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We've trained an AI to replace your largest business cost, the CEO! We've carefully measured the outcomes of using this AI, and it's far more successful than humans making the same decisions! We've also trained AIs to replace your customers, your stockholders, and you. Please report to the AI replacement center.
I run a pretty tight budget. Twice a year, I get a fun surprise from my domain registrar (because I have two domains with them). They both come with a "free business card generator" that I have never used, but whatever.
Anyhow, every time a domain comes up for renewal, it's expected, budgeted, and paid for. All is good.
Then, about a month later I open my email and see an unexpected additional "receipt" from them. This sends me into a brief panic until I realize it's a $0 receipt for the business card bullshit.
Not my circus, not my monkeys: good luck with all that My circus, my monkeys: I am running a successful monkey circus Not my circus, my monkeys: I am running a successful monkey-rental service My circus, not my monkeys: oh no, oh man
hey everyone, noelle (a friend here in phoenix) needs $400 by sunday to not be homeless for February. it REALLY doesnt leave a lot of time but if youve got anything it would be greatly appreciated
Its been over a month since I was let go and I still haven't found a lot of prospects for a new job. If you know anyone who is looking for an #iOS Developer for remote work I really could use the contact. Please boost.
Read Hammered by Elizabeth Bear, I think she has the recent future predicted a little too close to home, and it was written 20y ago. Other than the world setting, and how eery it is, in the sense that I could easily see the world shifting that way, its a pretty good story.
🔻 Nepenthes A tarpit designed to catch web crawlers, especially those scraping for LLMs. It devours anything that gets too close. @aaron 🔗 zadzmo.org/code/nepenthes/
🔻 Poison the WeLLMs A reverse-proxy that serves diassociated-press style reimaginings of your upstream pages, poisoning any LLMs that scrape your content. @mike 🔗 codeberg.org/MikeCoats/poison-…
I was raised LDS (left a long time ago — and, by the way, I'm a vegan) and I didn't know about that quote! So gross.
I do remember a fight amongst family members once my dad announced he wasn't drinking milk anymore. My uncle unleashed some Bible quote about the land of milk and honey.
My dad isn't vegan, or even vegetarian, but simply decided that milk-drinking wasn't healthy. I followed his example and then, to his chagrin, I stopped eating pork and then all animal products.
DOOM: The Gallery Experience lets you take part in an art gallery opening with a wine in your hand all while wandering through the Doom’s E1M1 map full of classic masterpieces.
Did you think every possible variation of the classic Doom game was explored already? Think again, because The Gallery Experience lets you take part in an art gallery opening with a wine in your hand all while wandering through the Doom's E1M1 map fu…
Aargh! I thought I'd worked out a system to help with my #ADHD, and it was working for a while. Unfortunately, it involved using the alarm on my watch, which my brain is now just starting to filter out as background noise.
You don't have to post yours openly. I think there are various forums for sharing in a more limited manner, i.e. direct with someone. You can find addresses and mail to them first.
Pretty sure even short hand written notes count, so you could leave some fancy notes for people in your life who you appreciate.
The argument that people are responsible for filtering their own feeds and so Content Warnings are unnecessary doesn't work when many of the ones arguing this also constantly make up new fucking nicknames for the people they're talking about, requiring the constant addition of new filters to block out unfunny snarky bullshit.
I don't (and won't in certain cases) CW everything ever but if there's something I know SOMEONE out there might want to filter I try to get specific keywords in my post they might filter
Like for instance I wasn't gonna CW photos of my gerbils, I'm sure someone out there absolutely doesn't want to see rodents though, so I tried to be sure the word gerbil was in there
To some degree it involves some level of mind reading but it's something
even moreso on a platform where 99% of the platform doesn't have an easy way to search the text of your post intentionally obfuscating words is silly. Like I don't recommend posting the words KiwiFarms on Bluesky but you don't need to find 500 new ways to put an asterisk in homestuck on here
I get both sides of the CW debates and I have my own personal lines on what I find sensible or not, and on this account versus my other one I also accept that I agreed to follow certain CW rules on this instance and that's part of being a community even if I may not feel the same way on my own where I make the rules
But imo the best argument for NOT having to CW certain things is making an attempt to make sure people's word filters will work. You may not always get it right since like I said it takes a certain level of guesswork, and sometimes you just forget in the moment. But if you keep coming up with new nicknames for the worst people on earth it becomes impossible to keep up.
@Demon Queen Lucretia 2025 Edition I end up collapsing (auto-CWing) all of the offending user's posts. I don't know if Mastodon has this functionality though. A block would also be effective.
Though even still, it's sometimes a game of whack-a-mole.
Reminder that intolerance of intolerance is not a paradox. Tolerance is not an absolute ethical stance, it is a social contract. If someone chooses to not participate in the social contract of tolerance, they do not get to benefit from it.
Who was the genius that decided that Cult Pens' search bar should disappear as you're typing in it on mobile? This person belongs in UX jail. #FountainPens
Hooray! I finally got my #BaystateBlue #FountainPen flowing properly again. It only took about a month of finicking with it. Now all I have to do is not leave ink to dry out in it for over a year again...
I’m not surprised that it was a Safari. I’ve had similar issues with ink drying out on my LAMY nibs (not as badly as Parker pens tho).
So that nib doesn’t dry out on me, I’ve started using that pen daily for journaling. Justttt in case, I also have a little water container to dip it in if it gets dry.
Okay, so I've seen a thing were people will send a box of #FountainPen ink samples around by mail from person to person. Individuals will add and remove inks from this box, recording the changes in a log book. It seems like a really cool way to get exposed to new inks, and I'd really like to participate in one of these. Is anyone doing this in Canada?
I've thought about organizing one. The trick is that I don't know how this would work without giving a bunch of random internet strangers my postal address, which I'm not sure I want to do.
Shaved my beard off for the first time in a while. I was definitely carrying a little less weight the last time I was smooth-faced. The beard was concealing it more than I realized.
Does anyone in the #FountainPen community know how to dismantle a LAMY Z28 converter for cleaning? I found a video on YouTube that supposedly demonstrates this
but my converters look different than theirs. I suspect mine are of an older design. I suspect they're just missing the metal part, but I want to make sure I'm not going to break them by trying this.
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It seems they are the same design after all, it's just that the metal ring has some sort of coating on it for some reason. I've gotten the offending converter apart and am running it through the cleaner. We'll see if I can get it back together again afterward.
Fortunately, I have a few converters and don't usually ink up all of my LAMYs at once.
I got it cleaned, dried and put back together without incident. Probably not something I'd want to do on a regular basis, but a good thing to know how to do when necessary.
If the black band doesn't unscrew, it may be glued. Soaking and shaking with it half full of water should get it clean. Pen flush if it's stubborn. DIY flush is a cup of water, a drop of dish detergent, and a few drops of ammonia.
One of the things nobody tells you about wearing #glasses is how annoying it is to keep them clean. I had resigned myself to the fact that there would just always be some degree of smearing in my field of vision. Try as I might, I could never get them quite as clean as the day I got them.
Then I got an ultrasonic cleaner for my #FountainPen hobby and realized I could use it to clean my glasses as well.
10/10 would recommend. Seriously, if you wear glasses, I highly recommend investing in one. It was one of the best purchases I've ever made.
@David, not "Dave" Honestly, I just got a random one from Amazon. I don't know enough about them to make any specific recommendations.
In a reply, I was cautioned that they can cause the coating on the lenses to flake. Thus far, I haven't had that problem, but thought I should at least share that warning.
Could be a component of a dark color. Try some paper chromatography with a dot of ink. See if any green shows up. I use coffee filters but paper towel will work.
@Tallastro 🇺🇦 I had two pens inked up with dark inks. One with Parker Quink Black and the other with Diamine Chilly Nights. I hadn't really handled either, but they were both in the same bag with the pen I was using. I see no evidence of leaking.
Interestingly enough, the pen I was using had previously been filled with green ink, but I'd cleaned* and re-inked it with something else a couple days prior. Maybe it was a leftover ink stain from when I did that? They usually don't hang around that long though.
* There was an ultrasonic cleaner involved, so it should've been really clean.
Hey #fountainpen people: I am considering a couple of inks - either Sailor’s Afternoon Tea or Dominant Industry’s Earl Grey Tea. Anyone have thoughts on either?
This makes me wish we still had paper bills instead of stupid plastic ones here in Canada. I'd write with this ink on a bunch of them: I promise, it's real.
Okay, I'm now playing the game of "what else can I put in the ultrasonic cleaner". Just put my glasses in them. I haven't been able to see this clearly in a long time.
My house caught fire. I called the Fire Dept but they refused b/c I don't have fire insurance
Sounds absurd right?
Meanwhile since Mangione allegedly killed the UnitedHealth CEO, ~6000 people have died due to denied care from insurance corps. Why do we allow it? qasimrashid.com/p/americas-hel…
A more realistic scenario would be if you had fire insurance but your insurance company told the Fire Department not to come because they consider it unnecessary, then washed their hands of the matter.
I am now the proud owner of an ultrasonic cleaner for my #FountainPens which, per the instructions, is "suitable for lazy people in sports without rolling hair".
in case you needed a reason to volunteer at your local public library: today the librarians let me pick a theme for and then curate one of the featured displays.
some of my picks, in case you want to read along virtually... * All Systems Red, Martha Wells * Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie * Empire of Silence, Christopher Ruocchio * Leviathan Wakes, James A. Corey * Saga (graphic novel), Brian K. Vaughan * Shards of Earth, Adrian Tchaikovsky * The Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin
A few others in the more military space opera side if people are interested in more recs:
Trading in Danger - Elizabeth Moon The Praxis - Walter Jon Williams The Risen Empire - Scott Westerfield With the Lightnings - David Drake A Call to Duty - David Weber & Timothy Zhan
If you want a bunch of romances between humans and aristocratic space elves (with a fae sense of honour):
I read the entire Three Body Problem trilogy last year after watching the Netflix series; excellent. (Though now I'm spoiled for any future seasons 🙂 )
Also loved The Dispossesed and all other Le Guin SF & fantasy books. (I took my last name from the planet Gethen in her book The Left Hand of Darkness.)
this is an excellent list! Very cool you got to do this. Hopefully the library is able to pick up some of those books on your additional list, there are some great ones there.
Based on what you have listed, I think you might also really enjoy A Memory Called Empire (and it’s sequel) by Arkady Martine and The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson
fantastic, I have definitely read most of those (and should probably read the others) and I am actually surprised you could find that many space operas but maybe that's just me reflecting on my library's own deficiencies in the space opera category.
Take three specific books in the bottom list and swap them with three specific books in the top list and then you will have the exact same list that I would have picked.
I'd add Galactic Empires v 1-2 ed by Brian Aldiss. Great summary/essays about empires rising & falling, using classic SF short stories to illustrate it. It changed my life. Billion- & Trillion-Year Spree, too.
I just finished The Three Body Problem, and was trying to decide what book to read on a long flight tomorrow. Gonna try an new-to-me author and go with Shards of Honor.
I’ve read and liked many of the books on your list.
Weird: Toronto Public Library has only a single copy of Hamilton's Pandora's star, reference only, in the Merrill Collection. It's gonna be tough reading 758 pages if I can't check the book out...
The only space opera I've ever read (beyond star wars novelizations, which is debatable) was Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep. I loved it but still have no idea what really happened, it had so many interweaving parts. I should reread it...
Oooh is this your first time through “The Algebraist”?? I just started it up again, maybe my 4th read. Love it. No spoilers but: a tech reveal deep into the storyline is one of my favorite scenes in anything he ever wrote!
update: the library director was in today and showed me his secret space opera hoard. new additions to the list: * August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, Alex White * You Sexy Thing, Cat Rambo
(haven’t read yet, but he highly recommends)
he also had two of the books i’d been wanting to include in the display!
* The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers * Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee
Because someone said the words, I'll recommend my favorite space opera: The Hellflower trilogy by Eluki Bes Shahar (or Bes'Shahar or Bes-Shahar; I've seen it spelled all those ways).
Elevator pitch: Han Solo as a world-weary, nonwhite middle-aged woman eking out a living after escaping oppression. She ends up entwined (not like that) with a young, naive, confused (because events) super-assasin-type guy from a super-assassin-type genetically engineered lineage. She tries to keep his culture of honor and temper from getting him (and her) killed. Also she is carrying around a piece of "pain-of-death-illegal" tech from the Before Times.
Bes-Shahar created an entire slang/dialect for her main character, and everything is in first person, so there's a little learning curve. It's worth it!
The slang/dialect feels a lot like 1930s gangster-speak sometimes, but you gotta believe me it works.
I just read You Sexy Thing, it's really good. Heard the sequel was not good so have not read it. Thanks for this list. Your library director sounds cool.
btw if you thought this was a list of only 20 or so books, i failed to mention that almost every one is the first in a series. you’ve got 100+ books here
I'd have liked Ninefox Gambit in the first list, but at the same time, apart from a couple I haven't read, I don't have a clear choice for what I'd demote in its place.
(Foundation, if judged solely on its merits, rather than its significance. But that would be perverse.)
@chaosresearchparty “alt text continued”. the image is just a placeholder to make space for alt text from the first image that was too long to fit in the character limit
Yes, what Molly said. I guess I could've written more clearly. I just meant to express appreciation for the extra work to ensure equal accessibility to those using screen readers. (It's quite a contrast to the xesspool, where most images lack an alt text altogether.)
I got "Leviathan Wakes" and kind of want to continue reading The Expanse series, because I absolutely loved the TV show. But realising it has 8 books other than "Leviathan Wakes" in the series makes me very, very tired just by the thought of it. 😂
Pandora’s Star actually has a (non space opera) sort of prequel (Wasted Youth), and The Commonwealth Saga is followed by The Void Trilogy, and The Chronicle of the Faller (2 books). So that’s (maybe) actually 7 or 8 books. And they’re all freaking huge.
Since you seem to be welcoming reactions - as a long term science fiction and space opera fan, I am finding the older titles overly male in representation. Particularly in the 1980s, there was a significant backlash as women authors began to take shelfspace and awards in the genre.
Here are a couple of women that I was very surprised not to see in the list, and ones usually well represented in public library collections:
- C.J. Cherryh - named a Grand Master of science fiction by the SFWA in 2015. ‘Downbelow Station’, 1982 Hugo winner, is a huge novel that laid the foundations of her Alliance-Union Universe. ‘Cyteen’ also won the Hugo best novel. She had an earlier 1977 Hugo for a short story.
(As an aside, I feel that leaving out Cherryh is particularly egregious because so much of the worldbuilding for The Expanse seems directly lifted from her Complany Wars sequence. One of the omnibus compilations is titled ‘Devil to the Belt - Belter tatoos, dialect, etc. are all there.)
- Lois McMaster Bujold - her Vorkosigan Saga books have won 3 Hugo best novel awards as well as a Hugo best series award. A related book won a Nebula.(She also has Hugos for her fantasy works.)
in the last couple of years I got around to adding the series of Ann Leckie, Becky Chambers and @scalzi to my reading list, after being stagnant for a long while and not reading that much new SF except for whatever McMaster Bujold wrote. There are some names in your list I haven't checked out yet.
I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite of hers, but Radiance, her epistolary deco-punk alt-history tribute to silent films is at the top of the list of books I’d want to live inside, you know?
Bobiverse is very good, I am pleased that a lot of the books I enjoyed also were on your list. That means they're getting the exposure they richly deserve
The Three Body Problem trilogy is already in my book shelf, Foundation not (yet), but the Neuromancer trilogy. And after watching the Peripheral series and hearing about it's cancellation I'm thinking about adding the currently available books of the Jackpot trilogy (Peripheral, Agency) to my collection.
Would you recommend any of these to autistic person who loves sci-fi but has an very high sensitivity to violence? Saga and The Expanse would both be far too violent for her.
yep, that’s why I’m always looking for the rare sci-fi/fantasy books she can read, most of my favorites are too much for her. The Martian is one of her favorites but I’m not sure if she’s read Hitchhikers, I’ll have to see. Thanks, I know a challenging question!
Also, I was just reading over your site and I’m really enjoying your writing! Web3 is going just great is particularly delightful 🙂
Last millennium, I was working at a book store and had to set up a "For Dummies" endcap. I started with Dating, then Sex, Marriage, Parenting, Personal Finance, then I think Retirement. It was immensely satisfying when I saw a customer do a double-take, stop and look closer, then give a sensible chuckle. 😆
I once checked out a bunch of DVDs as a sword & sandal marathon for myself. Then of course I returned them all at once. The following week, they were all on display as curated selection 😂
Alas, so many volunteer opportunities around me are geared towards retirees or high school kids fulfilling requirements. They're mostly during the week.
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Kendall Buller • •