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Missing Mochi

03/15/2024

Our Mochi passed away last week. We were reminiscing and remember that she was once the star (well okay, in a montage) on an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos (she is the black one in this footage). She was deeply loved and will always be in our hearts.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

personal

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When Sponge Bob Goes Evil

03/13/2024

When Sponge Bob goes evil.

And -- for some reason also wants to stalk my cats' litter boxes.

Image of a shadow that looks like a lurking Sponge Bob over cat litter boxes.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

goofing photo

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On Jesus Toribio Pinero...

03/13/2024

Screen capture of Pinero Ave in Puerto Rico

My natural father Heriberto (or, "Eddie" as he apparently went by) enamored my mother by telling her that his grandfather or great grandfather was the "first governor of Puerto Rico".  Our mom remembered him telling her that "he ran around the mansion as a kid!"

And, duly, that there was even a street there named after him.

After he died young and my mother went on to marry others, our association to that side of the family faded to such a degree that this possibility only rang as absolutely true when we later independently looked it up and indeed learned that the first governor there was a one Jesus T. Pinero.  It had to be true then!  Yay! - Instant prestige!

Screen capture of Pinero Ave in Puerto Rico

Eventually we reconnected with a long lost aunt, my father's sister, and upon putting the claim to her, someone who had grown up alongside him most of her childhood life, she had no idea what the hell he must have been talking about.

Dang.  It was enough of a story to get me birthed I guess.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

personal

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More Grumbling Over Social Media Demonization

03/10/2024

I will never understand why politicians and the mainstream media are so "activated" by the potential ill effects of social media.  I believe it's a war on people freely talking to each other.

When I'm given to contemplate I cynically cling to my abstract ideas of conspiracies against free speech (countries and authoritarian societies like China prove the raw dynamic exists - it's just a matter of shoe horning the same drive in a liberal democracy), or offended institutions not getting their cut of the dole from the big tech companies that build these communication platforms. 

Image of Mayor Adams giving speech against social meedia.

The mainstream media meanwhile wants a diminished landscape of people who are able to compete effectively against their profit making process and controls, giving it the driving incentive of rebuilding its relevance.  If social media is killing or sexualizing the children, spreading misinformation, undermining democracy (ironic claim), or depressing everyone - it's better to delete your feed and turn on the one-way influencing box of TV once again where a relatively few drive cultural narrative. 

Well, something along those lines.  It's not like I'm sitting in the room with the Illuminati while they work the whiteboard over these matters to say exactly.

But the truly maddening thing is that all of these charges would be lodged against the Internet and world wide web directly had social media platforms never become a thing.  Can you imagine the constant crowing about how depressed teens are because they surf the web or exchange simple email? 

Taking all the best intentions for what they claim to be, where were all these movements and grandstanding speeches as television, movies, and consumer advertising, tweaked and engineered with as much expertise as anything TikTok or Instagram have applied, were force paraded through children's minds for decades and decades?  Regulating mass commercial brainwashing does have its appeal if we are all suddenly "waking up" to how industry attempts to program us, after all.

Linkage



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

socialmedia

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Can't Use Threads via NordVPN

03/07/2024

If anyone else uses NordVPN and finds that they can't connect to Threads, add these to your split tunnel.  I found these doing a simple network traffic inspection while experiencing the issue:

  • cdninstagram.com (may be all you need)
  • instagram.com
  • threads.net
  • facebook.com

Here's the example of how it looks in my set up.

Screen capture of Nord VPN split tunnel configuration.

The usual disclaimer is that this worked for me.

 



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

techsupport

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Why People Gotta Log In to View My X Stuff?

02/24/2024

I recently discovered that my X content isn't accessible unless you log into X.  I have two X accounts and this problem applies to both of them.  

Neither account is set to privatize my content, either.

Image of bad guy on porch.

It's obviously a bug but there doesn't seem to be a clear path to reporting it, particularly if you're not a paying user of X.  They do have a help and support center but all of the boilerplate forms one would submit don't apply to this particular situation.

As a bug, I suspect it's tied to X's activity over last summer when they did in fact try to force people to log in in order to view people's feeds.  They rollled that back pretty quick, but maybe something about my accounts got left behind.

I'm basically de-platformed on X -- at least to the extent that I can't microblog to the random world at large.  Ironically, I have no problem taking my borderline mental illness rants to Threads, but one of the affected accounts is part of a community with almost 500 subscribers I'd like to keep my reach with.  And, while I am enamored by Threads, despite whatever issues X has with its stability (as a service, and the particular man running it), I still think X the most evolved and feature reach microblogging tool on the market, if using one is important.  I'd like to have it as an option while I continue to weigh which service I intend to ultimately run with if either. 

Otherwise, I guess X is making the decision for me.



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

interesting twitter XFormerlyTwitter

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Tough Road Back to the Original Social Media

02/17/2024

While browsing YouTube I came across this production by Lauren who makes the case to abandon social media and instead rely on a personal website.  It's exciting that someone like this 20-something young person seems to have independently contemplated the ramifications of self expressing  on social media platforms with a commensurate conclusion to use a personal website instead. 

As one who has tried to delete all social media platforms myself in favor of this very blog and website, I want to add to her points by mentioning at least one other that she either misses or inadvertantly glosses over which is the weening off of a desire for dopamine hits.

If conducted in a way where one completely deletes their social media accounts and then resumes posting at their own URL, expression becomes very lonely and can seem eerily pointless.  Although Lauren and indeed the entire new IndieWeb movement do address connectivity to others (engagement) and discuss solutions, it's important to understand that they are all less tangible than the "like" or the flattery of someone leaving a remark that is had through, say, an Instagram post.  

In making this point I am absolutely not saying don't do it.  I'm pointing out a substantial layer of bedrock to be prepared for, when you do.  I think Lauren in the video, speaking mainly to artists, covers the mental and emotional pathways to exclusive web publishing well enough, including overcoming the immediate perils.  But in calling out this other force, I hope to add some longer-tail resilience -- the grit necessary to carry past the 2 month point or in general, well after the initial rush of declaring one's digital independence. 

That emptiness by the evaporation of dopamine flow is going to feel heavy at first.  In time, as Lauren says, you will come to be focused on your message and your product rather than random validation of it.  Eventually validation will come from IRL engagements with your site that are discussed and appreciated through more intimate online connections or even offline completely.

That all being said, keep in mind too that if a "return to the WWW" sentiment evolved into a full-fledged movement, enough people might rediscover the enjoyable pastime of sitting with a cup of coffee and an open browser on an actual computer, clicking from place to place, person to person, perspective to perspective.  When people return to doing that, and begin interlinking and sharing their URLs again, so might that original form of external appreciation by a random audience.  

Yes, it will be a feat because in the time away we have as an online populace been away from that style of digital interaction, the world has moved to handheld devices where the "clicking" from one place to another has been replaced by the tap-as-needed one.  There really are literally only a fraction of devices left in the discretionary world where people who don't need them even buy a PC.

The other area of friction in making the transition is the learning curve, which aside from the promise of instant engagement and visibility, is the other major perk point social media platforms offer by all but eliminating that.  Learning some degree of HTML and scripting is far and away more difficult than simply "signing up" to something.  Again Lauren covers this nuance, turning it, rightfully, into a positive learning experience.  Doing so would in fact allow one to develop those skills, but crucially, it would happen slowly over time.  Perhaps more or less depending on where one is starting from.   

But by god I would advise anyone:  Try it anyway.  I was excited to come across Lauren's video because it just shored up my suspicion that yes indeed people are seeing the foils of the big platforms, all while beginning to appreciate the control and versatility of the original WWW one.

Linkage



  By Dave for Personal Blog.

socialmedia video www

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