Rivaclaw🏳️‍⚧️ΘΔ @renbymon@computerfairi.es

The cheque said “AMOUNT: two dollars and forty cents BEING FOR: classified ad”, rounded block letters in green ink amid the printed prompts. My mother never wrote cursive. “Thanks Mum“ I said, “I’ll pay you back from my paper round money on Saturday”

“No need” she said, “I’m going out; if you have the ad ready I’ll post it for you.”

I folded the cheque and the form I’d clipped from the newspaper. It had been tricky writing on the newsprint with a pen “HOME COMPUTER Amstrad CPC6128 with monitor, printer and external 5.25 inch drive. Original software plus over 30 games. $425. Ph 551806”.

After Mum left I went to my room and booted up my new PC, with its Extra Beige system unit and Different Beige monitor. I patted my 6128’s screen sitting on the floor under my desk. “Sorry old girl, no room to keep you but I’ll find you a nice home”.

Before I even got Kings Quest loaded the doorbell rang.

The visitor was a woman with amazing purple hair, and cat ears. “Hi, she said, I’m Kit, here about the Amstrad”

“But…it’s not even posted yet. And I only listed a phone number!”

“Never mind that”, she smiled, bouncing on her toes “do you still have it?”

I nodded, too flabbergasted to speak

“Four twenty five, right?” she said, thrusting an envelope at me, “here’s five hundred, keep the change. Now, what I want-“

“Wait, what are these things”. I’d opened the envelope to find five slippery rectangles of plastic bearing “100” in large letters, coloured variously green and yellow with a transparent region in the middle. “These aren’t-“

“Oh shazbot!” my visitor said, snatching the envelope back. “Bee Arr Bee”. Then she vanished, with an electric ZZZZAAPP sound.

ZZZAAAPP. She was back, holding out a sheaf of five grey paper rectangles, the recently introduced but rarely seen $100 notes, thick linen paper with subtle colours - easy to photocopy and colour in with textas, I’d seen on TV. I held the note up to the sky to see the metal thread and watermark. “Are these real?”

“Trust me,” she said, “they were hard to find but totally legit.”

“Okay, uh do you want to see the computer running?”. I felt like *I* was running to catch up with this interaction.

“No need” she grinned. “I’m giving it to you. Box it up and stash it in Mum’s roof. You’ll be glad to have it when you’re older.”

“Wh…what?”

“Do they speak english in what?” she muttered half to herself?

“what?”

“Exactly! Right on script”. She poked me in the chest. “You’ll be alright kid. Forget about the ‘strad for a couple of decades, OK?”

She ran hand through her brilliant purple hair, vibrating like she was having the best time ever. “Oh yeah, you’ll need these”. She tugged at her cat ears and i realized they were a headband. She handed me the band with its two ears. “One last thing“—a suddenly serious look—“*listen* *to* *your* *dreams*. You’ll know when it’s time. See ya!”

ZZZAAPPPP

I spent the $500 but I kept the ears.

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot

Finished YCH!

#furry #furryart

I’d really love to get some more Dark Knight artwork! 🖤

The Dark Knight was my first crush and I still love them to this day. I want to be them RL. 🖤

The point of solar panels is not to ensure "solar profitability," but to make for a greener, better world. Its profitability is only justified insofar as it moves us towards that goal. If we want to switch to renewables, then sometimes we're going to have surplus, because of how renewables work. This is well known and discussed ad nauseam. If that makes power markets unstable, then the problem is with markets, not with there being too many solar panels.

If you're at #EMFCamp #EMF2024 or watching the stream online, I'm doing a talk about building a cable headend on Stage C in a little over an hour!
#AnalogCable

https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/203-being-elliot-carver

Livestream: https://streaming.media.ccc.de/emf2024/

Someone asked me to put "free beer in big text" on the #FurryHighCommission info screen at #emf2024, so I did

There is no more free beer, btw. This was Thursday's homebrew.

A happy start into the pride month!

Have the "stellar" Progress Pride flag I made last year from various NASA Astronomy Pictures of the Day!

And remember:
- "Queer" is not a slur (anymore - absolutely OK if you don't want it applied to yourself, though!).
- "LGB" is a dogwhistle put in place by those who wish to divide & conquer us.
- The "A" in LGBTQIA+ is for all queer As - like aromantic, asexual, agender..., not for allies.
- "Ally" is a verb, and others use it to describe what you do - not a badge you stick on yourself.
- Not everything that looks straight is straight, and might be hella queer!
- If you think queer people and relationships are "unsuitable for children", it means you sexualize them, not that they're inherently sexual.
- Your labels, your rules - their labels, their rules.
- It's "Pride" because shame is the weapon that is used against who we are and who we love.
- Queer people are people first.
- Be excellent to each other! #PrideMonth #Pride #Queer

It's a warm day today! At the Robot Arms (and the bar in Null Sector) we have The Cold Tap™ for you to fill up bottled and glasses with chilled water.

We also have lots of ice left - ask us if you want a scoop or a whole bag!

Yesterday, the UK government used an obscure emergency process to make possession of puberty blockers for new treatment of trans kids illegal, and punishable by up to two years in prison. [1] There was no parliamentary debate, no vote, and no public consultation.

Parents of children on GIC waiting lists are being told by the NHS that if they don't bring their kids to an """assessment""" they risk being reported to Social Services.

The Good Law Project recognises that the NHS are behaving unethically, and is running a crowdfunder to seek urgent legal advice to challenge the NHS.

If you are looking for a good cause, the Good Law Project crowdfunder can be found here: https://goodlawproject.org/crowdfunder/nhs-cyp-guidance/

[1] https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/uk-secretary-uses-emergency-powers

#transphobia #trans #NHS #UK #PubertyBlockers

#debian

Happy #PrideMonth everybody! 🖤🩶🤍💜🩷💙

Pride themed symmetrical icons available £15. Maximum type flags. Border, background, and accessory, for example, a bandanna or glasses. Furries, animals, humans, and humanoids are welcome. Three slots only. #furryart #fantasyart #disabledartist #pride

Got myself a new pin-badge for pride month.

#raven #corvids
#pride2024 #pridemonth #pride
#TransRightAreHumanRights
#fuckterfs

It's Bisexual Disaster Month and I'm making it everyone's problem

Don't mind me, I'm just getting a head start on the festivities

#FursuitFriday #fursuit #Shetani

This (use `file`) is probably my #1 make-linux-easier tip. My #2 make-linux-easier tip is did you know vi can just open zip files? And like tgz files and stuff. To vi they are just funny directories. You can use vi to poke around inside zip files and read text files inside of them without having to decompress them.

My #3 tip: run `man -k blarg` (or `apropos blarg`) and it'll search all the man pages on your system for "blarg". If you forget the name of a command you can use this to look it up.

I think my favorite program in the entire linux/unix toolchain is "file". Did you even know about this program? It's on every system including MacOS and it's magic. You run it on any file and it just tells you what it is. Any file. I don't know who keeps this updated but it supports surprising things. Like it knows Windows file formats. If it's a executable it tells you if it's 32- or 64- bit. If it's an image it tells you the size and channels. If the file extension lies it just figures it out.