Notices by Mitch Wagner (mitchw@mastodon.social)

I will get kicked out of the Apple nerd club for saying this: Usually, I write reports in Markdown and convert them to Word before submitting to my editors. But I’ve been writing a report in Microsoft Word today, and it’s fine. It’s easier than converting, which always needs a lot of manual fixing.

Instead of defending American consumers and small businesses, Trump and his allies are going after the imaginary threats of "wokeness" and DEI. Trump will prosecute predatory businesses, but only those who oppose him. Businesses that support Trump will be free to lie, cheat and steal.

Cory Doctorow @pluralistic has more.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/24/enforcement-priorities/

@pluralistic Sounds familiar. I don't remember much about the event but I remember thinking you both did a good job of steel-man-ing the opposing side.

@pluralistic I remember around 2007-ish you did a steel-man role-reversal presentation at a tech conference here in San Diego — you argued for DRM and a Microsoft rep argued against it.

Jules Feiffer, a 'smartass' Jew whose work spanned comics and cinema, dies at 95 https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/690640/jules-feiffer-cartoonist-obituary-village-voice-carnal-knowledge/

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Why social platforms enshittify: Sure, social platforms value profit above everything — but they always have. What changed? Answer: The guardrails are off. By Cory Doctorow @pluralistic. https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/capitalist-unrealism/#praxis

Father and son, ca 1910 https://reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/comments/1i0omg3/father_and_son_ca_1910/

 “The Brave Little Toaster.” A delicious, dark dystopian science fiction short-short story by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic. https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/08/sirius-cybernetics-corporation/

"This is how nations decline. You don’t always turn into Nazi Germany. You turn into Russia, or Hungary, or other creaky and corrupt strongman states where everything is kind of a scam and everyone is hustling to please the gangster in charge. That, my friends, is the path we are on here.

America’s basic problem is that we have an economic system that concentrates great wealth in few hands and we have a political system in ... https://mitchw.blog/2025/01/05/this-is-how-nations-decline.html

Wedding in Romania, 1930.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/7htyxc/wedding_in_romania_1930/

@TonyJWells @cstross I checked him out on the IMDB. I suspect he's big in the UK, but not the US. Which is OK.

@TonyJWells @cstross The trailer looks great — we're looking forward to the movie. Richard E. Grant is not a name I recognize, so it's time for me to hit the IMDB.

@sjvn Until this year I thought Automattic was great and Matt was a wonderful person and now I think he's gone nuts and he's taking Automattic and the Wordpress ecosystem down with him.

@sjvn Until this WP Engine incident, I had enormous respect for him. I thought he was the one good centimillionaire. Now, I see Automattic as a company that it simply not safe to do business with.

I don't mean this for ethical or principled reasons. I mean, they're a company that cannot be relied on.

I don't use WP but I use Day One for journaling, and I was considering Pocket Casts for podcasts but decided I don't want to waste time on a product when I have no faith in the company.

@sjvn I am at this point seriously reconsidering using *any* Automattic software.

Since I upgraded to Apple Intelligence a couple of days ago, it has twice started talking to me while I’m wearing my AirPods and conversing with an actual person. I was on a videoconference with my boss’s boss this afternoon, and the AirPods started talking and would not shut up. This is highly annoying at best and it potentially made me look like an idiot in front of someone who signs my paycheck. Utter failure on the part of Apple product design; I am highly dissatisfied.

@cstross I liked Teresa Nielsen Hayden's advice for generating story ideas: Find an online list of sf/fantasy cliches and mix two together. For example, alien invasion and elfs/dragons.

Kennedy’s lawyer has asked the FDA to revoke approval of the polio vaccine. A suicide cult is being put in charge of US health policy. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hE4.HGLa.dMZ9ORHCDjpZ&smid=url-share

JOB INTERVIEWER: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
ME:

In Japan, takkyu-bin services conveniently forward your luggage to your destination. h/t @pluralistic https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-japanese-luggage-forwarding-edition-20b