Slashdot Mirror
Appreciation For All Things ASCII
AsciiRock writes "Sick of seeing those chunky pixel art logos everywhere? Check out AsciiBlog, Contemporary ASCII, and Ascii Disko (no relation to me) for examples of artists inspired by plain text. ...and also click me! and click me! which made their way around the net some time back.
Wonder how many other examples of BBS design sensibility there'll be this year. There's already Wired illustrators.
2002, year of ASCII design?"
it sucks really bad.
sorry.
UNICODE!!!!
by John Zerzan
Every day it is clearer that the global cancer of capital and technology devours more of life in every sphere. More species, cultures, and ecosystems are under attack, at every level. The cancer of the megamachine is always at work, consuming its host. And if it ever stops expanding, economic alarm bells go off worldwide.
This relentless colonization/globalization has ignited resistance everywhere. In this painful twilight struggle, as the crisis deepens, some of this opposition has taken the desperate form of religious fundamentalism. From this desperation arises the ultimate gesture of suicidal violence, hopeless and indefensible on any level.
Novelist V.S. Naipal reminds us that "The world is getting more and more out of reach of simple people who have only religion. And the more they depend on religion, which of course solves nothing, the more the world gets out of reach."
But as New York Times Magazine writer Joseph Lelyveld (10/28/01) discovered through interviews with families and supporters, suicide bombers are recruited by a promise with widespread appeal among disaffected youth: "better a meaningful death than a pointless life."
Heidegger described our period of history as one of "consummate meaninglessness." The loss of the possibility of personal fulfillment is hardly confined to the Third World. In fact, the standardized barrenness of the First World is quite as devastating, in its own way. In the postmodern void that is the United States today, tens of millions of all ages take anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication. It's not unimaginable that before long, psychotropic drugs will be routinely prescribed for everyone, beginning in infancy. And this is just one example in a list of well-known pathologies that bridge the personal and social spheres. Why are people willing, even eager, to accept a drug-induced state as normal in themselves and their children? Perhaps because of fear, more widespread lately. Adorno wrote penetratingly about the fear of death: "The less people really live or, perhaps more correctly, the more they become aware that they have not really lived the more abrupt and frightening death becomes for them, and the more it appears as a terrible accident."
For those in the U.S. on the threshold of adult life, suicide is the third leading cause of death. For every two murders there are three suicides. Painful life pointless life.
Ignoring these omnipresent realities, the American Spectator (Sept 2001) focused on the anti-technology aspect of the 9/11 suicide hijackings. "Luddites Over Broadway" argues that only technology can save us, since "nature is brutal, deadly, and Darwinian." Opposing "creativity" to the "Luddite" sensibility of the attackers, AS argues that creativity is our key endowment. Asserting that creativity flourishes only under capitalism, AS reveals what kind of "creativity" they're talking about - fueled by instrumental reason, and grounded in domination.
In no way, in my opinion, does the anti-technological, Luddite, primitivist vision of anarchy have anything to do with the viciously misogynist and theocratic Bin Laden types. Which is not to say that the relentless technologizing of the world should not be indicted and reversed. As psychotherapist Robert Marchesani wrote recently, "The more technology we have, the more we seem to be burdening people and dehumanizing them, perhaps making them into these pieces of technology themselves so that they can't feel anything anymore."
In Turkey, according to some anarchists there, a bridge from religious fundamentalism to primitivism has been built, at least by a few. They have traded the escapist (and therefore always reactionary) utopia of the afterlife for the effort to confront technology and capital in the here and now. A very hopeful, if so far inadequately discussed phenomenon.
About two years ago (Tikkun, Jan/Feb 1999), David Ehrenfeld predicted "The Coming Collapse of the Age of Technology." His summary: "Techno-economic globalization is nearing its apogee; the system is self-destructing. There is only a short but very damaging period of expansion left."
To redeem the collapse and avoid further victimization, we must find renewed resolve and solidarity. It's crucial that we undertake the inevitable deconstruction of technology energetically and consciously. Those who elect to passively endure ever-worsening personal, social, and planetary conditions, or to flame out in suicidal acts of terror, are fundamentally powerless against a massively destructive system.
"No one could have believed that these massive towers could just come down like this," declared an incredulous CNN reporter on September 11. They did fall, social systems and even civilizations fall, this order will fall. Creative resistance and resilience have never been so needed. Never has there been so much at stake; never has the prospect of liberation from the no-future death march of civilization been perhaps more feasible.
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's when you get distracted by the politickers that they sideline you. The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean and building is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have their moments in the sun. In the end, we need you all; in order to go forwards we must first avoid going backwards.
To the paranoid conspiracy theorists - yes, I work for Apple too. No, my resignation wasn't on Steve's direct orders, or in any way related to work I'm doing, may do, may not do, or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today. It's about real problems that the project faces, real problems that the project has brought upon itself. You can't escape them by inventing excuses about outside influence, the problem stems from within.
To the politically obsessed - give it a break, if you can. No, the project isn't a lemonade stand anymore, but it's not a world-spanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the more grandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality. Keep it simple, stupid.
To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda - give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors.
Future
I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I'm going to continue, it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, and with any luck I'll find the time to meet those obligations.
However I don't feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don't feel that my efforts were worthwhile. So I won't be standing for election, I won't be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won't vote in the next round of ballots.
You could say I'm packing up my toys. I'm not going home just yet, but I'm not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again.
= Mike
--
then pass out `coz you're dizzy.
It's not so bad, tiger. I've seen worse.
No comment.
You're the second person who mentioned that, its supposed to be a joke. I got it from an old UserFriendly cartoon about a guy interviewing for a job and mentioning that.
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
ANSI is where it's at.
INSANE CREATORS ENTERPRISES REPRAZENT! Keepin' it real, kickin' it old-skool.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I don't read very many AC comments, unless they are direct replies to mine.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
hey wtf is up with the microsoft house article above this one? looks like /. isn't allowing comments on it. :/
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
Chinko momi momi momi momi momi.....
KIMOCHI!!!
No, Beowulf clusters can't imagine in Soviet Russia.