1,936 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2020
    1. Welcome to the FOSS version of Apple and Microsoft in terms of user accessibility and customization. Sadly, Gnome, once the desktop of choice, has become the desktop that causes choice. A small and vocal clique of OCD “designers,” no doubt based out of a mojito bar in South Beach, allowed their control issues and Ubuntu envy to supersede rationality and the result is a desktop where form cripples function at every turn. Somewhere along the way to creating an interface that could be run precisely they way they run their ears and nostrils the Gnome “designers” became obsessed with making it difficult or impossible for those pesky users to mess up their perfect “design” decisions. In the pursuit of an imaginary user base running desktops with their fingers Gnome took a decent Swiss Army Knife and turned it into a plastic picnic spoon while alienating the majority of the real user base–including the man who invented the OS. Gnome will remain inaccessible and become more so, as you have just experienced, as long as the arrogant crew of control freaks who hijacked the project remains at the wheel. They are driving the bus and don’t you forget it. They know what you need and you don’t. They have “designed” a modal interface any idiot can use with just one grubby finger and in doing so they have demanded that everyone else get lobotomised.. Now eat your rutabaga and kale pie with your plastic picnic spoon or you won’t get any borscht for dessert kid. Sure it tastes awful, but just look at the colors and the presentation. Stop picking your nose! You need that finger to run your computer.

      A very fine rant.

  2. Sep 2020
  3. Aug 2020
    1. die Notwendigkeit, neben der als typisch männlich betrachteten Gerechtigkeitsmoral ("voice of justice") auch die feminine Fürsorgemoral ("voice of care") anzuerkennen, die sich statt an formalen Gerechtigkeitsprinzipien eher an der Qualität der Beziehung orientiert und Gefühle sowie soziales Engagement in den Vordergrund der Betrachtung rückt.[3]
  4. Jul 2020
    1. African Head Charge Songs of Praise + In Pursuit of Shashamane Land + Vision of a Psychedelic Africa + Voodoo of the Godsent + Churchical Chant of the Iyabinghi (On-U Sound)Following the Early Years reissues a few years back, these are a second tranche of releases exploring the back catalogue of African Head Charge, the band whose nexus was - and is - British-Jamaican percussionist supremo Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and post-punk dub-meister Adrian Sherwood, with a revolving cast of On-U sorts popping in and out. These albums range over the band’s career since 1990: Songs of Praise from 1990, In Pursuit of Shashamane Land from 1993, Vision of a Psychedelic Africa from 2005, and Voodoo of the Godsent from 2011, while Churchical Chant of the Iyabinghi is a lovingly rendered collection of outtakes and dubs based on the first two of those albums. Songs of Praise may be the best-loved oAfrican Head Charge album, but perhaps this is because it hit a historical sweet spot when ravers needed something exactly like it to come down to after an ecstatic night out. That’s my story anyway. Like all the others, it comes as a two record set with the second disc devoted to previously unheard cuts, as well as a 12” x 24” insert containing an interview with Noah. Full of chants and explicit spirituality, it has an earthy quality, the whole built around endless pattering bongos as much as dub reggae. You can get lost in it and many of us frequently did. The follow-up, In Pursuit of Shashamane Land takes that blueprint and produces it up. Alongside the Jah vibes, there’s a conscious sense of connectivity with the newly rising electronic dance scene (check the groove on the sensibly titled “No, Don’t Follow Fashion”). After that, while Noah continued to release Head Charge albums here and there, and moved to Ghana (where he is to this day), the On-U Sound connection broke down (although he and Sherwood remained close). When they reconvened for Vision of a Psychedelic Africa, they hauled in the whole of Tackhead (Skip McDonald, Doug Wimbish and Keith LeBlanc), as lethal a rhythm section as anyone could ask for. The result, while absolutely Head Charged, has an added musicality to it, as well as a cleaner forward-thrusting pulse and playful instrumentation (check the twangy guitar on “Surfari”). Voodoo of the Godsent - which has Adamski on synths and also features original Aswad bassist George Oban – is also a shinier outing (“Stoned Age Man” has an almost Pink Floyd feel), with a tendency towards actual songs. But let’s not give the wrong impression, it’s still spaced out, oddball music, that smells strongly of ganja overload in the best way.
  5. Jun 2020
  6. May 2020
  7. Apr 2020
    1. Ich habe die Kugelmetaphorik als Symptom eines Phantasmas gedacht, das sich gegen die Differenz wendet – letztlich ein Bild sozialer Gewalt: der zwangsläufigen Immersion (medien- und wahrnehmungstechnisch gedacht) und Integration (gesellschaftstechnisch gedacht), unter Ausschluss des jeweils Nicht-Integrierbaren. Die moderne Synergie als utopisches Modell gehört diskurshistorisch zur aufkommenden Massengesellschaft, welche totalisierende Organisationsformen von Gesellschaft als notwendige Konsequenz erscheinen ließ (und das gilt auch für die USA). Hinter ihr steht das Begehren einer Perfektibilität von Welt, nur: wer determiniert den Fokus?
    2. Ich kann nicht anders, als misstrauisch zu sein gegenüber einer Synergetik als Planungsstrategie, denn sie scheint mir von „oben“ – dem Ganzen – aus gedacht, nur wer gibt die Systematik des jeweils imaginierten Systems vor? Mit der Synergie verbindet sich nolens volens die Frage der Macht; die Welt als selbstregulierendes System zu denken und dies als Planungsansatz zu nehmen, birgt einen m. E. grundsätzlichen Widerspruch, der einer Leugnung gesellschaftlicher Realitäten entspringt, an denen sich schon Fullers Utopie die Zähne ausgebissen hat.
    3. dies Beispiel zeigt, dass Macht und das Denken in synergetischen Prozessen nicht getrennt gesehen werden können
    1. Oft beruft man sich explizit auf Querverbindungen zwischen verschiedenen Wissensfeldern, doch können diese verschiedenen Wirklichkeitsbereiche überhaupt zueinander in Beziehung gesetzt werden?
    2. Verbirgt sich hinter Denkfiguren der Synergie und der Übersummativität in der Nachfolge des Aristoteles, hinter den Figuren der Summe, des Ganzen, des unteilbaren Systems, die Gefahr der Totalisierung?
    1. „Attentat“ auf die „energetisch-synergetische“ Theorie
    2. Das Problem der „Frustration“ ist aber nicht das einzige Problem, das seinen Schatten auf die Leistung des amerikanischen Genies wirft.
    3. Aufgrund dieser in der Festkörperphysik als „Frustration“ bezeichneten Erkenntnis führt eine vom Tetraeder ausgehende dichte Kugelpackung nicht zu einem immer größer werdenden Ikosaeder, sondern zu einem sog. Kubooktaeder, d. h. einem Polyeder, dessen Oberfläche aus acht gleichseitigen Dreiecken und sechs Quadraten besteht.
    4. Dieses verführerische Denkmodell stimmt aber leider nur scheinbar.
  8. Mar 2020
    1. The remedy which the tradition of Western thought has proposed for the unpredictability and irreversibility of action has consisted in abstaining from action altogether, in the withdrawal from the sphere of interaction with others, in the hope that one’s freedom and integrity could thereby be preserved. Platonism, Stoicism and Christianity elevated the sphere of contemplation above the sphere of action, precisely because in the former one could be free from the entanglements and frustrations of action. Arendt’s proposal, by contrast, is not to turn one’s back on the realm of human affairs, but to rely on two faculties inherent in action itself, the faculty of forgiving and the faculty of promising. These two faculties are closely connected, the former mitigating the irreversibility of action by absolving the actor from the unintended consequences of his or her deeds, the latter moderating the uncertainty of its outcome by binding actors to certain courses of action and thereby setting some limit to the unpredictability of the future. Both faculties are, in this respect, connected to temporality: from the standpoint of the present forgiving looks backward to what has happened and absolves the actor from what was unintentionally done, while promising looks forward as it seeks to establish islands of security in an otherwise uncertain and unpredictable future.
    1. Agile Procurement Alter procurement methodologies to favour agile approaches over “spec and deliver”. Specifically, current methodologies follow a “spec and deliver” model in which government attempts to define a full spec up front and then seeks solutions that deliver against this. The spec and deliver approach greatly diminishes the value of open source - which allows for rapid iteration in the open, and more rapid switching of provider - and implicitly builds lock-in to the selected provider whose solution is a black-box to the buyer. In addition, whilst theoretically shifting risk to the supplier of the software, given the difficulty of specifying software up front, it really just inflates upfront costs (since the supplier has to price in risk) and sets the scene for complex and cumbersome later negotiations about under-specified elements. Instead, create an agile procurement stream in which, rather than detailed requirements being set up front, you secure estimated budget for an initial phase and seeks bids on X number of sprints (with ability to end after any sprint). This model requires acceptance of some budget uncertainty: the total cost of delivery of software may not be fully known in advance. However, one can, alternatively, fix a budget and accept some uncertainty over features delivered. We emphasize that this limitation is not a limitation of open source but of software in general. As the maxim goes: in software development you can have any two of features, time and budget – but not all three. Traditional tendering with its fixed requirements, fixed timeframes – and implicitly fixed costs – exists in an illusory world where one can have all three and implicitly imagines that buying software is like buying traditional goods like chairs whose features, usage and cost are all well-known up front.
    1. Und den persönlichen Entschluss, als aufgeklärter Citoyen aus der eigenen Zivilität heraus dieser Verantwortung freiwillig nachzugehen, halte ich für die größere Mündigkeit und für den nobleren Freiheitsgedanken als die Abhängigkeit von der kollektiven, bestrohhalmten Innenstadt-Party-Performance.
    2. In seinem Buch "Totalität und Unendlichkeit: Versuch über die Exteriorität” schrieb der französische Philosoph Emmanuel Lévinas: "Indem der Andere die Freiheit zur Verantwortung ruft, setzt er sie ein und rechtfertigt sie." Verantwortung für sich und andere zu übernehmen, ist die erwachsenste Form der Freiheit.
    3. ein frühlingshaftes Freiheits-Paradox der Unbelehrbarkeit ab: Je sozialer sich in der aktuellen Lage ein Individuum im öffentlichen Raum präsentiert, desto weniger ist es das.
    1. Es wird sich zeigen, zu wie viel Solidarität eine Gesellschaft fähig ist, die zum vernünftigen Handeln erst mit Kontrollen, Verboten und Gesetzen genötigt werden muss, ehe sie auch nur eine minimale Einschränkung ihres Komforts zugunsten aller in Kauf nehmen will – eine Gesellschaft, die jahrzehntelang nichts als ökonomischen Eigennutz eingebläut bekommen hat.
    1. Man sollte in jeder Stadt ein „Touristen-Desinformationszentrum“ einrichten, heißt es da, um „Besucher einzuladen, die Stadt neu zu gestalten, statt sie zu konsumieren“.
    2. Touristen nett verarschen
    1. Yana Milev plädiert dafür, die Deutungshoheit über DDR-Geschichte und Biografien den Eignern zurückzugeben. Bis es so weit ist, wird noch viel Zeit vergehen. Aber fein wäre es.
    1. Wir schaffen das nicht, glauben viele. Wir brauchen Austausch. Wir müssen vor allem arbeiten gehen! Aber vielleicht stimmt das gar nicht. Vielleicht haben wir in ein paar Wochen nachhaltig begriffen, dass die Welt gar nicht untergeht, wenn wir nicht immer so dolle schaffen gehen.
    1. was der Publizist Dirk Kurbjeweit für die neoliberal gesteuerte globale Welt als "McKinsey-Gesellschaft" beschrieben hat. Jeder putzt sich raus, so gut er kann, als Topperformer, der irgendwelche Loser hinter sich lässt.
    1. Mir gefällt, wie sie in dem Wort "FußgängerInnen" die kleine, kaum hörbare Verzögerung einbaut. Sie hat Gefühl für Rhythmus, die Pause zwischen "gänger" und "Innen" sitzt immer perfekt.
    1. Not only are public transport datasets useful for benchmarking route planning systems, they are also highly useful for benchmarking geospatial [13, 14] and temporal [15, 16] RDF systems due to the intrinsic geospatial and temporal properties of public transport datasets. While synthetic dataset generators already exist in the geospatial and temporal domain [17, 18], no systems exist yet that focus on realism, and specifically look into the generation of public transport datasets. As such, the main topic that we address in this work, is solving the need for realistic public transport datasets with geospatial and temporal characteristics, so that they can be used to benchmark RDF data management and route planning systems. More specifically, we introduce a mimicking algorithm for generating realistic public transport data, which is the main contribution of this work.
    1. 4. Build With Not For This simple but compelling phrase sums up our approach to building technology. The concept comes from a long history of movement work, and in the civic tech space has been popularized by Laurenellen McCann, who has written extensively on the topic. To us, the ethos of “build with note for” is a reminder that the moment we are in the mindset of building something “for” our partners rather than with them, we have failed. Going back to the theme that technology is not neutral and that our values are embedded in our work, whether it’s conscious or not, building “for” inherently conjures up a feeling of saviorism, of believing we have the answers, or believing we are here to do something for someone else. Building with means constantly checking our assumptions, being open to ideas we haven’t thought of, and, most of all, results in much better work.
    2. 10. Ally is a Verb Solidarity is an ongoing process, and ally is a verb. Showing up in a good way is something we continually practice, not a destination where we arrive. This is not our unique insight - the concept of ally being a verb, not a noun, has a long history in social justice spaces, and it’s one worth highlighting. When we think of ourselves as “allies” (nouns) we can get complacent by thinking we have arrived, or we can get fragile when we make mistakes that make us question our status as “allies.” When instead we see ourselves as practicing allyship with frontline communities, then we recognize that our goal is to continually listen, learn from and take action in solidarity with our partners.
    3. 8. Decolonize Mapmaking Our work on local first tools is deeply influenced by indigenous-led movements to decolonize mapping, with the explicit goals of making maps that increase indigenous sovereignty & land rights. From participatory mapping, collective mapping, counter-mapping and MappingBack, there are inspiring examples from around the planet of how indigenous peoples & other local communities are reclaiming mapmaking in order to assert sovereignty over their traditional territories. Such decolonized mapping processes enable communities to communicate their worldviews, values and relationships with territory to outside audiences. They disrupt existing norms and assumed practices of European cartography, including whether rivers should always be blue, which direction maps are oriented, and even what constitutes a map. From our projects supporting indigenous-led mapping, we’ve been inspired by the ways that indigenous people are making their own maps to assert their rights, and the ways that they are decolonizing mapmaking in the process.
    1. make it accessible for them to provide tough love to your plans and projects
    2. prioritize your accountability to them over your desire to “do tech”
    3. Technology implementation should come last, implementing and coding early is a sign of immaturity.
    4. have project governance conversations early

      Put tech second for some time.

    5. how those contributions get honored
    6. There’s always a fallback “peer”
    7. if you get hit by a bus
    8. your integrity lies in how you manage your data and the data of those with whom you work and live
    9. you are what you use
    10. emerging data threats
    11. threat model
    12. information security literacy
    13. Don’t go to code academy, go to design academy. Be advocates of the user & consumer. It’s not about learning how to code, it’s about translating real-world needs to technological specifications in just ways that give end users agency and equity in design, development and delivery. Be a champion of user-centric design. Learn how to steward data and offer your help.