The third article in this (horrible) series of articles I've co-authored is now out. https://theconversation.com/a-million-new-spacex-satellites-will-destroy-the-night-sky-for-everyone-on-earth-277938
A million satellites of the size required for "AI data centers" would mean that everyone in the world would have more visible satellites than stars for most of the night and most of the year.
But don't worry, we'll be in Kessler Syndrome WAY before we get to a million satellites!
at this point I have no remaining patience for the “if you don’t like it just fork it” crowd. patches don’t fix any of this. the only thing that does is to refuse; to get angry and organize. none of these people deserve your advocacy or your loyalty. they do not give a shit about technical merit, the FOSS ecosystem, your contributions, or you. there is only one goal, and it’s very clear what it is.
end
people don't realize this, but this is how they infect a good product and build surveillance network. today it is age verification for OS, tomorrow they will come with sex verification to target LGBQT+ groups or country verification to target minorities or immgirations, etc.
Meta, the evil corp who is behind this, wants everything trackable, starting with your age &d id verification, KYC, & whatnot. it is my computer, & i am not going to be tracked. it is the same reason you use an adblocker
SpaceX's highly paid lawyers responded to the hundreds of comments and oppositions submitted to the FCC in one letter, that basically shows they didn't actually read our petitions to deny. And now we astronomers and dark sky advocates who are volunteering our time have to do a shitload more work to respond to their non-response. By Friday.
Fuck you, SpaceX.
Your phone is not a slot machine.
It's a to-do list that writes itself.
The defense of the status quo always leads with the most sympathetic version of the argument. Safety. Quality. User experience. It never leads with the revenue model, because the revenue model is the actual reason, and the actual reason would not survive scrutiny. So they lead with the sympathetic version and hope the scrutiny doesn’t come.
The “because fuck you” is always there, underneath. It’s just wearing a blazer and citing a whitepaper.
There is no escalation path that leads to a person who can actually change the product. There is no mechanism for holding a company accountable to fixing something they’ve been told is broken. The feedback loop is deliberately closed. Your complaint has been received. Your complaint has been processed. Your complaint has been filed. Nothing will change.
Because nobody is required to change anything. Because the indifference is structural. Because fuck you, but politely, with a ticket number.
Prof. Sam Lawler
[object Object]
nixCraft 🐧
🇺🇦 Пан Ґік 🎮
Peter