@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

zakalwe

@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com

Culture Special Circumstances, detached.

pp desc for vision impaired: The N7 (Systems Alliance Special Forces) Seal from the Mass Effect games.

Neuro-spicy. Aspie pretending (sometimes badly) to be human (at least, it often feels that way) while fighting depression and chronic insomnia. Aspiring mostly-SF writer, burned-out IT geek, humanist who wants to see us make at least a token effort to stop enshittifying our entire planet. Is there really anything so incredibly, soul-threateningly terrible about the idea of giving a shit about other people?

Something I said pissed you off? It may be a misunderstanding, I'm far from immune to foot-in-mouth disease. Please check with me before you assume it was malicious. It most likely wasn't. If I don't think you're someone worth talking to, I just won't talk to you in the first place, period.

Follow-backs: If you have something to say, sure. No posts? Nothing to say? What would be the point? In the words of @PatternChaser, "I don't follow back, I follow interesting." I'm trying to keep the signal-to-noise ratio in my feed high. Still, if you follow me and I see it, I will do my best to at least find time to look. I can't guarantee I won't miss it, I'm not awake 24/7.
(And sorry, but don't expect me to follow you if you're posting the same dozen posts, day in, day out, day after day after week after month. In fact I'll most likely mute you.)

Came here to put words into my mouth so you could attack me over something I didn't say? (Yeah, sadly, it's happened.) Just don't. I WILL block your ass. Nobody has time for that shit.

Geek Stuff: I run Gentoo Linux, and I maintain a personal overlay with packages for dev-perl/Tk-MListbox, sys-apps/procmeter3, net-misc/icbm, media-sound/perljammer, app-crypt/sherpa, and app-editors/xnedit. Of those, net-misc/icbm and media-sound/perljammer are my own projects.

#nobot #writer #geek #linux #mysql #Gentoo #nosystemd #science

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

gwynnion, to random
@gwynnion@mastodon.social avatar

People rightfully scoff at America being described as the richest country in the world when it's really a poor country with a shocking number of millionaires and billionaires who got rich by exploiting everyone else and the loopholes built into the system for them.

But it's also a fairly liberal country crushed under the weight of a white wealthy ruling class, who not surprisingly are mostly those same millionaires and billionaires or their hatchet men.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@gwynnion Their hatchet men and their useful idiots.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Paywall, so…

Via Bloomberg.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff Which, given Starlink's ability to shut off service to specified terminals on demand by flipping a switch on the back end, raises the obvious question, "How do you obtain Starlink service on an illicitly-obtained terminal?"

GottaLaff, to Israel
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Emptywheel:

As you read about advising that ethnically clean Palestinians out of their home to build a beach resort, remember that at his behest, on December 22, 2016, Mike Flynn "colluded" w/Russia to protect Bibi Netanyhu fr accountability for illegal West Bank settlements. 1/...

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff These people are just vile beyond words.

kaia, to random
@kaia@brotka.st avatar

what this

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Hapbt @kaia That looks like the Surcouf, a French "submarine cruiser" with two 8" guns, launched in 1929 and lost with all hands in the Caribbean in 1942

randahl, to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

With interest Trump owes USD 464 million, and today his attorneys had to admit, he will not be paying the fine, because he is unable to pay, and not a single company has been willing to help him.

When they sell Trump tower, could we please rename it Justice Tower?

Source: CNN

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@randahl Trump already does not own Trump Tower. GMAC Mortgage has owned it since 2021.

timrichards, to random
@timrichards@aus.social avatar

A difficult truth, but it's so. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he'll go further.

How will the Ukraine war end? Only when Vladimir Putin is toppled

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/16/raising-white-flag-in-kyiv-will-never-make-the-putin-problem-go-away?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@timrichards Absolutely. Putin WILL NOT stop at Ukraine. Fight him in Ukraine today ... or in Poland tomorrow, and in your living room next year.

w7voa, to random
@w7voa@journa.host avatar

“Now, If I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country,” predicts Donald Trump at a rally in Dayton, Ohio.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@w7voa How the fuck is this somehow NOT an actionable terroristic threat?

Saltssaltgirl, to random
@Saltssaltgirl@mas.to avatar

When I leave teaching, it won't be because of the kids. The kids are the only reason I stay. I'm afraid they will feel like no one cares about them; so I stay.

But, I want to run. I want to know what's it's like to be appreciated by my superiors. I want people to follow through with promises. I want people to stop letting down our kids.

"They" wonder why there's a shortage of teachers, but I don't.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Saltssaltgirl Bluntly? America treats schoolteachers like shit. You might be surprised how many of us are aware of that.

Education is an investment in a nation's future, and America is pissing its future down the drain. And that has brought us where we are now.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

When Ranch is just too Spicy!

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr .... slow blink ....

Middle Daughter likes to mix mayo with Dijon mustard to dip fries in. I call the result Mayard. It's like mustard, but less imperative...

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

Everything is becoming subscription based and it's really grinding my gears. You can't pay for something just once anymore; you have to pay for it over and over again.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@AlexanderVI @Adam_Cadmon1 It's just another flavor of enshittification. The Captains of Industry would rent your air to you if they could figure out a way to measure it. Because having 94% of the world's wealth controlled by 1300 people isn't enough. They have to get the other 6% somehow.

RickiTarr, (edited ) to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

This is probably my worst poll, but I'm curious, for science:

I have/had:

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr I don't really know how best to answer this. 'Did their best despite their issues' perhaps comes closest ... but a lot of the time it felt like they didn't really regard me as a real person. They'd ask what I wanted then ignore my answer, offer me a choice then overrule what I chose. "We thought this would be best for you." Then why did you fucking bother even pretending to ask me? Sometimes even now, when I make a decision, I hear my dad's voice in my head saying, "I think you're being very foolish." The whole goal seemed to be to make me into a little clone of my dad.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Your suffering is not unique to you, whatever you're going through someone else has to. Feelings of depression, loneliness, isolation, or just feeling different are universal.

If you feel like people aren't understanding or empathizing it's either because you are not telling them about the real you, or they are choosing not to treat you like a complicated feeling person.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RolloTreadway @RickiTarr This is particularly true if you have had many experiences of trying to talk and simply not being heard.

Lana, to random
@Lana@beige.party avatar

Every now and then I think back on my time in Montana where there was this one specific radio ad for a Chevy dealership that would come on 5-6 times a day and the dude was physically incapable of saying the word "truck", leading me to hear the following bizarre announcement:

"You need a DRUUUUUUG! Well, we got LOOOOTS of DRUUUUUUGS! Here at Blankity Blank Chevy Great Falls, we can get you in a DRUUUUUUUuuUUUG"

And it was at this exact moment every single time that I remembered drug dealers rarely purchase radio spots for their business.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Lana 🎼 I need a new truck,
One that won't make me sick
One that won't make me look like Musk
Or make me smell of that Nazi shit 🎵

GottaLaff, (edited ) to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

"Blood bath at " 1/...

"Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the RNC began the process of pushing out dozens of officials.

All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/bloodbath-at-rnc-trump-team-slashes-staff-at-committee-00146368

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff On the bright side, he's continuing with the destruction of the Republican Party.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Writing Prompt:

Write the saddest sentence you can think of.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr it occurs to me I have one of these lines in Fireborn.

“The husband said, Save my wife, please, I have two other children. But the wife begged me, Please, Healer, let me go, save my child.
“I saved the child.”

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Are you the person you always thought you would be?

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr No. Though ... I'm not really sure what I thought I would be, when I was young and naive. But this wasn't it.

skykiss, (edited ) to random
@skykiss@sfba.social avatar

National Security Threat

Experts Said for Weeks That Trump Might Get Bonded By Kremlin Allies. Now It’s Happening— National Security Threat—So Why Is Media So Silent About the Greenberg Family?

The adjudicated rapist & adjudicated fraud somehow got a bond, and he is a significant national security risk, and we should know who he’s beholden to. Donald has no unencumbered assets, everything has debt and loans. And who owns the criminal?

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@skykiss I don't understand how anyone can possibly continue to pretend that Trump is not a Kremlin asset. Most successful espionage long game EVER. Stalin or Krushchev would have WET THEIR PANTS to have a mole placed in the Oval Office.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Y'all, did you know there's a sex move with genitals in mouth?!

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr Sounds a bit tough to swallow.

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

I think we all should brace ourselves for how far this unhinged criminal will go to avoid prison.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@StillIRise1963 I have no doubts he would launch a direct armed coup, right now, if he thought he had the backing.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Imagine really caring what gender someone is. The only reason you would really care is if you intend to treat one gender in a different way than the other.

"I don't know what to call them!"

Call them by their goddamn name.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr One day in saddle school a bunch of the cowboy types from Montana and Idaho were having a loud conversation about their favorite racial epithets.
"Hey," one of them asked me, "were there black people around where you grew up? What did you call them?"

"I called him Basil," I said. "It was his name."

I think that was what got me threatened with a beating, later that day.

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Muskrat come up short, Trump?

Via Lisa Rubin: 1/...

In a new letter tonight, Alina Habba is asking Judge Kaplan -- who has yet to rule on 's request to stay enforcement of the $83.3 million judgment as his post-trial motions are resolved -- for some mercy. [Me: 🎻]

Specifically, she notes that the existing stay expires Monday and asks that if Kaplan does not rule by tomorrow, he should at least stay enforcement of the judgment for 3 business days after that ruling

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff The question is whether he is that broke that he can't raise $91M, or whether he's just stalling to try to stiff Carroll like he stiffs everyone else he owes money to.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

I love that we keep tiny apex predators in our houses, because sometimes they will sit in our laps, and let us pet their floof.

Plus TOE BEANS!

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr "Humanity, Fuck Yeah" ....

"Explain to me again why it is that you need to be transferred back to homeworld?"
"It is the human, Williams. You know that they keep apex predators as household pets?"
"Well, yes, but I don't see why that's a problem..."
"Did you know that they took their two largest and fiercest land-dwelling apex predators and bred them to create an EVEN BIGGER one?"
"No ..."
"And then they PLAY with it."
"I still don't see..."
"The human Williams said 'he's a complete darling' and that she was sure I'd get along fine with him." The Assistant Facilitator was hyperventilating by now. "She said she'd bring him along on her next visit and I could see for myself."

There was a long pause.

"Your transfer is approved."
"Thank you, Director."

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

Watch this satellite obliterate the Kuiper Belt object moving through this set of images.

The dumb satellite is so bright that our auto-detect software threw out the whole stack, because it destroyed the average brightness.

It pisses me off to no end that my taxpayer-funded telescope time is now less and less effective because of one for-profit private company.

(P.S. software dudes: please don't try to mansplain workarounds, believe me, a LOT of astronomers are working hard on this)

A gif of a Kuiper Belt object slowly moving across a set of images. It just looks like a fuzzy dot. Toward the end of the sequence, there's a super bright diagonal line that covers up the moving dot - that was a satellite.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@sundogplanets I can't shake the thought that Starlink was fundamentally a stupid idea from the start.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Please follow me!!!

(into a mysterious bog from which none have returned)

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@beans_please @RickiTarr Have you tickled an eldritch horror today?

SylvieLorxu, to random
@SylvieLorxu@chaos.social avatar

TIL: HDMI is actually quite a closed system and the HDMI Forum has successfully blocked AMD from supporting 120Hz @ 4K in their Open Source drivers because they disallow Open Source implementations of (that part of) the standard.

I see a lot of people talk about "just use DisplayPort" because it is supposedly more open, but I can't find much about that when searching the web. Does anyone here know more about that? Got some good sources? Should I ensure all new stuff I buy has DisplayPort?

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@privateger @SylvieLorxu Also, DisplayPort is actually more capable than HDMI.

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