skyfaller

Gargron, 1 month ago to random

Me, feeding 2 people and 2 cats on a 60k EUR salary without benefits (because technically self-employed), reading those comments that claim a 501(c)(3) is some kind of nefarious scheme to hide money 😐

skyfaller, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to philadelphia

:gritty: Looking for a Mastodon server with feral chaos energy?
:i95: Can-do dedication to infrastructure?
:phillypride: Zero tolerance for hate?
:birdsite: Custom emoji for stunting on corporate websites as they collapse?

Please consider Jawns.club!

We welcome anyone from the past, present, or future of the #Philadelphia area; or anyone who just loves #Philly :-) :jawn:

If you want to join Jawns.club, and can't find the link, please request an invite here: https://forms.jawns.club/invite

#PHL #PA

skyfaller, 6 months ago to random

Seen on a telephone pole by the co-op. Signs like this are part of what made me feel at home in this neighborhood. #tdor

skyfaller, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

In the #Tusky Mastodon client, I really enjoy turning off:

• Account Preferences > Timelines > Download media previews
• Preferences > Show link previews in timelines

This can save bandwidth when I'm out and about on mobile data.

It also means that if I'm looking at my phone in the dark with a black theme, I don't get zapped in the eyes by bright photos. I just see the media descriptions, when people are kind enough to add those; my night vision is preserved.

Keep up the good work @Tusky!

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

Suppose you had to produce a local computer from scratch, completely independent from existing manufacturers like Intel. (If you need a specific location for this hypothetical, let's say Greater Philadelphia.) No chip fabs in China, Taiwan etc. The tech level and computing power doesn't matter, you can tailor the application to the power of the computer; indie local production is top priority.

What is the best approach? A simple conventional silicon chip? Vacuum tubes? Analog? Mechanical?

skyfaller, 5 months ago to random

So #COVID is killing more than 1,000 Americans each week right now, according to the CDC, and it's been that way since August: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00

COVID #deaths probably are undercounted in the USA (as well as worldwide): https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/covid-19-deaths-in-the-us-continue-to-be-undercounted-research-shows-despite-claims-of-overcounts/

But let's take the official CDC figures at face value. Can we contextualize this? What else kills Americans at the rate of something like 1,000 deaths every week, more or less? I have trouble wrapping my head around it, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

skyfaller, 8 months ago to random

What could you do with a chimney / gas furnace exhaust pipe once you remove all of your gas appliances and no longer need an exhaust pipe? Simply sealing it up is boring. In our house, the gas boilers are in the basement, so what could you do with a connection between the basement and the roof? Ideas:

• Solar tubes - Light the basement without power use, electronics or moving parts.
• Windcatcher - Turn the basement into a shabestan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabestan - Needs qanat as well, though.

skyfaller, 5 months ago to fountainpens

Hi Jawns, I'm happy to see some new faces 🙂

Let's do more #introduction toots! Hashtags can help people find you, if you want more followers. Pin your intro to your profile if you like.

I'm Nelson, an admin on Jawns.club, your local #Philly Mastodon server. I love:

-🖋️ #fountainPens that I refill with bottled #ink, as part of my #zeroWaste journey.

• 🌱 🏡 growing #nativePlants in my #garden to preserve #biodiversity
• 🛤️ #TrainTravel
• :jurassic: #dinosaurs, whether they are #birds or fossils

Some doodles using Viceroy Butterfly Orange and J Herbin's Lierre Sauvage green. There is a sailing ship on the ocean, a sun on the horizon with birds and clouds, a rocket, and a submarine. Also some shitty cursive letter practice, including a capital F and a lowercase y.

skyfaller, 3 months ago to random

For Black History Month, this #FollowFriday I'll mention some black women:

• @nnedi - Author of Binti & other compelling sci-fi. Cats.
• @StillIRise1963 - Pithy, caustic posts summarizing the state of the USA / world, capturing a lot of power in only a few well-chosen words
• @futurebird - Ant queen, possibly my favorite fedi account
• @timnitGebru - Ethics, algorithmic bias. If only the "AI" bros listened to her instead of firing her from Google, maybe tech wouldn't be such a dumpster fire now

skyfaller, 22 days ago (edited 22 days ago) to random

I asked protestors at the UPenn camp how non-Penn people can best help, and they said their top need right now is more people attending rallies.

They said the best way to stay up to date on when rallies are occurring is to follow relevant accounts on Instagram, or to check this whiteboard at the camp.

A rally is happening tonight at 7:30pm. (Edit: that was Monday, May 6)

skyfaller, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, was once defeated by an army of tame bunny rabbits. He was forced to flee the scene, his dignity in tatters. ("The Campaigns of Napoleon" by David G. Chandler, pp. 593-594) 🐰

#Napoleon #bunnies

skyfaller, 2 months ago to firefox

#Firefox tip of the day:

If you will never, ever enable #DRM video/audio in your browser, and you want to stop receiving notifications every time disabling DRM prevents media from playing, then go to about:config and change browser.eme.ui.enabled to false.

Source was from Reddit: https://libreddit.northboot.xyz/r/firefox/comments/l2g44d/how_to_get_rid_of_you_must_enable_drm_to_play/gk5yudb/

This will also remove the toggle in Settings to turn DRM back on, so if you ever need DRM again, you'll have to remember this about:config setting.

skyfaller, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to headphone

What's the best smartphone with a #headphone jack?

Other criteria:

• Long support period for security updates
• Easy to repair
• Open source software, firmware and hardware would be ideal

But I will give up phones before I give up my 3.5 mm headphone jack, that's a hard line for me.

EDIT: I'm requiring security updates into 2027, since Samsung offers that on two models I'm considering. That should help narrow the field.

skyfaller, 20 days ago (edited 20 days ago) to random

We're back to my recurring nightmare of making it easy for a non-technical client to edit a static website generated using #Hugo.

Are there any good solutions? Or am I going to end up writing my own solution after many painful hours with other people's janky solutions?

If you know of a non-technical user successfully editing a static website, how are they doing it?

EDIT: I'll only use open source solutions I can self-host, but happy to hear about proprietary options.

#SSGs #StaticWebsites

skyfaller, 21 days ago to random

I seem to have adopted an intern at my dysfunctional web business.

The intern is in high school, knows basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and has a little experience using Ruby and other programming languages. However they have never used git, for example, and presumably lack experience with similar essential tools.

How would you help a beginner programmer get started, with a focus on technologies relevant to the web and web infrastructure?

I already recommended they play https://ohmygit.org/

tomodachi94, 7 days ago to random

What's the Git GUI of choice for Git newbies nowadays? I'm trying to help out someone who wants to contribute to a GitHub project.

#git

skyfaller, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Which is the superior writing instrument? Or, which should I practice more in the new year?

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

#SilentSunday

skyfaller, 16 days ago to random

#SilentSunday

skyfaller, 16 days ago to MountainBiking

Why were most of the cyclists in this photo wearing masks in November 1977? Was it to avoid breathing polluted air?

If so, thank goodness we have the EPA now; I hope we can address modern threats to air quality, like climate change related wildfires, rather than giving up and letting the air become difficult to breathe again.

#masks #Philly #BikeAdvocacy #biking

skyfaller, 5 days ago to random

What is the best / most ethical #mp3player still in production?

What is the best mp3 player of all time, including models no longer produced? If you allow for modifications / upgrades, like replacing the hard drive with a flash drive, does that change the answer? To be clear, I care most about the user experience today, not how much fun it was like 20 years ago.

I already ordered a Tangara, but they aren't shipping yet, and @Maggie's Sansa Clip died so she's looking for an mp3 player now.

skyfaller, 2 days ago to random

Cricket fields should be legally required to provide habitats for crickets

inquiline, 6 days ago to random

Serious question: when and in which contexts did calling people "individuals" emerge as a common practice, as a synonym for people? Or "an individual" for "a person"?

I ask because I'm noticing it in student writing, and I associate it with police-speak. I don't know if it's in some corners of social science or medicine too

??