callc

You are correct in the implication not many people at all care.

Just like most people don’t care about freedom of speech, since they don’t “utilize” it. It’s only utilized when you get sued, and then you can exercise that freedom in court.

IMO we, the techy people, have a responsibility to society to argue for this freedom. Since no one else cares or understands it. But without it it’s too easy for history (in this aspect) to go down a not so good path.

Let me try to pitch you:

The value of general computing freedom is like any other freedom: it is needed when it people are trying to express you.

And not just you. Anyone! So evaluating whether a freedom is necessary turns into a much more nebulous question of “would anyone really need this at one point now or in the future? Is this a thing we should protect in general, even if it does seem like we need it exactly now?”

For example, could Apple/Google at one point be strong armed (by any government) into including spyware onto all devices? And listeners to make sure no one ever says bad things about $DEAR_LEADER?

If the probability of yes is anywhere around 10% over the next decade, maybe it’s a good freedom to have.

Your pesky morals are no match for my capitalism!

/s

Don’t forget about emotions.

There’s something here about the journey not just the destination.

Press a button and problem solved is not too fun

Same here.

IME on the lock screen I’ll be interacting with the media controls and the screen will just turn off, like I’m not doing any interaction.

It’s funny how that basic of functionality is broken.

Less things that can go wrong.

Sometimes just having a local machine that you can do everything on is what you need

It’s so easy to generate a pile of crap now that it “just works” as you say.

Quality, maintainability, simplicity, understandability, flexibility etc all still matter at $DAY_JOB, where you’ve got paying customers. We’ve got a responsibility to write good software that adds to people’s lives.

I’d recommend to try to raise the bar. Commit messages written by humans, no PRs above a certain size, any PR needs an introduction / explanation by author first for the reviewers.

> restricting things without any good reason

A feature, not a bug!

You need to be super up to date to be involved! Have all the devices!

It just comes naturally to me, I know them as Facebook.

There’s some effect of corporate name changing in order to have a reputational reset. I’m opposed to that.

Real people OTOH I’m happy to call them whatever they wish

If they changed their name to “Flobular” it wouldn’t change a thing.

They’re Facebook in many people’s minds.

“Meta” doesn’t convey the same meaning that “Facebook” does. And it’s also squatting on an important term in English. Mets is used all over the language, like metaphysical.

No thanks, I’ll use Facebook

> Dare I say programming isn’t as fun anymore

I can imagine programming being an absolute blast if phone OSes were open like desktop.

Just imagine publishing little apps for your friends and family, easily, without asking anyone’s permission!

My little story:

I recently replaced my $HEALTHCARE_APP with the PWA of their website. It was the *exact* same. The app was just a webview (and a pretty good one at that!)

It makes me really question how much “security” these services need when they have websites that can do everything the app can do.

> Turns out Apple disables it if it can't detect a third party battery. Why? I'm sure someone will come and try to defend it, but if you do, you better come with an EE degree and math. To me, it looks like a punishment for not being able to go back to USA within my warranty period to replace my phone's battery which was down to 75% capacity.

Simpler than that: money and control.

Marked up replacement parts for and the inability to compete because “not Apple certified” comes with disabled features.

The best part of market capitalism, no market! Pure profits because we make the rules!

Maybe this gets us closer to some idea of email being a more protected digital service, that has some legal guarantees?

Putting the potential negatives under the rug for a second…

I would be nice to have email that (1) you can’t get locked out of arbitrarily, (2) acts similarly to US mailbox (in its protections and universal service), (3) acts as an identity

Is this a bad idea?