Notices by Alda Vigdís (alda@topspicy.social)

@skinnylatte I have one twist on this.

In some countries, only the cheapest fare is deductible, so if you want to fly on business class, you would need a separate line on your invoice (or a separate invoice) before your auditor starts asking questions.

@Infoseepage Playing D&D with you must be really interesting.

@Infoseepage To make the exercise simple, this is in a vacuum at 20°C and G is equal to 9,81 m/s^2.

@Infoseepage It's at room temperature.

@skinnylatte There's a McSpicy?

@chris I guess this is one of perks of self employment.

But honestly, separating work, play and personal stuff between devices and even rooms has become an important factor for maintaining my own mental health, just like the good-old "no laptop in bed" rule. :)

@chris I bought my Android tablet for this kind of context switching and occasional work sessions on the train, cafés and such as my ThinkPad is more of a luggable workstation than a laptop.

Over time, I have resorted to using different Firefox profiles for work and personal purposes while the tablet is used by my parter to watch movies in bed.

@mahmoodhamod991 @aral That is the main dilemma that I have had. But having worked for UNRWA in Lebanon and seeing news and obituaries about former coworkers, this is currently how I choose to donate.

Even if UNRWA is not able to bring in supplies to Gaza and has been technically expelled by Israeli authorities, I am well aware of how that money is being spent in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

@mahmoodhamod991 @aral I am fully aware that this sounds harsh to you but I cannot individualise to a personal level beyond how things already are or my mental health and capacity to provide for myself will slip.

I have friends who live in Ain al-Hilweh and Dahieh over in Lebanon and this is how I choose to donate.

@mahmoodhamod991 @aral I completely agree with you there and this is why I'm very sceptical about any "3rd party" projects og NGOs from the outside or with little experience in Gaza or the West Bank being able to operate.

Let alone organisations that I have never heard of calling themselves "the premier NGO operating in Palestine".

This is why I have been recommending either UNRWA or Islamic Aid for those who don't think that supporting individuals directly is the way to go.

@aral My take on this, if I may, has been that if anyone is overwhelmed by multiple Gaza Verified individuals asking for direct contributions, then donating to UNRWA or your local UNRWA committee is an acceptable alternative.

@simon_brooke @raphaellakay @aral UNRWA keeps operating within Gaza despite supplies and international staff being blocked from entering.

This is why I am extremely sceptical about any other organisations and projects being able to deliver.

Furthermore, UNRWA operates in Palestine camps and settlements in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and maintains the genealogical information that would be super important in case of return being enabled.

@mahmoodhamod991 @HeatherMJ @simon_brooke @nusher @raphaellakay @aral This is what I fear is happening.

@dalias @futurebird As a former (specific language) Wikipedia bureaucrat who has since then attempted to contribute to things like OpenStreetMap only to have things overwritten by a bot within hours, I can tell you that this is a lot of people's first impression of the open source community.

@chris Honestly, I think titles in the software industry would be more grounded if everyone has had at least one or two jobs with a union-negotiated compensation matrix with your seniority (in years) on the x axis and your title on the y axis. :)

@chris I've had a very hard time with this, having worked in several different countries where titles seem to be earned in very different ways and it also clashes with management concepts in our industry, which in turn clash with the office culture in any given place.

Not to mention that if you're not used to military-style top-down management, then it gets very alien very quickly.

I honestly don't think developmen titles can even translate from workplace to workplace.

I would be happier about parcel delivery companies if they'd simply stop making up a delivery estimate beyond the date.

Let the driver use their local knowledge to plan the route.

Is my parcel coming on Saturday? — Fine, I'll stay home until the postie arrives.

Did you tell me they'd arrive between 11:37 and 12:43 and it's 13:30 at this point in time, with the live tracking disabled? — That annoys me to no end.

@chris all I want is for the fingerprint scanner to work out of the box and for my laptop to work for its intended purposes.

@chris IMO, there's a difference between hyping something like Omarchy and simply using something a mainstream distro like Fedora or Ubuntu despite any leadership issues they may or may not be dealing with.

Discovering new Linux distros is sorta like getting into a black metal or satanic folk metal act because it takes a while to see if its run by literal neonazis before you get into it properly.