sam ✅🇬🇪
@sam@chven.us
sam ✅🇬🇪
@sam@chven.us
Current mood.
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A blue t-shirt with white lettering in all capitals:
DEAR WORLD,
SORRY OUR PRESIDENT IS A BAG OF DICKS
SINCERELY,
HALF THE COUNTRY
Asteroid name: 2010 RF12
Probability: 10.24%
Impact date: 2095-09-05.99
Asteroid name: 2017 WT28
Probability: 1.10%
Impact date: 2104-11-24.69
Source: NASA/JPL Sentry Data API
Page is under construction: A love letter to the personal website
Link: https://localghost.dev/blog/this-page-is-under-construction/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43139211
Astronomie foto van de dag: Light Pillar over Erupting Etna. Fotoinfo: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250224.html Foto Credits:
Davide Caliò
#astronomie #sterrenkunde #sterrenkijken #apod #heelal
Hello com! Victerm on the Commodore VIC 20 I just fixed up. 40 column mode @SDF #vintagecomputing
Your weird picture of Paris for the day... The smurfette as Mona Lisa, done as a mosaic.
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A mosaic of colored squares, representing a dark haired smurfette as Mona Lisa, complete with the classic pose of the original and the background representing nature.
The mosaic is framed like a painting on a white wall, with bits and pieces of other street art and tags around it.
@ParadeGrotesque assumed this was by Space Invader who does loads of mosaic street art in Paris but can’t find it online.
Nope, not Space Invaders. There is another guy who does things more in that style, but I can't find his name online right now.
Space Invaders does smaller thing than this one, which was something 1.2m across.
@ParadeGrotesque Nice! It’s cool AF
@ParadeGrotesque that is neat.
Did you know that SDF offers access to 23 vintage computers through our Remote Systems program? We're looking for your help in continuing to offer this access as well as expand it. What systems would you like to have access to?
To support SDF Vintage Systems, please visit https://icm.museum/join.html
#vintage #vintagecomputing #retrogaming #retrocomputing
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The SDF Remote Vintage Systems menu
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The SDF Remote Vintage Systems menu
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archive boxes at SDF Vintage Systems and an assortment of our remote systems.
@sam@chven.us to the surprise of fucking noone.
@murena has launched its first tablet running the /e/OS operating system: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=19949
It gives a daily report of those asteroids with a reasonable probability of crashing into Earth, in case you are not already afraid enough of the future. Of course, using #snac, what else.
It takes its data from a very cool NASA site, so (again) in these days of uncertanty, I'm not sure how long will it work.
Everyone, take care, and have a great week.
If you are not watching, what is going on in #Georgia, you should start! and get all the information you can. This is a literal fight for #freedom and #democracy by Georgian people. This is the showdown of this Generation against the #Russianimperialism and #authoritarianism. #History is unfolding.
What do you make of her apology, folks? https://www.comicsands.com/jewel-apologizes-rfk-inauguration?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=infeed&utm_campaign=linkprogram
@georgetakei fuck her
@georgetakei aw man, someone else I will never listen to again. No apology
@georgetakei
Isn't the US renowned for being an ask-for-forgiveness-instead-of-permission country?
@georgetakei What I make of it is that I'm absolutely shocked by the apparent number of fellow travelers in America.
@georgetakei an apology as empty as any MAGA lie.
@georgetakei an excuse worth a million comes easy.
@georgetakei Yeah, no, not ok. And that wasn't actually an apology. 🙄
She also doesn't give any indication that she gets why what she did is wrong.
@georgetakei Usually an 'apology' from a celebrity is only done because of their fear of losing money. It's usually not because they are actually sorry.
@georgetakei Too little, too late. If she’s now forgotten and ignored forever, so be it.
@georgetakei removed from the artist I liked on spotify. Simple answer.
@georgetakei
Weak apology after the fact.
@georgetakei
Nice try, but too little too late.
It was clear what kind of people they are and what they were planning to, way before they came to power.
And I can’t believe she is thàt stupid.
@georgetakei Don't know who she is but I for one will never forgive anyone collaborating with anyone from the fascistic #TruSk regime.
@georgetakei Dead to me
@georgetakei "Her" community?
She owns nobody.
I don't see a grovelling apology for betraying all those who will be harmed by Brainworm Bob's cynical anti-health measure.
US Gov website purge underway. CDC right now. NIH Office of Women's Health is already gone. Happening quick.
https://github.com/end-of-term/eot2024
End of Term archive backed up everything. ~260TB. If you can seed/ share, please do so
@tomasino And it comes even worse: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/ "The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said."
@tomasino I'm downloading some of these to my NAS with dubya-get (wget).
#GCompris 25.0 Open-Source Educational Suite Released with Five New Activities, Now Ported to Qt 6 https://9to5linux.com/gcompris-25-0-open-source-educational-suite-released-with-five-new-activities
@gcompris #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #education #Linux
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Screenshot of GCompris showing the main window with the activities and application menu.
"I really wish there were something around now like IRC so we didn't need to use discord"
amazing
I believe, and forgive me for saying this, but the alternative you may be looking for is a thing called IRC.
@babe Best things last forever 🧡
@babe is IRC like IRC? 
I've had a lot of people ask how BlueSky compares to Mastodon and the Fediverse. I've tried to make the answer as simple and easy to understand as possible:
🦋 BlueSky is designed to give corporations and wealthy people full control of the network. All of its traffic has to flow through expensive-to-run corporate relays.
The Fediverse is designed to give ordinary people control of the network. All of its traffic flows directly from one cheap-to-run server to another.
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Diagrams of how BlueSky and its AT Protocol functions, compared to how The Fediverse and its ActivityPub protocol functions.
BlueSky's traffic flows from servers to corporate-owned relays, and these relays communicate with each other before allowing traffic to flow to servers. The servers cannot communicate with each other at all.
The Fediverse's traffic flows directly between cheap-to-run servers, with no need for any corporate involvement.
While technically these are both forms of decentralisation, the BlueSky interpretation puts corporations, rich people and wealthy organisations in full control of the network. The Fediverse interpretation puts ordinary people in full control of the betwork.
☝️ This is a great explainer of the difference between Mastodon and Bluesky, with one correction. At present there is only ONE corporate node, and the technology to create more has not been proven.
@FediTips great job with the visual 💯
@FediTips It would be quite easy for me to trust BlueSky’s intentions if the flagship instance had been set up as an independent non-profit.
@FediTips I will stick to Mastodon, but even as technical minded user, it's way more frustrating to use. I can't even see half the content that is on other Mastodon instances, let alone comfortably interact with other protocols. It's confusing and badly communicated by the UI. Things need multiple times the clicks than on bsky.
I understand the limitations, and things are getting better. But realistically there is no way an average internet user can comfortably switch to Mastodon at this point.
BlueSky isn't showing things from other instances at all though.
BlueSky is currently just a for-profit centralised single-instance social network, like Twitter or Facebook.
Even if it eventually linked to other instances (which isn't currently happening), it would be through massive corporate relays that would need to exploit user data to fund themselves.
@FediTips I understand that - and I'm not expecting bsky to stay a viable network for long (their lack of moderation will prob get them first).
But the fact that Mastodon, at it's current state, is not usable for tech-noobs, is true at the same time. I directly experienced that when trying to get some to use it.
@FediTips Yup!
Been saying this for a while
People flee from one centralized place to another making endless accounts in the menanwhile
But ofc the Fedi is certainly too much work 
@FediTips
Aaand that's why the mainstream media won't cover the Fediverse even though they covered both BlueSky and Threads. It doesn't make money for the corporations that fund them.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.servicesomebody needs to post this on BS because I dunno if all those Xitter refugees got the memo
@FediTips
From what I've read, bluesky is vulnerable to being scraped (?) by 3rd party bots/spiders, and may be that way for it to make a profit in the future?
Just start out on a big server on Mastodon, get the community of friends & hashtags you like, then if you want later, easily transfer your settings & follows to a specialized server.
@PamelaBarroway
Every so often, I wonder about not having a smartphone.
Something which could do cellular calls, XMPP and Signal, basic PIM (email, calDAV, cardDAV), and have a decent enough camera.
Which, sadly, is enough to push it into "need a smartphone" territory, AFAIK.
The only way to stop a bad guy with an exploding cybertruck is a good guy with another exploding cybertruck
The fedi experience
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Girl walking down a road with her hands over her ears with the words "mentioning any minor software issue" next to her. Following her down the road is a boy obnoxiously playing a trumpet at her, the words overlayed "The problem here is that you're using proprietary software and just giving your data away to corporations, what you need to do is adopt free open source..."
@babe every average https://replyguy.social/ user
@babe Linux moment.
@babe Linux has a chasm problem anyway. Only very basic users and extremely advanced users will have a good experience.
Grandma using Firefox to pay the energy bill and Libre office to write a letter will be satisfied and protected from scammers.
A very savvy person will be mostly okay digging through configuration files and reading esoteric manual pages and blog posts to get their system going.
Somebody in the middle, who has a few advanced needs but would be overwhelmed by trying to add a line to /etc/lxconfig.cfg would probably find Linux upsetting.
@MontgomeryGator @babe Yup, this. A big bunch of years ago when my StinkPad all but quit working, I was persuaded to try Linux. Mandrake, it was. Horrible experience: read the FAQs, find the RPMs, try the things, say the prayers, still be stuck. Post a cogent, succinct request for help in the right sections of the relevant forums, get nothing but "LOL, if that's the kind of question you have to ask, just go back to your Windoze crib, luser" types of replies.
All these years later, I've still not tried Linux again. MacOS is enshittifying out loud, and there's no shortage of smug-forming emissions in the Applesphere, but most stuff still mostly works most of the time, and helpful help is mostly available.
@isocat A linux user consistently berating me for being an idiot windows user and telling me I needed to change is actually what stopped me from adopting it for so, so fucking long.
He eventually caught me at the right amount of bored and offered to help/was supportive, and went to the effort of talking me through it, but that kind of "you suck" attitude really does not win people over to your side
You think your home network is friendly? Oh, really. You really trust every device on it? Media players? Tablets? Televisions? The kids' toys? Your networked stove would stab you in the back as soon as look at you.
Wow what a view captured by Perseverance just 8 hours ago. This is probably her new science site: Witch Hazel Hill.
#Mars Dec. 16, 2024 (Sol 1359)
📷 https://areo.info/mars20/ecams/1359
#Perseverance #rover #Sol1359 #WitchHazelHill #PerseveranceRover #NorthernRimCampaign #space #science #research #news #STEM #Mars2020 #geology #planetaryscience #Martian #landscape #photography #news #Astrodon
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A photography of a Martian landscape, captured by the Perseverance rover on the west side of the rim of Jezero Crater.
Engineering at its most magnificent. The unique and uniquely beautiful Falkirk Wheel rotary boat lift opened in 2002. It fulfils a role originally accomplished by a flight of 11 locks when the Union Canal opened in 1822. More pics and info: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/falkirk/falkirkwheel/index.html
#Scotland #Falkirk #FalkirkWheel
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The Falkirk Wheel rotary boat lift. The image shows the Falkirk Wheel from a corner angle with the rotary element halfway through its cycle in the centre of the frame and the support for the fixed end of the canal on the right, with the lower pool bottom left. The visitor centre is in the background. The scene is in sunlight.
The long-running Fedi server mstdn.social (not to be confused with mastodon.social 🙂 ) has just received a takedown request from the Russian government for hosting @Bellingcat, a news site which has long been critical of Putin:
https://mstdn.social/@stux/113652461647125214
Thankfully mstdn.social isn't in Russia so Putin has no power over it.
If anyone wants to turn this into a Streisand Effect kind of thing, you might want to follow @Bellingcat and slip a donation to @stux at https://mstdn.social/@stux/113623791580168625
“The Earth is not dying,
it is being killed.
And the people
who are killing it
have names
and addresses.”
- #UtahPhillips
#ClimateCrisis #Ecocide #WaterIsLife #WorldOceansDay #Wildfires #AirPollution #Corporations #Capitalism
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“The Earth is not dying,
it is being killed.
And the people
who are killing it
have names
and addresses.” - Utah Phillips
The fourteenth evening of anti-government protests has begun in Georgia.
Mastodon isn't perfect.
But the fact a social network exists that is completely free to use
has no venture capital investors
has no shareholders to answer to
has no growth targets
with a web interface with zero tracking cookies
and mobile apps with zero trackers at all
with ten thousand server administrators who donate their time for user safety
is - in my opinion - mindbogglingly cool, given the state of the world we live in. Not everything has to be shit. People make things better.
As many users have asked for it, there is now an option to make the number of followed and following accounts public (still disabled by default). These are only the numbers; the lists themselves are never published.
Some fixes to blocked instances code (posts from them were sometimes shown).
Fixed non-appearing buttons Approve and Discard if the account requesting a follow were being followed.
If you find #snac useful, please consider contributing via LiberaPay: https://liberapay.com/grunfink/
This release has been inspired by the songs All Is Lost by #KatieGarfield and All Is Not Lost by #TonyAnderson.
#RaspberryPi 500 Computer Launches with the Official Raspberry Pi Monitor, Based on #RaspberryPi5 https://9to5linux.com/raspberry-pi-500-computer-launches-with-the-official-raspberry-pi-monitor
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Photo of the Raspberry Pi 500 computer with the RaspberryPi Monitor and Mouse.
The rebels in Syria might inadvertently be doing more to help Ukraine than we are.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha walked out of the OSCE plenary hall in Malta as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov began his speech.
Earlier, in his speech, he had called Lavrov a "war criminal."
In addition to Sybiha, the foreign ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and several other foreign ministers and diplomats also left the hall.
Just to add, this is not a "you do you" situation.
The danger from #Meta is they allow hatred to spread, and that puts people in danger who don't even use Meta's networks. The hatred radicalises people who then do nasty stuff in real life against innocent victims. Radicalised people don't block Meta, they keep being fed more hate.
This cycle leads to real life violence of the worst kind:
This is not an isolated case.
Please defederate #Threads 🙏
Students from dozens of schools across Georgia are refusing to start the school week.
They are protesting against police violence and expressing support for the demonstrators.
#Georgia #Georgiaelections #Tbilisi #Protests #EU
Students of Batumi State University have halted the educational process and declared a strike.
They are calling for an end to violence against protesters, freedom of assembly, and a return to European integration.
#Georgia #GeorgiaProtests #Batumi #Protests #EU #EuropeanUnion
that's funny, because I've always thought a lot of apps behave pretty much like a website and the app is unnecessary.
This is a very good and informative piece done by PBS. Explains everything you need to know about #Georgia and #protest there.
#Tbilisi #georgiaprotests #freedom #democracy #politics #worldpolitics
🏳️🌈🖖🏽
