would you use notifications, or see how they’d work? Are you thinking of browser notifications? And if so, on what logic might they trigger?

Great that you’re using it!

And yes - sadly koyeb’s demo went down as I posted this link. I’ve quickly thrown up another demo here; https://taskpony.onrender.com/

Indeed, but I love writing in Perl and it still works great. It’s a shame it’s not more widely used.

Horror

Certainly traumatised me as a child.

You can’t trust an inherantly untrustworthy industry.

The problem is that to make a good AI, you need a lot of input and we know from leaks and reports that many/most of the major players deliberately ignored copyright to train their models. If it was reachable, they used it. Are using it. Will use it. Like Johnny 5, there’s no limit to the data they want, or that their handlers want to feed them with. They’re the Cookie Monster at a biscuit factory.

So when the question of trust comes up, you’d have to be pretty forgiving to overlook that they’re built on foundations of theft, and pretty naive to assume these companies have suddenly grown ethics and won’t use your data and input to train with, even when you’re using commercial systems that promise they won’t.

Even in the event that there is an ethical provider that does their utmost to ensure your data doesn’t migrate (these do exist, at least in intention), this is an incredibly fast moving, ultra-competitive market where huge amounts of data are shifted around constantly and guardrails being notoriously hard to accurately define, let alone enforce. It’s inevitable stuff will leak.

GPSLogger, the GOAT.

Not only recording GPX daily and uploading them to the cloud for me to record walks, rides and all movements, but also sending location data to a selfhosted Traccar server. Disappeared off Google Play due to problems keeping it listed there, but still available on Fdroid.

Well, I’m absolutely certain people have taken lifelong orders for less than your example, but I’m thinking more about situations where someone is left alone, homeless and without any other options. Government aid is often slow to arrive, especially if you’re a single man, and homeless charities are always overstretched. Even today, it’s not such a stretch to imagine someone turning to God in their hour of need.

(I’m athiest btw, I’m not arguing that it’s a good option, only that some people may see it as their only option and honestly, there are worse)

First, I don’t trust the police.

Fine, then check any reasonable statistical study that you might trust. Resisting a violent robbery will significantly increase the chance you you get seriously injured or killed.

You’re 4.5 times more likely to be seriously injured or killed if you’re armed when attacked. Even if the attacker isn’t armed, they often end up using your weapon against you.

Beware your ego making you think you’re better than the statistics.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930121512.htm

Disagree. Your chances of survivability go up significantly by not resisting - see @Corporal_Punishment’s reply.

Good example.

But don’t many join these days because of some personal calamity where they’ve already lost much? The church takes them in, gives them purpose and a roof over their heads.

(I say “these days” as historically, under primogeniture, the second son of a wealthy lord would often be given to the church to give them purpose/keep them out of the way of the firstborn. Daughters were similarly steered into a nunnery to avoid the parents having to pay a substantial dowry)

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Blind devotion to a party is how y’all ended up in this mess.

Guides helping you to navigate this jumbled mess are possibly outdated

That’s true, but have you ever tried to read Microsoft’s documentation?