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tags: complexity grumpy nosimpleanswer
Over at midnight.pub ~aftergibson writes:
but the fundamental question remained on my mind, "Whose device is this?".
gemini://midnight.pub/posts/680
And later in that thread ~starbreaker writes:
I'm this close stripping my phone bare and not using it for anything but calls and two-factor authentication.
It seems to me that Software-as-a-temporary-expensive-service is all the rage. You think you purchase a software, but you only get a permission to use it at vendors liking. You think, you purchase a car, but you only get a permission to use (and fill/charge) it for some time at vendors whim. Vendor can deny you the driving service at pretty much any point. Didn't show up for inspection? Well ... you have only 52 km to go ... You think you purchase a smart phone? You only get permission to use it ... unless, of cource, you open/root it and void the warranty. You purchase a smart door lock? Well, you only get permission to enter, if the constellations and the electron clouds are all aligned in some special way. And the magic might come to an unexpected halt at just about any time.
While I have used mobile phones and even smart phones in the past, I don't any more. I do have the remains of an Openmoko NEO at home to receive short messages. And that's it. I use a camera for pictures, a paper notebook for notes contacts etc. and a notebook as sat nav if it has to be (like once a year). So once in a while my life is a bit uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I have thus largely evaded the discomfort that comes with smart phones and their myriad of super important apps.
However, there is another thing which really scares me:
The IT department at day job has moved our systems to MS Office 365. I believe our files are still in house, but I would not bet on it. More recently we moved from some other application to MS Exchange/Outlook. Cloud Service. As far as I know, the Exchange Server is not inhouse any more. And everyone went like "Oh, so we finally have Outlook at work! Grand!" --- and I sat there thinking: But this email system is not trustworthy any more even between colleages. Of course one can argue, using MS Windows compromises my machine anyway. I am somewhat lucky in that I work on inhouse Linux systems most of the time. But yes, I totally accept the argument.
While this ship has sailed there are two more: Jira and Confluence. From the atlassian home page:
Important changes to our server and Data Center products
We’ve ended sales for new server licenses and will end support for server on February 2, 2024. We’re continuing investment in Data Center with several key improvements. Learn what this means for you.
Needless to say, we are currently on server licenses. It could well be that company is a bit small to afford a data center license. Now, we do use Confluence for documentation. Details of the fancy stuff we build are documented in Confluence, of course. Now, anyone comfortable with that going to a cloud service? Definitely not me. I have started to harrass my management about it, but I'm quite certain, that these ships will sail, too. m(
I can't find the right words to express how utterly, unbelievably broken this is in my not so humble opinion.
I am not discomforted at all, I am plain speechless.
Cheers,
~ew