Notices by Matthew Haughey (mathowie@xoxo.zone), page 2

I wonder if that US copyright office exemption on right to repair for the McFlurry machines that were broken all across America can be also be used to let farmers finally hack on their John Deere tractors that came with harsh DRM inside them.

For anyone that reads my blog, guess what showed up in today's mail? Yet another fresh Jeep recall notice! 🎉

Despite the different crowds and their behavior on each network, from the writing side of things here's how they rank:

Mastodon: 500 characters (but you can post thousands if you really wanted to), it's all hidden behind read-more links in most clients.

❤️ UNLIMITED EDITING OF YOUR POSTS!

Bluesky: 300 characters with zero editing, ever.

Threads: 500 characters but zero editing, ever.

Mastodon still wins by a mile for writers

Every network lets you tweak who can see your posts, whether they're mutual friends or not, but only Bluesky lets you limit who can reply to your posts, which is really handy and something I wish Mastodon would build already.

I spent the past week using Croissant to post identical toots to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads all at once.

Summary:

1. Mastodon: works as is—friends laugh at my dumb stuff, a few randos painfully explain my joke back to me

2. Bluesky: you get 2 likes or 200, no in-between.

3. Threads: my posts got 5 views or 5,000 views, no in-between. Also: context collapse as bad as 2018 Twitter with dozens of randos screaming at me how I'm wrong and I'm an asshole. Humorless.

I feel like Threads is by far the most cursed social network because it's based on the Facebook/Instagram backend. Threads seems good at taking something 40 of your friends got a chuckle out of, and beaming that to someone on the other side of the country that doesn't know who you are or what your deal is and is super fucking pissed off about it.

I used to be bummed that Mastodon was only a slice of my friends that used to follow me on Twitter, too many old friends were missing out.

They're mostly on Bluesky, but there's so much politics there it feels like 2012 Twitter.

A few misguided friends only use Threads, and I still don't understand why. They're trying to build the giant public square at Threads and if Twitter has taught us anything it's that smaller communities work better than one giant feed pile for the entire world.

Sports gambling in the US felt like a minor aspect of sports until it became legal everywhere—then—holy shit, every ad on tv, special bets mentioned by announcers before games, even the new Apple Sports app tells me the betting odds on a women’s pro soccer match.

It’s all gross and I’m old enough to know better than to ever waste money on a sports bet but fuck, if I was 22 and stupid as I was then, I’d probably lose so much money on sports betting apps.

The worst aspect of sports gambling is it seems like a skill you could “beat” and not pure chance but The House Always Wins.

Sometimes you get off at a random exit in Kentucky, take a look around, then get back on the freeway quickly

@annika woot! Thanks for doing this!

I’ve always lived on the west coast so when east coast friends told me years ago that Market Street in most cities is named for slave markets I’d be like “what?! but every town has one!” and they’d say “yep”

Anyway, this sign is 100’ from Louisville’s Market St

when I was a little kid in the late 70s once every few months this graphic would pop up on TV and you’d know it was a lucky moment because you were about to watch a cartoon special at 8pm instead of your parents’ favorite doctors and cops shows

sure coffee is great but have you ever started your day with 56 failed logins on your Microsoft account in the last eight hours? THAT'S a wake up call.

My spouse saw this local right wing politician’s sign and asked what the heck it meant and since I’m too online I said it’s coded language to local gun owners. It’s the last four words of the 2nd amendment. This person is telling supporters she won’t enforce any gun laws in our county if elected.

Personally I’m a huge fan of the first four words of the 2nd amendment: “A *well regulated* Militia”

My new response to every invite

This is what true love looks like.

Today's our 24th wedding anniversary and when you wake someone up and say what do you want to do for our anniversary? and she says let's go to that place with great hash browns you know you've picked the right person to spend time with.

I’m trying to refill two prescriptions this week and I’ve already wasted 4-5 hours on phone calls to various offices, MyChart private messages, and visits to Rite Aid and I am still out of pills.

The idea of anyone getting free surgery and all associated recovery for it in the USA is preposterous

@feld

trump is making up stories about “transgender surgery is being done on illegal immigrants” but honestly, can you imagine *anyone* in America getting completely free healthcare with no copay, no one responsible for 50% that isn’t covered, no need for five referrals first?

His tales are completely laughable to anyone that’s ever spent any time in the US.