Mike Ely

https://social.taupehat.com/@me

Technologist, dad, author, ally if you want one. Writing site used to update weekly.

"The limits of what you are willing to imagine are an epitaph you wrote for your own freedom." --ohnoitstbskyen

Pronouns: He/him
Location: Habitual Wildfire Evac Zone
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bluesky.taupehat.com
Writing Blog: https://lit.taupehat.com

Public Key

npub16azhhcps9chhglt48j8h3xfyrwlguldd5ueyklmd3pq3tz22gcusljg0wz

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdw3tmuqczutm5046nermcnyjph05w0kk6wvjt0akcssg4399yvwgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsqqwyqz

Publishing to

nostr.land

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub16azhhcps9chhglt48j8h3xfyrwlguldd5ueyklmd3pq3tz22gcusljg0wz

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Last Notes

2026-09-16 01:47:02 GMT

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and now I'm wondering if there was ever a Cyrillic Morse

2026-09-16 01:43:33 GMT

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y'all really use 2-number codes?

2026-09-16 00:05:46 GMT

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my already-bad Spanish has that happen a lot, resulting in a somewhat rare form of Spanglisshian.

2026-09-16 00:01:48 GMT

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most of what I remember from high school is the intricacies of the чтобы clause. Why? I guess I found it funny.

2026-08-15 05:16:38 GMT

It's 2026, and "devil's lettuce" now refers to actual lettuce.

2026-07-15 05:00:04 GMT

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so many memories of that place - it was halfway between our house and my grandparents' house for a while so we'd often meet there and my parents would de-kid themselves for a few days. I'll never forget the gift shop which sold canes (the kind one might need to help with the walking) made from bull penises. Literally bull penis walking canes. Who the?
There was also the time my grandfather hid my little brother's ice cream, not paying attention to the fact that said three-year-old was already on the brink... the scolding my grandmother dished out to my grandfather on the way to their house was even scarier than the bull penis canes!
The soup was, as I remember it, quite good.

2026-06-04 07:11:37 GMT

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116690549057069574
No joke here - I had a friend who suffered from this (pre-Internet) and it completely overwhelmed her life. It was truly debilitating, and the feedback loop where she'd see medical professionals who constantly told her it was in her head only served to drive her into deeper conspiracy land. I'd imagine an effective treatment would involve a great deal of patience, listening, and building trust - and even then that's a fragile situation. Kind of like telling someone that ChatGPT doesn't really intend to inhabit a manufactured human body and become their lifelong partner... they won't believe you because they won't _want_ to believe you.
#note1yfa…kepr

2026-04-01 01:19:00 GMT

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found the photo. They nested _under_ the helmet. We left it alone until they fledged. So many mites though...
https://social.taupehat.com/system/media_attachments/files/116/326/809/868/241/848/original/fe5711e235fa5e4c.png

2026-04-01 01:15:54 GMT

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classic. Some sparrows built one in my daughter's bicycle helmet one year. Perfectly safe!

2026-02-08 01:41:16 GMT

So many lemons this year (the photo is just today's haul), but did the person who planted this garden really need to crowd a rosebush right up next to the tree? Thorns all the way down. #gardening
https://social.taupehat.com/system/media_attachments/files/116/032/461/793/521/542/original/5221a1327484f8fa.png

2026-02-05 21:50:43 GMT

When people say Shakespeare isn't relevant to modern life it's good to have people like Sir Ian around to prove them wrong:
https://social.taupehat.com/system/media_attachments/files/116/020/222/400/179/244/original/35162335b83c5484.mp4

2026-02-02 19:40:29 GMT

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one wonders how a person could get to Drawbridge without either a rowboat or scampering across the railway bridge.

2026-01-20 03:18:43 GMT

Many of you in the Fedi have seen @npub1fdr…lvhs posting his thoughts, often in the form of long threads. His thinking has always been sound, and in the one direct interaction I've had he strikes me as an overall good egg. Here's an opinion piece from him that's well worth reading - grounded in reality through and through:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur

2025-12-03 05:10:32 GMT

You haven't truly lived the life of a #sysadmin until you're googling around to figure out some issue and find a post about it where someone's asking the exact same question and... it's you. You, asking the exact same question ten years ago. And nobody answers.

2025-10-07 17:21:18 GMT

The thing that's awesome about #python is that you'll have like 57,000 versions of different modules and shit scattered all over the filesystem and they all have to be there because fuck backwards compatibility, and just when you think you've got a handle on how file precedence works, you're wrong because of this other thing called pyenv that just adds a whole other dimension of goatfuckery and jesus fucking christ I just want to get this ansible shit to go with a current version of community.general.
Maybe it's time to port ansible to #perl - only half-kidding here. The python ecosystem is a fucking joke.

2025-10-03 01:55:36 GMT

Network admins who disable ICMP: do you also take the numbers off the front of your house to keep the burglars out? #sysadmin

2025-09-02 18:19:47 GMT

Donald's "proof of life" press conference is currently 20 minutes late:
https://www.youtube.com/live/I8DnGstg2-k

2025-08-08 18:11:52 GMT

Today in "Good Fucking Riddance" we have the exemplar of why friends don't let friends buy used Mini Coopers. Broke my heart, broke my bank, is on its way to Pick-N-Pull and I'll never open the drivers door of one of these things again. #mechanic
https://social.taupehat.com/system/media_attachments/files/114/994/486/475/036/339/original/1ee57a6b8abb53b0.png

2025-08-03 03:34:01 GMT

THIS IS WHY WE DON'T FEED WILD ANIMALS! Some blithering idiot has been feeding the deer around here. I've had three different deer come up to me rather aggressively demanding food, and attempting to haze them by foot-stamping, yelling at them, throwing things etc only results in them pinning their ears and not giving ground.
The 65-pound mixed breed street dog from Tijuana did cause them to flee immediately. They may be habituated to humans, but they aren't stupid.
A fed deer is a dead deer. #wildlife

2025-04-18 01:25:59 GMT

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(assuming you're a US citizen) be polite, and try to waste as much of their time as you possibly can. Go onto tangents, act as though you don't understand their questions, answer their questions with questions, ask them about their jobs, where did they get those shoes, etc. If you've ever heard of "It's Lenny," do that. If you haven't heard of It's Lenny, go to YouTube and watch a couple examples. Then once you're done laughing, do what he does.
tl;dr: keep them busy doing nothing

2025-03-25 07:13:43 GMT

https://social.taupehat.com/system/media_attachments/files/114/221/829/390/840/667/original/f5318bc4feb7cbe1.png

2025-02-07 05:45:30 GMT

The world owes @npub1fdr…lvhs an unending debt of gratitude for the word "enshittification," a word so useful that even my browser's spell-checker recognizes it. As a succinct way of conveying a somewhat broad concept, it has opened up space for a lot of thought and conversation... and the occasional not-terrible listicle. Thanks, man.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/