Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
Available on the Fediverse or if you want just the audio.(its better with the video for our expressions)
Thank you very much Ozone for the fun time we had discussing everything.
I have been testing Flipboard’s Surf beta for a while. I have been meaning to write about it for a long while but have been busy due to redundancy.
What is Surf? I could go into detail but I would say it’s a way to aggregate a number of sources and share them in a form which others can follow or flip through. It’s all using the fediverse and acts like a first class citizen of it. I gather Bluesky has a similar type thing where you can design and share algorithms to others. I guess it’s like that but so much more.
So I have setup a couple of channels one for digital legacy and dating troubles. For the dating one I have connected up a few dating YouTubers and my own raindrop.io bookmarks using the same scope (dating troubles).
This means not only can I have add things to followers by manually adding posts, media, etc but every time my bookmarks are updated it’s reflected across the fediverse too? Pretty sure this is kind of true but I guess what makes surf more compelling compared to a RSS reader is the client reader. What else do you expect from the team behind Flipboard? Although it’s beta, it’s smooth and well thought out, not just for reading but for creating too.
I wasn’t surprised it supported activitypub, meaning you can aggregate or group from across the fediverse (oh yes and bluesky) but RSS really opens things up a lot more. I can see this being super useful for businesses, community leaders and those into super niche topics. I choose the things which I have been tracking anyway, but been thinking about one for the #pacemkaerdevice #pebblewatch #diabolotricks #eatingoutallergies, etc etc.
I also gather as Surf creates a activitypub feed you could aggregate those back into another surf account created levels piping (something I talked about about 20 years ago)
Generally I like it and look forward to the next update…
By the way if you are interested use the referral code CUBICGARDEN when signing up for the waitlist. Mastodon sign up are the priority right now but Bluesky is still in progress.
I recently saw this note from the Guardian.
The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, from its official accounts.
In an announcement to readers, the news organisation said it considered the benefits of being on the platform formerly called Twitter were now outweighed by the negatives, citing the “often disturbing content” found on it.
My instant thought is the medium is the message and organisations and people are starting to understand this. The hate on Xtwitter is almost impossible to avoid but the medium Elon’s X changes and shapes not just the conversation but the way people think.
Worth noting the Guardian already have a mastodon bot on the Fediverse.
I just spotted this in my inbox, airbnb has updated their policy on security devices.
We’re updating our policy on the use and disclosure of security cameras, recording devices, noise decibel monitors and smart home devices for all Airbnb listings.
Starting on 30 April 2024, these rules apply to the presence of these devices, even if they’re turned off:
- You’re not allowed to have cameras that monitor indoor spaces.
- You must disclose the location of outdoor cameras. For example, “I have cameras monitoring the front door and the pool”.
- Outdoor cameras are prohibited in spaces where guests expect greater privacy, such as enclosed showers and saunas.
- You must disclose noise decibel monitors, which may only be present in common spaces.
- You can have smart home devices like TVs and voice assistants. You aren’t required to disclose these devices, but we encourage you to tell guests that you have them and how to turn them off.
- These requirements don’t apply to devices in common spaces outside your home that you don’t control, such as cameras in the foyer of a block of flats.
We’re making these changes after carefully considering how to best balance the privacy and security concerns of our community. Read the full policy on the Help Centre.
I have to say its a good and well needed change.
Interesting point about disclosing smart devices, as I think this should be the case full stop when entering a space. I don’t know about other people but I tend to be guarded with what I say when under surveillance.
I have been mixing away on the pacemaker device as usual. But noticed my mixgarden is having some troubles. I was using hyperaudio and webmonization to present my mixes. It was good however things changed over the last year.
Webmonization made a number of changes and hyperaudio seems to be slightly broken the configuration I currently have it in.
So with all this in mind and after looking at Peertube and Castopod, I decided to give peertube a try before running my own instance. Similar to what I had planned with Funkwhale a long time ago.
This has worked out well on rankett. Then I heard on podnews last week about music freediverse.
Music Freediverse is a new place for musicians to post their songs as an RSS feed, using PeerTube.
After a email with the sysadmin, about mixes and legality of them. They suggested I check out Split Kit if I have the metadata (which I do), this is something I looked into and now have a lightening address, which you can send sats to on my new mixgarden. I am also interested in the peer 2 peer tech
One of the good things about Peertube is the ability to sync videos over, which I took advantage of, it was a shame the metadata wasn’t copied over too but its fine, as I had it all.
In the short term I’ll keep using peertube but I have a plan to install a peertube instance myself and host it all locally. Then I could syndicate them out elsewhere. (Anyone can recommend a good docker container, do shout)
Another thing for the task list, but likely the best idea for now with lots of room to grow and expand.
Talking of which the next mix is a banger….
To me its nothing new, the history of Match Group and their almost total ownership of online dating.
It did make a good point about Plenty of Fish, who said no way and lets not forget OKCupid who wrote why you should never pay for online dating before they were bought.
Still remember the popcorn eating with the vanity fair piece too…
The whole area of online dating is a surveillance capitalism mess and I really wish someone in the EU commission would apply competition rules and regulations to this space.
https://mas.to/@cubicgarden/111604095351550508
I had the joy of representing BBC RD in Flipboards new podcast series dot social.
Starting with Mike Masnick and moving through quite an amazing list of people including @evan key contributor to ActivityPub, @coachtony Medium‘s CEO, @WMitchellBaker CEO at Mozilla, chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation and many more.
I was surprised to be number 3 in the line up which you can hear here.
The series is exciting showing off the maturing of the fediverse and the diversity of activitypub.Thanks to Mike McCue for reaching out and his great decision to move Flipboard to the fediverse early.
It feels like a while ago but Mike’s protocols not platforms paper, I have been reading again recently for some related research work. I also recently spent some time with Evan in London. Remembering what wonderful people and the rich history activitypub has.
Reading the blog post about Signal costs, really got me thinking I need donate to them because it is simply incredible and completely respect their stance on so many things.
I was thinking I do pay for Proton, Beeper and other systems which support my privacy why not Signal?
So I donated! I may even setup a yearly subscription…
I have been meaning to write about context collapse with beeper for a long while. I have written about Beeper previously.. In short Beeper is a messaging client which takes advantage of Matrix’s bridge system to connect/bridge to many different networks.
This means I use Matrix every single day on my laptops and smartphones. Its great, as its connects to so many different networks including Discord and Slack, all without installing Slack or Discord on my phone and even laptop if I wanted to.
However there is a effect which is best described as (like) context collapse.
The amount of times I have received a message from someone on Linkedin, Facebook msg, Twitter direct message (which I don’t think works anymore – as you can imagine)., etc, etc. They all end up in my inbox and its super useful but sometimes I need to look at the little icon to then figure out what I should do next.
Should I treat it as serious, should I reply straight away or not worry too much. This is very apt when you are getting linkedin or twitter DMs. This is similar for Facebook messages.
It also affects the way you reply too, should I reply in my usual laidback style, should I add emojis, should I write a lot back, voice reply, etc etc.
It sounds stressful but actually I’m ok with it because the alternative of having lot of apps on my phone or laptop running would be far worst in my head. If there was a way to make the notifications per network that might be useful, but generally I’m ok with the context collapse, as the icons make it clear enough and force me to think.
This changes a bit when using my Android wear watch, which strips out such detail. So I generally don’t reply unless I know its from a friend or family. Although even that can be interesting as my mother is on sms & signal or a friend who is on sms, discord and facebook msg.
I kinda want to see a matrix bridge for activitypub (fediverse) but honestly with the amount of context collapse, I don’t think it would personally be a good idea for me.
Interested what others think about this all and would you like one client to do all your messages and potentially your social networking too?
Twitter is all but dead for me now, I’ve been fed up and rarely even look at it. However over the last week, the API change just put the last nail in the coffin for me. Last time they did similar I was close to leaving back then.
Even then I did say one client for twitter is a bad idea and its time to double down on mastodon. I do wonder how much of this has changed too?
Now Twitter clients, Cawbird (linux), Plume (android) are facing problems and I’m seeing problems with Crossposter too.
Its clear the owner and business model has decimated this microblogging platform and its time to leave it alone. Decided not to leave only because like a few other web platform, I hold on to the user cubicgarden and ianforrester just incase.
So glad I joined Mastodon in 2017. I can be found on the fediverse on @cubicgarden@mas.to (general account, one I use the most)
@cubicgarden@twit.social (tech account)
@cubicgarden@scholar.social (academic account)
@cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io (music and lifestyle account)
@cubicgarden@bookwyrm.social (books I’m reading and have read)
@cubicgarden on Pixelfed (pictures I’m sharing around the fediverse)
@cubicgarden on Peertube (where I’m sharing new mixes, likely to move in the future)
Expect a lot less of me tweeting from now on… Reading about Twitter under a public remit is just super sad reading now.