Remote
Tom 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
@tom@subdued.social
Childless cat man in the northwestern US, retired IT worker, into Linux, cats, science fiction, bicycling, and progressive politics.
The Republican-controlled Congress could rein in Trump any time they want to. They swore an oath to prevent all this, but instead they are complicit. Vote the fuckers out, and general strike if they don't honor or allow that.
New followers gladly accepted if your profile looks to me like a real human following in good faith (which excludes fascists).
122 Followers
131 Following
39 Posts
Joined June 17, 2024
Pronouns:
he/him
Replying to
@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange
I love my 'puter because it's an amazingly versatile tool that reliably does exactly what I tell it to do, and otherwise stays out of my way. It definitely does not have a mind of its own; that's what cats are for, and while I love my cat I don't trust her. If my computer had a mind of its own I would kick it out of my home immediately because I wouldn't trust it either, and it's positioned to do far more harm than my cat.
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@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party
I'm cis & het, saw this sometime last year and was motivated to start wearing rainbow accessories routinely. I hadn't previously understood why that would be worth doing.
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@teledyn@mstdn.ca Great, damning article. I'm now even more glad I've gotten almost completely free of Google (and Microsoft, and never used the others).
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@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party As a bonus, an abundance of rainbow pride imagery is known to annoy the Alito family.
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@Joshsharp
What that literally means is, "I don't care that LLMs are obviously immoral and unethical, I want to use them anyway if they can be useful in my work."
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Replying to
@momo@social.linux.pizza
"The talk" can mean different things to different people in different circumstances, and you've given us one more good meaning for it. In the United States, today is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to you!
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@broadwaybabyto@zeroes.ca I saw elsewhere that not only did they not allow medical help to approach her (old news), but that she had a pulse for 8 minutes after the shooting. I don't recall the source for that and can't vouch for it, but I'd be more surprised if it's not true than if it is true.
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@PopTarts @QasimRashid It's a political concept, a sliding "window" superimposed on the entire political spectrum. Its position on the spectrum at a given time and place determines what portion of the spectrum is politically feasible in that time and place. Example: In the U.S. in 2026, universal single-payer health care is not yet within the Overton window, but it's getting closer.
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@PetraPhoenix@beige.party
Regarding unplugging cheap appliances: My sister's toaster once spontaneously caught fire, just sitting there, not being used, not even hot from recent use. Just a wiring fault. I now keep mine unplugged when not in use, and I stay nearby while it is in use.
Also, I have an oven/stove with an upward-facing touch-sensitive control panel at the front. It has a feature to lock the controls, which I use because the naughty cat could easily turn it on by walking across it.
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Replying to
@TheJen@beige.party
Yeah, we used to marvel at how quickly toddlers took to using a mouse like it was second nature, but today I see young adults who have no concept of what a file or a directory are. I'm so glad I got my start with DOS instead of Windows or Mac.
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Replying to
@lydialurch@mastodon.social
Am I understanding right that someone dug it out of the trash and uploaded it to Ancestry? Scanned it page by page? That's a lot of work and would only earn them my enmity. I hope I'm misunderstanding. In any case, it sucks.
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Replying to
@violenteastcoastcity
Strong work on a pet owner's hardest duty. Be good to yourself now.
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@QasimRashid
It's unclear to me that this really means the attack is off for now. Has Iran agreed to open the straight? Trump said the ceasefire was contingent on that. (As if Trump's words have meaning.)
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@danirabbit
Unfortunately, in April 2026, the mechanisms for preventing this are called "Congressional Republicans" or the "executive branch (Republican) cabinet". They aren't preventing it because they don't give a shit.
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Detailed info for the No Kings protest in Bellingham, WA: Schedule, march route, transportation & parking, neighborhood organizing.
https://nokingsbellingham.com
#BellinghamWA #NoKings #FuckTrump
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@corbet@social.kernel.org I saw "15 years" earlier today, but I didn't know about the earlier "7 years" - thanks for sharing that, it is indeed touching.
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@broadwaybabyto@zeroes.ca
Here's that source, though I'm unfamiliar with Fact Post News.
https://universeodon.com/@georgetakei/115935923831307882
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Replying to
@fifonetworks@infosec.exchange
Sacrificing security for convenience might be a legitimate choice, though a foolish one. But yeah, if you can't be profitable while also prioritizing security, your business isn't viable, just like if you can't pay your employees decently and remain profitable.
But the real reason I'm replying is off-topic: I love the slide rule shirt!
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@jschauma@mstdn.social As far back as the early 90s my superpower was that I read the manuals for my OSes and learned about all the included utilities and what they could do, while other people were out buying 3rd party utilities that were perhaps fancier looking but still just did approximately the same thing. Getting good results from basic standard tools was kind of my signature throughout my career. I'm retired now, but I'm convinced the value of this superpower would only be amplified today.
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@danct12@social.treehouse.systems
Me too. I bought it in spring of 2020 and used it as my main work computer for 4 years during covid. I still use it pretty frequently, and though it's no speed demon, it continues to be usable and reliable. For a measly $200.
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Replying to
@codebyjeff@hachyderm.io
Maurice Wilkes, an early computing pioneer, reflecting on the early days, said, "I remember the exact moment when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs."
With AI-generated code, programmers give up the creative pleasure and joy of writing code, and multiply the amount of tedious and difficult debugging instead. What a bargain.
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@nixCraft@mastodon.social That's just great, and there's a plug for @eff@mastodon.social at the bottom. ❤️
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@kissane@mas.to That document is amazing:
- It says so much,
- that is all so practical,
- worded so concisely & precisely,
- is so well organized, and
- is so fun
A masterpiece. I'm going to follow the authors' suggestion to leave printouts in public places.
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Replying to
@davidzipper Anyone who buys a large vehicle because it's "safer" is guilty of premeditated murder when they kill someone in a collision with a small car. They decide in advance, and spend extra money, to ensure that they "win" the accident at the other person's expense.
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