• he/him

Coder, pun perpetrator
Grumpiness elemental
Hyperbole abuser


Tools programmer
Writer-wannabe
Did translations once upon a time
I contain multitudes


(TurfsterNTE off Twitter)


Trans rights
Black lives matter


Be excellent to each other


UE4/5 Plugins on Itch
nte.itch.io/

dog
@dog

I worry sometimes I just come across as an irascible old person who just doesn't use newfangled technology. My real particular goal I guess is that when I talk about using some or other thing that's fallen out of favour is that it's a reminder that whatever abusive tech monopolies aren't inescapable - that we had a time without them and can imagine a new time without them. Not that all new things are bad, but that we have more opportunities open to us before and after.


dog
@dog

The other thing I suppose is that the ability to do something in a way "dies" when you don't have people around you doing it. Like, managing a local music library of things you own was completely normal - "tech illiterate" people did it. It seems hard now for people who haven't done it because there's fewer people around you doing the same things, so you have fewer people to ambiently get knowledge from or who could help you. If I do things in maybe a weird way for today, that opens a door for someone else to try it too.


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in reply to @dog's post:

There's this Douglas Adams quote about how any technology you encounter in your teens is just part of the universe, anything introduced in your twenties is cool and you can probably get a job with it, and anything introduced after you're 35 is scary and bad and evil. And I worry I'm falling prey to this. But then I remember I was constantly angry and organizing boycotts about the technology being introduced in my twenties and teenage years, so

Haha. Yeah, absolutely - I find myself catching myself when I'm reacting to things trying to make sure is this actually bad or am I just older than 35? I'm probably not always making the right call but at least asking the question is putting me on the right track

in reply to @dog's post:

Even if it may be archaic in a lot of ways. I find that a lot of older software was a lot more intenton being a useful tool for the user.

There's a real split these days these days into "press the button and it goes, no options, no choices" or incomprehensible vi-esque command line gibberish

this gave me a moment of insight, like, i wasn't thinking about a local music library specifically (something i am a huge advocate of) being hard for people and them not knowing how to do that because... it was normal for me. there wasn't streaming. there was CD ripping, there were legal downloads, and there was piracy. that was how things worked and that was how they kept working for me... but a lot of people have showed up to the internet since streaming took over that entire market.

if i'm ever going to be an Old Person attempting to spread Old Person Wisdom i'd better understand why something that seems easy and natural to me doesn't to others. good post thank u for reminding me to stay self-aware