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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • Best decision my (now ex) wife and I ever made. Not because we are divorced now. But because

    a) I’m free to live my own life. and

    b) Even back when kids was an option, she and I both kind of saw the world that was coming and decided that we didn’t want to subject our children or grandchildren to the world that was turning to shit.

    Looking around today, I feel absolutely vindicated for taking that stance back in the early 2000’s when I was married.


  • Logic does not rely on assumptions. It relies on making deductions about what is probable when faced with the current knowledge.

    I see what you are meaning, but it’s a misunderstanding of how the scientific method works. Base Assumptions never come into play.

    The hypothesis comes from the existing evidence, not the other way around.

    For example, Eratosthenes didn’t have an “assumption” that the earth was round and then said, “hmmm…how shall we test this?” Rather, he had heard from someone or other that at noon is a certain city, there was no shadow. While in another city, there was a shadow being cast by objects. He started to logically deduce why that could be. He had his evidence, that in one city to the south, no shadow, and in another city, a shadow of 7 degrees at the same time of day. He knew the distance between the two cities and deduced not only that the earth was round, but it’s size as well.

    No gut assumptions necessary.








  • Not a full on extinction event, but the late bronze age collapse has always fascinated me. So much do that it led me to pursue archaeology in college.

    So many theories, everyone has their favourite, but yeah, what ultimately caused every near eastern civilisation as well as the Mycenaean Greeks to just all collapse and disappear over a relatively short 200 years or so (archaeologically speaking a blink-of-an-eye)







  • Adderbox76@lemmy.catoLinux@lemmy.mlAsking for donations in Plasma
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    2 months ago

    I’m not really talking about development as simply programming. There are a lot of aspects that go into development, yes…programming is a big aspect.

    But there’s also bug reporting (every user should know how to report bugs because it’s contributes to making the program better).

    Heck, you can even download the documentation and give it a proof-read if you’re good with grammar and spot some errors if you don’t want to commit to helping to write it.

    I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time in the various subs for the software, taking care to answer questions from other users who need help doing this or that. That again, is contributing.

    Then there’s simply what we’re doing right now. Bringing attention to the projects online getting them more visibility.

    Development of a successful FOSS app isn’t just about programming. And even small contributions count. If you can donate some coin, great! If you can’t, or don’t want to, there are a thousand other things that you can do to contribute to that apps community.

    I emphasized the word community because that is exactly what it is. The ethos of Open Source; what makes it different than Propietary software, is that the users are an inherent part of the development process in ways both big and small. In propietary software, there is a distinct line between the developers and the users. Developers have multiple stakeholders of which the user base is certainly one, but also include advertisers, software makers, hardware makers, etc…

    FOSS software, in contrast, is much more a communitee effort with the involvement of the community in the way of bug reports, literature, education and even simply championing the project because they don’t have millions of dollars in advertising budgets.

    Sorry, I get a little passionate, so this is longer than I intended it to be.

    But tl;dr, contributing isn’t just about money or just about programming. There’s a thousand ways big and small, and my issue isn’t with people not “paying” necessarily. But people who use it for free and don’t bother filing bug reports, don’t join the community online to help answer user questions, etc…

    A good FOSS citizen should be an active part of the community. Or donate money to the project if they’d rather not.


  • Adderbox76@lemmy.catoLinux@lemmy.mlAsking for donations in Plasma
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    2 months ago

    This software is extensively free (as in beer)

    No…it’s not. It’s free to download and to use, but the expectation that people contribute in exchange for using it is how FOSS has always worked.

    That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary. But contributing can be helping with user guides, or making youtube tutorials, or even just extending the reach of the program to friends and family by talking about it.

    There are many ways to contribute, and money is one. But the notion that Open Source software is “free as in beer” has never been correct. Users have an expectation to contribute…period.


  • Adderbox76@lemmy.catoLinux@lemmy.mlAsking for donations in Plasma
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    2 months ago

    Unfortunately, there has always been the issue that a not-insignificant percentage of users of FOSS software believe the FREE part means “free as in beer” and take umbrage when asked to contribute.

    I’ve long been a proponent (and I know I’m in a minority) that has advocated for a shift in the marketing of FOSS applications from “donation based” to “value based”. Meaning that the expectation is that if you enjoy the software, you pay an amount that you believe is commensurate to your use. This is voluntarily of course…if you can’t pay, than please use it and enjoy it. But those who can pay, should pay…at least a little bit, to offset the costs for those who can’t.

    It’s more or less that the wording of FOSS apps needs to change so that you are expected to contribute if you can.

    Just my opinion. Like I said, I know I’m in the minority. Just not a fan of the percentage of users that has always existed that (falsely) think that asking for money for your project is somehow anathema to the Open Source ideal and whine whenever they’re asked to contribute.