Shdwdrgn

@Shdwdrgn@tech.lgbt

Geek, computer tech, linux enthusiast, way too many hobbies. I have a passion for knowledge!

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

georgetakei, to random

So let me get this straight. The Supreme Court is only supposed to take cases where there is a real injury and real controversy, but it took the case of a web designer who faked a request by a gay customer for a website design? The guy was actually straight, married and with kids?

Vacate this case.

Shdwdrgn,

@georgetakei Don't forget that the guy who supposedly submitted the request was a web designer himself, and wouldn't have had any need for someone else's services.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/07/01/supreme-court-303-creative-ruling-stewart-gay-rights/

ngaylinn, (edited ) to random

Back in the day, software sucked because nobody knew how to make a good UI. Gradually, best practices got established, firms realized UX is worth investing in, and software was (briefly) pretty usable.

Now software firms know what they're doing, but they all have an agenda. Through a mix of neglect, gamification, and dark UI patterns, they build experiences to get what they want from the user, not the other way around.

I hate it. Ignorance was bad, but malice is worse. Software still sucks, but now I feel used and trapped.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn In the mid 80's when home computers were really taking off and modem usage was becoming popular, one of the things that occurred to me was the chance to really interconnect everything. We're finally seeing that with medical records and such, but man there is still a lot that should be connected but isn't.

Even when I got my first cell phone I thought it would be great to have my grocery and to-do list instantly available with GPS reminders when I drove near stores. It's been 25 years, I wonder if there's an app for that yet?

But yeah, all these businesses are sabotaging common protocols to make such things possible, in the name of them blocking competitors from apps they don't even plan to create. Hmm... I wonder if the fediverse could be used as a framework for such things?

georgetakei, to random

I'm six years older than Joe Biden, and I just did months of performances on stage in London, 8x a week.

Age is a state of mind and body, and Joe is just fine, as am I. It's that other guy with the orange foundation who seems feebleminded and unhealthy.

Shdwdrgn,

@georgetakei As I get older I find myself not moving around as much, and worry that the body is breaking down. I started thinking about this one day and realized it's not so much that age is making me lazy, but rather that I'm getting more efficient in my actions and don't have to work as hard.

Unfortunately this has the negative effect that my muscles don't get used as much, so I have to take time to actually exercise now, which in itself feels like a waste of time, but the body needs to move!

ngaylinn, to random

Anybody else do this? Sometimes when I'm looking to follow folks who post on a topic, I go to a different server. Most instances allow me to search and browse without an account. If there's a topic-specific instance, I'll find lots of relevant peeps there. Or I can go to a really big instance, which transitively knows more accounts, so I can search over a larger pool. The only annoying thing about this is that I have to copy the handles I find and go back to my instance to follow them.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn So far I've relied on dumb luck... I'll watch the local or federated feed for 5-10 minutes and take a look at anyone who says something interesting during that period. You made a post about AI so I checked your history and started following you. Good luck on my part, bad luck on yours! 😂

Lemmy users have been coming out with some nice multi-instance search tools I wish we had here. Mostly to find specific groups, but then you just click them to copy the path needed for following.

ngaylinn, to random

Is it just me, or is the Outlook web app designed to be maximally different from GMail? It's like, whenever Google went right, Microsoft went left. 😕

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn Somebody in management at my place started pushing hard for all Microsoft products about a decade ago. All us linux folks pushed back and continuously bug them for compatible software. When they decided to force everyone to start using "modern" encryption for email during covid lockdowns, their big idea was that all the linux people could just use Outlook web. I'm sure you can imagine how that went over.

Shdwdrgn, to random

So I'm making progress with my #mushroom spawn. Over the weekend I prepared seven jars of popcorn and rye, which are great foods to grow out the #mycelium. The trick is you have to be very clean or risk losing the whole batch to mold. Three jars went to blue oysters, and two jars went to pink oysters. The other two jars are being held back for when my cremini mushroom spawn has grown out enough to risk opening its container (hoping only another week or two). The oysters should be showing good growth over the next week though, and then those much larger batches can be used to seed the bags where I will actually grow mushrooms from. It's taken a lot of work to get everything together, but the next round should be MUCH easier.

And yes, my creminis are still mold-free, although they are growing extremely slowly on the cardboard. I won't wait too much longer before moving them to the grain, though.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn I keep wanting to take pics of the cremini spawn I have started, but it's so fine and delicate that I'm not even sure it would be really much to look at. When I do crack the container open to transfer it to grain, I'm planning to try and get some pics then however. And of course when the mushrooms start popping up there will be pics. You know how it is though -- new hobby, so it's hard to contain my excitement about every boring little step. 😆

Shdwdrgn,

My oyster starts were transferred to the grain jars on Tuesday. Here we are, two days later, and they are already showing signs of growth... like, wow! There is one jar I'm concerned about, there are white dots on all of the popcorn kernels, and I don't see anything like that in the other jars. Will have to keep a close eye on it, but the quick results has inspired me to move my cremini mycelium to their grain jars this weekend. Woo I'm getting excited!

ngaylinn, to internet

I love #reddit, but their website is trash, and the ads and "recommended posts" have been getting out of hand. If they cut 3rd-party app support, I'm out.

Sad to see so many good things ruined by greed these days. :blobcatcry:

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn https://old.reddit.com/ is your friend, and uBlock Origin is your bodyguard.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn Yep! I think they realize they would have an uprising if they ever got rid of it.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn So yeah... I just saw some bits about this upcoming reddit change that I had not really heard anything about. I guess reddit will be the new digg. Anyway, in case you hadn't heard about them, I've seen some suggestions for https://lemmy.ml/ for tech people so I'm taking a look now. Guess we'll see what happens.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn And possibly even more important... Lemmy is similar to Mastodon, it works in the fediverse and there are multiple instances. So you might want to browse https://join-lemmy.org/instances before creating an account. I'm still trying to find my way around and figure it all out!

owncast, to fediverse
@owncast@fosstodon.org avatar

I’m hearing murmurs of YouTube blocking browsers that support ad blockers.

You know where you don’t have to worry about such things? Host your videos on a #PeerTube instance and use #Owncast for your live video streaming needs.

But of course you already knew that.

Shdwdrgn,

@owncast Isn't that like all linux browsers then? Seriously, I didn't even remember youtube had ads until I tried to pull up a video on someone's Windows machine this week.

ngaylinn, to random

Sometimes it feels like the whole world's gone crazy, especially when my Mastodon feed is full of venting from people hurt and offended by the madness.

Then I remember: there's this whole big community on Mastodon that gets it. We haven't all gone crazy. Plenty of people see the crazy for what it is, and are fighting back!

I just wish it were easier to get an objective sense of where we stand. The media / internet paints a very misleading picture. That sense that "everyone" is in the wrong is dangerous. It fills us with despair and discourages action.

We need to know there is hope. We need to find our community of resistance. We need to see the others as people who are also confused and struggling through these hard times.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn The worst problem with the internet is it gives a platform to all the crazies. Before that, when you had a couple people in a town with bad ideas, nobody would talk to them and they kept to themselves. But now... NOW... they have a platform, they hear from the other crazies and it gives them validation, and they yell out their ideas even louder.

In today's world if you want truth, you need to ignore the loud people and pay attention to the quiet ones.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn Reminds me of the doomsdayer standing in the town square with his signs and bullhorn telling you the end is near. You KNOW he's crazy, but when you pass him every day going to work the message starts to sink in, making you a little paranoid. The internet is even worse than TV ads, it constantly bombards us with headlines designed to get more views, and it's difficult to just shut it off. So what can we do to avoid all the 'fake news'?

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn We started getting some tools, like facebook and twitter marking comments about curing covid with horse medicine as false or dangerous. Too bad Elon thinks he knows better. However despite the labor-intense requirements for these actions I feel like it's needed to keep the internet healthy. We already know community moderation like reddit doesn't work because certain groups become echo chambers, so maybe the solution lies in moderation by outside sources?

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn Oof that's a really good point, like having a way to point out that people are asking the wrong questions (who cares if a politician is red or blue - did they improve your life or just put more money in their sponsor's pockets?). Maybe that would be a good starting point, having moderators that try to direct the focus of discussions and not let the conspiracy theories get so far out of hand. We definitely need something to stop this crazy train.

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn Maybe it has something to do with their motivations. Moderators and politicians both frequently want to push their own narrative when they really need to try to be neutral. It's hard enough finding people willing to moderate, let along people who can keep themselves in check without getting emotionally invested. And it's downright exhausting trying to keep others in check.

feditips, to random
@feditips@mstdn.social avatar

Do you want to discover nice, responsible Fediverse servers sorted into topics, regions, languages and types?

I run a site called FediGarden which is a curated list of servers that comply with certain standards of moderation and reliability:

➡️ https://fedi.garden

The standards which these servers comply with are listed at https://fedi.garden/about-this-site

The site also has an account that features servers every day at:

➡️ @FediGarden

If you want your server to be listed, contact this account!

Shdwdrgn,

@feditips @FediGarden Wow this looks like someone took the recent reddit discussion to heart. Give users a few simple choices to pick an instance they'll be more comfortable on, and maybe less people will feel the need to hop around once they understand mastodon better. Great job!

ngaylinn, to programming

The best way I've found to design software is to get it totally wrong on the first try. Once you've seen why the obvious approach won't work, and how ugly your naive workaround is, you sleep on it and a better solution will present itself in the morning. Just make sure you do this in small chunks, or the epic rewrite will take you forever.

Actually, this is the only effective way I've found to design software. :blobcat_mlem:

#programming

Shdwdrgn,

@ngaylinn The first draft always sucks, even if it does work. The more complicated the code, the more it will suck.

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