Some 25 years ago when the RIAA was going apeshit over online sharing of music they were happily suing people left and right.

At some point they argued that no computer should ever make a copy of music without a license. The opposition proceeded to demonstrate how computers work. They make many copies of data files while processing them in the CPU, RAM, cache, omin temp files, etc. The judge did temporarily order that only one canopy could be made, but after the education, said fine: if the RIAA wants to let it stand, then they can’t distribute via any computer systems anywhere by their own rules.

In the end, the case was dropped and computers got to keep processing data as per normal.

I try other options now and again. When something is better I use it. Until then, I have things to do with what works.

People continue to innvote, test, and develop new options. Someday one will eventually work out a superior approach that takes off among the general userbase.

Awesome. That’s the Geek Way.

Shadowrun shouldn’t be a documentary, but here we go.

Also: << the nerds aren’t going to do any of this shit, so… let’s look like the good guys by exempting them so we don’t look terrible when the nerds show how obviously this is all security theater >>

Exactly the problem: bandwidth and latency.

The radio frequencies these run at and the power they’re allowed to use limits them to very very low bandwidth for data transfer. They can’t even do a low bitrate audio stream.

What they can do is messaging without 3rd party oversight and with adhoc data links. They’re very very cool for offline networks, especially in places without extant infrastructure for transmissions.

No! I’ve used OSU’s mirrors for years. This would be a notable hit to OSS resources.

My university in Germany operates entirely in English. The academic world is very international so it often falls back to English to support the faculty and students. Issues in the community will also be run through the university news routes, so while I’ve been learning German, I’ll also have a big resource with my work community.

There’s a few places to check for positions. I interviewed in Ireland and Scotland as well (didn’t get the jobs). There’s also Australia and new Zealand hiding out there. Or Canada. Hell, Mexico has a great university system you could look into.

Your PhD does open new doors. It’s by no means a guarantee of a faculty spot, but it’s valued so you can leverage it.

The position is in Germany. It might be out of the frying pan and into the fire given Germany’s right wing rise, but that’s happening across the western nations and we’re all in trouble.

I don’t have a ton of advice for you. I defended over 10 years ago, so I’m moving straight into a tenured/permanent position as senior faculty. For an ABD, I’m not sure what the landscape looks like these days.

If you want to make the move, start talking to people. Reach out to people publishing in your field and talk shop. Collaborate with them, talk about the future, and be willing to take a postdoc (or german system W1) position. It’s more ramen and a small bedroom, but it’s one where there’s healthcare and civil rights.

Academia (and most professions) are all about networks. Talk with people, collaborate, and grow that network. Something will come along.

Good thing I’ve just accepted a faculty position outside the US.

I’ll get to move to a country that doesn’t persecute academics and I think I’m just beating the crowds on the way out.

It’s never claimed to be a democracy. It’s not a monolith, either. Some projects have forms of input and/or voting, most don’t because it’s just a few people writing software that they want to write.

Get over yourself if you think that people working for free should be required to listen to you. Just as in anything else, pay them if you want a guaranteed response.

Otherwise, recognize that the key element of Open Source is that you have the source code. If a project isn’t doing what you want then fork it and build it yourself. That’s the whole point of this community and philosophy.

What?!?

I looked it up and you can. I’ll have that fired up with their docker image in no time. Thank you for the pointer.

It’s strange how that happens when a government starts to consider other options.