jwz

I write screen savers and sell beer. Impresario of DNA Lounge, the world's greatest nightclub. Also wrote your parents' web browser and stuff.

Public Key

npub1dn88krq9qqhsrqg6tyk3erm9kgw2huvlht8nl5xqaws69n94ymnq4galwl

NIP-05 Address

jwz_at_mastodon.social@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxennmpszsqtcpsyd9jtgu3ajmy89t7x0m4nel6rqwhgdzej6jdes6t5h3x

Author Public Key

npub1dn88krq9qqhsrqg6tyk3erm9kgw2huvlht8nl5xqaws69n94ymnq4galwl

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-11-09 03:07:14

Some wingnut I've never spoken to before (or again (foreshadowing!)) accused me of living in an "echo chamber" because I block people.
Fuck the "echo chamber" discourse. I reject it entirely.I am not here to wear an ascetic's hair shirt because you think that surrounding myself with dickheads builds character.
Block early and block often. I expanded on this in some detail in my "On Blocking" post from a few years back, but it bears repeating. Especially now.
https://jwz.org/b/ykcn

2024-11-08 18:29:57

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@npub1y4n…25mf Alas I cannot tolerate podcasts in any way. Having someone talking in my ear while I'm trying to do anything, including *nothing*, is kryptonite.
Podcast, (n): This audio book could have been a blog post.

2024-09-12 03:02:34

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars: Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a...
https://jwz.org/b/ykZC
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/122/355/012/262/531/original/c11bfb4b6553fe6c.jpg

2024-09-11 07:05:53

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@npub1lrv…tth9 "Read the room, Ford."
"Wait no not like that"

2024-09-04 23:41:53

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@npub1auh…u2le Seems like an odd choice to put the generators downstream of the flywheels instead of upstream.

2024-09-04 23:32:48

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@npub1auh…u2le Does the facility run off the output of the flywheels during normal operation, or is it only switched over to that upon failure?

2024-08-30 18:54:04

Murderbot manufacturers still immune from legal consequences.
Murderbots still can't be ticketed in last-minute about-face for CA bill: Driverless car companies like Waymo and Cruise still will not be ticketed under the amended bill. Rather,...
https://jwz.org/b/ykYj
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/052/486/485/695/305/original/b9ede0d91aa0789d.jpg

2024-08-27 19:30:45

Today in ACAB.
Albuquerque's Police Chief Says Cops Have a 5th Amendment Right To Leave Their Body Cameras Off: Even more troubling, Medina said he "purposefully did not record because he was invoking his 5th Amendment right not to self-incriminate."...
https://jwz.org/b/ykYT
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/035/643/789/293/885/original/5e144bad36aaf5f8.jpg

2024-08-27 08:16:17

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"And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human."
-- William Gibson, Count Zero - The favorite author of the exact people he was writing about.

2024-08-26 21:09:32

Quoted-Printable PSA.
Doing "view source" on a MIME message in 2024 be like: Please use this instead of PHP's egregious quoted_printable_encode: My future un-clawed-out eyes thank you in advance.
https://jwz.org/b/ykYN
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/030/369/916/797/772/original/d6964bfad1013139.jpg

2024-08-26 18:46:56

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Still shaking my head at being scolded that I should stop "othering" billionaires.

2024-08-25 19:49:58

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I seem to have constructed a glorious honeypot here. You're welcome / I'm sorry.

2024-08-25 19:00:53

Apropos of nothing, more billionaires should live in fear of being pulled off their private jets and arrested.

2024-08-24 21:14:50

Just play the damned video.
If you watch the DNA Lounge video webcast for any length of time, it will eventually drop out. Sometimes it will start playing again automatically. Mostly not. Problems causing this are manifold: The uplink from DNA Lounge...
https://jwz.org/b/ykYE
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/019/066/144/165/964/original/9c582bd7b541ba8b.jpg

2024-08-24 17:37:48

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@npub1src…fms4 Pages 28 through 31 are posted on the wall of the @dnalounge office.

2024-08-19 06:24:14

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@npub1auh…u2le That's amazing, what year was this?

2024-08-17 16:57:14

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@npub1psd…9sr7 C is dying, there hasn't been a new release since 99!

2024-08-17 16:49:04

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@npub1src…fms4 I'm beginning to suspect that these billionaires are just not very bright guys.

2024-08-14 21:42:08

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@npub1tel…4v4v She married a racist, why would she start behaving in her own interest now?

2024-08-13 02:15:47

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@npub1pfe…e2dm Yes, it's a great, insightful article! (And it's the second Previously.)

2024-08-12 22:48:21

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@npub1lrv…tth9 And by "forced" you mean "Patreon decided that it was a better idea to fuck over their creators than to just ditch their iOS app and simply have a web site like they used to". This is their own unforced error.

2024-08-12 22:35:47

This afternoon, someone smashed a car window and stole whatever was on the seat, right outside my apartment window. In the 10 seconds it took me to walk over to the window to see what the noise was about, they were already gone.
Thanks for the two minutes of car alarm afterward, though. That was super helpful.
Car alarms do even less to prevent crime than cops do.

2024-08-12 21:23:44

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@npub1auh…u2le Good to know! I sure wish I didn't have to deal with this at all...

2024-08-12 20:43:59

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@npub1tel…4v4v Technically don't they all say that?

2024-08-12 19:59:58

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The reason this is so infuriating is that managing recurring payment subscriptions is *hard* and for a while Patreon was doing so adequately well. There are not many alternatives.

2024-08-11 21:13:49

Hacking Tools To Watch Out For!
https://jwz.org/b/ykXb
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/945/452/069/232/924/original/1bad1f9aa25df637.jpg

2024-08-11 01:50:42

Binding source IP on AWS.
Lazyweb, My tinyproxy installation is making outbound connections using my machine's primary IP instead of the IP to which the connection was made. How fix? I have an "Amazon Linux 2023" instance with several IP addresses:...
https://jwz.org/b/ykXZ
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/940/878/493/779/358/original/c1e8b05bbc504a67.jpg

2024-08-08 03:04:26

EFF says you deserve a little advertising surveillance, as a treat: https://mastodon.social/@eff/112922761259324925

2024-08-07 06:34:59

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@npub1lrv…tth9 Is this self harm? Do they need an intervention from a loved one?

2024-08-05 17:02:03

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@npub1auh…u2le Oh man that was one of the most vile Musk fanboy things I have ever seen. My micro-review: https://jwz.org/b/ykNb

2024-08-05 16:38:02

Just got spam from getwarranty dot social so this is truly the year that activitypub hits the mainstream.

2024-08-04 00:07:15

Rumors of Threads dot net federation have been greatly exaggerated.
I used Instagram mainly for following bands, to find out when they had new releases or were going on tour. I'd sure like to still have a feed full of that sort of thing. So, since you can follow (some) Threads accounts from Mastodon now, I got to wondering how many of those folks had moved from one Zuckerberg property to another....
https://jwz.org/b/ykXL
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/900/835/539/183/198/original/c4d36715ca013e7b.jpg

2024-08-01 20:02:44

Pictured here: Peter Thiel selecting JD Vance:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/888/542/525/008/171/original/7b420e32ed18c5d6.mp4

2024-07-31 18:13:45

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Ok, these shenanigans have given me the impetus to make my "Mirror Gravatar" WordPress plugin support @npub19gt…32h4 as well. https://www.jwz.org/mirror-gravatar/

2024-07-31 17:06:03

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Help me debug something. If you have an address registered with @npub19gt…32h4 that is *not* also registered with Gravatar, please post a comment from that address on my blog (at https://jwz.org/b/ykXF not here).

2024-07-30 20:41:43

Gravatar Dunning-Krugerrands.
Automattic's self-immolation continues apace. They are about to find out that pivoting from "here's some mildly-convenient free image hosting to put an avatar on your email address" to "Enterprise-ready,...
https://jwz.org/b/ykXF
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/877/378/150/521/348/original/200856f2657222e7.jpg

2024-07-29 17:11:36

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I guess I'm missing the part where these corporations are going to set a trillion dollars on fire is anything other than "don't threaten me with a good time".

2024-07-26 20:19:29

Added some BitLocker recovery screens to the BSOD XScreenSaver, since now I have become aware that that is a thing that exists. Thanks for the tip, ClownStrike!

2024-07-26 02:25:45

JFC, can anyone figure out who the asshat admin of this site is, so that I can ask them to stop spamming a copy of my blog's RSS feed into ActivityPub? There is no contact info. http:// "ծմակուտ [dot] հայ"
And of course both "root" and "webmaster" bounce because of course they do.

2024-07-26 01:40:38

Dear Lazyweb,
I haven't typed M-x gdb since before macOS deprecated it. Is there a version that works with lldb? I found this https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ptrv/emacs.d/master/site-lisp/gud-lldb.el but it does not do the "you had one job" thing, which is: make the other window show the source code corresponding to the current frame.
(I am aware that "just use printf" is probably the correct answer and what I will end up doing anyway.)

2024-07-25 16:51:39

Dear Lazyweb, is there a page where I can paste a user agent and it will tell me, "that's probably fake"?
E.g., "Chrome x.y.z never existed" or "that version was Android TV, not macOS" or "that's 10 years old".
Yes, I am aware that libraries exist to generate plausible UAs and many bots use them. But most bots don't try that hard, and I'd like to manually ask the question, "is this low-hanging fruit?"
(whatismybrowser dot com is not the answer.)

2024-07-23 19:02:42

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@npub1src…fms4 Just want you to know that it's two days later and I'm still angry about this apostrophe.

2024-07-20 00:35:45

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@npub1src…fms4 Good to know that internet randos follow this rule, I was unaware!

2024-07-19 23:26:56

IRS reports collecting $1 billion from rich households' back taxes.
If you're wondering why the billionaire owners of the New York Times, Washington Post, et. al. are trying to sabotage the Democrats in general and Biden specifically, it's because of...
https://jwz.org/b/ykWv
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/815/742/330/238/017/original/f1f9cee04d454e65.jpg

2024-07-19 21:55:58

YES... HA HA HA... YES!
https://jwz.org/b/ykWr
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/815/384/637/326/362/original/a06e5a0a27a46de1.jpg

2024-07-16 18:04:06

Some dudes actually find it easier to imagine Privacy-Protecting Advertising Surveillance than to imagine the end of Capitalism.

2024-07-15 02:23:14

When you run your clear and concise employee handbook past a lawyer and they tell you that you're required to add 35 pages re-stating the laws on, amongst other things, "Civil Air Patrol Leave" and "Bone Marrow Donation Leave" --
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/788/122/870/990/489/original/8110b18d6beeee08.mp4

2024-07-13 18:04:32

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@npub1tel…4v4v https://faceintheblue.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/in-a-mass-knife-fight-to-the-death-between-every-american-president-who-would-win-and-why/

2024-07-11 18:10:41

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@npub1t8u…c7sk This must be some extremely specifically-parsed variant of the word "interesting" you are using here.

2024-07-07 23:35:33

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@npub15ml…2w4s Well in my case even "Call to undefined function foo()" still shows up in syslog. Syntax errors too.

2024-07-07 22:36:48

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@npub15ml…2w4s A problem there would make it log nothing ever, not be intermittent.

2024-07-07 22:11:04

Mystery PHP process death.
I have a long-running PHP process that occasionally exits prematurely, after having run for many minutes or hours. According to dmesg, it is not the OOM-killer. I have registered a shutdown function and signal handlers and...
https://jwz.org/b/ykWU
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/747/496/316/382/969/original/4f28a177bfea15bb.jpg

2024-07-07 18:55:09

Can someone give me an ffmpeg audio filter that will reduce the hum in this clip to, let's say, -66 dB? This is for silence detection purposes so it should not significantly reduce the volume of music or speech, were there any.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/746/721/813/285/025/original/d5ff79ac75808bb5.mp3

2024-07-05 22:57:14

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@npub1c5u…sr87 Now I want my desktop keyboard to have a horn.

2024-07-03 17:45:11

*Wipes a tear* Mastodon is all grown up now
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/723/800/913/916/670/original/32b475f4c9b14f94.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/723/801/057/661/659/original/cf87a88ca4b21924.png

2024-07-01 17:43:49

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To those of you JavaScript-framework-poisoned goofballs who are inclined to claim that it is right and reasonable to disavow a web browser that is only 5 years old, let me remind you:
This program is a god damned *TODO list*.
It puts things in columns with checkboxes next to them.
It's not rocket science. It's not *Fallout*. It's not even *Breakout*. It's not even *VisiCalc* .

2024-07-01 03:35:17

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/709/134/653/167/762/original/1dd6a28f022908d1.png

2024-07-01 01:39:40

Basecamp's web site on Safari 13.1.2, macOS 10.13.6:
Are you curious about what those "modern web technologies" are? As far as I can tell, the technology in question is a recent innovation known as "drawing your checkboxes in the right place", which...
https://jwz.org/b/ykWH
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/708/680/437/711/345/original/25fd5c78927f3751.jpg

2024-06-25 23:48:55

SFPD buying $74,000 robot war dog.
It's cool though, they gave it a cutesy name.
SFPD's 2023 report, however, comes months after its January deadline, after Supervisor Dean Preston filed a formal inquiry last month saying he had not received...
https://jwz.org/b/ykVx
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/679/933/397/586/352/original/b4eb7c3811092482.jpg

2024-06-25 19:49:20

Mozilla still going hard on that Open Torment Nexus thing I see

2024-06-20 18:11:37

Mozilla is an advertising company now.
This seems completely normal and cool and not troublesome in any way.
Mozilla has acquired Anonym, a [blah blah blah] raise the bar for the advertising industry [blah blah blah] while delivering effective...
https://jwz.org/b/ykVg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/650/295/512/166/236/original/6e6d29d1288a582e.jpg

2024-06-19 22:42:31

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@npub1src…fms4 Small children can see ghosts, so maybe they can also detect art with no soul.

2024-06-19 17:56:40

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@npub1xxt…f2tp Passing a kidney stone is fine! It's all of the *not passing* that gets ya!

2024-06-19 09:26:56

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@npub182s…q6t5 Get off my lawn, you weirdo.

2024-06-19 07:11:56

I will never understand why someone would choose to watch a ten minute video of someone else reading 3/4ths of one of my blog posts out loud to them.

2024-06-14 21:29:44

Just read an article about how the Doom Loop is over because Westfield Mall just signed up *seven* new tenants!
One of them is a phone screen repair kiosk.
One of them is a vending machine. For dogs.

2024-06-13 05:06:36

Firefox Blocks Add-Ons to Circumvent Russia Censorship.
This story is going to age like fine milk.
The Mozilla Foundation, the entity behind the web browser Firefox, is blocking various censorship circumvention add-ons for its browser, including ones...
https://jwz.org/b/ykVG
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/607/572/498/843/066/original/fc713f08d7d2ac05.jpg

2024-06-11 23:37:53

Duran Duran's Rio Cover Model Identified 42 Years Later.
The reference photo for the album cover was pulled from a 1981 issue of Vogue Paris.
For decades, fans have speculated about the identity of the inspiration for illustrator Patrick Nagel's...
https://jwz.org/b/ykUz
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/600/617/646/189/127/original/0b98d363e84d64ec.jpg

2024-06-11 20:52:30

The Turing Police would like a word.
https://jwz.org/b/ykUt
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/599/967/292/704/282/original/a255d92d31e6fd90.jpg

2024-06-11 00:05:59

Someone has edited my Wikipedia page to change "blogger and impresario" to "entrepreneur" and I feel I have never suffered a greater insult.
Won't someone rid me of this meddlesome edit?

2024-06-10 21:36:16

Fun fact! These 6 graphemes (composed of 10 code points) will probably display as 2 or 3 different glyphs, some of which won't show up on a black background, and you cannot predict how they will look on any given device or browser.
♬♬︎♬️🎵🎵︎🎵️
This is fine.

2024-06-10 04:01:40

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Great news, everybody! Google has approved the updated XScreenSaver Privacy Policy. I assume that this means that they find it 100% factual and endorse it entirely.
https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/google.html

2024-06-08 18:32:43

XScreenSaver 6.09 is out now, including iOS and (maybe someday) Android. Please see Previously: "Your personal information is very important to us."
Two and a half new hacks this time, by me: Kallisti, High Voltage, and Headroom now has a suit.
After...
https://jwz.org/b/ykUj
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/582/430/767/113/835/original/d3ce9fe2596ef7fe.jpg

2024-05-30 23:44:07

Too soon?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/532/694/097/538/916/original/949210254eb6c775.mp4

2024-05-26 09:59:43

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@npub1tvq…l6jk I saw that announcement and gave it all the consideration due to an announcement that the Apple ][ version of Wolfenstein now has a plugin architecture. Honestly I'm not gonna get wound up about the TOS.

2024-05-26 00:11:17

It is with a heavy heart that I bring you the news that Twitter finally got around to renewing t dot co for another twelve months. They did this after it expired but was still in the grace period. Oh well, maybe next year.

2024-05-24 22:43:40

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OMFG. See now, this is the kind of manufacturer-specific threat intelligence it would have been helpful for the lazyweb to have provided me:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/498/477/273/156/055/original/61ebd759b3663abc.jpeg

2024-05-24 11:19:46

The Doctor explains AI:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/495/793/097/485/233/original/e3733635f01efbac.mp4

2024-05-24 08:45:26

Dear Lazyweb, I have an NEC video projector and I can't get it to do DHCP, or become pingable with a static IP. Tried several cables; the switch gets a link light on all. Is there something weird about these that I'm missing? The setup menu seems straightforward.

2024-05-21 20:59:52

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@npub1wwc…88qz I feel certain that no matter how many bike racks existed, they would fill them all with product. No spammer has ever said "that's enough for today, we're good". Capitalism is a paperclip optimizer.

2024-05-21 20:31:31

Is there any recourse -- besides bolt cutters -- to these scooter companies coming by in their truck and locking their commercial product to *every slot in every bike rack* so that nobody with a bike can use the rack at all?
Is there anyone at the city who will do something about these assholes?

2024-05-20 18:46:47

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@npub1src…fms4 Avatar-themed fallout

2024-05-17 18:49:37

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@npub1lrv…tth9 If the content of an article depends upon twitter embeds, it's not journalism, it's just vibes. Nothing of value has been lost.

2024-05-15 03:25:03

The mail settings got screwed up somehow on my mom's iPad and she went into the Apple store to get them to help her reset it. They told her, "Your iPad is too old, mail is no longer supported on it."

2024-05-11 01:17:41

Blockchain Rasputin over here is mad that moderation exists.
It has been obvious to anyone paying attention that the reason Dorsey founded and funded Bluesky was with the end goal of enabling Twitter to go [Spider-Man Pointing dot GIF] any time an...
https://jwz.org/b/ykQM
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/419/816/114/687/687/original/cc8f63caff18d17b.jpg

2024-05-10 12:23:12

Great Moments in Sorting.
I was this many years old when I realized why iMovie was never showing up in the "Recent Items" list. I'd expect this from Android, but come on...
https://jwz.org/b/ykQJ
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/416/770/729/104/246/original/7dfbe3a9fc2b678f.jpg

2024-05-10 00:02:02

Just replaced a 2014 computer with a slightly faster 2014 computer.

2024-05-09 19:57:12

Albini, Redux.
I spent all afternoon assembling yesterday's blog post and mixtape about Steve Albini. Afterward, I went out to DNA Lounge to check out some punk bands with whom I was unfamiliar. (Just like Steve would have wanted.) But all night, I...
https://jwz.org/b/ykQG
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/412/893/616/673/717/original/03427003ce7887bc.jpg

2024-05-08 02:10:55

Most common 4 digit PINs.
https://jwz.org/b/ykP8
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/403/038/529/592/282/original/b9c1f16849f6f8bc.jpg

2024-05-08 01:49:50

I weep for the future.
Last night, a friend I thought would know better was telling me how excited they were about "AI". My gesticulating ten minute response hit points such as: fraud at scale, fruit of the poisonous tree, VCs with sunk costs in...
https://jwz.org/b/ykP4
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/402/955/641/305/095/original/533f8000dab83605.jpg

2024-05-06 17:49:58

Is Xcode actually a program, or a fractal zipbomb of nested installers?
Software update: "New Xcode!"
I fill with dread.
Two hours later: Finally launch Xcode.
Xcode: "Oh, did you want a compiler?? Update tools! Update components!"
Two hours later: press "Run".
Xcode: "Suddenly you have no simulators! Those old ones, they were no good! Download a single simulator!"
Four hours later...

2024-05-05 10:33:40

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@npub1c5u…sr87 Ferris Bueller and Gaius Helen Mohiam.

2024-05-03 04:35:53

There should be WhatTheFont for screws. I take a picture of a weird tiny screw and then they mail me a package of them.

2024-05-01 18:33:15

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@npub100c…gkwp "When we went all-in on the Torment Nexus, we were thrilled by the immediate positive response from Torment Nexus aficionados."

2024-04-29 20:46:44

Remember, the collective noun for techbros is "a podcast".

2024-04-29 20:20:02

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@npub1lrv…tth9 A podcast is an audiobook of a blog post, where they then delete the blog post. This meeting could have been an email.

2024-04-27 19:23:08

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More on this monster: https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

2024-04-27 18:50:10

I see no way this could possibly go wrong.
Pictured here: Twitter founder Biz Stone checks in to his new position on the Mastodon board of directors: "The board was selected based on the values they share with Mastodon."
https://jwz.org/b/ykPm
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/344/682/344/771/445/original/72cb87bb9c6523d7.jpg

2024-04-27 02:46:12

WordPress "growth hacking"
Javi:
Back in 2019, working on WordPress, I started finding myself, almost weekly, arguing against people who wanted to take the product we were working at and made it worse if that mean they could squeeze 0.1% more revenue...
https://jwz.org/b/ykPk
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2024-04-22 21:47:43

DNA Lounge Update, Wherein the Millennial influencers weigh in on staying until last call
https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2024/04/22.html
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