How aesthetics influences my use of software and the web

It’s hard to admit it, but if I look at my consumption habits on the internet, and of my use of software in general, I am definitely influenced by the way a site or an application looks. I will tend to prefer those that look attractive to me. I can point to various examples.

SeaMonkey browser has a very good solution to RSS news feeds. It’s easy to subscribe, and it arranges them like email messages under separate folders. It’s easy, quick and responsive to skim through news feeds. Yet although SeaMonkey’s presentation is not what you would call ugly – and there are worse examples of feed aggregators – I have to force myself to go there and start reading. Back when I was using Google Reader and Feedly, it was easier.

SeaMonkey user interface — Figure 1: SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroup screen

Similarly, Thunderbird, which derives from SeaMonkey, is an excellent email client, but, try as I might, I find myself steering towards webmail clients such as Fastmail’s (and Gmail’s for the office). I often read mail in the webmail client, then compose the replies in Thunderbird, which gives me more control.

Wikis are sometimes a better solution for building websites than blogs. Material is arranged by subject rather than chronology for one thing. Yet when I try to read articles produced in Dokuwiki and Mediawiki, for example, I am often put off by the way they look. They are just too boringly plain for me, I suppose.

LibreOffice is a fine wordprocessor, and for me just as good as, and easier to use, than its commercial competitors. But, when I write text, I will usually prefer a simple text editor. I think I’m put off by all those tool bars, rows of icons and the menu system.

My taste is not necessarily dictated by what’s considered slick. I dislike many modern websites, with their oversized graphics, animation and glitzy formatting. Similarly many shopping sites are attrocious (could that be the real reason why I cancelled my Amazon account?). But I often like simple blogs that use attractive fonts, good proportions between the sizes of titles and texts, and nice use of graphics. And news media sites are usually fine for me (though I’m usually seeing them ad-free).

I like to think of myself as uninfluenced by style (Lao Tzu: “The sage is for the belly, not for the eye”) and free software is often more drab than its commercial equivalents. But the truth is that my tendency to use software or visit websites is quite affected by appearance, even if the selection is not always conscious.

I once read that all of us weigh up and unconsciously evaluate a website within a few seconds of landing on its home page. And just as surely, our sense of aesthetics is influenced by trends and the conditioning derived from what we have seen before. It’s a bit like cars. What makes the latest models look attractive to us, while those of a few years ago seem dated and old-fashioned? There’s nothing intrinsically better about the new designs. A visitor from another planet would not necessarily choose the new design over the model of a decade ago.

New fediverse instance

I decided to take the plunge and launch a new fediverse instance, using the services of mastohost.com. The new instance is at social.vikshepa.com/@hosh.

A few weeks/months ago and again now, I looked at practically all of the available fediverse flavours and tried to set up two or three of them. Each time I either failed or had to give up in the middle, whereas previously I had managed on my home server or shared hosting. Perhaps I’m getting old.

Among those that I looked at were Friendica – Hubzilla – Zap family; Mastodon and Pleroma, Epicyon and GnuSocial version 3 (which includes an Activity Pub protocol extension).

Some of those failures may have been caused by unfulfilled dependences in Kamatera’s server packages (such as missing PHP modules), or due to choosing the wrong web-server software (NGINX or Apache), or because the recommended installation involved something like Docker, which I didn’t want to use. Docker appears to be more resource hungry, which means renting a more expensive VPS.

With Pleroma, which is said to be easier to install than Mastodon, the instructions for OTP install currently fail for me at the point of downloading the Pleroma software package. Earlier this year there were problems in the team of developers, out of which a new fork appeared called Akkoma (see details). I considered trying to install that, but who knows whether it will last? Even its developer isn’t sure.

With Epicyon, the setup goes perfectly, but when trying to access the site, I got a 502 Bad Gateway error. This happened after two installation attempts.

So, despite my preference to go-it-alone, I eventually decided to try an easier way, and signed up with Mastohost.com, which automates the installation and setup in a very cool way and promises to maintain the instance afterwards. Which, at this stage, sounds wonderful to me. I bought their cheapest plan, which is currently $6/mo., so it’s only good for one instance, or maybe would suit a family or a small team. That package is smaller than the other managed Mastodon hosting that I was able to find. Joinmastodon.org lists a few options for managed mastodon hosting. Of those, there is a German web host that offers a €5 plan, but their website is German-only.

For now, this is an experiment. My social media use is likely to be light, which is another reason to choose Mastodon (or perhaps Pleroma). I want to be able to follow a few people and for the news stream to look like a microblog (whereas Friendica or Hubzilla’s posts are larger and do not flow as quickly). And I am not interested, this time, to put up long posts or media; these will be posted on my website. The one time that I might be interested in sending such posts directly on Mastodon is when I’m away from my computer and have access only to my phone, such as while traveling.

Although it has become the most popular alternative social media platform, I’m aware that there are many things to dislike about Mastodon, in comparison to other platforms. I’m told that its implementation of the Activity Pub protocol is quirky or individualistic, and it won’t talk to any other protocol. Its privacy settings are undeveloped in comparison to Zot. It lacks the nomadic and clonable features of Zot, and so forth. So adopting Mastodon is a bit of a compromise for the sake of convenience.

There are a few reasons for opting for a personal instance over using a public server. First, the whole meaning of the Fediverse is that it should be a conglomeration of separate instances talking to each other. Popular fediverse sites, with a large number of instances become silos in the same way as Twitter and Facebook, though they are non-commercial in nature.

Second, Fediverse sites last as long as their owners and administrators have the motivation or resources to continue them. In fact, most of the Fediverse sites on which I have been active, have eventually gone down, beginning with Laconi.ca / Identi.ca. When they do work, they don’t always work well. Disroot.org’s former hubzilla server seemed to be down as often as it was up. Its current Pleroma instance is not letting me follow more than my current two people. Having a personal instance promises greater control.

Third, I’m unhappy with public timelines. On Twitter or Facebook, there is no such thing as a public timeline, whereas every fediverse site has these. Most people would regard them as a feature: they are, after-all, a good discovery engine. However, a couple of times I’ve run afoul of public timelines through accidental posts. Once, when I was on Fosstodon, I had set up WordPress to automatically send updates to Mastodon. Then, when importing a bunch of old posts into WordPress, it sent a dozen old posts at once. As a result, I got accused of spamming, and taking undue advantage of the instance’s resources. In the absence of a public timeline, that sort of thing is less likely to happen. If it did, the posts would usually be seen first by followers, who could choose to block you or send a warning. Depending on the settings of remote instances, posts seen by followers may still end up federating to public timelines. Unfortunately, Mastodon is less privacy-aware than the Zot platforms, where privacy settings can be more finely tuned, though I do find, under “posting privacy”, an option that prevents distribution of posts to public timelines. I’ve also elected to opt-out of search engine indexing (though not all search-engine crawlers honor that).

I’m not a very social person, either digitally or in person; I suppose I lack the social graces, and sometimes feel embarrassed by my interactions. Embarrassment is not a quality of those who are “good” at social media. Many of these are prone to outbreaks of objectionable behavior, which oddly enough, seems to increase their popularity. Probably they are appreciated for their supposed authenticity.

By the way, regarding Mastohost, I was pleasantly surprised to see that its developer-owner and the data center it uses are European.

Europe and its problem with Fascism

The world watches in trepidation while yet another European election threatens to bring in right-wing populists – this time in Italy. It’s pretty exasperating to see this constant tussle between inept centerist parties and their far-right adversaries. Europe needs change, but its people keep looking in the wrong direction, choosing the worse over the simply bad.

Sometimes it looks like we have to either fight tooth and nail or flee, like those Russians now massing on the borders and trying to get out, because the state eventually came knocking on their doors. Or like the Israeli leftists who leave to countries where they can learn to shrug off the local politics. Or the Brits who fled Brexit, or refugees everywhere. Sometimes living in another country is simply less painful. If you live as a resident outside you native country’s borders, the army recruitment center isn’t going to come looking for you or your children. It’s true that you’ll have less power and influence, and will probably be unable to create change either in the country of your citizenship or in the country of your residency. In the conditions of today, that’s the price that you pay.

One day, in a more stable world, the purpose of nations will be to serve their citizens and safeguard the environment. Citizenship could be abolished and replaced with residency. You live in a nation of your choosing and both you and the nation enter into a contract. You pay your taxes and the nation provides you with the social services that you need. That’s the basis. On a local level there are other commitments, in order to build a sense of community, since loyalty anyway works more naturally on a local level, while “patriotism” and “nationalism” are usually encouraged artificially, by politicians, for extraneous or nefarious objectives. In the 21st century, it has become more important for everyone everywhere to pledge our alliegance to the planet than to the nations that are working together to destroy it.

Free speech

PayPal Demonetises the Daily Sceptic

… PayPal just doesn’t like free speech, which is why it has shut down the FSU [Free Speech Union] account … There are five issues in particular where it’s completely verboten to express sceptical views and if you do you can expect to be cancelled, not just by PayPal but by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.: the wisdom of the lockdown policy and associated Covid restrictions, the efficacy and safety of the mRNA vaccines, Net Zero and the ‘climate emergency’, the need to teach five year-olds that sex is a social construct and the war in Ukraine. Dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy in any of those areas is no longer permitted.

This is the new front in the ongoing war against free speech: the withdrawal of financial services from people and organisations that express dissenting opinions on those topics. And not just those who express them, but those who defend them, too, like the FSU. That‘s what makes this an escalation in the war on free speech. Until now, companies like PayPal, GoFundMe, Patreon and CrowdJustice have only demonetised individuals and groups whose views they disapprove of. Now, PayPal has closed the account of an organisation that defends people’s right to free speech, without taking sides on the issues they’re speaking about. Even that is no longer allowed, according to this Silicon Valley behemoth.

I don’t know anything about the above website, though the author’s framing of the “five issues” leads me to suspect that I might not agree with him on some of these. But I think the action taken against him should bother us. Not because our own opinions stray from the orthodox, but because we need to reserve the right to think differently and to express opinions that differ from those of the mainstream. It’s been pointed out elsewhere that there are gaps between European and US interpretations of the meaning of free speech. (For example some European states outlaw the expression of Nazi sympathies.) But here the US corporations seem to be closer in their approach to the Europeans.

In so far as Western countries differ from authoritarian regimes, it means that whereas adopting a wrong opinion on Ukraine can get you incarcerated in Russia, it can get you demonitized or demonized in the West.

Orthodoxies and the rules for enforcing them change and vary from place to place. The boundaries and the buffer zones between the acceptable and the forbidden shift, or expand and contract. It’s always more or less painful to be situated outside of the mainstream, whenever and wherever we live. But without pushing up against those boundaries, social change and reform would be impossible and societies would remain static and rigid in their orthodoxies.

The main problem with opinion is its association with identity. Defending our opinions is confused with a defence of the self, and, in the same way, people are loved or demonized for their opinions. Politicians who change their opinions are accused of expediency, though Gandhi was famous for reserving the right to inconsistancy. An anarchist friend of mine said that being able to change opinions was a sign of sanity, while holding rigidly to the same views was insane. Most of us would admit to modifying our opinions over time, often to accord with the prevailing wisdom of the times. When I was growing up, I unconsciously absorbed so many of the orthodox English working-class views of my parents and grandparents, from which I was only gradually able to liberate myself over the years. The problem is that we continue to be influenced by the false arguments of journalists and influencers, while staunchly believing in our intellectual autonomy. That’s why it’s necessary to listen to, if not learn to tolerate, divergent opinions and arguments. If our press, our financial services or our regime don’t allow them, we’re in trouble.

The Ministry for the Future

Enjoying this book by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s less a novel than New York 2140, or Aurora, the only other books of his that I’ve read.

A science fiction novel rooted in non-fiction

More like an amalgam of random various texts – some scientific, some philosophical, some journalistic, some anecdotal – with a bit of a storyline and a few characters to hold it together. But, in so far as presenting a possible future history of climate change, and climate action, in the mid-21st century, the formula works. And, more importantly, it fulfills the promise of serious speculative science fiction, of getting us to think about the future that we are making for ourselves, right now.

I thought about that today, when spending the afternoon with my grandchildren. I considered their own hopes and dreams, and how some of these might be stymied by the increasing devastation of the planet.

I just came back from flights overseas – flights that took me to Portugal via Belgium: looking at that absurd right-angle on the map makes me feel ridiculous. Like the times I reached Delhi via Moscow. I think in future, if I fly to Europe it will be to the city nearest to my intended destination – then overland, somehow. But, when I check the possibilities, the costs of such travel far exceeds that of plane tickets, unfortunately. In a better world, governments would be doing more to reduce the costs of overland public transport. There’s still no real way to get from Israel to Europe or the rest of Asia other than by flying. The ferries of yesteryear, that plied the routes between Palestine, Greece and Italy, are no more, and the uncertainties of travel in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan prevents passage through those countries to further east. The world is less open today, and travel is more dependent upon airplanes, than when I was young.

Links: Food

Gates-Funded ‘Green Revolution’ in Africa Has Failed, Critics Say

Critics say the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, founded in 2006 with money from the Gates and Rockefeller foundations, has promoted an industrial model of agriculture that poisons soils with chemicals and encourages farmers to go into debt by buying expensive seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. As a result of that debt, some farmers have had to sell their land or household goods like stoves and TVs, said Celestine Otieno and Anne Maina, both active with organizations in Kenya advocating for ecologically friendly practices. “I think it’s the second phase of colonization,” Otieno said.

EU wastes 153m tonnes of food a year – much more than it imports, says report | Food waste | The Guardian

Back home from Camino

We’re back home from the Camino: this time the Camino Portugues. It went well, despite mishaps. The principle mishap was getting COVID about 3 days into the walk. Both I and D got it, by turn. It wasn’t so significant – just fever and a cold for about 3 days – but it slowed us down. We mostly rested those days, and took private rooms, of course, rather than dorms, and wore masks everywhere.

So we didn’t complete the planned 200+ kilometers, and did perhaps 160. The walking was the best part. Of the towns, we enjoyed visiting the old cities. Porto’s amazing – and we spent about 3 days there – but overly touristic. Like other famous cities, it suffers badly from its popularity.

As we combined the coastal way with the traditional central route, we enjoyed both the coast and the inland areas. Inland, along the Portuguese and Spanish parts, often actually means wide river estuaries. These have been compared to the fjords of Norway.

In Porto, I was inspired by the museums, as I sometimes am. The National Museum in Porto was mostly closed for renovations, but had an amazing exhibition on Magellan – whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the world. I had never considered the singularity of his attainments and courage – virtually discovering the Pacific Ocean (which he named) and then successfully navigating across it. His expected trans-Pacific voyage of “3 or 4 days” took 3 months and 20 days. Learning about the expanse of the oceans in comparison with the size of the land areas changed human perception of the planet. Magellan’s voyage was really a leap into the unknown – more so than the voyages of Columbus, a few years earlier. I wonder if the men who sailed in those ships would have done so had they known what the voyage would entail? Of 5 ships and hundreds of men, only 18 made it around the world. The rest died of hunger, disease, in battles with indigenous peoples, or in mutinies. The men of one ship fled home earlier, escaping during the search for a passage through the straits at the bottom of Chile. Magellan himself perished in a battle in the Philippines. It was only a stroke of luck that the ship’s chronicler, an Italian by the name of Antonio Pigafetta, made it home and spread the story.

We also visited the Seralves museum, which is on the outskirts of the city. There were several interesting exhibitions. A common theme, perhaps, was learning to see the world differently. This was true of the filmmakers shown, especially Manoel de Olveira – whose career spanned decades: he began making films in the silent era and continued till close to his death, at the age of 106. In the interviews, it was stated that he didn’t believe in the reality of the world as most of us see it. The same idea – of learning to perceive the world in new ways – was there in all the other exhibitions, including those of Rui Chaves and Maria Antonia Leite Siza. The latter was a young artist of the ’60s who died at the age of 32. The exhibition traces her drawings from the advent of her short career till close to her death. The covers of her bed, in which she enjoys to spend so much time in dreams becomes in the drawings a pupis, through which she rises like a butterfly. Agnès Varda is both a filmmaker and a photographer. In the exhibition is a work on potatoes, in which one sees this earthy vegetable transformed into an object of wonder. The images are shown in a room in which the floor is covered with actual potatoes, so that their fusty odour permeates the space.

I suppose that what art can do for us is to help us change our perception of the world, in this way. The museum is set in a beautiful park; and the park, as well as the architecture, enhances the same purpose.

For example, one of the features is a “treetop walk” that allows us to explore nature in a new way. And, back on ground level, there was a venerable chestnut tree, whose characteristic spiny fruit littered the entire surroundings like objects fallen from space. So the park, which we explored afterwards, helped to transport the inspiration gleaned from the exhibitions, outwards into nature.

Seralves Park, Porto: acorns on the ground