Some notes on piracy
From a Kindle library to music, movies/TV shows and even video games, we don’t really own our media anymore. I have exactly four physical games for my Switch and I think two or three for the PS 4. The rest, adding up to a sickening amount of money, are all digital copies that I’m not guaranteed access to forever...permalink -->
What makes WP Engine different from Bluehost?
This might sound dumb but I don’t get the difference between something like WP Engine and other hosts that specialize in Wordpress, like Bluehost which literally refers to itself as a Wordpress Hosting Platform and Dreamhost, both of which are recommended by Automattic?
I get that they have “WP” in their name; that makes sense for being easily mistakable for an official part of Wordpress, but the revision history thing just doesn’t seem like it’s as big a deal as Mullenweg is making it out to be. I know he criticized them for not contributing enough to Wordpress.org development but isn’t that kind of arbitrary? Like what is enough?
I do think being owned by a private equity firm is a little greasy for a company that offers hosting for open source software but Bluehost is owned by one too.
Is it just a matter of how big they are? Is it just a personal thing between two rich guys? I feel like it’s probably that.
I’m pretty good at starting a post, going off on a tangent and then forgetting what I was even writing about in the first place
I was originally planning on making my root domain a static landing page/hub kinda thing but I changed it back to my Micro.blog site since I’m most active here. Instead of an about page, I added a link in my nav to the “hub” subdomain where my socials, bio and a longform blog live on omg.lol.
I really liked this video essay. The author draws parallels between simulation theory and our always connected, perpetually online world.
I still think about that time Jack Dorsey called everyone on Bluesky “Very, very common”
Bluesky saw this exodus of people from Twitter show up, and it was a very, very common crowd. … But little by little, they started asking Jay and the team for moderation tools, and to kick people off.
DOODAD.dev - a sick pattern generator for web design
Tools for making websites fast, accessible, expressive, and green. These tools are mostly for helping web developers build small websites (sites that use fewer bytes) without sacrificing expression.
I randomly stumbled across this a few minutes ago when I was trying to find a way to generate Memphis design patterns. You can choose from a ton of different SVG patterns, manipulate the size, shape, color and angle and generate an image from it. Love this kind of thing! Feels like a desktop app on a website.
What's valuable to you?
I was just reading this Reddit thread about a blogging platform that launched a few years ago. It's grown into a successful space with a thriving community by now, but the comments were kind of cracking me up.
The #1 thing people were focused on back then was how to monetize it.
There's no built-in advertising options and it's really not even set up to run something like Google ads. SEO, maximizing engagement and clicks are not baked in. It's simply a place where indie bloggers can go to share their stories and hang out with other bloggers.
WordPress.org’s latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin
WordPress.org has taken over a popular WP Engine plugin in order “to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem,” WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced today.
Wow that must be pretty serious huh?
It’s not clear what security problem Mullenweg is referring to in the post.
Oh 🤨
Rumors on X Are Becoming the Right’s New Reality
A curious set of claims has recently emerged from…X: FEMA is systematically abandoning Trump-supporting Hurricane Helene victims; Democrats (and perhaps Jewish people) are manipulating the weather; Haitian immigrants are eating pet cats in Springfield, Ohio.
I remember when conspiracy theories used to be shit like subterranean lizard people and hollow moon theory. No one took it this seriously and it definitely wasn’t part of anyone’s political campaign. I think RFK’s brain worms must be contagious 🤪
SSRI Withdrawal, Brain Zaps [psychiatrist.com]
In SSRI Withdrawal, Brain Zaps Go from Overlooked Symptom to Center Stage
A sensation unofficially known as “brain zaps” has caused concern in patients stepping off of their SSRIs. Until recently, physicians have widely been unaware or dismissive of the symptom.
“There was an emphasis both within the [psychiatric] profession and pharmacological companies to make these medications sound not addictive,” [Alexander Papp] told Psychiatrist.com. Therefore, when SSRIs first became popular, very few systematic studies were conducted on antidepressant discontinuation effects.
I went through opiate addiction when I was in my 20s and that was nothing compared to how… off I felt when my doctor pulled me off of Cymbalta cold turkey a few years ago. She switched me to a completely different class of antidepressant and said I shouldn’t have any noticeable side effects or withdrawals.
I felt fucking insane after about two days. I was getting brain zaps every time I’d look in a different direction and I literally did not know who I was at times. I spent most of a week in bed and quit my job. The absolute worst thing I’ve ever been through. Needless to say I found a new doctor.
They really do downplay all of the negative side effects and withdrawal symptoms of antidepressants. Glad to see people are starting to take this stuff seriously. Finally.
Due to…everything going on right now with WordPress, I thought I’d put together a list of alternative CMSs that better fit the criteria someone might have for their website … The criteria for this list are “Can it be downloaded, dropped onto a server, and you’ll have a website?”
Great post on WP alternatives! I’ve never liked it for a personal blog, it just feels too commercial for me. But I know it’s something a ton of people use. Like most bloggers and commercial websites. Worth checking out if you use WP and don’t like the direction it’s headed these days.
A deposit of marine fossils found under San Pedro High School - Los Angeles Times
Researchers uncovered two distinct sites on campus where new buildings were under construction: a bone bed dating back 8.7 million years in the Miocene era and a shell bed about 120,000 years old from the Pleistocene era.
It’s crazy that at any given place in the world you could be standing on top of millions of years of undiscovered history and not even know it.
Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users
“Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!,” reads a JavaScript alert shown on the compromised archive.org site.
Earlier today, the Internet Archive suffered a DDoS attack, which has now been claimed by the BlackMeta hacktivist group, who says they will be conducting additional attacks.
What a bunch of losers. It’s like throwing a molotov cocktail through a library’s window.
Elon Musk’s ‘Free’ Starlink for Hurricane Helene Victims Will Cost at Least $400
Musk made headlines with a promise that SpaceX Starlink would be free for 30 days to help in places where fiber and cellular infrastructure might have been knocked offline.
…anyone interested in taking up the offer still has to pay approximately $400 for the dish itself (including shipping and tax) and they’re getting automatically rolled into a $120 per-month contract when the free month ends.
Literal supervillain.
Seasonal euphoria
I'm wired backwards--or at least my seasonal depression is. I'm at my best when it's 20°F and everything's covered with a fluffy blanket of glimmering snow. I can sleep under a comforter without waking up soaked in sweat. I can actually enjoy a hot shower and it doesn't take me three hours to cool down. I can wear my long sleeve Oxfords to work without sweating my ass off all day.
CTV industry’s unprecedented “surveillance” - Ars Technica
Not only does CTV operate in ways that are unfair to consumers, it is also putting them and their families at risk as it gathers and uses sensitive data about health, children, race, and political interests
…buying a smart TV set in today’s connected television marketplace is akin to bringing a digital Trojan Horse into one’s home
Not surprising honestly. Everyone’s a Neilson family now eh?
Progress in the middle of nowhere, Ohio
I just re-watched this old video of someone driving around filming my hometown with a camcorder in the 80's. It's unbelievable how much it's changed even since the first time I watched it a decade ago.
I want to record my own.
Intel and a few other big tech companies are setting up shop about 15 miles down the road and they project 1,000,000+ people moving to central Ohio in the next few years. We're one of those towns just outside of the city and they're already expanding highways and announcing plans to build a big downtown area. Things are about to drastically change.
Imagine recording a tape of this little town no one's ever heard of, saving it for 30 years and finally pulling it out of an old broken down box in the basement so you can upload it to YouTube. Time goes by so fast, next thing you know we'll blink and it'll be 2050. I'll scroll through miles of photos and videos in my iCloud drive, find the one I recorded 2024 and marvel at how different things were back then.
I’m always a little overwhelmed switching DNS records around and changing the design of stuff but it’s exciting too. Gives me a little project to work through and keep me occupied for a while. It gets boring after a while when everything works perfect and there’s nothing to do but write!