OK, my nerdlings, I have questions about your tech and privacy/security philosophies. This isn't an attempt to sell anything or intended to represent politics or preferences beyond your own personal philosophies on access, privacy, or safety:

1) Does e-privacy actually matter to you? I honestly question my sanity when I get an email about tech-bros/regulatory capture/4&5 amendment rights/whatever, and it comes from a "gmail" account where we can both be quite sure it's been read, stored permanently, analyzed, and appropriate authorities or fixers called about it.

2) Do you see privacy and security concerns as separate issues, or as stops on the same spectrum of data hygiene?

3) Would you support some kind of "guaranteed no matter what" system, maybe from the government, maybe not, to ensure that no one can be entirely removed from online life by a government or organization for any reason, at all, no matter the reason? For example, an online identity that must be accepted by any government agency or communications/social service that can't be turned off at a base level, so folks you know can always find/communicate with you, even if you get on the wrong end of a block. I guess I'm asking if even someone who (for some examples) offended a service owner, said "bad" things in public and became cancelled/blocked, got accused of being a bot, etc. should still be allowed to participate at least at a survival level in the 21st century, so long as they haven't done or said anything that caused them to be imprisoned?

4) Assuming you were too busy/confused to build your own carefully constructed personal data protection regime, would you consider paying an organization to do the heavy lifting about keeping your digital life safe? If so, what might that service look like, and how much might it be worth to you? Do you know of any existing services that for you match these functions in whole or part?

Never bid a job until you see it! 😁😆😂😉

NANCY COMICS BY BUSHMILLER

2026-11-05 02:04:44

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller 11.04.52

I used to try to warn them each time, but it's clear that no one will ever listen, so instead, this is just a heads up for anyone who still thinks:

When the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else. Then, when the liberals were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the reactionaries, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the reactionaries and everyone else. Then, when the reactionaries were in charge, to exact their revenge they mocked, taunted, and generally tried to make life worse for the liberals, and they succeeded in doing so, both for the liberals and everyone else......

So yeah, first Google "gave it away" to schools, because "Education is so important". Now that they are so intertwined with modern education that even (maybe especially?) public schools can't get along without it. And now, with American education pover a barrel, the mask has come off: 'Force your students to be the targets of our AI slop-systems, or you can't use any of our systems'

Totally not evil...

nytimes.com/2026/11/03/us/goog…

So in 2016, Stanley tools wanted to release a new insulated 40 oz steel drinking cup, and they needed marketing copy. Their bright idea was to call it a "tumbler", a word which had previously meant a delicate cocktail glass. For whatever reason, their marketing copy completely rewrote American English, to the point that apparently large swathes of the American public no longer know what the word means!

And therefore, my wife and I nearly had nervous breakdowns this weekend over a very confusing argument about whether the kids should be allowed to take highball glasses to school this term!

I'm seriously of the opinion that allowing HR departments to call programmers "engineers" was the single biggest mistake the tech industry. They aren't. They generally have no idea how to engineer anything. They don't understand risk-benefit analyses. They don't understand that in the real world, 'efficiency' and 'optimization' which address only one variable solution spaces are neither efficient or optimized.

And we've put them in charge of our econony and our government because they are really good at making things that have less features, but at least cost more and run slower!

pip install keeps timing out? A step-by-step checklist

When `pip install` hangs on "Collecting..." or fails with ReadTimeoutError, go through these checks in order:

1. Run `pip install -v <package>` to see which index URL is stalling.
2. Raise the timeout and add retries: `pip install --timeout 60 --retries 5 <package>`.
3. Switch to a nearby PyPI mirror just for this install: `pip install -i <mirror-url> <package>`. To make it permanent, use `pip config set global.index-url <mirror-url>`.
4. Behind a corporate proxy? Pass `--proxy http://host:port`, or set HTTPS_PROXY. pip does not read your browser's proxy settings.
5. Seeing SSL errors? Upgrade `certifi` and pip itself first. Only add `--trusted-host` for a mirror you trust.
6. Clear a broken cache with `pip cache purge`.

For the full proxy and mirror setup, see this guide: roxi.cc/pip26.html

Written by the small team behind Roxi.

You can always tell when something gives a little bit of power back to the people, because the government always finds a way to make it unusable!

reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments…

Okay, I have been struggling with an issue with Gnome 50 for about a year now. The issue was that when I right clicked an App Icon on the App Grid and tried to pin it to the Dash there was a long delay, sometimes as long as 3 seconds. The same thing just moving around App Icons on the Dash or unpinning them. This was, as you can imagine, really annoying.

Today, I installed Google's Anti Gravity and after setting it up I started having Gemini analyze the issue. I was able to work out a solution in around 30 minutes! After trying to comb through the Gnome Shell code base for over a year. I had totally missed the issue. By consolidating all of my App Icons into about a dozen Folders I had created a bottle neck for Gnome Shell. It was actually and easy work around after I found out what the issue was.

This was a hard to find bug in Gnome 50. I would have likely never found it by manually pouring through the source code. I am very happy to have my system performing up to specs now. I really do love Anti Gravity! Best new tool of the year for my toolbox!

Tips & Donations

#AGY #Google Anti Gravity #Gnome #Gnome Shell

How it looms in the shadows
following me even now
in the twilight hours of my life

With nights fraught with strife
and days laced with misery
I ponder the cause
of my inequities

I forgave my foes
and forgave my friends
alas I see the ends of this means
I have forgotten to forgive me

Tips & Donations

#Poetry #Poem

To those that have stood beside me, even when I lacked faith in myself, you have my everlasting gratitude, respect and love. You are the Cornerstones that my life is built upon. There is no way I could possibly repay you for all of your kindness and respect.

To those that have condescended me and have been intolerant of my flaws, even when you had no cause to be, thank you as you also have my everlasting gratitude, respect and love. You are the foundation of my life. More than any other person I know you have motivated, challenged, and driven me to success. I could not have been me, without you. There is no way I can repay this debt to you.

To those that have been apathetic and had no interest in my life, despite that I tried earnestly to be there for you, thank you as you also have my everlasting gratitude, respect and love. You have taught me humility, tolerance and compassion. Without you, I would be far less of a human being. There is no way I can ever repay my debt to you.

To those that I have never met and do not know me, just by circumstance, I can barely wait to meet you. You are my future and the person that will invest so much of your energy into building my character, wisdom and perspective to meet the challenges I will need in that era of my life. I will owe you more than I can ever repay someday, and I will do my best to be a positive contribution in your life. But how you receive me is not my option it is entirely your choice.

To those that I will never meet, due to time constraints, I want to thank you for the many ways you have improved my life though I cannot even fathom how you have. You have influenced others that have indirectly had an indirect or direct influence on me. I thank you for filling this need and I owe you a debt I can never repay.

When I tell you that you need to love your enemies, I am not being witty or sarcastic. I mean it emphatically and quite literally. How a person treats you is beyond your control. How you react and use their influence on your life is entirely up to you. They are not responsible if you fail to accept all the wonderful experiences they can bring to your life, if you let them.

No one will fail me because I will not allow that to happen. I will find a way to make their influence a positive one. If I do not meet this challenge then I have truly failed myself. You may say this is impractical or unrealistic, and I tell you it is not optional. What we do not use to build ourselves up with, will be used to bury us with.

Tips & Donations

#Essay #Philosophy

It might seem on the surface that words, spoken or written, are quite fundamental, easy to understand. Is this really the case though? In all reality words are most misleading. Perhaps I should explain.

Almost every word in any given language has multiple and sometimes contradicting meanings, it is worth considering how sarcasm can reverse the meaning of a word in contemplating this. Also, every word has three distinct meanings in its simplest interpretation. The denotation of the word, which is its dictionary given meaning, which in itself is sometimes not exclusive. Ever taken a look at a dictionary some words have more than one given meaning. Then there is the connotation of a word, which is the meaning the speaker or writer is actually applying to the word. With all things considered, being that language is an attempt to communicate, this would or should be the most important interpretation of the word. The third and less obvious interpretation however is the most significant interpretation and is the listener, or reader's connotation of these words. I can not count the times I have been present to overhear a conversation between two people that I knew well, yet they had just met, and they were having a conversation and either totally agreed with each other or disagreed, and in reality were talking about two entirely different subjects to begin with, neither having a clue of this fact.

So at this point you might ask yourself. Just how do we unravel the mysterious meanings of these words? What are people really saying to me? Words in and by themselves having no real meaning that we can cling to, is there any hope of understanding someone else at all, or of them understanding us?

Consider this. When my daughter was an infant and clung to my finger smiling up at me. I needed no words to understand her at all. When she was five years old, and I stood beside her at the school bus stop, with her clinging to my hand as tight as she could with anxiety on her face and her small frame as tense as it could get. I needed no words to understand her at this moment either. Communication transcends mere words. I knew and still know my daughter's feelings, hopes and perception of life. It is what gives meaning to every word she speaks, or writes. It would be safe to say at this juncture that truly understanding the person is the key to understanding there words, whether of tongue or pen.

With that said, how often do we really even make an effort to understand the people we meet, or are we more satisfied to just accept our perception of them and judge there words by that standard? If I spoke to you, would you listen to me, or would you just hear me?

Tips & Donations

#Essay #Philosophy

@Melissa BearTrix @Nelson

Even if the Trump regime is prevented from subverting the voting process, they will be unconstrained after November 3rd, because they'll have no more political cards to play unless they create some chaos. This is where the real danger lies. The fascists in the regime are at least constrained by political necessity right now. After the election, they literally have no political necessities, because its a lame duck administration with a hostile Congress, and Trump will see them as a means to an end.

Mark my words. In the week or so after the election, there will be major actions both within the US and in the war on the Middle East. New massive military action in Iran is my primary bet, with starting a new war with a different MIddle Eastern nation in second place (Perhaps Yemen?). Simultaneously, I expect a huge burst of blatantly unconstitutional domestic actions from the Trump regime, all of which are anti-democratic and most of which will never really be intended to survive the courts, but rather to make people confused and scared.

"To become who you want to be, you must sacrifice Proprietary software!"

Tips & Donations

#FOSS #Its FOSS

Plants of the genus Fenestraria produce optical fibers made from crystalline oxalic acid to transmit light to subterranean photosynthetic sites.

There. That's a really fascinating thing you know, now!

Does anyone else long for the days when your email was just text with some tags for embedded images, instead of the "All CSS, all the time!" nightmare that is Outlook 365?

Sure would be nice if we could resize images, but apparently the css won't allow it!