"avoiding certain websites because you've learned what the dodgy ones look like"

Its great that he recognizes the danger and wants to raise the alarm, but he seems to be a candidate for victimization, too.

Bad sites don't have a 'look'. Only an https URL (because good or bad, its a verified 'address') will reliably give you a clue. Which is to say, assume its bad unless its both https & a recognized domain that is spelled correctly.

On a new laptop, I wipe Windows without ever booting it, then install Linux. In one case the easiest way was to just pop in the SSD from the previous laptop destroyed by impact, then switch its boot system over for the newer UEFI-only board.

I block all known ad networks and all known trackers unconditionally. I also block both Google and Facebook in normal browsers and will not allow FB to run Javascript even in Torbrowser as I consider the site malicious. No white list, no exception.

even tho I know all of those things, I'm usually unable to do them unconsciously because of my adhd. This has lead me to completely isolate from the internet and slowly go back rethinking each part and putting counter measures.

This shit is not easy and should be taught in schools. Using always an adblock, never use gmail, avoid meta and commercial social networks like they were satan, using linux, ... Mostly avoiding being a product in the first place. One you're there, you don't have to do mental gymnastics for each easy task.

I found one of the comments interesting. I can't link to it. "L" writes: "What you described in your piece is the Black experience in America in particular. Every part of American life for Black people exploits and demeans you. Every part of American life for Black people is constantly equal parts draining and enraging. This is every day. Every. Damn. Day. What I find fascinating is Black people are largely ignored when we point these things out. Even liberal white people don't get it. But as soon as middle-class white people have to endure what has been the non-white experience in this country, white people become radicalized. That's the only way tech has equalized America. Tech exported the Black Experience to white america and white people hate every second of it." The comment goes on a bit longer.

I would like to CC @mekkaokereke on this for their perspective, if they have time.

Or, you just use open source software, apps, services.

A forking threat a day keeps the enshittification away.

#opensource

IMHO modern tech allows democratization of control over others.

Democratic (enlightenemt) values were intended to support individual agency in opposition to feudal values of ownership and control by a few over the many.

I also only use FOSS and am currently swimming hard against the current of corporate control of every aspect of my participation in society. It is exhausting.

Right over here! That's me! I have very limited control. I'm utterly victimized by Microsoft, which now regularly harasses me with product advertising and AI bullshit from a platform I have to use every day to do my job. What had become a clunky but benign monopoly workspace is now spewing shit in my face daily. Here on Mastodon I see that if I knew enough, or more to the point worked in a field other than finance, I could escape but I don't, and so I can't. It's enraging.

#microsoft

Ed also has a very interesting article on

The Men who killed Google. [ Search ]

wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-ki…

This is the result of taking technology out of the hands of real builders and handing it to managers at a time when “management” is synonymous with “staying as far away from actual work as possible.” And when you’re a do-nothing looking to profit as much as possible, you only care about growth. You’re not a user, you’re a parasite, ....

The Man Who Killed Google Search

Wanna listen to this story instead? Check out this week's Better Offline podcast, "The Man That Destroyed Google Search," available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

^{Edward Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)}

It's a must-read (though it could have been edited down by at least a third).

There was a sentence where he referred to our tools and my brain immediately corrected "tools" to "products". Tools serve you, products serve their sellers. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

Sensitiver Inhalt Zum Öffnen/Schließen klicken

Wirklich schade! Aber ist bei einem 1Personen-Projekt stets nur eine Frage der Zeit.

Es sollte eine Plattform geben, auf denen die Devs ihre Projekte zur Übergabe an andere Maintainer bewerben können...

all credit for the photo to fffandc on flickr: flickr.com/photos/fffandc/2546…

their "exchange project" is a truly awesome collection of photos of what's just... abandoned in place in old exchanges.
equipment old and new, but also hand-painted signage and all sorts of signs of daily life, all sitting just where it was left.

2S1A0564

Barton Exchange.

^Flickr