Esther is moving

Account moved to Æ. (npub1875…005y)

Admin of strangeobject.space, see [@sudo_esther](https://strangeobject.space/@sudo_esther )

There are four lights!

new fedi address: Æ. (npub1875…005y)
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aesthr.com

Public Key

npub1v9w4kxlq9xrnykxvlzs0xct6lkrel4jg2srjuudqqmuhcn2q8ajsg3246g

NIP-05 Address

esther_at_strangeobject.space@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxzh2mr0sznpejtrx03g8nv9a0mpul6ey9gpewwxsqd7tuf4qr7egprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntppaa7z

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1v9w4kxlq9xrnykxvlzs0xct6lkrel4jg2srjuudqqmuhcn2q8ajsg3246g

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Last Notes

2024-09-26 15:14:14 UTC

(it's labor suppression and the further concentration of capital by means of extracting unpaid work)
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/204/502/566/278/749/original/42086c81aee2964f.png

2024-09-24 10:52:39 UTC

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I'm more interested in the deliberate blocks.
Since I'm looking for a new instance to move to, I want to make sure I don't lose contact to people who are important to me

2024-09-24 10:48:04 UTC

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not at all. instances only federate with each other when and if contact is established, usually when a user from A follows someone on B.
And a lot of instances deliberately block others as a means of moderation and maintaining safety, protection from spam, etc

2024-09-24 09:00:42 UTC

I remember some website that tracked which instances federate with which, but I don’t remember the name.
Anyone got a hint?

2024-09-23 12:48:53 UTC

I have said this several times but it bears repeating now:
A very large portion of the Fediverse values tone over substance. "Politeness" and "civility" over what people are actually saying.
This leads to a constant background noise of just rancid replies that are all phrased in a superficially "nice" tone.
Justified anger and non-diplomatic push-back however is heavily policed and dismissed as "bad habits" brought over from elsewhere.
Unless this fundamentally changes, it will never be a place that's safe for marginalized people who have to stand up for themselves and face a constant stream of condescension, dismissiveness, and outright hostility.
A lot of the time it absolutely does live up to its reputation as a place where middle aged white cis men tell you how your perspective and expertise don't matter, and where you better watch your mouth when talking back to them.

2024-09-23 11:08:56 UTC

Announcement is out. Our Mastodon server strangeobject.space will end in about three months after two years of operation.
Feels like a big weight falling off.
Here's the full post on our server blog:
https://blog.strangeobject.space/posts/2024-09-23-shutting-down.html

2024-09-11 18:36:14 UTC

People in Germany!
There's going to be nation wide alarm test scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 CEST
This means cellphones will probably make a loud noise and display a notification.
If you have a phone that you keep hidden (from parents, partners, whatever), better turn it off entirely tomorrow.
https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/kurzmeldungen/DE/2024/09/warntag24.html

2024-09-05 09:22:46 UTC

This is some of the most servile tech journalism I've seen in a while, just giving an out-of-touch billionaire a free platform who will never feel any of the negative consequences of the tech he's advertising instead of asking any hard questions about "AI"
https://www.theverge.com/24235730/bill-gates-ai-climate-change-energy-tech-microsoft-netflix
> "I don’t think we’ll have a climate disaster because we will be able to deploy these new technologies"
Technologies that don't exist or aren't viable. He's talking about magic.
> "Bill Gates has a good feeling about AI"
Yeah, I bet he does. He's not going to get fired and re-hired at lower pay to fix up the mistakes of the "AI" that's now doing his old job.
He's won't suffer any consequences from climate change which "AI" directly contributes to, because he filthy rich.

2024-09-05 06:43:29 UTC

632146H

2024-09-04 21:10:22 UTC

It's been a month since I got rid of my Mac and moved entirely to this Debian PC and honestly, I haven't missed a single thing.

2024-09-02 10:09:50 UTC

Piano is basically 88-string slap bass.

2024-08-31 22:58:11 UTC

I propose: The Layer 9 Problem
A tech nerd who doesn't understand and refuses to learn how most people interact with technology, how they learn those interactions, what knowledge is actually available to them, and how the design and marketing of technology influences users' decisions, but who always gives their smug "should have known better" opinion anyway when something goes wrong instead of contributing something of actual use.

2024-08-30 19:44:51 UTC

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Astrology chart or CAD drawing? Who knows? 🤷🏻‍♀️
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/052/682/770/576/625/original/620d6734737c326d.png

2024-08-30 18:54:12 UTC

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This is the tutorial I'm following btw. It's a bit slow at times for my taste but that's ok. I can always speed things up.
The first video is mostly about installation, some settings, and an overview of the UI. Don't worry, it's useful stuff and things get much more interesting in the second lesson. Just stick with it.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWuyJLVUNtc0UszswD0oD5q4VeWTrK7JC&si=_4ZjI67sPpU9s2Rn
#freeCAD

2024-08-30 18:49:42 UTC

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This stuff is so cool and to me so much more intuitive than how modeling works in Blender.
This part of the tutorial is about tracing this part from a photo and at first it seems tricky because of the lack of right angles and all but you can build these really cool chains of constraints based on circles, lines and the angles between lines to just make it work in the only way that really makes sense. And it ends up being super precise.
I'm having a great time here. Loving this.
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/052/453/149/369/575/original/55d8612f859372c8.png

2024-08-30 17:14:45 UTC

It’s a really intense whiplash to see people claim that the fediverse is “the nicer social media place”.
Sure, the hardcore fascists, the pedophiles, etc usually get blocked and suspended pretty quickly. (That’s a very low bar btw)
But in terms of constant background noise of arrogant, entitled condescension from people who never had to question or even acknowledge their privileges it’s just barely more tolerable than most subreddits.
And honestly, the latter is much harder to deal with for me especially with the gaslighting that happens around this issue from the liberal (and often libertarian) majority on here.

2024-08-30 14:52:35 UTC

Learning FreeCAD basics right now.
Parametric modelling is a very satisfying process. My brain is going "yeah, this is the good shit" on this.
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/051/531/559/789/537/original/cb72928fa9fe7557.png

2024-08-30 11:31:01 UTC

A fellow student has completely hosed their RStudio installation by running code they got from ChatGPT and is now struggling to get their statistics assignment done which is due tomorrow.
Let this be a cautionary tale.

2024-08-30 11:03:07 UTC

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Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris

2024-08-30 11:02:37 UTC

TIL that sharks (a group of fish) are an order of magnitude older than Polaris (literally a star)
Sharks: 419 - 359 million years
Polaris (α UMi Aa): 45 - 67 million years
I’ll need to sit down, stare at a wall for a bit, and process this.

2024-08-28 13:46:55 UTC

Finally finishing my fight controller
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/039/951/567/809/026/original/bfd3a8828d61caa8.jpeg

2024-08-26 19:25:52 UTC

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The "Photoshop ended up being fine too" argument bugs me in particular. I don't know if this one comes from people who are so young that they only know a world where Photoshop exists or from people with really terrible historical memory.
No, it fucking wasn't "fine".
It enabled the fashion and advertising industry to give countless people a horribly distorted body image with all the nasty consequences of that. As a society we're struggling with the impact of tools like Photoshop to this day.
Just because it's "normal" to you doesn't mean it's ok.

2024-08-26 19:19:31 UTC

Basic but pretty solid collection of counters for common arguments about how "AI" generated/manipulated images aren't a big problem:
> “We’ve had Photoshop for 35 years” is a common response to rebut concerns about generative AI, and you’ve landed here because you’ve made that argument in a comment thread or social media.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24228808/ai-image-editing-photoshop-comparison-argument

2024-08-26 17:00:02 UTC

> “Samsung will soon let you create AI wallpapers on its touchscreen refrigerators”
This timeline’s tech is just utterly ridiculous.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/26/24228788/samsung-ai-wallpapers-refrigerators-bixby-upgrade-bespoke-appliances

2024-08-26 15:50:23 UTC

I guess 10 years is an ok age for a wifi router to last but having it just die is still frustrating.
Something just feels off about devices with no moving parts to “wear out”.

2024-08-22 18:58:10 UTC

That "fixing my wifi drivers among brutalist architecture" cyperpunk vibe …
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/007/196/687/901/264/original/3ea60f0372d936d2.jpeg

2024-08-22 14:47:51 UTC

I’ve been running Debian sid/unstable (the one that contains the latest versions of stuff without much integration testing) for a few weeks now on my laptop and the frequency at which stuff breaks makes me both very glad to have Debian stable (the really conservative one that prioritizes stability and often has older versions of packages because of that) on my main machine and also deeply worried about how many people run Arch (which is also “bleeding edge”) on systems that need to be reliable.

2024-08-22 08:30:14 UTC

Don’t mind me, I’m just walking my plant here, telling it to never trust cops.
It’s important to educate the young.
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/113/004/729/468/267/312/original/5215b0ade758a5be.jpeg

2024-08-19 19:21:48 UTC

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I'm trying to figure that out too

2024-08-19 18:30:23 UTC

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Ha! Wait. I think I got it to work.
It took some unusual corners:
Download APKs for Firefox, Signal, Telegram and F-Droid on my PC and transfer them onto the device via USB cable. Lucky that this thing supports USB file transfer out of the box.
To install the APKs I had to use a file manager that I got off some website (apkpure.com) so that's not ideal but I can now remove that again.
Now I can browse websites since Firefox has tits own SSL certs, I can install apps from F-Droid and I have Signal and Telegram which are the only ones that really matter.
Now this just needs a SIM card and it's ready to go and a second phone.

2024-08-19 17:09:07 UTC

It's ridiculous: I have an old Android Phone (Motorola Moto E2 from 2015) and it works fine except that it doesn't get updates anymore which means for some websites and services, SSL no longer works, including for Google's PlayStore, so it can't install any apps. F-Droid has the same problem so I also can't download anything from there.
Seem like open source Android distributions are also out of the question as this device is not supported.
This is now just a brick with a battery in it, even though it would be totally usable as a backup or alt phone.

2024-08-18 13:10:27 UTC

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there’s a difference between making information available to people who actively look for it and shoving ads in their faces

2024-08-18 10:09:55 UTC

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It’s also clear through the language that is used in making and distributing ads:
They are “aimed” at a “target audience”. They even have “penetration”.
These are words of warfare, and they aren’t there by accident.

2024-08-18 10:04:20 UTC

Advertising should be viewed through the same lens as code injection is in computer security (when an attacker gets a computer system to run a program that it actually shouldn’t and that usually benefits the attacker).
The point of an advertisement is literally to inject the idea of a need into your mind, a need that you didn’t already have before (“You *do* actually need a new car.”), or a more specific version of an existing need (“You’re need food? You should really eat *this*!”).
It’s an attack on the integrity of your very being and it should be defended against.

2024-08-14 22:04:26 UTC

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BTW, I'm building a collection of notes about the various things I encounter while using my computer(s):
Useful tools, tricks for setting things up nicely, fixes for problems, etc.
It's not all Linux-specific. A lot of the tools I list work on multiple operating systems. (maybe not on Windows, I don't know much about Windows these days, sorry)
For example: vidir (part of moreutils) which lets you edit a directory listing (rename and delete files) in Vi.
https://codeberg.org/selfawaresoup/unix-notes

2024-08-14 21:54:50 UTC

I also figured out why playback of any 48kHz audio files wasn't working properly:
The default sampling rate for PulseAudio was set to 44100. Setting it to 48000 in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf fixed it.

2024-08-10 23:09:23 UTC

If anyone in Berlin is looking for a used M1 Mac Mini (2020, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD), let me know.
I'll also throw in a USB SuperDrive for occasional optical disc needs.
600€ and it's yours.
:boost_ok:
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/940/231/535/447/417/original/6f1488a9dcbba92e.jpeg
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/940/232/450/407/474/original/a7cb1f095f1baea1.jpeg
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/940/233/052/956/126/original/4d9a398eaf0a9c85.jpeg

2024-08-10 10:17:52 UTC

In a town in Saxony (Bautzen, eastern Germany), fascists managed to get a pride event canceled.
Saxony is one of the German states that are far-right strongholds.
https://chaos.social/@unir/112936787253090360

2024-08-08 18:51:39 UTC

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as evidenced by this post, which was sent from the machine I built today
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/927/901/869/279/974/original/647746d5a9fd5880.png

2024-08-08 15:51:58 UTC

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BIOS setups with mouse support. Truly the 21st century over here.
Last time I did this, it was all white text on blue background and keyboard navigation only.

2024-08-08 15:50:16 UTC

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First major milestone: getting into the BIOS setup.
Hardware seems to be working.
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/927/188/754/910/361/original/dca1781f9c311e08.jpeg

2024-08-08 11:46:35 UTC

Technically there’s a complete PC here. It’s just a little high on entropy right now.
So I’ll spend the afternoon expending energy to move it to a lower and lower entropy state until it can boot Debian.
I don’t know how many Joules of energy it’ll take though, or how much the average temperature or pressure will change.
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/926/225/064/824/971/original/3549db753dfebf13.jpeg

2024-08-07 23:13:23 UTC

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Turns out: Computers? Pretty cool actually, when not slowly ruined by corporate interests.

2024-08-07 23:10:17 UTC

Using my desktop computer hasn't been this much fun in a long time. And I'm still only using a virtual machine to run this Debian/KDE setup. I haven't yet moved to my dedicated Linux machine.
I don't want to say "stuff just works" because I can't speak for everyone, but it sure works the way I expect and want it to, and that is just delightful.

2024-08-07 22:09:05 UTC

Programming non-trivial shell scripts is its very own kind of feeling powerful and suffering in quick succession.
Just right for a switch like me ... :ase_grin:

2024-08-06 14:48:18 UTC

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my physics professor 20 years ago had a scrollable plastic film with a crank on top of a projector that he would do lectures notes on and when someone asked a question a bit later he could scroll back to the diagram he drew 10 minutes ago.

2024-08-06 13:36:41 UTC

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And overhead projectors. But y'all aren't ready for that conversation. :ase_horns:

2024-08-06 13:32:41 UTC

While I'm at it arguing for *some* benefits of PDFs (while acknowledging their flaws) I might as well choose violence and explain why fax machines are not entirely bad or useless in the 21st century.

2024-08-05 17:02:29 UTC

The type of person that’s part of a marginalized group and react to any improvement of that group’s situation with “people today are spoiled and get everything for free”
The “If i had a hard time, s then so should everyone after me”, which is effectively a demand that nothing ever improves.
Congratulations, you’re doing your oppressors’ work for them.

2024-08-04 11:11:52 UTC

> “The driving force [of climate change] is a society based on class, inequality, and acquisition without end.”
(From: The Climate of History in a Planetary Age by Dipesh Chakrabarty)
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/903/439/130/861/229/original/0942a45f989bb046.jpeg

2024-08-03 06:35:48 UTC

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if I don’t put that disclaimer in, my mentions will be filled with people telling me what I should use instead for the next two days. That’s the culture of the fediverse.

2024-08-02 16:22:37 UTC

Wait, what? Google Docs disagrees with this ... number?
Cool. If I just went ahead and let this autocorrect do its thing, I would have reported incorrect data in this paper.
(I'm using Google Docs because it's a group project and that's what everyone has access to, not because I want to)
https://files.strangeobject.space/media_attachments/files/112/893/337/656/983/931/original/86bf382f333f2281.png

2024-07-31 10:52:08 UTC

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Two down
🔥 Research Methodology
🔥 Statistics II
📄 General Psychology II
Feeling a bit insecure about statistics but it’s too late now.

2024-07-27 15:47:56 UTC

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RCS (Chinch) was designed in 1930.
TRS goes back to 1877!
Turns out, a wire with a plug on the end is pretty solid tech.

2024-07-27 15:31:24 UTC

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Long live the 6.3mm TRS and Chinch jacks!

2024-07-27 15:29:43 UTC

Me, trying to be smart: I'll order an optical audio cable to connect my audio interface to my AV receiver so I can transmit my music losslessly to the speakers in my room instead of relying on flaky Airplay or Bluetooth.
Reality: It doesn't work and you have no way to troubleshoot the problem because it's all opaque digital tech. Fuck you!
So I'm returning the optical cable and ordering old school analog cables and adapters because they fucking work.
Digital technology was a mistake.

2024-07-23 08:47:32 UTC

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One down
🔥 Research Methodology
📄 Statistics II
📄 General Psychology II

2024-07-23 05:34:11 UTC

It’s exam season again, starting today.
📄 Research Methodology
📄 Statistics II
📄 General Psychology II