Paul Cantrell

Composer, pianist, programmer, professor, rabble rouser, redhead

Computer Science at https://www.macalester.edu/mscs/
(Student projects: https://devgarden.macalester.edu)
Artistic Director of https://newruckus.org
Freelance software dev, often with https://bustout.com
Musical troublemaker https://innig.net/music/

Minneapolis, MN
Born & raised in Ft. Collins, CO
he/him or they/them

The heart is the toughest part of the body.
Tenderness is in the hands.
— Carolyn Forché

Public Key

npub1wd5vff3dsq0nf3yde85fn4g3qeaagwuacxw222j35f6q6r6lvttsyeu3nk

NIP-05 Address

inthehands_at_hachyderm.io@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8x6xy5ckcq8e5cjxun6ye65gsv7758wwur8999fg6yaqdpa0k94c6dvs37

Author Public Key

npub1wd5vff3dsq0nf3yde85fn4g3qeaagwuacxw222j35f6q6r6lvttsyeu3nk

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Last Notes

2024-10-01 00:37:04

Damn, Randall Munroe sure does have a knack for making unimaginably large quantities imaginable. What a thought.
https://xkcd.com/2992/

2024-09-23 19:26:08

Just FYI, Covid levels in Minnesota are now exceeding last winter’s peak.
Just in case changing your behavior based on the current situation is part of your approach to life.
https://wastewater.uspatial.umn.edu/sars-cov-2/
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/188/508/015/081/805/original/f0153e8d7a4daf0c.png

2024-09-19 03:08:32

The detail that I just keep coming back to in my mind: when they started filming The Apprentice, Trump was so broke and his org was so deep in debt that “even the conference rooms at Trump Tower were so dilapidated that they had to be faked.”
The TV show paid for the fake conference rooms, IIRC, because Trump couldn't afford it.
#uspol
https://wapo.st/3MOE3lm

2024-09-12 19:17:15

Ha, this is beautiful.
My first introduction to Crazy Taxi was on an arcade cabinet at the MN State Fair, visiting with @npub1fr6…wyqh. Now it comes full circle!
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/09/reported-dreamcast-addict-tim-walz-is-now-an-unofficial-crazy-taxi-character/

2024-09-10 04:20:38

A coworker of mine years ago once said of James Earl Jones’s voice, “When he says ‘This…is CNN,’ you think to yourself, ‘Oh my GOD, it is, why did I never think about that??!?”
There’s something I want you to about James Earl Jones: he was a person who stuttered.
1/

2024-09-05 15:22:59

Don’t get into the weeds of these nonsense stories. Don’t let them live in your brain. Just know this: they’re false. They’re completely made up. If you hear someone repeating them, they’re not living in reality.
From @npub1lzz…jhl3’s news roundup:
https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/113085173792519622

2024-08-30 16:20:50

A reminder to myself, sharing for whoever needs to hear it:
Students mostly don’t read the syllabus. The primary beneficiary of the syllabus is the instructor. It’s a planning tool, a thought-sharpener. Anything students need to hear must also come through other channels.
Also, students:
Actually reading the syllabus — •really• reading it, not just kind of looking at it — is a superpower. It’s a window into the prof’s mind. You probably won’t, I know, but if you do…instant leg up.

2024-08-30 02:09:36

Consensus on the Momentous CNN Interview on my TL seems to be:
- Harris is not a leftist
- Harris is not a fool
- The press still kind of seem to be fools
- Trump never has faced and never will face anything like this kind of scrutiny from an interviewer, ever
#uspol

2024-08-28 01:51:17

I’d just like to say to every obnoxious Reply Guy Leftist who gave me shit on Twitter for what I said about Tulsi Gabbard 4-5 years ago:
1. I told you so.
2. I’m telling you so about Jill Stein too.
#uspol

2024-08-16 00:17:01

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@npub17vj…g088
She is, I married the heck out of her and I’d do it again any time any place!

2024-08-16 00:10:51

I don’t usually put much stock in this sort of thing, but I tried this from @npub17vj…g088 on my wife and its diagnosis was 100% correct, just uncannily accurate https://mastodon.social/@cmconseils/112968736197067481

2024-08-13 18:59:05

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The crisp “even an executive can understand it” version of the OP is:
⚠️ AI increases labor costs ⚠️
(“Why?” “Because it’s labor-intensive to clean up its messes.”)

2024-08-13 16:13:51

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Those who’ve worked in software will immediate recognize the phenomenon of “messes that look like successes.”
One of my old Paulisms is that the real purpose of a whole lot of software processes is to make large-scale failure look like a string of small successes.

2024-07-31 20:24:59

Apparently there are still people out there who know how to write a headline:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/31/kamala-harris-vp-trump-politics-updates
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/882/974/638/019/273/original/89d59266405199ce.png

2024-07-29 22:10:38

Just to state the obvious:
Any moderation system that regularly lets through the kind of sewage that @npub178j…tqtd has been highlighting is a moderation system that is failing.
Failing.
Full stop. https://dair-community.social/@KimCrayton1/112872020308883967

2024-07-27 17:56:50

“The workers report utter burnout on this awful tool that doesn’t work. Management remains all-in because they’re that desperate to replace humans with robots and to patch up the holes in the org chart left by all the arbitrary layoffs.”
Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/112858504726224931

2024-07-27 00:54:11

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@npub1zak…d6uu
Sorry for the confusion, I meant ‘ham, a contraction of “sham”

2024-07-27 00:44:40

I don’t think it’s particularly useful to follow the details of Trump’s ear in tedious detail. (Gun violence is bad, even if it was just a scratch.)
I do think it’s useful to remember — and to relentlessly point out evidence — that Trump is a congenital liar, a con man, and a ham who manipulates the press and people’s emotions.
It’s also useful to decry his break with the long-standing norm of the public receiving accurate medical information about candidates.
#uspol
https://www.threads.net/@meidastouch/post/C95-lxRyRMQ

2024-07-26 14:54:22

Water pollution violates treaties between Native nations and the United States.
Those treaties are still in effect.
A Biden admin EPA issued rule this May that finally acknowledges these facts. That rule is now being challenged in court by Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/07/26/in-long-sought-change-states-must-consider-tribal-rights-when-crafting-water-rules/

2024-07-26 04:16:41

There is an obvious answer to this question posed by Jay Kuo and quoted by @npub1lzz…jhl3:
It is Trump and Vance who did not earn their positions. They are reverse DEI hires.
#uspol https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/112848571672754510

2024-07-22 01:33:51

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Well hot damn
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/kamala-harris-endorsements/
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/827/566/039/679/496/original/7bc2f7ee3c564a01.png

2024-07-19 17:37:39

If you think some other candidate would do better than Biden, fine, OK, I’m listening. You have a plan for the replacement and the legal fallout, right? Right?
AOC: “I have stood up in rooms with all of these people and I have said, ‘Game out your actual plan for me.’ What are the risks of this going to the Supreme Court? And no one had an answer for me.… I’m talking about the lawyers. I’m talking about the legislators.”
https://newrepublic.com/post/184042/aoc-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-warning-biden-drop-out-instagram-live

2024-07-13 03:35:15

Huh. Goldman Sachs makes two surprising claim: one obvious but surprising to hear coming from •them•, and one just surprising.
The obvious-but-wow-they-said-it part: current AI is expensive, unreliable, intrinsically limited:
“To justify costs, [AI] must be able to solve complex problems, which it isn’t designed to do…not a matter of just some tweaks…the tech is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to be useful for even basic tasks”
1/
https://www.404media.co/goldman-sachs-ai-is-overhyped-wildly-expensive-and-unreliable/

2024-07-12 23:10:28

This. All of it. Top to bottom.
This is what the MSM should be plastering wall to wall.
Eyes on the ball, everyone.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-07-11/la-trump-unfit-for-office-biden-election

2024-07-11 17:12:41

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@npub1can…0fm9
Sorry, did the op specify the person’s gender?

2024-07-08 00:35:58

Remember that the police murdered George Floyd in broad daylight in front of a crowd of witnesses for the terrible crime of trying to buy something with a fake twenty he might not have even known was counterfeit.
Remember as you read this from @npub1k4q…3lsq:
https://mstdn.ca/@ned/112748043108869759

2024-06-29 23:18:53

This really is good — and part of a wave of sensible commentary coming on the heels of the initial boneheaded debate reactions of the NYT ilk.
If the debate has you in a panic about the election, watch this. It’s easy to digest and you’ll feel better. https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/112700224365400519

2024-06-28 01:59:53

Because I don’t hear this obvious theory stated often enough:
The reason a lot of people are hung up on Biden’s age but not Trump’s is that Biden’s second in succession is a Black woman.

2024-06-07 16:44:59

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An analogy I use a lot with my programming students: suppose you don’t know how to ride a bicycle. You could read 10,000 pages about riding bicycles and watch all the tutorial videos in the world, and I guarantee that the first time you actually got on a bicycle, you’d still fall off.

2024-05-28 15:00:02

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@npub1k4q…3lsq …more like a Croc-chet group, amiright?

2024-05-24 17:40:42

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The author here correctly ties the action of police-summoning university presidents to a larger anti-democracy movement. The whole piece is worth reading.

2024-05-21 20:54:03

IMPORTANT ALERT
2025 will be the first square-numbered year since 1936.
Plan accordingly.

2024-05-21 15:23:33

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@npub19fc…ay3c Yeah. Defeating Trump is “keep the vehicle from going off the cliff RIGHT NOW,” but not “Why are the brakes gone, and why were we so close to this cliff in the first place?”

2024-05-14 03:53:38

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Lest it get lost in that longer post:
Assume Telegram is compromised. Not just vulnerable. Compromised.

2024-05-14 02:47:33

So…there is a concerted campaign, with Musk as its mouthpiece, to discredit Signal and get people to switch to Telegram. It’s disinformation, but there’s also useful information in it. The useful information is that a hideous, powerful, right-wing crank — or whoever’s yanking his chain — really, really wants people to use Telegram.
We’ve long known Telegram’s security is weak. But now, in light of this new information, we should move forward assuming that Telegram is actively compromised.

2024-05-10 16:37:23

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What’s the moral of this story?
(1) The hiring process is mostly not about you. That sounds weird, but it’s true.
(2) As an applicant, your job is to jump through nonsensical hoops — or walk around them, if you can — until you can reach the point where you’re having a real conversation with somebody who’s actually involved with the position in question.
(2a) That often means straight-up ignoring clearly stated job requirements.
5/

2024-05-10 16:34:49

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Another anecdote I heard: a team kept getting terribly unqualified candidates when they reached the technical interview phase, and couldn’t understand why. They finally looked up and started their own interview process, and found that HR had walled the position with some random tech screening quiz they found online…that had •the wrong answers•. HR was actively screening out candidates with basic knowledge!
4/

2024-05-10 16:30:56

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That’s how you end up with job postings like the one that made the rounds on social media a while back that required “5+ years of Swift experience”…one year after Swift was released.
In most cases, of course, those hard requirements on years and tools knowledge aren’t even what the team is looking for in a candidate. They’re looking for •somebody they want on their team•.
3/

2024-05-10 16:29:12

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HR: What technology is your team using?
[several intervening information-destroying communication hops later]
Team: Well, it’s a C# project, but what we really need is…
[back through the lossy hops]
HR: Great! This is a mid-level position, so we’ll say “3-5 years of C# experience.” Now to search the web for some random C# quiz we can use for screening!
Job “requirements” aren’t really requirements at all; they’re corporate Mad Libs.
2/

2024-05-10 16:24:34

Something I tell my software students a lot when they’re looking for jobs is to remember that a shockingly large number of job descriptions are written by people in HR who have next to zero understanding of the industry, the specific team, or the business need.
All they’ve got to work with is fragments they’ve heard without comprehension, coming to them through a terrible game of corporate telephone.
1/

2024-05-09 13:24:47

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@npub19fc…ay3c
Hurt people hurt people.

2024-02-24 16:05:03

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@npub1mdk…aptk
And let’s not forget Station Eleven, because dang

2024-02-22 23:38:02

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@npub1mdk…aptk
I sometimes find it helpful to think about organizations like this not as being pillars or foundations but rather as being like the fruiting body of a mycelium: briefly glorious, quickly rotting, to be reformed again elsewhere when conditions are good.

2024-02-18 15:55:36

There’s a lot to chew on in this short article (ht @npub1th4…cem3):
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240214-ai-recruiting-hiring-software-bias-discrimination
“An AI resume screener…trained on CVs of employees already at the firm” gave candidates extra marks if they listed male-associated sports, and downgraded female-associated sports.
Bias like this is enraging, but completely unsurprising to anybody who knows half a thing about how machine learning works. Which apparently doesn’t include a lot of execs and HR folks.
1/

2024-01-24 15:00:20

Recommendations of RSS readers, either macOS or web-based?
This is partly for my own use, but also I’d like to have a few to test against.

2024-01-17 20:57:00

Any recommendations for a git tool that:
- runs on macOS, and
- does a really nice job of the •commit• workflow: showing the diff, selecting changes to commit, maybe selecting individual lines.
I don’t care about anything fancier than commits — not even switching branches! I have tools I like for all that stuff.
I’m just looking for a nice UI for viewing and selecting uncommitted changes, something better than the clunky “stage / unstage” buttons that are the norm.

2024-01-03 02:24:52

You know, Pages on macOS is a good app.
People hate on it, and maybe if I had stronger word processor feelings I would too. But…I don’t, and I like it. It’s flexible without being a giant piece of MS-Word-like bloatware. It produces nice results. And it’s stayed more or less reasonable for •years•.

2023-12-26 16:51:24

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 @npub1vn8…sd85
Yes! Normalize redundancy, verification, and checking external sources, instead of encouraging the arrogant practice of refusing help to demonstrate knowledge! It’s a fragile ego that refuses “measure twice, cut once.”

2023-12-20 16:36:35

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@npub1k4q…3lsq This BS: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/111075245991998920
That sucks. I’m so sorry. Of course eventually the bad decisions will have consequences, but in the meantime the boss who made them get richer and probably be long gone, and you’ll get a plateful of headaches you didn’t deserve. Just a plate of garbage.

2023-12-19 04:00:42

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@npub1t5m…9guy I don’t know if it makes you feel better or worse, but in the hopes it provides some reassurance: “dead mouse in surprising random place and you didn’t think you had mice” is a normal occurrence. It’s not your fault, and it’s not a sign of something deeply wrong with your house. Wrong with the universe, maybe, but not you or your house.

2023-11-17 19:36:51

I’m a reluctant hardware upgrader, but finally got an Apple Silicon machine. And I’m really, really noticing what others have said:
It’s snappy. Very snappy.
It’s snappy in a way that raw speed can’t explain. My perfectly fast Intel machine has lots of little pauses and lurches and burbles that are just…gone. Waking, launching things, plugging in the external display, all just poof! happen.

2023-10-25 14:53:43

This story ought to be getting a whole lot more attention than it is.
Minneapolis Police have been running something approaching a mafia-style protection racket targeting local businesses, especially minority-owned businesses.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/17/small-business-owners-they-are-pressured-to-hire-off-duty-mpd-cops-for-security/
1/2

2023-09-20 13:40:26

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@npub1ulm…hweg
Ah, that’s tough.
I was gauging the tone of the situation mostly from this article:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/96-year-old-suspended-judge-honored-at-patent-law-conference-29

2023-09-20 13:23:30

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@npub1ulm…hweg
Is there any legitimate reason to doubt her fitness? Or is this just ageism and retribution, as my first blush reading suggests?

2023-09-20 13:17:36

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@npub1ulm…hweg
Just looked this up, and…seems like a really ugly situation? Hard to read at a distance here.

2023-09-18 03:59:38

Estimated 50,000–75,0000 people marching in the streets of NYC today to end fossil fuels.
This is what we need to do. And we need to do it everywhere. And we need to do it again, and again, and again.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/17/march-to-end-fossil-fuels-new-york-city

2023-09-16 14:15:48

You know how young children will see some toy or shiny object on a store shelf, and somehow — by design! Marketers know what they’re doing! — they instantly •have• to have it, and are obsessed, and all sense and proportion go out they window and they need it now now NOW, but if they get it they soon abandon it because it’s junk that only looked good on the shelf?
It’s like that with CEOs and AI right now.

2023-09-14 16:01:19

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@npub1rdr…wdjz
A foolish question beside the (very important!) point:
Why does the curve have such a strong seasonal shape? Shouldn’t it be more or less flat, as opposing seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres cancel each other out?

2023-09-10 00:20:50

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@npub1c0m…xqjl @npub10fr…aw9l
Is this a hypothetical (that makes a good point), or do we actually have report of such a new port?

2023-09-07 18:46:24

A question for Law Mastodon, because I have absolutely no idea:
Does Elon Musk using Starlink to intentionally disrupt a Ukraine military operation against Russia potentially violate laws about who may conduct foreign policy? (Logan Act, Article II, whatever, who knows??)
#legal #law #uslaw

2023-09-03 19:42:43

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@npub1ulm…hweg
That is helpful, thank you!
It does make intuitive sense that some things could be radically unlike any existing patent but still be “obvious,” whereas some tiny but consequential change could be non-obvious — and working out that line of thought, yes, I see that there kind of has to be a time asymmetry there. Brain hurting, but I think I understand! Law is fascinating.
I am confused about the parenthetical “(scope)” after “infringement” in your answer. Could you clarify that?

2023-09-03 19:27:07

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@npub1ulm…hweg As a non-patent-person (and non-lawyer) follower, this is intriguing! May I check my very dim understanding here by attempting to restate?
Is what you’re saying that, legally speaking, “anticipation” vs infringement is (purely? mostly?) a function of order in time, whereas “obviousness” is a test that does not (entirely? at all?) depend on what’s already been done before? Am I in the ballpark here?

2023-08-31 01:59:04

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Just to clarify, because a few people in the replies are confused:
Fuck Mitch McConnell. I am not in any way suggesting anybody needs to be nice to him. Wish him dead, by all means. Dance on his grave. If you invite me to that party, I’ll be there.
Just…be careful where you aim your punches. If you aim at his disability, he’s •not• the person you’re going to hit.

2023-08-30 21:58:53

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Now if we’re talking about his capacity to continue in his current role, that’s a really important conversation. And it’s a conversation we can have in a way that respects disability and the people who live with it, and respects all of us as we age, without having to respect this specific utterly hideous person.
@npub1h2y…jlsd

2023-08-30 21:54:45

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No. I’m sorry, @npub1h2y…jlsd, but no:
https://infosec.exchange/@atax1a/110980731660253361 No. Wrong.
Mocking disability is •never• punching up. •That• is the power dynamic in this situation.
Don’t get me wrong. McConnell is the sort of person who makes me wish hell were real so he could go there. Yes, punch him. Be ruthless with that fucker.
But if you mock his age or disability, he’s not the person you’re punching.

2023-08-30 21:18:47

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Sudden and/or progressive cognitive impairment — dementia, stroke, brain lesions, aging, etc. — is cruel and indiscriminate. It strikes people who are kind, brave, brilliant, beautiful to the core, singular, irreplaceable, loved.
Picture one of those people. You probably know someone. You at least know •of• someone. Got one?
Now, before you make that wisecrack about McConnell’s brain, ask: “Could my mockery resonate with their condition, too?” If so, that’s the person you’re punching.

2023-08-30 20:58:32

As Mitch McConnell makes news again for what appears to be some kind of neurological crisis, just your regular reminder not to be an ageist, ableist asshole when you talk about him.
Mocking his cognitive struggles won’t hurt him, won’t even scratch him. But I promise your mocking •will• hurt somebody else who’s listening.
This is a guy who’s spent his life championing white supremacy, war, inequality, and environmental destruction. Punch that. Make people feel bad for that.

2023-08-25 18:24:02

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@npub189n…satx @npub1c4f…pznd
The schadenfreude is real, but I’m less concerned about his own humiliation and more concerned about what other powerful people in the sports world think. Folks need to •believe• that sexual harassment is a behavior that could ruin their careers. And folks making hiring decisions need to believe that a history of such behavior is a liability they can’t accept.

2023-08-25 15:46:26

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@npub1qmc…v6gx
what…what did you just make me read

2023-08-13 15:34:15

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@npub1uwf…dddg @npub1g57…y839
This is the one I’ve ended up with as well.

2023-08-04 14:46:09

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@npub1mdk…aptk I think when it’s iPhone-iPhone (texts turn blue), it uses E2E encryption that neither carrier nor Apple can read, but green texts are handled by the carrier. (I think?) Wonder whether mastodon.social ended up on a T-Mobile denylist…

2023-08-04 14:38:18

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@npub1mdk…aptk Huh. Huh.
Who’s the cell carrier?

2023-07-12 00:58:46

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@npub1mdk…aptk
Certainly “very,” but creating a burner that Meta can’t tie back to you through their numerous nefarious surveillance channels is going to be a real trick