<div>On Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 08:56 George Rosamond <<a href="mailto:george@ceetonetechnology.com">george@ceetonetechnology.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">2 Lightning Talks, R. Cuza and J. Natis<br>
<br>
2023-06-14 @ 18:45 - Five Mile Stone at <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/search/1640+2nd+Ave+(northeast?entry=gmail&source=g">1640 2nd Ave (northeast</a> Corner<br>
of 2nd Ave and 85th St, 2nd floor). Please note the stairs to the second<br>
floor are on the north wall as you enter from 2nd Ave.<br>
Notice: Location Change<br>
<br>
Raúl Talk:<br>
<br>
Probably like you, Raúl didn't get to go to BSDCan '23, but he will make<br>
time to watch some of the sessions, do a little extra research and<br>
re-present them more poorly than the original speaker to you. You could<br>
watch them on your own, but then you won't be in a bar drinking. Or if<br>
you do watch while drinking in a bar, you will be that person perhaps<br>
sitting alone looking at their laptop in the bar.<br>
<br>
If you did go to BSDCan '23, maybe Raúl will present on a talk you<br>
didn't attend. Or if you did attend, you will be able to knowledgeably<br>
heckle as a way to get over your poutine withdrawal.<br>
Josh Talk: Down With the Corporate Ethos, Up With the Sunrise: Inspiring<br>
a New Generation of Hackers<br>
<br>
I. Students<br>
<br>
As a student, it's easy to feel useless in the current state of the<br>
world's software ecosystem. At times, it seems like everything has been<br>
invented already. For the most part, we're only able to program "toy"<br>
projects, and if we do decide to be amicable and share them with the<br>
world, our code falls upon deaf ears – there is no positive<br>
reinforcement for our feedback loop, our programs do not seem to help<br>
anybody. Software forges like GitHub are brimming with programs, why<br>
should anybody be concerned with ours? Projects we care about are so<br>
complex that we can hardly grok their code, let alone offer any<br>
meaningful help. Looking far into the past, the picture seems less<br>
bleak. Programmers were a scarce resource. There was no Internet, and<br>
thus no gigantic repository of programs to render yours obsolete. If you<br>
wrote a program, you were contributing to your community's<br>
infrastructure, building it up with more and more utilities over time.<br>
Every program you wrote bettered the system, extending the capabilities<br>
of whomever you were sharing your system with. Systems themselves were<br>
simpler, built from primitives one could reasonably wrap their head<br>
around, so adding an impactful change was possible. This endows<br>
programming with a sliver of humanity – you are doing a favor to your<br>
community by doing this work. In modern day, this is often replaced by<br>
an appeal to capitalism – you are improving your resume by programming<br>
this, it will help you get a job. This leaves us hollow.<br>
<br>
II. Computing Industry, Western Society<br>
<br>
The world of computer science students is representative of a general<br>
trend within the computing industry, which itself is a microcosm of<br>
society as a whole. The pure information overload of the Global Village,<br>
the wealth and power amassed and deployed by technofeudal corporations,<br>
the fading away of our warm, caring human nature and trust in one<br>
another, the slow cancellation of the future as we train our children to<br>
be automatons. Where have all the hackers gone? I think this is deeply<br>
connected to the gaping hole left by the departure of myth, spirit, and<br>
religion from our society, replaced by a cold calculated rationalism and<br>
commodification of everything, even human nature and identity. The<br>
Soviet Union tried to fill this hole through "God-building". What should<br>
we do?<br>
<br>
We will look to the past to once again discover the warm stream of<br>
computing, the free-flowing camaraderie of the hacker ethic. We'll<br>
consider the freedom of constraints, the altruistic nature of humans,<br>
the tradeoffs between the departing software Wild West and the global<br>
coordination enabled by standards / governing bodies, best practices,<br>
and a convergence on a shared corpus of open source software. With the<br>
flame in your heart kindled, we will debate how to improve the state of<br>
affairs -- should we go bottom up? Become teachers, mentors, poets,<br>
artists, creators of evocative media, inspiring the new generation of<br>
hackers? Or should we go top down, using whatever means necessary to<br>
change the way we live in our society on a macro level -- economic and<br>
political systems, states.<br>
<br>
Things can be different -- Down With the Corporate Ethos, Up With the<br>
Sunrise.<br>
<br>
Caveats:<br>
<br>
I come bearing questions not answers<br>
I was wearing a diaper when 9/11 happened so I can't speak<br>
authoritatively about the past<br>
I have a relatively strict time limit so even if I was a crackpot I<br>
couldn't take up too much of your time :-).<br>
<br>
Offsite Participation: We plan to stream via NYC*BUG Website unless the<br>
speaker requests otherwise. Q&A will be via IRC on Libera.chat channel<br>
#nycbug - Please preface your questions with '[Q]'.<br>
Media<br>
<br>
Speaker Biography<br>
<br>
Raúl Cuza thinks computers are at their best as they load an operating<br>
system. Before that moment they lack any spark. After that moment they<br>
are nothing but headaches.<br>
<br>
Josh Natis is a Unix herder searching for unknown unknowns, hopelessly<br>
stuck in a dialectic between Luddism and technological utopia. Loves<br>
having a cappuccino at night. Longs for mornings but is never awake for<br>
them. Happy to be here.<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
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<a href="https://lists.nycbug.org:8443/mailman/listinfo/talk" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.nycbug.org:8443/mailman/listinfo/talk</a></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I have a last minute $w0rk event this evening that I have to attend. I will not be able to present tonight. I am sorry I won’t be able to see everyone tonight and, fates willing, I will be there in July. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">- r </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex" dir="auto"></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex" dir="auto"><br>
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