TWIT 801: I Can't Believe It's Not Minecraft

To be fair, Leo does the Tech Guy show six hours every week, and that is explicitly aimed at a much broader audience. I think the Hands On series and some other past shows were also aimed at more everyday users.

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Yea, I cant argue. And i think TWIG appeals to the larger audience too. Personally, I watch all the shows. even TWEIT. I have a small business, so im always interested in whats going on in business.
When I 1st corresponded with Leo, not that long ago, he said that his shows were for the tech enthusiast, not the tech curious. Well, I think there’s a big gap between the two, which is the business tech user.
Since Leo talks about the difficulty of getting advertisers, i was just saying that, me, as a business tech user, wanted to encourage more advertisers in the pro-sumer market…like OWC, etc.
Im sure they go after everyone for advertising, But i was just sayin…

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Yeah, business tech in general is kind of underserved, but the network at least has TWiET on the enterprise side. I can imagine a show focused on small-medium businesses or single-owner businesses. Maybe the problem is getting hosts who can related to those needs but aren’t also overwhelmed actually running their business. Or maybe the needs are so varied and at the same time super-specific, that it is hard to get something coherent. Or perhaps that niche is better served by a “how-to” format rather than news discussion type of format.

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I actually really enjoy the discussion format. There are just a few rabbit holes that turn me off. And when the conversation on shows for 2 weeks keep going down the same rabbit holes…well…Im not the happiest listener. I know, you cant please everyone. I think a broad focus on any of the discussion shows is a good thing. I got kind of upset when Leo just HAD to go crazy about the M1 chip on every show he was on, for weeks. It was too much. Even if it does end up being the greatest thing in computing in 30 years, IMHO, it was still just too much. Leo telling PC users that they need to start learning to use apple products. I was expecting the boss to be a little more tempered, but Im learning…LOL.
Im still a listener…

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While there are some interesting points, credit must be given to @Leo for some of the things he has hosted on the Network. Know-How… A geeky show for techies…Before you buy…a show about tech products that were reviewed…The New Screensavers…The tech variety show. While it’s easy to tell @Leo do things this way. Less Apple more PC. More Apple Less PC. Talk about phones, talk about camera’s. Tell me how to fix this… The truth is he has tried shows focused on these outlooks and they just didn’t pay for themselves. Personally I wouldn’t waste my money to cater to an “audience” that doesn’t “Pay” to listen.

This being said, I have personally donated through Twit’s Tip Jar, even during the pandemic to help remind them of my support. I may not buy from every sponsor. I love many of the twit shows and have more than once had to skip portions of episodes due to liberal rants as they simply didn’t line up with my values. I’m a conservative. But I appreciate the network and the entertainment it provides and will continue to tip or buy from sponsors as I can.

Thank you @Leo & @Lisa for providing us endless hours of entertainment through this pandemic.

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Exactly @PhilAdcock .

I got my Christmas bonus through last month and made a large tip (for me) to the tip jar.

I like TWiT the way it is. It is people knowledgeable about tech talking about the week in tech. Sometimes it is Apple heavy, other times Windows heavy or cloud heavy, depending on what has happened that week. Sometimes the guests go off the rails a bit, but that is very rare. @Leo does a great job with the show and it is an “expert” look at the week.

There are other shows aimed at the less technical people. I think this show is about right. Sometimes I tear my hair out, because they miss the point or they are talking at too much of a non-technical level for me, but most of the time it is just about right.

It is the same with TWiG. I love the show, but Jeff and his moral panic and unquestioning support of all things big tech, even when they are clearly in the wrong, makes me frustrated sometimes, but I still listen to the show every week. I respect his point of view, even if I disagree with him.

I actually contacted Jeff through TWiT once, because I didn’t want to turn the comments on the show page into a mud-slinging battle with everybody chipping in and calling names. We had a very interesting, coherent and civilized discussion and we ended up agreeing to disagree on the point, even if I had provided him with some new information and a different perspective. For that, I respect him, even if I disagree with him.

I’m really looking forward to next weeks show with Steve and Paul.

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Apple does make excellent products; it would just be nice if TWIT recognized some of the other companies that make excellent products. Windows Surface devices, for example, are great (and I’m more of a Mac guy).

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Leo often recognizes the excellence of non-Apple laptops-- unfortunately it is usually to say they’re great for Linux. I think Leo is at the point where he’s just not enthused by the new and shiny (for the sake of being new and shiny); he hates Windows; he’s said many times he thinks Android is just insecure, so I guess he primarily uses an iPhone; he’s a big enough photography fan that he’s not going to be very excited about the annual camera improvements that highlight every new crop of phones; he’s finally disillusioned by what’s happened with the web, and has been around long enough to know that most new tech doesn’t ever amount to much. Taken together, maybe there just aren’t many occasions for him to express genuine enthusiasm and wonder for a lot of the stuff that the tech press gets excited about.

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Well…IMHO…Leo definitely likes new and shiny, much to my dismay.

Not that its a some rule set in stone by any means…but I’ve always equated “New and Shiny” with shallow and inexperienced.
Obviously, I dont think Leo is either of these things…its just one of those things that I notice.

Worn and dented, is weathered and experienced to me. I realize its probably more based on the environment in which u grew up.

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On the other hand, he’ll say on Tuesday on Security Now, that he only uses Linux now. Then on Wednesday he is suddenly using a Windows laptop and, Sunday, on TWiT he is using a Mac… All in the space of one week.

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An old PDQ Bach joke, actually in the Playbill for his concerts…

“PDQ Bach uses whatever piano is available, exclusively”

What I understand from Leo is that Linux is his preferred os. Mac is the second best to him and he despises Windows. Usually when I hear Leo talk about Windows, even on Windows weekly he jokes he is about to blow it away and put linux on it.

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Bit disappointed in this episode that one of the alternatives not suggested to Facebook, is forcing them to adopt an open protocol like ActivityPub or XMPP as this would give more freedom to users to move their “home” to another network but retain their links with friends and family. The thing holding most Facebook users back, are their friends and family that are only on Facebook.

This would also level the playing fields a bit for newer and smaller networks. For example if I was on a different network I would not see Facebook ads as I’m not following them.

We are very caught up still in the mindset of a social network only being a centralised one.

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Agreed this would make it easier to move to a different network. But personally I’m not able to move to a new social network until my burn camp and church move to another platform. Both group’s have private groups on Facebook that are heavily moderated, and members must join. It allows us to put things we may not normally share on our facebook out for the rest of the group to see. Since both are like extended family to me this is vital to me.

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A heavily moderated group that requires members to join seems, to me, like exactly the kind of thing that could more easily move off of Facebook. The church could set up its own forum on its own website. And church leaders, in particular, may be sympathetic to the idea that Facebook is a sub-optimal location to gather its congregants.

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I’ve long supported the idea of being able to export your network, but I’d never heard of ActivityPub until you mentioned it-- thanks for sharing. And yes, this is something of an indictment of the discourse around social media that I’ve been an TWiT network regular for a decade and never heard of this. It seems like a great tool for regulators in the US, but I wonder what GDPR would say about this in the EU. @big_D does it violate your friend’s privacy for you to transfer your shared social media connection to another service?

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I’ve covered quick overviews of many popular alternative networks at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdSTEdM8Pkf3ZT-Z0UYpwnGtqml_c_fTb which include some using ActivityPub and some which are full peer-to-peer. Some such as Hubzilla offer full functionality including Groups, and even creating a mirror replication of your profile elsewhere as a backup.

It’s a tragedy that so many only know about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp.

Imagine us using e-mail today where you could only e-mail another person using the same service… Instant messaging and social media should be interoperable like e-mail and SMS works everywhere. Without that we are at the mercy of someone’s walled-garden…

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If the services is in the USA, yes.

If it is in a country that has equivalent levels of data protection, like Iceland, Japan or Uruguay, it is probably okay.

Your data (about you): You can do what you like with it, basically. You can decide to put it on Facebook or store it on a service that is in the USA or has ties to the USA (i.e. even a branch office in the USA is enough to fall foul of US CLOUD Act, FISA and Patriot Act).

Data about 3rd parties: (E.g. contact data, meta data about conversations with them, posts mentioning them or photos of them) you need their permission to upload it to a third party service, especially photographs, if you don’t have permission to upload a picture of them, don’t upload it.

You will notice that with my photography stuff, I have never uploaded an image here that includes people. It is all inanimate objects or nature etc.

It is this contact data that makes WhatsApp illegal in Europe, for example. It uploads all contacts on the phone without the identified people’s permission and is stored indefinitely on the Facebook servers. Those are two separate violations of GDPR.

That sounds like a wonderful idea, but how would one go about setting this up. I go to a moderately conservative church. We have a website that is based on Wordpress. I’m wondering if there is a built in solution or I we need to look elsewhere for this? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

The Wordpress folks have created bbPress.org, a forums plugin for WP, but I’m sure there are additional alternatives. Unfortunately this is not an area I’m familiar with, but I imagine whoever runs the site for the church would be able to incorporate this without too much difficulty.