Kevin Boyd (he/him) 🇨🇦

Software Developer, Photographer, Sailing Enthusiast. (he/him)

Victoria, BC, Canada

Public Key

npub1w6lns0vz7hplpsxadn9zqxkqaxgueqxf4wkwj0nl0qwymjjg0ysq2zewgg

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8d0ec8kp0tslscrwkej3qrtqwnywvsry6ht8f8elhs8zdefy8jgqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qzdhv96

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1w6lns0vz7hplpsxadn9zqxkqaxgueqxf4wkwj0nl0qwymjjg0ysq2zewgg

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Last Notes

2026-08-14 15:21:37 GMT

A photo from the beach at Cadboro Bay, Victoria, BC. I think the striped shirt helps the scene look a smidge mediterranean. #photography #sailing #sailboats #flickr
https://flic.kr/p/2sv4pjS
https://media.phpc.social/media_attachments/files/117/094/540/463/026/265/original/95e528ac4b1642fe.png

2026-08-05 20:28:23 GMT

Spotted on the #sailing subreddit: someone named their windvane (mechanical autopilot) "Ziggy". Such a great name for it.

2026-03-19 05:40:03 GMT

Does anyone know where I can find a list of all the brands owned by ultracorporations? (Unilever, nestle, P&G, etc)
Or better yet, a downloadable database that I could work with.

2026-03-04 21:57:25 GMT

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@nprofile…ds0l Heh. I guess we're on different dark humour wavelengths at the moment.
Did you watch Steve Carrell's "The Patient"?

2026-03-04 21:48:46 GMT

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@nprofile…ds0l Zero. Just someone rightfully concerned with societal overreach.
And their otherwise-unharmed captive.

2026-03-03 18:22:42 GMT

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@nprofile…kkk3 is that ... snow? Great shot :)
My mom lives in NS. I sent her this photo from my bike ride this morning:
https://media.phpc.social/media_attachments/files/116/166/633/635/827/086/original/0e9be38942d94460.jpeg

2026-02-27 20:43:18 GMT

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@nprofile…4xpq blues and yellows ... all kinds of ... little fluffy clouds

2026-02-21 22:07:01 GMT

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@nprofile…4xpq Without context, this sounds a little bit like an invitation to an AMA. A really high-energy, two-way AMA.
I can't do high energy right now, I have some important things on my plate that demand those energy reserves, so how about a friendly low-energy question...
If you eat bacon, how do you prefer it? Soft, Medium, Crispy, Super Crispy, Burnt, Coronal Bacon Ejection?

2026-02-19 20:11:54 GMT

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@nprofile…07hu @nprofile…7yuj @nprofile…ugpy Well, it is unethical to do so while ignoring the robots file. And it's unethical to do so at such a pace that it cripples the site being scanned. And it is unethical to repackage that content as a new creation; search engines provide a value to the sites they scan, by directing traffic to them. AI scrapers extract value with nothing in return, voiding the social contract.

2026-02-10 03:20:47 GMT

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@nprofile…4xpq (And I say this knowing fairly well that another near-impossibility is getting something like UBI approved nationally. But it's not fully impossible. My country made means testing illegal for medical care in 1984. I got a "free" CT scan on saturday as a result, which was helpful for making sure I wasn't about to die.)

2026-02-09 16:04:27 GMT

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@nprofile…pfuj @nprofile…r7tj
"Hey guys, mothy here with another update. Merino: what is it that makes it soooo delicious? Let's start by diving into what Merino actually is and how it gets made ..."

2026-02-04 00:14:50 GMT

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@nprofile…le0y I haven't set one up yet, so I don't know for sure, but my first guess would be that the queues are not running.

2026-01-30 02:47:37 GMT

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@nprofile…4xpq ... are they? It still takes energy to run the LLM. The math might equal out. 😂

2026-01-12 00:24:00 GMT

Okay, I'll be "controversial", or even self-contradicting, for a sec:
I don't think X/Twitter should be banned.
I think the government, at all levels, should entirely stop using it. But that is not the same as a ban.
#nevent1q…ws0r

2026-01-11 19:08:06 GMT

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@nprofile…yzy8 I wish it were easier to learn (and specifically, easier to use an rpi to learn) how to make a USB accessory.
I have Ideas™. Ideas that will never see the light of day because I can't do them, and I lack the resources to fund someone else to do them.

2026-01-08 03:00:55 GMT

One of my goals for 2026 is to write more. My first blog post of the year is now live:
"The Future Is Cooperative"
https://whateverthing.com/blog/2026/01/05/the-future-is-cooperative/
Wherein I discuss the co-op model as an alternative to corporations/startups, and share my experiences so far with some of the co-ops I am involved with.
#writingGoals #blog #cooperatives

2025-12-31 20:04:37 GMT

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@nprofile…mrzh I wonder whether they might mean "share" in a different way. Like, not as in oversharing, but as in adapting their interests to fit in with a group. To "share interests" with others.

2025-12-19 16:22:19 GMT

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@nprofile…59g0 i think the SO one might've used a different word than "absolutely".
(And I don't necessarily mean a curse word. More like "fundamentally" or "categorically" or "extremely" or "laughably".)

2025-12-17 17:38:13 GMT

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@nprofile…c3hj I am not (as you might be able to tell from the raindrops on my lens in my own photo) - i was using a bike seat cover as a rain protector. It was not entirely ineffective.

2025-12-17 06:55:27 GMT

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@nprofile…c3hj Nice! It was a good night for photos.

2025-12-12 02:11:38 GMT

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@nprofile…su47 PLOT TWIST: the scent changes halfway through.
(I'm guessing.)

2025-11-18 16:15:00 GMT

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@nprofile…he5k @nprofile…s67t a brilliant yellow NO NAME trench coat?

2025-11-01 19:45:51 GMT

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@nprofile…avn3 @nprofile…s67t @nprofile…4r77 ... would it be a bad idea to have an election when the postal service is in disarray?

2025-10-26 18:21:37 GMT

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@nprofile…s67t I feel like there's some sort of t-shirt design that would sell like hotcakes with that phrase on it, but the trick would be getting a designer+artist to nail it.
Like, should it show *our* chuck, or should it work for *any* chuck? After all, how many chucks would a woodchuck chuck if a wooden chuck could chuck chucks?

2025-10-26 17:02:58 GMT

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@nprofile…s67t I must admit, I feel like a bit of a dimwit for not having understood the bitter, extreme irony of the Republican party delivering America its putative new King.

2025-10-13 18:38:03 GMT

I learned about this today, and it warmed my heart: https://www.lego.com/en-gb/sustainability/children/lego-mri-scanner
They donate LEGO MRI sets to hospitals in order to help kids feel more confident about having the scan.
#LEGO

2025-10-03 19:23:36 GMT

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@nprofile…fv4z what are the symptoms of this excitation?

2025-10-02 17:30:48 GMT

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@nprofile…hyrk @nprofile…wuyc Most of the assholes I know are fairly well-read. And while I don't know what their reading list looks like, in terms of novels vs nonfiction, I expect it leans toward nonfiction.
Hey assholes: post what you've read lately!

2025-09-09 17:35:36 GMT

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@nprofile…wuyc There's a world where Workout Buddy could work for me. The depicted example? I would throw it in the sea.

2025-09-04 04:16:05 GMT

We, against all odds, live in a world where we have cures and vaccines for several cancers & for AIDS and (largely) HIV.
It makes me incredibly angry that people are attacking the institutions and organizations that delivered those scientific breakthroughs.
You fools. You fucking unforgivable fools.

2025-08-28 19:30:30 GMT

New rule, started last year and continued this year:
Summer is not complete unless I've had Moon Mist ice cream.

2025-08-28 17:21:01 GMT

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@nprofile…4c6l wait what? Last day? Or just last day of the season?

2025-08-28 05:31:58 GMT

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@nprofile…ac3s Hmm, maybe. I feel that that's fixable with regulations and bylaws, though. I'm wondering if I'm missing something that is unfixable. Like, is all that water being evaporated as part of the standard approach to mass cooling?

2025-08-28 05:22:25 GMT

I often hear about data centres consuming mass quantities of area water. If it is just for cooling reasons... could they not send the water back into the regional system? Why is it a one-and-done consumption?

2025-08-26 04:01:36 GMT

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Although it's a bit weird that they seem to tie it into their email newsletter flow. Ah well. At least they are trying.
The urls are:
https://www.viewroyal.ca/EN/meta/new/rss/news.rss
https://www.viewroyal.ca/EN/main/town/public/rss/public-notices.rss
#ViewRoyal #TownOfViewRoyal #yyj

2025-08-26 03:48:32 GMT

Ooh, my town is advocating for people to follow their RSS feed. Neat!! https://bsky.app/profile/townofviewroyal.bsky.social/post/3lxaz6ksgds2g

2025-08-26 03:16:40 GMT

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@nprofile…sf64 Not according to the hordes of FB users who aren't using it.

2025-08-26 01:07:18 GMT

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@nprofile…np4p Oh, my bad. Sure, let me fix that for you

2025-08-25 16:14:39 GMT

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@nprofile…jqvx oof, yeah. Say, what is the German pronunciation of Germany?

2025-08-25 16:03:10 GMT

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@nprofile…rdje sorry :( hopefully the any% speedrun goes quickly.

2025-08-25 14:31:02 GMT

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@nprofile…wqt4 @nprofile…smeg "youtube channel trailer" being the worst offender I've seen.

2025-08-25 14:28:57 GMT

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@nprofile…mpj6 I've seen this thought before, but this is the first time I've seen it properly qualified. Sometimes it can! Usually it cannot, or it actively worsens things.

2025-08-25 03:33:19 GMT

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@nprofile…eem9 The A-Wolf: a helicopter squad goes on the run & helps folks out by intervening in local situations

2025-08-24 21:01:37 GMT

"Tenth time's the charm" - SpaceX, probably.
Starship. This approach of building it and blowing it up seems embarrassing and wasteful. Can it really be delivering the data and learning opportunities they've said it has? I strongly doubt it. There must be diminishing returns, at least.

2025-08-24 20:01:44 GMT

Petition to replace
"As the crow flies"
with
"As the wildfire burns"

2025-08-24 18:56:23 GMT

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@nprofile…wswd biographical details?

2025-08-24 18:13:41 GMT

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@nprofile…6wcr that happens so often that I think publishers instinctively include it in the tv deals

2025-08-24 18:10:25 GMT

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@nprofile…aerv How about "I hate this new thing that I understand reasonably well, and have even used myself to some mild success"?

2025-08-24 18:08:46 GMT

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@nprofile…9rpf ... ...
https://media.phpc.social/media_attachments/files/115/085/077/596/981/085/original/fb4a0ffebc783303.jpeg

2025-08-24 17:09:04 GMT

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@nprofile…dey4 um. Hmm. They do, as part of their joking around, sometimes get into mature subjects. The episode descriptions are pretty good about calling out content warnings with timestamps, but I can't fully say yes. Just ... mostly.

2025-08-24 08:23:38 GMT

Hey, a fun article for showing off the lcars theme for net news wire
https://media.phpc.social/media_attachments/files/115/082/776/733/625/333/original/acf8d19aa48ebcce.png

2025-08-24 03:45:02 GMT

I continue to despise Facebook Marketplace. Bad product. Hostile to the open web. We need to do better.

2025-08-24 00:40:46 GMT

That latest Dimension 20 adventuring party is unbelievably unhinged. From the beans with cheese all the way to the King Charles Panties, wall to wall chaos and wtf. So fun. :)

2025-08-23 23:45:39 GMT

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@nprofile…hq4y True. If they're not aiming for better than it used to be, what's the point?

2025-08-23 22:54:43 GMT

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@nprofile…7y6q yeah, this was about 1.8 million hits within 48 hours.

2025-08-23 22:04:33 GMT

AI crawlers finally started hitting my site hard enough for me to notice (despite a robots file disallowing ALL indexing from ANYONE). I had to block 8.210.0.0/16 and 47.(239|242|243).0.0/16 ... the ua did not specify who was doing the crawling, it mimicked standard browser UAs.

2025-08-23 20:24:26 GMT

I'm a level 4 cybervegan. I don't self host my social media (yet), but i have quit most of the major platforms. And i have a blog. And i delete tracking params from YouTube links.
#Cybervegan
https://youtu.be/N_Yaa_LMDcs

2025-08-23 15:38:47 GMT

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I left it charging overnight, and this morning when i checked I was able to power it up! It's alive!!
Granted, 4 of the 5 motors are seized, but this is progress.

2025-08-23 14:51:18 GMT

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@nprofile…k6wv i wonder if a greater or lesser number of people know what a Strata Corporation is?

2025-08-23 05:37:23 GMT

*record scratch* Yep, that's me.
https://ni.hil.ist/@asterism/115072584127806068

2025-08-23 00:57:15 GMT

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@nprofile…t4zv @nprofile…4md8 I'm not so sure about that being a good stance, because that's basically the same logic that Putin used to justify taking Crimea.

2025-08-22 23:33:19 GMT

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@nprofile…xxx6 @nprofile…f456 I have somehow ended up purchasing a Smart Dishwasher.
No, I have no idea why such a thing exists.
No, I haven't connected it to the Internet.

2025-08-22 23:19:18 GMT

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@nprofile…aerv @nprofile…pjsn @nprofile…muyw I ... am not seeing the downside here?

2025-08-22 22:03:20 GMT

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Actually, looks like it could be more repairable than I expected. The issue is probably an exhausted battery - maybe it just needs to be on the charger for longer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ONTOr11_d4

2025-08-22 21:57:19 GMT

Ah, sadness: the one time I actually need it (surveying boat keels for an upcoming co-op purchase), my chasing dory underwater drone seems to have fully died. I plugged it in to charge and it does not accept the charge - seems to be fully dead. I got a few good uses out of it, but alas, I don't know if I can repair it.
#ChasingDory #ROV #UnderwaterDrone

2025-08-22 21:47:28 GMT

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@nprofile…uk4z wait, so ... since they are common throughout the Caribbean, they no doubt also reside on beaches in Mexico.
So there could be Mexican Jumping Bean Clams?

2025-08-22 21:20:07 GMT

Oh, so it IS possible for the US to nationalize companies. Fun.
Sidenote: How long until countries start to #BanIntel?

2025-08-22 19:34:40 GMT

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@nprofile…n4vt @nprofile…79ya i wasn't able to find a specific example in a brief scan of the AT and BS api docs. It might be handled with an HTTP 400 and a specific error message? Not sure.

2025-08-22 19:20:36 GMT

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@nprofile…n4vt A good question, but I think it might only work a portion of the time? BSky users often enable the feature that requires a user to be logged in to see their posts.
I suppose if you could see that condition right away in the quote post approach, that would be super useful.
@nprofile…79ya

2025-08-22 19:08:10 GMT

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@nprofile…fpf4 well, at least they approved of obsidian. I love it. Heh.
Some folks swear by emacs org-mode for PKM, if you're ever looking for another approach to try.

2025-08-22 18:19:43 GMT

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@nprofile…fpf4 Hmm. Well, I guess that's their prerogative. Still, it feels a bit like the company saying "you can't use emacs or vim, you can only use vscode".

2025-08-22 18:17:47 GMT

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@nprofile…rmmx Thanks for the reply. Of the three, I'm only on Mastodon (albeit bridged to Bluesky). I might try Bluesky when Tapbots releases their new app (Phoenix). Will be entirely avoiding threads, though: I have excised myself from everything Meta/Facebook, and intend to stay that way.
(Really sucks about their walled garden Marketplace, though.)

2025-08-22 18:10:43 GMT

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@nprofile…0zdp @nprofile…rmmx the duck thread was amazing, thank you for sharing it - my coworkers appreciated it as well

2025-08-22 17:51:29 GMT

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@nprofile…rmmx I didn't realize people were still using Threads. Has it been consistently active on there?

2025-08-22 17:39:41 GMT

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@nprofile…fpf4 I'm curious what the reasoning is for logseq not being allowed - would you be able to share what you've heard about that?

2025-08-22 17:20:28 GMT

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@nprofile…9rpf Another interpretation: "So they admit it!"

2025-08-22 16:38:40 GMT

Huh, maybe my new meds are actually working. Last night I committed a to-do list to memory, and today *I actually remembered it*. That is vanishingly rare for me, it usually only works for very big/important upcoming events (sailing, camping, road trip, etc).

2025-08-22 16:32:26 GMT

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@nprofile…s3qt @nprofile…l99m Language evangelists are so silly to me. PHP is obviously the only language that matters, all others pale in comparison. Why do they waste their time?
(In truth, I love it when people are enthusiastic about languages. It's when they dismiss the rest of reality that I get concerned.)

2025-08-22 16:19:16 GMT

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@nprofile…l99m I haven't touched it since contributing to the Gitlab project many years ago. I wouldn't call that codebase barely readable, it seemed fine - but I know what you mean.

2025-08-22 15:51:49 GMT

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@nprofile…l99m "I’m still happy to pay someone else to deal with Ruby"
That was my experience with Ruby as well. Not a bad language, super usable in some hands, but something about it was very frustrating for me personally.

2025-08-22 15:36:31 GMT

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@nprofile…hq4y Those are some great points, thanks.

2025-08-22 15:21:19 GMT

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@nprofile…l7u7 the entire time I was watching it, I was unsure if it was actually from that era, or a modern replication of it.
I eventually settled on, nobody on the planet has the budget to make a replica that good and authentic, so it must be real.

2025-08-22 15:04:01 GMT

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@nprofile…hq4y Co-operatives are an interesting non-corporate way for groups of people to organize around a central goal. Do you think it is possible to form a co-operative around a product concept & deliver an impactful and necessary product in a way that is untainted by the perverse incentives of the corporate world?
https://ica.coop/en/cooperatives/cooperative-identity

2025-08-22 14:36:51 GMT

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@nprofile…h3sj that's a great way of framing it. Thanks!

2025-08-22 01:27:29 GMT

Some people have an innate talent for saying things that are just slightly wrong in a way that sparks conversation. It is not a talent I share; in fact, I work hard to try not to be misunderstood or "wrong" or "controversial".
Others have adapted it for profit. That might have been a smarter move than eliminating it.
https://hachyderm.io/@thomasfuchs/115068295628933638

2025-08-21 20:14:17 GMT

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@nprofile…zpcd No, you're right, it's not rocket science. But it is annoying that one entity (Google + Gmail) controls such a vast corner of the market. It would be like if SpaceX controlled a subset of physics.

2025-08-21 19:39:21 GMT

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@nprofile…2pms @nprofile…as5c I think part of this is because we, humans, are being tragically let down by the implementation of async chat in our work platforms.
In attempting to fit the lowest common denominator and not be "scary", the tools have abandoned innovations that improve the async discussion experience.
This is why "threads" suck everywhere: because they aren't actually threading. They're just grouping stuff together into a discoverability jumble. Useless.

2025-08-21 18:33:04 GMT

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@nprofile…590g Yep yep, absolutely fair. It's my workplace that uses it, not my hobby projects, so I think you've nailed it.
My hobby projects generally don't do email, but when they do, I'm still relying on the unix `mail` command. Which .... oof. I'm sure you're well aware of the shortcomings of that, especially in terms of delivery guarantees.

2025-08-21 18:28:07 GMT

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@nprofile…590g I haven't interacted with SES directly in years (for which I'm thankful). Been pretty happy with Iterable, which IIRC uses it behind the scenes.

2025-08-21 16:08:34 GMT

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@nprofile…r9rs I like this question a lot. Just the right level of condescension and judgment, but also an important hint that maybe there is a better data storage solution that is more fit for purpose.

2025-08-21 16:02:32 GMT

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@nprofile…2kgy I solved this recently by making a video that merely summarized a blog post.

2025-08-21 06:44:17 GMT

A while back, I saw someone lamenting that most TV detectives seem to be maladjusted grumps. Why can't there be more cheerful detectives?
I've arrived at a theory.
I think it's because of all the murder.

2025-08-21 05:53:04 GMT

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@nprofile…55fn Something seems fishy to me.

2025-08-21 01:53:40 GMT

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This is the short, by the way. https://youtube.com/shorts/puPK0Q2im4E

2025-08-21 01:40:53 GMT

Upload a 20 minute video that I meticulously edited and refined: 59 views
Uploaded a 16 second short that I slapped together from a silly clip: 2,100 views
Am I youtubing correctly?

2025-08-20 23:04:53 GMT

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@nprofile…uzec the good: the data storage format, being plaintext markdown, is more open than some other PKMs. Many plugins. Much room for customization. It's free. Cross-device sync via their service is paid, but there are "ways" to self-sync across devices without using their service.
The bad: it isn't open source. It can be tough to optimize your vault workflows, due to the flexibility.
The ugly: Some plugins are out of date or unmaintained.
Overall, it's a solid A, verging on A+, for me.

2025-08-20 21:35:27 GMT

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@nprofile…3hcl great answers!

2025-08-20 17:37:55 GMT

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@nprofile…7y6q wow. I haven't done much tumbling, but I'm kind of surprised that that doesn't dent or deform things.

2025-08-20 17:32:34 GMT

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@nprofile…7y6q thanks :)

2025-08-20 17:23:18 GMT

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@nprofile…r9rs I've got a friend (white) who loves this. You remember the clip of Ron Swanson saying "I don't mean just a lot of eggs and bacon - I mean ALL the eggs and bacon"? He's like that with spice. And even then it still only barely affects him.