Syn(t)-ACK(tic) Sugar :facepalm:

Software engineer corpo drone by day, cyberpunk edgerunner by night, and opinionated armchair quarterback 24/7. I love the Oxford comma and believe that you should also. I tend to post a lot when I've got a bee under my bonnet. There are a lot of bees and I have a pretty big bonnet.

Other interests include everything #technology, #martialarts, #formula1, #books, #movies, #music, #grafitti, #streetart, #gigposters, #GraphicNovels, #boardgames, #cyberpunk, and witty repartee.

Most toots automatically delete after 6 months.

Akkoma: SYN-ALT (npub1qzu…nat6)
Totentanz: Syn-Ack
Bookwyrm: SynACK (npub1aus…z4pc)
Matrix: @synack_ci:matrix.org

#nobot
#noindex
#nobridge

Pronouns: he/him
Home Base: ATXUS
Website: https://preemchro.me
Tech Stack: Java, PHP (under duress), TypeScript, Python, AWS. Currently learning how to be a data engineer and being forced to learn AI (under duress)
Martial Arts: Okinawan Shorin-ryu Matsamura Seito (Kenshinkan) karate
Formula 1: Red Bull, Williams
Music: Drummer (inactive), Singer (inactive)
Games: Video: Cyberpunk 2077, Citizen Sleeper, and the HBS Shadowrun games. TTBG: Scythe, Gloomhaven, Gangs of Night City

Public Key

npub13mq6tfl63up2292xk2vvnknmyvrv8dnwpvcxp4cnzseueuqp7f3sgdvz7g

NIP-05 Address

synack_at_corteximplant.com@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsgasd95lag7q49z4rt9xxfmfajxpkrkehqkvrq6uf3gv7v7qqlyccpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsmnngj0

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub13mq6tfl63up2292xk2vvnknmyvrv8dnwpvcxp4cnzseueuqp7f3sgdvz7g

Show more details

Published at

2026-05-27T12:48:11Z

Kind type

0 Metadata

Event JSON

{ "id": "35f0250c2a4087b347cf67c7a1ebc94f8ddfe522a482fd6377cfa9d0a9174da6", "pubkey": "8ec1a5a7fa8f02a51546b298c9da7b2306c3b66e0b3060d7131433ccf001f263", "created_at": 1779886091, "kind": 0, "tags": [ [ "emoji", "facepalm", "https://corteximplant.com/system/custom_emojis/images/000/009/013/original/c788fc0ccf8a956d.png" ], [ "t", "technology" ], [ "t", "martialarts" ], [ "t", "formula1" ], [ "t", "books" ], [ "t", "movies" ], [ "t", "music" ], [ "t", "grafitti" ], [ "t", "streetart" ], [ "t", "graphicnovels" ], [ "t", "boardgames" ], [ "t", "cyberpunk" ], [ "t", "gigposters" ], [ "t", "nobot" ], [ "t", "noindex" ], [ "t", "nobridge" ], [ "proxy", "https://corteximplant.com/users/SynAck", "activitypub" ], [ "L", "pink.momostr" ], [ "l", "pink.momostr.activitypub:https://corteximplant.com/users/SynAck", "pink.momostr" ], [ "-" ] ], "content": "{\"name\":\"Syn(t)-ACK(tic) Sugar :facepalm:\",\"about\":\"Software engineer corpo drone by day, cyberpunk edgerunner by night, and opinionated armchair quarterback 24/7. I love the Oxford comma and believe that you should also. I tend to post a lot when I've got a bee under my bonnet. There are a lot of bees and I have a pretty big bonnet. \\n\\nOther interests include everything #technology, #martialarts, #formula1, #books, #movies, #music, #grafitti, #streetart, #gigposters, #GraphicNovels, #boardgames, #cyberpunk, and witty repartee.\\n\\nMost toots automatically delete after 6 months.\\n\\nAkkoma: nostr:npub1qzuu869xs9wnlsspmz6c5ckd2uf72jsjhm7uxu02knu6h4rnellqtrnat6\\nTotentanz: Syn-Ack\\nBookwyrm: nostr:npub1auscrexs2wuq28elvw5zwejj50j9mrvvzajtf2tk8tkkpqupz68qqyz4pc\\nMatrix: @synack_ci:matrix.org\\n\\n#nobot\\n#noindex\\n#nobridge\\n\\nPronouns: he/him\\nHome Base: ATXUS\\nWebsite: https://preemchro.me\\nTech Stack: Java, PHP (under duress), TypeScript, Python, AWS. Currently learning how to be a data engineer and being forced to learn AI (under duress)\\nMartial Arts: Okinawan Shorin-ryu Matsamura Seito (Kenshinkan) karate\\nFormula 1: Red Bull, Williams\\nMusic: Drummer (inactive), Singer (inactive)\\nGames: Video: Cyberpunk 2077, Citizen Sleeper, and the HBS Shadowrun games. TTBG: Scythe, Gloomhaven, Gangs of Night City\\n\",\"website\":\"https://corteximplant.com/@SynAck\",\"picture\":\"https://corteximplant.com/system/accounts/avatars/109/400/459/090/174/807/original/9f6f4d2b2e33e141.jpg\",\"banner\":\"https://corteximplant.com/system/accounts/headers/109/400/459/090/174/807/original/20f761cc2febd782.jpg\",\"nip05\":\"synack_at_corteximplant.com@momostr.pink\"}", "sig": "92631a8985a059a3ee7621f581159d065bfbb22e3ef72b0896c3392846772f5ca3fd9a9a401a682f52dbee65214277b0cf3792823680a3d1638a940b89084c30" }

Last Notes

2026-04-22 02:25:41 UTC

You know, with all the high tech tools, gadgets, and gewgaws at our disposal these days, I still don't see how anyone functions without a trusty notebook and pen close to hand at all times.
Could be any size and form factor, but there's just something about being able to dash off a quick note for later processing in one's own particular brand of chicken-scratch that can't be beat.
I lose notes just as easily (if not easier) digitally as I do in a large notebook - but somehow, finding those lost thoughts is easier when I can flip through pages rather than scanning a file directory.
Get yaself a good notebook and pen, people. You'll thank me.

2026-04-11 14:48:01 UTC

And just as a reminder - if you prefer a slow-roll, old-skool, classic BBS experience, may I direct your attention to https://totentanz.club/ ?
Relive the olden days of the Internet as they were meant to be! Publish some articles! Make some comments! Wait for hours or days between responses!
This is the good stuff, people. :bec_wink:

2026-03-03 04:31:37 UTC

Tired: "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"
Wired: "If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?"
:trollFace:

2026-01-23 04:09:49 UTC

- reply

Chat control for Thingiverse.
This is completely unhinged. :transmet_smiley:

2025-12-21 05:20:54 UTC

Last post for the night, figured it was worth posting @npub1fdr…lvhs's last post for the year. It's a good one!
The Finance sector is useless - it literally produces 97% *nothing*. Think about *that*.
https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/18/self-licking-ice-cream-cone/

2025-10-18 02:36:47 UTC

- reply

Ah, thanks for that. So basically it's gonna be Apple TV next year or nuthin'. So I'm boned unless I get in on Apple TV, where I'm sure that the advertised $12.99 price will balloon in relatively short order once they have all those new subscribers locked in.
Ossum. :spongebobbruh:
I hate this timeline. But I appreciate the link, chummer! Thanks for sharing it!

2025-10-18 02:26:51 UTC

I dropped all my cable/broadcast providers 2 years ago, and mainly watch 3 streaming services (and I'm thinking about dropping them too). I watch #F1 via the F1 TV app with a Pro subscription.
Well today I got this email that left me very confused:
> From January 2026, our new Formula 1 broadcast partner in the US will be Apple TV. Next season F1® TV Premium will continue to be available in the U.S., included with an Apple TV subscription only. You will still be able to purchase F1® TV Access, which remains available in the US.
So does this mean that I'm going to be forced to get Apple TV if I want to continue watching F1 or am I going to still be able to use the F1 TV app but have to pay a-la-carte or PPV or something stupid like that? I'm not going to get a damn Apple TV subscription just to watch F1 though, I tell ya whut.
Fuck you very much, Apple. And same to Liberty Media for making this shit-ass exclusivity deal with them. I guess maybe I could hop on my VPN and try to get a sub to Sky Sports or something like that.
Can any U.S. #F1 fans help clear this up for me? If it does mean Apple TV only, any ideas on alternate methods to watch F1 over here?

2025-10-12 16:32:17 UTC

PSA: maybe it's time to wash that cup/mug/bottle/tumbler that you always keep next to your battle station, eh?
Even if you only ever drink water out of it, I bet it's gettin' nice and crufty in there. Do your bod a favor and clean that sucker!

2025-08-17 03:14:49 UTC

- reply

This is the way. :mando:

2025-07-17 03:20:27 UTC

- reply

Dunno if this is intentional or not, but from a distance the whirly pinwheel and concrete bit smeared on the outside of the cylinder there looks like a skull.
And the painted outline of the human body on the side is creepy as all get out. :blobcatscared:

2025-03-31 05:45:49 UTC

Don't forget, everybody: as of this past Friday, your Amazon Echo device is always listening. No more muting allowed!
Act accordingly. 🔕 🔌 :bec_grin:

2025-03-21 14:03:35 UTC

- reply

I ask every time, but I have yet to receive any feedback. It seems like once they send out that "thanks but no thanks" email, that's the last contact I receive from them. Requests for feedback go unheeded.

2025-03-21 03:33:09 UTC

So I finally got the rejection email for the latest position that I was expecting, and of course it was all "we enjoyed talking with you but we're not going to proceed."
I know that corpos don't give a rat's ass about any applicant as a human being and all that, I just wish someone - *anyone* - would tell me what I'm doing wrong or what I'm lacking. Even if it's brutal, just tell me that I suck, that I don't have good enough skills, that I don't have enough experience in the right things for the position, that I'm trying to punch above my weight class, that you think people that part their hair to the right are suspicious, or whatever. Just please tell me *why* you're not going to proceed *because I don't know*.
I can't fix what's wrong or make any changes if I don't know what it is about me that keeps getting me kicked to the curb.
I'm kind of at the end of my rope here. I don't know what I need to do in order to get a job and I don't know what I'm going to do next.
I'm very, very frustrated and quite frankly, lost.

2025-03-18 22:48:55 UTC

- reply

And if you can find a way to do that in the short term, please let me know how you accomplished it so that I may join you. My current plan of "living off the spoils of my personal sellout to the corpos" has not worked out as I had thought it would.

2025-03-18 22:43:42 UTC

In my opinion, the single most dangerous aspect of this current "AI" bubble is the devaluing of lived experience and talent in just about every industry where it has been applied.
Making it available to the masses means that people don't have to learn or even have the skills that the industry previously required for success, which neuters the industry as a whole and greatly reduces the quality of the product. There's no incentive for people to continue learning when they can just "vibe code" their way through an activity that used to require a lot of experience or some innate talent.
It's doing the same thing to work that social media did to social interactions - just because you can broadcast your opinion to the world doesn't mean that your opinion matters or is worth hearing. And now that generations have grown up under that system, we see that people have lost the ability to hold their tongues and not say every stupid little thing that pops into their heads (like you may be thinking about this post right now, I realize).
It enables a lowest-common-denominator society.

2025-03-18 21:38:43 UTC

- reply

hear hear!

2025-03-09 23:56:50 UTC

I came across this article in a roundabout way today and it really sums up something I've been thinking about for quite a while now but have never been able to quite put my finger on.
After getting back into the Linux and FOSS world a year ago, I've often said that now I remember why I got out of it in the first place way back when - the FOSS community *in general* has some significant attitude problems that prevent wider adoption, and I don't think that even they themselves really quite understand why.
This article goes a long way towards answering that question of why for me. It may not be a complete answer, but it certainly sounds plausible and makes a lot of sense to me.
Who is free software *really* for?
https://tante.cc/2025/03/03/who-is-free-software-for/

2025-03-06 03:44:58 UTC

- reply

yeah, I use the Android app, and I think the jump was from 30.0.5 -> 30.0.6.
Oh, dang. Just realized that now there's an upgrade to 31.0.0. Crap.
Guess I haven't been vigilant enough. Well, I'm certainly not going to start it now. I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow at some point. :blob_sweat:

2025-03-06 03:26:46 UTC

My Nextcloud upgrade went off without a hitch, and quickly too. Based on the horror stories, I was expecting a lot more.
Now I'm suspicious.... :sus:

2025-03-03 04:50:32 UTC

So with all the chaos that is currently going on in the tech world both (primarily) in the US and elsewhere around the world, it seems like those of us that are self-hosting things like email, Nextcloud (and its ilk), web servers, or other things might want to think about opening those things up for friends and family that may need to get away from toxic corpo silo'd software if we can.
If you're in a place where you've got the bandwidth and the drive space for it, this might be how we ride out these crazy times and really start getting back to the days of The People's Cloud that is decentralized all over the world, and give individuals their security and privacy back.
Sometimes, hacktivism can look a whole lot like just sharing one's resources and skills to whatever levels they have available in their personal situation. Building little trusted networks of family and friends might be all that people need and throw in some Meshtastic nodes or something for the locals might be extra spicy to keep things private and close at hand in the event that the Datakrash becomes reality (because why wouldn't it in this ridiculous timeline we've found ourselves in?).
Ever since [@thegibson](https://hackers.town/@thegibson ) mentioned that phrase "the people's cloud" a few days ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

2025-03-01 17:32:48 UTC

- reply

Oh for sure, and I wasn't even talking about alts or anything. I was just mainly talking about having a "home" instance that one can always run back to that's like Cheers - where everybody knows your name. :bec_wink:

2025-03-01 17:18:26 UTC

One of the most powerful things about the fediverse is the notion of instances and communities, and on the whole I think that we've done a fairly terrible job about communicating that to those on the outside.
Probably the main reason that I left corpo social media was that I felt like I was just consuming, always being shouted at and never really having people interact back to me because my voice wasn't loud enough to get people's attention over all the other people in the same room. You have to find your communities based solely on the content of their tags and posts, and so it's really only a logical sub-conversation in a big-ass party room.
But here, instances can focus on specific subjects or ideologies or hobbies from the get-go, which means that there's already a "local" community of people that one can have a reasonably good idea that they'll fit into. Sure, they can still participate in conversations with everyone else and even move to different communities and explore those interests but when you drop into an instance comprised of people that already share some of those interests, you don't have to look very far to get good and meaningful interaction.
So I'm not a super-fan of these massive fedi instances (too many people with too much shouting), and single-user instances kind of seem to have the same problem - you're still shouting, but you're in the next room with the door closed. A nice, multi-user but still small(ish) instance is a great place to experience the actual "social" qualities of the "social media" web.
Built-in (but non-exclusive) communities are the killer feature of the fediverse, as far as I'm concerned.

2025-02-23 17:19:10 UTC

As I watch my friends in Germany being in the same place that I and my friends were in the US back in November, it strikes me that fascism is the inevitable outcome for any money-obsessed society because the only way to amass enough of it in order to get your own way is to not give a shit about anyone but "you and yours", which is step number 1 in the nazi fascist playbook.
These fascists have been doing it in business for decades, all in hopes of one day seizing the government and turning it into a "business" so they can impose their will upon all the other citizens employees just like they always have as the king CEO they've always believed they were born to be.

2025-02-19 05:34:35 UTC

- reply

Related: does dripping the faucets *actually* help?

2025-02-19 05:34:08 UTC

Welp, time to start the faucets a-drip for the night, I guess.

2025-02-15 05:11:31 UTC

So, just sitting here wondering how long it will be until either all poultry and most beef will either become ridiculously expensive or just outright unavailable due to this rise in bird flu?
Of course, not that there's going to be anyone around to warn the public or force the capitalist machine to stop producing and making money from infected animals because the guy with brain worms just fired most of the people that would be sounding that alarm.
This country is a fucking nightmare. SOMEBODY PLEASE WAKE ME UP!!!

2025-02-11 05:31:51 UTC

- reply

Oh, I'm not particularly making this statement to justify things I've already done. Just providing an example line of thought for others who might want to do the same.
A "real life example" of malicious compliance, as it were. :bec_wink:

2025-02-11 05:21:34 UTC

Speaking of malicious compliance, since I pay for Hulu (and have for some time), which is now owned by Disney, does that give me a clear conscience to archive Disney+ shows, since I'm already effectively paying Disney for streaming content?
I think it does! If they're going to bind me to their silly Disney+ TOS just because I'm paying for Hulu, then that should mean that I get access to *all* the content from those service because I'm paying for *any* of them. You don't get to charge me rent twice or even thrice, Mouse.
I see you.
:matrix_xbones: 🏴‍☠️

2025-02-10 21:03:43 UTC

:oof:, just got another proverbial kick in the teeth today on the job front. The company I had my initial interview with last Thursday (with an actual human) just emailed me with the "we have decided to not move forward" response.
:bec_sigh: *le sigh*
I've asked for feedback on why I got dinged, but who knows if they'll actually respond with any. Now it's got me thinking that maybe I'm not as good at my "soft skills" as I thought. But since that's far less quantifiable than hard technical skills, I have no idea what I can do to "fix it" (if indeed it's even "broken").
Kick a fella while he's down, right corpos? :gnah:

2025-02-06 20:25:05 UTC

Had an intro interview with a consulting company today. Went fine, but I think the interview process is going to be a bear. A 60-minute take-home test, pair programming live code with code review, system design interview, and then a consulting and culture interview for last.
Oof. I'd better start prepping now.

2025-02-06 17:11:22 UTC

Apparently I finally have to go into the DPS office to renew my driver's license this time, so I went to the online scheduler only to find out that the first available appointment is at the end of March, almost 2 months away. Ouch.
Plus, even though I've had a DL in this state for 25 years, I apparently still need to bring proof of citizenship. 🙄 Good thing I ponied up the extra cash to get a passport card when I got my passport book renewed. Now I don't have to go dig out my birth certificate or carry my passport book around for things like this.
But it also underscores the reality that this is just the first confrontation I'm having with a literal "papers please" situation under this more openly fascist regime. Guess I should probably just get used to carrying my passport card in my wallet at all times, eh? :moodface:

2025-02-06 02:46:26 UTC

I finally hit the *Millenium* crossover episode of *The X-Files* (season 7). I never watched *Millenium* other than one or two episodes here and there, but now I'm curious after seeing this episode after 25 years.
Guess I just found me a new treasure map where X marks the spot for some archiveable booty, mateys!
To the U.S.S. Wayback, Mr. Sherman! :matrix_xbones:

2025-01-29 05:55:26 UTC

From the "Surprising Absolutely No One" files:
Why is everyone acting like this is so shocking? This is how these guys have always been. Anybody that is shocked by this and is just now getting the picture that these guys have been like this since they were running around in short pants is just plain willfully ignorant.
From the government to Wall Street, this recent warped misappropriation of the term "woke" has always been about the workers. It's just that it includes a bunch of middle-class white people now, so everyone's clutching their pearls until their knuckles turn white.
Thanks for keeping up with the times and keeping us informed, Salon. Day late and a trillion dollars short if you ask me. Better late than never, I guess. :bec_fu:
https://mastodon.sdf.org/@AmandaMarcotte/113843383714692600

2025-01-29 04:41:16 UTC

- reply

And the frustrating thing is that getting past that application stage is just the first half of the journey - getting through the interviewing stage and getting an offer is the other, arguably more difficult, half.
It's a lot different when getting an interview (or even a freakin' screening call from an actual human) was the easy part and stacking one's schedule with interviews was the hard part. These days, it's so much work to just get an interview that it makes the *actual* interview so much less worth it if there's no guarantee that all that work is going to net you an offer, even if it's a lowball one.
It's a ghastly time.

2025-01-29 03:18:44 UTC

What it's like trying to find a job in the tech industry these days: <li>Wade through hundreds or thousands of nearly identical job descriptions to find the ones where you have the majority or all of the "required" experience.</li><li>Spend 20 minutes filling out the application (which are all the same but never carry over from one corpo to the next)</li><li>Wait days or weeks to get a response (which is 9 times out of 10 negative, or maybe 9.9 times out of 10)</li><li>If the response is positive, begin another cycle of 4-6 interviews with multiple people at each stage (roughly around 10 - 12 people total)</li><li>do multiple coding problems, design problems, and b.s. assessment tests during the process</li><li>stick with the process for the weeks (or months) it takes to get all the cats herded</li><li>finally get bounced out of the process somewhere in the latter stages after all that work with a nebulous and generic "thanks but no thanks" with no good explanation as to why</li>
Just those first 3 steps are exhausting and then, if you can even get your foot in the door, you've still got months to go before you get an offer, which you're not likely to get even after all that effort.
And these corpos wonder why they "can't find qualified workers" or workers "that want to work for them". Talk about tone-deaf. :facepalm:

2025-01-24 19:09:02 UTC

Sweet mamma jamma, I'm finally using my ancient Canon MX860 scanner function *as advertised* for the first time ever and it was so *easy* thanks to Linux! I didn't even **need** to install special drivers (of which there are none these days, as the printer is way, way, WAY past it's EOL date) - all I needed was the built-in Document Scanner that uses the SANE protocol and everything *just worked*! :vizzini:
This is a game changer for me, people. I guess going back to old school USB connection through a KVM so that I can use the printer on all my devices and not farting around with a wireless that seems to have never been *fully* supported and I'm in BIDNESS!
Seems like old school is still the best school sometimes. :bec_wink:

2025-01-23 05:23:05 UTC

- reply

I don't *think* so, but it might have. I've only installed the one client app on my phone just to see what I can sync with it. I think it asked me for location privileges, but I basically set it to only give those when the app is in use.
I also turned off or disabled the AI and federation stuff since I don't want any of that and my Nextcloud is essentially firewalled behind a reverse proxy just for my own personal use. I don't know why Nextcloud would really need my location, honestly.

2025-01-23 04:09:33 UTC

Great googly moogly, I think I've finally gotten nextcloud up and running through my proxy! :vizzini: :spock:
Turns out that as usual, I had made the reverse proxy config more complicated than it needed to be, which was causing problems with some rewrites and such. And, of course, I had some nextcloud settings to finagle with, but I think I've gotten it up and running, and was also able to get redis installed and running. Huzzah!
It's running a lot faster now that redis is installed, but I still need to do a lot of performance tuning to get it going like I want it (especially internally). Now I can start installing the clients on my various devices to keep things in sync, and then I can finally kick OneDrive to the curb, which has been my whole goal with this project.
Things are lookin' up!

2025-01-21 03:48:42 UTC

- reply

nah, I'm done. Thanks for listening. :bec_smile:

2025-01-21 03:36:24 UTC

- reply

But that's just it - these weren't bots, they were actual *people* that were making these decisions. I know that they're usually equated to "bots", but they're people that I actually *met* in meatspace.
Why go to all that trouble to have the meetings and then not provide any way to address and/or remediate any problem areas? It just makes no sense to me. And it wasn't clear to me that it actually *was* HR that dinged me - I think they're just a convenient scapegoat because their methods are impenetrable and inscrutable.

2025-01-21 03:25:03 UTC

- reply

It is, that's very true. But I just can't fathom why a company would go through the entire process only to pull the plug at the last minute and not give any real indication as to why. I can't help but ask myself, "what did I do/say wrong?"

2025-01-21 02:01:14 UTC

This latest rejection has hit me a lot harder than I expected that it would. I have *never* had this much trouble finding a job, especially in the only career I've ever had. I've been actively looking for a job for nearly a year now, when previous the longest time it has taken me to get a job has been 2 months. This is really making me doubt myself, my skills, and my future prospects.
The fact that none of these companies will actually *tell* me the specific reasons that they passed on me doesn't help me a single bit. And with the last couple of interviews, I've gotten past the parts that usually trip me up and start to get invested and excited about the position only to get rejected after investing so much time and energy into the process. What's really going on here? I can't address the deficiencies if nobody will tell me what they found to be lacking!
I don't know if this is ageism, being "over-qualified", waiting too long to start looking since my last job, or if I've inadvertently hamstrung myself by not learning front-end development. My recruiters and former co-workers all talk about what a pleasure I am to work with, and then I hear rumblings that maybe something in my "HR assessment" is vaguely not matching, and I have no idea what.
I don't know what else to do if not software. I don't know what else I *can* do in the short term. It makes me want to just give up. I don't think I suffer from what can be definitively called depression, but right now I'm demoralized, hurt, frustrated, baffled, confused, and broken. I no longer know what is expected of me, and I'm worried that nobody wants someone who's been "out of the game" this long.
I'll be okay - I think - but right now I just want to quit trying, knowing full well that I can't. One can only hear, "well, this just means that wasn't the right place for you" so many times before one starts to think that *maybe I'm the one that's broken?*, even when I *know* how broken the corpo system is.
:oof:

2025-01-16 22:19:54 UTC

I feel like I'm the only person on fedi that has absolutely no interest in the Switch 2. :spongebobbruh:

2025-01-10 04:14:07 UTC

Howdy friends, what is the best way to get around paywalled news sites to read the articles? Seems like the RSS feeds for a lot of these pubs are also blocked by paywalls (e.g. only showing the initial snippets and not the whole articles).
What methods do you use? This is primarily for sites where I *maybe* read 5 or 6 random articles in a month - more than their "free article" bullshit will allow, but not nearly enough to justify a monthly subscription.

2025-01-05 21:43:57 UTC

Well, friends, I am now the owner of a first aid kit for the first time in my life. I know, I know.... I've been living on the edge of insanity for my entire life.
Now the question is: do I keep it in the car or in the house?
And no, before all y'all first aid nuts respond, I am not buying *two* kits for both places. Don't need it for just me...

2024-11-28 02:35:55 UTC

Due to a conversation with @npub1rq5…456x over on https://lucy.bz, I was introduced to the concept of "third places". Once I started delving into some of the writings on it (which has become tonight's research rabbit hole), this seems to be a general concept that we as a society have lost in general.
I see it as yet another dystopian side effect of the "high tech", but in this case there's a "low life" vacuum where all the participants of a given subculture that we never got from all the cyberpunk literature.
Can't have the proles getting together and figuring out how the bourgeois is using the system to oppress them now, can we?
What I want - nay, what I *crave* - is a cyberpunk third place that is only open to the "public" insofar as they are adherents of the cyberpunk ethos. Yes...a cyberpunk third place would be abso-fucking-lutely AMAZING!
I just have no idea how to get that with my "low life" resources.

2024-11-21 20:08:11 UTC

Random homeowner question for anybody within the sound of this toot:
I've got a spigot on one side of my house where water sprays out no matter how tight I attach the hose, and it has done this with multiple hoses that I've tried. The hose connection is as tight as I can make it, yet water still sprays out at the joint no matter how high the pressure.<li>Can anyone tell me what's going on?</li><li>Is there a way that I can fix it without replacing the spigot itself?</li>
I'm assuming it's a problem with that one spigot, since I don't have that problem on the others with a wide variety of hoses.
Any knowledge will help me out! Thanks!

2024-11-18 05:17:59 UTC

Met up with a friend for dinner tonight and had a relatively infuriating conversation that just reminded me how many Americans still believe that "if I'm not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to hide" nonsense. So, so many people are still willing to trade their privacy for convenience.
The whole thing started off by talking about the fact that he's leaving Xitter (finally) to give Bluesky a try. This of course led me to suggest the fediverse and just clue him in to the wonders of decentralization, to which he replied, "I'm not posting anything personal that needs to be protected." :facepalm: Then we talked about the data collection and potential harm of *any* centralized service to which he boldly replied, "I don't care about any of that. I just accept that that's the way it is." :facepalm: :facepalm:
Then, when I mentioned that I'll likely start going hardline Signal-only right around January 20th or so, I just got the blank "whatever" stare. :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:
This is a technically savvy individual who also leans very left and is usually quite conscientious, and yet "just doesn't care" that he's being productized and manipulated by almost every tech company out there. I was shocked, honestly. And saddened.
How do we make people care about this?

2024-11-16 04:43:31 UTC

Sitting here on a Friday night wondering why there's not any hackerspaces (not makerspaces) or cyberpunk clubs in friggin' Austin, Texas. I mean *surely* something like the C-Base must exist around here *somewhere*, right? Right?!?
If not, *why* not? Legality issues? Meatspace socialization requirements? Hardware and security too expensive?
Maybe I'm just too far out of the loop. If anybody in #austintx knows of a place like that, DM please! :skippy3:
And now I'm thinking about what it would take to start or make one, aside from finding the space for it. Something like Afterlife or Cyberdelia (minus the rollerblading) crossed with [@benbrown](https://hackers.town/@benbrown )'s idea of a library.
If a place like that existed around here, I would totally be a regular fixture at that place.

2024-10-25 04:17:47 UTC

To wit: I *just now* got an email from a company that I applied to *on July 4th* telling me that the position has been filled. It took them nearly *4 months* to respond to my application.
What a frakkin' joke.

2024-09-21 01:50:01 UTC

- reply

I like Moshidon a lot - it's my daily driver. I like Trunks also, although it's somewhat opinionated in spots that don't quite fit my particular sensibilities so I use it less. But it's got some nice features and is available across multiple platforms, and it has a preview that is quite nice.
If Moshidon crashes and burns, I'll probably end up switching to Trunks.

2024-09-21 00:42:00 UTC

- reply

check out @npub1rx6…pdar and @npub18hc…2l55

2024-09-13 17:12:39 UTC

And remember, chooms: it's Friday the 13th today, so sharpen up those machetes, axes, chainsaws, barbed-wire-wrapped bats, and finger-knives and always remember to look out for big, quiet dudes wearing hockey masks or burnt-up fellas wearing a ratty old fedora and a heavy sweater in the summer heat.
Bonus tips:<li>Always make sure your spare tire is good</li><li>Don't go driving down lonely roads alone</li><li>No, no one at that house in the middle of nowhere is going to be friendly and/or helpful</li><li>Never split up</li><li>The basement is never, ever a good hiding place. In fact, avoid all basements everywhere for the next 24 hours.</li>

2024-08-30 03:58:12 UTC

- reply

I second this one! My dad's partner showed him the bitmojis and for the longest time he would respond to my texts with the "call me" one because he couldn't see the little guy's pinky finger sticking out so he thought it was a winky thumbs-up. :facepalm:

2024-07-03 03:37:51 UTC

I spent some time this evening watching a couple of episodes of a classic which I apparently missed back in 1995, a show called *VR.5*. And lemme just say that it is indeed.....a show. Yep. Pretty much everything I'd expect from a mid-season replacement from that time period that was trying to capitalize on the vacuum left by the *X-Files*.
I think had I watched it back then, I would have been able to ride the nostalgia wave to smooth out the many, many rough edges on a re-watch. And I don't fault absolutely anyone for having fond memories of VR.5. At the time, I'm sure it was perfectly adequate entertainment.
But as I'm coming into it fresh and without the benefit of having accompanying fond memories to help smooth out the cringe-factor, it's gonna be a rough one to get through. Oh sure, I'll still *watch* it. It's just not gonna have the same level of suspension-of-disbelief that a re-watch of some of *my* childhood favorites would, like *Knight Rider* or *Airwolf*.
Nostalgia makes up for many a plot indiscretion, my friends.

2024-06-15 04:09:53 UTC

- reply

Metal has always been misunderstood both literally and figuratively by anybody outside that culture. Like you likely did, I grew up hearing that bands like Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and Metallica were all "evil" based solely on their imagery. Once I was actually able to listen to them, it was clear that everybody railing against them had no idea what they were even talking about.
So many bands from the '60s onwards have super anti-political messages as their mainstay lyrics. I mean, Megadeth pretty much has two default topics: politics and mental illness.
The same people that misunderstand metal misunderstand punk as well for the same reasons.

2024-05-29 20:09:13 UTC

- reply

I'm not sure that I can use Zelle to pay my COBRA insurance premiums. My only experiences with Zelle so far has been that it requires a phone number or email address, and I don't know how that would work for a business.
I guess I could set up my bank to make payments from my account, but then there's other fees associated with that (as they actually send a paper check rather than a wire transfer).
Like I said, it's onerous to pay any way other than cards.

2024-05-29 19:24:14 UTC

- reply

"forced convenience" because we made it so "overly inconvenient" to do it any other way...

2024-05-29 19:17:07 UTC

It's awesome that most financial transactions really, really, *really* want you to pay via credit card (by making it a lot more onerous to pay with any other method) and then charge a 1-3% "convenience fee" for doing so.
How did we let them get away with this and make this the norm, people? How did we not push back on this the first time one of these profiteers tried to foist this upon us?
:facepalm:

2024-05-26 18:44:44 UTC

@npub1fdr…lvhs spreading some truth in *The Bezzle*:
> America will > *never*> make life better for the millions of souls it has imprisoned. Never. It is not in our character. To be an American is to live with the festering background knowledge that you are in a land that imprisons more of its people than any country in the history of the world—a land with more prisoners than Stalin’s USSR or Hu Jintao’s China or P. W. Botha’s Apartheid South Africa.
> With so many in prison, either you have to believe that you are living in the midst of a great many secret criminals, or you have to confront the fact that you live in a place where the only thing standing between you and decades in a prison (running at two or three times its nominal capacity) is luck … and > *connections*> .

2024-05-08 22:28:51 UTC

Yes, I know our system is broken. I know that a 2-party system is untenable. And I know that this whole "lesser of two evils" argument is complete bullshit and that pretty much everyone in this government is a bad person. I'm as tired of it as you are.
But please - PLEASE - honestly tell me what we, the rank & file, are supposed to actually *do* about it? The broken system is all we have and not participating in it out of protest, however righteous that protest might be, just means that either way we'll still be left with one of two candidates. The system will go on without us and we'll be stuck living with the results determined by those that chose to continue participating in it.
I'm absolutely, genuinely asking. Everyone seems to be complaining about it, talking about how terrible it is, and there are other viable alternative systems of government that would likely work much better, but they're all essentially a moot point because the current system won't allow them to even have a chance to be tried.
So what is the average citizen supposed to do? Please tell me.