Larry Anderson

Not that anyone is probably reading this, but I’m stepping away from this blog for a bit while I try out Micro.blog again.

The URL for my blog over there is https://larand.one, and you can also follow me from the Fediverse at @larand@larand.one.

Nothing wrong with write.as, they’ve been lovely, but with the current fractured state of social media, I’m looking for a way to unify my various streams and simplify my life. I’ll be cross-posting from there where it makes sense.

See you around the net.

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With Apple stopping advertising on X, and another flood of people incoming on Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads, it’s interesting to me to see where people land.

Previously, I thought Bluesky would eventually become the new Twitter, but they’re still in closed beta and taking their sweet time ramping up. Mastodon has a major perception problem that is going to limit their reach. Meanwhile, Threads suffers from not being available in the EU.

All of that said, I’m now of the opinion that, provided they are able to enter Europe, Threads will eventually win out. Being connected to Instagram is a huge advantage that’s hard to beat.

That doesn’t mean it’s my favorite. That honor goes to Mastodon, but I’ve had plenty of time to acclimate to its cultural and technical quirks, having joined it literally from Day 1 when it was announced on Hacker News in 2016. Newbies often find it confusing, and the general ethos sometimes comes across as lecturing and unhelpful. I like it because most of my people are there, but I’m not blind to its faults. Those of us who are there could do a better job welcoming newcomers.

Bluesky is probably my second favorite, but it still sometimes feels like I’ve wandered into a party where the cool kids are, and I’m not one of them. It’s pleasant enough, but a lot of that goes back to its invite-only status. Once they open the gates and give up control, it’s going to change. It also has the most annoying character limit.

Which leads us back to Threads. Backed by Meta, it’s unlikely to fail. It’s the one I like the least — too algorithmic, and you know the ads will show up eventually — but as someone wise once said, a social network should be social, and that requires people. There are folks I know who don’t do Mastodon or Bluesky, but they’re on Threads because they’re also on Instagram.

That might just be enough.

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Since I've picked up a few new followers in various places, this seems like a good time to clarify what my thoughts are on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, so there are no surprises and you can unfollow me if you wish before things get ugly.

Disclaimer: I’m an educated, middle-class, left-of-center American male. You can filter everything I say through that lens if you want and if it matters to you.

First things first: if you’re looking for someone who is overtly pro- or anti- either side, you’re in the wrong place. I was trained as a historian and I’m familiar enough with the history that I recognize there are both innocent people and bad actors on both sides. If you believe your side (assuming you have one) is pristine and without guilt, you’re wrong. There is more than enough blame to go around. This is not a slam at either Israelis or Palestinians, just a recognition of the reality of all humanity through the ages. And yes, you can add the British to that.

Beyond that, I have friends on all sides—Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, Palestinian, non-Palestinian Arab, Iranian, etc. They’re all people, and people are complicated. Not all Jews are Israelis, not all Israelis support the current government, not all Palestinians support Hamas, and certainly not all Muslims support Hamas. And for that matter, not all Palestinians are Muslim—there’s a Christian minority—and not all Israelis are Jewish. There are also Druze and Arab Muslim citizens of Israel. And while we’re discussing how complicated it is, there’s even a fringe Jewish sect that doesn’t believe Israel is legitimate. If you think there’s anything simple in that part of the world, you have been deceived.

My side, if I have one, is peace. I’m with the unfortunate innocent victims on both sides. I believe strongly that war is a waste of human life, and that if you’re going to have one, you have a responsibility to minimize the deaths of civilians. This means that you don’t take hostages to use as human shields. This means that you don’t bomb hospitals and ambulances. This means that you don’t use hospitals and schools to hide weapons of war. This means that you follow the rules of the Geneva Convention.

But what about America, you ask? Well, what about it? If you think I’m going to defend every decision America has ever made, you’re wrong. Yes, we obliterated Dresden. Yes, we used nuclear bombs against Japan. Yes, we dropped Agent Orange on Vietnam. We dropped one million tons of bombs on Vietnam, for that matter, and we killed a lot of civilians. We’ve killed civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and Yemen with drones. These actions were also horrific and wrong.

In the current conflict, I’d like to see a ceasefire. I’d like to see the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, leading to an independent State of Palestine. I’m also enough of a realist to know this is very unlikely right now. The last time an Israeli leader made a bold choice for peace, he got assassinated for it. But there will never be peace until both sides are willing to let historical injustices be just that, historical, and move forward in recognition of the current reality on the ground and with a sincere desire for their children and grandchildren to live in peace.

The Palestinians will never succeed in wiping out every Israeli. The Israelis will never succeed in wiping out every Palestinian. Even if they wipe out Hamas, the indiscriminate killing of civilians while blaming them for being in the wrong place merely ensures they will lay the groundwork for something even more terrible to arise, and the cycle will continue. And every rocket attack on Israel from Hamas-controlled territory guarantees the continued existence of Israeli hardliners who want to wipe out the Palestinians, or at least continue to deny them basic rights.

I don’t have answers. I’m not sure there are answers. But for now, just know that I am appalled at just about everyone in the conflict right now, and if you have any sacred cows, you should not expect me to respect them.

And if you’ve read this far, thank you. I really appreciate it.

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So Dianne Feinstein has died.

I voted for her Democratic opponent the last time she ran (California has a top-two primary system). She accomplished a lot, but as sometimes happens with politicians, she didn’t know when to say goodbye.

This will be her legacy. It could have been different had she not clung to power until her last breath.

RIP.

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As of today, it's been a month since I got my iPhone 14 Pro Max, my first iPhone since the iPhone 6 I had years ago. In the interim, I've used Windows Phone and Android, my last three phones being a Pixel 2 XL, a Pixel 3 XL, and a Pixel 5. Here are some of my observations thus far.

First, it's great having a larger phone again. I mean, it's really great having a larger phone again. My 57-year-old eyes are grateful.

Second, it's nice having the battery life that comes with a newer and larger phone. No more constant charging.

Third, Apple has fixed some of the things that used to drive me nuts about iOS. I can finally set my own default apps, for one thing, which was a dealbreaker before. And the keyboard will accept swipe-style entry. FINALLY.

I'm less thrilled that iOS still makes app icons snap to a grid automatically and you can't place them where you want. That's an Android feature I miss. Also, I'll say this and you can disagree but you will be wrong: Android handles notifications better. I'm adapting, but the iPhone just isn't as good with them. Siri isn't as good as Google Assistant, and I've given up some of the integration with Google apps that you get on a Pixel. I also prefer the organization of settings in Android to the dog's breakfast you get on iOS. If you're an iPhone user who's never used an Android device, you don't know what you're missing.

The price was astonishing, more so since I upgraded the storage, and it cost more than my laptop. That being said, it really is my primary computer these days, so it was justifiable in my eyes.

And finally, this thing is heavy. Not so heavy that it's really a problem, but heavy enough that it's noticeable. Stainless steel is nice, but I kind of wish it was titanium.

Overall, though, I'm pretty happy. I switched for a couple of reasons. The first and biggest was support. Don't underestimate the value of being able to walk into an Apple Store if you have a problem. Google offers coverage, yes, but it's third-party and simply not as good. I speak here from experience.

The second reason is that I'm now the sole surviving son of my mother, who just moved to be closer to us and who has an iPhone and an iPad. It's important that she be able to contact me if need be, and she never really understood why she couldn't use iMessage on her iPad to send a text to my Android phone. She's in her eighties, and just getting her used to the technology was huge. We need to make the rest of it as easy as possible.

And that's about it. Can a longtime Android and Windows Phone user find long-term happiness with an iPhone? We'll find out. So far it's promising.

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I done laid around and played around this old town too long, Summer's almost gone, yes, winter's comin' on, I done laid around and played around this old town too long, And I feel like I gotta travel on...

I know what Billy Grammer meant.

It hasn't taken long for the new owner to embrace the worst in Twitter, and I'm not going to stick around to see what happens. It's clear who he is, and what he is, and who his friends are, and none of it looks good to me.

I first signed on in the early days, when Twitter was tech geeks posting by sending texts to 40404. Then the general public found it, and then the celebrities and corporations piled on, and then the Nazis came, and here we are.

Everything has a life cycle. MySpace, Friendfeed, Jaiku, ICQ, App.net, and the list goes on. We're reaching the end of Twitter's, at least the Twitter we once knew. If there's a lesson to be learned, it's that you shouldn't let your social media be ruled by any one person or corporation or private equity group. Silos are bad, and will eventually change hands or shut down.

If you came here from the link in my Twitter profile, know that it is the last time I'll post there. My tweets auto-delete after a set period, so eventually that tweet will also disappear. I'm leaving my account in place to ensure my username can't be taken by someone else, but it will be a zombie account.

If you came here from the autopost to Mastodon, you know where I'll be from now on. I've decided to throw in my lot with the Fediverse. I'm done with corporate social media. I should have left already, but I'm fixing that now.

Full disclosure: I will keep a separate account that I have on Twitter to follow emergency services in my local area. It's a valuable resource for times of crisis. That account, however, does not and will not post, and I'll be reevaluating it periodically.

We all have to decide what we want to support. I've made my choice. I'm not saying it is the only choice, nor that it's right for you, but it's right for me.

To those who say I can just mute and block: yes, I can. My previous Twitter account had a block list running into the tens of thousands. It gets tiring after a while.

Also, it's hard to feel smug about keeping the Nazis out of your living room when they're beating up your Jewish neighbors outside your house, and the local authorities are doing nothing to stop them. Better that you should get the hell out and try to take your neighbors with you.

Twitter, I'll miss what you used to be and what you could have been. But enough is enough.

See you in elephant land.

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Now that the Twitter acquisition has been completed, I have a few thoughts on reasons why a person might not want to leave Twitter and move to Mastodon.

1. You're a celebrity. Mastodon doesn't care. You won't get a blue check, because blue checks don't exist there. You won't get your ego constantly stroked. You're just a person, here with the rest of us plebes. Deal with it.

2. You're on social media to advertise. You'll find that Mastodon is not the most commerce-friendly platform around. If you're there to spam people, you'll get yourself (and possibly the server you're on) blocked.

3. You have extreme right-wing views. There are a few right-wing instances, but some don't federate with others, and a lot of other instances don't want to federate with them, because why would you want to federate with people who think you don't have a right to exist? Also, many instances are conscious of EU law since they're located there. Take that crap somewhere else.

4. You're a tech pundit. You'll find that Mastodon attracts a higher-than-average percentage of users who are technologically literate. Lots of Linux folks here. As with non-tech celebrities, you won't get your ego constantly stroked. Most of us have moved beyond hanging on every word from people like you. You will be challenged on your bullshit.

5. You have trouble with email. By which I mean you have difficulty with the concept of communicating with people who use a different provider than you do. As with email, on Mastodon people have accounts with different providers (“instances”) and they can talk to each other. Talking to or following someone on mastodon.social when your account is with, say, aus.social is no more difficult than sending an email from Gmail to Outlook.com. Remarkably, I've seen people complain about it. It's their call, but if that's your barrier to entry I can't help you.

And there you have it. Five reasons you might not find happiness on Mastodon. The rest of you, however—the rest of you will be fine.

Come on over. The water's fine. See you there.

Join Mastodon

#mastodon #twitter #social

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With everyone's favorite unstable South African billionaire poised to acquire Twitter tomorrow, I'm seeing a lot of speculation about what users are going to do. Here's my two cents:

As I've said before, I didn't join Twitter because of Elon Musk and I'm not going to leave because of him, but there are a couple of important qualifications. One, not leaving is not the same thing as being an active user, and two, whether I'm an active user will depend on what happens in the days to come.

To my first point, I'll keep my account alive but dormant if I don't like what I see from the new management in the coming days. I don't want my username to go to anyone else, so at most it will become an empty and locked account.

To my second point, while I don't hold out much hope, given that Musk has proven himself to be a bit fascist-adjacent, at least, there's always the possibility that the worst won't happen. It's a tiny possibility that you need an electron microscope to clearly see, but it's there. If he confounds expectations, I'll be the first to give him credit.

But I don't think he will, and for that reason I encourage everyone to migrate to Mastodon. That's where I'll be. Links to my profile are in the footer below and in my About and Contact pages. Hope to see you there.

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