Alice Averlong🏳️‍⚧️

Mad Scientist and Necromancer
AuADHD creature of elemental internet
collector of keysmashes

Used to be called Foone, before the war

pronouns: she/her
website: https://wiki.averlong.com
location: San Leandro, CA, USA
ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/fooneturing

Public Key

npub1g8xss90hlwac30xt8f53wnczr3mnr6mud4js95qwtyfy6nd95r0q9r7wul

NIP-05 Address

foone_at_digipres.club@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsyrnggzhmlhwughn9n56ghfuppcae3ad7x6egz6q89jyjdfkj6phspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dspntvlj

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1g8xss90hlwac30xt8f53wnczr3mnr6mud4js95qwtyfy6nd95r0q9r7wul

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-05-31 19:48:29 UTC

it's especially funny seeing the "aren't you worried about getting left behind?" argument about AI, speaking as a retrotech person.
Like, come on. I'm still writing software for DOS and Windows 95. What even is "behind" at this point?

2026-05-04 20:50:51 UTC

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BTW this thing is way worse than it looks. Jar Jar isn't drawn on here, he's sculpted out of layers of rubber. You can feel the detail on his face every moment you're using his mouse.
https://digipres-club.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/518/278/031/901/990/original/b1522ed74e63cb8c.png

2026-05-04 20:45:46 UTC

It's time. Fetch me the Jar-Jar mouse.
https://digipres-club.s3.bhs.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/518/258/581/505/990/original/5e2c4249239511ab.jpg

2026-04-03 00:33:20 UTC

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oh god
remember kids, when implementing a library that talks to a webserver, make sure to hardcode that URL in the source 27 times, just to make sure no one can easily use it against a local instance

2026-04-03 00:31:04 UTC

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oh sweet laser jesus, I FINALLY have the broken client library at least TALKING to the server
this saga started 5 hours ago and I have only now managed to make a successful request to log in.
imagine how much harder it's going to be to actually do anything with this shit

2026-04-02 23:56:57 UTC

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although it is always amusing when my computer says "sorry I can't let you do that"
I think you're forgetting that
1. I'm a hacker
2. I OWN YOU

2026-04-02 23:51:06 UTC

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I HAVEN'T EVEN WRITTEN MORE THAN "LOGIN TO SERVER" IN MY SCRIPT YET ;_;

2026-04-02 23:50:48 UTC

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but the API wrapper is out of date so I'll have to modify that oh and it doesn't support local servers so I'll need to implement that and wait requests/urllib3/certifi/python's ssl module/python's _ssl module has a bug and can't parse my cert.
I can hack around that, who cares. oh I need to supply a client certificate? no problem, that's in my OS's certificate store, I'll just export that... okay it's marked as non-exportable. so I have to hack it out

2026-04-02 23:49:06 UTC

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like today I wanted to write a script that recurses through some folders, finds files matching a regex, and upload them to a local service. easy! I can imagine the whole script in my head even before my fingers touch the keyboard

2026-04-02 23:48:14 UTC

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the biggest hurdle I face with programming is that I often only have like, an hour or two worth of energy to work on it a day
and I can easily use that all up on bullshit

2026-04-02 19:53:54 UTC

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oh god there's a stackoverflow question mentioning this bug from 2015

2026-04-02 19:37:54 UTC

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oh it might be fixed in 3.15.0a6, which hasn't been released yet

2026-04-02 19:28:36 UTC

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I figured I could easily fix the problem in the one function I needed
I think I've now found a bug in python's standard library

2026-04-02 19:00:28 UTC

argh
the site I have to automate the API of has a nice python wrapper and the one function I need is marked "WIP sorry"
last modified in 2022

2026-03-31 20:13:09 UTC

PSA:
1. If you are not silly, it is vital you become silly
2. If you are silly, you must stay silly
2. If you used to be silly but have stopped, you must make all efforts to return to silliness

2026-03-31 19:45:16 UTC

I remember cynically joking last year that all the "advanced" AIs like Claude were just the same kind of black-box LLMs but with a bunch of regexes glued onto them
now that the source has leaked: HAHAHA

2026-03-31 07:38:14 UTC

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility!
We're everywhere and we're cool.
Here's the trans pride flag 🏳️‍⚧️ on a mid-90s Pentium running DOS.
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/322/643/041/318/010/original/28b294ec1e80b5e4.jpg

2026-03-30 19:44:16 UTC

I'm 19 months into unemployment due to illness, and I just got a letter that my earlier payment for storage didn't go through, and I have until the 1st to pay 2000$ or they're auctioning off my storage, which has 12 years of games & retrotech.
Any help you can spare would be amazing.
https://ko-fi.com/fooneturing/goal?g=0
#mutualaid

2026-03-27 04:39:30 UTC

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE, GUYS
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/299/291/109/628/812/original/f7606b1ad3a5e5b9.png

2026-03-23 06:27:52 UTC

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nah using Visual Basic is a loadbearing part of my Mad Science

2026-03-23 06:04:18 UTC

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sadly my PCjr can't run windows 95

2026-03-23 05:26:01 UTC

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BTW with the "pop quiz" my current best solution is 13

2026-03-23 05:17:54 UTC

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The system doesn't have a power supply that windows 95 can turn off automatically (It's a little too old for that), so while I could have the monitoring hardware watch the screen for the "it's now safe to turn off your computer" screen, I'd probably just make it wait 60 seconds after we issue the shutdown, then yank the power.

2026-03-23 05:15:49 UTC

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POP QUIZ: how many servos do you need, if you need to be able to type all the symbol keys on a QWERTY-US keyboard (49 keys), plus the following keys:
F5 (to run the program after we type in the code)
Enter (to close the popup after we take the photo, which will then trigger a shutdown)

2026-03-23 05:06:53 UTC

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could also get some servos and physically manipulate the keyboard. really air-gap it

2026-03-23 05:06:09 UTC

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but the far more fun answer would be to build a machine to eject floppies out of some other network-attached computer and inserts them into the Pentium, and vice versa.
Air-gapped

2026-03-23 05:05:27 UTC

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that could be done without being too difficult by simply using a Gotek running FlashFloppy and something emulating USB storage (or making a Trick USB cable that can be in two computers at once)

2026-03-23 05:04:28 UTC

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The next obvious option is to set up a floppy autoloader

2026-03-23 05:03:34 UTC

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same for a WiFi232 on the serial port. boring.
hey I wrote some code a while ago to emulate a PS/2 keyboard, I could just type it in!

2026-03-23 05:02:50 UTC

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But how does the generated Visual Basic code get into the Pentium-90 desktop?
Well, it doesn't have a network card. I could add one, but /boring/

2026-03-23 05:01:32 UTC

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How do you get the image?
Easy. We just photograph the CRT

2026-03-23 05:01:22 UTC

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set up a Pentium-60 to boot into Windows 95, compile some Visual Basic code, and then run it.

2026-03-23 05:00:34 UTC

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2. hardware

2026-03-23 04:59:31 UTC

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Might get CEASE AND DESIST'd by Microsoft, but fuck it, it'll be funny

2026-03-23 04:58:47 UTC

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But where do we run the code?
Well there's two obvious options that are sufficiently Mad Scientist enough to be interesting enough to do:
1. In the browser. Do this client-side. Boot a VM in the browser that runs Visual Basic and then the resulting EXE and shows that to the user

2026-03-23 04:57:09 UTC

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"easy", for certain values of "easy"

2026-03-23 04:56:58 UTC

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So let's just automate that.
We take the post text, generate a visual basic source file for it, then boot windows 98, compile the visual basic, run the EXE, take a screenshot, shutdown

2026-03-23 04:56:08 UTC

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but I'm a Mad Scientist.
So what's the Mad Scientist way to do this? Well, how'd I do it before?
I wrote a line of code in my Visual Basic 6 IDE and ran it on my Windows 98 VM

2026-03-23 04:55:23 UTC

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but "I've done it before" is kinda boring and also windows dialog boxes have a surprising number of edge cases that I am unable to escape being autistically perfectionist about.
so adding win95 to the death generator, while it would be cool, is probably not happening any time soon

2026-03-23 04:54:08 UTC

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and the OBVIOUS answer for "how do I do that" is "extend the death generator to do windows 95 dialog boxes and then automate it".
I've done the second half before, automated the death generator. It's a pain and is ugly (the death generator is written exactly wrong to make this doable) but I've done it before, I can steal Foone's code for it

2026-03-23 04:53:12 UTC

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and I was thinking about automating it so I could do another thing: make a mastodon instance that renders every post on it as pixel-accurate windows 95 dialog boxes

2026-03-23 04:52:12 UTC

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and this post describes the behind-the-scenes of how I made these. (tl;dr it was manual screenshots)
https://digipres.club/@foone/116276567994297740
#note1huu…czma

2026-03-23 04:45:18 UTC

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so I recently did a lets-call-it-a-poem about (specifically Windows) computers loving us back:
https://digipres.club/@foone/116276073266480193
and I was thinking I want a way to do this automatically, specifically I'd like (almost) the first one.
#note19ed…rugf

2026-03-23 04:39:04 UTC

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but it would make my mastodon and blusky posts at least 5% cooler

2026-03-23 04:38:42 UTC

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I haven't written line one of code on this project and I'm already thinking about how much dedicated hardware powered on and monitored I'd have to have to support indefinitely

2026-03-23 04:38:00 UTC

one of the problems with being a mad scientist is that you can scope creep really fast

2026-03-23 04:20:23 UTC

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They're mostly screenshots of the original OSes running in emulators. I used Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic.NET, Word Dialog Editor (from Office 4, I think?), and MUSH, the tool for controlling Agent characters like Clippy.
The DOS EDIT one is a lot of careful paint.net manipulation of pixels, combining a few screenshots while respecting the underlying text grid

2026-03-23 02:14:34 UTC

https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/276/071/544/446/567/original/57181a88ac983db7.png

2026-03-23 01:38:26 UTC

anyone tried opening the magic file "con" from MS DOS Edit?
I was hoping for an editor but it turns out instead it happily opens it but then hangs forever
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/275/929/117/062/858/original/155599f28e5d9276.png

2026-03-21 06:53:49 UTC

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pffft
both a reaction to your joke and an impression of the sound it makes

2026-03-21 06:38:56 UTC

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I should make a video where I respond to my shitty app. you know, a react react video

2026-03-21 06:38:21 UTC

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hah!

2026-03-21 06:35:36 UTC

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okay it's working.
react is a tiring framework.
everytime I need to make a tiny change, I end up getting mad for an hour and then I'm tired of programming for the day.

2026-03-21 06:16:29 UTC

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oh it was but my manual color theme setting was overriding it.

2026-03-21 06:10:17 UTC

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so I can switch themes but it's not getting my browser theme, hmmm

2026-03-21 06:07:46 UTC

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<CssBaseline /> was the issue. I wasn't including it

2026-03-21 06:01:07 UTC

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okay my theme switching does kinda work if I hardcode it to dark mode, then I can switch the theme
but it only affects the theme, not the background.
But the background is set by the system theme, so if you have the theme set to lightmode and system them set to dark, you get a black background and black UI form
So it's just invisible

2026-03-21 05:58:58 UTC

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WHY WON'T THEME SWITCHING WORK

2026-03-21 05:44:20 UTC

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yeah, it was something normal that I don't want to reveal for deadname reasons

2026-03-21 02:46:25 UTC

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my previous name's Entirely Normal Middle Name apparently broke a lot of systems, actually: my driver's license has my name as "FooneMIDDLENAME Turing", but only on the digital barcode on the back, the front has me as "Foone MIDDLENAME Turing"
This hasn't caused any issues yet, but it does mean every airline boarding pass I've ever gotten has been misprinted

2026-03-21 01:28:06 UTC

My new name doesn't have a middle name yet, so I'm accepting suggestions on what I could adopt that'd break as many systems as possible.
Obvious answers:
* null
* an emoji
* U+FFFD �
* half of a unicode surrogate pair
* EICAR
* some kind of prompt injection
* the entirety of DOOM, base64 encoded
* an illegal prime
* the source to decss
* 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

2026-03-21 00:03:53 UTC

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it sure does. I recently got my dose doubled for Estradiol Monotherapy therapy reasons!

2026-03-20 23:50:09 UTC

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I did! But my gender changed, from "non-binary" to "female".
And very cool, congrats on your pronoun-switching!

2026-03-20 23:35:45 UTC

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yeah but "sage" in the 2ch/4chan context is the japanese word 垂げ, meaning "down".
It's "sah-gay"

2026-03-20 23:31:07 UTC

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Zero internet points will be given for well-actuallying that the last two "$(letter)age" words are not pronounced to rhyme with "age"

2026-03-20 23:28:45 UTC

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I've already moderated an image before that featured sage verification.
(It could be used on 2ch and 4chan to reply without bumping a post)

2026-03-20 23:27:10 UTC

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Submitting this image of my breakfast for fage verification
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/264/088/412/908/594/original/e33f7d2b1ab6f7ab.jpg

2026-03-20 23:25:41 UTC

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And I'm on a bdsmlr--spinoff for orgasm denial fetishists which, of course, features cage verification

2026-03-20 23:24:39 UTC

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the social network for knights has page verification

2026-03-20 23:24:21 UTC

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I'm also active on Wizardr, which features mage verification

2026-03-20 23:20:04 UTC

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got hit with the identity bus. My gender & orientation (and at least two more things) changed along with it.

2026-03-20 23:03:32 UTC

After 14 years of having a name no one else had, it's a little weird having a first name I share with tons of (awesome) people.
I keep seeing replies to an @ alice and going "oh, do they mean me?"
Nope, some other cutie. K.

2026-03-20 23:00:57 UTC

My new social network will feature rage verification

2026-03-20 11:15:35 UTC

if ever you don't feel cool enough when you properly unicodify an electrical unit like microamps as µA instead of uA, remember that you can also do ㎂ for even FANCIER unicode.

2026-03-20 03:53:37 UTC

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* fix dark mode. I didn't have a migraine the last time I was coding on this ✅

2026-03-20 03:40:37 UTC

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things I still need to do:
* make this webapp list the existing keysmashes in the database, not just add new ones
* make the add-dialog a dialog/drawer, not permanently taking up half the page
* figure out how we're gonna do redaction/anonymization. Some of the 26 users in the database (and future users) may not want to have their names in any future public release.
* hook it up to the heatmap
* render the keysmash as an animation, with handedness highlighting

2026-03-18 08:32:55 UTC

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Added some types for keyboard type
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/249/244/346/304/048/original/3df5b95fa90ccc09.png

2026-03-18 06:41:59 UTC

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New layout, because I realized I needed another drop-down
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/248/808/307/336/800/original/27d8e6a3bd1d0f75.png

2026-03-18 04:45:12 UTC

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OK, I laid it out. This was 99% easy and straightforward, and 1% WHY IS THE ADD BUTTON PLACED STUPID
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/248/350/027/940/958/original/741cb4b9265c6de0.png

2026-03-18 04:13:32 UTC

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okay it's all there and working, it just looks like shit because I haven't properly laid it out
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/248/225/580/474/318/original/bc2ba202702353e4.png

2026-03-18 03:42:15 UTC

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or maybe I just need to clientside render the whole thing

2026-03-18 03:30:54 UTC

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okay I think I'm gonna give up on getting autocomplete to work for now.
There's like half of a result on google for the error I'm getting

2026-03-18 03:07:02 UTC

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I've accidentally put it next.js into an infinite loop
it's constantly trying to recompile the typescript

2026-03-18 02:42:48 UTC

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I updated it a bit.
(I should add ĄŽERTY just in case I ever flirt with any Lithuanian tranfems)
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/247/866/735/266/606/original/06ab866911fc2238.png

2026-03-18 02:34:48 UTC

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What obvious layout am I missing?
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/247/836/839/756/109/original/58ac75c4b9b9e15e.png

2026-03-18 01:23:22 UTC

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okay so my first attempt at writing any react code resulted in a hydration error and also my UI elements are rendered black on black, making them invisible

2026-03-18 00:41:24 UTC

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christ, the first example in the react docs has a minor error.
not giving me a good feeling about the quality of this software

2026-03-18 00:33:50 UTC

me: I need to make a simple web-app for a project
also me: I need to learn some react basics for a job interview
WHY NOT COMBINE THE TWO? good question, why not?

2026-03-17 22:37:42 UTC

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the same! it was totally pointless!

2026-03-17 22:09:14 UTC

what kind of an open source software ships with LICENSE.MD and LICENSE.md?
Are you just trying to annoy windows users?

2026-03-16 23:03:07 UTC

So after 16 months of illness I'm back on my feet and applying to jobs, but I'm completely broke and the combination of car+power+storage for 6 people is due, with a lot of late fees added in.
I'm sorry to ask, but any amount would help. Thanks so much!
https://ko-fi.com/fooneturing/goal?g=0
#mutualaid

2026-03-16 06:27:24 UTC

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Nah, I've not looked into a legal name change yet.

2026-03-16 06:19:52 UTC

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Awesome, great name!

2026-03-16 05:12:56 UTC

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ooh I should make a floppy disk label generator.
Like copy the Mac, Microsoft, and Sierra disk label styles, and just have the deathgenerator overlay them over generic floppy disk images

2026-03-16 05:12:19 UTC

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someone on tumblr asked if this was my doing.
No, I would have made it say "gender and bees"

2026-03-16 05:10:20 UTC

BEES
( @npub1hp6…raya, is this your doing? )
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/237/126/265/383/441/original/4cff7f6283ba620c.jpeg

2026-03-15 22:15:35 UTC

anyone know why a service would escape slashes (not backslashes, forward slashes) in their JSON?
like this shit is all {"url":"http:\/\/www.foobar.egg\/web\/site.html"}

2026-03-12 02:17:53 UTC

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I have to do slices manually right now, but it does look like most of the reason N is on there is because of one specific transfem who includes a lot of B and N in her keysmashes.
136 of those 274 "N"s come from her.

2026-03-12 02:12:29 UTC

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ugly but I have a sort of heatmap based on my current test corpus
N is surprising
https://digipres.club/system/media_attachments/files/116/213/774/879/706/331/original/ea1fc0cfc4786fe8.png

2026-03-12 01:32:21 UTC

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lord only knows how. are you keysmashing with alt-gr?