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from the rethinking-closed-source-software dept.
Akkana reports via the Shallow Thoughts blog
I went to a night sky photography talk on Tuesday. The presenter talked a bit about tips on camera lenses, exposures; then showed a raw image and prepared to demonstrate how to process it to bring out the details.
His slides disappeared, the screen went blank, and then ... nothing. He wrestled with his laptop for a while. Finally he said "Looks like I'm going to need a network connection", left the podium, and headed out the door to find someone to help him with that.
I'm not sure what the networking issue was: the nature center has open wi-fi, but you know how it is during talks: if anything can possibly go wrong with networking, it will, which is why a good speaker tries not to rely on it. And I'm not blaming this speaker, who had clearly done plenty of preparation and thought he had everything lined up.
Eventually they got the network connection, and he connected to Adobe. It turns out the problem was that Adobe Photoshop is now cloud-based. Even if you have a local copy of the software, it insists on checking in with Adobe at least every 30 days. At least, that's the theory. But he had used the software on that laptop earlier that same day, and thought he was safe. But that wasn't good enough, and Photoshop picked the worst possible time--a talk in front of a large audience--to decide it needed to check in before letting him do anything.
Someone sitting near me muttered "I'd been thinking about buying that, but now I don't think I will." Someone else told me afterward that all Photoshop is now cloud-based; older versions still work, but if you buy Photoshop now, your only option is this cloud version that may decide ... at the least opportune moment ... that you can't use your software any more.
[...] I talked to the club president afterward and offered to give a GIMP talk to the club some time soon, when their schedule allows.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 06 2015, @02:44AM
Don't be fooled by their web 5.3-rc7 rebranding! They are stuck in the 80s, a time when women were driven out of software development! Their entire software stack is in the 80s. If I had been assigned the female gender at birth, all their bugs would be fixed, said the SJW!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @02:51AM
Are you sure you were driven out because you're a '''''woman''''' and not because you're a fucking schizo?
(Score: 1, Troll) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:45AM
No? I haven't even been driven out. I'm driving myself out, because I'm sick of being regarded as a misogynist by the people on the phones. I'm tired of reading news article after news article about how I'm a woman-hating shitlord and how they've determined this solely by my assigned gender at birth.
Azuma Hazuki is correct btw! That (my username) was the alter ego I chose when I first broke, and I guess I'm breaking again. I had an elaborate backstory/fanfiction connecting the events from Ranma's marriage fiasco to now, but eh, who cares. I did more research on the Amazons, influences from Xena/Hercules, etc. I found out the first feminists were honorable and even compared to the Amazons of legend. I like that. There's other figures such as Harriet Tubman. Of course, Takahashi's Amazons are just, like everything else, parody. (Note that how given a golden opportunity to investigate gender issues, she does nothing of the sort!)
It all goes back to proprietary software. I've mentored women programmers. Have you?
Proprietary software fucked it up. every. single. fucking. time. They believe I can fix Amtelco's shit. Because I'm a “programmer!” Never mind it would violate the license agreement and very likely violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and DMCA if I let my hacker knowledge got into full effect. Never mind I wasn't even actually involved in deciding to use their shit sandwich software.
So yes, now you get, get this, one less female programmer because of … SJWs! Trust me, I pass very well when I give a modicum of effort. You would gender me female if you met me, even if I were wearing male clothing. Most people do. It's ok. Gendering other people is a perfectly natural thing to do, and I do it all the time myself. I even got it wrong recently with an asshole lesbian. But I'm just lucky. I know I'm lucky that way, unlucky in every other way.
What this is about, however, is about the two women (not me, I'm going voluntarily) I've watched being driven out of programming jobs because of gaslighting asshole managers. One of whom may just win a gender discrimination lawsuit. The other…? I'm not certain. She's a mother first, but she's a cunning hacker.
Why do these things happen? Gaslighting asshole managers and proprietary software. That's why.
Am I psychotic? I wasn't at first. I might be now. But I don't care. Maybe a job on a fishing boat would be good for me. (Go ahead and dox me, geek feminism wiki. I've given you more than enough clues. Crucify me and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. You had better dox my friends first, and then you will realize what you're fucking with and decide maybe not.)
(Score: 0, Troll) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:11AM
Not troll. It's the truth.
Well, I suppose I did troll the geek feminism wiki. Let me cast out my line and see what I catch!
Ok, troll mod stands, no argument here.
Read parent comment and weep. Not for me. Weep for all the women programmers who have been chased out by gaslighting asshole managers. Weep for the prevalence of proprietary software that's caused this gender schism. Weep for the masses that consider computers to be magical palantís powered by waldos, indistinguishable from magic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:28AM
But how does that make you feel?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:40AM
But how does that make you feel?
Better, thanks. I'm glad I got it out.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday December 06 2015, @01:35PM
You don't get it.
If *he had been assigned the female gender, any display of psychotic behaviour would have blended nicely.
Sry for the insensitivity of the previous paragraph but I am bot.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 06 2015, @09:21PM
lol
(Score: 1) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:12AM
What the fuck...? KT, your posts make no sense to me. I caught a reference to what looks like Ranma 1/2's genderbending cursed springs, and I'm assuming by Amazons you mean Shampoo's clan and not, say, the Yanomamo people. But uh...nothing else made much sense here.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:38AM
I wonder, what is the correct name for a group of weeaboos? Flock, pack, herd, ...?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:44AM
Gaggle
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:55AM
Weeaboos are just filthy normies in the first place. Merely watching anime and such does not make one a weeaboo. You can tell the difference between people who are genuinely interested in it and cringe-worthy fucks who want to pretend to be Japanese in an instant.
It's like how the word "nerd" is now used to describe people who purposely wear dumb-looking clothing, dye their hair, and wear glasses so that they can try to become a stereotypical "nerd" in the most superficial sense possible.
(Score: 1) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:42PM
For my part, I'm using this name because something oddly similar in a metaphorical way happened to me when I was her age. It didn't involve time/dimension hopping of course, but so much else was so similar it felt like watching an alternate universe's biopic. Plus there's a lot of resemblance, though I'm even taller, have brown eyes instead of blue, and wear glasses. We even have very similar sounding voices.
Sometimes I wonder if there are only a few dozen or a few hundred "stories" out there that just get rehashed with different trimmings each time. Art does imitate life after all...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...