Jonah Aragon :MN:

the other platforms do not yet support the (basic imo) features we use on GitHub, but we do accept submissions to Codeberg issues https://codeberg.org/privacyguides/verified-apps
You can enable showing a Codeberg button in the app’s settings too, but it is off by default because Codeberg doesn’t even support auto-filling in the form with query strings like GitHub form templates have so I think it is a worse experience.
Also Codeberg locked my phone out from accessing my account for no reason when I was testing it yesterday 🤷‍♂️

2026-06-04 23:24:24 UTC

I'm testing out something new: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/verified-apps-app-for-android-pre-release/38348
Last week Privacy Guides [posted](https://mastodon.neat.computer/@privacyguides/116637692126739185 ) about building a database of signing certificates for Android apps, so that people can validate their APK files against an independent source.
Now, I've released an (alpha) version of a new app which:<li><p>Checks the apps on your phone against our database, and let's you know which apps match, and</p></li><li><p>Makes it super easy for you to submit any apps you have installed which aren't in our database yet!</p></li>
If you want to help submit your apps to our crowdsourced dataset, [please give it a try](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/verified-apps-app-for-android-pre-release/38348 ) and let me know what you think!
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/694/395/805/596/137/original/ba2c7c15184cc25a.png
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/694/396/109/374/493/original/e3abca0a5fe1a21d.png

2026-05-16 07:00:38 UTC

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Also if someone wants to tell me what the second one means that’d be great lol

2026-05-14 13:50:25 UTC

Fucking-AI-ass posts from Cloudflare and GitLab 🤮
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/573/242/568/251/110/original/aa74557b709ff618.png
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/573/242/549/675/296/original/bb7802e31484d500.png

2026-04-29 16:42:44 UTC

RE: https://freeradical.zone/@tek/116488730601382020
Wait so they can just do that?
#note1lc9…25ke

2026-04-29 15:03:59 UTC

This movie is going to be shit unfortunately, but the marketing team really cooked with these propaganda posters 😂
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/488/589/126/850/724/original/24794fff5e320722.jpeg
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/488/589/125/900/326/original/f0d39c3ca3b69c73.jpeg

2026-04-29 04:27:09 UTC

I’m back in the Nextcloud ecosystem

2026-04-26 15:53:35 UTC

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if they acquired Ubiquiti to get back into the AirPort space *and* the enterprise equipment space that’d be rad as hell actually. I want a macOS Server comeback on Apple Silicon 😭

2026-04-25 03:53:50 UTC

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https://mastodon.neat.computer/@jonah/116461677062102992
#note17j2…x3d5

2026-04-24 23:42:17 UTC

I can't believe this hasn't occurred to me before. Genius marketing move by these smartphone manufacturers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YrdI7h2XoY

2026-04-24 22:00:45 UTC

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to play devil's advocate, a steaming pile of shit does evoke W3C in my mind

2026-04-24 20:56:04 UTC

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None of these things change anything. I really don’t see facial scans as an acceptable alternative.
Among other privacy issues, they are inaccurate (thus likely requiring an even more privacy invasive fallback option), and normalize facial recognition in other areas of society as merely another way to identify yourself.
Any form of facial recognition that would even possibly approach acceptability would have to be so unrestrictive that they might as well not exist at all. Anything less, i.e. requiring some black box AI model and/or “verifiable” (by some third party) code execution essentially becomes a DRM scheme, another technology the FOSS community also cannot find acceptable.
If society demands OS-level age gating, it can only come in the form of a user self-attesting their age at setup and the OS storing that information.
There is a massive practical benefit to parents even in this case. Yes, kids could lie here, but parents only have to ensure they don’t lie a single time (during setup) rather than that they don’t lie every time they enter their DOB on a random website or app.
It’s understandable for parents to want more robust parental controls, but they should come at a cost of even a tiny modicum of parental responsibility. Eschewing ALL responsibility for parenting your children to a third-party (even a face scanning system with all the protections Proton's post describes) makes 0 sense, and is unacceptable for adults also swept up in this.

2026-04-24 17:13:22 UTC

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you’re describing a therapist lol

2026-04-24 14:26:14 UTC

Obviously only happening to distract from Epstein and Iran, but it’s still pathetic that the Democrats never had the balls to do this
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/460/139/442/654/107/original/db3d98afbda87cb4.jpeg

2026-04-24 06:10:05 UTC

What the heck? I just found out about this insane archive.today stuff from a couple months ago https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-might-blacklist-archive-today-after-site-maintainer-ddosed-a-blog/
I used this site so much, now what? 😭

2026-04-24 05:48:57 UTC

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yeah. They are just making it more prominent in the UI. I think it’ll get more people to verify their domains

2026-04-24 04:53:27 UTC

The increased prominence of domain verification, across basically *everywhere* in the upcoming Mastodon 4.6.0 release, is extremely cool. Great change!
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/457/883/258/439/653/original/88750922e3f531a6.png

2026-04-23 21:44:44 UTC

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if you end up using Ghost with your own custom theme I will leave you with these resources to look into, to disable as much of Ghost's client-side JS for visitors as you'd like:
- https://www.spectralwebservices.com/blog/adding-new-features-to-ghost-head/
- https://docs.ghost.org/config#privacy

2026-04-23 21:31:20 UTC

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unfortunately, the only other solution I'm aware of remains WordPress :(
1. Costs me $3.28/month to host jonaharagon.com at https://www.pikapods.com.
2. True, if you need it to integrate with memberships or paywalled articles. If it's only donations like a tip jar though, you could just embed anything you want of course.
3. Not a ton of themes. Ghost themes are static HTML though, somewhat similarish to Jekyll's if you're familiar with those.

2026-04-23 21:10:14 UTC

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feels like an XY problem without knowing what you don't like about Ghost

2026-04-23 19:29:19 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/116455668075984753
"They should rely on facial scans" LOL
#note1wfr…f4eg

2026-04-23 19:18:42 UTC

Thank god we finally have a video breaking out of the typical cis male nerd sphere we find ourselves in lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00mNfH75qM
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/455/626/655/645/270/original/96e17cf684ff1d71.png

2026-04-23 16:12:33 UTC

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maybe because I look at the "other servers" live feed lol

2026-04-23 03:05:01 UTC

for how much porn gets posted to mastodon i'm surprised there isn't a fediverse onlyfans yet

2026-04-23 02:21:43 UTC

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yeah the details are not very important. Just for reference 😂

2026-04-22 23:18:33 UTC

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...The longer version is that we were having a problem with certain Mastodon processes crashing, almost always the "ingress" queue which processes incoming posts as the name suggests, which I thought were due to resource issues (running out of memory). So we've been optimizing our server setup to make sure we had adequate resources for everything.
After that we were still seeing issues, now mainly when processing media attachments from other servers. It appeared to be an issue with our media storage provider being too slow to process new media, but when we tested it manually we couldn't actually find any problems.
Looking into it further, we uncovered database corruption issues, namely a lot of duplicate content that shouldn't be there. I'm not sure when this began to happen, it could have been caused by a bug in a previous upgrade?
The problem with this duplicate content is not just storing extra data, but that certain indexes used by the database to speed up operations would not function properly, because Mastodon and the indexes both expect all of the data to be unique, so when there's duplicate content the indexes simply would not work.
I'm unsure how often this happens (or if it has happened to anyone else) but Mastodon has a tool specifically for fixing duplicate database content issues, so I assume it must happen to some people.
We ran that tool and looked at the data we had noticed before, and it appears to have fixed the database corruption issues. We now think that this was the primary issue causing all other problems.
Now that the underlying database problem is fixed and the database has been re-indexed, this should speed up everything, because the indexes are fully functional again, and should prevent those processes from crashing again in the future.

2026-04-22 19:45:16 UTC

The start of the latest episode of #Invincible was evil lol

2026-04-22 17:31:37 UTC

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hey, they boost the algorithm though 😆
Actually, also not as bad as I thought it might be knowing how social media typically reacts to things lol

2026-04-22 15:22:36 UTC

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thank you for teeing me up. I also would’ve accepted “robots don’t say ye!”
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/449/037/619/521/981/original/5be62af579856e96.mp4

2026-04-22 04:43:50 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.neat.computer/@jonah/116428760161078526
38% of you have failed the test. Robot, ye be not.
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/446/522/011/755/323/original/2b01e5915ad2f881.jpeg
#note18v7…3wdc

2026-04-22 04:32:28 UTC

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WHAT

2026-04-22 03:37:13 UTC

I predict my latest YouTube video will lose @npub1dm2…7754 some followers lol

2026-04-22 03:00:54 UTC

It's very frustrating that you can not add an image to a quote post. Mastodon pls fix this 🙏

2026-04-22 01:27:28 UTC

It looks like I’ve got some reading to do!
ICYMI, “Prophecy” by @npub1zcj…2yep, and “Privacy’s Defender” by @npub1m24…d9a3’s Cindy Cohn are both new releases you can order now. AND we just had the opportunities to interview both of them this month at @npub1dm2…7754 – find the videos on our channel 😉
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/445/745/320/397/181/original/d7bf2bdee4bd7a7e.jpeg

2026-04-21 18:00:07 UTC

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mariyadelano/115548761092296218
I think this is true. And not requiring even “simple programming” in some cases. I started to use #n8n, and just doing that has saved me far more time and headache than AI ever will.

2026-04-21 17:59:19 UTC

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same, and same

2026-04-21 17:48:39 UTC

The “new media” “reporting” on “Mamdami’s Mart,” everyone.
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/443/940/223/726/725/original/5ad7be75aadd3b1f.png
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/443/944/068/518/181/original/4d401d189f340d63.png

2026-04-21 17:22:00 UTC

Is it finally real this time? https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/the-onion-deal-taking-over-alex-jones-infowars-1236726130/

2026-04-21 06:47:21 UTC

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well they haven’t taken serious interest in the enterprise end user space either since they ceded their education stronghold to chromebooks, so it could go either way lol

2026-04-21 02:12:13 UTC

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enterprise like devices for office workers, or enterprise like VPS and web servers?

2026-04-20 22:26:54 UTC

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https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/439/382/534/210/308/original/7d456adcc3b12860.png

2026-04-20 22:22:15 UTC

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RE: https://mastodon.neat.computer/@jonah/116405760894565520
@npub18h6…dzdk 🫡
#note1whv…5x49

2026-04-20 20:49:49 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/@nateb/116438957352565430
Lucky man, got it a day early ;-;
#note1dqh…859p

2026-04-20 20:48:55 UTC

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I am the first type of person lol - I really want to combat the last type of person though, we need better fediverse education 😅

2026-04-20 20:05:52 UTC

Regular reminder
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/438/826/746/151/223/original/0a1a7894b0da94f9.png

2026-04-20 19:45:36 UTC

Noticing a trend where lots of people are supportive of my posts here, I get a lot of favorites and don't typically get negative feedback, but far fewer people are willing to actually boost them to their own circles, besides the most uncontroversial possible statements.
I can only assume I'm either still too boring, or my takes still remain a tiny bit too spicy for casual Mastodon conversation 😂

2026-04-20 18:00:40 UTC

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probably also around there.
I hear this as a frequent criticism of the political compass, that it places too many people in the green, but I think instead that is just evidence that politicians are so out of touch with what most people actually want.

2026-04-20 17:51:08 UTC

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and to be fair, I did read [one of the blog posts](https://tante.cc/2025/02/18/speaking-from-somewhere/) that @npub1j8v…ld5q published with more details on the subject, and don't entirely disagree with him.
Where I do disagree is the notion that the saying "When you move a step towards them trying to find a compromise they will make a step back and keep dragging you with them" applies here to our language.
In reality, I think what is happening here is not our language taking a step towards the right, but the alt-right running over to nab our ideas and appropriate them, and we are continuing to roll over and let them do so.
#note1kf4…nx94

2026-04-20 17:43:30 UTC

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also to be clear, when I say "gun toting nut" I mean people who make the RTKBA their entire personality and political position. I also generally support the RTKBA actually lol

2026-04-20 17:36:10 UTC

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not to break out the flawed political compass, but there is a reason the answers are nearly always distributed like this. Right-wing libertarianism and left-wing authoritarianism are nonsense ideas that do not work in the real world.
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/438/230/441/285/138/original/a9045ab048067657.png
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/438/232/390/971/190/original/b3484ff5efb9864b.png

2026-04-20 16:32:08 UTC

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as the thread points out though, Blacksky still remains entirely reliant on Bluesky’s operation. Whereas if mastodon.social went down I would not need to care in the slightest.

2026-04-20 14:53:59 UTC

Apparently macOS 28 is removing support for Rosetta 2 (running Intel binaries on Apple Silicon).
This will be an incredibly unfortunate change if they don’t continue to support Rosetta 2 for virtual machines. The ability to test Intel binaries *for Linux in a Linux VM* is actually huge, and I think we’ll see developers switch away from macOS if that happens.
They are keeping “a subset of Rosetta functionality” for gaming titles beyond 28, but no word on VMs. I think in an ideal world they only remove app translations, but keep around the JIT functionality 🤞

2026-04-20 14:44:22 UTC

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The unfortunate reality is that the EU is currently trying their absolute hardest to create “Big Tech, but Europe.”
Europeans need to be discussing *in advance* the very real ways that data sovereignty gives them the opportunity to avoid the fundamental issues of Big Tech has.
If this does not change, you will have the American version of data sovereignty, which is just “taking Chinese apps and putting them in Oracle datacenters.”

2026-04-20 14:39:54 UTC

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This being said, I’d agree the idea of data sovereignty *alone* is an utterly pointless thing for the EU to be so worried about, seeing as they haven’t first enacted clear rules about the public sector use of consumer data, only really rules about commercial use.
However it *is* happening and it *can* be a helpful concept *if* we can discuss appropriate safeguards. If only the right are participating in these discussions WE WILL LOSE the future of cloud technology.

2026-04-20 14:32:32 UTC

RE: https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/116435835882195004
Can we instead stop ceding all the words that are useful descriptors to the right just because they start using them?
I also have this issue with libertarianism, which should describe a useful political position about liberty from government abuses independently from your views on economic policies, but now just makes you sound like a gun toting nut. This makes it harder to defend against the narrative that everyone on the left is rooting for some authoritarian communist society.
The same goes for many internet memes and sayings that were once universally used, e.g. Pepe the Frog. It is no wonder members of younger generations keep falling to the alt-right, when the right is co-opting all the things they enjoy, and everyone else not only lets them, but actively works to make those popular things be seen as hateful. In this example, the popular idea that Pepe the Frog is a hate symbol stems almost entirely from some uninformed, reactionary article the Clinton campaign posted to try and smear Trump, then got the media to repeat forever.
#note144n…qf02

2026-04-20 06:12:16 UTC

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🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/435/548/558/010/861/original/b3e6c6fece3bd309.jpeg

2026-04-20 04:56:36 UTC

Forced to stay awake another hour, because my favorite oldest cousin is performing live at #Coachella 🥰

2026-04-19 17:37:19 UTC

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what the hell

2026-04-19 17:34:38 UTC

Always bummed when people don’t get my obscure Futurama references in casual conversations/posts 😆

2026-04-19 04:28:37 UTC

I'm surprised there's already HD Project Hail Mary rips floating around, not just shitty camera recordings lol

2026-04-19 04:13:03 UTC

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between our hockey team and our football team one thing is clear, us Minnesotans are really skilled at losing at the last moment of the playoffs

2026-04-19 02:09:56 UTC

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🤖 🌷

2026-04-19 01:24:52 UTC

Which of the following would you most prefer?

2026-04-18 21:28:35 UTC

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don’t think this exists. People online always say “commercial displays,” but I’ve never found any with acceptable image quality (OLED and/or Dolby Vision).
Best thing I can say about my LG B4 OLED is that it doesn’t require networking, and in the year and a half I’ve had it I’ve had to interact with its remote and software 0 times after install. It works flawlessly with just the Apple TV remote.

2026-04-18 19:57:31 UTC

I don’t know if there’s a big #ThePitt community on Mastodon but this video has got me fucking crying 😂
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/427/469/987/422/196/original/42d0e5bc04c798fb.mp4

2026-04-18 19:30:11 UTC

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https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/427/363/670/610/663/original/cce235bbe62e9a85.mp4

2026-04-18 19:07:16 UTC

😭 It was 79F two days ago. In for some more weather whiplash in Minneapolis this week.
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/427/269/205/457/716/original/e6ce4e9e8a3a83ee.png

2026-04-18 19:02:15 UTC

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the real question is whether I can eat a fruit with all these things and then drink a soda and it covers the fructose in both. Loophole? /hj

2026-04-18 19:01:23 UTC

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glad they clarified this because I was getting anxious for the first 3/4ths of the page lol
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/427/250/175/352/370/original/2fd82c1aa87ad34d.jpeg

2026-04-18 18:57:14 UTC

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first thing I tried

2026-04-18 02:08:37 UTC

How much laptop disassembly would be required before this could possibly be an issue? 😂
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/423/267/799/694/139/original/c8915b9b64b6fcac.jpeg

2026-04-17 21:21:21 UTC

This Week in Privacy is 🔴 live, talking about #mastodon currently 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mkV6IFuC7Y

2026-04-17 18:07:36 UTC

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this is actually a protocol for aircraft-to-aircraft communication https://youtube.com/shorts/uxG7rQlk40Y

2026-04-17 17:24:49 UTC

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every time I read about the government I’m left more confused about who actually does what. The hell do these statements even mean, how are either of these things legal?
> The House’s failure leaves the Senate to sort out what comes next, starting with whether to approve the extension next week.
> “Congress’ votes on extending Section 702 authority this week are not strictly necessary to keep the program operational in the short-term. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court quietly recertified the program in a classified ruling on March 17, authorizing collection to continue through March 2027 even if Congress fails to act.”

2026-04-17 15:37:35 UTC

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you’re welcome ☺️

2026-04-17 07:05:08 UTC

If you’ve ever wanted me to suck up 40 minutes of your life with stream of consciousness rambling, have I got the video for you https://www.youtube.com/live/WLI6rEl0_9M

2026-04-17 05:13:55 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/116415973849880514
This whole thread is a good explainer for people who still wrongly think Bluesky is a resilient/user-run/federated network like Mastodon is.
The reality is that Bluesky requires infinite VC money to fully replicate, whereas Mastodon can run totally self-sufficiently on a Raspberry Pi.
#note1kus…fjns

2026-04-17 04:18:04 UTC

Politics? Business? No. This is as serious as the internet was intended to be, at maximum. We’ve strayed too far from the path. https://youtu.be/p3G5IXn0K7A

2026-04-17 00:51:05 UTC

I prefer this version to Harry Styles’ tbh https://youtu.be/UgHq7cZLr_c

2026-04-16 20:58:48 UTC

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https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/416/387/275/081/869/original/a09e6d2be2455f99.png

2026-04-15 01:01:02 UTC

https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/406/014/148/288/637/original/ca7dd1ed37731900.png

2026-04-14 23:55:51 UTC

Remember, on the Fediverse WE are the algorithm! If your friends would like a post too, be generous with that reshare button 🥰 #FediTips
https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/405/752/843/644/523/original/a2ecb593b5ec5ed2.png

2026-04-14 23:18:20 UTC

I wanted to get a prescription for fish oil (because my insurance will cover it) and I’ve never been grilled harder by an NP for a prescription in my life 🫨
I don’t even need a prior authorization, this is practically zero work to add on to my existing appointment, and I just want to save like $20. Why am I going on multiple days of back and forth medical messages now?
Am I the problem? 🤣

2026-04-14 21:15:45 UTC

Driving a car: Requires a state-issued license, purchasing a $30K machine and costly auto insurance that both have to be registered with the state, driving on taxpayer subsidized roads on state-owned land often obtained through eminent domain, and giving the cops massive leeway to search and seize your property every time you’re in your car on said public property.
Public transit: No government permission slip needed, no need to purchase expensive deprecating asset, hop on for a couple bucks.
Americans: “I don’t want to be dependent on government transportation!!”

2026-04-14 20:27:48 UTC

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inb4 “#NotAllParents”
But you know who I mean, the type who support KOSA and Age Verification lmao

2026-04-14 20:27:20 UTC

RE: https://masto.ai/@rbreich/116404918583626562
This is why I could never be a teacher. You have to work for slave wages, AND you have to put up with the dumbest, most annoying, and most entitled demographic in the world: parents.
#note1v5e…mf93

2026-04-14 20:24:45 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/116404834935022215
Microsoft making bold and competitive decisions after the MacBook Neo launch
#note1pym…6gqc

2026-04-14 20:22:56 UTC

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very cool, indeed at the very least it’s sad that we’ll never know.

2026-04-14 15:48:05 UTC

Everyone knows it but Steve Jobs was a crazy talented presenter. I just wanted to watch the first part of the 2007 iPhone announcement and now he’s sucked me in for the full hour lol

2026-04-14 15:36:08 UTC

I like social media because I almost always write my posts for only one specific person in mind, and it’s interesting to 1) see if they like it and 2) see who else likes it 🤣

2026-04-14 15:07:58 UTC

https://mastodon-cdn.neat.computer/media_attachments/files/116/403/683/513/648/551/original/f028d8b5503bd7cb.png

2026-04-12 17:53:19 UTC

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"'the real victory is the friends we made along the way,' I don't subscribe to that. We need to win" 😂 💯

2026-04-12 04:28:11 UTC

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It’s interesting though because iOS 26, on the other hand, is actually pretty good.

2026-04-12 04:28:11 UTC

This might genuinely be the first year I fully skip an entire macOS release and just wait for whatever comes after Tahoe.
#apple #macos #macbook

2026-04-12 04:14:01 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jwz/116389360536576643
This is right up there with preventing copy/pasting
#note1qph…7vn9

2026-04-12 02:41:07 UTC

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😂

2026-04-12 02:11:57 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.neat.computer/@jonah/116389306329768008
Apps should NOT be able to tell when you've denied notification permissions in your OS (or when you're taking a screenshot, etc.) 😠
#note1v7x…rp0w

2026-04-12 02:11:14 UTC

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true, I have an app now that lets me disable notifications for 6 hours, and if you disable notifications in the OS then the app refuses to function 🫨

2026-04-12 01:54:37 UTC

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so the conspiracies could still be right, is what I'm hearing