BlakeL

@BlakeL@calckey.social

A software developer with a passion for the powers, rights, and freedoms of users. Developer of dahliaOS, LucidLog, Bodacious, and more. 19 M (he/him) from Raleigh, NC. Cool Tech Enthusiast.

I post about #HumanRights, US/world news (don't count on this account for original reporting!), #urbanism, and other fun stuff. You can find my tech-themed posts @blake.

I hereby opt in my public posts to be searchable via tootfinder

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

BlakeL, to random

My dad, being the avid Fox News reader he is, mentioned he thinks the warming climate is "maybe" because the Earth is just closer to the Sun -- it isn't, it reached its furthest point in its orbit a few days ago, and it's also a yearly cycle, which wouldn't affect things over the course of multiple years.

After I pointed that out to him, he mentioned some crazy conspiracy theory (which he doesn't buy into, I think) about sunspots being portals to Hell, which prompted me to look into sunspots a bit more, and now I'm realizing we're in a variable-but-roughly-decade-or-two-long solar cycle, the maximum of which we're expected to reach by the end of the year now. That solar maximum, if I remember correctly, is primarily magnetic, and might cause some radio issues (the NASA page says stuff like satellites and GPS mostly) and maybe, if we're lucky, it could maybe bring the aurora further south, but probably not.

BlakeL, to random

I just remembered ntfy's server-sent events implementation, mistook it for websockets, and thought, man, that could be useful for server-executed TUIs and interactive CLIs!

Turns out, cURL has Websockets support but not in the CLI. It's planned to eventually, and when it does, I kinda hope there's an option that sends a few CLI/TUI-related convenience headers when starting the socket, so one could run i.e. curl wss://calckey.foo/curl --tui-headers and get a full blown network-oriented TUI!

nanode, to mastodon

OK, so I took the leap and spun up my own instance.

I was deliberating whether to go with or .

Calckey won.

Why?

Because the Mastodon install was "follow these quick 45 steps in a Terminal".

Which breaks at step 44.
(I am not interested in advice as to how to resolve this, thanks.)

Calckey was "run this one script and answer a couple of questions"

Right now, it's just me, all on my lonesome.

I might open it later but at the moment I'm enjoying my own company.

I would appreciate boost to help with federation tho.

Have a great day everyone.

BlakeL,

@nanode I first had Glitch-soc (a Mastodon fork), then later Calckey, although I installed them both through Yunohost so I didn't really touch most of the setup. I'm on neither of them now but I really liked Calckey's feature set so I have this as my secondary account (I have another account at a Mastodon instance which has healthier conversations for me)

BlakeL,

@nanode @menelion @MariaTheMartian It also has built-in groups ("channels"), which do not currently federate, but it is being planned.

blake, to random

I finally got my dongle set up, kinda... I was playing with it and my walkie-talkie, and with some odd adjustments, it works!

Two oddities:

  • The waterfall and spectrum look a bit strange. I'm used to the WebSDR at UTwente (you know the one), and it doesn't make sense compared to that.
  • I was testing the channel barriers between 20 and 21, and I caught what sounded like morse code on channel 20. I did not record it so I could not decode it...!

BlakeL,

@blake I heard the morse code on my walkie-talkie this time; it was just sitting on channel 20 listening, while I was listening to the news on FM radio with my SDR. I assume it's probably a transmitter somewhere, and it seemed longer this time, but I didn't switch back or turn on the recorder fast enough to catch it. 18:04 was the time on my screen when I looked up. I wonder if it's broadcast on a timer; nobody's responding to me on the channel.

BlakeL,

@blake 18:34. My walkie-talkie picked up noise, but my SDR picked up nothing out of the ordinary. I'm looking at this:

The other signals off to the side I can't seem to hear, but they show up on the waterfall. They don't show up on any channel on my walkie either.

BlakeL,

@blake 19:04. Picked something up on my walkie, but it was upside down so my phone (also recording for it) couldn't hear it. I expect another transmission, or some other signal at least, at 19:30 and again at 20:04. Until then, I'm going to let my thing cool down.

In the meantime, I've set up an FRS channel list in the frequency manager. I need to adjust the bandwidth on all the ones prior to channel 15 to be 12500 instead of 50000...

BlakeL,

@blake Heard another morse code on the walkie right on schedule at 19:34. I saw it on the waterfall but the squelch was too high and the signal didn't pass it and therefore it didn't record. The morse-code interpreter on my phone did not get anything from it; maybe it was too fast...

I suspect this is someone's call-sign, but I didn't anticipate it.

BlakeL,

@blake I've figured out what the signal is! It's a nearby person's GMRS call sign. The FCC lookup page has his name and address, as well as the dates his license is valid for, but apart from showing up at his front door or sending him a letter I don't have any way to contact him.

BlakeL,

@blake Further investigation reveals he's running a repeater and he has a myGMRS account. I have to get a GMRS license to sign up.

I also found a Reddit account with that name, signing one post with his ham and GMRS callsigns... I just want to say hi! Why is this so hard?

BlakeL, to random

Despite being anti-car-dependence, I do still like cars and stuff, they're pretty neat (but why the fuck do you need a grocery hauler that big?!).

I'm not in the market for anything over a hundred bucks, or anything that requires a monthly payment of over $10, so yeah no cars or houses or anything like that...

it is kinda fun to shop though. local classifieds has one $900 listing of a 91 junker, which might or might not work, who knows... there are also some fairly cheap (~$8000) new-ish Nissan Leafs, which are ugly and electric (which is both an upside and a downside to be fair), which if I could get loans (nobody will let me, for some reason they won't tell me) I might actually be able to afford the car, but I'd need to get a charger installed and that's its own expensive hell.

fabioromeu, to fediverse
@fabioromeu@mastodon.social avatar

Why people assume ill intent when one server manages to grow due to user demand? People bad mouth lemmy.world for being a reference the same way the bad mouthed lemmy.ml which was the first, just because it got big and the managers are struggling to keep it working. Why don’t you go and put an effort to have a reference server too, then?

Users want the fediverse to succeed then get mad because it did. What the hell, people.

BlakeL,

@fabioromeu People don't like lemmy (and lemmy.ml) mostly because it's somewhat unmoderated and is ran by tankies.

BlakeL, to northcarolina

https://legiscan.com/NC/bill/S49/2023

This bill, chiefly designed to deny rights and endanger trans students, reached the governor's desk on June 29.

Now Governor Cooper, a Democrat, is likely to veto it, but if he doesn't do so in time, the bill becomes law anyway.

If (hopefully when) he vetoes the bill, the General Assembly will reconvene, as required by law and under the Governor's direction, to discuss whether to override the veto. This will be harder than passing it in the first place, so there's still some hope.

anselmschueler, to mastodon
@anselmschueler@ieji.de avatar

Does editing a post to include hashtags cause it to appear in timelines of those following the hashtag or doesn't it?

BlakeL,

@anselmschueler It shows up in search, at least over here on Calckey... not sure how helpful that is

shauna, to random
@shauna@social.coop avatar

What are the options for paying someone to host a fediverse server for you these days? Ideally looking for a place that offers more than just Mastodon, but I don't know any of the Mastodon hosts either.

BlakeL,

@shauna @myrmidon there's https://fedi.monster/

BlakeL, to random

Lamentations from vacation

I'm on vacation in the mountains this week. Of course we've all noticed just how much quieter and more peaceful it is here. As I pointed out to my mom earlier (is this from NotJustBikes?), it's not that cities (or the suburbs) are loud, it's that cars are loud. In my neighborhood the noise is mostly from the various AC units — it gets really quiet when the power goes out; there is still quite a bit of car noise though, and when the highway opens, there's going to be a lot more.

Like at home, there's not much of anywhere to go from the house on foot. There's a general store across the street, which is a highway (in the mountains, it's not like a city highway) on the top of a hill, so you can't see the cars coming up the hill until it's too late, and there's a lake/pond and park accessible to neighborhood residents and their accompanied guests.

While park access sure is nice, I wouldn't like to live here. Biking from the house is unforgiving on these curvy, hilly mountain roads. I'm also surrounded by idiots here — it's the kind of place people fly Confederate flags and decorate their houses and yards for the 4th of July, where the only big box stores are Dollar General and Walmart, and where the only — the ONLY! — plausible way to get anywhere is by car (even more so than at home!), not to mention the weather I'm just not ready for.

galaxis, to random

So, apparently, while I was on the Autobahn today, Twitter killed all the Nitter instances too?

Or is there something else wrong?

BlakeL,

@Linux_in_a_Bit @galaxis Ah, so the only way I use Twitter, by accidentally following links, now doesn't work either. That's sure to make me sign up for their shitty service 🙄

stavvers, to random
@stavvers@masto.ai avatar

it is with a heavy heart that I regret to inform you that the tech bros have invented sails

BlakeL,

@dreamwinder @CatDragon @stavvers it's a shame nobody has "thought of" doing a school bus like thing (where it goes to the front of your neighborhood or to your house) but not for school... because city buses use approved stops and routes, all of which are a two hour walk away (and are actually intended for Raleigh residents to get to a Wake Tech campus...)

BlakeL, to random

I read a bit of @timkmak 's most recent (?) Counteroffensive newsletter, and the story about estrangement over wild conspiracy theories, propaganda, and outright lies reminds me of something much closer to home, and I think it was actually Tim Mak's article I read about it! Of course I'm talking about the situation with American far-right propaganda outlets like Fox, Newsmax, and friends; how (even without TV!) they spread hate, lies, and convince people to vote, advocate, and boycott against even themselves...

BlakeL,

It's really funny how authoritarian regimes all act alike. I bet if they could get that pesky Constitution out of the way, Republicans here would leap onto the opportunity to mandate only their narrative, only their "news," only their views...

BlakeL, to random

Something my dad said a while back, which he says is from a video he watched where a guy went around and asked... he said, what has Trump done as President to make you hate him? What policies did he enact, or what orders did he sign?

I have the world's worst memory so I can't list any off the top of my head although I'm sure that question can be answered as is, despite it being a loaded question and a Ben Shapiro arguing technique.

You can say someone deserves to go to jail for their conduct before becoming President-- I'm talking things like Trump's own grooming and pedophilia yet to be discovered in a legally-holdable capacity (but due to his ties to Epstein, it's all but certain). You can absolutely say you hate a guy because he's vocally misogynistic, bigoted, a white supremacist, a fascist, a wannabe dictator... And you have every right to say he shouldn't be President, he shouldn't have any kind of money or power, he shouldn't have command over the military or nuclear systems, and/or he shouldn't be representing us on the international stage.

Obviously, you'd be right.

BlakeL,

People like my dad also like to pretend the January 6 insurrectionists were totally justified, that (at least) if they were right, that would be the thing to do. The key problem there is, they weren't right or justified, there's no way in hell they could have been. The lies that caused them to interrupt the transition of power as a result of a valid election, one of the most protected elections in the country's history, were completely baseless, solely inspired by their candidate losing, and had been tested thoroughly, yielding no substantial changes. Out of hundreds of lawsuits, only six of them succeeded. There were many more instances of out of court examinations and recounts as well, very few of which yielded any changes.

Maybe the "policy decision" you can say you hate Trump for is not declaring the insurrectionists domestic terrorists, which they were, and many of them are being criminally charged for it (and treason), but not enough.

When do "aiding and abetting a traitor against the United States" charges come in?

notjustbikes, to random
@notjustbikes@notjustbikes.com avatar

You can't post anything about good urbanism in the Netherlands, or really anywhere in Europe, and not have someone say it wouldn't work in the US or Canada because these countries are "too big".

Seriously, it's ridiculous how pervasive this excuse is.

And yet it's so stupid, right? People don't travel across the country every day, they travel within their city.

I really didn't want to, but I finally broke down and made a video about this. It had to be done.🤦‍♂️

https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ

BlakeL,

@notjustbikes @reina I could be wrong but don't you have to have a subscription to use Nebula?

stux, to random
@stux@mstdn.social avatar

I'm gonna try to clear up a few things

Meta is not gonna buy Mastodon or any server, this is based on absolutely nothing and untrue.

Yes, some of us indeed got contacted by Meta/Insta because they are working on a new social platform (this was in the news) and they are looking into joining the Fediverse (Mark Zuckerberg also told this in the recent podcast)

SO.

This contact was about a "heads-up" for a potential big platform to join the network and not for a "take over".

[1/2]

BlakeL,

@stux

You won't be happt if your admin starts blocking things without even checking them first

I mean, to be fair, you can check this company pretty easily right now, and it's not very good.

BathysphereHat, to random
@BathysphereHat@mastodon.online avatar

You ever block someone on social media just because you're sick of seeing their bullshit takes?

BlakeL,

@BathysphereHat that's probably the second most common reason for blocks and mutes (behind harassment/bullying). and I have done that a time or two, yes

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