also which issues

I know this one!

1. lefty on weed or sex work or w/e
2. but fuck identity politics and what is this ladder doing here

I have the outline of a write-up about about category errors and measuring proxies (e.g. reported sexual orientation). I think I am a poor writer but the only critique I've ever gotten was from a "colleague" who writes like he gets paid by the word¹. I will consider sharing the post once it is finished. ❤

1: one rejection on a collaboration with this guy was essentially "have you nerds heard of 'brevity' or 'wit'?" --- from computer scientists 😭

Well, this Andy dipshit gave an absolute dogshit apology on reddit.

Snippets below:

deleted this because i realized i can't even explain how email works, why am i proposing anything

I am very outside of my depth here, but would be happy to read about it. My initial thought for a solution would be to develop in parallel an email service that doesn't do encryption, as well as a mail client that allows for end-to-end encryption. But, being outside of my depth, I have no idea if this is a totally laughable solution.

Edit: should clarify that my thinking here is that users who just want an alternative to Gmail would have it, and people who wanted "email with encryption" could use the mail client (and potentially use it with a different provider). I don't know if that is feasible (I am not aware of any such solution), but it also strikes me as more sustainable (logistically and financially). Hopefully I only flipped a bozo bit or two, here, and not a whole bozo nibble.

I agree. Currently I can't recommend any email providers. Hopefully Posteo works out, but at this point I am strongly considering just starting my own competitor in the vein of Signal messenger. Basically "we think of email as a public good."

Thanks! I actually plan on putting a couple of things on Mataroa:

1. "Here is a list of shit you can do to make your computer suck less (would contain the above)"
2. "Here is how to make your Pixel phone less frustrating in 2024 (basically, how to use user profiles to create a dumb phone without the massive security issues or headache of 'oh, actually I do need that app occasionally')"

(Aside: if anyone can recommend a better blogging platform, I would appreciate it. I like Mataroa for its privacy focus, minimalism, and low cost-of-leaving. The only issue I have is lack of KaTeX/MathML/however-the-fuck-omg-why-is-TeX-still-trying-to-hurt-me-in-2025 support.)

Thanks for sharing this. Also

using your own head must weigh far too heavy

absolute chef's kiss

Here is their response:

@mav Yes, this was bad. I did not take a screenshot back then (the post was deleted after 30 minutes), but I scrolled all my way through Mastodon to find our apology:

https://mastodon.social/@Tutanota/108910936764865962

https://mastodon.social/@Tutanota/108910937813834878

This was a mistake, we apologized & we made sure that we would never post something similar again.

At Tuta, we foster honesty, respect & diversity.

We are here to fight for privacy & against Big Tech surveillance. We want everyone to get the respect they deserve.

and this:

@shalf We set up guidelines that all team members on social media duty need to adhere to. We also created a social media review group where we post & discuss every proposal before actually publishing. And it has worked fine ever since. :)

Last time this came up, I considered Posteo but decided to hold off (I think it was actually you who suggested it ❤). There was a concern I had about deleting an account due to inactivity, but I think I just misunderstood or misremembered something on PrivacyGuides. This might be a good choice.

As far as Filen for photos, I am reasonably confident that Ente will stick around (they seem to take sustainability seriously). Stuff like this worries me about Filen (emphasis mine):

What else is planned for Black Friday this year?
As every year, we’ve planned a special surprise to give back to our loyal users this Black Friday. Just like in previous years, we won’t be revealing any details just yet. All I can suggest is to check in with us around November 18th—you won’t want to miss it!

Are lifetime plans stackable?
Yes, we'd like to emphasize once again that all types of our plans can be easily combined. Subscription plans only expire based on their individual purchase dates.

I am also in the "scream and cry" phase of this. However, I have already decided on the following replacements for non-email:

1. Mullvad VPN
2. Ente for photos and photo backup
   2a. their authenticator also slaps
3. Filen for cloud storage^[1]
4. Bitwarden for password management
   4a. Keyguard is great if you are on Android. I am looking into^[2] other (non CLI) Bitwarden-compatible password managers for Desktop I should not have suggested Keyguard, since I am not aware if it has been audited. It was probably a mistake for me to use it at all. Sorry everyone.

edit: Should mention that I am also looking into a calendar replacement.

edit2: maybe mailbox.org? They are recommended on PrivacyGuides.org.

1: This is more like a stopgap for me until I confirm they are worth sticking with or find someone better. The 29.99€ 100GB lifetime storage may be worthwhile for this (though I cannot say whether I am confident they will be around in 5 years, this can at least serve as a short-term solution).
2: lassitude

my pants are an anti-embarrassment protocol

After reading some of the counterpoints here, I began thinking about how I considered Excel a hyperkludge if you qualify it enough. I realized the qualifications apply to every programming language (good ol' Turing Completeness). I think, in my case, the common scenario of

1. this tool^[1] is just a proof of concept/prototype
2. it costs less to maintain our tool than to write a more appropriate solution from scratch
3. our infrastructure is now the tool

had me erroneously criticizing the tool instead of its application^[2]. In the case of Excel, I worked a few jobs where the spreadsheets used when the company was small led to an absolute nightmare after the company grew.

I appreciate the thoughtful responses from everyone. <3

1: Usually a spreadsheet, in my experience.
2: Noting that, while "it's not the tool, it's the application" is a common refrain from people using tools in shitty ways, there is a distinction between "this is the wrong tool for the job" and "this tool will hurt people".

I need an excuse to learn Rust and have wanted to do a "parse, don't validate / make invalid states unrepresentable" project for a while. I will definitely share it if I get anything done.

At the end of the day you shouldn't have to maintain anything in order to use a program, in my opinion (at least ideally). I think a "everything must be present in the file" type of config would require less no extra maintenance (assuming devs don't do anything too silly). Additionally, while noting that my primary programming language is TeX and also that I am a dipshit, this just strikes me as an API-design problem. Alternative solutions could be:

1. multiple config files (I think mpv already supports this)
2. semver style config (idk if this would be practical)
3. a config-editing tool (i.e., what the overwhelming majority of applications do, by hiding the implementation details from the user)

I have thought about doing #3 for Sway (a sort of Sway-config editor). This does give me an idea, though: define a meta-format for specifying the variables, default values, allowed values, etc., for an arbitrary^[0] program's config file, and create a program that reads a meta-format file and presents a GUI for editing the config.

tbh i just lost my config file, forgot what i changed, and now i have to read documentation (and figure out which file the mpv flatpak uses for config)

[0]: maybe not too arbitrary

I personally disagree. I think in the era of "a megabyte is big," this made sense, but in my opinion after parsing a config file with missing config data, we should print something indicating they are missing then error out. The existence of a reference config file with all options included would definitely help, but I think it's no coincidence that there is no such config for mpv --- why bother creating and maintaining one if the program will use the default value anyway?

tl;dr explicit is better than implicit

What's great is even the very best "just use valgrind lol, lmao" folks make these errors all the time. It's basically impossible to write correct C code generally --- the best we can do is verify subsets of code (c.f. Rust's unsafe keyword). The memory-safety CVEs in EXT3/4 are proof of this, IMO, as if there were anyone able to write correct C code today, it would be Ted Ts'o.

Surely it’s better to specify those defaults in the config file and have the system just fail if the necessary flags aren’t present.

Completely agree. I think this may just be an extension of the "you gotta know what you're doing to code correctly in C" old school bullshit.

this rules <3

Does anyone else get tired of "read documentation and edit this text file to configure your app" Unix shit? I have no problem with the underlying configuration being a text-file (makes for a straightforward API), but do I really need to navigate to https://mpv.io/manual/master/#configuration-files and go through the rigamarole of figuring out which options I need to edit/include^[0] because I misplaced (read: sudo rm -rf /) my config file?

[0]: And there is always so much implicit bullshit. "By default, we summon Cthulhu on Tuesdays and Thursdays if the variable summon_octopus_guy is unset." It's a fucking config file, my friends, can we just be explicit?