Notices by Steven D. Brewer 🏳️‍⚧️ (stevendbrewer@wandering.shop)

I wonder if Iran will strike mainland United States. I've heard the media speculating about Iran hitting US bases in the middle east, but I don't see why Iran wouldn't hit the US directly, if they could. I don't know what their capabilities are. Or what missile defenses the US may have deployed. If they did, I think a lot of people would be surprised.

The contact form on my website is basically only ever filled out by robots, so I added a checkbox that says, "I am a robot. Only check this box if you are a robot." https://stevendbrewer.com/contact-me/

Robots appear to find it irresistible.

Thirty years ago, I read William Greider's book "One World Ready or Not" that presciently described many of the consequences that trade with China would entail. One of his primary concerns was that the Chinese government could skim many of the profits that the West allowed corporations to skim. The net result was that they enriched the state while we enriched the wealthy. China built infrastructure (like high-speed rail) while billionaires bought yachts and helicopters and politicians.

Cybersecurity boxer prevents unauthorized computer access. #DogsOfMastodon

@evan If you have one persona, you don't have personae.

The Trump administration is withdrawing funding for scientific research. I have a suggestion for my colleagues: Every minute that you are unable to conduct your research, you should devote to public advocacy in support of higher education. https://stevendbrewer.com/a-suggestion-for-my-colleagues/ #science #research #HigherEducation

The real trolley problem is finding and stopping the ones who keep tying people to tracks.

@quinn @dansinker My brother @philipbrewer has an oura ring.

@cstross But where does my sapphic romantasy fit in that? 😉

@cstross What *I* want is an AI agent to hammer a company's phone tree until it gets a human on the line, puts them on hold, rings me, and then connects us.

I've decided to create a filter so posts containing the string "Trump" and "DJT" appear behind a content warning. But I made the mistake of naming the filter "trump" which meant I saw "Filtered by: trump" in my feed over and over again. So I changed it to be named "that fucker". Much better!

So *that's* how he did it!

@doctormo @jwildeboer I saw someone tell RMS that he "had to" use non-free software for his job, and Stallman said (unironically) that they were making an economic choice and they could make a different choice to use Free Software. I think this is the kind of privilege that raises problems. People have real lives and it's unrealistic for most people to refuse to use non-free software when the reality is that they have to pay rent and buy food.

Someone has a chew, and all is right with the world. #DogsOfMastodon

@Woodswalked @Melissabeartrix Back in the day, I had a friend who used SCSI drives and would frequently hot-swap the connections.

"You're supposed power those off before swapping the connection," I said.

"Yeah, I know they *say* that," he said. "But I've never had a problem."

About a year later, I saw him again and he was powering everything off before swapping the connection.

"Oh!" I said. "I notice you're powering those off before swapping them out now."

He grimaced. "Yeah."

@Melissabeartrix I first encountered transgender people more than forty years ago and, got to know several well more than thirty years ago. But I would not have seen myself authoring fiction with a trans protagonist until after I had very close friends who were trans more recently. So, although I accepted trans people before, my understanding has undoubtedly deepened over the last twenty years.

"Have you seen 'the Tick'?"
"What? Do you mean like the superhero?"
"Well, I don't know about superhero. Look. There."
"Omigod. It is a tick."
"Isn't he dreamy?"
"No. It's a tick."
"What? Are you prejudiced against ticks?"
"Well, yes."
"Why?"
"Ticks are parasites!"
"Now you're just being pejorative. What has a tick ever done to you?"
"Ticks have literally sucked my blood. Without consent."
"Oh, sure. Some ticks may have done that, but not all ticks."
"I don't care. I hate ticks."
"Tick hater."

@JasonThorne Hydro pole?

@liztai My only comment is that I'm extremely unlikely to visit anything hosted on substack.

@taur10 @sfwrtr I started using Libreoffice when it was still Star Office. Every year or two, I see people cursing because the interface for Word has changed and become less useful & more confusing. Lately, it's like Clippy took over and unless Clippy thinks you're trying to "write a letter," you can forget it because the tools you need to write a letter aren't even visible. Libreoffice, on the other hand, has basically the same interface as it did back then. Oh, Libreoffice… Never change!