Bonum Certa Men Certa

Finding Peace With Less

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 07, 2024

Little girl is standing in a window, watching the snow outside

WE are just 18 days away from 'treeday'* and only 3 days away from a significant date for the sister site, but the news has not slowed down (not yet) and we're still catching up with some.

Yesterday we got some community 'scoops' that we intend to cover gradually and patiently. There's a lot of backstabbing going on. We always want to know more. There's more to every story and the "more" is usually more significant than what's on the surface, e.g. cruft like self-congratulatory press releases. We can be reached by E-mail and IRC (or Mumble if voice is necessary; contact us for details).

Yesterday we were also out discussing topics; the main barrier is still a lack of time (or capacity) to cover them fully/properly.

There seems to be a growing consensus (speaking to other editors helps confirm this) that the Web is going in a very bad direction, not just for news sites but in general. One good way to navigate today's Web is to find simple/light sites (not only speed is a factor; they tend to be better at privacy too), preferably use Atom/RSS feeds, and ideally cull all sorts of sites that produce LLM spew, misinformation, or both (LLMs tend to do a lot of the latter involuntarily). Consider what some former news sites became. It's really awful. Meanwhile, some good old news sites went offline. They won't be coming back. All their work is gone forever.

This recognition that the Web is increasingly hopeless (for a number of reasons) is accentuated by the latest nonsense from Mozilla. Firefox is "dead man walking" and Mozilla promotes people from Facebook and Twitter. It lays off the geeks (revisit "Mass Layoffs at Mozilla Announced During US Elections"; it tried hard to change the topic immediately after that). This does necessarily - or at least inevitably - mean that HTTPS (or SPDY) increasingly became little but a "transport layer" for Chrome and derivatives of Chrom(ium).

Gemini Protocol is still a lot smaller (vastly fewer users than the Web), but if we're looking for actual solutions, then we need to seek alternatives to the status quo. We need to become part of the solution. The Web at this point is beyond redemption. It's hard to envision things turning around; "apps" or "webapps" are responsible for all sorts of bad things and they're almost always proprietary. They generally circumvent libraries (information/knowledge), public services, and Software Freedom. For instance, it's harder to do banking today than it was decades ago (experienced people did the important tasks for you), it's hard to know what pushes to you the latest "news" stories (see what happened in Romania; sites are being "tailored" to you by proprietary, secret algorithms), surveillance is everywhere (but they still cannot catch a CEO's murderer in the busiest town in the richest country), cars don't last very long, and computers refuse to boot for no reason other than totally phony 'security' (which is false).

Each year things seem to get worse. Like Andy said the other day, we were promised better and easier lives, cushioned by a technological revolution. Instead everything seems to deteriorate and people say there's not enough time in the day. Despite having washing machines, dishwashers, fewer kids etc. we're somehow expected to work longer hours and sleep even less (and perhaps not sleep well due to worries or phone notifications coming from the corner of the bedroom).

Lately we've seen and shared new blog posts about making life simpler (some are in Geminispace). The broadcasters might call it "dumb", but there's nothing dumb about simplifying things. In coding, this is actively encouraged, so why not in life?

Someone in Geminispace quoted Paulo Coelho the other day: “If it costs you your peace, it is too expensive”.

____

* For the first time in over a decade we didn't put out and arrange a large tree (it's a huge task; it takes several hours). This year's motif is different.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
Accessibility Isn't Overrated
Making things simpler typically means better accessibility
 
Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
Links for the day
Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
Why are people still investing in this company?
The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
Or steal it
Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
Links for the day
The Register's Slopfest
Remember when The Register UK (yes, UK) had better standards?
Latest Version of Windows (Vista 11) is a Failure 4 Years After Its Fake 'Leak'
Vista 11 became more scarce this month
Improving Our Archives
Our old archives are still accessed a lot. Making them better is well worth the investment.
Things One Learns as a Litigant in Person at the UK High Court
Don't fear the official manuals
Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles From Fake "Linux" Sites and About "Linux"
Google says it's committed to "AI" (it means slop, not AI); that seems like an excuse to dodge accountability
Links 19/08/2025: "Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Through Vibrations" and Air Canada in Chaos
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Niche Spaces and "AI Pasta Sauce"
Links for the day
Links 19/08/2025: "NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science" and "Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate"
Links for the day
Microsoft said “GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organisation.” But it's just an empty shell created earlier this year.
In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket
Phil Wyett evidence & Debian Zizian plagiarism, modern slavery tendencies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM Layoffs in MCC, or Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
IBM and Microsoft inflate their share price by circular financing
In Many Countries People Move Away From Vista 11
Vista 11 has been available for download for 4 years already, but adoption has been poor
Desktops/Laptops Fall to All-Time Lows in the UK, So Why Does British Media Quote a Famous Criminal on "End of the Smartphone Era"?
mobile usage (for Web access) has never been higher, based on an Irish surveyor, statCounter
The Groklaw Web Site Has Been Hijacked by Scammers
Groklaw.net isn't a safe site to access at this time
The Register MS gets Lazy, Uses Slop
Unlike 3-D renderings or "Classic" CG, slop images aren't quite original and definitely not fair use
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 18, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 18, 2025
Online Safety Act Does Not Tackle the Worst (and Biggest) Culprits
if our governments are serious about tackling online harms, then they need to look closely at GAFAM and social control media giants
Chat Control (1 and 2) in the European Union Sends the Wrong Message
This is an EU law
Slopwatch: Google News and Serial Sloppers (Fake Articles About "Linux")
Calling out the culprits
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Digital Legacy and Chat Control
Links for the day
English Law Misused by Americans and Irishmen Against Brits is Unfair
There's always a way to improve existing laws
Overly Maximalist, Expensive, Localised Patent Law is Dooming Western Companies, Argue 3-D Printing Champions
We've long warned (over 7 years already!) that China's approach to patents will impress WIPO by gaming the totals but will doom the West
Links 18/08/2025: "Microsoft Store" Gets Increasingly Hostile, "Cracking Abandonware DRM"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Summer "Gone" and Web Reposts in Gemini
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows in Gabon: Still Moving Down
What is this Unknown? Who knows...
Links 18/08/2025: LLM Reputation Damaged, Australia Catches Google Foul Play
Links for the day
Geeks Like GNU/Linux
The technical community seems to be consolidating and rallying around GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux is 486 in Ireland
4.86% that is
End of Reliable Media
it makes the world a worse place, it renders the Web a misinformation machine
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 17, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 17, 2025
GitHub Won't Last Much Longer
Many things at Microsoft are going to go the way of the Skype (or "dodo"). GitHub will be among those.
We've Never Used Large Language Model (LLM)
we just never used an LLM
"Secure Boot" is a Security Problem, Not a Solution
These people don't try to improve security but to undermine security
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Retro and Endless Escape from the WWW
Links for the day