Ryusui @theryusui@computerfairi.es

I wrote a post on Cohost about how to hide the new "views" counters on Twitter. Possibly not of any use to anyone here, of course, though afterward I do go off on a couple (long) digressions on the subjects of (1) how to author a uBlock Origin rule in the presence of CSS obfuscation (2) Twitter's QA process breaking so hard I can hear the noise from Toronto.

https://cohost.org/mcc/post/715387-how-to-hide-the-vie

A man came to the God of Exchanges, weighed with weariness and broken wants.
"Take it," he said, "rid me of it all."
"I do not take," the God said.
"What would you give me then?"
"In exchange for it all? Emptyness."
The man thought.
"And for some?"
"Hope."
"Oh. Let me have that."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

We might imagine that Mastodon is safe because it cannot be acquired or controlled by any one entity, but it absolutely *can* be.

In fact, with interest in it rising, Mastodon is at its *most* vulnerable time right now. Mastodon is in many respects an inadequate implementation. All any corporation has to do is launch a major ActivityPub implementation with the features and polish people want—enough to migrate people over en masse—and they will have effectively "acquired” Mastodon. (And honestly I suspect this is going to happen soon anyway.)

Google destroyed RSS and XMPP this way. Yes, they’re still out there, but only shadows of their former selves.

Matrix gives us the rare chance to head off this phenomenon before it happens.

Whale Summoning

#pixelart

I finished the font! You can download it on OpenGameArt for use in your own projects:

https://opengameart.org/content/pixtura12-medieval-pixel-font

In addition to just looking cool (because Textura is always cool), it can optionally (and if your art program supports it) automatically apply a bunch of abbreviations and variants to make Latin text look more authentic.

#pixelArt #fontForge #font

in retrospect, the "something weird going on with the jumpers" may be "I set them wrong"

it's not as iconic as the win95 one but I should probably still put this screen in the death generator

A Fuckhead Must Keep Coming Back Without Mending His/Her Ways

"Don't you ever learn?" This question is one of the most frequently asked of wayward children or oft-injured adults. But when asked of the Fuckhead, the answer is always, "No." The Fuckhead does not learn.

"Why must you come where you're not wanted?" This question has been asked of the socially deviant and challenged since the dawn of time. Yet the Fuckhead will keep coming back, over and over again.

The Fuckhead will defend his or her inflexibility by saying, "I have every right to my opinion," and "I have every right to participate in this discussion." And, in the egalitarian world of IRC and Usenet, the Fuckhead is correct. But the Fuckhead will find that other participants, who do not appreciate the Fuckhead's presence or contributions, will make use of tools such as "Ignore" commands or killfiles. These tools would not exist if it weren't for the Fuckheads.

You can count on the Fuckhead to shriek "Censorship!" when you tune out their input. You can count on the Fuckhead saying rude things about you when he/she is sure you're no longer listening. But it will never occur to the Fuckhead to approach topics and people differently, and never, ever occur to the Fuckhead to avoid venues where the atmosphere is unfriendly. This inability to exit gracefully is a distinguishing mark of a Fuckhead.
A Fuckhead Will Change His/Her Beliefs To Suit The Situation

Fuckheads are dedicated to one cause, furtherance of self; and they are committed to only one opinion, superiority of self. All other causes and opinions are secondary to the Fuckhead. The non-Fuckhead may change his/her opinions from time to time, or support or abandon causes throughout life, these changes usually come about when new information is learned, or when circumstances change. The Fuckhead, however, changes opinions and causes as readily as a non-Fuckhead might change shirts.

A good example of this change of opinion was shown by a notorious net Fuckhead in relation to a specific issue. Originally, the Fuckhead held that unsolicited commercial e-mail was evil and a nuisance. The Fuckhead put himself on the record as holding that opinion on more than one occasion. However, when the Fuckhead and his Web site were dismissed from one ISP after another for rules violations, the only ISP left over which would host the Fuckhead's Web page was a widely-reviled purveyor of unsolicited commercial e-mail. The Fuckhead then, as circumstances dictated, reversed his opinion on UCE and became a booster of that method of advertisement.

Fuckheads change friends as needs dictate, aligning themselves with and against other Fuckheads seemingly without regard to history or common sense. In fact, it is not uncommon for Fuckheads to be at war in one Usenet newsgroup and aligned in another. Rational people may agree to disagree, but the Fuckhead's limited focus and lack of loyalty allow the Fuckhead to fight with friends and agree with foes so readily that there is almost no distinction between the two. But this changeability makes the individual an unworthy foe and an untrustworthy ally -- and hence, a Fuckhead.
What Makes a Fuckhead?

The Fuckhead may display all of these characteristics, or some of them, or only one. Some may love a Fuckhead like a brother, some may think their brother is a Fuckhead. What is incontrovertible is that for all of humanity, there are people that you would rather not have to deal with, and those people, throughout history, are the Fuckheads.

https://davidgerard.co.uk/fuckhead.html

by David R. Kendrick, 1996? 1997? Hosted with permission of Mr. Kendrick.

Everyone who's ever said "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" is somebody trying to bully you into giving them the power to strip you of your dignity at a moment's notice.

On a whim, whenever it's convenient for them.

That's the fight. It's not about privacy, it's not about secrets, and it never was. It's about about power.

okay I got the video card installed properly (it's a Voodoo Rush board from Matrox!) and set a semi-appropriate background

Opened up Mastodon

I had a dream last night that the Nabisco company renamed "Double Stuf" Oreos to "Business Class" and it was weirdly cute. The packaging didn't even say "Oreos" anymore. It just said "Business Class" in the Oreos font

One last call for volunteer testers for Ungrateful Birds! Especially (but not only) anyone who can test local co-op.

this is one of my favorite iterations on the deathscythe. sure, it doesn't have the scythe, but they did sure as fuck figure out finally how to make a stealth gundam and its the next logical step after the forbidden, which is also a deathscythe

@mcc the best part of Forbidden Planet was when he said "IT'S MORBIN' TIME" and morbed all over those guys

rules for strip settlers of catan

He is NOT the small god of jingles, and he really wishes people would remember that, and stop calling on him every time they have the plop plop fizz fizz song stuck in their heads again. That domain belongs solely to Belle Ringer, who claims the little subliminal hooks that clutter your prefrontal cortex. Ishka practices a more subtle art, a more beautiful calling.

Continue reading: https://leemoyer.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/ishka-babel-the-small-god-of-novelty-songs/

“Booty call” and “butt dial” has been offered up as an example of where the literal meaning of two phrases is the same but the implied meaning is very different (denotative vs connotative meanings).

Today a coffee mug gave me another example: “dad bod” and “father figure”

#linguistics #wordplay

One of the most influential rap songs of all time (Ether) contained a homophobic slur. The rapper (Nas) took a lot of criticism for this decades later. So he now performs the song without the slur, and re-released the track without it.👍🏿

Lizzo released a track with an ableist slur. She took heat for this on Twitter too. She apologized, and re-cut the song without the slur.👍🏿

Conversations about what a person said, are valid.

You don't get "cancelled" for mis-speaking. It's the doubling down.