drastic cuts. mostly the TSA side-tangent.

2025-04-19 23:23:12 -04:00 · 2025-04-19 23:23:12 -04:00 · 60fbfeeace
commit 60fbfeeace
parent 73d6bd143b
1 changed files with 19 additions and 138 deletions
--- a/artifacts/script.md
+++ b/artifacts/script.md
@ -37,9 +37,7 @@ This one is a well known one from our predecessors, graybeards from before even
 Or, as the world's favorite libertarian would say: 
 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6hZ9KdG1QU - something to the effect of...] never half-ass 2 things. Whole-ass 1 thing.
-### GPS
+example: GPS.
 GPS.
 you know why people put up with google's tracking? because for as much dumb bullshit as waze is laden with, for as wrong as apple is, and for as much as google maps is a thinly veiled excuse for google to catalog your gps position down to the meter and second... 
 [on screen, list: things a GPS app must do]
 those 3 are the only apps that 
@ -49,61 +47,8 @@ offer driving directions and
 understand the concept of a road.
 [Osmand+ doing its thing, as demonstrated at the start of "what apple hath wrought"]
 again, what is the function of a GPS app? To tell you where you are and how to get somewhere. So the concept of a street map and navigation app that doesn't understand the concept of a street and therefore is virtually unable to navigate it is absurd.
 ### files
 there's a joke that millenials (and gen-z-ers) have to teach boomers how to open a PDF. But apple-loyalty is most rampant among these generations - I dare you to try this exercise.  Bring up your preferred communications-with-strangers app (e.g., X). 
 [xkcd about how apps tell you about their updates]
 Dismiss the patch notes. Find an image you'd like to interact with later. Maybe you want to draw on it. maybe you just want to send it as is. Download it. where is it?
 fuck knows. So good luck finding it to bring into your editor. For the sake of lip-service to the concept of security, much work has been done to ensure apps aren't allowed to share files.
 [show an old-timey balance scale, add the downsides on one side]
 In exchange for the twin downsides of "virtually every app is pointless" and "a truly useful app is prevented from existing", we have accomplished nothing in the way of privacy.
 [pitch meeting] "oh, whoops!" "whoopsie!"
 conversely, how often do you need to find something on your phone? I bet if you have any kind of vehicle, you have to have insurance, and the insurance company wants you to get the app. 
 [note] of course, the real reason is they want to catch you speeding so they can raise your premiums.
 Theoretically the benefit to you is that you can pull up your documents. If we assume you *will* have your phone on you, which is a pretty safe assumption, not having to carry paper documents is more efficient.
 ["urgent" notifications: show a phone screen with a bunch of notifications, but all of them say "business as usual, nothing to report"]
 the problem then becomes how long it takes to get to your documents. If you have to go through the app, you have to find it, start it up, dismiss its patch notes, wait for it to phone home, dismiss all the "urgent" notifications, find where the latest unnecessary redesign moved the button you're looking for, then let it re-download your documents.
 Or, since the thing you're looking for should just be a file... why not just keep the file around? maybe you could have a pdf. Or just snap a photo of the paper documents.
 but rather than the much more sane desktop paradigm, phones don't like files. One does not browse files, which the OS will launch an app to handle; the OS launches an app, and then that app keeps track of the data it owns. 
 [note] And I do mean it owns them, not you.
 so again, the function that *should* be filled is retrieving a file. But design philosophy on phones fails to achieve that.
 ### keyboards on phones
 typing on a phone, need I say more? 
 [have the following in a text bubble conversation]
 [other] keyboards are obsolete, just talk.
 Yeah? Spell this regex:
 [in text bubble, but not for the VO] `/bb|[^b]{2}/`.
 [other] people are bad at regexes, so regexes are bad.
 I think you mean chatGPT is bad at regexes. If you apply some effort to understand them, they're great.
 [on screen: show text "regex", and get the Project Beefhaving Great Thing stamp]
 [other] duck off
 [other] you piece or spit
 [for the words "some idiot", show steve jobs]
 this is because yet again, the some idiot thought he had a better idea for an already solved problem.
 The function of a keyboard is to be a sort of *board* of *keys* so that you can type. Apple said they have a new idea, therefore the entire world switched to on screen keyboards. But they suck. So Apple also decided we should just dictate, which *still* is not fulfilling the function of a keyboard.
 yet again, 100% of interactions with phones are miserable and infuriating. And I don't mean other people on social media, I mean smartphones themselves.
 ### I, mpostor
 ai investors might tell us that an assistant that can make use of autonomy is better than one that can't. In a vacuum, that's true. But no chatbot is useful, yet. What we have instead, is an "ai" that insists on being in charge of tasks that it isn't capable of. 
 A recurring problem is that as a user, i haven't gained functionality, but I have lost options. Given a human assistant, I would expect it to be able to admit when it isn't capable of something. (that might also be asking too much, but let's stick to technology.) Taking the initiative doesn't count if you screw up.
 Imagine you had a coworker, and when you try to do something, he gets in your way and does it (badly). now you have to spend twice as long because you also have to clean up after your predecessor.
 [//TODO: primeagen talked about neetcoder having a great take]
 ## Do what you can, and no more
 [add to rules list]
@ -115,10 +60,9 @@ again, focus on your function. whole-ass 1 thing. Confucious said, to go beyond
 so, ask. Should you?
 ### keyboards on laptops
 [get flashbanged by laptop]
 [//TODO: footage of the dark blue label in the dark problem]
 for example, keyboards on laptops.
 my laptop, much like every single other laptop I have ever seen within the last 15 years, is the least-bad design I could find. Laptop keyboards are universally moronic. 
 as a person who understands the concept of a file, I habitually save often.
 looking at my keyboard, the place where many years of muscle memory have trained me to hit the ctrl key, there’s an "fn" key instead, and the ctrl key is moved over to where i expect the windows key. fn + s is screenshot. Cinnamon's screenshot app has a cute white flash effect. That's why I flashbang myself *often*.
@ -212,29 +156,6 @@ the Floating. Action. Button.
 [O, Fortuna subtle fade-out]
 it's a software screen notch.
 ### onboarding
 I keep complaining about having to dismiss phone apps various patch notes on startup...
 [https://xkcd.com/2615/]
 Admittedly there's no *good* time, to bring up the patch notes. Startup is the worst time, it's when you're trying to *do* something.
 No one has ever opened their phone's music player or GPS app and read the patch notes - and I say that as someone who did read the patch notes for skullgirls, and always reads EULAs. It's almost funny that they're audacious enough to jump in the way and ask to to read two thousand words about the changes they're very proud of getting 2/3rds of the way done before release, that 2/3rds of their users don't want and 2/3rds don't understand. you're trying to *do* something, if there was ever a time you would read their patch notes, it's not at startup - the user is trying to accomplish a task, but instead you want them to go through a sort of onboarding for your new version.
 At best, onboarding can be a necessary evil. Typically, it's unnecessary, and just exists to ensure you immediately sink some effort cost. A mind game to manipulate you into sticking around. 
 [note] "server" is discord's (inaccurate) term
 Discord servers are notorious for spiraling out of control. 
 I once joined a server that had, no joke, over 100 channels. People were great, but I can't pretend that I'll ever keep up with it.
 Discord users started forming a pattern - you join, and most channels are hidden, then some bot assigns you appropriate roles to see some. That's neat technology, but the wrong approach - the right answer is to accept that your server is overengineered. 
 [//TODO: footage of discord's built-in onboarding]
 What's worse is that discord itself is enshrining this as a built-in feature - so now every time discord updates their app unnecessarily, and it forgets you, you have to go through the much slower version of the same process. 
 [meme about discord 2012 vs discord 2022]
 meanwhile the entire reason discord exists is that it allows you to get your dumbest, least tech-savvy friends on a voice call for game chat with minimum friction.
 Let me pick on DAVx again.
 It *cannot* remember that I've gone through onboarding. The app exists to sync contacts, calendars, and task lists, because god forbid those exist as files. But the automatic syncing app isn't automatic enough, so I occasionally have to start it up and run it automatically. but before I do that, I have to go through screens of onboarding, that are just there to beg for money. Don't get me wrong, programming is a job, rent is expensive, and DAVx solves a problem - but if you've been ignoring me when I say "don't remind me for 6 months", I assume you're still going to beg for donations just the same whether or not I donate. 
 [note] We need like... Funding organizations. Rest in piece, Coil. Long live Web Monetization... but we still need something for software, and something that respects privacy... surely this is already a solved problem.
 ### interoperability
 The digital markets act of 2022 in the EU granted advertising corporations the right to view the data they've generated, the right to take their data to other platforms. In other words, big tech gatekeepers don't get to lay claim to advertisers and treat them like property. It demonstrates we all know interoperability is great and enclosure is bad, 
@ -275,38 +196,20 @@ for years, a "check engine" light meant "take it into the dealer and just pay wh
 ### security theater
-Security theater has a lot of overlap with other problems. Most often, quote-unquote security is the excuse for user-hostility.
+Security theater has a lot of overlap with other problems. Most often, quote-unquote security is the excuse for user-hostility - 
 "it's for *your* security. We're trying to protect you! It's not for our profit, of course..."
-Surely I don't have to remind you that flying is a nightmare, almost entirely for 1 reason: the TSA. this section could overtake the rest of the video so let's limit our griping as much as possible:
+Surely I don't have to remind you that flying is a nightmare, almost entirely for 1 reason: the TSA, which is undeniably, *purely* security theater
-[https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123834246/is-the-tsa-security-theater-or-essential-to-national-security]
+[glitch effect interrupt]
 The TSA is security theater. 
 One dude tried and failed to bring explosives in in his shoes, so now the TSA demands that americans remove their shoes. 
 [https://reason.com/2021/09/09/why-dont-more-countries-enforce-the-airport-security-rules-that-the-tsa-says-are-essential/]
 That's very rare, most other countries don't do this.
 [//TODO: I think that article has a flash download of the interview. https://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/11/yeffet.air.security.israel/index.html]
 For example Israel - they're very good at this. rather than spending money on shiny new toys they train their workers to do their jobs, well. the greatest emphasis is interviewing passengers. From that article, they're quoting Isaac Yeffet: 
 [show the quote on screen, too]
 > In 2002, we had Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. This man gave the security people all the suspicious signs that any passenger could show. The man got a British passport in Belgium, not in England. Number Two: he flew to Paris, he bought a one-way ticket from Paris to Florida. He paid cash. He came to the airport with no luggage. What else do I need to know that this passenger is suspicious?
 > What did we learn from this? Just to tell the passenger from now on, you take off your shoes when you come to the airport? This I call a patch on top of a patch.
 [https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa-misses-70-of-fake-weapons-but-thats-an-improvement/#a106f082a38d]
-Meanwhile in the US, for all the effort they put into telling you that what they're doing to you is for your protection, they miss 70% of test weapons.
+Meanwhile in the US, for all the effort they put into telling you that the petty ritual of dominance they're enact on you is for your protection, they miss 70% of test weapons.
 [glitch effect interrupt]
 [https://time.com/archive/6913061/airport-screeners-dress-for-respect/]
-..hey, remember in 2008 when the TSA felt entitled to more respect so they switched their uniforms to make them look exactly like police officers?
+..hey, remember in 2008 when the TSA felt they weren't getting the respect the entitled themselves to, so they switched their uniforms to look exactly like police officers?
-[in a "laugh so you don't cry" tone]
+[glitch effect interrupt]
-hahhh.
+ok, TSA tangent over, back to nerd shit.
 anyway. 
 It takes forever to get through security, which of course is a problem airports are happy to exacerbate so they can sell you some other horrible product that only exists to violate your privacy to sell your data, doesn't make you more secure, and expects you to pay for the privilege. I think the present fad is something called CLEAR.
 ok, NSA tangent over, back to nerd shit.
 Websites are afraid of DDoS attacks. A web server is a fallible thing that can only deliver so much. But that isn't why a disgusting number of websites block VPNs.
 [Great Thing checklist: purpose, conception, execution, effect]
 VPN services are almost the greatest business around right now - excellent in purpose, excellent in conception, pretty good in execution, but they're losing the arms race, so no points for effect.
 Imgur, for example, sees an IP that doesn't look residential, and I guess as a service to the world where they prevent bots being trained on the least intelligent community's proud tradition of selfies and reposts, they throw up an error.
 [https://www.vulcanforums.com/forums/]
 oh here's a whole forum for the particular make and model of my motorcycle - blank white page, and http error 406. Which is the wrong error message, btw - you can't pretend I asked you for a format you can't provide, when you provided my stock web browser with valid HTML.
 [https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node]
 Here's some ideologues, who theoretically *want* to propagate their ideas into as many minds, maybe even neural networks, as possible? Mysterious connection timeout.
 unfortunately that's where the manual for emacs is hosted; in my case that means that my attempts to self-indoctrinate need me to look elsewhere.
 ## paradigmatic conformity
@ -320,33 +223,12 @@ In life, this extends much further. Red light means stop, green light means go.
 So when you have an action that could be destructive, you color-code it red, and when something is constructive, you color-code it green.
 These associations are arbitrary. But since they're there, we keep them.
 Can you touch type? imagine I presented you with a blank keyboard. You'd still be able to type, due to a lifetime of training.
-Suppose you came across a binder full of papers, and only one of them had a border that was diagonal lines of alternating yellow and black. I can safely assume that you would get the impression that one sheet is providing you cautionary information.
+[note] recent is a relative term... it was recentish at time of writing
 [@va: "drag sideways" should have some disgust]
 Prime example: recent episode of LTT had them forcing android on some iPhone users. To summarize, there's a circle with a symbol in it, and surprise! it doesn't respond to being tapped like every other button, it wants you to drag sideways.
 [//TODO: find that.]
-So imagine if I brought up, for example, the discord API documentation, in my web browser. And then I pressed the keypress to get to my search bar. And then your static web page, surprisingly, is an active web app that blocks your web browser's interface to have you use their search function. Surely no one would be that stupid. 
+## customization
 right, discord? surely no one would do that. Right? discord? right?
 [//TODO: I think i have proper settings on dantalion's FF, because it seems to not be letting shitty web devs break the browser?]
 let's look at a pure html static page with a text field. If a user holds shift, and then navigates, they can highlight text. I've seen this far too many times, let's pick on pinterest. if you hit shift+home, that means highlight the whole field. You have to go through effort to break that, and you shouldn't. You don't have a valid reason to do this, rather than nothing.
 ### web browsers
 companies have fully embraced the trend that while they aren't capable of crafting a concise UI with the benefit of a full size screen... surely they'll get it right this time in a harder environment? So companies tend to tell you not to use their website, but instead to use their mobile app.
 Cellphones have web browsers. If you are "a website", for example Reddit... that's how the user will connect with you. There's no (valid) reason to pretend you're different.
 especially given the majority of apps are just skins on chrome that stick to one website.
 It's no secret that mobile web browsers overall are just skins on chrome. This is how google dictates your experience to maximize your diet of ads.
 Firefox on the desktop was the last web browser that was truly Great. Up until recently, they were trying to preserve at least some of that.
 [//TODO: the article where they got caught in a pr]
 Given recent events though, RIP firefox. librewolf is my new best friend.
 Firefox on mobile is absolutely not making any such attempts at greatness.
 It frequently updates its UI (to feed its progress addiction), thus giving them another reason to jump in your way and onboard people.
 Unforgivably, however: they *had* and then **removed** plugin support. If an adblocker is necessary to browse the web, it's even more necessary to browse the web on mobile. We should all think less of the mozilla foundation for the 2020 change. 
 [//TODO: there was drama on the internet about the change they made, show some of that]
 (fortunately they were sufficiently pressured to walk back their mistake.)
 [I think in 2023 they said "ff mobile is getting plugin support". it might be google's antisolution version?]
 ### customizability
 [add to rules list]
 Allow customization.
@ -358,11 +240,11 @@ Why can't you move the taskbar in windows 11? so that it can look like OSX. What
 When apple speaks, the rest of the world obeys. so customization options are viewed as less and less important.
 not to mention, if you're stopped from customization, for example modding in some armor for your horse... now it's something that can be sold to you instead.
 [show: horse armor from Oblivion]
-Companies love to dumb everything down, and in response to criticism, blame it on a hypothetical group of lowest-common-denominator people. But the whole premise that customization is unimportant is bad. Just ask the air force.
+Companies love to dumb everything down, and in response to criticism, blame it on a hypothetical group of lowest-common-denominator people. But the whole premise that customization is unimportant is bad. 
 Normal is not a valid target. Just ask the air force.
 [https://medium.com/continuousdelivery/no-one-size-fits-all-d7ad0a8cbe7b -> https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/when-u-s-air-force-discovered-the-flaw-of-averages/article_e3231734-e5da-5bf5-9496-a34e52d60bd9.html] the quote is very long
-
+## some anti-features
 ### some anti-features
 [add to rules list] Avoid anti-features
@ -371,4 +253,3 @@ no one wants to sign up for your newsletter - you aren't interesting enough to f
 no one wants to chat with your chatbot - if anyone wants to have a conversation, it's with a person, because your technology doesn't work. Get the notification out of the way.
 scrolling is not an ℯ𝓍𝓅ℯ𝓇𝒾ℯ𝓃𝒸ℯ, every vehicle website ever.
 If you want to "customize my experience" before I'm allowed to have one, the answer to all of your questions is "whatever gets you to go fuck yourself".