Notices by Ryan Singel (ryansingel@writing.exchange), page 2

I still think the most under-reported, most holy shit tech story of the last 5+ years is how good e-bikes have gotten and how much more affordable a decent e-bike has become.

E-cars and trucks are a nice change but mostly meh. E-bikes, tho? They are magic.

They deserve subsidies and way more press attention.

@dneary @evan Repo Man

@evan
@dangillmor

BRAG LOUDLY!

And then say that you know my private and unlisted email address ryan@outpost.pub and for them to say Evan sent you which will get them hooked up (truth!)

@dangillmor
If anyone knows how to contact him, I'd love to pitch him on something better

I spent a good 30 minutes today trying to figure out why no videos would play for longer than 2 seconds on the Android. Closed apps, restarted phone, cleared caches, made sacrifices to tech deities both major and minor.

Finally disconnected Google Buds Pro from Bluetooth and that was it. The "transparency" setting on those headphones is so sensitive the tiniest noise was stopping video playback

I feel both dumb and angry. Which is about right for Gen X

Thank you for coming to my anti-TED Talk

This is always what #Substack has been.

Marc Andreesen pouring $85M in funding to Substack was the original Musk buying Twitter. It was an extension of his idea to build his own publication because he hated tech media.

It’s always been a grievance play, funded by white guy VC grievers, and run by a white guy griever.

@caseynewton is moving Platformer to the open-source Ghost membership CMS from Substack over its awful moderation

Glad to see more folks moving to an indie platform.

I founded Outpost.pub 2.5 years on the belief Ghost (open source, non-profit) is the future for membership-driven publishing, and that our co-op model for power services for Ghost publishers would succeed where VC $ floundered.

Still a long way to go but sticking with this bet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/11/substack-platformer-nazis/

Almost every day, I think about this story about Brown University throwing out dorm air filters en masse into a dumpster

Wanting a pandemic to be over so hard that you throw out clean air machines and paper towels. Could not even bother to donate them

#covid #AirQuality

Want to reduce household illness? Get a decent air filter.

Having people over to your house? Use a decent air filter.

Have a classroom full of kids? Use an air filter.

They work and are cheap.

https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/10/inconvenient-wasteful-frustrating-students-react-to-removal-of-paper-towels-air-purifiers-from-on-campus-housing

Indie creators ditching one VC-funded company for another one thinking it'll be different this time. It won't be. The incentives remain the same.

LiveJournal was a trap
Medium was a trap
Patreon is a trap
Substack is a trap
Etsy became a trap
Beehiiv...

The difference this time is that there are real indie alternatives

Ghost
WordPress
Transistor.fm
Fediverse
Outpost.pub (self plug)
Buttondown
And more

The hacienda must be built

#SubstackMigration #Substack

If you publish via #Substack and are looking to move to an indie platform, our publishers cooperative Outpost.pub can help.

We help power sites like 404 Media, Tangle, and The Lever.

We support sites using Ghost, an open source CMS.

Drop a note at support@outpost.pub for details

At the radiology clinic in Kaiser in Oakland. Only one tech because all the rest are sick. Staff not masking. Patients, including those clearly sick and coughing, not masking either.

Love being "post-pandemic".

Even if you don't wear a mask anywhere else, my god, put one on in a hospital full of sick people.

@ernie
It should but maybe these writers should use a different platform?

The Dutch are using AI to street shame the rest of the world

https://dutchcyclinglifestyle.com/

Here's a stretch of Telegraph in Oakland that's perfect for getting that treatment

Try it yourself

I appreciate the Washington Post story from Michael Coren on how to replace a car with an e-bike, but it's still stuck in car-centric thinking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/17/electric-bikes-cars-cost-testing/

E-bikes are electric vehicles.

E-bikes are the most popular electric vehicles.

E-bikes are the most revolutionary electric vehicles.

E-bikes rarely get subsidized, unlike giant e-cars and trucks, because lawmakers think of them as toys, not vehicles.

E-bikes are electric vehicles.

@feld
Because it's not about a profit. People care about the team being successful and tied to their community. Tying a profit motive in warps that.

For instance, if I think I'm getting a dividend or a return, I'm going to have a motive to support the team raising ticket and food prices, even if that's the opposite of what city residents want out of a team.

That's what is brilliant about the Packers model

@feld
That's exactly what I want. Maybe something with more community input, but with zero expectation of financial return and irrevocable commitment to staying in place

Oakland's soccer teams, Roots (mens) and Soul (women) are selling community shares through crowdfunding.

Opened yesterday and up to $1.3M

https://wefunder.com/oakland/

Not quite the Green Bay Packers model where community fully owns the team, and there's no profit motive in ownership, but close enough for my taste. I want to support, not profit.

This city deserves and clearly wants a team that's actually loyal. Looking at you Warriors, Raiders and A's.

#oakland

Your occasional reminder you'll probably never need a REAL ID driver's license to fly in the U.S., so skip going to the DMV with docs

For many people there are easier federal options, including a passport card. If you already have a passport, all you do is pay $35 and they mail it to you. It's a great ID w/o your address on it and isn't easily scannable for personal info at bars or restaurants.

And passports/cards are now not trans/non-binary hostile (finally)

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/selecting-your-gender-marker.html

#RealID

Seems a good time to introduce/remind folks of the Barbie Liberation Organization from early 1980s that hacked the media by switching out the computer chips between Barbie and GI Joe dolls, so that Barbie got to say Vengeance is Mine, while GI Joe dolls said stuff like Math is Hard

https://youtu.be/eMHMf9y-27w

#barbie

Full statement of Gigi Sohn on withdrawing her nomination to be an #FCC commissioner.

She's right. We all lost