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Venkat  

To all contributors: please keep the comment short and sweet. Preferably just use the title of the link, or if that's not clear, a 5-10 word precis. Don't do big quotes. Save that for follow up comments. See my latest for examples of good style. ribbonfarm.com/2018/10/09/refa

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Venkat  

Hey folks, it looks like too few people are using this mastodon instance for it to be worth sustaining. And now it looks like the moderation headaches are increasing as well, with the spambot wave. I have been paying for it so far, and @zacharius has been maintaining it. I think the server is paid for through June (so another 2 months). Unless someone wants to take over, I think we’ll give people a chance to download data/migrate accounts and shut it down at that time.

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Venkat  

@zacharius we seem to have a big spambot attack. Can we do something. Most signed up last week.

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Venkat  

Turned off open registrations for the time being. Too many spam signups looks like.

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Venkat  

Looks like there was a wave of spambot signups. Suspended all the reported ones, thanks for reporting @ykgoon and @machado cc @zacharius

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Bryan Kam  

After six months of writing privately, I'm going to restart my blog. The current idea is to go for volume, but I'm also going to curate anything worthwhile into a newsletter.

Current interest is origins of the conscious self and origins of complexity, but there will be lots of other film/philosophy/literature stuff. Newsletter link if you're interested 🙂 bryankam.substack.com/p/coming

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Nathaniel Eliot  

Things to remember today:

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
-- Ian Maclaren

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses. [...] There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."
-- C.S. Lewis

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Venkat  

How is everybody doing. Haven’t been checking in here lately. I hope everyone is staying safe.

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Nathaniel Eliot  

One of the most obvious symptoms of my aging is my newfound love for the harumph.

I totally learned it from my grandpa, I just haven't felt ready to take on the mantle until recently.

Hmrph.

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Bert.  
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Venkat  

Any interesting developments in the fediverse in the last few months?

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Venkat  

I haven't been very active here in the last few months, but am pleasantly surprised to see there's a continuing steady trickle of activity among a few regulars. I'll continue being variably active but open to any other suggestions.

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Bryan Kam  

Seems to be much written in praise of polymaths these days, which makes me happy.

bbc.com/worklife/article/20191

During my undergrad I nominally studied literature but somehow got away with taking classes in 15 departments. I wound up working in Linux automation (though I never took a CS class). Any other aspiring polymaths out there?

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Octesian  

Is it considered bad form to boost your own reply so that it appears in your main timeline?

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Venkat  

PSA: If you'd like to help support this instance (which costs $20/mo and some admin labor, primarily from Zach Faddis and to a lesser extent, from me) please contact Zach at @zacharius for a venmo to send $ to. Limit contributions to $5/mo and max $20 (~4 mo) at one time, since we don't want to manage large balances or deal with the expectations that come with larger contributions.

I will continue to underwrite the cost and cover any shortfalls. We will set up some accountable tracking too.

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Venkat  

I haven't been super active here lately, but keep checking in every few days at least. But if anyone wants to ping me urgently for anything, use a different channel. This is something of an easy pace relaxation zone channel for me :D

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Elliot  

I spent about an hour today fanning through various books on Italian architecture in the 15th-16th centuries and came to this conclusion: we have gotten a lot worse at building (partially bc the average person is legally forbidden to make substantial modifications to the property that they own) but we have gotten so much better at architecture.

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Venkat  

@Bert I see you sent me a paypal payment for this instance without asking me. This creates an annoying book-keeping headache for me. If it shows up as "unclaimed" on your account, please see if you can reverse it. If not, I'll be refunding it.

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riga  

Oh man, I just learned that the main internal communication tool at facebook is a corporate version of facebook. This explains a lot.

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Venkat  

Grr. Weird euro style appliance integrated into cabinetry.

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nindokag  

somebody at work is giving away Banana Republic coupons, and it just reminded me how utterly strange it is that there's a clothing store chain named Banana Republic. That's like naming your store "Failed State" or "Tinpot Dictatorship"

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Refactor Camp

Mastodon instance for attendees of Refactor Camp, and members of various online/offline groups that have grown out of it. Related local groups with varying levels of activity exist in the Bay Area, New York, Chicago, and Austin. Kinda/sorta sponsored by the Ribbonfarm Blogamatic Universe. If you already know a few people in this neck of the woods, try and pick a handle they'll recognize when you sign up. Please note that the registration confirmation email may end up in your spam folder, so check there. It should come from administrator Zach Faddis.

Resources

Developers

What is Mastodon?

refactorcamp.org

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