Devin Prater @devinprater@devin.masto.host

@vandys @jalefkowit @xth @alcinnz It's fine if you don't want to program computers for a living. Most people don't. Most people can't. But it's hard to deny the impact that software has on the modern world, or to claim that software is as good or as compassionate as it ought to be, or that computers can now do all we want them to do. I don't regard my career as a waste of time.

Android could go 64-bit only in 2023, starting with the Pixel tablet

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1874240

#Tech

40 years of official pro-monopoly policy has brought the world to the brink of collapse, as monopoly profits and concentrated power allowed an ever-decreasing minority of the ultra-rich to extract ever-increasing fortunes from ever-more-precarious workers. It's a flywheel: more monopoly creates more profits creates more power creates more monopoly.

22/

It's also why creative workers should be in solidarity with *all* workers - squint a little at Audible's chokepoint shakedown and you'll recognize the silhouette of the gig economy, from Uber to Doordash to the poultry and meat-packing industries.

21/

I hope you'll consider backing the Kickstarter if you can afford to - and if you can't, I hope you'll check out one of the copies our backers have donated to libraries around the world:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/chokepoint-capitalism-an-audiobook-amazon-wont-sell

eof/

Holy shit, did it ever work. The Kickstarter for the *Attack Surface* audiobook turned into *the most successful audiobook crowdfunding campaign in world history*, grossing over $267,000:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/attack-surface-audiobook-for-the-third-little-brother-book

13/

But that all changed in 2020, with the publication of *Attack Surface*, an adult standalone novel set in the world of my bestselling YA series *Little Brother*. That time, I decided to use Kickstarter to pre-sell the audio- and ebooks and see if my readers would help me show other creators that we could stand up to Audible's bullying.

12/

That's a huge deal. DRM is useless at preventing copyright infringement (all of Audible's titles can be downloaded for free from various shady corners of the internet), but it is *wildly effective* at locking in audiences and seizing power over creators. Under laws like the USA's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, giving someone a tool to remove DRM is a felony, punishable by 5 years in prison and a $500k fine.

5/

For example, take Audible: the Amazon division controls the vast majority of audiobook sales in the world - in some genres, they have a 90%+ market-share. Audible requires every seller - big publishers and self-publishers alike - to use their proprietary DRM as a condition of selling on the platform.

4/

My next book is *Chokepoint Capitalism*, co-written with the brilliant copyright expert Rebecca Giblin: it's an action-oriented investigation into how tech and entertainment monopolies have destroyed creators' livelihoods, with detailed, shovel-ready plans to unrig creative labor markets and get artists paid.

http://www.beacon.org/Chokepoint-Capitalism-P1856.aspx

1/

The fact that I do not get depressed after failing exams from one to another and just strive to become better in the most stubborn way possible without getting depressed over it is a huge improvement compared to how I was a year ago.

ChromeOS could gain Google Pixel-style contextual widgets

https://www.androidpolice.com/chromeos-google-pixel-style-contextual-widgets/

#OperatingSystems #Google #News

@TechNews

I remember chuckling at this when it came out. The original blog post (linked from the Verge article) has a lot more detail and it's definitely worth the read:

https://www.readmargins.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage

TikTok replaced TV for British young adults; 95% of US teens watch YouTube

https://9to5mac.com/2022/08/17/tiktok-replaced/

#News

#Fediverse instance idea: an instance specifically for organizations/projects, requiring additional verification that a given account actually belongs to a particular org/project.

From the perspective of other fedi users this would mean:

- reasonable assurance that @project@that.instance actually belongs to the org/project in question

- way to find other org/projects (just check the user catalogue of that.instance)

- way to block or ignore the whole instance if one wants to avoid org/project accounts.

Notes on "Emacs fulfills the UNIX Philosophy" - Philip Kaludercic: https://amodernist.com/texts/emacs-unix.html

systemctl reboop