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Here’s an inspiring presentation from John o’Nolan of ghost.org. It’s the best explanation I’ve seen of the Fediverse as the escape hatch from the cesspit of commercial social media. youtu.be/30ixDZOFE...
Latest
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Democracy Dies in a Rebrand > The Washington Post, formerly one of America's most respected newspapers and home to the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" unveiled its new mission statement this week: "Riveting Storytelling for All of America." This smells a lot like the
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> “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States…” Charge? Hs anyone told Donald a tariff is not something you “charge” another country? Or is
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I keep putting minimalist Markdown in my Mastodon posts because I'm eternally optimistic that the default UI will display it one day. Markdown is pretty nice on its own, and one day all my old posts will spring to life and become typographically beautiful.
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The grandkids are playing around with my old Pentax ME film camera. It’s a great opportunity to explain how cameras work. Open the back to see the shutter open. Take off the lens to see the mirror flip away. “But how do you see the pictures?”. I explained the
Stop comparing Mastodon and Threads/Bluesky. It's a category mistake.
These things are not apples and apples. Mastodon is a grassroots alternative to the ugly silos of commercial social media. It offers baked-in interoperability, decentralization, cooperation and a future that isn’t based on enshittification. Mastodon is everything Threads/Bluesky is not. I’ve seen shiny-faced developers from Threads and
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I’m bookmarking this to return in twelve months and see how the fascist theocracy is coming along. www.abc.net.au/news/2024...
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It was a bit of a weird joke in 2016, but WTF America? Again? My condolences. The fact it could even be close confirms your country is fundamentally broken. I've just watched my faith in humanity disappear down the toilet so I'm switching off the shitshow
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I was a bit pissed off the other day when I looked up an old Twitter thread to find it had been spammed by someone at <a href="https://bland.ai" rel="nofollow">bland.ai</a> . Not cool. Despite the shitty tactic,
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We arrived at our cabin to find a 2001 centenary dollar coin on the doormat. I can only assume the magpies left it as payment for all the oatmeal we've been feeding them. <img src="https://ianjs.mymagic.page/content/images/2025/12/42d8108a4d.jpg"
Humidity control of a bathroom fan in Home Assistant
I recently decided I wanted a Home Assistant automation to turn on the bathroom fan. I already had an ESPHome temperature/humidity sensor so it seemed simple enough - just trigger the fan when the humidity reached a certain level. The problem was what level? Humidity in the bathroom varies
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Vietnamese restaurant in Balaclava, Melbourne. One wall is the remnants of an outside wall with the posters still on it. Cigarette advertising was banned in Australia in 1976 so that, and the price-tag of 35c for a packet, dates it to around the early seventies. Dammit. That's nearly
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Random dinosaur fossil found at Twin Reefs, Victoria. Appears to be a Pareidoliasaur. <img src="https://ianjs.mymagic.page/content/images/2025/12/pxl-20240106-031618930-edit.jpg" width="600" height="566" alt>
Cray-1 vs iPhone 13
I remember when the Cray-1 was the iconic supercomputer of the day but I'd heard that modern phones were comparable. Of course the Google algorithm was listening to my thoughts and offered an appropriate video the next day. Here are the (slightly corrected) stats from the video so
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I just spent way too much time tracking down the source of a bird call that's been haunting me for weeks. Finally identified it: an Eastern Koel or Rainbird. It's always just out of visual range, but the call is very distinctive. It even has an
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There is nothing more annoying than half-hearing South Park from the next room.
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Gina Rinehart says renewable energy could use one-third of Australia’s prime agricultural land. Is she right? | Rural Australia | The Guardian Spoiler: no. What’s the world coming to if you can’t trust Gina and the Institute of Public Affairs.
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It's a delightful morning and I've managed to get out the door for a walk for the second day in a row. That's a trend, right? When I paused to take this picture, a kookaburra directly above me cocked his head to one side
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Sigh. Just got my first Mastodon spam. It was really dumb spam, but I clicked on it because I'm in the Mastodon honeymoon period and my brain is thinking butterflies and unicorns because of all the nice people here. Illusion shattered. Honeymoon over.
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I guess I'm not starting the bonfire any time soon... <img src="https://ianjs.mymagic.page/content/images/2025/12/image.jpg" width="451" height="600" alt><img src="https://ianjs.mymagic.page/content/images/2025/12/e60105880b.
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Seriously FaceBook? Putting a link to my blog article is "spam"? That's kind of pathetic. Perhaps they are nervous about the IndieWeb? <img style="border: 3px solid gray" src="https://ianjs.mymagic.page/content/images/2025/12/c3f470fd70.png" width="
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Beeper is the Black Knight of chat clients -- Apple keeps hacking off limbs but they're still hopping on one leg. <figure> <img src="https://ianjs.mymagic.page/content/images/2025/12/blackknight.webp" width="600" height="327" alt&
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I’m collecting alternative names so I don’t have to say “X, formerly Twitter”. So far I’ve found: * Ex, * Xitter, * ExTwitter * and Twix. ExTwitter is currently my favourite.
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Good grief. These guys are like some one-dimensional super-villain in a crappy B movie. "Whatever is the most greedy, misogynistic, self-serving, destructive option... let's do that". universeodon.com/@georgeta...