Nostr notes by Sam Whited

Do I know anyone who does technical writing or editing who would ...

2026-04-18T13:31:52Z

Do I know anyone who does technical writing or editing who would be willing to look over a short (7 U.S. Letter sized pages including a bunch of IETF boilerplate you can skip) document and give me editorial feedback? No domain expertise needed (unless you just happen to have some and want to give me feedback on the normative stuff too). Happy to do the same for you in return if you need a fresh set of eyes on anything!

#AskFedi #IETF

Does anyone know of any non-profits (and preferably co-ops) ...

2026-04-13T19:57:33Z

Does anyone know of any non-profits (and preferably co-ops) acting as fiscal hosts for small open source projects? Most of them will only take large, established projects with lots of contributors, but I've got a small project with just a couple of regular contributors that recently lost its only way of taking donations via Open Collective. I can set something up with my personal account, but that feels bad given that others are working on it too. I know small projects with a few donations a year are a huge overhead and burden for fiscal hosts though. We're not on #GitHub (we use #Codeberg) which also seems to be a problem for some of the hosts.

#FLOSS

The REI Union is asking members to boycott the annual anniversary ...

2026-03-31T20:26:07Z

The REI Union is asking members to boycott the annual anniversary sale in May unless the shit heads in charge actually start bargaining in good faith, please go sign the pledge!

https://www.ourrei.com/boycott

#REI #UnionStrong #REIUnion

Attention Marietta and Smyrna friends! Sam Foster, whom you may ...

2026-03-11T15:50:19Z

Attention Marietta and Smyrna friends! Sam Foster, whom you may know from his recent (sadly unsuccessful) Marietta mayoral campaign has started a bicycle repair day, right off the square twice a month in addition to his regular weekly group ride! If you need your bike checked out, head over to the square on Second and Fourth Saturdays and let's make this a success!

I hate TikTok with a passion so I stole the video for fedi, but if you're on there boost it there too (or whatever you do over there): https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8qJYEQ7/

#Marietta #Atlanta #Bikes #BikeNite

I'm DJing for the local Lindy Hop social tonight, so ...

2026-02-16T23:10:32Z

I'm DJing for the local Lindy Hop social tonight, so naturally I spent half the day reverse engineering the Native Instruments stem file format and making a tool to convert them to OGG/FLAC files (mostly just a dumb wrapper around ffmpeg, it just ended up being its own tool because it turns out NI stores their metadata as a JSON blob that ffmpeg can't handle). Can anything actually play the stem part of these files? No (but the regular audio is backwards compatible and most media players can play them).

I wonder if it's worth actually trying to write up an actual open spec to standardize this (since the Native Instruments one is a bit sketchy as far as I can tell and requires lots of things with patents that could cause problems later):

https://codeberg.org/SamWhited/oggstem

Suggestions welcome, debating if I want to write up an RFC for this (what IETF working group would even handle this, or is Xiph a better place if I did?).

#STEMS #DJing #DJ

Do I know anyone in the UK who, if I sent you £7.99 + shipping, ...

2025-10-21T14:58:32Z

Do I know anyone in the UK who, if I sent you £7.99 + shipping, would be willing to buy a rare LP off Discogs for me and either hold on to it until I can find someone to transport it to the US, or arrange for someone on your side of the pond to digitize it for me? If I buy it directly and ship it to the US the price of shipping is almost $50 USD... (Or even better, if you just love jazz and have the ability to rip vinyl yourself…)

#music #jazz #LindyHop #Swing

Odysseus' is tied to the mast yelling "get back to ...

2025-07-27T14:42:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…48vd
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Odysseus' is tied to the mast yelling "get back to work" while his crew sit up front waving lighters above their heads, pulling out concert ear plugs, etc. as if they were just watching the show and had tied their boss up so that they could take a break. EDIT: maybe Odysseus thinks to himself "I've got to find a way to explain my getting tied up to the boss that puts me in a good light when we get back home"

> I Will Do Anything to End Homelessness Except Build More ...

2025-06-20T11:20:40Z

> I Will Do Anything to End Homelessness Except Build More Homes

👌 McSweeney's nails it, as always:

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-do-anything-to-end-homelessness-except-build-more-homes

I'm done arguing about this, so instead I've done a thing ...

2025-05-30T21:23:24Z

I'm done arguing about this, so instead I've done a thing I rarely do and made an meme:

#ai

#motorcycle #Honda #CB1100 ...

2025-05-18T21:09:37Z

#motorcycle #Honda #CB1100

oops, looks like you're right about Dino. For Gajim go to the ...

2025-05-13T11:24:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…hzhv
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oops, looks like you're right about Dino. For Gajim go to the group chat details (in the channel it's the little person icon in the top right) and then go down to the "Manage" tab. There's an edit button on the avatar. Why that's page is different from the information page (which lets you edit some stuff, but not the avatar) I'm not sure.

I know conversations (and cheogram, snikket, other forks off the ...

2025-05-13T10:44:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…sxev
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I know conversations (and cheogram, snikket, other forks off the same codebase) do, I thought Dino and Gajim did too? Actually I thought most did at this point, but I'm not sure :)

In other news, I'm desperate enough for work at this point ...

2025-04-29T13:55:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…2lpt
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In other news, I'm desperate enough for work at this point that I'm willing to consider freelance software work again. If you know anyone who needs scripts, tools, integrations, etc. and want an expert in Open Source, XMPP, Go(lang), Rust, PostgreSQL, and other tools, LMK.

I won't work on or with AI or blockchain related products or companies.

I finally decided I should get over my cynicism of tech products ...

2025-04-29T13:51:57Z

I finally decided I should get over my cynicism of tech products and try "Upwork" since everyone has been telling me to get on it for ages. This is the most rent-seeking nonsense I've ever seen; not only is every job "We only want the best!… $5/hour" but both the freelancer and the contractor have to pay to use it, plus their cut of every job, and the platform is absolutely *covered* with ads trying to get you to buy "boosting your profile", etc.

Why are people recommending this?

Support for the SMC-Mixer and SMK-25 II piano keyboard have been ...

2025-03-07T14:09:42Z

Support for the SMC-Mixer and SMK-25 II piano keyboard have been merged into npub1yqvm0c03daswxgcswrna0djfgjlhzf6mmml86ntdacx3am0e7egqe0sjmj (npub1yqv…sjmj) and will be available out-of-the-box in version 2.5.1! Thanks to M-Vave for sending me these; I'm glad I could help! I enjoy writing plugins for DJ setups, if you have an extra controller that you want supported, or are a company that makes MIDI or HID controllers and you want to send one my way, I'm always happy to write a mapping and help get it supported in the best DJ software out there!

#Mixxx #Music

This person from the @npub1yqv…sjmj forums has got it all ...

2025-02-13T14:25:33Z

This person from the npub1yqvm0c03daswxgcswrna0djfgjlhzf6mmml86ntdacx3am0e7egqe0sjmj (npub1yqv…sjmj) forums has got it all figured out! And that jacket is so good, I wanna make one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klHETFgf_FY

#DJ #Mixxx #Linux

Does anyone know someone who is making ICE / "Know your ...

2025-02-08T13:08:57Z

Does anyone know someone who is making ICE / "Know your Rights" cards that are 1. laminated or otherwise waterproof, 2. in (at least) English and Spanish? Is it possible they could send me a stack? I have a friend with some family members who may need them, as well as some little free libraries where they could be distributed. Maybe I should just get a lamination machine one of these days.

I gave myself a dedicated "Picard" button that I can ...

2025-02-07T02:06:44Z

I gave myself a dedicated "Picard" button that I can reach over and hit any time a company tries to make me use their new LLM.

#StarTrek #TNG

Earlier I decided that I wanted to use my Arturia KeyLab 88 ...

2025-01-16T00:04:23Z

Earlier I decided that I wanted to use my Arturia KeyLab 88 keyboard to control npub1yqvm0c03daswxgcswrna0djfgjlhzf6mmml86ntdacx3am0e7egqe0sjmj (npub1yqv…sjmj) so that I can play along with tracks easier. I wrote up some MIDI bindings with basic functionality and threw them up here on the off chance that anyone else has the same keyboard as me and wants to use them:

https://codeberg.org/SamWhited/mixxx-arturiakeylab

#Mixxx #Music #MIDI

Okay fedi! A friend just brought up the idea of having a ...

2025-01-14T15:21:28Z

Okay fedi! A friend just brought up the idea of having a mutual-aid bicycle repair fund. Donations to it would be set aside to pay for repairs if someone couldn't afford it. I've seen this in coffee shops, but is this something other bike shops do? Is it only valid for some things and not others? Do you need to setup a separate entity for tax reasons? How do you manage such a thing? I'm very over-excited by this idea, and can't believe I've never even considered it! Ideas and suggestions please!

for my part, I take the exact opposite stance: I suspect cross ...

2025-01-11T13:32:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…c6dj
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for my part, I take the exact opposite stance: I suspect cross posting does the opposite and creates serious harm for the people of the fediverse by creating "too big to fail" instances that can't be moderated appropriately, and providing them with a path to embrace-extend-extinguish us. I'm strongly against bridges to corporate social media in general and would caution us from defaulting to assuming they're helpful. That said, I also have no proof that they're doing this here.

but again, I'm no expert in front end stuff (quite the ...

2025-01-10T17:30:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…zupy
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but again, I'm no expert in front end stuff (quite the opposite), so maybe it tells me everything I need to know and it's just me not understanding, which is why I reached out for help. I honestly can't tell if this is a security nightmare, or perfectly fine as long as you don't call random third party endpoints (which obviously would be a problem either way).

I did read that, but it's also part of what makes me nervous. ...

2025-01-10T17:29:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…n46t
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I did read that, but it's also part of what makes me nervous. It seems like they're trying really hard to say "it's better than react!" (or whatever, pick your poison) but not actually addressing the security model of htmx in any meaningful way. They kind of vaguely talk about how you may need to open up your CSP for some features, but don't really mention how necessary those features are, what attacks this enables or doesn't, etc. which doesn't leave me with a good feeling.

Web folks: I keep being told to use htmx, but at first glance it ...

2025-01-10T16:00:14Z

Web folks: I keep being told to use htmx, but at first glance it appears to be a security nightmare and would require opening up my CSP in a way that feels bad. That said, despite having done a lot of security work I am a backend person who avoids front end stuff at all costs and have very little relevant experience in this area. Is this actually something that I can do securely without experience, or just the latest trendy insecure thing that JavaScript people are pushing?

#AskFedi

The only good thing about Christmas is waking up and making the ...

2024-12-25T12:01:54Z

The only good thing about Christmas is waking up and making the traditional Christmas scones! I get up early and mix up all the dry ingredients and make a cup of buttermilk, then once everyone else is up and after it's had a chance to congeal a bit I mix up the wet ingredients and throw it in the oven. While it's baking I make Devonshire Cream.

I'm extremely sad that the curtain has come down on Star ...

2024-12-24T12:47:25Z

I'm extremely sad that the curtain has come down on Star Trek: Lower Decks. If it weren't for The Orville I'd say it was probably the best show in the Star Trek Franchise. Maybe they'll do a movie eventually, it could potentially top Galaxy Quest as the best Star Trek movie.

#StarTrek

There's an important lesson to be taken from this mornings ...

2024-12-04T19:10:31Z

There's an important lesson to be taken from this mornings killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO… the bicycle is the best mode of transportation in the city. If the killer had tried to escape by car they would have been caught by the police, or might not even have made it to the CEO's hotel on time in the first place! If you want to be on time, ride your bicycle.

Help: I saw Wicked like a week ago and I haven't stopped ...

2024-12-04T18:32:02Z

Help: I saw Wicked like a week ago and I haven't stopped humming the soundtrack since then. I've tried all the usual things, listening to it, listening to other catchy songs, but I still keep waking up with it stuck in my head on repeat.

#Wicked

Do I know any archivist or rare-book types? Do you have any of ...

2024-11-27T13:02:59Z

Do I know any archivist or rare-book types? Do you have any of the following lost early 20th century IWW pamphlets? Help us find and digitize them!

- Food Stuff Industry
- Metal and Machinery Industry
- Story Of A New Labor Union
- The Textile Industry
- As to the IWW by James Wilson (Spokane, WA)
- Craft Union Experiences on the Railroads and How to Get Immediate Organization Results by IU#520 (191?)
- Direct Action: the Great Truth Contained in the Theory of Direct Action

#IWW

Lock in this coffee shop bathroom: ...

2024-11-24T18:32:44Z

Lock in this coffee shop bathroom:

- Must work on "smart" mobile devices, but without ...

2024-11-24T13:12:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…nwn6
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- Must work on "smart" mobile devices, but without requiring Google Play Services
- Must be able to communicate outside of the group with unknown parties who need to be verified later
- Targeted attack from low-tech attackers (ie. cop's saying "give me your phone")
- Passive attack from high-tech attackers (ie. government level keyword scanning or metadata analysis, not likely to be directly targeting this group though, for now)

What am I forgetting?

Let's play a game that is not a game: I'm curious what ...

2024-11-24T13:07:46Z

Let's play a game that is not a game: I'm curious what people are using for secure communications these days for groups where Signal is *not* an option (ie. let's assume people in the group have devices that are not iPhone or Android with Google Services). The group in question (a real use case, though they are likely not going to make change, I'm just curious what people will recommend) has the following requirements and threat model:

#AskFedi

much appreciated; thanks! EDIT: actually, I still can't ...

2024-11-22T14:31:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…a7ng
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much appreciated; thanks!

**EDIT:** actually, I still can't see it? Maybe my instance is just behind on updates. But I got your "done" message so I dunno? Weird.

hah, too true. Would you mind adding alt text so I can boost? ...

2024-11-22T13:55:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…tmkq
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hah, too true. Would you mind adding alt text so I can boost? Maybe something like (feel free to copy/paste):

Two panel comic by amii.illustrates. In the first panel a man in a suit and tie says "stop immigration so we can take care of our own". In the second panel a small man not wearing a suit has walked up and says "I'm starving" and the much larger man in a suit puts his hands on his hips and tells the small man to "fuck off".

"In order to make the bid [for InfoWars] work, a lawyer ...

2024-11-14T20:18:34Z

"In order to make the bid [for InfoWars] work, a lawyer representing the [Sandyhook] families told CNN that the families 'agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of the Onion’s bid, enabling its success'."

This is just breathtaking. After all these families have gone through instead of taking more money and letting Jones hurt other people, they're just grinding him into the dirt in the funniest, most impactful, way possible as a warning to others. Brilliant.

Anyone want to start a webring of personal blogs and websites? We ...

2024-11-13T15:52:45Z

Anyone want to start a webring of personal blogs and websites? We could pick a connecting topic (ie. all members of a specific group, or all co-op folks, or just all single-person personal blogs, etc.) or just allow random sites. I'm trying to think of a better way to find good stuff than search, which is 99% controlled by Google even if you're using third party search engines, and is mostly useless these days anyways.

Has someone ever written about the history of the big 5 tech ...

2024-10-04T11:26:34Z

Has someone ever written about the history of the big 5 tech companies influence over federated networks and community projects?

I always get a ton of push back when I suggest that federated networks fail when any one node gets over some large threshold of percentage of total users (and thus more power over the rest of the network) and it seems super obvious from historical examples, but honestly I don't have a good way to argue for why that is other than "because I've seen it happen before".

Braze-ons done! ...

2024-09-28T01:50:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…ljh4
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Braze-ons done!

I finished the final fillets on my bike truck yesterday (at least ...

2024-09-27T14:35:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…lwz3
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I finished the final fillets on my bike truck yesterday (at least until I can buy the equipment to do the built in rack)! All I have left today are bottle cage bolts, housing guides, and other braze-ons!

I borrowed a commuter while I'm in town. Best bike I've ...

2024-09-18T02:59:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…n2jv
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I borrowed a commuter while I'm in town. Best bike I've ever ridden; I'm terrified of breaking it!

#bicycles

Got the first half of my front triangle cut today and threw the ...

2024-09-18T01:59:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…99ud
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Got the first half of my front triangle cut today and threw the head tube, bottom bracket, and seat tube in the jig. Yes, I did in fact do the longest head tube in the world.

So much to do 😟😁

Had my first day of frame building school today. Lots of brazing ...

2024-09-17T04:54:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…30pd
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Had my first day of frame building school today. Lots of brazing practice. The commute's not bad either!

Spent the day hanging out with @npub1pd6…xqql and seeing some ...

2024-09-16T00:30:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…e86c
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Spent the day hanging out with Emi (npub1pd6…xqql) and seeing some lovely parks… but enough about that. The busses here have rear boarding and you can tap a credit card to pay the fare! You can even run a slight negative balance on your Compass card (oops)!

Now off to Squamish!

The Canada Line from YVR into the city has boarding markings ...

2024-09-15T04:47:36Z

The Canada Line from YVR into the city has boarding markings (that everyone ignored) and tap to pay gates, not to mention walk through cars with a bicycle area! Why can't we have nice things like this in Atlanta?

sigh the people on Nextdoor have finally discovered Cobb's ...

2024-09-13T12:27:25Z

*sigh* the people on Nextdoor have finally discovered Cobb's MSPLOST tax that will add more bus service. They are out in force telling everyone that voting for it is giving out "handouts", etc.

Several of them seemed shocked when I told them I couldn't afford a car and to please consider voting for this so that I could continue to take jobs in town. I wonder why they were surprised that I couldn't afford a car… what could be different about me and the people they imagine take the bus… 🤔🤷🏻

Tim Walz will use his newfound power to fix your fence with a ...

2024-09-06T15:47:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…gqw6
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Tim Walz will use his newfound power to fix your fence with a piece of wood that's been in his garage since 2003.

"[Walz] will use his newfound power to demand that all ...

2024-09-06T15:26:43Z

"[Walz] will use his newfound power to demand that all Americans own jumper cables and know how to use them."

This is a good line and should become a new meme format. What are some other horrible abuses of his new found power will this wholesome dad do?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/fox-news-kamala-harris-walz

grab the cranks on either side and try to move them laterally ...

2024-09-04T16:32:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…esfj
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grab the cranks on either side and try to move them laterally back and forth (ie. perpendicular to their plane of rotation); if you feel a bit of a knock it might be time to replace the bottom bracket.

I haven't done one of those specifically, but we used to sell ...

2024-09-04T15:44:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…vw4j
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I haven't done one of those specifically, but we used to sell some of their stuff in a previous shop I worked at and IIRC it's a normal Shimano Hollowtech setup so I can probably help. What's up with it?

This is the promise and the problem with AI though: it's ...

2024-08-29T19:27:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…hux8
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This is the promise and the problem with AI though: it's always a bandaid, an easy, instant, convenient "solution" to problems that need to be solved the hard way. I want your paperwork to be easier too, but the way to do that is to unionize and to fix the insurance companies, not to patch over the annoyance with bullshit machines and let the insurance execs keep doing what they're doing.

Had a friend who's a physical therapist say happily that AI ...

2024-08-29T19:24:50Z

Had a friend who's a physical therapist say happily that AI tools were making her job much easier lately. She looked put out when I said "please don't get yourself arrested" and she said something along the lines of "but they make these tools specifically for us!"

I don't know how I can possibly stress enough to people who have never been in the tech industry how little they care if you are following the law or killing patients or what not as long as you give them your money first.

Is there a Mumble instance or anything? This is hard without ...

2024-08-21T19:45:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…psgy
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Is there a Mumble instance or anything? This is hard without being able to communicate, I'm afraid I was just in everyones way 🤣

Grammar notes: Apparently people are very concerned about writing ...

2024-08-14T14:28:34Z

Grammar notes:

Apparently people are very concerned about writing the possessive form of "Harris" and "Walz", but let me tell you that it really doesn't matter if Harris' name uses with the extra "'s" or not. It's pretty clear either way. You can write Harris's name however you want. Harris's's VP on the other hand doesn't actually end with an "s" so Walz's name technically needs the "'s", but Walz's just the running mate so Walz' name is less important while Harris'z name is more so.

Maybe I'm just annoyed that, even after the fact I still ...

2024-08-09T02:10:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…82u5
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Maybe I'm just annoyed that, even after the fact I still can't put together a convincing argument for why he was wrong since "we invented the scientific method and now people don't die of easily preventable diseases as much" isn't very convincing, apparently.

Now I'm mad at myself for letting them see that I was ...

2024-08-09T02:03:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…7dsf
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Now I'm mad at myself for letting them see that I was irritated by it (the usual "well you're emotional, so obviously you must be the one who is wrong" fallacy likely applies), but by the same token calmly saying "no, we don't need to have this conversation" does the same thing ("well you're being closed minded, we're just talking") and now the group thinks that you have to seriously consider anything a handful of crackpots on the internet say with equal weight to actual medicine.

And then literally anything I say means I am the bad guy because ...

2024-08-09T01:58:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…hvdc
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And then literally anything I say means I am the bad guy because I'm not smart enough to argue against it without tripping over my own words, and now I'm arguing when they were "just asking questions, like a good scientist should do" or whatever nonsense. We do not need to re-litigate whether medicine is real. That is not a good scientist asking questions. I don't even know why I'm venting at this point, but I have no ability to make anyone see that this shit is *dangerous* and I wish I could.

Yet another lovely dinner with friends ruined because someone ...

2024-08-09T01:54:17Z

Yet another lovely dinner with friends ruined because someone decided to bring up some stupid woo nonsense (let's use "horse dewormer cures covid" as a stand in; their stuff was more generic, but I think it's dangerous in similar ways), spout a bunch of logical fallacies to insist that it's just science and eventually some great man will make all the other scientists who were just blinded by dogma realize they were wrong, etc. etc. 1/…

Is there any desktop client (not a web-based thing) for Mastodon ...

2024-08-09T01:45:29Z

Is there any desktop client (not a web-based thing) for Mastodon that specifically supports *writing* long threads and then posting them all at once so they're pre-planned out?

#AskFedi

Late followup: for those who don't know, I'm trying to ...

2024-08-07T16:49:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…048f
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Late followup: for those who don't know, I'm trying to start a bike shop out of my home garage (Atlanta Bike Shed (npub1223…ll50)). The city won't let me put up a sign so it's not obvious that it's a shop. A moment ago I walked out to the garage and right as I did a woman riding past randomly on our neighborhood street got a flat! I inflated it for her and gave her a card in case she wants a proper service later. If you're going to break down, do it in front of a bike shop!

#BikeNite

A5. a while back a neighbor gave me a bunch of tubes that were a ...

2024-08-03T00:26:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…wnfc
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A5. a while back a neighbor gave me a bunch of tubes that were a size I had no use for. A few days later I was walking past a public bike repair station near by and a guy was standing at it being really frustrated and said he couldn't get his tire to inflate. I pointed out that it had a puncture and was leaking, and realized that his tires were the size of the box of tubes I had! I hooked him up with one so he could get home. It was absolutely perfect timing!

#BikeNite

Periodic reminder that "blockchain" is the same as "a ...

2024-07-30T16:23:22Z

Periodic reminder that "blockchain" is the same as "a handful of databases with replication turned on" except shittier in every possible way and there is literally nothing you can do with it that couldn't better be solved in some other way.

No, I don't want to hear about how you've really finally found a use for it for-real this time and you're going to disrupt whatever industry. You're just wrong.