Kagan MacTane

Brooklyn/SF-based web developer, fan of hard SF (especially The Expanse - speak Lang Belta with me!), lover of coyotes, accessibility, cocktails, bacon, and sushi. Bi and queer, Neopagan, feminist and SJW. He/him.
🗽🌉 • 💖🚀 • 🍸🥓🍣 • 🏳️‍🌈✊🏻🌟♀️

https://justmytoots.com/@kagan@wandering.shop

Avatar: Me, a bald, middle-aged white guy, with a blue sky and the Brooklyn Tower in the background
Header: The San Francisco Bay Bridge at night, with the vertical cables lit up by the Bay Lights

Public Key

npub1f7hsv28n3hae79g50z50fr9fcd8e48jnwlumaxxkynz0fcclml3qcrswf4

NIP-05 Address

kagan_at_wandering.shop@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsyltcx9recm7ulz52832853j5uxnu6nefh07d7nrtzf385uv0alcspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q7tw4cs

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1f7hsv28n3hae79g50z50fr9fcd8e48jnwlumaxxkynz0fcclml3qcrswf4

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-10-09 16:54:44

Wait, the new Mastodon release includes grouped notifications? *YES, PLEASE!* 🎉🥳🍾🎊
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/08/x-rival-mastodon-rolls-out-revamped-notifications-a-refreshed-look-and-more/
#Mastodon

2024-10-07 20:20:10

🇺🇸 US govt: Let's force telecom companies to put back doors in all their tech!
🧑‍💻 Every cybersecurity researcher everywhere: That's a horrifically bad idea; bad actors can use your backdoor as well.
🇺🇸: La la la, can't hear you! *passes law*
🇨🇳 Chinese hackers: Oh look, a backdoor! We can use that. 😎
🇺🇸: Oh noes! 😧 How could this possibly have happened?
🧑‍💻: This is my shocked face. 🙃

2024-09-16 13:42:47

Dear Every Company Everywhere:
If you are "experiencing longer-than-usual wait times" *every time* I call you, then those times are, by definition, the usual times.
You need to hire more help-line staff.
The fact that you refuse to do makes it clear that my call is not, in fact, "important to [you]." So that's two bullshit lies before I even get to talk to someone. Not a good look.
Corporate America, do better.

2024-09-14 14:58:01

I woke up this morning to 707 notifications. Apparently I have a couple of different things that are getting massive boosts right now.
Wow. Yikes.

2024-09-13 15:14:49

Saw this going around recently, slightly cropped. Here's the original of Mike Peters' cartoon from the Dayton Daily News, April 21, 1978.
As the newer caption put it, "This '70s cartoon is still too accurate!"
#BigOil #environment #SolarPower
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/130/867/320/403/962/original/cfb090cc93d9cf52.webp

2024-09-11 02:14:07

"If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now."
#USpol #PresidentialDebate

2024-09-07 23:04:21

Wait, there really still no first-word selector or pseudo-element in CSS? That's so weird.
#CSS #webdev

2024-09-06 20:52:38

At the 9/11 Memorial park. I thought it was time I see it, since I was reminded by the beams of light in the night sky last night.
I thought maybe the cloudy day would be appropriate, too. I was right.
#WorldTradeCenter #WTC #NYC #NewYorkCity #photography
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/092/565/828/007/934/original/f2f903c9149375b6.jpg

2024-09-06 17:03:02

Reposted for better alt text...
#accessibility #a11y #AccessForAll
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/091/670/773/807/887/original/112b527cd78b4304.jpg

2024-09-03 15:48:20

The meme that has over a dozen newspaper clippings going back to 1894, all saying "nobody wants to work anymore" (or very close variations)... is TRUE! ✅ Snopes tracked down the sources. They're all real.
Maybe the moral is that people have *never* wanted to work... or at least, not at shitty jobs for low wages.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore/
#work #NobodyWantsToWork #capitalism #whining #labor

2024-09-02 20:32:30

🤡NaNoWriMo: Disliking AI is ableist!
👩‍🦽👩‍🦼Disabled people: It's not ableist at all. You using us as part of your crusade is insulting. You trying to speak for us *is* ableist.
I know who I'm going to believe in this dialogue.
(I'd tag this with # NothingAboutUsWithoutUs, but I'm not part of the "us".)
#NaNoWriMo #BadFaith #disability #ableism #ableist

2024-08-30 16:24:43

Reminder for USians: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, etc., are only "entitlements" in the sense that yes, *you ARE entitled to them*! Because you paid for them.
Every W-2 form you've ever gotten has had fields for Social Security tax, Medicare tax, and state income tax. Those are what pay those things.
If you're unemployed, sick, retired, or whatever, *get what you've already paid for!* You deserve it!
#entitlements #YouDeserveIt #TalkingPoints

2024-08-29 17:55:11

PSA for everyone on Mastodon: You don't need to use link shorteners. All links count as 23 characters, no matter what.
All a link shortener does is keep people from seeing where the link goes*. Many of us will refuse to boost posts with shortened links precisely because of this.
Please, just put the actual link in your post!
* And make your link become useless if the link shortening service ever goes away for any reason.)
#Mastodon #etiquette #links #LinkShorteners #PSA

2024-08-26 19:22:33

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw I'm so very sorry for your loss. He sounds like he was absolutely wonderful.

2024-08-23 15:39:53

I suspect far too many of my followers can relate to this guy who was burglarizing an apartment, but then got distracted by a book on the bedside table and started reading it...
https://boingboing.net/2024/08/22/burglar-busted-after-getting-distracted-by-bedside-book.html
#bibliophilia

2024-08-20 19:04:49

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Take good care of yourself!

2024-08-13 20:12:42

Taylor Swift. The Barbie movie. Now Harris/Walz. MAGAs are throwing out all the copium they can, and it's just falling flat and making them look weirder.
https://www.salon.com/2024/08/13/donald-fake-crowd-lie-about-kamala-harris-shows-how-much-hes-lost-it-since-january-6/
#conservatives #MAGA #cope #copium #fake #FakeCrowd #USpol #CWUSpol

2024-08-12 20:18:50

- reply

@npub1pfe…e2dm No, I was running it on Apache. But if multiple users were hitting a site at the same time, and there was file access involved, then simultaneous accesses were possible.

2024-08-12 17:35:12

Reminder: Gender-affirming care for #trans youth means social transition (letting them wear the clothes and use the name and pronouns they choose), and puberty blockers or HRT — all of which are reversible. You just stop taking (or wearing) them, easy-peasy!
Going through full, unblocked puberty in the wrong body? That's *not* reversible.
Also reminder: nobody seems to have a problem with HRT for cis kids.
#transgender #TransRights #GenderAffirmingCare

2024-08-12 17:10:58

The law is far too blunt an instrument to deal with the very personal situations people have to face.
#abortion #ProChoice
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/950/141/621/428/086/original/124302a0fdd9f9eb.jpg

2024-08-12 16:20:59

Various recent SCOTUS decisions are effectively implementing major aspects of Project 2025, such as weakening federal regulations and advancing Christian nationalism.
Project 2025 isn't a threat for next year if Trump wins; it's already happening.
https://www.salon.com/2024/08/12/4-decisions-that-have-quietly-jumpstarted-project-2025/
#SCOTUS #Project2025 #USpol #CWUSpol

2024-08-11 00:44:53

Me 2 hours ago: I have no creativity or motivation. I can't write today.
30 minutes ago: (same)
20 minutes ago: Fine, how about if I just pour myself a Manhattan and an Irish whiskey shot, sit down and see what happens?
Now: Hey, I just wrote 186 words in this vignette... and I'm picking up steam!
Sometimes you really do have some words in you, even when you don't feel like it. Give it a try!
#writing #AmWriting

2024-08-06 21:18:12

- reply

@npub1k74…dmux I'm so very sorry for your loss.

2024-07-26 22:37:41

Well, crap, it would really help my group of MCs if this particular one would learn divination. Sadly, he's just a little too devout Catholic for that. He can square being an urban wizard with his faith (largely because his confessing priest says these powers are really from God, to do good things with), but adding fortune-telling on top of that? Doesn't matter what Father Rodriguez says, that's too much.
(BTW, that priest is a Jesuit. In case you were wondering.)
#writing #AmWriting

2024-07-19 20:46:54

I have successfully tried omurice. Got to Hi Collar ~15 minutes before their lunch seatings ended.
Their version is with ketchup, and it was okay. I think I might prefer the demiglace version. So I'll have to try hitting Bar Moga sometime.
#omurice #omnomnom #xenophilia #food

2024-07-15 16:02:16

Your periodic reminder that LGBTQ+ kids are bullied at a much higher rate than most of their straight peers, and yet we don't see an epidemic of queer shooters.
And when I said "most of", the major exception I'm thinking of is disabled kids. But there's no wave of shooters in wheelchairs, or ones with cerebral palsy, etc.
Bullying is neither a cause nor an excuse.

2024-07-14 16:58:23

Happy International Non-Binary People's Day, everyone! :heart_sp_nb: :heart_sp_nb: :heart_sp_nb:
#NonBinaryDay #NonBinaryPeoplesDay #enbies #enby

2024-07-13 17:30:00

It's right there in black and white. They say "pornography should be outlawed" — and they say it includes "transgender ideology", but that includes such simple things as *admitting that trans people exist*.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/project-2025-porn-ban-lgbtq-transgender-rcna161562
#Project2025 #PornBan #pornography #transphobia #USPol

2024-07-10 22:32:18

A note on #AltText: you don't have to provide information that isn't in the picture, or that sighted people wouldn't have. The goal in #accessibility is to *equal* the able-bodied person's experience, but you don't have to exceed it.
Here's a great example: https://normal.style/@sabrina/112764140074481820 The alt text doesn't explain "why batteries?". But it accurately describes the pic! So what if it leaves its reader completely confoozled? I, a sighted user, was *also* completely confoozled by this post. #a11y win! 😁

2024-07-04 16:15:38

A touching piece about bisexuality, invisibility, and belonging.
"...being queer is not just about who you are sleeping with. It is a culture, an identity, a way of seeing the world — without automatically accepting societal expectations for love or gender embodiment."
https://www.salon.com/2024/06/30/what-i-wish-id-known-about-bisexuality-and-the-truth-about-love/
#bisexuality #bisexual #BisexualInvisibility #queer #LGBTQ

2024-07-03 16:52:23

Good: Potential employer wants to move forward! 😄
Bad: After me not having heard anything from them for days, the recruiter's email says this "must be completed at once". Excuse me, WTF? ☹
Stressful: A take-home tech assessment. Can I do it? Can I do it well enough? Is it gonna be one of those things that takes me longer than expected? Yikes. 😬
#jobhunt

2024-07-01 18:04:28

#SocialSecurity #entitlements
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/712/544/098/518/235/original/b5b516167772e601.jpg

2024-06-30 19:12:49

Reminder: It's okay to have bridesmen and groomswomen at weddings. If, e.g., the groom wants his sister in the wedding party, she can be a groomswoman. If she and the bride aren't close, there's no need for her to be a bridesmaid. And vice-versa with the bride's brother, or anyone's good friends, etc.
It's okay if the groom's attendants and the bride's attendants are both mixed-gender groups. It's not the 19th Century anymore; people have opposite-gender friends. (And even nonbinary ones!)

2024-06-28 01:26:28

This is a disaster for anyone who doesn't like Trump. Biden is coming apart on the stage. He's stammering, he sounds unfocused, and he's shaking his own head because he knows it.
Trump is spewing his usual lies, but he's doing it *confidently*. TBH, he sounds more coherent than Biden does. I really hate to say it, but Trump is winning this debate. 😢💔
#USPol #CWUSPol #debate #PresidentialDebate

2024-06-25 17:35:26

So tired of seeing things like this on job postings. Do they ask back-end engineers to have front-end skills? Somehow I doubt it. (But tell me if I'm honestly wrong.)
Regardless, if they want front and back, they should *just list the thing as full-stack*, dammit! Call it what it is.
#jobhunt #rant
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/678/452/760/586/169/original/48f7e7858e98ce8e.png

2024-06-25 16:49:36

How easy is it to make a fake news site? This 404 Media reporter got one for US$365.63 in 2 days.
"[F]looding the internet with an infinite amount of what could pass for journalism is cheap and even easier than I imagined, as long as I didn’t respect the craft, my audience, or myself."
We're doomed.
https://www.404media.co/i-paid-365-63-to-replace-404-media-with-ai/
#journalism #AI #fakes #FakeNews

2024-06-24 18:07:02

Hochul continues to avoid questions about how she plans to make up the MTA budget shortfall without congestion pricing. Her answers are basically "trust me" and "shut up and stop asking".
https://nysfocus.com/2024/06/24/hochul-declines-questions-congestion-pricing
#KathyHochul #CongestionPricing #NYC #NewYorkCity #subway #NYCPol

2024-06-21 20:32:33

Well, I had the interview. Mostly did fine, I think, except that I couldn't describe what serverless is. I'm probably out of the running because of that; probably everyone else could get that one, and probably didn't bone any of their other answers badly enough to put themselves behind me. 🙁
Oh well. I've looked it up. I could answer it *now*.
Guess I just gotta keep on plugging.

2024-06-21 16:02:58

- reply

@npub1j0v…d9dx Reading it backward, one sentence at a time, is a new one to me. Thanks for introducing me to a new idea! I'll try that sometime.

2024-06-21 06:37:49

Okay, that "read your text aloud while editing" advice is absolutely clutch. I'm very aural; I "hear" it aloud while I'm writing, so you'd think I' not have this problem. But reading it back? That's found me a couple of closely-repeated words twice already in the last couple of days.
I didn't think that was a problem I had, but it turns out I do. And this helps me catch it.
Yes, it seriously helps. Do it.
#writing #AmWriting #AmEditing #editing

2024-06-17 00:50:25

I understand the #Winamp source code has been released as open course. And that's cool, but really, the thing *mostly* works just fine as far as I'm concerned.
Mostly.
The one thing I really, unironically, no-cap, want is: an option to make it so that whenever you first turn it on, it plays DJ Mike Llama's llama-whipping intro. Doesn't put it in the playlist or anything; just uses it as a startup sound.
I don't care if it's an extension, a checkbox in settings, whatever. I just want it.

2024-06-16 03:13:36

So Lucifer got Chloe to shoot him, and it hurt him. Since then, he's been very careful about not getting shot anymore. It sure looks like the show's going with "it's more interesting to have a character who *isn't* invulnerable", but I think it'd be hilarious if it's just that he only gets hurt if *Chloe* shoots him. Like she's immune to his charm, she can also hurt him. But he's still bulletproof to everyone else (and was all careful for nothing!).

2024-06-14 18:32:39

Reminder for anyone handling names in a form, database, or whatever: both given names and surnames can have spaces in them. "Mary Ann" is a valid name, and "St. Clair" is a real family name. Allow your users to put in their names properly, and *never* call them "invalid".
(What's actually invalid if you do that is *your name validation logic*.)
#webdev #WebDevelopment #BadUX #BadUXDesign #UX #UI #names

2024-06-14 15:40:05

Holy fuck, I just got a nibble! I have an email from a place I sent my résumé to yesterday, asking if I can have a phone call with their recruiter!
Holy cow, wow.
#jobhunt

2024-06-13 15:17:36

- reply

@npub1k74…dmux 🤔 I think I'm probably in the 9.5%. 🤷🏻

2024-06-06 22:39:17

- reply

Like, seriously, was some tailored virus released at a meeting of Silicon Valley CEOs last year? One that was designed to make them do stupid things that would result in corporate suicide?
If so, kudos to the person who engineered *that*. It's working out great!
But otherwise, why are they all being *so* dumb, and doing it right now?

2024-06-06 22:36:31

Between #MicrosoftRecall and now #Adobe's crack-smoking new attempt to claim access to anything you create with their products, it's really feeling like tech company CEOs have all been simultaneously struck with some weird-ass brain virus that shuts down even the most rudimentary "maybe this would wipe out my company?" thoughts. *And* the ability to listen to their own legal departments, who have gotta be saying, "This is flagrantly illegal and will subject us to company-destroying lawsuits."

2024-06-03 18:22:27

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Thanks for the warning. I did see on their site that they're generally booked a year in advance, and promptly changed my thinking about timelines. 😄

2024-06-03 16:11:13

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Thanks very much! I probably won't need an editor's services for something like a year ☹, but I'll definitely keep them in mind when I reach that point.

2024-06-02 23:17:03

I really want to get back to vignettes, but right now, some more parts of world-building are occupying my attention. I have this divination system *almost* complete, and I'm realizing more and more that I really need to flesh out this bar and grill that many of my characters go to... like, partly so that I can set scenes there in vignettes! 😆
Anyway, I'm reminding myself that it still counts as #AmWriting even if it's background/world-building work. #writing

2024-06-02 21:55:44

- reply

@npub1k74…dmux Yup, that definitely looks like them! Here's more info, if it helps:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_(band)
A bunch of their stuff is on Tidal; I don't know if that's any help to you.

2024-06-01 20:04:08

Trying to find a good term or phrase...
"Family of origin" is the family you were born into and raised in. Generally, parents and siblings, possibly also other relatives.
"Family of choice" (aka "found family") is the people you choose to be with and who really have your back.
Okay, so what to call "your spouse and children"? The family you are creating and raising?
(Boosts welcome, thanks!) #AskFedi

2024-06-01 16:50:51

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Congratulations! Looks pretty cool. I like that font!

2024-05-27 18:33:28

There are rivers of rain pouring down the (nearly floor-to-ceiling, panoramic) windows of my apartment. It's like being in the reverse of a fishbowl: a little bubble of air surrounded by water. 🌧

2024-05-26 19:29:53

I'm not complaining about the fact that on the fediverse, something you wrote roughly 18 months ago can just suddenly take off and start "doing numbers" out of the blue.
But I'd like to understand *why and how* that happens. It's mystifying, and I'm curious!

2024-05-20 13:49:42

- reply

@npub15wt…7rek Thanks for the data, but darn.

2024-05-20 13:43:46

They had the usual video about what's involved in jury service, and then they had another one on implicit bias and how to overcome it! I'm glad they did that. I wonder if other states are doing that? (Like, is California doing that yet? The last time I was called the courtroom for #JuryDuty there was ages ago. Anyway, I hope so.)

2024-05-09 17:20:36

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Don't worry, I'm okay waiting as long as it takes for the next installment of "You Are Needed". And... good luck! 🤞🏻

2024-05-09 17:19:41

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Oh damn, that sounds terrible! You have all my sympathy.

2024-05-09 02:57:14

- reply

@npub1k74…dmux Oh, don't I know *that* one! 😄

2024-05-08 17:41:53

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw Go you!
More employers need to find out that their employees *will not go* to states where they, or their queer siblings, or *women*, are not safe.

2024-04-11 20:18:34

If I provide an #AltText for you, it's 100% OK to edit your post to put the text in. And if you do, I will happily delete my reply. I'm not looking for credit; it's fine if you and I collaborate to make it look like your image had an alt text all the time. In fact, that's what I want! That's the best place for the text, not in a reply where people have to go hunting for it.
So if you reply to my alt text with thanks, be ready to delete your own thanks after I delete my post. 😉
#etiquette #alt

2023-12-15 18:07:07

For a disease that's "over", #Covid sure did kill over 1600 people last week. In the US alone.
https://mastodon.social/@WeeklyAmericanPandemicDeaths/111585674233880250
#CovidIsNotOver #MaskUp 😷

2023-09-23 04:42:37

- reply

@npub1d62…tshf Not sure if this was intended sarcastically or sympathetically? Also, I'm not sick; it's just allergies. I'm sorry, I was unclear about that.

2023-08-27 16:16:09

- reply

@npub1k24…26zw I am so sorry, and I understand that feeling of not wanting to lose connection.
Please be well, and take good care of yourself. (I'd say "and him", but I can already see you're doing that; there is no doubt whatsoever!)

2022-11-28 18:00:30

"Your brain isn't fully formed/you're not really an adult until age 25" is not really supported by neuroscience - and this factoid is doing harm to people. We need to drop it. https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/brain-development-25-year-old-mature-myth.html #neuroscience #science