Blaise Alleyne @balleyne@floss.social

Fascinating conversation with Mike Masnick about all things internet as all tech policy issues get sucked into the black hole of the current political moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwE7EhGJaHc

You would think that a company selling a "Live Chat" plugin would have a Live Chat plugin enabled on their own support website...

Reading up on what's happening with decentralized network protocols feels like reading up on OpenMoko Freerunner operating systems back in 2009. There was so much fragmentation, and no rallying around any one option, that none of them matured enough to be usable.

@lorabe how long til infrastructure services turn to gab?

From thinking about Waco, I found this short doc on Ruby Ridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wncvHvUujX8

It tracks the law enforcement side to John Joe Gray, but if you track the armed government resistance side you get to Timothy McVeigh...

Yesterday I was thinking, why didn't people leaving Twitter go to something distributed like Mastodon? Instead of another single point of failure like Parler?

Today I find out Amazon's taking Parler's servers down.

n the Spring, it was HBO's Chernobyl mini-series that I couldn't stop thinking about. Now, it's Waco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlocXTpy-gs

Silent Night - vox/acoustic 2008, electric/bass/drums 2018, mix 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb3xQvz9YjA

One of the personal silver linings of 2020 is that I’m making music again.

In a way, I had never really stopped. But in a way, I had never really started.

https://blaise.ca/blog/2020/12/24/i-dreamed-i-saw-a-star-again/

A little 2020 recording project of mine involved completing a 2009 recording session that I had long since abandoned and left for dead - a cover of Weezer's The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
https://blaise.ca/blog/2020/12/23/the-world-has-turned-and-left-me-here/

Small Data, Big Implications - Insight - https://zeynep.substack.com/p/small-data-big-implications

In August 2018, I noted on Twitter: "10 years ago, at 21, I was so eager for upgrades and new software that I ran Ubuntu releases months before the release date. Now, at 31, I shudder when Ubuntu prompts me to upgrade from one LTS to the next."

Today, feeling this right now. Had to restart (rare), and now under Debian Stable, Thunderbird ESR now has new icons and UI changes? Argh. I'm getting old.

Why It’s Time to Reboot Canada’s Failed Digital Agenda
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MichaelGeistsBlog/~3/FUmp2f4cZ4Y/

Frye says the lyric poem is written because the progression of time has been blocked. The poet has to write about it to return to the world of time.

I heard that in Sam Tudor's Turtle Song: "I think about it every day, like this is where it all went wrong. I need to put it back somehow. I need to put it in this song."

The lyric attempts the impossible - to stop time - and Sam stopped time for me. This folk orchestra cover is an attempt to return to the world of time:
https://blaise.ca/blog/2020/09/30/turtle-song-sam-tudor-cover/

Summer project - a Weezer cover with the kids: https://youtu.be/-jMSGi66seM

Some computer science thoughts on COVID-19:
https://blaise.ca/blog/2020/09/14/complex-systems-are-not-always-common-sense-some-computer-science-thoughts-on-covid-19/

@drwho He's definitely not mincing words. I just think he's undervaluing software freedom in the broad fight for digital freedom.

Thought provoking essay, but I don't understand why Cory Doctorow believes software freedom is like icing on the cake - instead of the recipe. When understood as a recipe, it's clear that software freedom is necessary, but not sufficient, for freedom. https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

I'm currently yak shaving by reading the Ardour manual - but I'm loving it. After taking some software agnostic courses from the Recording Revolution, so much more of the manual is starting to make sense...