Esme Povirk @madewokherd@computerfairi.es
Joined Aug 2018
Esme Povirk
boosted
I am an IEEE 754 NaN value. You are an IEEE 754 NaN value. We are not the same.
Esme Povirk
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The difference between kindness and niceness is that niceness is grounded in cowardice and comfort-seeking while kindness is grounded in justice and embraces discomfort as growth
Pick the right one
Esme Povirk
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There was this brief period around 2020 that all the tumblr kids were talking about "reality shifting" and then this stopped, and it's normal for tumblr to get into a weird idea and then abandon it, but also we have to consider the possibility that everyone who was doing reality shifting simply shifted out of this timeline and that's why we stopped hearing from them
Esme Povirk
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the timing couldnt be better on this one
Catching up on feeds, a bunch of really good ocremixes dropped on Oct 31. https://ocremix.org/remixes/
Esme Povirk
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Set your clocks 92 hours forward if you want. Time isn’t real
Esme Povirk
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follow up, voidgoddess quote
Be to yourself who you would be to a partner you adore and admire and nurture all your hobbies and quirks. You are your first partner, so try not to have too toxic of a relationship with yourself.
From https://voidgoddess.org/2023/01/07/heres-your-permission-slip/
I will use every tool at my disposal to remove annoyances that exist because otherwise someone might make less money, including not being able to put something on the device I want or modify it in the way I want.
No quarter for technology that sucks on purpose. I will block your cookie banner, ads, trackers, interstitial videos, pull quotes, related articles, algorithmic recommendations, and anti-ad-blockers. I will use an OS where sometimes the sound breaks and I have to reboot the audio service to avoid an OS that wants to show me ads. I will put all of my games on this handheld PC, even the ones intended for a console, sometimes with modifications.
Esme Povirk
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By popular request: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful take on LLMs that (in my experience) the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. https://www.anildash.com//2025/10/17/the-majority-ai-view/ Please share!
Sparing use of generative AI has made my life better. It is good at a few things. It also is doing large scale harm due to overinvestment, a pathological insistence on bigger and more resource intensive models, lies about its capabilities and limitations, and a flood of junk information added to the Internet. And probably other stuff I've missed.
Brains are apparently very happy to do what they're told, but no one understands the UI, which varies on an individual basis and mostly consists of finding the right metaphor.
Something I think I would enjoy using: an integrated GUI shell/terminal/text editor. So I could do stuff like collapse the output of a running (or completed) command, or pop it out into a new window.
Esme Povirk
boosted
We each have different needs, different boundaries, and different ways of thinking about what's important to us.
I once dated someone who wouldn't kiss anyone other than her husband, and had random sex with strangers. Kissing for her was extremely intimate, but safe sex was like candy.
I spent more than 10 years thinking about what I wanted in a tattoo, and what it meant to have that permanently inked into my skin. A friend had a childhood cartoon character tattooed on her ankle, not because it would always mean something to her, but because of what it meant to her during that period of her life.
I had a long-term relationship with a woman who never talked about her queerness or relationships in her workplace. I have friends and colleagues who over many years never told me anything about their families, and I never asked.
https://madewokherd.nfshost.com/bookmarks/technology/ Updated my online bookmarks with links to Linux distros and static site generators. Feel free to reply if you have thoughts/disagree, I'm not married to any of this, but be constructive about it.
Oh no there are 4 different gui environments to choose from
Was looking at alternatives for when Google restricts apk installs and now "what if I used a Linux phone?" has hooked itself in my brain
starting a Linux distro argument probably
Trying to figure out what Linux distro I'd recommend and I'm coming up with Debian (for stability), Arch (for tinkering and frequent updates), Bazzite (for gaming if you don't want to tinker), AntiX (if you have <=4GB of RAM).
I know Ubuntu's value-add is supposed to be usability, but I don't feel like it's more usable in practice than one of those alternatives depending on your situation.
Joined Aug 2018
