Notices by Tim Bray (timbray@cosocial.ca)

Not quite what I had in mind while working on getting HTTP 451 blessed, but appropriate:
https://aphyr.com/posts/379-geoblocking-the-uk-with-debian-nginx

I suppose most people have seen this: https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb

Follow-up question: Anyone out there with hands-on experience for de-DRM-ing downloaded books on MacOS? There seem to be a few tools out there, all a little on the sketchy side. I could do this on Linux if the tools are better there.

These stories about US AID, if true, are making me sick. This is the kind of evil that will be written down in history books with weighty commentary advising the reader not to try to understand it, because it’s inexplicable and unforgivable.

#USpol

@atomicpoet @tsadilas Also, there's a technology problem that makes the attackers invisible. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/07/30/Invisible-Attackers

Just discovered the Fediverse’s best hashtag: #asstodon

I’m in. Here are some lovely beasts at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Dorset, which is a first-rate tourist spot if you get anywhere near.

Authors Guild Launches “Human Authored” Certification to Preserve Authenticity in Literature: https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-launches-human-authored-certification-to-preserve-authenticity-in-literature/

(there’s an echo in here)

Wow, Krugman slams the door behind him, much respect. https://contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-the-new-york-times

Jeepers. Out of the blue, from Adobe, notice that. my Photography apps monthly subscription is going up by a freaking 53.88%. On the one hand, I love Lightroom. On the other, this is also the same company that recently recommended canceling your next photo shoot because AI will make the pictures. I don’t even mind paying for software by subscription, but this feels super abusive. Investigating options…

#adobe

Progressives need to the face the fact that they’re in a minority, that the ways they explain their positions are failing, and that that failure is their problem, not their audience’s. Here’s my rant on how to explain better: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/01/22/In-The-Minority

#USpol #cdnpoli

This is the best thing anyone has turned up in response to my “is 4K really beneficial?” post. Would *really* like to hear confirmation (or otherwise) from an Apple insider who knows what’s really actually going on.

https://mastodon.social/@elharo/113868028426076482

Yow, just ran across video of Elon’s Nazi Salute episode and no, he wasn't caught in an unfortunate position, he Sieg Heil’ed to the front of the stage and then turned 180° and Sieg Heil’ed the lucky people in that direction. It was explicitly Nazi and any news organization that doesn’t describe it as such is committing severe malpractice.

@evan @mick @GottaLaff @emd @coop @johannab We’d be honored to have ya, Laffy. We’re a BC-registered nonprofit co-operative, residents of Canada only. Built for sustainability. Warning: Not free, a big $50/year.

Ah, that fresh Prairie air!

This week I’m in Saskatchewan helping out my 94-year old Mom while her support system is on vacation. I've been doing all the shopping/cooking/cleaning. This afternoon I was busy and when I went to the kitchen she'd set up dinner all by herself and put it in the oven. When it was ready I was watching football and she said “why don’t I bring the food in here?” and dinner was just fine.

So, here’s a toast to my mother Jean Bray, born in May 1930, still taking care of me sometimes.

Question about 4K: I have a monster 77" TV with a Mac mini (among other things) plugged in, and even at that size, the full 3840 x 2160 is unusable unless you’re sitting close enough to get face-burn, and neck damage from head-swiveling.

So in basically every situation, full 4K resolution is not usable. So why aren’t we all buying 1920x1080 screens like we did ten years ago? Is the fact that 4K looks crisper to my eyes just a placebo effect?

I suspect I’m missing something obvious…

Just to reassure people saying a 77" monitor is crazy: They’re right, it’s just a TV, used mostly for TV purposes. But it's got a Mac plugged in too because there are lots of nice TV-like things besides accessed through a real first-class browser. My actual monitor is a bog-standard 27" (also not running anywhere near native).

In which I consider the announcements from Mastodon and Bluesky-adjacent “Free Our Feeds”, both surfacing on the 13th, concerning fundraising and governance measures for the worlds of ActivityPub and ATProto: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/01/14/Protocol-Churn

#bluesky #fediverse

@anildash I'm a little cynical about announcements of fundraising *targets* but still, the important take-away is that a lot of people have noticed that social networking as a commercial product really doesn’t have an interesting future, it’s time to build out alternatives.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/

Stuck my head into IMDB for the first time in a while and maybe I'm just paranoid but I think there's a pervasive LLM stench in the reviews.