The F-droid app is complete garbage, also they don’t make it easy to install apps that are open source but don’t follow GPL. Obtainium is perfect, just point to git repository. Now all we need is a P2P source control service.

I feel the same. Besides what you mentioned, there is also the effect on what news and content will be produced and shown (see Manufacturing Consent). The advertisers who are the customers of shows want the viewers in a buying mood. So while “if it bleeds it leads” works fine but controversial topics that disturbs people or make them think will not be shown.

Best example is youtube - once the demonetization came there must have been significant effects on what topics were discussed and how. Without sponsorings and patreon it would be worse, but this or rule is shaping our global civilization for the worse.

People pay far too much attention to ideology, but it’s the rules of a system that lead it to converge to different outcomes. And advertising is a big one.

No somthing more than just “mere” syntax highlightinng or prettifying like e.g. in VS Code. Being able to change line height for a “headline” when you declare a new class. Or maybe lines that illustrate how a temp variable is used. But it’s all vague ideas and I can’t picture or describe it well and you’d have to demo this with a graphical design tool I think.

Is there some language or “syntax formatter” that turns source code into something more off a visual programming language? Like a WYSIWYG markdown editor.

Like python doesn’t have curly braces, but you could add some kind of “block illustration”.

Or you could have illuminated initials for variable names to make them more unique.

I recently thought about what I’m missing, and came up with something rather complicated (sorry, nothing simple haha)

Basically I’m often compiling information in markdown text files. But images are still web hosted. Sometimes I use spreadsheets and wish I could do simple additions in markdown tables. Or I use bookmarks, but know websites will go down and wish I could just “backup” any website in a compact file and organize it without mucking around with files. Zotero does this partly. I also use “SingleFile” to save websites but it would be nice if it was something semi-compatible to web-archive. Or maybe just save a stripped down version of an article like you see in “reader view” on Firefox. And of course usable in both desktop and mobile.

I do think Project Jupyter does something like this and there are also other note taking apps.

Overall the state of computer science in 2025 is still deplorable. The very basics of storing data still don’t have good solutions.

But that is a bonus, less people will bother me haha

Nah you’d have a chimney. The main reason I want a “separating drying toilet” is that it would have a fan and wouldn’t smell at all in your bathroom. And you’d probably also have a separating toilet as first step, then dehydration which can be closed cycle, and then either burning or compositing. And with that and biodegradable soap and detergents, sanitation becomes much less infrastructure intensive.

The only thing smart I want is a faucet that activates with button OR the knee / foot sensor, and gives water always with a precise programmed temperature and flow.

That and a temperature and timer controlled frying pan.

Well an incinerating toilet that just dries burns my shit using a 340W solar panel would be cool too.

The USA was designed for minority rule since forever.

Peaceful contact with aliens would tell us something fundamental about the nature of ethics and the universe.

Advanced aliens do not need any material resources or real estate from humanity. We can already interpolate that from existing science. So that is not the reason why there are here. And we know they haven’t exterminated us already centuries ago.

Instead it would tell that we share some fundamental values like curiosity and diversity with alien species - as long as they evolved through natural selection and had to raise and teach and love their children. As long as they had to find productive ways to work together as a people.

We would realize that we are not alone and that we are being judged. That we can’t just endlessly bulldoze the galaxy and that there are limits to acceptable behavior. Because there is always someone more powerful that could smash us, but they already didn’t. That certain ethical ideals are fundamental properties emerging from the universe itself.

It would be a powerful counter to the current nihilistic materialism, that we need to start working to improve our culture.

Yeah the book has an amazing depiction of a truly alien mind that is fundamentally different because of how it functions.

True. I think about it now as a kind of physics problem. You have political energy measured in dollars on each side. Volunteers to help bring the political message across for free can be converted into dollars too. There are a lot of people concerned or outright scared out of their minds about environmental concerns like climate change. One sight has multiple orders of magnitude more political energy to spend. For example on counter measures, or boosting extreme vegan voices to cause disruption, advertising or media stories or think tanks or lobbyists. And the “technology” to manage this political energy is rapidly advancing too. So no amount of “this is the right / wrong choice” argument is going to change anything. There is only power.

You’d need to grow the third party / greens by having them become a viable party in local elections and state elections first. The greens have failed to do that. Which means they have no chance except to spoil the election.

I think it’s a problem with VPNs

Yeah. I mean theoretically you could use all the other nodes, similar to Tor or I2P to relay and temporarily store chat messages and room states. I mean that is basically those networks except maybe you route a package multiple ways and mark them for late delivery. And you measure the speed and latency of nodes so better connected nodes get more workload and act as temporary floating servers. All via DHT.

Then theoretically there should be no performance difference between server based and P2P chats. But it’s even more complicated. I don’t even need a chat like that, really not at all. But I think it should exist already.

There is Tox which is P2P and encrypted and basically does this, but it’s not that popular.

Basically with P2P things get complicated still having fixed rooms that you can find in a list or send offline messages, presumably using other nodes as temporary relays.

This uses free VPNs? And even port forwarding?

What I think is missing is a kind of signed database version control system. So you make a list of data (maybe just a markdown table) and you sign it wiht a private key and put that in a DHT / distributed hashtable. Then people can use that and you can update the database / list. People can also fork this list, add their own stuff and distribute it as their own and signed with their own private key. And you could have pull requests and merge back good additions. All without requiring proper servers but possibly benefiting from being hosted on a seedbox.

And of course a simple client to find and view such lists.

Ideally you’d have some template that describes typical metadata for a kind of distribute movie database, but also books, subtitles, songs, albums, articles, scientific papers, fonts. But you can also fork the templates and extend them. So you might have a perfectly legit open source database of movies with links to what legit streaming service is selling it, and then an extra template that extends that with magnet releases.

I have never seen something like this though, my puny brain has trouble imagining the technical hurdles. Maybe this could just be done with a simple version control system client. I think torrent V2 also has some extensions that allow update-able torrents (which some FUD confused with this being the default). Or maybe it’s that proper web pages allow people to make money through advertising.

Hmm, sounds like the P2P version has been paused for the forseeable future:

https://arewep2pyet.com
https://matrix.org/blog/2020/06/02/introducing-p2p-matrix
https://matrix.org/blog/2023/09/matrix-2-0

Good argument but if the guy uploading it would be in another country this law couldn’t be enforced. Basically it’s an unenforceable standard. To insist on enforcing it could lead to draconian measures.

The article mentions upload filters but that then again create a large burden. This burden requires more work or more money. Which leads to a centralization or monopolization of the internet. Which would be in the interest of social media corporation who can shoulder the burden.

In the future the ethical issues of porn could be solved by investing in and creating a near perfect AI porn model that can serve all our degenerate needs WITHOUT requiring humans to take their clothes off. Basically ethically sourced synthetic “vegan” porn that is created for your on demand in your own home. And then you can ban all the real porn because the demand for it will plummet. Of course there will still be people who get off on the abuse instead of on the fantasy.