Monthly Archives: August 2020

Happy Blog Day!

Blog Day (sometimes stylized as 3l0g Day) is an unofficial holiday celebrated by bloggers across the world on August 31. It was first marked in 2005.

The date of August 31 was chosen because 3108 (31st day of the 8th month) can be read as “blog”. The concept of the holiday is quite simple. On this day, bloggers are encouraged to recommend five blogs they consider interesting. A recommendation should contain a short description and a link to the recommended blog.

It is suggested that bloggers recommend blogs that are different from their own attitude, point of view and/or culture, because Blog Day is all about diversity! It is also important to notify the bloggers you’ve recommended and congratulate them on the holiday.

Sadly, Blog Day has not gained considerable popularity in the blogosphere.

If you don’t write a blog, start right now and join us. A blog doesn’t need to be technical or about a specific category/subject. You can use you blog to express your opinions or just to communicate with people, they way social networks can’t do. For many years, I’ve been writing different blogs and I have had an amazing experience, you should do it too.

Google is warning at least two Mastodon clients over user postings!

Two famous Mastodon clients, Subway Tooter and Fedilab reported that they’ve got warnings from Google over what their users have posted.

A Mastodon app does not host or promote any of the generated contents. It’s only used to connect to different instances. The responsibility of moderating resides with the server/instance the user is active in. Exactly like how web browsers work. A web browser is not responsible for what websites promote and doesn’t host their content. A web browser only shows those content.

So, unless Google removes Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Edge, and other web browsers because they may show sensitive contents such as racism or adult stuff, Google’s warnings are ridicules and out of line.

Also, I really suggest developers to publish their app on platforms like F-Droid instead of Google Play Store. F-Droid only hosts free software apps and is much safer and better than Google’s platform. The Mastodon client Fedilab is also accessible on F-Droid.

Chromium devs want the browser to talk to devices, directly!

The Register has reported that Google’s Chromium developers team has proposed a way to establish web applications direct network connections.

The Raw Sockets API, which may end up being renamed the Direct Sockets API, represents an attempt to give browser apps networking capabilities that aren’t possible via data transport options like HTTP, WebSockets and WebRTC. It essentially allows the browser to talk directly to devices and other computers via the network.

This can put web at huge security risks and can be used to heavily violate users’ privacy. Nothing can go wrong except for everything related to users’ security and choices over privacy.

I highly encourage you to get away from Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers that follow Google’s path.

Mobile ads

Should we block ads?

Ad-blockers are technically filters. Just like how your email system or software filters spam email messages and only gives you the necessary ones, ad-blockers only give you the content you’re looking for, not the ads. But, something many people don’t know about is that ad-blockers don’t block all ads.

Ad-blockers are actually blocking those ads that violate your privacy and/or freedom. Well of course not all ad-blockers act like this but most famous ones only block trackers.

Web trackers are files and codes which try to follow (track) you online and build a profile upon your activity to show you more relevant (to your personality) ads. For example, if you start searching for a penguin using Google, after a while, you’ll see ads about penguins. Or start searching for a red scarf, and then penguins, you probably will see ads about a penguin wearing a red scarf!

Now, should we block ads?

Continue reading →

Don’t like me, please!

One thing I don’t understand is people’s behavior in social media. First of all, when did we start calling social networking sites and apps “social media”? Like, that’s not media I’m active on. Of course I share media but that’s a network rather than media. yeah I get it all of these are media but still, nevermind.

I have a lot of problems with this social networks. I mean I’m OK with sitting in a cafe and suddenly a person comes and talks to me then somebody else mentions a thing and we make a social group. No matter that’s temporary or permanent, that’s nice. However, what I see in online social networks, say like Twitter, is misery.

People’s interactions are now boosting (retweeting) and liking comments. Everywhere we sit there are people taking photos from their food and rating restaurants and checking-in in squares. In most fun places, we see sad, tired, sick, and dead (not physically) people looking at their phones being active in their so-called social media not having fun but pretending.

I have a lot of problems. When did we start needing followers? When following people became a thing? I follow a bunch of people that’s not basically bad but what I have problem with is needing and craving for followers. What I don’t understand is showing a relationship or endorsement or likes by following people.

I don’t need my friends following me. If one of my friends unfollows me, I wouldn’t break my friendship with that person. I understand how simple it is. If a person doesn’t like what I’m saying or sharing, that person should be able to stop interacting with me.

Since when do we need followers? How a number on our profile online shows our personality or whether we’re good or bad or right or wrong? How can we be hurt by having less followers than others? Why we need to have less following than followers to have dignity or self confidence?

Another thing I have problem with is liking. Why there’s no social network that doesn’t have a like button? Why we can’t simply agree or disagree by talking? I would really appreciate if someone comments on my blog post and tells me that that person disagrees.

How liking a post shows agreement? I never like any post on social networks because I hate it. I hate showing my interest by clicking on a button. What’s wrong with mentioning people and talking? What happened to people being able to respond?

There are social networks that let you disable commenting; why there’s not social networks that lets you disable liking? Talk to me. If you do like it, write it down and tell your reason. Even write your own experience and story about it. I hate getting likes. I hate getting boosted. What I like is to see you write your own experience about stuff I said.

No. I’m not interested in you because you had more followers than following or your toots (tweets in Mastodon) get hundreds of likes and boosts. I’m following you and I’m interested in you because you have experienced life and career and a lot of other things and I found them interesting.

Another thing I have problem is messaging apps. Since when WhatsApp and Telegram and Signal became our standard messaging system? What happened to emailing people? Why are you giving me you Telegram phone number instead of a professional or personal email address? Why do I have to install an app to be able to communicate with people?

Back in the days, we did everything with our emails. Even for planning stuff. We weren’t scheduling a party or a meeting on a group chat on a messaging app, we would create a mailing list, private or public, and discuss it there and everybody were happy.

Another thing I have problem with is having social profiles instead of a website or a weblog. Now everybody has a Twitter or Mastodon or Facebook. Even those who have websites just put links to their social networking profiles. You open their website and it’s like here’s my Twitter, here’s my GitHub, here’s my Instagram, don’t bother me, bye.

What’s wrong with people? I miss those days when it was fun to open a personal webpage of somebody and surf it. I miss those days that we would create special pages for stuff. People were enjoying their lives before social networks. We would take pictures of our trip and even if we wanted to share them, we would create a post or a page.

Now everybody has a Medium account. Even our weblogs are now in social networking sites. Social network for photos, social network for statuses, social networks for code, social network for weblogs, social network if you read a book.

Why we don’t read books? The hell happened to reading books? Now we get every information from BBC or Fox News for retarded people or CNN for those who believe Biden really likes them. When did we stop reading books or going to a library? I’m OK with reading news, I read news, but that’s not where you learn stuff. You learn by reading and experimenting.

Another thing I have problem with is talking. Why we can’t talk to each other anymore? Why people think me not agreeing with their view means that I have a personal issue with them? I don’t even know you and you have no impact on my life. I do care if you’re violated or abused or hurt because you’re a human being but those are serious stuff.

Why are you boosting/retweeting stuff you don’t agree and make more people see that? Why can’t we comment or mention stuff like normal human beings. What’s different on online social networks than non-digital networks? Why people get offended or hurt because we don’t agree with them?

Me telling you that your belief about flat earth is stupid, is because your belief about flat earth is stupid. I don’t care if you were graduated from Harvard or you employ 300 people. And I don’t have any personal issue with you whatsoever. Let’s say if you get hurt and some random other person gets hurt, I would do everything I can for both of you equally.

Lots of problems. Why do people share everything? Getting on the plane, getting off the plane. Going to a party, coming back from a party. Eating food, going out, having a date, taking a shower, having a new job, quitting a job. People share everything. Have a little privacy. I don’t care if you’re hungry, get some food instead of writing about it.

Another thing that I have problem with is craving for acceptance and being right. Why can’t we apologize? Why can’t we be wrong? I’ve been wrong in many things in my life, so were you. What happened to accepting our mistakes and moving on to fix them? Why do we argue when we know we’re wrong? Nobody ever said oh that person just apologized that guy has no dignity. have you ever heard such stupid thing?

Accept your mistakes. Don’t block people because they proved you wrong and you didn’t want to be seen as a person who has mistakes. You’re not a god. Everybody makes mistakes and you’re not an exception. Accept your mistakes so we know you’re reasonable human being.

Emotional decisions are mostly destructive

While ago, I wrote about how freedom of thought is more important than free software itself. I also mentioned that people should move forward step by step with patience.

Hasty and thoughtless decisions often have a devastating effect on that work. Specially when it comes to free software, many people get excited about new tools they see. They see logic in our conversations and, unfortunately, they want to make quick changes without addressing the principles.

Free software movement is heavily focused on principles of it. There is no software that can violate or give us freedom by itself. It’s people who violate the essential freedoms and/or make a free software. When a software, for whatever reason, fails to respect and comply with the four essential freedoms, it is called nonfree and proprietary software.

Now, if people understand the concept of software freedom and believe in the philosophy of the movement, we see less of these violations and a better community. Emotional and hurried decisions, most of the times, lead us to regret. I’ve seen many people who decided to stop using proprietary software and privacy-violating services and they regretted it after a while.

Most of the times it’s because they were unable to repeat the experience they had with proprietary programs they used to use. Every time a person decides to join us in the free software movement, I tell that person to be patient. I ask people to first study about the movement and try to understand every principle of software freedom and also free (as in freedom) culture.

Software freedom is more about principles of freedom and people/users’ rights than the software itself.

Separation vs Segregation

People should understand the differences between separation and segregation. Many people are against segregation. A lot of times, separation is a good practice. For example, separation of criminals from other people is good.

If a black person commits a crime, it would not be wrong to separate that person from other people; that’s not racism, that’s punishment for society’s safety. Same goes when a white person commits a crime. Separation is not a bad thing.

Separation is the act of disuniting two or more things, or the condition of being separated. Separation is based on decisions and wills.

However, what we are against is segregation. Segregation is racist. Segregation is a system of institutionalized discrimination. Segregation is forced on people not because of their acts but because of their nature.

I believe criminals, thieves, abusers, etc. should be separated from other human beings, for a specific period of time, of course. I believe dictators, racists, fascists, Nazis, and many others that I can’t recall now should be segregated.

Let’s campaign for our (digital) rights

For many years, campaigning was the only option we had to defend our rights. Even today, when we want to raise our voice to show what we want, we campaign for or against stuff. For example, FSF is now campaigning against using proprietary software for education and wants schools to use free software instead, to protect students and defend their digital rights.

Well not every time we campaigned for something, we succeeded but at least many people heard our voice and started learning about what we said. Campaigning is still very important for advocacy. Individuals like me, can do nothing without the power of society joined together for a common interest.

In today’s world, many of our rights are being violated. Even those who believe that are supporting us sometimes do stuff we don’t expect at all. The 16th anniversary of OpenStreetMap was celebrated at an online Zoom conference. We know for a fact that Zoom has serious problems over security and is a proprietary software.

Now, as a user of OSM, if I protest against it, nothing would happen as I would be considered an individual who doesn’t like Zoom. But if we campaign against it, the anniversary holders will realize that what we’re talking about is a matter of public interest of OSM users.

Joining the campaigns that defend our rights is very important. In many ways, campaigning is the only way that can support our belief and rights. For example, while ago, ICANN was giving the .org registry control to a private firm, which EFF campaigned against. The results were great. ICANN canceled it because it realized that people are highly disappointed. Now, PIR (Public Internet Registry which is a nonproft) is still in control of .org domain extension.

Now, our problem is that many people don’t participate in a campaign because they see a large group of people were already joined. We should know that no number is considered enough when we campaign. The amount of people who join the campaign shows the power of that statement people are campaigning for.

Sadly, many people don’t bother to take few minutes and signing a campaign which they know is for their own benefit. It is very wrong. As I said, more people joining the campaign, more power the campaign gains to defend its goal.

Please join the campaigns that defend your rights because they are not worthless. In fact, they did a lot of things for our own good and they are still powerful to defend us. Campaigning is still important and useful in many ways. Let’s campaign for our rights again.