Notices by Björn Schießle (bjoern@mastodon.social), page 2

"we should be working not just to pay the bills, but to make sure we don’t create software that we will one day regret", I like the term #ethicalDebt, software engineers think a lot about technical debt when building software but we should not forget the ethical debt of what we build. https://thenewstack.io/tech-ethics-new-years-resolution-dont-build-software-you-will-regret/ #software #engineering #ethics

In January, the #EU is launching bug bounties on #FreeSoftware projects to increase the #security of the #Internet! https://juliareda.eu/2018/12/eu-fossa-bug-bounties #FOSSA

Happy GNU Year everybody!

public authorities "can secretly compel tech companies and individual technologists, including network administrators, sysadmins, and open source developers – to re-engineer software and hardware under their control, so that it can be used to spy on their users. Engineers can be penalized for refusing to comply with fines and prison"... sounds like a nightmare but it is reality in the #UK and #Australia https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/12/new-fight-online-privacy-and-security-australia-falls-what-happens-next #eff #spy #privacy #security

"If one product like #Chromium has enough market share, then it becomes easier for web developers and businesses to decide not to worry if their services and sites work with anything other than Chromium. That’s what happened when #Microsoft had a monopoly on browsers in the early 2000s before #Firefox was released. And it could happen again.

If you care about what’s happening with online life today, take another look at Firefox." https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2018/12/06/goodbye-edge/ #edge

Nice study for everyone who thinks that open platforms are a #security risk. Exactly zero malware found in #FDroid, the independent #FreeSoftware repository / #appstore for #Android https://nsl.cs.waseda.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/submitted_wama2017.pdf

Really nice offering. Get your own (full managed) #Matrix server for just $1.50 per month and per active user. https://medium.com/@RiotChat/introducing-modular-awesome-hosting-for-riot-matrix-665a7a0c616

I use now #Mastodon to enable comments and to show likes and reshares on my otherwise static webpage. I wrote a small JavaScript and PHP script for it which you can find here: https://gitlab.com/BeS/hugo-sustain-ng/tree/master/static/mastodon.comments Feel free to reuse it. 🙂 #comments #blog

I live on the #Debian Republic, and like to travel the #Stallman sea, #Gnome 3 hills, the #GNU ocean and the #GPL sea... 🙂 How about you?

Recently I read often that #copyleft is so bad, that nobody want to use it. I think this depends on the definition of use. People who are looking for some free beer to build their own proprietary stuff might feel sad because they can't (ab)use copyleft software. End users couldn't care less. People who want to get engaged typically like copyleft because it creates a level playing field, nobody have to fear that a competitor will take their investment and run away. #FreeSoftware #OpenSource

It is really exciting to see all this projects based on #ActivityPub. Great to see the raise of all this free, federated and open solutions. I have the feeling that we might be at a turning point where we can finally build the momentum to regain control over the internet. https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100464510004807543

It is really exciting to see all this projects based on #ActivityPub. Great to see the raise of all this free, federated and open solutions. I have the feeling that we might be at turning point where we can finally build the momentum to regain control over the internet. https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100464510004807543

Facebook and Twitter sold data to Cambridge Analytica, Dropbox gives research companies access to user data,... That's no accident, illegal attack or whatever. That's their business model. If you are not the customer you are the product. You have the choice! Free, decentralized & open solutions are in front of you, you just have to pick them up.

I really like the IRC to #XMPP bridge Biboumi and wonder how hard it would be to write something similar to bridge #Nextcloud Talk to XMPP?

Is this a native Mastodon app and a native newspaper app? No, although it looks like it is. It is just the awesome #GNOME Web feature which can turn a web page into a desktop app. I really like it and use it more and more.

Why Free Software need free tools? Because we shouldn't be hypocrats. We, as #FreeSoftware developers, have to listen to our own arguments when we say that the openes of our software is the reason to chose our software in order to avoid vendor lock-in and for security and privacy reasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_nK6nP_RCY

https://mastodon.social/media/IuZAEZqyv2qcBhHcAak

https://mastodon.social/media/2j33Xo9Tozbl1tLF6wM

#devtools

I just learned that the #Debian #Gitlab instance is not limited to the Debian project but open for any Free Software project. In case you are looking for a (new) home, I think Debian is a great place to be. https://salsa.debian.org

Already 2,5 years ago I argued why big central code hosting platforms are a problem and what should change from my perspective. I have the feeling that it fits perfectly these days. https://www.schiessle.org/articles/2016/02/12/the-next-generation-of-code-hosting-platforms/ #Github #Microsoft

I really didn't want to join all the #Github and #Microsoft noise, but I can't help myself... "millions of people today depend on GitHub to help them learn, grown, and build amazing things."... Exactly this is the problem, with or without Microsoft. Can Microsoft fix it? https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/

Bern, the capital of Switzerland, is moving its schools to Nextcloud! This means that 10.000 students will enjoy a free, decentralized and open cloud in the future. A great win for #Nextcloud and #FreeSoftware in general. https://nextcloud.com/blog/next-big-open-source-win-capital-of-switzerland-moves-schools-to-nextcloud/