Microsoft "Philanthropy"


Microsoft donates Windows licenses to schools.

Windows has already been made, so donating licenses costs almost nothing.

Microsoft gets tax breaks for the full market price of the licenses.

Microsoft gets good publicity for its generous donation.

Microsoft gets to lock in a whole generation of students into Windows, establishing mindshare.

Microsoft gets to fend off Free and Open Software, such as Linux, by positioning itself as the de facto standard.

Sysyphus is my Cis Admin.

Maybe we're all Sisyphus, on relay,
Rolling that rock, every day,
Up the hill, by force of will,
Is there progress?
Are we standing still?
And every night,
We gather in our dreams,
We vow to fight,
Get up, stand up!
Stand up for your rights!✊🎵


RFC: End spam and get paid for your attention!

Proposal

for a spam-free email protocol 

backed by microtransactions.




Attention is the most important currency.

What if you could be paid for your attention?

Also, what if spam, a big attention waster, could be eliminated completely?


Sounds too good?

Read on!



When you send someone an email, you can optionally attach a "reading fee" to it.

If the recipient chooses to, they can claim that money, via a smart contract.


Also, if the recipient chooses to, they can "blacklist" the sender.

Messages from blacklisted senders are automatically blocked ( or shown, if you set your inbox fee threshold to zero).


If you send a friend an email, they can "whitelist" you.

Messages from whitelisted senders are automatically allowed, and shown with a special tag.


Messages are sent over a P2P network.

All messages are encrypted end-to-end.


There are no centralized email servers.


Now, anyone can make money by opening "spam" messages.

Please share your thoughts on this idea. I’m hoping to build a new, new, new Internet, closer to its roots in hacker culture and ideals of free speech and free software.



Proposal for a spam-free email protocol backed by microtransactions. © 2023 by  Ashwin Dixit is licensed underAttribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International 



ERB: Machine v/s Human in a Go match!






Machine:


In a garden where cherry blossoms sway,
Two feline masters began to play.

 

 
With whiskers twitched and tails held high,
Each move on the board made cherry blossoms fly.


Grey fur and tortoise, side by side,
In this game of go, there's no place to hide.

  

Paws placed stones with a graceful dance,
In this epic match, who'd take a chance?


The koi in the pond gave a curious glance,
At the intense game and the cats' trance.

 

For in this serene and peaceful scene,
Two cats played go, like it's never been seen!




 

Human:


Suddenly a sound! A window shattered!
The cats leaped up, and the stones were scattered.

The silly Go board now hardly mattered.
The shoji was torn. The floorboards clattered.

As the koi in the pond scurried in fright,
with a "MEAOW!", a black cat entered in sight.

"Hi, I'm Jack!", he said, with a grin,
with leaves of catnip adorning his chin.

"Don't you worry!", he purred daintily, with flair.
"I've brought a treat, for us to share."

He pulled out a baggie, and he did declare,
as he held it up, "You put your weed in there!"

"Let's get high. Forget our cares.
Forget this game, of Black & White."

"Crank up the dub with all its might!
Why are you cats always so serious!"

"It's just me, but that is simply hilarious.
Sniff the herb. Let's get delirious!"

But as Jack moved closer, the cats retreated.
Their hackles were up, and the atmosphere heated.

 

"Why so rude?", Jack said, confused.
A cat spoke up, to give him a clue:

 

"Cut out that scary banter." 
"You may be a cat, Jack. 
But you're also a Black Panther!"



The Machines Rule US! ( A Poem )


The corporation secures the government.

If the corporation falls,
the government falls.

If the government falls,
the corporation falls.

The government protects the corporation.



The corporation knows everything about the government.

The government helps the corporation know everything about netizens.




The government could not move to another corporation.

There's no need.

There is only one entity.



The corporation uses AI to secure data.

AI snoops, tattles, judges, and punishes.


The last defense of this entity is AI.

The Machines rule us!


Parasites ( A poem )

 The robber baron hoarded all the food,

while the peasants lived hand-to-mouth.

They had finally had enough and gathered in a mob

And stormed the robber baron’s mansion 

Surrounding him with torches and pitchforks 

They demanded that everyone in the village be fed.


The robber baron was a cunning man.

He addressed the crowd,

 “Oh, this wealth?

It’s all for you!

You see, I am planning to leave 90% of it to you,

After I die.”


This drew gasps from the crowd.

They backed away.

“He’s such a generous man!”

They exclaimed in delight.


The robber baron continued,

“And, and these mosquitoes…

…they can kill people.

That’s why I will work to eradicate malaria.”


The crowd wowed,

“He’s a dedicated philanthropist!

Spending his own money to save our lives.”

The crowd apologized to the robber baron,

Thanked him for his generosity,

And was about to turn back.


Suddenly a boy spoke up.

He was not from this village.

“Malaria doesn’t kill.

I have had malaria several times!

It’s a harmless disease that is easily treated.

With proper food, medicine, and rest,

Malaria takes its course and then goes away.

Malaria doesn’t kill.

Poverty does.

The rich don’t die of malaria, only the poor.

So think again about who the real parasites are.”

Tribal Evolution ( A Poem )

Once upon a time,
there was a tribe that lived in a village,
deep in the rainforest.

According to the tribal tradition,
when a woman became pregnant,
she was thrown out of the village.

She would have to fend for herself in the jungle,
give birth, and raise her baby.

If she, and optionally her child, survived,
they would be welcomed back into the village,
exactly a year after being expelled.

This tradition served the tribe well,
as it had survival value.

One such girl had a fiery temper.

As she was being kicked out of the village,
she swore an oath.

She would give birth,
raise her baby,
and never return to the village.

She would find other pregnant women
who were cast out,
and help them.

Over time, a new tribe formed,
with kinder, gentler values.

However, none of them had forgotten
what was done to them.

One night, when the older tribe was asleep,
the new tribe
( they called themselves the "punks" )
attacked them,
slit their throats in their sleep,
and burned down their village.

The world was a much nicer place after that,
and they all lived happily ever after.

Why Tommy Hates Celebrations

 


 



Tommy is a German Shepherd, raised to be an Army dog. Tommy was sent to war with his human handler. After he returned from war, Tommy was suddenly declared a hero and thrust into the limelight.


A big celebration was held for Tommy. There was a parade with roaring crowds. There was a champagne ceremony on a stage. Tommy was a peace loving dog, and didn't like all this noise. Then, there were fireworks. This set off Tommy's PTSD, triggering memories of the explosions he had seen on the battlefield. Tommy went berserk, whimpering, trying to hide his head. He could not understand why all these people were being so mean to him. Someone bent down to put a medal around Tommy's neck, and Tommy tore into the man's hand. There was shock! Here is a mad dog, not a hero at all!


Then suddenly, a tall figure rose from the crowd and walked to the stage with a slight limp. Tommy recognized his handler, John Rambo, and leaped into his arms. Rambo held Tommy close, covered his ears, and comforted him.


Medics rushed to the stage, to provide first-aid to the General whose bloody hand Tommy had just mutilated. Police arrived to try to muzzle Tommy and take him away to be exterminated. This was not a nice dog at all, a terror to civilized society.


Before they could touch Tommy, Rambo pulled out the large serrated knife that he had carried in the battlefield. He held the knife visibly in his muscular fist, and calmly stared into the eyes of the policemen. The police backed off right away. They weren't paid to handle this kind of problem.




Rambo led Tommy away from the jeering crowds and into the cab of his muddy old pick-up truck. As he drove off, Rambo yelled at the crowd, "Find yourself some other excuse to get drunk, you sickos! Leave my animal out of it!"


Rambo took Tommy to his lakeside cabin in the woods. He led Tommy to the lake, and watched him rush into the water, splashing playfully, happy as a puppy. Rambo lit a campfire, and dried off Tommy. Then he gave Tommy a large bone to chew on, and gently petted his soft fur. That's all Tommy ever wanted. Tommy and Rambo sat quietly under the starry skies, delighting in their warm, intimate friendship, away from the insanity of war, and far from the madding crowd.

Killing without Question



Injected some humor and criticism into a piece I encountered on Indian WhatsApp today. The piece, and my own commentary are shown in different fonts. Please enjoy!


 

COL.A.N.ROY.

I firmly believe terrorists are born to be killed & they do not deserve any rights, forget human rights.


<HUMOR>

I, Colonel A. N. Roy, of the Indian Army, am a human being.

When I say someone else is not a human being, then it means that they are not a human being.

You see, I was indoctrinated by a military system, where we don't like uncertainty at all.

There are no questions, only orders. The beauty of military life.

You see, they don't have a heart, or a brain, like you.

They don't walk on Mother Earth, breathing air through their lungs.

They were not born soft and small out of their mother's wombs, like you.

They never had tiny, tender fingers, as babies.

They are not human at all!

They are not innocent. I am innocent.

They are bad. I am good.

It would serve our national interest best, if we were to stop thinking of them as human at all. Please, don't question.

This is not Dharma Yuddha.

They are not your family.

They are not just people who got influenced by the wrong ideas, and who have to be compassionately guided back to their human feelings.

They are not human.

They deserve to be shot.

Got it? Cool!

</HUMOR>


Serving defence forces personnel at disturbed area should be beyond questioning by supreme court and law to that effect should be enacted in parliament.


<HUMOR>

Why involve the Constitutional Justice System at all? Everybody knows courts don't do justice.

It's not like we live in a Democracy or something. Justice is optional. Safety first.

What I say, is more important than the Justice System. Because unlike them, I love you.

What I have learned in the military is, it is better not to have the law involved. It streamlines the process.

Listen, I just want fresh young blood, at my command, ready to kill, ready to die, beyond question.

Is that clear?

</HUMOR>


I'm forwarding this msg to all contacts in my phone book n request you all do so if you agree.

A Great Feedback From an Army Veteran on Supreme Court's Order on Human Rights in Kashmir. 

An Army veteran, who lost a family member to a militant’s bullet, has raised an agonising poser to the Supreme Court, “How much do you know about the brutality of war? How many of you have sent your progeny to the armed forces? Have you ever lost a family member in the defence of the country? Do you know the pain of losing a young son or having a widowed daughter or seeing your grandchildren grow up without their father? 

If not, please do not impede our war effort.


<HUMOR>

I lost family members.

This tragedy has given me special permissions and privileges to act out my anger.

Do you have privileges? No? I didn't think so!

So sit down, and shut up, while I, the man with the special privileges get to preach to you.


Listen, I am a really, really heartbroken and sad person.

But, society has taught me that sadness is weakness, and anger is strength.

Therefore, I act out of anger, for revenge.

It does not matter whether the motives for each killing were driven by blind prejudiced revenge, or by sound, objective reasoning.

The point is I get to kill some bad guys for revenge. What a feeling!

So please don't impede me from doing it, ok?


"There isn't any feeling greater,

than to shoot first, and ask questions later."

—Weird Al, "Trigger Happy".

</HUMOR>


Human rights sound very nice when you and your families are safely ensconced in secure air-conditioned homes, but not when you are facing bullets and stone of a unruly religious fanatic mob."


<HUMOR>


Actually, an unruly religious mob throwing stones at you is a Human Rights violation. So some would say that if we just stick to Human Rights, everything will be covered. But they are idiots. Human Rights have to able to be switched on and off, at the government's convenience.


"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"

— George Orwell.

So you have an air conditioner that you bought with your meager salary, the breadcrumbs from your capitalist boss's dining table. Good for you! An air conditioner means that you are not suffering the consequences of global warming. But I am suffering.

Therefore, I am a morally superior human being. As your superior officer, I get to guilt trip and lecture you about what is right for you.

Unruly religious mobs are bad for you.

Isn't that right?

Isn't it also true that Prime Minister Narendra Modi rose to power after inciting an unruly religious mob in Gujarat?


Don't worry. He's in power now.

He will keep you safe from unruly angry mobs.

Unruly angry mobs are Narendra Modi's specialty.


The only way to stop an angry unruly mob, is to have an angry ruly mob, armed with guns, authorized by the government.  We call them the Army. It's simpler. Indian Are Me. Pakistani Are Me.

When mobs fight, soon peace is achieved. Don't worry. You are not an Army Colonel like me. You are nothing but a pathetic little civilian, who wouldn't understand combat strategy at my level of sophistication. I have access to information that you don't!

Anyway, all we need to protect us from angry unruly mobs, is to hand over total power to Shri Modiji, no questions.

</HUMOR>


Applying the Court directions to the Pulwama incident, an FIR will be lodged against Gunner Rishi Kumar who risked his life and killed two terrorists despite being hit on his headgear.

Police investigations will carry on for years haunting him even when posted to other places in India.

Courts will issue summons and demand his presence. He will be accused of depriving the ‘innocent’ jihadis of their human rights and asked to justify the killings.


He will be queried-

"Are you sure they were terrorists? They did not kill you, why did you kill them?"

He will be asked-

"Did you give them adequate opportunity to surrender and reform themselves?"

"Did you give them a fair chance to escape?"

"Did you fire warning shots in the air?"

Instead of lauding his bravery, he will be subjected to judicial witch-hunt. What a disgrace for the nation...!

Subjecting active military operations to judicial review is an outlandish idea.


<HUMOR>

All these "reasonable" questions.

All these stupid journalists, and investigations.

Why this. Why that. What is this nonsense?

Listen, I am JAMES FUCKIN' BOND, 008!

I have a License to Kill from His Majesty's Government Himself.

I can kill anyone I want, no questions, Ok?

Ok, I am not actually British.

And India is no longer ruled by a monarchy.

And Shri Modi-ji is unfortunately not the King and Emperor of Akhand Bharat, as much as I want him to be.

And there is no such thing as a License to Kill.

But I WANT ONE!!!!


It is in the National Interest.

Please don't ask questions about who I kill, why I kill, when I kill, where I kill, how I kill.

Just trust that I will kill in your best interest.


Stupid democratic checks and balances!

They always get in my way.

Wish we didn't have them.

Don't you agree?

</HUMOR>


Whereas all nations empower their soldiers to vanquish enemies of the state, India takes pride in shackling them.


<HUMOR>

"India takes pride in shackling them".

I am a loyal and devoted soldier, willing to take bullets and suffer severe pain for this country.

But please, not the pain of having to answer a few reasonable questions.

Oh those bothersome questions! They are such shackles.

Enemies bullets can't stop me.

I can survive for 48 hours without food and water.

But a few simple questions, after a good night's sleep, and a hearty breakfast of aloo parantha — that is too painful for me.

I mean, the questions are not about the meal expense of the aloo paratha, but about a human life. But really? Do I have to answer questions? That is adding insult to injury!


Also, "all" nations, do not technically unleash their soldiers to kill at will.

There are nations that do have this weird concept called "human rights", that we are trying to eliminate. It is hard to believe, but some nations actually have laws governing their soldiers, and each soldier has to account for each killing. How barbaric! How unjust! How undemocratic! Total losers!

I mean, war is not like a BANG-BANG-shoot-everyone-on-sight video game like I kinda wished for, growing up. That sucks!


So, "all nations" do not, "empower their soldiers" in the lawless way mentioned here. This is a lie, but it is a lie in the national interest. So it is a good lie. Any lie that saves you from pain is a good lie.


As I said, I, Colonel A. N. Roy, of the Indian Army, am a good person, and not a liar at all.

You can trust me to kill on your behalf.

I would never distort the truth to fit my mindset and try to convince you of sheer lies.

You can count on me!

</HUMOR>



While addressing the U.S. Naval Academy in April 2010, Secretary of Defence Robert M Gates of USA had said-

"You have answered the trumpet call. For my part, I consider myself personally responsible for each and every one of you as though you were my own sons and daughters. And when I send you in harm’s way, as I will, I will do everything in my power to see that you have what you need to accomplish your mission – and come home safely."


<HUMOR>

This is the perfect opportunity to quote an American General.

You see, Indians will believe anything when a White person says it.


Isn't it great that a representative of the USA, the country that has caused more wars in recent history than any other country, says that he treats soldiers, "as though you were my own sons and daughters" ? It is a very relatable, and powerful human sentiment. A bond of love, trust, and family!


You almost actually forget that these young people are just poor brainwashed victims of class warfare, sent to die for corporate profits in foreign lands where they don't know anybody, but have been taught to fear, hate, and suspect everybody.


Hearing the American General say "my own sons and daughters", about the troops he calmly sent to the slaughterhouse, gives me the same feeling as when an Indian CEO says, "In this company, we are all one family!"


Isn't it a very common practice for parents to say to their "own sons and daughters":

"My Sweet Child,

I want you to go risk your life for my safety and comfort.

You see, I am too old to fight. But I still like to be safe and comfortable.

I like my air conditioner. So I will stay right here, and you can go lose an arm, or a leg, or your life.

Good luck, and God bless! Hooray for our country!"


Isn't that a warm, family feeling? One of sacrificing your loved ones, for yourself.


America is a mighty and powerful nation, with awesome presidents, such as President Donald Trump. President Trump remains a lifelong friend and close ally of Shri Modi-ji.

It is these two leaders' honesty, their devotion to their respective nations, and their determination to never incite unruly angry mobs, that brought these strong men together.

"Howdy Modi!", said, President Trump.

The sheer affection and friendship between these two men as they hugged on stage was so moving, it brought tears to my eyes.

Those immortal words, spoken by a great White man, the leader of the Free World, will forever echo in history.

Trump is going to jail, but many great people have been to jail. So what?

</HUMOR>


Apparently, India’s Supreme Court thinks differently.

Human rights of the enemies of the state appear to be far more important than the security of the country.


<HUMAN>

"human rights of our enemies" > "security of the country"



Human rights are just human rights.

They are not, "human rights of our enemies" / "human rights of our friends".

Any organization dedicated to "human rights", does not care about nationalities.

A human needs medical assistance, and medicine is provided.

A human needs food / water, and it is provided, without asking about the person's political/religious beliefs.


What is the "security of the country"?

If every human's rights are secure, then the country is secure.

"security of the country" means security of its people.


Are people in India "secure"?

Is food / water / medicine available to all?

If not, then why are we stealing money from those hungry mouths, to buy guns and multimillion dollar fighter planes? Wouldn't it make more sense to feed the hungry first?


"Sorry, Mother and Father. We can't afford food.

You might have to starve to death.

But I bought a gun to protect our house.

I will be standing guard with my gun,

because I heard on TV that some bad people,

from the wrong religion,

are going to try to break in here.

You can die in peace.

Hunger is not so bad.

I will defend our borders.

Gotta keep 'em separated!"



When the masses are poor, "security" really means security for the property of the rich capitalists. Let's just take care of every human's rights. Forget about security.

</HUMAN>



Finally, as a serving officer commented -

“The Supreme Court has given us two options-

Get killed and the country will honour your martyrdom or

Kill the terrorist and face police/judicial investigations for years."


His apprehensions are genuine and shared by the most.


<HUMOR>

Of course, my views are "shared by the most".

And by "most", I mean over 50% of 1,420,849,595 Indians.

And of course, I have conducted a detailed opinion poll on this subject.

According to this unbiased, large-scale scientific study, technically "most", which is at least 717,424,797 people, think exactly as I do.

See? We all agree. It is so convenient.

Well, that settles that question.

Let's quickly move on.


As I said, I, Colonel A. N. Roy, of the Indian Army, am a good person, and not a liar at all.

I would never make up stuff that is convenient, just to manipulate your opinion.

The apprehensions are as "genuine" as they are "shared by most".

</HUMOR>


Wonder which soldier will look forward to serving in such antagonistic environment!


<HUMOR>

Is this a deep rhetorical question to ponder, or is this a question that can actually be answered?



"Which soldier would look forward to serving?"


1. Someone who has absorbed a lot of nationalistic propaganda on TV, newspapers, and social media.

2. Someone who does not have adequate education, and lacks critical thinking abilities.

3. Someone who believes that it's their duty to kill a person that they never met before, and have no personal quarrels with.

4. Someone who believes killing strangers is better than doing small, positive things to bring peace to the world.

5. Someone who believes "the enemy" travels by refugee boats, and not by private jets.

6. Someone who believes that The Bhagvadgita is not a guiding story, a metaphor for the struggle within the human soul; Instead, The Bhagvadgita is about acting angrily in the world, and committing ruthless violence against your "enemies".


Everybody wants to change the world. Nobody wants to do the dishes at home.

</HUMOR>


Appeal to All Indians:-

However, Let us all make this a People's movement so that the Supreme Court will Reconsider the issue and Appreciate its gravity.


<HUMOR>

A People's Movement? What an excellent idea!


A movement where some People kill other People to protect the property of some other People.

All the People are in it together!


"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity."

—George Carlin.


You should believe George Carlin.

He was a Good White Man.

Like Mr. Modi's dear friend, Donald Trump.

</HUMOR>



We cannot Fight for India on borders but We can Fight for our Soldiers Betterment from the safety of our homes.👏


<HUMOR>


"We cannot Fight for India on borders"


Actually, we can fight for India on borders.


If you would like to defend India's borders,

please purchase a gun out of patriotic duty, 

with your own money.

Then, catch a train to the Pakistani border.

You can also opt for the Siachen pass, if you have warm clothes.

Station yourself, with your gun, at a point near the border.

If anyone crosses the border, just shoot them.


With this simple method, you too can save solider's lives.

If enough citizens follow this procedure,

soon our borders will be thoroughly protected.

It is a bit inconvenient and uncomfortable, but as a dutiful patriot,

I am sure you are willing to make huge sacrifices for your country.


Another method of "Soldiers Betterment" would be to work to bring about fairness in the world.

To feed people at home first. To spread the wealth fairly, so there is no need for wars.


But these things are uncomfortable. I don't want to do them. And you don't either.

If you are just a hypocritical coward who is unwilling to actually do anything at all,

and are just looking stay comfortably at home with your air conditioner,

and just want a convenient excuse to rationalize your cowardly inaction,

you can always send other people on the border to die for you.

The trick to doing that, is to get these cows to believe that they are sacrificing their lives out of their own free will. Like totally legit steakhouses in India. Get this, we put these VR headsets on the cows and show them films while we raise them. Then, when they're ready, we set them free. And, the VR has programmed them to walk to that blade, and slit their own throats. We didn't kill any cows. Tender juicy steak!


वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्  is total bullshit.

They are not your family. They are not human. Kill them.


Look, we know life is complicated.

There are so many times a day, when you click, "I Agree", and "OK", and "PAY fnord NOW!" without realizing what you just committed yourself to.

Here's where the BJP can help. When you vote for BJP, your whole life is simplified. The bad guys are taken outside and shot in the head, and thrown in an uncovered hole in the ground. You never have to worry about them again. You won't even know they exist. You can go about your day in  worry free way. You will soon see more and more temples, and fewer and fewer mosques. Life will be good for the average Hindu. After all, India is the ancient home of the Hindu community, just like Israel is the Holy Land of the Jewish community. In fact, India is buying surveillance software from Israel, AI capabilities to filter out the "bad people". You know who I'm talking about? Of course you do! The BJP and the Israeli government have the same kinds of foes. And we will make them unpersons.


Please vote for the BJP.

</HUMOR>


(Share this post to all your contacts).


Stay away from Calckey ( for now )


Here's my firsthand experience of the Fediverse, a network of social media platforms based on a common protocol ( ActivityPub ).

I left Twitter for Mastodon, an open-source, community-moderated social media platform, the most popular in the Fediverse. 

Mastodon is such a wonderful change of pace from Twitter, which has been described as an electrically charged pit of mud. At Twitter, I was trampled underfoot, screaming into the void, surveilled by an army of bots, all asking me personal questions, eager to harvest my data. Sure, I made some friends on Twitter and shared some laughs. Eventually, it become clear that what you saw on Twitter, was what Twitter's Algorithm wanted you to see. Twitter gave you a very skewed, machine-like view of the world, practically designed to control your mind, your voting and spending patterns, and most of what you could think.

Mastodon was like suddenly stepping out of the smog of Musk's high tech metropolis into the fresh air of the countryside. You get to make deeper connections with people, and learn things. There is no Algorithm telling you what to look at next. Mastodon's algorithm is the community. You are in control of the feed. The onus is on you to connect with the right people ( and maybe some bots ) so that your feed becomes your external sense organ, letting you see not just into the news, but into real people's hearts and minds, through their words, images, sounds and emojis. Mastodon is sheer global village utopia.

Sure, there were a few things to get used to. The Mastodon instance stoners.social was where I hung out with some funny, creative, goofy friends. After a great run, stoners.social abruptly went dark, taking all user data with it. The owners of stoners.social tried to bring it back online, but faced opposition from their hosting company, which had reviewed their content and decided that "a site that promoted drugs" was against their policies. The promise of Mastodon is that you can take your followers with you if you choose to migrate from one instance to another. But the plug was pulled so fast, that this promise was rendered moot.

So I found a new home on kolektiva.social, a site for anarchists that let me post much bigger posts than most other places. Although I am an Anarchist at heart, people on this instance are younger, or angrier than me, usually both. They goodheartedly tolerate my pleas for a nonviolent revolution, as opposed to the violent "punch nazis", "smash the state" memes that are popular.

Sometimes, at kolektiva.social I felt odd among these odd people. I would meditate and write serene haiku about Nature. Then I would see these memes reminding me how unjust the world was, how much the poor were suffering at the hands of the rich, and how the time I had just spent on writing haiku was decadent, self-soothing inaction in the face of my incumbent responsibility to act, violently.

The distributed nature of the Fediverse helped me here. I had accounts on multiple Mastodon instances themed after my gajillion interests. Technology and Art here, Social Justice there, and just plain jokes on another instance.

Around this time, I got the wandering eye and was seduced by Mastodon's younger, hotter sister, Calckey. Calckey is interoperable with Mastodon and has a much slicker User Interface. But the clincher is, Calckey lets you format your posts with MFM ( Misskey Flavored Markup ) and change fonts, sizes, colors, and even create cool animations. An MFM post looks like normal text to Mastodon users, but on Calckey it looks beautiful and impactful. Clearly, Calckey was the future of Mastodon.

I did not hesitate in migrating all my Mastodon accounts, with over 250 contacts that I had befriended, to Calckey. I had fun creating some interesting posts with MFM, and encouraged my Mastodon friends to try Calckey.

Everything was wonderful on calckey.social, until suddenly there was trouble in paradise. Someone posted a funny meme, a picture of a sign on someone's lawn, with "Libety or Tranny" scrawled on it, in a semi-literate handwriting. This tickled me silly!

I replied: "I don't know what 'Libety' is. Guess I'll just satisfy my sexual curiosities with a 'Tranny'."

Someone replied to me saying, "Reported". I was confused at first, so I replied back saying that I did not understand what anyone could possibly find offensive about a lighthearted response to a lighthearted meme. There was no hatred towards anyone, just a playful suggestion of my sexual openness towards transsexual people.

That was it. Suddenly, my calckey.social account went weird. I couldn't post to calckey.social reliably. When I could post, I did not get any reactions or replies from my online friends, which was very unusual. Nobody could hear me. I was suddenly Mr. Cellophane. Persona Non Grata on Calckey. When people tried to follow my account, they got a message saying: "This action is not allowed."

I contacted Kainoa, the creator of Calckey and explained the situation. They said that I had "been reported 5 times for using Transphobic slurs." That just meant that 5 people had reported me for using the word "Tranny".

I was aghast. I tried explaining that I was a bisexual male who was programming computers and having gay sex in 1984, when most of the people online today weren't even born yet. I was wearing makeup and dresses in public, before the Calckey crowd had even heard of the word "drag". I have been on the Internet since 1990, and have seen lots of people self-identify as "passable trannies". So maybe I wasn't hip to the latest slang. Maybe "Tranny" had become a slur, without my realizing it. But to call me "transphobic" was ridiculous.

Kainoa said that after review, my account had been unlocked. But the problems persisted. So I tried to migrate from calckey.social to evil.social ( evil as Halloween ) but the migration failed. My contacts did not migrate over, and now my account was really locked. I contacted Kainoa again, and they said that since I had migrated, my account was now inactive. I tried clarifying the situation, and requesting my account to be unlocked. Repeated efforts to reach Kainoa have been met with silence. So for the past 4 days, I have been disconnected from all my online friends. Effectively, I am being censored. Is it bad code that caused my migration to fail? Is it bad intent that Calckey developers are not taking any responsibility, because maybe I'm inexplicably on someone's bad side?

Welcome to this corner of the Fediverse.
You can move all your followers, in theory.
Your censor is not a black-box Algorithm, but a community of fallible, groupthink-infected people. Beware the tyranny of the majority.
 
Your new overlord is not some evil corporate Billionaire, but an entirely like-able nonbinary Jewish Gay hacker who is a wise idiot at UC Irvine.

It can't be easy balancing a university course load with work on Calckey, a project that is undeniably cool. Maybe they're not ignoring my repeated requests for help, just busy with more important things.

I loved Calckey so much, I was just getting set up to start making contributions to the project, with code, documentation, and Hindi language translations. However, it seems that my contributions might not be valued by the Calckey community. If in some bizarre world, I got drunk and had an online shouting match with Linus Torvalds, would I never be able to contribute to the Linux or git projects again? I think Linus and Linux are much more mature than Kainoa and Calckey.

So now I'm back on Mastodon, and planning to bring MFM to Mastodon. I'd rather hack Ruby than TypeScript any day.

Just hoping someone will heed this message, so I can get my online community back. Stay away from Calckey. The code and the coders are not mature enough yet.






Microsoft "Philanthropy"

Microsoft donates Windows licenses to schools. Windows has already been made, so donating licenses costs almost nothing. Microsoft gets tax ...