evilstevie @evilstevie@mastod1.ddns.net

Hi Internet! I'm Drew and THIS IS MY FACE.

If this GIF has ever brought you joy in the past, I humbly ask you to consider making a donation to the National MS Society. It would mean a lot to me and to those I know affected by the disease!

Donate at https://BlinkingGuy.com

If you love ice cream and dystopian films / comics with fascist governments, may I recommend "V for Viennetta"?

Visiting Edinburgh properly for the first time and it's possibly the most gorgeous city I've been to. Admittedly it's a beautiful autumn afternoon, but damn

20 years ago, normal people avoided technology and techies would jump on the newest gadgets as soon as they could

now, normal people buy smart toasters & coffee mugs while every techie I know is on the verge of retreating to the forest

A quick boop of @mycrowgirl 's tussock moth caterpillars, as they weren't able to do it themselves due to the resulting unpleasant itch. My wee folk are helpfully immune.

Original photos: https://flipping.rocks/@mycrowgirl/115282240897767860

#sillyScribbles #boop #nonsense

Fun fact: The German word "fast" (pronounced like the English "fussed") means "almost".

We enjoy pointing this out when eating fast food.

#German #FastFood

#silentSunday #Scotland #photography

Hah, suddenly concerned I was repeating myself, but this seems to be the first time I've posted this particular photo. Another Harris silent Sunday trio here. It is a beautiful place.

https://things.uk/@eclectech/111912699800844514

#silentSunday #Scotland #photography

Ok, so the walk wasn't completely apocalyptic...

Duck Duck Go has added a tremendously useful feature to their search -- a permanent block. Any site can be added to a block list to never show up in any of your search results again.

I will be using this on any site that is obviously spitting out AI generated "articles."

The worst thing about being a parent in this day and age is needing to be 24 hour technical support for all of the accounts, passwords and devices.

@anon_opin it’s the same if you have older parents. It never stops.

Psst! Wanna buy a book? We have lots!
With so many great new books just out, our shelves are groaning! Stop by and take a look. We’re usually open Wednesday to Sunday, 10-4.30. #indiebookshop #localbookshop #readingisfundamental #booksbooksbooks

I mean who *doesn’t* play bagpipes on their cat? #TimelineCleanser

As I remember London

When I moved to the UK at the tail end of the last millennium, I wasn’t in a good place. I was hired by a US company to work in their German office, and they sent me over to the US to work on their product. I lived in a hotel for a few months, coming home to an empty, cleaned room every day. It was very “Lost in Translation”. The German part of the company went bankrupt during this trip, so I was asked to move to the UK to stay with them. Anglophile as I was, I took this opportunity and had a few trips in between the US and the UK to find a place to live.

My partner of five years also said they’d love to make that move with me and start a new chapter. That didn’t work out – I was dumped in a call on a pay phone in a hotel in San Francisco, went out and got really drunk. When the US stint ended, I went to London, checked into my new flat and waited for my stuff from Germany to arrive.

And then I plunged into London. I went clubbing a lot. I spent the day in the office and went to the pub with my colleagues in the evening. I enjoyed and fell in love with the place. I met people from all over the world, I dated people of many races and backgrounds. I had food I never had, I heard music and saw bands I’ve never heard of or even knew existed. I’ve been to Notting Hill Carnival, immersing myself in this wonderful, wild and colourful scene.

London opened my mind, it made me find the great in lots of cultures and seeing them bringing that to the UK lifestyle was at times a hilarious clash, but wonderful to witness. Very early on I realised one thing: being British is not the same as being a pasty white uptight person, Brits come in all shades and sizes. The most British person I know with a clipped accent, fierce devotion to the Royals and a fetish for a good cuppa is a gay friend who is dark Indian.

Working in Soho I got to know a lot of LGBTQ folk and a few of my colleagues came out or even changed gender during the time I worked there. And they got support from everyone, it wasn’t a problem or a scary thing. London was inviting, colourful, open and amazing. That’s the London I miss.

It’s a big city. In my 16 years tenure I had one laptop, a mobile and a bike stolen. I got into some fights and had three attempted muggings. All by white young dudes, by the way. I lived next to a huge mosque and the area two streets down was hard-core Jewish. My butcher was Algerian and when I ordered in French-ish, I got better prices. It worked.

Then UKIP came around and told people that everything is terrible and its all the forrins’ fault. And disappointed and disgruntled people believed that nonsense. I left the country after Brexit and moved to Berlin, which is great but does feel like a Tesco value version of the London I encountered.

So if people claim that they remember a safer, cleaner and racially homogenous London they either never lived there, or didn’t immerse themselves in it. Or completely talk out of their arse following an utterly different agenda, one that I find despicable, regressive and governed by fear and hate and not inclusion and inspiration.

ID cards are bad. Very bad.

1. Once they exist it will become necessary to always carry it. If you don't you must have something to hide, etc.
2. They can't stop people working in the 'black economy' because people currently employing those working for cash don't care.
3. It is another attack on trans and NB people (very unlikely someone would be allowed to have multiple IDs)
4. Massive data loss of personal information is highly likely.
5. Who pays? Why should they?
6. Police state becomes more likely with having your ID inspected whenever a copper wants to harass someone, especially POC.
7. OTHER OPTIONS ALREADY EXIST!

ID cards are a very bad, very dangerous, very expensive, and very risky idea.

ps I'm not a 'Brit'. I'm British, or more specifically English!
#IDcards #PoliceStateUK #BritCard

I use Tailscale for home purposes, mostly so I can access movies from other locations without having to deal with reverse proxies and security. It's great software. I'm just saying this as preface: I would recommend it to anyone looking for a remote networking solution.

Yesterday they sent out an email about various events they would have a presence at, general marketing stuff, mostly in tech hubs and cons. Nothing remarkable. One of the events was that they were sponsoring a family movie night with another company. The movie picked was Harry Potter, but most people don't care, and it's a fine family movie. I shrugged and moved on with my day. Life's too short to get pissed off about stuff like that.

Well, today they sent out an email apologizing for the choice of movie and promising to do better in future.

I'm not stanning a corp. I wish there were a decent open-source option (well, they're built atop the open-source option, but goddamn do they make it easier). But it was nice to see. In a world which has gone full-on transphobia and doesn't seem to think that Jowling Kowling Rowling is worthy of comment, I guess enough technical people who use Tailscale aren't assholes and complained, or who knows, maybe someone at the company pointed it out, but whatever the reason, they rethought the movie choice. And they didn't just do it, they apologized for it to everyone on their mailing list.

It's a small thing, but I thought I'd share it both to say that I will continue to use Tailscale because it really is good software, but also if you need a nice thing, I guess this is a nice thing.