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Build Open Systems And Maintain The Promise For Future Generations
by JamesGrowing up in the 90's, tech and the internet promised us open-data and open-systems. With a good idea and a bit of know-how could do most anything. And for a while that was true. But over time the systems have been slowly closed off.
Even if you put your data into their systems you can only retrieve it under their terms. If you can even retrieve it. Formats are opaque or undocumented. API access could be revoked at any time for any reason with little or no recourse on your part.
In other words: your data isn't yours. And you're certainly not free to do with it what you please.Β
Why do people subject themselves to this unfair and unequal status-quo? I'd argue that it's because how people view tech, including within the tech circle, has changed.Β
You can draw a line: Hackers vs The Social Network.
If you watched Hackers, Sneakers, or Wargames in high school, you likely remember that promise of open-systems and open-data. You also see that promise being reneged one company after another. You may not feel it's as important as it once was, because, let's be real, goofing around on "free" services is easy and fun.
However if your high school movie was The Social Network, you likely see the current state of tech as normal. Like a fish in water. Those VC companies neglected to mention the promise of the internet. In fact, the idea that your data is yours may not even be something that crosses your mind. Why should it? Nobody talks about it, so it must not be important. But it is.
One of my major motivations for building Tanzawa is to help us regain control of our data and help uphold the promise back.Β Want to visualize your Tanzawa data for a new project? Point your project to your Tanzawa db (or make a copy of it) and you can do whatever you want.
The promise of open-systems and open-data isn't a given.Β The default is closed. Or at least open until you're big enough consolidate and centralize. It's up to each of us to be stewards of an open internet. It's up to each of us support an open and free internet.
Build open systems and maintain the promise for future generations. -
Checkin to ε «εΉ‘ε±±ε ¬ε
Lovely renewal with 3 slides. Oneβs even a double wide! -
by James
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by JamesInspired by @mijustin's tweet, I just bought an original Hackers movie poster. Can't wait for it to arrive so I can hang it in my office.
Hack the Planet! -
by JamesInserting images into a post from the Tanzawa file picker is working like a charm. Woohoo! Now to polish up the interface π
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Took the eBike to the grandparents house to pick up Leo instead of the car. Soo much better. Roughly the same time investment, save a liter and a half of fuel, and got some exercise.
Riding along the river -
π The Need for Speed, Bicycle Messengers in New York (1993)
by JamesThe Need For Speed propels you into the fast and dangerous lives of new York City s hippest sub-culture: the hard core bicycle messengers who adhere to only one motto,- Either you get better or you get dead. They are the last free spirits in America, or as Steve - The Greek puts it, I am Marco Polo, doomed to New York!
I was searching YouTube for a documentary about bike messengers in NYC that I downloaded ages ago and found this fantastic documentary. The actual movie I was searching for was Pedal (2001).Β What's interesting is that one of the main characters in The Need for Speed, Steve "the Greek" had just started his bike messenger service and was still making runs and he also appears in Pedal, but this time as a dispatcher at his company.
These messengers have no cellphones, no gps. Just a pager (!) so they can use a payphone(!) to find out about their next run. So. Cool. -
by JamesI've started working on a file picker for Tanzawa. You access it by clicking the photo icon.Β The sizing is still a bit wonky. In the future there should be a search form allowing you to filter your photos.
File Picker
Clicking a photo re-uses the file detail modal I shared a few days ago, except the actions change from "view on site", "delete" to just "insert into post".Insert a photo into a post
Once you have a few building blocks in place, Turbo / Stimulus is so productive, I'm loving it. -
by James
#FUNFACT - The 1995 movie 'Hackers' was released 1337 weeks ago
Saw this tweet, and wanted to copy it to my blog as Hackers is probably my favorite movie.Hack the Planet -
The Week #43
by James- Itβs our second Golden Week with a state of emergency. The numbers keep on going up. I wish they'd give half the consideration they're giving for the olympic athletes to the residents of Japan. Weβre trying to keep close to the house as best we can.
- That said, I am spending time on my bicycle. I peddled to Enoshima and back (about 35km round trip). I know I've been talking about my bike a lot recently, but it's been a revelation. Like many Americans I stopped riding my bike in high school. Not only as I got a license, but the the suburbs in Houston are so spread out / bike unfriendly (unless you want to get hit by a pick-up truck the size of an elephant) that people naturally stop.Β
- I made some good progress on Tanzawa so far as well. I've built and launched my file browser. It shouldn't be too difficult to hook this in to Trix (the editor I use to write posts) so you could insert an existing photo into a post without re-uploading it.
- Leo's wearing undies during the day. He's had two accidents thus far, but he's getting better at it. Thankfully neither accident was in public nor over the tatami floors.
