David Baer @david@arktos.social

Looks totally legit. I’m sure Amazon uses lowercase Greek alphas in place of the letter a all the time.

At the #library today I saw a self-checkout kiosk for the first time. I felt like such a dinosaur, flipping the #book covers open to find a bar code to scan, when you just need to put the whole stack by the #RFID scanner.

This evening I installed a voice chat plugin on the kids’ #minecraft server. The poor 2010 Acer Revo nettop is hitting the swap pretty hard and just generally hating life. I can see this is heading toward me shelling out for a more capable box. (Skinflint dad sighs.)

Spotted along the driveway at the high school in my town.

${youngest} is very excited that his dad managed to get the Multiverse-Core plugin working on his spigot #minecraft server.

It was not without some difficulty. The server runs on a 2010-ish nettop, which is pretty slow. It kept timing out and resetting when I tried to create a new world, until I figured out I needed to bump up settings.timeout-time in spigot.yml.

I should add that this is a district that already provides Chromebooks at no cost to students. The graphing features are going to work better on the larger color screen anyway, so why not make use of the devices all the students already heave?

(Skinflint dad says…) Why do schools still require kids to spend $100 on a graphing calculator when they can get the same functionality on a free app for a smartphone they already own?

On hot days, the treadmill meets the need for physical activity, but it does not spark joy.

DO NOT CONGRATULATE

“Biden fist bumps MBS as he kicks off meeting with Saudi leaders”

https://wapo.st/3cj8Esm

Just set up a Portal on a TV that wasn't doing anything in the church fellowship hall. There are a bunch of people who for various reasons are permanently worshiping with us over Zoom. But I and the other in-person worshipers don't get to see them or chat with them after the service. This should fix that.

Seems bad, I dunno...
https://wapo.st/3c9UzNQ

TL;DR: Small NH town has its school budget slashed in half when libertarian activists are overrepresented at annual town meeting. Town organizes, reinstates school budget, saves the day. Town residents say the lesson is they should be more engaged with local politics.

Maybe. For me the takeaway is that direct democracy is bad, because you run the risk of the crazies taking over at each and every meeting. Better to vote in sane people to do consistent work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/croydon-free-state-politics.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DKDm8aiPkORIOa_FbBYqwmacE-0nGAWNZdPfo3Q_hz0u5UJAptVwys6NOiqagyHh8U-8i1T39kmNXER6w5-jvnKWPkJrcjyLex-kvfaDL1XKWL1mkrLF0zvZBuJwv60XcMz_3FFPVnmYUrhYdXDZ1wRToAYyePrqOoX004YIPaG0mavgomWOhZWiXRm8qf6t8DeQZSDFHHTRBv8Dp2qYMcaJ5MYvGJf1N3c9H-gL4RFmViMI6iYpU7TIPSnL9o2qXfvolVWqxPy4hYDMlnHRy8Xw&smid=url-share

Scheduling the US’s main fireworks holiday this close to the solstice is counterproductive—you have to wait forever for it to get dark. The Brits have the right idea with Guy Fawkes Day.

In commemoration of Independence Day in the US, here is Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

“O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would, to day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.”

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F

“Teachers come from 'dumbest parts of dumbest colleges,' Tenn. governor's education advisor tells him”

I don’t even know where to begin with this—what an insult to the educators who, among other things, have creatively adapted to a global pandemic, and who now have to put up with repeated bad faith attacks on their profession from those who want to dismantle public education.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed/revealed-teachers-come-from-dumbest-parts-of-dumbest-colleges-tenn-governors-education-advisor-tells-him

As much as some of us may say we oppose patriarchy, it’s got its claws in us too. Beware of the need to be right, to play the hero, to deny complexity and nuance, to shrink from vulnerability, to default to confrontation, aggression, and anger, especially in pursuit of righteous ends. At least begin the work you need to do on yourself before you try to save the world.

It’s eye-opening how much I’ve come to depend on exercise for mood regulation.