Open Risk

RE: @BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu

The dramatic and terminal twist is that nobody who had any leverage over this choice (politicians, regulators, investors etc.) pushed back when it was still possible.

Not only in the US, where this abomination originated, but nowhere else either.

It's only full blown fascism when larger parts of society partake in the moral failings of some power group.

And this is, alas, what we have witnessed.

In this 20 min video Brett Scott explains clearly and in non-technical terms what is at stake as monetary systems go digital, the role of cash, private and state digital money and stablecoins.

Convenience vs resilience, surveillance and power and a great casino chip analogy.

#wero
#DigitalEuro
#digitalcash
#stablecoins
#tegenlight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNZpfhvfJ3s

Many developers still treat #python as another programming language. But there are now many hints that we are witnessing a new phenomenon, a new mode of interacting with computers. Not as general but more widely accessible.

Evidence the huge popularity of #jupyter notebooks which are among the most downloaded visual studio code extensions.

Sometimes people say Python is the new excel but thats not quite capturing it. Its more the extension of #linux sysadmin scripting to include #datascience

The early Web had a quality that has been lost ever since: it was *simple* Download #httpd , #netscape write some #html by hand and boom, the concept of a networked digital society is born. It first started going pear shaped with #LAMP . The complexity of a full blown database was not justified for most use cases. As proven decades later by the popularity of #sqlite and #ssg approaches. The final blow was when #bigtech got into the act. Immense complexity for the simplest things became a moat

In the early days people would #dualboot #linux on windows desktops for years before eventually commiting to switch 100% Maybe the same approach could work now for #android mobile phones given pure linux phones still struggle to be daily drivers? Assuming a fast and seamless switch function, it could be a practical way to smooth the transition: Keep access to critical apps while test driving and helping the development of truly free and #opensource mobile computing. https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/nex_brax_dualboot_fondleslabs/

The focus of early web was text (http is #hypertext after all). Text is powerful. You can share poetry with text. Searching text made Google a giant. Sharing snippets of text made Twitter a minor giant.

But once money chased eyeballs, the focus changed to visual media. Less cognitive load. Text requires literacy, image does not.

The early "lack of vision" was corrected with acquisitions. Google bought Youtube. Facebook bought Instagram. Finally TikTok came along.

Pulp fiction trumped poetry.