We were driving home and suddenly heard a clunk and the battery light on the dash suddenly came on.
Fantastic. We've been driving Instacart to make ends meet. We can't afford a huge repair bill right now. Hopefully it's just the alternator belt that snapped.
This car is 20 years old. It's not like it owes us any favours, but it's still a problem. The one positive thing I can say about this car is that of the two major issues it's had, it's always had the courtesy to break down a couple blocks from home so that we can limp back there and figure out what to do next.
A screenshot of a social media post. It reads:
I love public libraries because they are built on the principle that books are so important and so necessary to human flourishing that access to them cannot depend on your income.
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Just saw lemons priced at .98Β’
I wonder if Verizon's gotten into the grocery business.
@π °π »π Έπ ²π ΄ (ππ¦) A question about security pins:
My understanding is that the said pins are the key pins, not the driver pins, so if I'm gentle enough to not over set them, the shape of the pin should be completely irrelevant, right? I mean, they'd only pose a problem if they were pushed beyond the shear line, wouldn't they?
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Wanted to know if I could set gelatin faster by putting it in the freezer instead of the fridge. This is the first paragraph of the first result I found on the subject.
When it comes to culinary creativity, gelatin is a versatile ingredient that can bring remarkable textures and flavors to our desserts, jellies, and savory dishes. However, those who have worked with gelatin often find themselves asking: βWill gelatin set faster in the freezer?β In this article, weβll explore the science behind gelatin, how it sets, and whether using a freezer can indeed speed up the process.
That's a lot of reading for what the author knows damn well is a yes or no answer I'm looking for. I kind of understand why people like the idea of "AI summaries". Though I imagine this whole article was spit out by an LLM in the first place. Gotta keep people on the page as long as possible to drive up potential ad revenue, right?
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The only reason I've put up with android for as long as I have is that I've had full freedom to run my own code and install my own applications.
Google wants to end that. That's the end of android for me.
hackaday.com/2025/10/06/googleβ¦
Google Confirms Non-ADB APK Installs Will Require Developer Registration
After the news cycle recently exploded with the announcement that Google would require every single Android app to be from a registered and verified developer, while killing third-party app stores β¦Hackaday
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When you couple this with the recent change in the EU outlawing unlocking bootloaders, the DMCA in the US making any kind of digital tinkering illegal if Washington says so, and the various Chat Control and other "For the Children" legislation ...
We're shuffling full steam ahead into a surveillance machine the likes of which are unprecedented.
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@patrick That's fair. It's entirely possible, likely even, that I've misunderstood the rules here.
I didn't read much into it beyond the fact that it looked like a bad day for unlocked bootloaders.
To expand on the issue: the changed EU regulation is basically "consumer electronics with radio components must ensure that the radio doesn't inflict harm."
That's pretty easily done in hardware if there's a will. Even when the will is there at the consumer product level but the some component supplier makes an ass out of themselves, there's a way.
Case in point: I was involved in the development of Google Wifi 2, released in 2023.
We had to deal with new FCC regulations. The issue: 5GHz radio (wifi) potentially messing with airport radars. Kind of a good reason to limit what a consumer device can do, I think.
The chipset didn't support enforcing radar detection (which is how these 5GHz wifis work: passively listen for radar pings and if they show up, they stop doing 5GHz), so the workaround we did to keep the system _somewhat_ open is that going to unlocked mode disabled 5GHz completely (2.4GHz still works).
There's no Google Wifi 3, and the company culture broke down entirely anyway, but back then I expected that "enforce road legal radio cmpliance outside the OS' control (so that we can keep the device hackable)" becomes a hard requirement for the chipset in the follow-on product.
Samsung et al deflecting and claiming they have to lock the bootloader is just them finding a new excuse for doing what they wanted to do all along, while not suffering through the backlash.
I'm in kind of a charmed position in that I have no need for an Android or Apple device.
There are a few ways that *life* is trying to conspire to make me keep one in spite of that, but most of them are things I can currently route around.
But I'm no longer in an oncall rotation. I no longer use Okta. I can do 2FA a dozen ways that don't mandate google.
I'm not normal.
I suspect they're going to get the same sort of pushback that Windows is with Windows 11 - people aren't going to abandon Android, they're going to perch on the last "good" update that they can and rely on community patches and updates and unofficial forks to keep them alive.
And hopefully this protest with our dollars will mean something, but even if it doesn't it'll at least buy us some time until something new and better rises to fill the vacuum.
@DrakkenZero Sure, I expect that will also be true.
Except android is especially adept at forcing updates.
I suspect it's one of those things, not unlike piracy - we've always had the technology to do custom firmware and jailbreaking, it just stopped being a necessity once the carriers and Android codebase stopped being antagonistic towards their own users. But that technology has never gone away, there's still a thriving hobbyist community that's been lurking in the background maintaining the old ways.
And just like many of us old guard have dusted off our tricorns as streaming world has gotten more and more "all the worst parts of cable, but now with added extra bad stuff"-y, I am betting that we'll be seeing a resurgence and renaissance for Cyanogen or whoever the prime de-Googler is nowadays
@DrakkenZero I agree.
For those that have the skillset and wherewithal, and who can deal with the consequences, you're probably right.
I live in Denmark. It is very hard to get by in daily life without an Android or Apple device. I tried, for many years, until my current employer gave me a work phone (which runs Android).
There is an ubiquitous payment app that has largely replaced cash. It won't run on anything but an Apple or Android device.
If you use public transit (which I do), you can currently use a plastic card with readers mounted in buses, trains and stations. But this will be phased out next year and replaced with an app that only runs on Apple or Android devices. You will effectively no longer be able to use public transit unless you own an Apple or Android device.
There is a national authentication system (used by banks, public authorities, etc.) which *can* currently be used with a little token you can have in your pocket (one which displays numbers, and one which reads them aloud, for blind citizens) ... but you can't set it up without using an Apple or Android device. There have been talks about phasing out the code tokens entirely, so the only option to authenticate yourself with public authorities requires owning an Apple or Android device.
And all of this won't run on eg. a Fairphone with elementaryOS, because all the Android versions use Google's "authenticity verification" features, effectively locking out anything not fully controlled by Google.
It feels like living in a kind of digital vassal state fully colonized by two foreign tech giants.
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It is my impression that Americans tend to be a lot less trusting about this sort of thing than Danes.
This is both good (Americans are less likely to put up with replacing cash with a surveillance-friendly and tech-dependent alternative) and bad (Americans are less likely to trust eg. health authorities delivering vaccines for infectious diseases).
@datarama Most folks I know use Apple Pay or Google Wallet instead of their credit or debit cards, and the rest use credit or debit instead of cash.
It's not so much that we *won't* accept and trust a technical solution as that no one will accept there being only one option.
Too many people can't afford phones.
@daniel I read that one a while ago. Varoufakis is brilliant.
(I don't *quite* agree with the premise that technofeudalism is something distinct from capitalism; I view it as a variant of capitalism. Capitalism has always had feudal aspects to it; what else is a corporation but a little privately-held kingdom?)
I was in Norway recently and found it to be the same way. The transit system and many businesses relied on apps, no cards, a nightmare for MIL whose phone company (verizon) insisted she wasn't eligible to purchase an international data plan (??). It took *hours* out of our trip getting the family set up with apps to exist there. I was surprised bc this is a clear equal access issue that I imagined would be better managed there than in USA.
@datarama
All fine and dandy until you lose your phone or it stops working. Older folk may struggle with phones.
This will be all of us at some point.
I lost my phone a few weeks ago and it was challenging. I do have a laptop and tried to order a phone - the bank wanted send me a verification code by text.
@leighms @datarama you can have a tablet or second phone as a backup - I happened to have both available.
I left Denmark about 2 years ago after living there for almost 7 years - the digital system was damned convenient.
Yes, Danes are typically more trusting in government and in general it works pretty well over there.
The US is a bit nuts right now and it got there without anywhere near the level of digitization they have in Denmark. Every company has their own, slightly different mechanism method of authentication and that leads to confusion for users. The MitID was used by so many companies and social services that authenticating was trivial.
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@nthia This.
This is why I'm on the fedi and am uninterested in looking at other social media platforms.
It's certainly not perfect, but it's the most enshittification-resistant system I'm aware of.
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Working on a simple #web site for a client, and I'm trying to balance keeping it from becoming a bloated mess of unnecessary code, and minimizing the amount of unnecessary work I have to put into it.
For one feature they want, I'm tempted to install #jQuery. It feels like unnecessary bloat, but it makes the process easier. How much overhead does it really add?
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@AdiposeOverclocked Yeah, I have a habit of fainting around needles. It's usually fine if I'm laying down though. The doctor wrote on the form that it's a perpetual thing, but their damn cards expire anyway.
Folks, I promise I'm not just here for kicks.
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I've been agonizing over posting this for like 46 minutes now. It started as a reply to one of @FinalGirl's posts (as we're mutuals and her posts give me a glimpse into a side of Mastodon that I don't normally get to see).
So, the meat of what I want to say is that I'd love to have more Black folx in my day-to-day life. There's so much shit that I'm just not privy to because my circles are hella white...and that's fucked up.
At least on Fedi I get to hear about some of the issues the Black community faces, but I also feel like I can't do much other than *try* not to be one of the problematic white folx while boosting Black voices into my circles.
Why the agonizing? Because I know about the three types of Queer Allyβ’, and I assume Black folx deal with something similar.
- Type 1 is "okay with you being queer", but will probably vote against you if it lowers the price of eggs.
- Type 2 puts up a "love is love" sign and congratulates themselves on being such a good allyβthey might even know some queer folx.
- Type 3 has queer friends and family because it's a normal thing to have, supports them like they would anyone they really cared about, and listens to queer voices in their lives when they say there are problems. They may not always "get it", but they actively try.
The problem is that the ratio of the three is like 100:10:1 (if I'm being *really* generous).
I want to be that third type. I worry that I'm that second type. But I know it's safest for Black folx to assume I'm the first type (or worse) because that's just how the numbers workβespecially when the cost of misplaced trust is much higher than the benefit of a potential friend.
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@Retreival9096 the BIPOC folks I follow have mostly gone silent. I don't know if they left Fedi entirely or just don't bother. This place was hostile and when they pointed it out, they were told the equivalent of "it works for me" or "can't reproduce, won't fix".
I reiterate that white people should believe BIPOC people when they report abuse, especially when they have receipts. Don't downplay it or excuse it or be like, "lol switch instances". Report those who abuse, no matter who they are. Tell abusers to STFU or GTFO and fucking mean it.
We are stronger together.
I live very close to a large German club.
As always, It's going to be a long (and loud) October.
#locksport
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I suggest you look at Mary Robinette Kowal's videos with her cat Elsie. They've been using the FluentPet buttons for quite some time.
"Litterbox" is Elsie's swear word. And "rude litterbox" is even worse π€£
youtube.com/shorts/o3D_-T-5uXYβ¦
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. AuΓerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.youtube.com
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@silverwizard You wuold think so, but in this case, it was just that they wanted a really precise measurement. As @Judy Anderson pointed out, I don't know why they didn't just go with 7/8 of a cup, except that perhaps they didn't expect anyone to have something that could measure in eighths of a cup.
In their defense, my measuring cup didn't have that mark. I just went half way between the 3/4 and 1 cup marks.
Has anybody had surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
I'm due to have it in a couple of weeks, apparently to open up the tunnel in my wrist to put less pressure on the nerves.
Some people I know have been unable to use their hands much for up to ten days, one was OK within a day, so I was wondering what I should plan on.
Fortunately it's only one hand, my right, which I need for some tasks, but I can do more with my left than most right-handed people.
Please boost for reach.
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Open ai (capitalized like that) has just emailed me from a .ru domain, telling me that I need to update my payment details to continue using their "Premium" service that I never subscribed to.
I'd better get right on that.
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i got one the other day that told me my subscription had expired
but it was never specific about what subscription it was or for what product
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I love how when PHP fails on this project it just gives me a blank page rather than an any kind of useful error message, essentially "something bad happened, you figure it out."
Also, testing in production is fun. π
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Watching a YouTube video about "fake foods" and the announcer was talking about how Velveeta isn't legally considered to be cheese, but "admittedly makes for a great queso".
Umm... who's gonna tell her?
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Also, she was bemoaning ingredient lists getting more "chemically".
Has anyone found anything to eat that isn't chemicals? Photosynthesis maybe?
Man, those health influencers are legit bonkers.
I like theplantslant. A bit sweary, but down to earth and relatively sciencey.
Also, NutritionByKylie. Very nice recipes and nutrition tips, very sweet demeanor. Very humane.
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
Aye.
PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO SOLID DHMO CAUSES SEVERE TISSUE DAMAGE. GASEOUS DHMO CAN CAUSE SEVERE BURNS. ACCIDENTAL INHALATION OF DHMO EVEN IN SMALL QUANTITIES CAN CAUSE DEATH.
-- dhmo.org/msds/MSDS-HydricAcid-β¦ (PDF)
I think, in American English, "queso" is a type of dip/sauce that is _primarily_ cheese-ish. This is opposed to Spanish (Hispanic or Castilian) where "queso" IS cheese.
But, maybe I've just been beaten down my the internet for being to "prescriptive". In any case, people often use language in ways that don't match my understanding, and it certainly doesn't mean _they_ are wrong/flawed.
(Still, it _is_ funny.)
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@BoydStephenSmithJr absolutely. We all speak our own language, I think, with some tolerance for variance.
Everything outside that is wrong.
I would argue people who speak more than two languages come around to the point that there is no "wrong". Just failure to convey meaning in a particular context.
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Yeah, it's usually cheese adjacent and white. I can't recall if it's Velveeta or an off brand that sells a melt-able brick of "dairy product" called "queso blanco"
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YouTube just recommended for us a video about the transit system in the region I've lived in my whole life. It felt weird because the whole thing was footage of familiar places, which is not something I'm accustomed to in a random* YouTube video.
* Okay, not random because YouTube obviously knows where I live and that likely informs their algorithm.
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So, I've recently discovered Tubi. Yeah, it's got ads, and I'm sure it's a privacy nightmare like everything else, but at least my ad-blocker seems to work on it.
This feels like a too-good-to-be-true scenario, which begs the question: what's the catch?
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I'm just running my own #Mastodon instance here, so I don't have a ton of reach.
I'd love it if any of you who are willing would boost/quote this post.
My current SRE role is coming to an end, and the current market is scary.
The most current project was getting 3 line-of-business applications (for a national retailer!) moved to AWS, with some infra design, and lots of Terraform and Ansible.
I've got some Python chops, too.
I'm looking for a new role, remote preferred, or local to the PDX area.
I'd love to get #FediHired
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Welp, checked the mail to see that we got nabbed by a speed camera. This is the day that keeps on giving. Now I get to figue out how we're going to make rent again. :/
I know it's important to keep traffic under control, but these cameras feel like a cash grab when there are more effective (but less lucrative) methods available.
So, I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but a freelance job that I should be able to knock out in a night or so may have just fallen in my lap that will hopefully resolve this.
When I was Mormon, I'd have taken this as a sign that I was being rewarded for my faith and obedience. I don't know what it means now that I'm a filthy apostate. π
As it turns out, happy coincidences are a thing that happens sometmies.
Kevin Davy
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •