Tootfinder

An Ai2 research scientist argues that AGI, as commonly conceived, will not emerge because it ignores, among other things, the physical realities of computation (Tim Dettmers)
https://timdettmers.com/2025/12/10/why-agi-will-not-happen/

My own little experiment for you to try:
Open Facebook. (You won’t hear me say that often!)
Scroll. You don’t have to read anything. Just scroll.
Every once in a while, click on an ad — but not the top ad. Make it the second in the list on the side, or one far down your feed. You can open it in a background tab and then close the tab. Tell the model it didn’t •quite• get you right — but you’re engaged, it just needs to drift a little further from who it thinks you are.
Wait for the ads to update. Repeat. And repeat. Watch the model degrade.
To this day, Facebook thinks I’m a gun owner who wants testosterone supplements.

Geometry study (shadows are weird).
Back story: In some parts of Vancouver, if you’re putting up a new building (typically condo/retail) you can get tax breaks or more square feet or some such bonus if you preserve the original facade. This place was torn down quite a while ago but the facade, propped up by the metal framework, remains. A policy misfire in this case because it was a really crappy brick frontage and would not be missed.

🥳 Auto-Encrypt Localhost version 9.0.0 released
Bye bye, Windows.
• Windows is no longer supported as Microsoft is complicit in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people¹ and Small Technology Foundation² stands in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement³. Windows is an ad-infested and surveillance-ridden dumpster fire of an operating system and, alongside supporting genocide, you are putting both yourself and others at risk by using it.
Enjo…

auto-encrypt-localhost
Automatically provisions and installs locally-trusted TLS certificates for Node.js https servers in 100% JavaScript (without any native dependencies like mkcert and certutil).

The most obvious tell of this sort of incident is the phone call.
The only IT or #infosec folks who will proactively call you about an attempt at hijacking an account are those of your employer or *maybe* your access provider.
Google, Microsoft,Apple, etc. are not calling everyone with suspicious activity on their accounts. There are not enough support agents on the planet to do that…

Travel planning with Google Gemini. It's astonishingly good at this. I give it an itinerary and it gives me detailed and personalized suggestions like "You have this reserved, but note it's 1.5km of walking over steep, uneven surfaces. As an alternative it's easy just to go into town and look around."
I love being able to throw an enormous amount of data at the LLM and have it make sense of it. In this case it doesn't matter if the answers are not 100% correct as long as they are close and the suggestions are verifiable.

*clicks on Indeed.com unsubscribe link*
*gets caught in an infinite loop of cloudflare 'click here to prove you are human' bullshit*

When you find an issue with software you use that you can fix right away, what are hurdles you are prepared to take while sending that fix upstream?
#FLOSS #supplychain #opensource

Been starting a habit of writing down story/game ideas as I have them even though most of them will never seriously get started, let alone finished. It's been fun since writing things down gives me a chance to think them through a bit more than just pondering them in my head. Anyways, here's a #GameDesign idea:
"Grand" - is a "reverse metroidvania" in which as a grandparent, you slowly lose movement options as the story progresses, requiring more and more convoluted routes through the map to reach the same areas. You do still explore "new" areas in memory mode (and unlock movement options like a bike in your memories) before traversing the areas again in the diegetic present. The story follows your quest to protect a grandchild from the machinations of a Kafkaesque state, first trying to track them down within the system and then trying to get them released. Each "boss" is "fought" through an abstracted conversation system where memories, keepsakes, and various kinds of emotional/logical appeals wear down your opponent's nihilism and/or fear until they're willing to help you. Normal "enemies" are just people on the street who might bump into you and drain some of your stamina as you pass by if you don't issue a properly-timed "excuse me" or the like.

Nice blog in the discussion about AI & coding,
"AI can replace most of programming, but programming isn’t the job.
Programming is a task. It’s one of many things you do as part of your work. But if you’re a software engineer, your actual job is more than typing code into an editor."
https://<…

AI Can Write Your Code. It Can’t Do Your Job.
The companies building AI are spending billions to acquire engineers, not replace them. Here’s why your job is safer than you think.

Want to try an imagine how difficult things could get for us in the EU? (Or elsewhere?) You dont even have to try hard.
If you are responsible for planning, running, maintaining or procuring IT infrastructure of any kind for any organisation, this is essential reading.
https://ecfr.eu/publication/get-over-your-x-a-european-plan-to-escape-american-technology/

#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
RO: Let her go.
KOMMISSAR: She's no good to you, Ro. None at all. You must be rid of her. She should not have been brought back to the palace.
RO: You are, I think, mistaken, Kommissar. She means us no harm.

Federal immigration officers have started using Renee Good’s death to threaten more U.S. citizens.
A video posted to Reddit showed a screaming ICE agent repeatedly threatening to kill a man who was sitting in his car, asking how he didn’t “learn from what just happened.”
In the two-minute clip, a masked agent wearing a Minnesota Timberwolves hat approached the vehicle already furious, while the driver rolled down his window.
“Stop fucking following us, you are impeding opera…

“You Did Not Learn?”: ICE Uses Renee Good’s Death as Threat
One protester said an agent told her, “That is why we killed that lesbian b*tch.”

Because #accessibility is out of scope for Baseline, devs may not know how poorly supported a feature is and miss an opportunity to vote for things that are barriers to users and risks to orgs.
“Vote for the web features you want to see”
https://

This sucks, but I don’t think any organized constituency is going to fight it so it’s as good as law. Coming to SF: more businesses where you can’t buy anything without being added to their email list for the rest of your life.
https://missionlocal.org/2026/02/sf-cash…

‘Ethos of inclusivity’ no more: S.F. looks to repeal law requiring stores to accept cash
Seven years after San Francisco passed a law requiring brick and mortar stores to accept cash from customers, citing an “ethos of inclusivity,” city leaders are seeking to repeal it. 

This week I’m thinking back to this powerful quote (long-circulating, origin unclear):
❝
Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person”
and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”
and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “If you won’t respect me I won’t respect you,” and what they mean is “If you won’t treat me like an authority then I won’t treat you like a person.”
❞
Re @…: https://mas.to/@fsinn/115874975151407409

It's probably worth mentioning that I went to an anarchist event last night and ended up talking to someone about the fact that there are like 2 regular anarchist camps in the Netherlands (not including anarchist adjacent and nearby like CCC).
Meanwhile, I'm reading the noodsituatie packet from the NCTV and there are definitely some gaps. Like, it talks about what you need for 72 hours without services, including water, but doesn't really bring up sanitation beyond "have some hand sanitizer."

Muhal Richard Abrams - "Afrisong" (1975)
#NowPlaying

Kimi Onoda, Japan's new Minister of State for Economic Security, is a 43 year old half-Irish ex-game industry PR femcel with an extensive history of defending her exclusive attraction to anime boys on twitter

'This is the dark side and true meaning of "business optimization." The optimal business pays its suppliers and workers nothing, and charges its customers everything it can. Obviously, businesses need to settle for suboptimal outcomes, because workers won't show up if they don't get paid, and customers won't buy things that cost everything they have⹋.
⹋ Unless, of course, you are an academic publisher, in which case this is just how you do business.'
…

Madison Bikes sent me an email about winter biking that said:
"Please at least have a studded front tire, especially if you bike on streets. Traction and control are well worth the $50 investment."
So I replied and asked where the heck they are seeing studded tires for $50 USD because they are twice that price everywhere I look.
#biking

Found on my "watch later" list: a very interesting video from 7 years ago that compares the Zelda game "Breath of the Wild" with Studio Ghibli. And the similarities are striking - especially when you look at Princess Mononoke. I haven't played a Zelda game since the SNES but I think the narrator is right: Zelda's 2017 adventure is an homage to Ghibli's work, both in terms of its look as well as its themes.

Yes, exactly!
https://discuss.systems/@ricci/115687153999092934

Web dependencies are broken. Can we fix them?
Dear JS ecosystem, I love you, but you have a dependency management problem when it comes to the Web, and the time has come for an intervention.
— by @…
🤷 https://

Web dependencies are broken. Can we fix them? • Lea Verou
Dear JS ecosystem, I love you, but you have a dependency management problem when it comes to the Web, and the time has come for an intervention.

Series C, Episode 03 - Volcano
HOWER: You somehow overcame your peaceful conditioning. When you were a child the therapists said that you were at risk. I welcomed this possibility, because I needed, I thought, one man who could think aggressively like my enemies.
BERSHAR: I have not renounced the theory of peace. Servalan is more powerful than these people. Tomorrow or the next day they will go, and Servalan will be back with her battle fleet.

They see an SUV. “Is it ICE??” They see a car slow down. “I bet it’s ICE!” They see tinted windows. “I saw ICE!!”
ICE is the boogeyman to little kids now. Just in case anyone out there is in ICE is starting to wonder, “Are we the baddies?,” well, you are literally terrifying the children.
And in case you’re in it for the racism and relishing the thought of little Black and brown children being scared — no, you are the boogeyman to •all• the kids. They’re not afraid of drug dealers now. They’re afraid of you.
2/2

As an educator, I've discovered seniors have the most compelling stories, brimming with wisdom and insights from history. Their resilience and personal tales are both educational and inspiring. Let’s celebrate these priceless narratives — each one a gift waiting to be unearthed. What's a senior story that has impacted you deeply? 🌟📚

Today I learned… if you are doing something naughty in JavaScript* (and let’s face it, of course you are) that TypeScript’s type checker is giving you an error for and you – being you – want to keep being naughty (because you can and that’s half the fun), there’s a better way to silence the error than using @ts-ignore which, umm, just ignores it.
Instead, you can use @ts-expect-error (with the error message, to remind yourself what you’re expecting).
This way, if the error ever g…

adulthood is cool because when else are you going to eat half a pound of turtle Chex Mix while reading an article called "Is Irish Spring the Worst Soap on Earth?" at midnight

When asking someone to do something it's important to be clear about everything you are asking them to do, and when you are asking them to do it, up front.
Increasingly I'm asked to do something, I look at my schedule and other commitments and agree to the ask, and then weeks later am informed that "as part of X (what I agreed to) everyone is expected to do Y (something time consuming that wasn't mentioned before)" or "we need you to provide X (something necessary the day of the event) a week in advance (when there was no indication of this early deadline at the initial ask)".
This means that the calculations someone made regarding whether they could participate are based an incomplete understanding of what is required. That's not fair and it either results in forcing the participant to deprioritize something else or makes them push back on something they never agreed to and potentially withdraw.

8yo: *cackles as she steals my veggie chicken nuggets*
me: "Hey, what are you doing?!"
8yo: *runs away*
me: "Those aren't even real, they're fake chicken. I thought you were a carnivore?"
8yo: "I'm an omnivore. I'll OM-NOM-NOM anything!"

All kinds of issues and adjustments are popping up and will be popping up as we go through AI integration into our lives. This was an interesting read: https://x.com/MarcJSchmidt/status/2009688028931875156
This was especially interesting: Look at Tailwind: "75 million d…

Marc (@MarcJSchmidt) on X
All my new code will be closed-source from now on. I've contributed millions of lines of carefully written OSS code over the past decade, spent thousands of hours helping other people. If you want to use my libraries (1M+ downloads/month) in the future, you have to pay. I made

This message is intended for Canadian #Mastodon admins who are running public instances large and small. If you are an admin, please share with your counterparts. If you are a member of a Canadian instance, please send this to your admin.
A small group of us (Note: really, really small) are in early discussions on how to encourage our government - individual politicians & federal, provincial, and municipal departments - to move their social media presence to Mastodon. This would involve an awareness campaign targeting politicians, party HQs, and departments/agencies.
We are asking for input from admins to help us create a future state vision for this project, and provide us with advice or ideas on how to bring it to a reality. I will set up a web call within the next 3 weeks and hopefully you can participate. We are not asking you to contribute beyond input. Please DM me and I will add you to the invitees.
#mastoadmin
#MastodonCanada
#MastoCanadaGOV (hashtag for this project)
CC: @…

Are you interested in how dependency-heavy your (or another) package is and why? #rstats

One way to identify if something is a fad or bubble is if the hypers and the doomers are actually the same people.
Neither are actually talking about the thing.
The hypers ceaselessly tell you that you will look bad if you don’t use the thing.
The doomers spin tales on how it will end your way of life or worse.
They both work to keep the thing in your mind while never actually talking about the thing, in an endless parade of manipulating your emotions.

@… I think the cracks are deeper than you see. And I say that as an American living in Washington, DC.

This is at Selby & Western, between Nina’s and W. A. Frost.
Some context for out-of-towners: this is a fairly affluent neighborhood, fairly white, mix of renters and homeowners, lots of lavishly restored 19th- and early 20th-century brick buildings and popular restaurants. There are old railroad tycoon mansions a few blocks away on Summit Ave. The St. Paul cathedral is just up the street.
If you were trying to preserve a sense of safety and normalcy among the comfortable and the influential in order to survive an upcoming election, this is the sort of place you’d tell your secret police goons to steer clear of.
Photos are from here: https://bsky.app/profile/andrewkarre.bsky.social/post/3melwi55orm2w

PS. With all the Discord stuff, in case you wonder why you never see me promoting Matrix, it’s not because it’s a usability nightmare (which it is) but because it’s made by the kind of people who’d be happy to call ICE a customer.
The “F” in FOSS doesn’t stand for fascism.
@…

The Dying Grove: A Novel Born from the Collision of Joyce and Mycorrhiza
Some books are written. Others are grown. "The Dying Grove" belongs to the second category, and that distinction is not metaphor but method. This novel, the first in a new series called Fractional Fiction, emerged from an experiment in literary hybridization: what happens when you take the formal architecture of modernist masters and seed it with contemporary scientific research? The result is…

The Dying Grove: A Novel Born from the Collision of Joyce and Mycorrhiza | David Boles, Blogs
Some books are written. Others are grown. “The Dying Grove” belongs to the second category, and that distinction is not metaphor but method. This novel, the first in a new series called…

@… I know there were lingering #OpenStreetMap overload issues from all that #CloudFlare fallout, but are there still supposed to be occasional problems?…

Note: 5051891
OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

Series A, Episode 13 - Orac
GAN: Better still if there are three of us.
AVON: Better still if you... [He stops abruptly. They look at each other and then all settle down to continue waiting.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/113/227 B7B3

The US military has always had a massive global advantage against enemies by having bases all over the world. There are bases in every NATO country. This would appear to be a powerful threat to anyone willing to oppose American hegemon, and under normal conditions it would be.
But a lot of those kids serving on those bases joined, not because they love America but, because they needed a ticket out of poverty. They joined for the education, for the money, maybe a bit for the adventure, but, more than anything, to escape the ghetto or podunk backwater that trapped them. Under normal times, this is the best deal they could expect. Maybe they risk their lives, usually they sit around being bored for a few years, and they get to come out with respect and paid college.
But what they are being offered is normal in most of the countries they're stationed in. Free healthcare, cheap or free education, is just what citizens in a lot of countries have come to expect. If the US attacked a NATO country, how many would snap up citizenship if they were given a chance to defect? Bonus points for taking some hardware with you, I'm sure.
But there are some who love their country. There are some patriotic Americans on those bases. Some of them joined specifically to protect the US from all enemies, foreign *and* domestic. Given a chance to fulfill that oath or violate international law, what happens?
There are a good number of former military folks too who now are unsafe in the countries they served, who would do just about anything for citizenship in any EU country and almost any NATO ally. Some of those folks know things they swore an oath to never share, but the country they swore an oath to has betrayed them. Today there's no value in leaking those secrets, but in a war between the US and NATO allies things would be different. Some of those former military folks still believe in their oath, and know exactly who the real enemy is. What happens when there's a real threat of war, when they can use their knowledge to fulfill that oath to protect the US against those domestic threats?
There are a bunch of civilian tech workers who have become targets of the regime. Some of them had clearance, or know about the skeletons in the closet. They know about critical infrastructure, classified systems, all sorts of things that would be extremely valuable to an opponent. But the opponents of the US have always been a frightening *other*, never familiar societies these folks look up to, have visited, have thought about moving to, are trying to escape to.
All I'm saying here is that invading Venezuela and kidnapping the president has a very different calculus than does attacking Greenland. I don't know if Trump or his people are able to understand that, but if he and his folks aren't then I hope European leaders are. But more than that, I hope it never comes down to finding out.
But perhaps we should all think about what we would do to make sure things ended quickly if American leadership ever made such an incredible mistake.

Only one way to go here, always forward... just as in life!
(This is the equally stunning & adventurous ridge between Feigenkopf and Große Klammspitze, the summit ahead, almost touching the clouds — if you zoom in, you can just about make out the summit cross... One of my fave hikes ever. Picture is from early May 2022)
#SilentSunday

Degrowth cabaret comes to London (and other news)
Degrowth Cabaret! LONDON FRI 23 JANUARY 10.30am – 4.30pm Siobhan Davies Studios If you are an economist interested in performance, a performer interested in economics or simply curious in how these seemingly distinct languages can be bridged, then this session is for you! But don’t worry, you won’t need prior knowledge of economics or the arts! Joaquín Pereira (economist and dancer) invites you to a day-long lab where…

Degrowth cabaret comes to London (and other news)
Degrowth Cabaret! LONDON FRI 23 JANUARY 10.30am – 4.30pm Siobhan Davies Studios If you are an economist interested in performance, a performer interested in economics or simply curious in how these…

Adobe Re-Animate 😁

Ed Zitron offers 15K words on whether Nvidia is like Enron (or several other famous fraudsters) or not. It's amusing and erudite and most people just won't have time to plow through it. Which is a pity, because 80% of the way through there’s a section called:
“Is NVIDIA Shipping Millions Of GPUs And Putting Them In Warehouses? Where Are The 6 Million Shipped Blackwell GPUs?”
His findings are absolutely shocking. Tl;dr: That headline just above.

NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?
If you enjoy this free newsletter, why not subscribe to Where's Your Ed At Premium? It's $7 a month or $70 a year, and helps support me putting out these giant free newsletters! At the end of November, NVIDIA put out an internal memo (that was leaked to Barron's reporter

'debootstrap' is one of my favourite parts of debian - and you can use it from other distros as well! It lets you setup a debian install in a directory for use with a container/chroot/etc .
My most recent two uses are 1) Building up a new debian install on an existing machine running a different distro in an LVM LV on the running system and configoring it, ready to go on reboot 2) Installing a very old debian chroot for some testing.

(Long) before 7.7 we had an option for opt-in automated crashlog upload but only a small sub-selection were actually processed. Now they pretty much all are (so long as you are running the latest version).
That is the change. After that we could investigate and prioritise better.

After having switched to Zen Browser with its "Glances" feature (it kinda opens a link in a small overlay window on top of where you are now and you can turn that window into a new tab or split view if you want) Firefox's "we have an AI that generates a wrong preview for a link you click before going there" feature looks even dumber.
Like: Having a way to preview links is really useful. But only if it gives you an actual idea what's going on there

You can call me an AUTHORITARIAN bootlicking COMMIE all you want, I don’t care. I ain’t shutting up EVER.
LABOR people know more than your damn boss ever will. We run the machines, we keep it all working, we ARE the reason your fancy office even has lights on.

Surveillance Watch – Una mappa che mostra le connessioni tra le aziende di sorveglianza
Le tecnologie di sorveglianza e gli #spyware vengono utilizzati per prendere di mira e sopprimere giornalisti, dissidenti e difensori dei diritti umani in tutto il mondo. Surveillance Watch è un database interattivo che documenta le connessioni nascoste all'interno dell'opaco settore della so…

Today I learned that you can restrict the permissions of an SSH key to just one single command. This is particularly useful if you are forced to use a passwordless key!
https://www.ssh.com/academy/ssh/authorized-keys-openssh#command="cmd"

Series C, Episode 11 - Moloch
TARRANT: Yes, Vila. I take the point. You're obviously far cleverer than I.
VILA: Right.
TARRANT: [Examining a map] So - this is where we're going.
VILA: What? - Where are we going?
TARRANT: To destroy a computer.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/311/468

Just an average day of oscilloscope development. If your scope isn't saturating your GPU are you even trying?
Added NVTX support to libscopehal and ngscopeclient so I can have specific filter graph blocks and processing stages show up in profiling traces. Makes things a lot more understandable.

For a project to be truly #OpenSource (not to mention #FreeSoftware), it really needs to:
1. Have a *public* issue tracker that enables you to browse and search through issue reports *without* having to create an account.
2. Accept issue reports, with no strings attached. Yes, expecting registration is fine. Yes, expecting some effort to file a good bug report is fine. No, expecting people to ask permission, donate or otherwise put a lot of extra work to report a problem is not.
3. Do not close issue reports as "stale". Yes, it's fine to close a report if you really believe it was fixed, or if you asked for something and the user didn't reply for a long time. It's not fine to run a bot expecting users to jump every month so that the issue report that *you are ignoring* doesn't get closed.
If a project doesn't meet these, it's just a glorified throwaway code.

"This is one aspect of what campaigners call “process as punishment”, an approach that now dominates the treatment of protest groups. Even if you are never convicted of a crime, your life is made hell if you dare, visibly and publicly, to dissent." -- @…
I can verify from the experience o…

„That’s three or four clicks just to see the error, and every one of them loads a new page with its own loading spinner, and none of them are fast. You are navigating a bureaucracy. You are filling out forms at the DMV of CI.“
What an apt comparison. The whole piece is *chef’s kiss*!
https://www.

My loose process for evaluating an ACR (VPAT®):
https://adrianroselli.com/2026/01/how-i-evaluate-an-acr-vpat.html
You may have your own thoughts / ideas. Add them to the comments.
I was also torn between the meat grinder and a Plinko metaphor.

How I Evaluate an ACR (VPAT®)
ACRs are Accessibility Conformance Reports, which are the output of a VPAT, or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template maintained by ITIC, or the Information Technology Industry Council (which is why VPAT often has a ® symbol hanging off it). An organization may fill out the template to indicate how or if…

grumbling about "carrying the team" in any group project is a sign of some immature (and privileged) Main Character syndrome
being an adult is nothing *but* a series of overlapping "group projects".
the people you call "freeloaders" are probably carrying *your* ass in one of the areas you can't see.
this is not *not* a post about stack ranking

@… they do make fantastic gear. I have an elektroslutch. I am sure I have raved about campfr.com to you but look for an in person residency that appeals… you do NOT need to know tons about music unless it is one of the really advanced composition based ones. You will have an absolute blast. The online are good, but a pale shadow. Very common for UK folk…

Meshtastic is basically useless unless you are already close enough to simply talk. Nerd toy. Buy a Baofeng. Don't worry about getting a license. If SHTF, just use the radio, it's literally legal to do so in an emergency (in case you're worried the FCC is going to send an Apache after your ass during a natural disaster or civil war)

Series A, Episode 05 - The Web
BLAKE: Hold off long enough to make a deal.
AVON: You're going to have to be quick, Blake. Those pursuit ships are coming this way.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/105/467 B7B5

Been playing Roots Devour (#Steam via CrossOver on #macOS
BE THE ELDRITCH HORROR YOU ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE
It's pretty great, put in 8 hours so far.
The general gist of the game is strategic, puzzle-like reveal of map levels - capturing cards of creatures and humans, wrapping them in your blood sucking vines, and generally conquering all.
When you get stuck, spend some of the blood to open a card pack and get random helper tools, effects, and critters.
Sounds are superb and visuals are very 𝒜𝐸𝒮𝒯𝐻𝐸𝒯𝐼𝒞 - if you dig Cult of the Lamb or Darkest Dungeon, you'll probably enjoy it.
Only downside is that there's an occasional indicator that English is not the primary language of the game developers. Very rarely you can see untranslated Chinese text on-screen, one or two oddities (uncapitalized, punctuation slightly off). This is unfortunately probably why they're getting a little beat up in the Steam reviews.
Honestly, in my 8 hours so far, I've noticed it like 3? 4? times tops so far. The game is so very much my jam, it really hasn't bothered me.
Some people are also reviewing it as "too linear" - they definitely gave up way too early. There are SECRETS, side areas, choices you can make, intentionally difficult areas that will take some thinking to unlock, etc.
Currently 10% off right now, give it a shot!

I went to see my neighbor who is a bus driver.
He spent roughly an hour explaining which of his favorite Smetana/Janacek/Dvorak pieces are favorites of his passengers and how he doesn’t dare to play them the favorite opera pieces but he feels deprived of them so he has to listen while commuting to the work (on a bike of course).
This was more culture talk than with the sum of my tech friends in the last three years, particularly if you include the genAI crew.

Just in case you’re afraid AI is taking over: Ask any of them to play a round of #wordle 🤣😵‍💫

Here's a new irritation, on several sites.
An intrusive prompt to scroll to the next article, obscuring what you are reading.
MEN at least lets you close it. Not all do.
Funnily enough, I can navigate menus, and go to the toilet too, all by myself.

As far as breach emails are concerned, this one is good. It uses the word "sucks."

A new #Nextcloud adventure: having installed the new Social refactoring and passed the webfinger and ssl tests, was still unable to load some profiles and no interactions went out or came in.
Then I noticed PullRequest-5 - not knowing at all what I was doing - so I installed gh, authorized it, did the pull, composer, run sequence, and while the existing open tab for Social continued as before, 'Social' was now gone from the NC admin and menu!
"app": "core",
"method": "GET",
"url": "/settings/apps/list",
"message": "Could not read app info file for app \"social\""
Google/DDG are mute on what or where an app info file might be, and NC docs only say you can register an app and maybe perhaps the tarball will contain one? Perhaps the PR munged it? 🤷
So a new adventure begins …

oh nice, redpocket brought back my favorite sim plan (for my kids), and they upgraded it!
For $30/yr, you get unlimited text/talk, and 200MB per month. For those of you with low data needs (or who specifically want to limit their kids data usage): https://www.ebay.com/itm/136840233242

$2.50/Mo RedPocket Prepaid Wireless Phone Plan+Kit: UNLIMITED Talk /Text + 200MB | eBay
Choose the network that works best for you and your phone! THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. B. Text Services. 200MB 5G Data. E. RedPocket service plans are for individual use only and not for resale.

I think the future will see Cold War Steve as the great chronicler of our age, sort of like a 21st century Hogarth. Also: FIFA, what are you thinking???

Are you racing against time or listening to it?
We live by the clock. We measure speed and fear being late. But there is another kind of time.
A time of ripeness. Of openings. Of things becoming ready.
What if change isn't about hurrying? What if it's about sensing when conditions align?
Read more: ⬇️

Why Time Isn’t Running Out: Finding Kairos in an Age of Collapse
What if time isn’t running out but ripening? Learn how Chronos and Kairos reveal a new path through urgency, collapse, and renewal.

The federal government's role in merger approvals gives the Trump administration an easy way to coerce big media companies; other industries could be next (Dan Perry/MediaPost)
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/41173…

Nice Merger You've Got There, It Would Be A Shame If Something Happened To It
Trump has discovered a nifty trick: using regulatory merger oversight to pressure news organizations into compliant coverage. The parent companies of CBS and CNN are just the beginning of his protection racket.

do you know whether this "may" is actually a "shall" or not? does this differ per-OS?



Both Quikscript and Shavian were essentially the results of a design competition,
sponsored--posthumously--by playwright George Bernard Shaw,
who laid out the terms in his will.
Shaw wanted someone to create an ideal phonetic alphabet for English that trumped Pitman shorthand.
British designer Ronald Kingsley Read, a finalist in the 1960s competition, designed both Quikscript and Shavian, the latter being named in Shaw's honor

Here are 50 Different Written Languages. Can You Tell Which are Fake? - Core77
Below are examples of 50 different written languages. Unless you're Indiana Jones, I doubt you'll recognize more than a handful. However, of these 50 scripts, five of them are contrived 20th Century creations. Two of them are shorthand-style phonetic alphabets designed for English; one of them is an ideographic writing

Re “apply the pressure anyway:” that’s advice I got from…Keith Ellison.
I was part of a citizen group pressuring him to vote for the ACA when he was in the House. He met with us, and gave us an impassioned speech about universal care and how the ACA was a good first step but insufficient, relating it to the less-remembered civil rights acts of the 1950s that laid the groundwork for the big one in 1964.
Somebody from the group finally asked him, “Why are we meeting with you? You’re already convinced!”
He replied (paraphrasing here): “I •need• your pressure. I need it even if I already agree. If you’re pressuring me, then I can get on the floor of the House and say ‘My constituents are beating down the doors of my office! This has tremendous support!’ I can tell my colleagues in private about how agitated voters are. If you apply pressure, I can pass that pressure forward. I need you to do it! •That• is why you’re meeting with me.”
And now Keith Ellison is MN Attorney General. He’s already started doing the right thing. Follow his advice, and apply that pressure!

»13 Open-Source Apps I Use from a Web Browser (And You Can Too)
You don't always need to install an open source software on your desktop or self host in your homelab. I use some of my favorites from the comfort of a web browser.«
If anyone asks me which Open-Source tools there are, I will send this link and then she may very well ask further questions.
🛠️

13 Open-Source Apps I Use from a Web Browser (And You Can Too)
You don't always need to install an open source software on your desktop or self host in your homelab. I use some of my favorites from the comfort of a web browser.

"It's not that any of the other streaming services are good, but Spotify is almost certainly the worst. Do not trust it. Do not let it turn your enjoyment of music into stats and algorithmic playlists."
(Original title: Spotify Haters Club)
https://knru.polin.ski/spotify-haters-

Spotify Haters Club
You know something that is absolutely worth considering? Planning an exit from the culture-destroying, weapons-investing, ICE-advertisement platform known as Spotify, a place where music is seen only as a tool to destroy people's imaginations and flatten art into a homogenised, AI-friendly, beige churn of endless content to immiserate us all.

Series D, Episode 02 - Power
VILA: Outside.
PELLA: Are the others looking for him?
VILA: Yes, we think he may have had an accident. [pause] How do you know about the others?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/402/109 B7B4

One of my favorite emojis is the "hugs" emoji 🫂. Or an "okay_blob" custom reacji that my favorite Slack uses. I use it all the time to indicate "I hear you and I know what you're saying is emotional. I support you".
Another very progressive Slack I'm on has a "hugs OK?" emoji you are supposed to use first. Only if the other person responds with the "hugs OK!" emoji are you then allowed to respond with an actual "hug" emoji.
I think I'm a pro-explicit-consent person. But it strikes me that this careful three-way handshake, all for 16x16 pixels in a virtual environment, may be a little much.

An older video essay from the great #PatrickHWillems about trains in movies. Why is it such an essential vehicle in so many movies since the brothers Lumière? It restricts space and moves the plot forwards - and both things are great for propelling the plot and forcing the scriptwriters to get creative. And have you noticed that the conductor is often invisible? It's the train who is …

If you are an anti-fascist, you are against petroleum. Petroleum funds fascism globally. It is at the heart of the military industrial complex driving global imperialism, from both the US and Russia. Motonormitivity is fascist, both in it's elitist roots and in it's ties to historical fascism (Hitler hated bikes, just on principle). Oil is militarism.
Oil is the dominant resource which drives war, both in terms of it being the primary spoil wars are fought over and in terms of fueling the military vehicles and weapons that carry out those wars. Practically every war since (and including) WWII has been over oil. Genocides are carried out to secure oil. Gaza is over oil, in more ways than one.
Oil is the absolute enemy, and AI is simply an extension of that: an attempt to atomize us so we can't resist the oil-centric global order, one last grasp at the control over our lives oil has given to those whose power is now threatened by a solar punk future.
"I haven't written for a few weeks now. As I write the closing chapter and begin rewriting previous sections, everything feels both more distant and more immediate. The working title [Kairos] has only continued to feel more and more resonant, both during the writing and during my pause."
Now is the time to resist by making something different, by creating a world fundamentally opposed to these systems of oppression.
This is the last in my Kairos series. From here on out I'll be editing to try and make it more of a book than a series of posts. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. All editing is welcome (typos, spell checks, questions and challenges). Between ADHD and dyslexia, it's always hard for my brain to notice mistakes in my own text so I always appreciate the support of those who can.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/kairos

What do I want you to know, watching from far away?
I want you to know that if you are not hearing about ICE swarming all the hell over my city, you are not hearing the actual news.
I want you to know that if all you see is video of ICE marching off Very Dangerous Criminals in an orderly and authoritative way, you are not hearing the actual news.
I want you to know that these turds act tough, but run away • every • time • they think too many people are watching or there might be video.
4/

If you can bear it you can listen to the album I created for the 2008 RPM Challenge. It’s not great but there are some things I like about it. (Not bad for recording an entire album in 28 days!)
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pete_Prodoehl/Snowbound

Imagine a future where saying YES to your kids or grandkids doesn't trigger financial stress. Chris and Karen aim for a retirement that fosters independence and generosity without becoming burdensome. By building an extra income stream, they are crafting a transformative legacy! Quite the game-changer, wouldn't you say? 💬 #RetirementPlanning #FinancialFreedom

{testthat} is great for automatic testing. Here are some tricks for the heavy user: #rstats

Excellent words from @…, shared here with permission:
❝My favorite piece of advice for protests has been, “accept side quests”. Sure, you can show up, shout a bit, and go home - there's value in just uncorking some frustration. But don't look past meeting your like-minded neighbors. If you're an introvert, like me, that may induce anxiety just thinking about it. But there's all sorts of easy conversation starters - people spent time on their signs, and chances are they would love to talk about them - how they made them or what they were inspired by. Viola! Now you're talking! Everybody at a protest is looking for something - whether it is a word of encouragement or witty comment, a pointer to a place to go or a thing to join, that something may be you!❞

#Blakes7 Series C, Episode 11 - Moloch
CHESIL: I don't know what you mean.
DORAN: Oh, yes; yes, you do, lady; you know what I'm on about. [gesturing at the monitoring screens] These eyes are everywhere, right?
CHESIL: What do you want?
…

Twenty-four. There are now 24 advents. All of you wiseacres suggesting I was one calendar away from an advent of advents can stuff it.
https://adrianroselli.com/2025/12/web-design-dev-advent-calendars-for-2025.html
Still not making a damn adven…

Web Design / Dev Advent Calendars for 2025
The advent calendar I wanted to use for the photo hasn’t arrived yet, so enjoy this box of tree. Web developers around the world have for years given a nod to Saturnalia solstice Isaac Newton’s birthday Yule wassailing mummering end of Gregorian calendar year Christmas with advent calendars covering web-related…

Retirement isn't an end; it's a RESTART. At 55 , you wield unmatched wisdom and drive that can fuel new adventures. The time to chase those old dreams? It’s NOW! 💪🌟
Which past aspiration are you ready to pursue again? Let's discuss in the comments—thriving financially and physically enriches life's journey!

me: "Mommy and I don't really cook any more because you guys are so picky. It's pretty demoralizing to spend an hour or two cooking only to have you say 'I don't want that, I want instant mac & cheese'"
13yo: "Protip: don't have kids."
8yo: "Yeah, it's not our fault you had kids!"
#parenting

Series C, Episode 09 - Sarcophagus
TARRANT: I bet you are.
DAYNA: Cally!
TARRANT: She's in some sort of coma. Describe what attacked you.
DAYNA: Well, that's the point. It was Cally. But not Cally.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/309/272 B7B4

I’m not really sure what it means, given the state of the world, but I guess in an aspirational sense, at least, as in “against all evidence to the contrary, here’s hoping 2026 will be a…”
Here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year.
(Except the fascists. They can get fucked.)
💕
PS. You can find people in need in Gaza to donate to at https://

Gaza Verified
We’ve personally had video conversations on Signal with the people from Gaza whose Mastodon accounts on the fediverse are listed here and we verify that their accounts are genuine. – Joy & Aral Balkan

I •think• the most important people for MN residents to call right now are MN Gov Walz and MN AG Ellison. Those numbers again:
Gov: ‭(651) 201-3400€
AG: ‭(651) 296-3353€
My points when I call:
- We don’t trust Trump’s FBI
- We want an independent MN-based investigation of the killing of Good
- Thank you for steps you’re already taking in this direction
- Do more, try harder
- Do so in outright defiance of the FBI if necessary
(To be clear, this is all just from Paul; if I get better guidance from more informed folks, I will share/update.)

Series C, Episode 09 - Sarcophagus
TARRANT: Don't try and bluff your way with me, Avon. I know what's been needling you right from the start. With Blake gone, you thought you'd got it made, didn't you? Thought you'd got control of this ship and a crew of three who'd say, "Yes, Avon. Whatever you want, Avon." [Cally puts the bookscreen down.] But you reckoned without me. [Cally starts toward the artifact.]
AVON: That wouldn't be too difficult…

Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
CALLY: You have to accept these findings.
BLAKE: I accept them. But where are WE going to find a centre that will take US in for a month's rest and rehabilitation?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/204/6 B7B3

I appreciate the boosts on the thread above, which I take as support.
The defeatist replies make me despair a bit. Just to address some greatest hits en masse:
1. “Kick them out yourselves” − JFC, what the hell do you think we are trying to do, constantly, day after day, the amount of action and engagement against the federal invasion where I live is like nothing I’ve seen in my lifetime. WE ARE ASKING FOR HELP. Please do not be an ass about it.

Series A, Episode 08 - Duel
SINOFAR: Giroc, Giroc, I need you. You must come here to me now.
GIROC: All right, all right, I'm coming. [Giroc comes in. She is an elderly woman who clutches a six-foot staff of office, carved on it is a humanoid figure climbing toward the ball-shaped tip.] Have a little patience. We of all people should have learnt patience. I'm tired, I deserve some peace.