c o t t o n h e a r t

Please, please I’m begging you, use firefox.

PLEASE install firefox as a mobile browser and then run adblock on your mobile browser it’s so good I promise.

Look.

Look.

I know I’m a total grind about open source stuff but browsers are the PERFECT place to learn to love open source software and for so long FireFox was a major part of the browser market and sometimes if you want to see what kind of fuckery google is up to it helps to see the kinds of things they block in firefox and just

There’s an organization that makes free, excellent, safe software that doesn’t collect and market your data but for some reason two thirds of the world uses a google product and most of the leftover population uses apple and just

I promise, firefox is so good - the extensions are incredible look - I can use lightbeam to see what sites I use and how they connect to other sites (bottom right should give you an idea how much time I spend on tumblr)

or I can look at ublock origin and see that it’s blocked over 2 million requests since I installed it or I can run the facebook container extension and stop facebook from tracking me and you know what I bet you can do a lot of that on chrome too but you’re doing that while chrome itself is tracking you and gobbling up your activity for google and

firefox is so fuckin great and it’s such a great ambassador for other open source projects please be a big old fuckin nerd with me and use firefox and run a bunch of funky extensions and customize the fuck out of your web experience.

Wanna be a hacker? Firefox.

Wanna use instagram on desktop? Firefox.

Wanna be a killer researcher? Firefox.

Wanna properly credit artists? Firefox.

Wanna read a whole shitload of books? Firefox.

Wanna make video responses to shitlord youtubers?

Wanna shoot cat lasers at bugs?

Wanna use youtube as a music streaming service?

FIREFOX.

My number one problem is this always happens someone says let’s switch to some independent method that’s going to totally not corporate eyes and it’s the wave of the future. They get enough power then suddenly they corporatized and they are the future the future overlords who are like the old overlords just better

Mozilla Firefox has been free and open source since 2002. It has been open source and non-profit nearly twice as long as Chrome has existed.

That’s kind of my entire point. The creation and marketing of chrome has done TREMENDOUS damage to the open source movement because it siphoned off so many FireFox users and people *forgot.* They forgot that there was something else, that there was a browser that asked for donations but that didn’t sell your data and that might run fundraisers but never saw *you* as a product to profit from.

And what I’m agitating for here is to get people to care about open source software because if you wanna talk about fully automated gay luxury space communism the way you get there is through open source projects because RIGHT NOW, literally THIS VERY MINUTE there are people working on brilliant free tools that don’t steal your data or commodify your information and are open for everyone to use and build from and these products actively make the world a better place and you know what I’m so sad.

I’m so sad for you that you didn’t know that this was a thing. I’m so sad that these great community collaborative projects have been hidden or unexplained. I’m sad that your schools probably used Microsoft Academic Licenses instead of using Office Libre, a totally free Office Suite that (unlike Gsuite) doesn’t come with an advertising company attached to watch your every move.

If you’ve pirated PhotoShop I support you but I’m sad that you didn’t know that GIMP is an open source image editing and image creation program that anyone can install and use completely for free.

The Open Source Movement is dedicated to sharing code. Open source software is software that is made freely available to anyone who wants to edit or work on it and as such there are several groups dedicated to producing free, public-use software from the results of open source coding projects. Mozilla, which releases FireFox and ThunderBird (an open source email client that y’all shout totally try); the WikiMedia Foundation (which manages Wikipedia and releases software updates that enable people to run fanwikis and project wikis); and the Organization for Transformative Works (which is behind Archive Of Our Own and Fanlore - the Archive software is open source and if you wanted to start your own archive using their software you could do it TODAY) are just a few examples.

Right now there are people doing what you say they never do. For decades there have been people writing and making software that hasn’t corporatized and isn’t collecting information on you and you know what, I think that DOES make a difference to the future of the world.

The world would currently be worse if Linux wasn’t open source. It would be worse if you had to pay to access or edit Wikipedia.

You know what people I know use linux for? Cancer research. I know folks who’ve got a big fuckin’ array of used computer parts that they use as part of a distributed network to do weird, complicated protein-folding math to research cancer cures.

These people would be incapable of doing this research without tools developed over decades by programmers who believe in making software accessible to people who can use and improve it.

So yeah, if you’re feeling depressed about being a cog in a capitalist system there is nothing I’d recommend more as an easy entry into defying that system than getting heavily involved in a giant collaboratively and openly owned project that believes in free shit and protecting privacy.

The easiest way to get started is with something as low-impact as a browser.

And here, Firefox has tools to easily import your bookmarks, favorites, passwords, and cookies: https://www.howtogeek.com/333047/how-to-migrate-all-your-data-from-chrome-to-firefox/

The only things you have to hunt down on your own are any browser extensions or add-ons you use.

the siesta: the oldest and most reliable form of nap! you go to sleep around noon. you wake up an hour or two later feeling well-rested and prepared to face the rest of the day. this is the pinnacle of nap perfection. 10/10

the businessman’s nap: you have a limited amount of time on your hands, so you schedule a nap into your packed timetable and set an alarm. you spend half the duration of the nap worrying that you’re wasting valuable nap time by lying awake, and the other half sunk into a torpor so deep that when your alarm rings, it takes you a good few minutes to remember your own name. once you’ve splashed some cold water on your face you feel much better. 7/10

EW STICKY: you were cold at first, so you piled on the blankets and wriggled into your favourite comfy sweater. this was nice. now you are awake and trapped in a horrible sweaty gordian knot of your own devising. this is not nice. when you peel off the sweater you find to your horror that you have left an actual damp patch behind on the bed, like some sort of giant dead fish that can’t stop leaking its gross fish juice everywhere. 5/10 it was at least cosy to start with

the interrupted nap: someone barges into your room and starts talking to you. “wtsfhggl?” you enquire. they give you a judgemental look, and ask why you are sleeping in the middle of the day. “ghhfshsxkls,” you reply, graciously. they tell you to get up. you get up. the rest of the day feels like an extension of whatever dream you are having before you were disturbed. you boil with quiet resentment and shame. 4/10

the unsuccessful nap: you are tired. you want to take a nap. you lie down. you wait. you wait. time moves sluggishly forwards. you wait. your brain feels like a cup of mushy porridge but your eyes refuse to close. the noise of your fan is infuriating. you wait. eventually, you are forced to accept that this nap is simply not going to happen, and you have wasted 45 minutes doing absolutely nothing. god fucking dammit. 2/10

the handy-dandy fast-forward button: you really just want this day to be over as soon as possible, and the best way you can think of to do that is to take a nap. you only meant to sleep for an hour, but when you wake up it is already evening. the day is over. you glean no satisfaction from this. you kill time until you feel justified in going back to bed again, and spend the rest of the night tossing and turning, unable to sink back into the blissful stupor from which you so recently emerged. 0/10

"This place is a message... and part of a system of messages ...pay attention to it!

Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

This place is not a place of honor ... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

The danger is to the body, and it can kill.

The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.

The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited."