nostr:npub1g3jc6pasekkv39ks9f5rul670yha63lr69xtgtz20ptghuc7kvlq7hk5cu nostr:npub1dme5v398xnrf4p4xmwr3tqfnl3autg49tt2k7s3q7hf40sjtzzfs49ch6s There's a deeper point: the past 70 years of computing have focussed on a spurious vision of progress that forgets to consider the utility of a stable platform. Operating systems in particular are driven by commercial goals (sell more software! Get more Linux desktops out there!) that are actively inimical to the needs of their users. Forcing users to learn a new way of working every year—even if they don't need to—is crazy. And it renders computers inaccessible to the elderly.

nostr:npub19kdxqvj7x7lnkq7quf2x7795cdx6z000zknqfs4tzjmqejdcreusnv4jdw nostr:npub1jc0sh3wdfut8hmnmqy8l4smqhnq0y32mn5536mdn9wtsac5geynslnsldg I learned NEVER to ask an unqualified (or even a rhetorical) question on twitter around the time I passed 10,000 followers. (I'm pretty sure there's a higher threshold above which twitter became a pure write-only medium: you couldn't engage in discourse any more. I think somewhere in the 100,000-500,000 follower region. But that number's probably lower for Mastodon because the proportion of fully engaged followers is WAY higher.)

nostr:npub1g3jc6pasekkv39ks9f5rul670yha63lr69xtgtz20ptghuc7kvlq7hk5cu nostr:npub1dme5v398xnrf4p4xmwr3tqfnl3autg49tt2k7s3q7hf40sjtzzfs49ch6s Computing is not my job. It hasn't been my job for over two decades. Time spent learning a new shell or thinking about computers is time *wasted* from the non-compsci point of view.

Thing is, the question about the utility of switching to a new shell has embedded ideological assumptions that implicitly privilege computing over applications. To 99% of the world applications of computing are the priority; the machines and software are just an annoying drag on getting stuff done.

nostr:npub1dme5v398xnrf4p4xmwr3tqfnl3autg49tt2k7s3q7hf40sjtzzfs49ch6s nostr:npub1g3jc6pasekkv39ks9f5rul670yha63lr69xtgtz20ptghuc7kvlq7hk5cu Question: "can the state of shells be improved enough to overcome the inertia of sticking to what you know?"

This is the wrong question. It presupposes zero cost of transition, while the cognitive workload of learning a new shell rises exponentially with age (hint: I'm nearly 60, shells are harder to adapt to than a new GUI). Stability and continuity are essential prerequisites to productivity!

nostr:npub1vs8rrw7t75pm3tk9s5rrch5t6uj4jskanant43c986e9u5yav73sek54zy nostr:npub1jc0sh3wdfut8hmnmqy8l4smqhnq0y32mn5536mdn9wtsac5geynslnsldg Block them ruthlessly if they're derailing a discussion. (I may have a different perspective on blocking from most folks, due to my follower count resulting in abnormal forms of engagement. Being semi-famous on the internet has its sucky side.)

What is this "Labour Day" the Americans are nattering about on the interwebbytubes at present?

Wrong answers only, plz.

nostr:npub1jc0sh3wdfut8hmnmqy8l4smqhnq0y32mn5536mdn9wtsac5geynslnsldg "I think you'll find ..." Something in the Mastodon water supply seems to encourage mansplaining, even among non-men, doesn't it?

Somewhere there's a tiny overworked government department of plausible conspiracy theories, whose job is to come up with plausible-sounding nonsense that can then be fake-classified TOP SECRET and plausibly leaked to the dingbats who will publicize it, thereby proving that government can't keep secrets so REDACTED is obviously just an urban legend so remember kids REDACTED does not exist FNORD.

nostr:npub1g3jqw8qrj9ppv3wjvg7pqajlwxsl53grmvagcy9pdyzjkthzlhpqvs69f8 Food is less automated than you think. Productivity also depends directly on land area, once you've finished adding fertilizer/pesticides/improved strains of crop. We've had mechanical fruit pickers for decades, but lots of produce is still hand-picked because it's expensive to automate and the market for the produce won't pay for that when stoop labour has been immiserated and forced to work in penury by competition from machines and prison-slavery.

nostr:npub1qy53t5xgt2vl99rwss9uhenll6d79va6xw9hclfgw0m7e2lkf3eq2cqq3x nostr:npub1xexmqgua0825emf8uv038t7l0mkllrnm87d4jn497u83whpc9jfszs6dav Alas, the book's better without his monologue. (But it's almost long enough to run as a novella in its own right!)

nostr:npub1xexmqgua0825emf8uv038t7l0mkllrnm87d4jn497u83whpc9jfszs6dav nostr:npub1qy53t5xgt2vl99rwss9uhenll6d79va6xw9hclfgw0m7e2lkf3eq2cqq3x Alas, I have 15K words of offcuts from the recent space opera looking for a new home because my villain wanted to monologue at a captive audience AT LENGTH and he basically stole the entire novel

(which wasn't about him). (Previous villains managed not to monologue for more than 2.5K words but this one went Full John Galt In Spaaace.)

nostr:npub1qkcq78rmwwsh3xdfwktt8ts57dcvcx554ml86qs6vuau82vv4tsqzy9gjt They've said that, yes. Whether the MPs believe them is another matter. Also whether the MPs believe any blame will attach to them because the Act wouldn't come into effect until AFTER the general election, which Labour will win, so the tabloids will Blame Starmer (and Starmer being Starmer, he won't make things any better—man's an instinctive authoritarian cop-fondler).

nostr:npub14zv6g8vypsqceptz7hpm5hhduxuml4t9x5c3clftzj5y73wzuk0q4rgvhs Unfortunately it's been tried. If you outlaw political parties, you just get underground back-scratching factions.

Alas, my own MP is SNP, and both Labour and the Tories hate them and consider them the worse long-term threat: so they go scorched-earth to oppose anything the SNP suggest even if it's helpful.

UK peeps: Please consider signing this parliamentary petition (Stop the passing of the Online Safety Bill)? https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/634725

nostr:npub1w83sdzs0y9vnvpfy6222vdmqgpkvhq69x6nk620wyxuuzzlar0js4yget0 ... and there's about a 20% chance it'll turn up, eat the lock, and fix *you* instead!

nostr:npub1xmjvgtqxglge7p80j26tk9h8nvzquwmxevy94kup2gger2sl67mqcx39tm Not this one—he revels in his diabolical genius and malice! I mean, I went for a gonzo over-the-top mustache-twirling maniac, a space operatic—so toned-down—transplant of Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ignaz_Trebitsch_Lincoln

nostr:npub1c0s4faclll5xw6glya9v54kk6uy808lpwhdsmse8mm49cxl3er5sz59f6k Not in one of my books (I don't believe in ETIs).

Random SF idea: slice-of-life about the locksmith who troubleshoots the door latch mechanisms of all the alien embassies in our solar system.

Knowing when you need the oxygen tank before you go in is an important aspect. As is knowing how much torsion a tentacle can apply to a handle, how much clearance to leave for thhe vespiform queens that use their ovipositor to stab the hole in the deadbolt, how to drill a lock under a 1000 bar pressure column of Europan under-ice water, and so on.

Welp, new front door lock fitted. Now I just need to get a couple of spare keys cut. Turns out the locksmith also remembers sorting out nostr:npub1exmu8qzquxnvlf2nmtvr3tjteje634uypu6gfgstcmjk5jx7c69qaue4zr years ago in South Queensferry ...