Posts by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #Azk4O1SbdVpvVBCn8S by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-10-30T17:04:53Z
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Some questions about Linux on the "desktop" (actually, the desktop and/or laptop)I've steadfastly resisted doing this since I hate to do #Linux sysadmin work on my server and don't want to do it on anything else. But Windows has gotten ridiculous and Macs Just Don't Work.Assuming I want to do this:1) which distro is the least work?2) what hardware should I get? I started with Macs in the first place because of zero fan noise so that's #13) what cell phone(s) should I get?
(DIR) Post #B0UJCE02PU3cAEZE9I by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-11-21T16:45:30Z
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The FediTips, FediGarden or whatever person is posting diatribes about there being too many people on mastodon.social again. These stand as an annoying illustration of Fedi nagging.People wouldn't stay on mastodon.social if smaller sites weren't so predictably bad in so many recurring ways. Do you want to become involved in your site owner's Fedi drama or burnout? Then go to a smaller site.
(DIR) Post #B0UJCF8ECWCdfvPHYO by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-11-21T16:48:15Z
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And in the discussion on these posts, there are always the people who are so surprised that other people think it's very bad that their posts don't get moved over to a new server when they move. The surprised people say that for *their* posts they consider them to be ephemeral or delete them after a month or whatever.People can espouse decentralization for a social medium and not even think that maybe people use it for different things.
(DIR) Post #B0UJCGJbngttLVjsvo by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-11-21T16:51:42Z
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I've posted this too many times in this context, but I published a long poem on Fedi (in alt text). Context and form means something to artists! It's not quite the same published some different way. Some poems are designed to be ephemeral (for instance, I wrote one, edited it, read it once and tore it up on the spot) but this one is not and I do not want it to delete whenever the site owner gets tired of keeping the site up.
(DIR) Post #B0UJCHXpEJrn9tOkjI by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-11-21T16:54:37Z
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I understand that it will "delete" when the entire Mastodon network goes down, and it inevitalby will some time, but that is different. It was made in its form to live with the platform it's on.Other people -- of course -- want their social media interactions as a long-standing record of what they were thinking, writing, and conversing about. For instance I had a conversation with David Graeber on Twitter that was very difficult to look up.
(DIR) Post #B0UJCN76Wa3cQkwUue by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-11-21T17:10:36Z
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I'm sure that there are all sorts of other reasons involving things that I would never think of because they are not my reasons. That's part of having a social network with *actually different people* on it./fin
(DIR) Post #B0vDJiu1qYMDfZkEOO by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-05T00:40:40Z
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@futurebird Cats have claws -- this is disproportionate response
(DIR) Post #B1DFuXxDDINtBICO8G by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-13T16:04:33Z
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Just boosted a post about someone losing their family pictures because Apple froze their Apple ID. I should point out that while Apple sucks there is basically no recourse in moving to anything else. All of its competitors are equally bad and doing things yourself with Linux etc. is a lot of work and is probably similarly likely to lose things through your own mistakes.My solution (for work things) was to rent a Linux server, which really meant paying for a fractional Linux sysadmin.1/2
(DIR) Post #B1DFuYszkSba4VEXCK by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-13T16:10:04Z
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But the coming AI boondoggle has meant an upcoming rise in server rental prices, unless the bubble pops first. It may be back to having a physical server in a closet at home, or something, unless the price of hardware goes up similarly with hosting. In which case I'll have to call on my academic connections to see whether I can get space on a university machine.The small circle of hobbyists who can do this is shrinking.
(DIR) Post #B1DFub5pXi3outFoTw by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-13T16:20:33Z
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@tg9541 I've used Linux on a server for decades and Unix before that. I've tried to use various FOSS tools for as long as FOSS has existed. Solutions that involve using rclone or whatever are just as likely to lose your stuff, except that if will be through some failure of volunteer maintenance, either yours or the person maintaining the tool.
(DIR) Post #B1DFucwgefw2f6zXVY by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-13T16:26:47Z
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@tg9541 I think that what most FOSS people don't understand is that it is a skill and that the vast majority of people want no part of it. Like fixing your car. I grew up in a time/place where you were supposed to know how to fix your car. People bemoaned how this became more difficult to do, but really most people do not want to learn how to fix their car.
(DIR) Post #B1DbsfscyIcMAxZCrY by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-13T21:40:45Z
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@futurebird It's not necessarily a siblings thing, it's more like a siblings-plus-shortage thing. If your family puts dinner into a shared plate that people take portions out of, and you don't eat fast, you may not get enough.
(DIR) Post #B1IWMXGBxNi0C7FC5Y by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-16T04:48:32Z
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@mhoye Apple's current position is that you aren't allowed to do anything, especially not anything fun.
(DIR) Post #B1QLII1t67CTZG0Q2y by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-20T01:06:09Z
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@futurebird Don't remember any winter candies in particular. But for "strange Anglosphere" stuff there is Violet Crumble, first chocolate bar of Australia, which some people might think is great and some might think is horrible. I also remember a "British/Irish food store" that was near me for a while. I tried some British snack things and they truly maintained the reputation of British food (they were horrible).
(DIR) Post #B1QenOqBinjUna563s by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-20T02:30:17Z
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My children are 25 and 22. If they were younger -- let's say, K-12 age -- I would have had to find the energy to move the whole family out of the US.If you have children and can do it, emigrate for their sake. In between fascism, mass shootings, horrible education, and diminished life prospects, there's also now non-manditory vaccination for everything. That's really upping the deadliness.(I haven't even included multiple Covid because that's going to be more or less true everywhere.)
(DIR) Post #B1Ycra89JKHmnOmc8O by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-24T01:00:41Z
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@futurebird my cat's face. my cat will not object at all
(DIR) Post #B1Ykym9xmf2hlRZaKW by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-24T02:31:37Z
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@futurebird For the fantasy version, you boop their nose into soft clay, then use it as a mold for the seal. Or the cyberpunk version you laser-scan their face and then 3d print the seal.This assumes that the seal is really the cat's nose, not their whole face, which would be too large anyways.
(DIR) Post #B1apC3kqSxMSEOKkk4 by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-25T02:28:15Z
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@futurebird Without textual study, the most basic way to answer this is that Christianity grafted on the whole Satan-falling-to-hell thing at some later historical point. Since that was written later, it hasn't happened in this earlier text.
(DIR) Post #B1i3HmIj1tcLInWNlo by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2025-12-28T14:09:09Z
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@futurebird This is a fundamental misunderstanding of who the Democrats work for. They work for the oil people and bosses, not for their voters.
(DIR) Post #B2AxdlqR7VHpAbXyS0 by richpuchalsky@mastodon.social
2026-01-11T12:52:31Z
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@futurebird "The error message *tries* to help you": the error message was written by people who had no interest in helping you