fluffy beesbuzz.biz

July 19 musiclog

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-20T19:36:27-07:00",
    "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/12245-July-19-musiclog",
    "name": "July 19 musiclog",
    "content": {
        "text": "Stuff that grabbed me today yesterday:\nThe ancient Song Fight! title \u201cIndie Rock Bottom\u201d still has some great songs on it. Mouth Reliant, prayformojo, and Narboutique stood out in particular.\n\nBack in the day I was really into The Verve Pipe, not to be confused with The Verve. I always found it disappointing that the only song of theirs which got any real radio play was The Freshmen, which I didn\u2019t care for (and is one of the few songs I\u2019d always remove from my MP3 collection after reripping the CD over the years).\nAnyway, a while back I found and downloaded a bunch of their live recordings, such as The Back Room @ Colectivo Coffee on 2017-11-25, which is an absolutely amazing performance of a bunch of their songs reimagined from angsty grunge/alt-rock to bittersweet country/folk, which was not a transformation I was expecting but holy cow does it work.\nAnd they actually managed to make me like The Freshmen. Dang.\n\nAnyway me posting about The Verve Pipe on Mastodon led to someone pointing out an ironic ska cover of The Freshmen which you can hear over on YouTube and it\u2019s uh. A thing. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be listening to it again, but hey, it exists.\n*",
        "html": "<p>Stuff that grabbed me <del>today</del> yesterday:</p>\n<ul><li>The ancient Song Fight! title \u201c<a href=\"https://songfight.org/songpage.php?key=indie_rock_bottom\">Indie Rock Bottom</a>\u201d still has some great songs on it. Mouth Reliant, prayformojo, and Narboutique stood out in particular.</li>\n<li>\n<p>Back in the day I was really into <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Verve_Pipe\">The Verve Pipe</a>, not to be confused with The Verve. I always found it disappointing that the only song of theirs which got any real radio play was The Freshmen, which I didn\u2019t care for (and is one of the few songs I\u2019d always remove from my MP3 collection after reripping the CD over the years).</p>\n<p>Anyway, a while back I found and downloaded a bunch of their live recordings, such as <a href=\"https://archive.org/details/thevervepipe2017-11-25.oilman.flac16\">The Back Room @ Colectivo Coffee on 2017-11-25</a>, which is an absolutely amazing performance of a bunch of their songs reimagined from angsty grunge/alt-rock to bittersweet country/folk, which was not a transformation I was expecting but holy cow does it work.</p>\n<p>And they actually managed to make me like The Freshmen. Dang.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Anyway me posting about The Verve Pipe on Mastodon led to <a href=\"https://wandering.shop/@jepyang/110743474865631819\">someone pointing out an ironic ska cover of The Freshmen</a> which you can hear <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do1GDos4-7Y\">over on YouTube</a> and it\u2019s uh. A thing. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be listening to it again, but hey, it exists.\n*</p></li>\n</ul>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy",
        "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
        "photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38422712",
    "_source": "2778"
}

Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-19T15:31:03-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/19/153103/",
    "category": [
        "Caturday"
    ],
    "video": [
        "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmarty/video/upload/vc_h264/mmmgre/96/df/22/a2/80f7afeb4bef2c5aedcd55ee68ff9f4b16b2b1250ce7684a3ca4ed88.mov"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Are you in a precarious position during eternal Caturday?",
        "html": "<p>Are you in a precarious position during eternal Caturday?</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "video",
    "_id": "38410850",
    "_source": "175"
}

Signal to Noise Ratio in Learning

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Cathie",
        "url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/2023/07/19/signal-to-noise-ratio-in-learning/",
    "published": "2023-07-19T11:43:28-04:00",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>I think those of us who are educators would agree that, since the start of the pandemic, our students are more distracted than ever. In fact, I think most of us, educators or not, feel more distracted than ever.  There are health concerns and trying to keep ourselves and our families safe. There are political divides and threats to democracy. There is inflation and economic concerns. There are floods and fires and billions of dollars of damage because of weather-related events. Our phones bring news of all of this turmoil directly into our daily lives. Even when we aren\u2019t looking at our phones, we might be thinking about looking at them. Or they might be notifying us that someone is texting us or commenting on our latest social media post. Add to that the distractions that have always been with us. Maybe there\u2019s a lawn mower running outside our window. Maybe we\u2019re thinking about our grocery needs or yesterday\u2019s conversation with our best friend. Maybe we\u2019re feeling a little under the weather and our ears are blocked or our nose is running. In any case, the world is noisy, full of distractions that impede our ability to focus on what is going on right in front of us.</p>\n<p>Our students might be physically in the classroom but there is often all kinds of noise getting in the way of them hearing what we are trying to say or engaging in the activities we have planned. I used to think mostly about getting my students to understand what was going on in the classroom. The only kind of noise I thought about addressing was the challenge of the complexity of the content of the particular class. Of course, this is an important consideration. But I am increasingly aware that the first obstacle to understanding is the noisiness of students\u2019 lives and the world around them. It might be useful to think of the first of our educational tasks to be the amplification of the signal of our educational messages so that it stands out amidst the noise of all the other information that students are bombarded with in their daily lives.</p>\n<p>My current obsessive hobby is astrophotography, capturing images of objects in the night sky. Photography is all about capturing light to create images but at night, there is very little light. So in astrophotography, we have to amplify the light that we do capture. The challenge of this is that when we amplify the light from the objects in the night sky, we also amplify the noise that we get from our various tools. For example, to capture enough light for a deep sky object to show up on our camera\u2019s sensor, we have to take long exposures of a minute, two minutes, even ten minutes and more. When a camera\u2019s shutter is open for that long, the camera may heat up and cause <em>amp glow</em> to affect some of the pixels on the sensor. That\u2019s an example of one kind of noise. There are many different kinds of noise that can appear in low light conditions and we have a variety of techniques to mitigate them.</p>\n<p>One technique for noise mitigation is stacking multiple images of the same object on top of each other. This technique works because the light signal from the object is steady while noise tends to be random. So we can amplify the steady signal and remove some of the random noise. This process improves the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in our images. How might we use this idea in education? Perhaps we move away from the idea that because we as instructors have lectured on particular content or had students read something about that content, we have \u201ccovered\u201d the content. Helping students learn content might require repetition. For example, if I\u2019m teaching students about variables in programming, I might start with explanations about variables, move to activities using those variables, and give assignments related to variables. But then when I start talking about if statements (or whatever my next topic is), I might repeat some of the things I \u201ccovered\u201d in the previous lesson about variables so that students understand variables in this new context. The repetition would take different forms depending on discipline but I think the important point is that we stop thinking about \u201ccovering\u201d content and instead think about how to amplify the signal of the important content above the noise of everything else.</p>\n<p>Another way we might amplify the signal we want students to learn is to make sure they have easy access to that signal. One tool that we use at Plymouth State for that access is Canvas. Every instructor is required to post their syllabus on Canvas but many people don\u2019t use the tool beyond that. For example, instead of putting their assignments on Canvas so students have easy access to the details whenever they might be working on the assignments, some people only hand out paper assignment descriptions. Some people only describe the assignments verbally in class. If we are thinking about amplifying the signal that is our assignment description, we would most likely do all three of these things\u2013hand out a paper assignment description, talk about the assignment in class with a verbal description, and post the assignment on Canvas so students have access to it any time they can get online. The repetition makes it more likely that the signal will cut through the noise. Some people might post their assignments online someplace other than Canvas. This introduces a new kind of noise because now students have to remember where each instructor posts class material. Some people post their assignments on Canvas but in a relatively disorganized way. We don\u2019t have a standard Canvas template that we are required to follow. I won\u2019t argue that we should have a single template but I think we might agree that by having lots of different organizational strategies for Canvas sites might mean that we are introducing a kind of noise into our classes that students will have to navigate as they try to engage with their four or five classes per semester.</p>\n<p>I am finding it helpful to think about ways to improve the signal to noise ratio of the content of my classes compared to the larger world of our students\u2019 lives as a way to improve student learning. I\u2019ll be curious to hear others thoughts about this way of thinking about teaching.</p>\n<p>In June 2023, I captured the featured image of <em>Fleming\u2019s Triangular Wisp</em>, part of a supernova remnant in the Cygnus constellation, approximately 1500 light years from Earth. The image is a stack of 33 five-minute exposures for a total of five and a half hours. For many years since its discovery in 1904, the object was called <em>Pickering\u2019s Triangle</em>, named after the director of the Harvard College Observatory, despite the fact that it was discovered by Willamina Fleming who worked at the HCO and discovered many deep sky objects during her career.</p>",
        "text": "I think those of us who are educators would agree that, since the start of the pandemic, our students are more distracted than ever. In fact, I think most of us, educators or not, feel more distracted than ever.  There are health concerns and trying to keep ourselves and our families safe. There are political divides and threats to democracy. There is inflation and economic concerns. There are floods and fires and billions of dollars of damage because of weather-related events. Our phones bring news of all of this turmoil directly into our daily lives. Even when we aren\u2019t looking at our phones, we might be thinking about looking at them. Or they might be notifying us that someone is texting us or commenting on our latest social media post. Add to that the distractions that have always been with us. Maybe there\u2019s a lawn mower running outside our window. Maybe we\u2019re thinking about our grocery needs or yesterday\u2019s conversation with our best friend. Maybe we\u2019re feeling a little under the weather and our ears are blocked or our nose is running. In any case, the world is noisy, full of distractions that impede our ability to focus on what is going on right in front of us.\nOur students might be physically in the classroom but there is often all kinds of noise getting in the way of them hearing what we are trying to say or engaging in the activities we have planned. I used to think mostly about getting my students to understand what was going on in the classroom. The only kind of noise I thought about addressing was the challenge of the complexity of the content of the particular class. Of course, this is an important consideration. But I am increasingly aware that the first obstacle to understanding is the noisiness of students\u2019 lives and the world around them. It might be useful to think of the first of our educational tasks to be the amplification of the signal of our educational messages so that it stands out amidst the noise of all the other information that students are bombarded with in their daily lives.\nMy current obsessive hobby is astrophotography, capturing images of objects in the night sky. Photography is all about capturing light to create images but at night, there is very little light. So in astrophotography, we have to amplify the light that we do capture. The challenge of this is that when we amplify the light from the objects in the night sky, we also amplify the noise that we get from our various tools. For example, to capture enough light for a deep sky object to show up on our camera\u2019s sensor, we have to take long exposures of a minute, two minutes, even ten minutes and more. When a camera\u2019s shutter is open for that long, the camera may heat up and cause amp glow to affect some of the pixels on the sensor. That\u2019s an example of one kind of noise. There are many different kinds of noise that can appear in low light conditions and we have a variety of techniques to mitigate them.\nOne technique for noise mitigation is stacking multiple images of the same object on top of each other. This technique works because the light signal from the object is steady while noise tends to be random. So we can amplify the steady signal and remove some of the random noise. This process improves the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in our images. How might we use this idea in education? Perhaps we move away from the idea that because we as instructors have lectured on particular content or had students read something about that content, we have \u201ccovered\u201d the content. Helping students learn content might require repetition. For example, if I\u2019m teaching students about variables in programming, I might start with explanations about variables, move to activities using those variables, and give assignments related to variables. But then when I start talking about if statements (or whatever my next topic is), I might repeat some of the things I \u201ccovered\u201d in the previous lesson about variables so that students understand variables in this new context. The repetition would take different forms depending on discipline but I think the important point is that we stop thinking about \u201ccovering\u201d content and instead think about how to amplify the signal of the important content above the noise of everything else.\nAnother way we might amplify the signal we want students to learn is to make sure they have easy access to that signal. One tool that we use at Plymouth State for that access is Canvas. Every instructor is required to post their syllabus on Canvas but many people don\u2019t use the tool beyond that. For example, instead of putting their assignments on Canvas so students have easy access to the details whenever they might be working on the assignments, some people only hand out paper assignment descriptions. Some people only describe the assignments verbally in class. If we are thinking about amplifying the signal that is our assignment description, we would most likely do all three of these things\u2013hand out a paper assignment description, talk about the assignment in class with a verbal description, and post the assignment on Canvas so students have access to it any time they can get online. The repetition makes it more likely that the signal will cut through the noise. Some people might post their assignments online someplace other than Canvas. This introduces a new kind of noise because now students have to remember where each instructor posts class material. Some people post their assignments on Canvas but in a relatively disorganized way. We don\u2019t have a standard Canvas template that we are required to follow. I won\u2019t argue that we should have a single template but I think we might agree that by having lots of different organizational strategies for Canvas sites might mean that we are introducing a kind of noise into our classes that students will have to navigate as they try to engage with their four or five classes per semester.\nI am finding it helpful to think about ways to improve the signal to noise ratio of the content of my classes compared to the larger world of our students\u2019 lives as a way to improve student learning. I\u2019ll be curious to hear others thoughts about this way of thinking about teaching.\nIn June 2023, I captured the featured image of Fleming\u2019s Triangular Wisp, part of a supernova remnant in the Cygnus constellation, approximately 1500 light years from Earth. The image is a stack of 33 five-minute exposures for a total of five and a half hours. For many years since its discovery in 1904, the object was called Pickering\u2019s Triangle, named after the director of the Harvard College Observatory, despite the fact that it was discovered by Willamina Fleming who worked at the HCO and discovered many deep sky objects during her career."
    },
    "name": "Signal to Noise Ratio in Learning",
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38410073",
    "_source": "2782"
}

gRegor Morrill gregorlove.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-18 22:19-0700",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2023/07/to-read-readmetxt-a-memoir/",
    "syndication": [
        "https://www.goodreads.com/read_statuses/6818593112"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Want to read: Readme.Txt: A Memoir by Chelsea Manning (ISBN 9780374279271)",
        "html": "<p>Want to read: <span class=\"p-read-of h-cite\"><a class=\"u-url\" href=\"https://gregorlove.com/isbn/9780374279271\">Readme.Txt: A Memoir</a> by <span class=\"p-author\">Chelsea Manning</span> (ISBN <span class=\"p-uid\">9780374279271</span>)</span></p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/6268/profile-2021-square.300x0.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38402923",
    "_source": "95"
}

gRegor Morrill gregorlove.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-18 17:16-0700",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2023/07/my-friend-laurie-is/",
    "category": [
        "JobHunt"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "My friend Laurie is looking for new work. She has experience as a field interviewer, illustrator, writing consultant, and personal assistant. Looking in Indiana or for remote work.\n\nPlease help boost or get in touch with her on LinkedIn if you know of anything! linkedin.com/in/laurieguerrettaz/ #JobHunt",
        "html": "<p>My friend Laurie is looking for new work. She has experience as a field interviewer, illustrator, writing consultant, and personal assistant. Looking in Indiana or for remote work.</p>\n\n<p>Please help boost or get in touch with her on LinkedIn if you know of anything! <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurieguerrettaz/\">linkedin.com/in/laurieguerrettaz/</a> <a href=\"https://gregorlove.com/#JobHunt\">#JobHunt</a></p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/6268/profile-2021-square.300x0.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38402289",
    "_source": "95"
}

gRegor Morrill gregorlove.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-18 15:43-0700",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2023/07/me-discussing-tech-jobs/",
    "content": {
        "text": "Me discussing tech jobs with a friend who isn\u2019t in tech: \u201cWant to learn to yell at computers professionally?\u201d",
        "html": "<p>Me discussing tech jobs with a friend who isn\u2019t in tech: \u201cWant to learn to yell at computers professionally?\u201d</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/6268/profile-2021-square.300x0.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38400412",
    "_source": "95"
}

fluffy beesbuzz.biz

Oh well, a well

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-17T22:44:33-07:00",
    "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/11540-Oh-well-a-well",
    "name": "Oh well, a well",
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy",
        "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
        "photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38388719",
    "_source": "2778"
}

Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-15T14:55:49-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/15/145549/",
    "syndication": [
        "https://fed.brid.gy/"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "How public should social media be? How social should public websites be? It\u2019s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!\nThis Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for July 8th - 14th, 2023.\nhttps://martymcgui.re/2023/07/15/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--july-8th---14th-2023/",
        "html": "<p>How public should social media be? How social should public websites be? It\u2019s your &lt; 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!</p>\n<p>This Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for July 8th - 14th, 2023.\n<a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/15/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--july-8th---14th-2023/\">https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/15/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--july-8th---14th-2023/</a></p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38360295",
    "_source": "175"
}

Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

This Week in the IndieWeb Audio Edition • July 8th - 14th, 2023

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-15T14:53:20-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/15/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--july-8th---14th-2023/",
    "category": [
        "podcast",
        "IndieWeb",
        "this-week-indieweb-podcast"
    ],
    "audio": [
        "https://media.martymcgui.re/de/c0/0b/69/c5f4a43e11acd0358113adce46641080e6a76e26a87c88c2c9934130.mp3"
    ],
    "name": "This Week in the IndieWeb Audio Edition \u2022 July 8th - 14th, 2023",
    "content": {
        "text": "Show/Hide Transcript\n    \n  How public should social media be? How social should public websites be? It\u2019s the audio edition for This Week in the IndieWeb for July 8th - 14th, 2023.\nYou can find all of my audio editions and subscribe with your favorite podcast app here: martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/.\nMusic from Aaron Parecki\u2019s 100DaysOfMusic project: Day 85 - Suit, Day 48 - Glitch, Day 49 - Floating, Day 9, and Day 11\nThanks to everyone in the IndieWeb chat for their feedback and suggestions. Please drop me a note if there are any changes you\u2019d like to see for this audio edition!",
        "html": "Show/Hide Transcript\n    \n  <p>How public should social media be? How social should public websites be? It\u2019s the audio edition for <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/this-week/2023-07-14.html\">This Week in the IndieWeb for July 8th - 14th, 2023</a>.</p>\n<p>You can find all of my audio editions and subscribe with your favorite podcast app here: <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/\">martymcgui.re/podcasts/indieweb/</a>.</p>\n<p>Music from <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/\">Aaron Parecki</a>\u2019s <a href=\"https://100.aaronparecki.com/\">100DaysOfMusic project</a>: <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/03/15/14/day85\">Day 85 - Suit</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/02/06/7/day48\">Day 48 - Glitch</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2017/02/07/4/day49\">Day 49 - Floating</a>, <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2016/12/29/21/day-9\">Day 9</a>, and <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2016/12/31/15/\">Day 11</a></p>\n<p>Thanks to everyone in the <a href=\"https://chat.indieweb.org/\">IndieWeb chat</a> for their feedback and suggestions. Please drop me a note if there are any changes you\u2019d like to see for this audio edition!</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "audio",
    "_id": "38360296",
    "_source": "175"
}

fluffy beesbuzz.biz

Music posting for July 15

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-15T14:12:09-07:00",
    "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/3274-Music-posting-for-July-15",
    "name": "Music posting for July 15",
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy",
        "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
        "photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38360148",
    "_source": "2778"
}

fluffy beesbuzz.biz

Music rediscoveries for July 12

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-12T20:35:52-07:00",
    "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/6789-Music-rediscoveries-for-July-12",
    "name": "Music rediscoveries for July 12",
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy",
        "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
        "photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38321169",
    "_source": "2778"
}

Video: Lan Su Chinese Garden for Father's Day WOW!

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Jared White",
        "url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://jaredwhite.com/videos/20230710/portland-vlog-lan-su-chinese-garden-for-fathers-day-wow",
    "published": "2023-07-10T19:39:07+00:00",
    "content": {
        "html": "<img alt=\"\" src=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/mariposta/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_65/father_s_day_lan_su_qyuywr.jpg\" /><p>For Father's Day, the kids \"treated\" me to a wonderful excursion to Lan Su Chinese Garden, a treasure of downtown Portland which exhibits one of the most authentic gardens outside of China itself. Enjoy the magnificent sights!</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/videos/20230710/portland-vlog-lan-su-chinese-garden-for-fathers-day-wow\">Watch the Video Here</a></p>",
        "text": "For Father's Day, the kids \"treated\" me to a wonderful excursion to Lan Su Chinese Garden, a treasure of downtown Portland which exhibits one of the most authentic gardens outside of China itself. Enjoy the magnificent sights!\nWatch the Video Here"
    },
    "name": "Video: Lan Su Chinese Garden for Father's Day WOW!",
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38317387",
    "_source": "2783"
}

Threads and Mastodon

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-12T07:01:42-07:00",
    "url": "https://nadreck.me/2023/07/threads-and-mastodon/",
    "category": [
        "social-computing",
        "social-media"
    ],
    "name": "Threads and Mastodon",
    "content": {
        "text": "I\u2019ll shush on this soon, as I\u2019m sure y\u2019all either are already getting flooded with thinkpieces about this, or don\u2019t care about the topic that much. But before I move on to other things, a nice article by Watts Martin: \u201cYou\u2019re So Vain, You Probably Think This App Is About You: On Meta and Mastodon\u201d The gist is that a lot of the hand-wringing about Threads (and more specifically, Meta) joining the Fediverse and mucking it up is probably overblown.\n\n\n\n\nHow can I say that so confidently? Because Threads is\u00a0not\u00a0a Mastodon instance. It is its own self-contained, centralized social network with plans to let its users follow Mastodon accounts and vice versa.\n\n\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\n\nSo, on one hand: a billion users who accept Instagram showing them ads, algorithm-jamming their timelines and hoovering up as much personally identifiable information about them as they can. On the other: two or three million users on an explicitly anti-corporate platform engineered to be highly resistant to leaking private data. I dare you to make a convincing business case for Facebook spending a\u00a0single cent\u00a0trying to capture a fraction of the second group, when it\u2019s\u00a0less than a percent\u00a0the size of the first group.\nWatts Martin\n\n\n\n\nI\u2019m inclined to agree\u2026 mostly. I think them even announcing plans to support ActivityPub was a red herring, a way to hedge their bets in case they didn\u2019t get the immediate traction they were hoping for. (And as Watts points out in their piece, it looks good to regulators.) Since they did get the rapid adoption going, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if that feature quietly drops off their roadmap entirely. And honestly, that\u2019s fine \u2013 I didn\u2019t really expect them to keep it open for very long anyway, so if it never opens up in the first place, the end result is the same.\n\n\n\nI do also agree with Watts that mastodon instance admins being reactionary and defederating Threads before it even opens is overkill \u2013 silencing them so they don\u2019t end up flooding your Federated tab and killing your server is probably plenty.\n\n\n\n\nThe truly toxic idea, though, is that Mastodon instances should not only refuse to federate with Threads, but they should refuse to federate with other servers that\u00a0do\u00a0federate with Threads. In other words, users should be punished for decisions they have no control over and\u00a0may not even be aware of,\u00a0made by the administrators of servers\u00a0they don\u2019t belong to.\u00a0I am dead serious when I call this toxic. The default position must,\u00a0must,\u00a0be that breaking your users\u2019 social graphs is a last resort against clear and present danger. A server explicitly welcomes Nazis, child porn, TERFs, and serial harassers? Block that fucker. But it\u2019s absurd to insist that federating with Meta\u2019s general-interest server presents the same threat level.\nWatts Martin",
        "html": "<p>I\u2019ll shush on this soon, as I\u2019m sure y\u2019all either are already getting flooded with thinkpieces about this, or don\u2019t care about the topic that much. But before I move on to other things, a nice article by Watts Martin: \u201c<a href=\"https://micro.coyotetracks.org/2023/07/10/youre-so-vain.html\">You\u2019re So Vain, You Probably Think This App Is About You: On Meta and Mastodon</a>\u201d The gist is that a lot of the hand-wringing about Threads (and more specifically, Meta) joining the Fediverse and mucking it up is probably overblown.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>How can I say that so confidently? Because Threads is\u00a0<em>not</em>\u00a0a Mastodon instance. It is its own self-contained, centralized social network with plans to let its users follow Mastodon accounts and vice versa.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[\u2026]</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, on one hand: a billion users who accept Instagram showing them ads, algorithm-jamming their timelines and hoovering up as much personally identifiable information about them as they can. On the other: two or three million users on an explicitly anti-corporate platform engineered to be highly resistant to leaking private data. I dare you to make a convincing business case for Facebook spending a\u00a0<em>single cent</em>\u00a0trying to capture a fraction of the second group, when it\u2019s\u00a0<em>less than a percent</em>\u00a0the size of the first group.</p>\nWatts Martin\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m inclined to agree\u2026 mostly. I think them even announcing plans to support ActivityPub was a red herring, a way to hedge their bets in case they didn\u2019t get the immediate traction they were hoping for. (And as Watts points out in their piece, it looks good to regulators.) Since they <em>did</em> get the rapid adoption going, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if that feature quietly drops off their roadmap entirely. And honestly, that\u2019s fine \u2013 I didn\u2019t really expect them to keep it open for very long anyway, so if it never opens up in the first place, the end result is the same.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I do also agree with Watts that mastodon instance admins being reactionary and defederating Threads before it even opens is overkill \u2013 silencing them so they don\u2019t end up flooding your Federated tab and killing your server is probably <em>plenty</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>The truly toxic idea, though, is that Mastodon instances should not only refuse to federate with Threads, but they should refuse to federate with other servers that\u00a0<em>do</em>\u00a0federate with Threads. In other words, users should be punished for decisions they have no control over and\u00a0<em>may not even be aware of,</em>\u00a0made by the administrators of servers\u00a0<em>they don\u2019t belong to.</em>\u00a0I am dead serious when I call this toxic. The default position must,\u00a0<em>must,</em>\u00a0be that breaking your users\u2019 social graphs is a last resort against clear and present danger. A server explicitly welcomes Nazis, child porn, TERFs, and serial harassers? Block that fucker. But it\u2019s absurd to insist that federating with Meta\u2019s general-interest server presents the same threat level.</p>\nWatts Martin\n</blockquote>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Nadreck",
        "url": "http://nadreck.me",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38311510",
    "_source": "2935"
}

Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-11T19:30:34-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/11/193034/",
    "category": [
        "Caturday"
    ],
    "video": [
        "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmarty/video/upload/vc_h264/mmmgre/30/77/37/20/b8bcdac7001703073ac0cc4cdd550470bdf04cc299a762a39fe808c5.mov"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Are you waking up to eternal Caturday?",
        "html": "<p>Are you waking up to eternal Caturday?</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "video",
    "_id": "38305206",
    "_source": "175"
}

Marty McGuire martymcgui.re

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-11T19:29:14-0400",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2023/07/11/192914/",
    "category": [
        "Caturday"
    ],
    "video": [
        "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmarty/video/upload/vc_h264/mmmgre/07/b1/42/42/7285513970370eccae3e28f131786509849006e744949935876c8ea0.mov"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Are you too sleepy to report for eternal Caturday?",
        "html": "<p>Are you too sleepy to report for eternal Caturday?</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "video",
    "_id": "38305207",
    "_source": "175"
}

fluffy beesbuzz.biz

Music as a salve

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-11T17:45:25-07:00",
    "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/527-Music-as-a-salve",
    "name": "Music as a salve",
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy",
        "url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
        "photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "38304454",
    "_source": "2778"
}

Enshittification (and what to do about it)

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-11T07:41:21-07:00",
    "url": "https://nadreck.me/2023/07/enshittification-and-what-to-do-about-it/",
    "category": [
        "links",
        "quotes",
        "social-computing",
        "cory-doctorow",
        "enshittification",
        "social-media",
        "technology"
    ],
    "name": "Enshittification (and what to do about it)",
    "content": {
        "text": "A while back, Cory Doctorow had an article that made the rounds called \u201cTiktok\u2019s Enshittification\u201c, and then a follow-up called \u201cGig apps trap reverse centaurs in wage-stealing Skinner boxes\u201c, both of which are well worth the time to read. I\u2019m fairly certain that\u2019s where the term \u201censhittification\u201d was coined, and damn if it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense:\n\n\n\n\nHere is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.\n\n\n\nI call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a \u201ctwo sided market,\u201d where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, holding each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.\nCory Doctorow, \u201cTiktok\u2019s Enshittification\u201c\n\n\n\n\n Continue reading \u201cEnshittification (and what to do about it)\u201d",
        "html": "<p>A while back, Cory Doctorow had an article that made the rounds called \u201c<a href=\"https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys\">Tiktok\u2019s Enshittification</a>\u201c, and then a follow-up called \u201c<a href=\"https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men\">Gig apps trap reverse centaurs in wage-stealing Skinner boxes</a>\u201c, both of which are well worth the time to read. I\u2019m fairly certain that\u2019s where the term \u201censhittification\u201d was coined, and damn if it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a \u201ctwo sided market,\u201d where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, holding each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.</p>\nCory Doctorow, \u201c<a href=\"https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys\">Tiktok\u2019s Enshittification</a>\u201c\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n <a href=\"https://nadreck.me/2023/07/enshittification-and-what-to-do-about-it/#more-11686\">Continue reading<span> \u201cEnshittification (and what to do about it)\u201d</span></a>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Nadreck",
        "url": "http://nadreck.me",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38295495",
    "_source": "2935"
}

Jonathan LaCour cleverdevil.io/profile/cleverdevil

Happy 15th birthday, App Store

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-11T04:26:20+00:00",
    "url": "https://cleverdevil.io/2023/happy-15th-birthday-app-store",
    "photo": [
        "https://cleverdevil.io/file/66e5529c4f67d11c396afbd6c1021308/thumb.png",
        "https://cleverdevil.io/file/7216d0464d47d8fdbbeeb140589d01f1/thumb.png"
    ],
    "syndication": [
        "https://cleverdevil.club/@jonathan/110693553817736889"
    ],
    "name": "Happy 15th birthday, App Store",
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jonathan LaCour",
        "url": "https://cleverdevil.io/profile/cleverdevil",
        "photo": "https://cleverdevil.io/file/e37c3982acf4f0a8421d085b9971cd71/thumb.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "photo",
    "_id": "38289910",
    "_source": "10"
}

gRegor Morrill gregorlove.com

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-09 21:27-0700",
    "url": "https://gregorlove.com/2023/07/joey-needs-400-more/",
    "category": [
        "SanDiego",
        "MutualAid"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Joey needs $400 more by the end of July for the process of becoming a US citizen. Please donate as you\u2019re able and help boost this request \u2014 any amount helps! https://gofund.me/49764bb6 #SanDiego #MutualAid",
        "html": "<p>Joey needs $400 more by the end of July for the process of becoming a US citizen. Please donate as you\u2019re able and help boost this request \u2014 any amount helps! <a href=\"https://gofund.me/49764bb6\">https://gofund.me/49764bb6</a> <a href=\"https://gregorlove.com/#SanDiego\">#SanDiego</a> <a href=\"https://gregorlove.com/#MutualAid\">#MutualAid</a></p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "gRegor Morrill",
        "url": "https://gregorlove.com/",
        "photo": "https://gregorlove.com/site/assets/files/6268/profile-2021-square.300x0.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38282729",
    "_source": "95"
}

Site Updates

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2023-07-10T07:54:36-07:00",
    "url": "https://nadreck.me/2023/07/site-updates/",
    "category": [
        "errata",
        "gallery",
        "photography",
        "site-improvement"
    ],
    "name": "Site Updates",
    "content": {
        "text": "Two things, only one of which is probably relevant to you:\n\n\n\nI\u2019ve migrated my gallery into WordPress. It currently is just the work that was in my old gallery, but I\u2019ll be adding new stuff going forward. (It\u2019s also linked to in the nav bar at the top of the page!)\n\n\n\nI\u2019ve made some behind-the-scenes tweaks, how image attachment pages work, and also added a plugin for improving how the WordPress media library works (FileBird is what I landed on, will explain my thoughts on it all below the cut). If you notice any broken links or odd behavior, please let me know!\nContinue reading \u201cSite Updates\u201d",
        "html": "<p>Two things, only one of which is probably relevant to you:</p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>I\u2019ve <a href=\"https://nadreck.me/gallery/\">migrated my gallery into WordPress</a>. It currently is just the work that was in my old gallery, but I\u2019ll be adding new stuff going forward. (It\u2019s also linked to in the nav bar at the top of the page!)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>I\u2019ve made some behind-the-scenes tweaks, how image attachment pages work, and also added a plugin for improving how the WordPress media library works (FileBird is what I landed on, will explain my thoughts on it all below the cut). If you notice any broken links or odd behavior, please let me know!</li>\n</ol><a href=\"https://nadreck.me/2023/07/site-updates/#more-11676\">Continue reading<span> \u201cSite Updates\u201d</span></a>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Nadreck",
        "url": "http://nadreck.me",
        "photo": null
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "38278829",
    "_source": "2935"
}