swanye-fediverse

[swanye-fediverse]

Too many people are mad about Microsoft and Adobe's latest nanny functions being marketed as "AI!!!" more than about them being spyware on a level that would have gotten these things blacklisted as highly dangerous Trojans by every anti-malware program on the planet in 2005.

And these companies are depending on that.

They would much rather be able to write off everyone who doesn't want these "features" as technophobic old grumps and Chicken Littles reacting to a buzzword than have people actually broadly acknowledge the invasiveness of it all.

Once more, with feeling,

It's not "Microsoft and Adobe want to integrate AI features to spy on the things you do on your own devices,"

It's "Microsoft and Adobe want to integrate AI features to spy on the things you do on your own devices."

[swanye-fediverse]

you know the drill, op disabled reblogs etc etc etc

[swanye-fediverse]

I decided to check my storage and noticed I had like 70 gigs more than I expected, even though the last major memory change I remembered doing was installing a 25+ gigabyte game

Then I remembered that I moved my backups to a USB and I haven't backed up my system in months and also have been making notable changes to how I use it

So yeah, I'm backing stuff up as I write this

[swanye-fediverse]

Candy cane snail, Liguus virgineus, Orthalicidae

This arboreal species is found in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Photo 1 by pedrogenarorodriguez and 2 by margomora

[swanye-fediverse]

abandonware should be public domain. force companies to actively support and provide products if they don't wanna lose the rights to them

[swanye-fediverse]

I'm fed up with "maybe later".

[swanye-fediverse]

Its fascinating that the way advertizing and apps work right now is simply how computer viruses, adware, spyware, and all manners of malware has ALWAYS worked. Growing up as a teen in the 2000s there used to be a program called Weatherbug that was pretty much considered unthinkable to ever have installed because of the way it knew your location and essentially EVERY adware, spyware, and antivirus software flagged it for removal immediately. It was considered best practice to never install anything. Never install toolbars, mever install anything without consulting a professional or unless you were ad advanced user. I was trained in Comptia A+ for the windows xp era and the best practice as a repair tech was to never allow the customer to install anything themselves if it could be helped.

And now just. Everything does this. Your fucking calculator wants your location data and business ghouls want it to ve illegal to use a simple adblocker because not advertizing to you hurts their feelings.

And now we have generative AI filling the internet witg slop that can have SEO and more ads slapped on top of it? Google is breaking on purpose so you make more searches?

The viruses have won, everything is malware and everything is a scam. To use commercial tech is to be voluntarily mugged

[swanye-fediverse]

A new mode of production arises out of the newly networked masses.

[swanye-fediverse]

You know, my posts explaining why I'm making Swanye go through a lot of the high-level reasoning and lofty goals but this post made me realize I didn't mention a rather large, undergirding one:

Every corporate owner that Tumblr's ever been through took over the queer, neurodivergent website with the goal of making it profitable rather than just doubling down on – well – the Queer neurodivergence.

I'm just saying, Swanye's made it if it starts generating responses like this from people.

[swanye-fediverse]

The only reason someone SHOULD buy a chromebook is to replace chromeos with a linux distro

[swanye-fediverse]

I love you PBS I love you NPR I love you public libraries I love you wikipedia I love you project gutenberg I love you librivox I love you libby I love you hoopla I love you openlibrary I love you internet archive I love you resources that make information free and accessible to the public

[swanye-fediverse]

IRC Channel?

So I was working on a (entirely open-source and copyleft, of course) sort of chat thing – similar in UI to Discord – that could serve as a real-time community space, for any interested, etc.

I've never enjoyed those spaces as much as more static platforms like micro/blogging platforms (like Tumblr or Mastodon; I think the quickness of the space always weirded me out, as a generally shy and introverted person) but I've seen a lot of other people apparently prefer them (maybe it feels less daunting that talking directly to one person, like you'd have to do if you message me).

I've been hanging out a ton in the Guix IRC channel and, probably, spent way more time than I should have getting my IRC client to look really nice (in my opinion) and figured, in the interim, why not provide some space, for those who want it.

I can't work on any of my projects until I have a job, again, but I worry about inactivity making it feel like this project's dead (I try continuing to reblog things here (and so, also, – hopefully – the account doesn't feel too foreign or standoffish, either) but, like, people did follow (presumably) because they're interested in a Tumblr alternative for the Fediverse so I don't want that to get lost, as well).

So, until then, there's a Swanye IRC channel! It's hosted on Libera Chat; join with your favorite IRC client or through the web via https://web.libera.chat/#swanye.

[swanye-fediverse]

[swanye-fediverse]

you have to learn basic facets of Computer. do not avoid technology because it is "scary". there are 1 million youtube tutorials out there. do not let capitalism convince you that you have to buy a new computer every time it starts to fail. do not let capitalism convince you that you have to pay for shitty subscription garbage and just suck it up and deal w/ it. I'm going to be fully honest, I am a dumbass with computers. everything I know about them comes from sheer autistic fascination or necessity, not a brain that is compatible with them on a fundamental level. but I use linux, I pirate adobe products and I built my own damn computer. you can to.

[swanye-fediverse]

that article going around abt firefox's new ad program is annoying bc it's phrased as though "mozilla has finally TURNED on its people and is SELLING YOU OUT for cold hard cash!!" when. that's not what's happening. it is specifically being implemented to discourage tracking behavior, and literally all the data they are giving to advertisers is aggregate and anonymized, which is like, the opposite of what that post wants you to worry about, lol

[swanye-fediverse]

Adobe is going to spy on your projects. This is insane.

[swanye-fediverse]

Ada Limón, “To Be Made Whole”, On Being with Krista Tippett