/cyber/ - Cyberpunk & Science Fiction

>>29255

Where are you getting this from, User?

>>29268

That minimalism is popular among a minority? From other cyberpunk communities, not here or USENET or IRC or anything but modern surfacenet forums that I accidentally follow links to

That minimalism isn't part of cyberpunk? It isn't, even most modern cyberpunk novels and art emphasize grittyness which is why it's even more puzzling that some people find minimalism is anything but trite sterile futurism, just like skeumorphism

>>29283

when you make a coffee…do you strain it first? like before you drink it?

Seems to me like the term 'bare-bones' would fit cyberpunk better than 'minimalist'.

I agree wholeheartedly OP and have seen the same trend in battlestation threads

It used to be that a battlestation was cluttered and chaotic, filthy and dilapidated; you got the distinct sense that someone lived and worked there. Now most of the ones shown are sterile tryhard art museum exhibits, like they were put together just to show others.

>>29295

get some fluorescents, or paint your lightbulbs red for better night vision.

>>29293

My whole room is my battlestation. I got a two gamecubes on my desk, the fucking schway Sega Nomad, a PS2, and two XBoxes. My Desk has a pretty big Tube TV on it, with a fan on top, and the desk is covered in games. As for the rest of my room, I have books on the floor, and LPs stacked on my dresser, books on a bookshelf, games too, and in my closet there's a bunch of old computers and laptops.

I would take a pic, but I don't have a camera and pictures are security risks and I'm paranoid.

>>29301

Usually just the desk is considered part of the battlestation.

>>29255

I agree that minimalism is bullshit. I build my environment to fit it's purpose, and it's purpose is not to have photos taken of it to post and fit in with trendies.

>>29255

What characterizes minimalism in your mind? When I read what you said at first I was picturing your third picture.

Besides, neat-freaks would exist in any future, and there are neat-freak cultures in the world right now.

>>29309

>Microsoft Windows

Not schway

>>29309

Really hope that keyboard isn't the clicky jew.

Neat little figure on the monitor tho.

>>29312

Does anyone know where the last two pictures are from ? This setup is amazing

>>29306

Not a very minimalist flowchart tbh

Could've done better

>>29304

Ugly non-functional rooms owned by rich shazbots who have everything done for them and can afford to live in an art exhibit. Useless rigid furniture, overuse of white, stupid shit ideas like "everything I do I can do on my phone, no need for a computer" and "the fewer objects I possess the more modest I appear to be, despite the fact this apartment costs more in rent a month than the average person makes in a year" basically anything that's inherent in the ideas of minimalism as a philosophy and a lifestyle and as an art movement. It's a plastic aesthetic for plastic people

>>29306

I don't what train of thought you had here but that's either written to be purposefully vague or you can't write, it doesn't actually make any sense at all.

Also:

>.jpg

>>29324

That's clearly not minimalism as he views it, he's probably thinking of those "minimalism=life" shazbots who post on fashion sites and aren't cyber in the least.

Cyber isn't fashion conscious at all, clutter, no clutter, it doesn't matter

>>29335

Now THIS is /cyber/

>>29299

>red for better night vision

I'd always thought it'd be best to go with violet, since that is the color that human eyes are the most sensitive in low light environments?

Source?

>>29306

>punk is about equality

"Things I made up" by anon.

>>29341

What are you talking about?

>>29342

>cuck

Shazbot

>>29255

OP is a shazboot

minimalism, barebones, efficiency, and make it look cool.

>>29255

>that feel when users don't realize OP is a shill

>users argue and agree with shill

SHAME ON YOU

>>29312

if we're gonna start throwing subreddits around (which you ought to know is a rather unpopular thing to do around here) let's mention r/shittybattlestations , it feels 90% more cyber than r/battlestations

>>29351

Active minimalism makes no sense. Putting in an effort to minimize the things you have (i.e. getting rid of useful tech) is the most shazbot thing imaginable, you should have dozens of computers and even more monitors crammed into your 20th floor study in a bad part of town. Nice artsy shite is for shills

>look up cyberpunk

>no minimalism anywhere

Sure generic near future stuff emphasizes minimalism and clean energy and garbage like that but that's not cyberpunk, that's fantasy, idealism, cyberpunk is realism and is already happening

>>29344

Again, what are you talking about?

>>29354

>LE REDDIT BOGEYMAN REEEEEEEEEEE XD

Have you ever considered suicide?

>>29377

>have you ever considered suicide

I personally have no issue with reddit, but people here get bitchy about it for some reason. Sidenote.

>>29255

Because having shit everywhere doesn't look cyber. It makes you look like a slob and it's embarrassing to bring people over to your room.

It seems proper to keep living spaces multifunctional(ie having a section of wall that folds out into a desk or an extra couch or whatever) and paring down on the shit you don't need in the world seems to make sense with that. Keep your electronics, but learn to take care of yourself and keep things clean. A clean living space keeps you healthy, and that means less brouzouf spent on medical shit, and more brouzouf spent on technology. Having less clothing and clutter helps keep a living space clean. Again, less brouzouf spent on clothing and medical shit means more brouzouf spent on storage and technology.

At the same time, it seems neccessary for a living space to feel organic and lived in, while a workspace should feel a little cold and technical. Essentially, yeah, have your electronics projects and shit, but keep that stuff all in its' place. If you have a room for it, keep that mess in that room. If you don't, dedicate a corner of your apartment to it, maybe section that shit off with a partition. Whatever. If you keep some sense of organization, it allows you to get shit done.

Then again, this is coming from someone who's fucking awful at organizing anything that isn't his alcohol collection or file system.

>>29314

Afraid to tell you it is the clicky one. I like clicks. It's clicky. I bought it.

>>29311

I've only recently taken an interest in cyberpunk and tech in general, you could say I'm still a normie, I'd agree.

Honestly I'm scared of using linux or any other OS I'm extremely comfortable with windows as it is and have no current reason to not be spied on, I honestly don't care if the FBI (etc.) knows I like women with cat ears and thigh high socks.

This said though I'm not sure about the difficulty of learning, or rather transitioning to a linux OS. If it's not too much of a hassle for me and it presents advantage i may consider. That's up to you to do though.

>>29404

It's not hard to install the beginner distros. Just download and burn Linux Mint onto a flash drive, boot off the flash drive, and the installation is really straightforward from there. Using it isn't hard either, because on Linux Mint, or Ubuntu or the other "beginner" distros, the complex internals are all there but you don't have to use them. I reccomend at least trying it, it's a fun learning experience. Especially once you move onto things like Gentoo where you really get your hands on the internals, you completely control your computer at that point. It's awesome.

>>29405

I will attempt it on Sunday after work. You would recommend Mint then?

>>29406

For a beginner, yes.

>>29384

>he has people over

Weeeew shazbot

Mostly joking but you should know there's a difference between computers and other tech laying around and pizza boxes and stray chuckles and half drank cans of cola

>>29314

>mechanical keyboards are bad

Shazbot luser go home

>>29428

Yeah he obviously doesn't mean that small living spaces aren't cyber or that buying a bunch of useless non-tech is, it's more an attack on insipid cyberprep, clean white shit that's becoming increasingly popular unfortunately

>>29429

Why red? Blacklight allows for the most heightened night vision and doesn't distort colors as much and is in general more comfortable

>>29435

Because I cant just put a bag over a few leds to make it a blacklight.

>>29377

>Again

That was a different shazbot, but I think he meant to respond to me.

>>29342

You're using windows. You're a corpcuck.

Enjoy the indian tech support cock in your ass.

>>29381

>for some reason

Because redditors act like >>29377 this.

>>29441

>You're using windows. You're a corpcuck.

Tryhard kiddie. Just because you installed Ubuntu doesn't mean you're now some super hacker.

>Enjoy the indian tech support cock in your ass.

What the fuck are you talking about?

>>29442

How am I a Redditor? Even if I did post on Reddit, what difference does it make?

>>29444

>"Even if I did post on Reddit"

Redditors are a stereotype, and you fall under that stereotype.

>>29449

Yet you can't explain how.

>>29323

Like that Iron Man house which gets destroyed in Iron Man 3?

>>29463

I mean, his house minus the laboratory.

>>29444

It's about freedom. If you use Windows, you are not free.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

>>29465

>The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.

I haven't had any issues with this.

>The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish.

>The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.

I'm not a programmer, and even if I was I'd have better things to do than go through the source code of an operating system.

>The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.

My "neighbors" can help themselves at the nearest pirate site.

>>29470

>The "I'm not a programmer" defense

Microsoft can legally modify your computer without your consent, and you would have no legal way to stop them. If they wanted to they could bust down your door and get you put in prison for 5 years for pirating windows.

You don't have any problems with that?

>>29473

>The "I'm not a programmer" defense

It's not a "defense."

>Microsoft can legally modify your computer without your consent, and you would have no legal way to stop them.

FOSS operating systems can do the same.

>If they wanted to they could bust down your door and get you put in prison for 5 years for pirating windows.

It's not pirated.

>>29474

FOSS programs can't legally modify your computer without your consent, and more importantly the people who made it can't legally bash down your door and put you in prison for 5 years for modifying it.

Additionally, a FOSS operating system can be reviewed by *anyone*, not just the people who made it. That makes them much less likely to contain malicious code and more likely to have very high-quality code.

>>29478

There's no legal difference between the two.

>the people who made it can't legally bash down your door and put you in prison for 5 years for modifying it

How am I going to reverse engineer an operating system when I can't even program a hello world? Sounds like you don't know any programming either.

>>29479

The difference between FOSS and proprietary software is a legal difference.

On Windows, there may be a backdoor allowing the NSA to spy on you (some say it surely exists). On a free operating system, if there were such a thing, independent computer scientists can check the code and alert the consumer and they can even fork the program to remove/correct any malicious/buggy code.

>>29473

>>29478

>>29483

Is another's use of windows a threat to your personal security? Most likely no.

Is it theoretically possible that windows is better suited to the needs or tastes of some within the cyberpunk community?

Yes, though most will prefer linux.

C'mon people let the poor bastard have his blue pill software… these constant OS arguments are giving me cancer.

>>29483

That isn't a legal difference.

>some say it surely exists

But can't find any evidence and must eventually resort to demanding people to prove there isn't one.

>>29530

LED, uses a lot less power which is a common enemy of cyberpunk.

>>29519

>That isn't a legal difference.

The law is here to allow or forbid you to do stuff.

You do not have the right to freely redistribute proprietary softwares (you can only redistribute it under the conditions given in the license terms of use). It is illegal.

You do not have the right to study, modify, or redistribute modified versions of proprietary softwares. It is illegal.

If Microsoft wanted so, it could change the license of Windows and make it a free software. It is just a matter of changing the license (and releasing the source code).

>cyberpunk is an aesthetic

Kill me this board sucks.

>>29530

CFL if you want an actual black light

LED otherwise

>>29557

That's not cyberpunk aesthetic. Not even similar.

But Lain isn't cyberpunk at all, so it makes sense.

>>29558

'twas a reaction pic.

>>29255

I'm pretty sure the sleek and minimalist aesthetic stems from post-cyberpunk. Deus Ex: Human Revolution has much more of a post-cyberpunk style than a cyberpunk style.

>>29335

That is an abomination. You're sacrificing efficiency to appear hip and trendy with the /cyber/ kids.

>>29567

That's not his but it looks pretty functional to me

>>29546

You're changing the subject. Earlier you said this:

>FOSS programs can't legally modify your computer without your consent.

>The difference between FOSS and proprietary software is a legal difference. On Windows, there may be a backdoor allowing the NSA to spy on you (some say it surely exists). On a free operating system, if there were such a thing, independent computer scientists can check the code and alert the consumer and they can even fork the program to remove/correct any malicious/buggy code.

Now you're suddenly talking about piracy and modifying the source code.

Yeah, late to this post, I know.

But, in my qualitatively useless opinion, the whole 'clean minimalist cyberpunk' aesthetic trend is a reaction to the setting when thought about in a non-aesthetic way.

Cyberpunk is essentially science-fiction, but with one key difference (well a hell of a lot more than that but just one that I'm going to ramble on about).

In traditional sci-fi, today's problems are presumed to be solved or no longer applicable, important or stressed over. Modern issues are comfortably distant.

Cyberpunk is the opposite. Today's issues are uncomfortably close, and that's often the key part of fiction taking place within the setting. If sci-fi is simplified down to 'suppose _', Cyberpunk is similarly reduced to 'How would modern society react to __'.

And yeah, before anyone says anything I did basically steal all of that from MrBtongue.

So why is this relevant? Well, in the 80's and 90's when Cyberpunk was reaching it's peak in popular culture (if it's level of exposure can really be described as such) the relevant author's vision of the future was cluttered, dirty, utilitarian. Now that Apple and Google own everything, people's vision of the future is smooth, minimalist everything with off-white textures and rounded edges.

People with a lack of respect for Cyberpunk's aesthetic trappings took a look at modern society's and modern futurism's role in Cyberpunk as a setting, and decided to alter their interpretation of the setting without altering the name.

>>29605

No, you misread me. Technically speaking I can write a FOSS malware, but as any competent programmer can understand what it does, it soon becomes publicly known that it is a malware. Some /tech/ guys can even fork my malware, remove the malware part, and make a useful program out of it. Legally.

For instance, some people don't like some version of Ubuntu because it sells personal information to Amazon, but there are forks of Ubuntu that don't do that stuff.

Proprietary softwares cannot be audited without the authorization of the developer (because its source code is the propriety of the developer), so it may do bad stuff without anyone else knowing it. And if you realize that a proprietary software does bad stuff, you cannot modify it.

For instance, if you think that Windows 10 invades your privacy too much, the only thing you can legally do is stop using Windows 10 and try another OS. Well, you can toggle some shit in the configuration menu, but it doesn't solve much. There is no "Windows 10 without the annoying parts" distribution. All of this because you cannot legally hack Windows (and because noone has managed to steal the Windows 10 source code).

Free software is all about hacking stuff legally, actually.

>>29607

You clearly said that Windows can legally have NSA backdoors but FOSS cannot, and that FOSS programs can't legally modify your computer without your consent but Windows can.

>Proprietary softwares cannot be audited without the authorization of the developer (because its source code is the propriety of the developer), so it may do bad stuff without anyone else knowing it.

This isn't even true and is just a popular freetard myth (which just goes to show how little freetards make use of any their precious freedoms). The behavior of proprietary programs can be observed. If for example a program is sending data to somewhere it shouldn't, the traffic is visible.

>>29624

Dude how retarded can you get?

>>29283

what's your beef with skeumorphism?

>>29488

Your high-minded above-the-fray conciliation is giving me cancer.

>>29562

Did you even play the game?

Yeah, there's always going to be rich people in a cyberpunk setting who have sleek stuff. But most people are going to live in the Detroits and Hengshas.

>>29625

Not as retarded as freetards who think malware can't be identified, analyzed and reverse engineered if it doesn't have its source on Github.

>>29624

However, the content of that traffic may be obscured and the destination may be a co-opted legitimate location such as an update server.

>>29636

If somebody has taken over the legitimate destination of the traffic, how exactly is FOSS going to help?

>>29638

In this case, it won't. Just meant to note that the traffic being observable didn't necessarily help all that much.

>>29255

I usually like to clean my work spaces once in a while, makes it look nice and organized, plus it's just easier to find shit when I need it. and like >>29291 said think more like, Bare bones and clean. I do like the lived in aesthetic, just because it looks comfy as fuck.

I own dozens of computers and tens of thousands of dollars worth of electronics, parts, and test equipment ranging in age from nearly 40 years old to just bought last month that I've collected over a decade and more or less still find uses for, even of that's just using them for the sake of using them, like for games and software that has other, more modern versions but for one reason or another I don't really need any of the modern features (like I still legitimately use VisiCalc and it works for small things or that I make grocery lists using a 90's POS machine with receipt printer, perfect size so why not). That said, I have one plate one bowl and one of each piece of silverware. My apartment is still decorated how it was when I moved in with the exception of a few posters. I don't buy really anything that isn't tech. I keep organized buy my apartment still looks like a lab, albeit a well organized one. I guess that's that's a kind of minimalism