Thanks for the feedback! Always insightful. There's the technical stuff
(e.g., "TKLX", support for mobile apps, PaaS vs IaaS) and then there's
the reason we do the technical stuff. Our mission. The values driving
our passion. The blog post / beer rant was about the latter, not the
former.
Which isn't to say that strategy and technical direction aren't
important. They certainly are. So is being able to sustain and reinvest
in the mission. As the suits say - no margin no mission. Thanks again
for being a positive influence by helping us understand what our options
and opportunities are in that respect.
But it's just that at the end of the day all of that is a means to an
end, not an end in itself. There are almost an infinite number of things
we could be working on, and we have to whittle that down to things we
really care about so we've been doing some soul searching and we've
discovered what we're really passionate about is the democratizing
influence that we believe secure, easy to use free software solutions
can have in decentralizing the distribution of power.
In a way, you could say we're free software Hacktivists at heart. We
believe free / open source technology can be a force for good in
society.
For what it's worth I believe the Snowden revelations pretty much proved
the conspiracy theorists right. Powerful forces are indeed at work. You
can't laugh that away anymore. That turns out to be the world we live
in. They have been corrupting political committees, technical committees
and even official standards. Conducting mass warrantless surveillance
with no real oversight. Spying on everyone, including friends and
allies. And this is just the US we're talking about. The leader of "the
free world". I shudder to think what sort of abuses are being engineered
in other, less free parts of the world.
In short we are in the midst of a massive drive by to "weaponize"
cyberspace and it is just beginning. Many of us, including myself use
the Internet not just to make a living but as an extension of our
brains. It was never technically possible for the establishment to spy
on everyone's thoughts before but thanks to technology we're getting
very close to that now.
"They" can know everything you do on your computer, what you're
searching, websites you visit, etc. "They" can turn your smartphone
against you. Track your physical location. Listen to conversations in
the privacy of your own home.
Any student of history should find this very frightening. The potential
for abuse is mind boggling. Unfortunately I don't believe there's a way
out of this by working within the political system. The way out is to
fight fire with fire and fight back with technology that can't be turned
against us.
That's why I'm passionate about free software, strong crypto,
and decentralizing architectures.
Viva la libre revolucion!
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the feedback! Always insightful. There's the technical stuff (e.g., "TKLX", support for mobile apps, PaaS vs IaaS) and then there's the reason we do the technical stuff. Our mission. The values driving our passion. The blog post / beer rant was about the latter, not the former.
Which isn't to say that strategy and technical direction aren't important. They certainly are. So is being able to sustain and reinvest in the mission. As the suits say - no margin no mission. Thanks again for being a positive influence by helping us understand what our options and opportunities are in that respect.
But it's just that at the end of the day all of that is a means to an end, not an end in itself. There are almost an infinite number of things we could be working on, and we have to whittle that down to things we really care about so we've been doing some soul searching and we've discovered what we're really passionate about is the democratizing influence that we believe secure, easy to use free software solutions can have in decentralizing the distribution of power.
In a way, you could say we're free software Hacktivists at heart. We believe free / open source technology can be a force for good in society.
For what it's worth I believe the Snowden revelations pretty much proved the conspiracy theorists right. Powerful forces are indeed at work. You can't laugh that away anymore. That turns out to be the world we live in. They have been corrupting political committees, technical committees and even official standards. Conducting mass warrantless surveillance with no real oversight. Spying on everyone, including friends and allies. And this is just the US we're talking about. The leader of "the free world". I shudder to think what sort of abuses are being engineered in other, less free parts of the world.
In short we are in the midst of a massive drive by to "weaponize" cyberspace and it is just beginning. Many of us, including myself use the Internet not just to make a living but as an extension of our brains. It was never technically possible for the establishment to spy on everyone's thoughts before but thanks to technology we're getting very close to that now.
"They" can know everything you do on your computer, what you're searching, websites you visit, etc. "They" can turn your smartphone against you. Track your physical location. Listen to conversations in the privacy of your own home.
Any student of history should find this very frightening. The potential for abuse is mind boggling. Unfortunately I don't believe there's a way out of this by working within the political system. The way out is to fight fire with fire and fight back with technology that can't be turned against us.
That's why I'm passionate about free software, strong crypto, and decentralizing architectures.
Viva la libre revolucion! :)
Cheers