The lurid world of Signal stickers

I like and use Signal, it’s a decent messaging app that prioritizes privacy and security. It has end-to-end encryption and all that good stuff. Most people will still use WhatsApp (or Facebook Messenger–both owned by the same company) and I accept that.

But the thing I like most about Signal are its weird, quirky stickers. Since it’s not run by a mega-corporation, a lot of the stickers have a sillier, less manufactured feel to them.

Also, a lot of nudity and sex, apparently.

The top four most viewed Signal stickers of all time are blurred out on the Signal stickers website because they are NSFW. The rest are cats and Rick Astley.

This is as accurate a summation of the world in 2023 as any.

One last look at social media for 2023

Here’s my year-end summary of me and social media, by platform:

Mastodon: Pretty much the only one I use right now. I recently saw it described as the platform for nerds, and I think that’s accurate. After some initial interest when Twitter started falling apart under Musk, it seems to have peaked, but it’s still an important, useful and entertaining place. It takes more work and people don’t like that with their social media. I don’t mind, because:

  • No ads
  • No algorithm
  • A ton of third party clients for every platform, including alternate web clients. My current favourite is Phanpy, which is a terrible name, but a very handsome minimalist web client: Home / Phanpy

Facebook: Hot garbage. Also, cold garbage and medium-warm garbage. A hellscape of ads and “Suggested for you” with a few posts from people you’re following dotted in-between. I have no idea why anyone would use Facebook anymore, except for very specific purposes (you’re a member of a group, your family or friends refuse to move to something else because they are terrible people, etc.)

Instagram: The web version is still bare-bones and ugly. It will be this way for as long as it exists. It’s basically Facebook Lite at this point, but with more images and videos. Lots of videos. Do you like videos? Because it has videos. Also, plenty of ads. The ads are also videos. That said, it’s still noticeably better than Facebook, though I rarely visit these days.

Threads: It’s OK. For now, there are no ads, but that will change eventually, and it will join other Meta sites in being an ad-clogged hell. Very bare-bones and minimalist, but not the good kind of minimalist, just ugly and unappealing. If they follow through with federation, it may be possible to follow people and interact through one of the excellent Mastodon clients, so there is that. I check in every month or so, never post.

Bluesky: Their eventual business model (basically premium services over ads) is admirable in a way, but I am skeptical it can work. Also, the fact that it is still invite-only gives me pause. If they still can’t scale up now, after this long, when will they? It feels a bit like a doomed private club. The people there will have a grand time, until it abruptly shutters. I have an account, but have never posted. The web interface is also spartan and unattractive.

There are other social media platforms out there, but I either don’t have accounts or don’t use them in any meaningful way. And then there’s X (formerly Twitter) and all I will say about that is:

  • I deleted my account.
  • I give it a few more years of dumpster fire management before it finally shuts down.
  • I see a faint glimmer that the Twitter name could end up in the hands of someone who might do something good with it. But it is an extremely faint glimmer.

Overall, I get most of what I need from Mastodon, as it best fits what I want, which is not to have my posts showered with likes and adoration, because I seldom post and don’t care for or need the affirmation–while not denying likes and affirmation are still nice! I am interested in the trajectory of Threads as it relatives to the Fediverse. Everything else is pretty much meh to bleah.

We’ll see how things shake out in 2024, which will be all sorts of fun on social media with the U.S. presidential election at the end of the year.

Apple logic courtesy of Mark Gurman

On the AirPods Max, which were released three years ago (2020) and have not been updated in any way since:

Apple also looks to breathe new life into the AirPods Max headphones. The cans don’t sell well enough for the company to invest in entirely new hardware or software features, but Apple is planning a model that trades in the Lightning charger for USB-C and potentially adds new colors.

Mark Gurman

This is a rumour, so we can’t treat it as actually happening, but it sounds plausible, so let’s play through the logic as if this is what will come to be:

  • AirPods Max released in 2020. Consensus is: great noise-canceling, very good sound, terrible case/charging setup, overpriced.
  • Apple does nothing with the line for the next three years.
  • The perception is the headphones do not sell that well.
  • Apple is going to “breathe new life” into them.
  • But they don’t sell well enough to make actual improvements, so they’ll only get some different colours (maybe) and a switch to USB-C, which is being mandated by EU law, anyway.

Unless “breathe new life” doesn’t mean “generate new sales” this plan makes no sense. If Apple doesn’t address the shortcomings of the AirPods Max, no one is going to rush out and start buying them again. Yes, you’ll get a tiny sliver of sales for some different colours, but given Apple’s recent history with colour (fear, paranoia) we might not even know the colours have been updated. I think what bugs me is that the world’s richest, fattest company can’t be bothered to properly update some of their products when some, like Sony and countless others, regularly improve and iterate.

But hey, they are the world’s richest company for a reason, and I’m just a schlub on the internet, so don’t mind me!

YAM post

I am not secretly John Boone. Image from the Linux Mint website.

Tonight, I said to myself, “What should I do? I already had a shower, what else is there?” And then I noticed that Windows had an update available. It always does. I installed it and it needed to reboot. It always does.

I used the opportunity to jump back over to Linux Mint and girded myself for the billion updates I’d skipped last time. They completed, but it then required…a reboot. I guess Mint always does, too.

I rebooted.

I then spent time tweaking the whole system, installing extensions and applets, slapping on a new dynamic wallpaper so it doesn’t look like a clone of my Windows desktop. It looks fairly snazzy now. I get weirdly hung up on visuals, so this is important to me.

I copied over my music library to the dedicated SSD for Mint, so I could listen to (non-streaming) music. I am doing so as I type this.

The best part, though, is I don’t have any version of Bejewled available on Mint. This increases my productivity by about 1000%. I may have a bit of a Bejeweled problem.

Anyway, things are working, and the system feels a lot more solid now. Will I stick with it and use it more than my previous attempt? Maybe!

YAM = Yet Another Mint

Linux Mint and the all the updates

I decided to peek in at Linux Mint again and this meant there were a plethora of updates ready to be installed. After doing so, I had to reboot, then fix the updates that didn’t install properly, and so on.

I mean, it was no better or worse than doing the same in Windows 11. I mean, it was a little worse in that Linux-y way, but not overly so.

But I never gain any traction with Linux because I just don’t spend enough time with it. And I don’t spend enough time with it because there are so many niggles that irk me. Not a lot, but enough.

But still, I try, because I am a dope and a sucker for new things or different things.

And it is different.

Now that I’m (mostly) updated, I’ll stick with it for a bit and see how it goes.

Charlie Stross’s “We’re sorry we created the Torment Nexus”

This is the text of a talk Charlie Stross gave today (November 10) at the Next Frontiers Applied Fiction Day in Stuttgart. He talks about how science fiction writers influenced many of today’s most powerful tech giants–in all the wrong ways. Entertaining and also a nice section of SF history, dating back to the late 19th century.

We’re sorry we created the Tormet Nexus

My preferred Mastodon clients

Mastodon is currently the only social media I really read or post to currently, because I like its model:

  • I curate what I want to see–no algorithm!
  • It’s decentralized, so no one “owns” it and if your server goes to poop, you can move to another
  • No ads! I am fine with ads in some situations, but online ads are almost always awful, invasive, resource-hogging and can even contain malware as a bonus

Mastodon has a web client and an app for smartphones. Both are fine, but because there are no horrendous API fees or dictatorial owners crushing third party apps, you can enjoy one of many different apps. I use the following:

Mac: Mona. This is a one-time purchase (no subscription). It looks nice and runs well.

Windows: I use two web clients because all the Windows apps I’ve tried are ugly, bare-bones, or both. I have no idea why this is, but it is (IMO). For a more Twitter-like experience, there is Elk. And for a more minimalist experience, with cute animations and the like, there is Phanpy.

Fun: Having five Amazon devices all reporting problems to you at the same time

If you think the twist is that this isn’t actually fun, you’re half right. But also half wrong!

Today, my internet connection went down, as it does on a roughly weekly or bi-weekly basis. This has been going on for some time, and I’ve contacted my ISP’s tech support for help to no avail. I will not name and shame the company for now, but they are bad and should feel bad.

Anyway, usually power-cycling the router fixes the connection in a few minutes and I move on. Today, only the wired connection seemed to revive. I know this because my phone was complaining about no Wi-Fi and I noticed those ominous yellow lines on the pair of Echo Show 5s in the bedroom that mean. “Hey, where did the internet go?” I foolishly decided to test by asking the living room Echo what time it was. Normally, the closest device will answer, and the others stay quiet. Occasionally it gets confused and the next closest answers instead, but it’s pretty reliable.

If you have an internet connection.

If you don’t, the device you speak to and all other devices will all report connection issues, but each one will be just slightly off from each other, so you get this weird echo (lolz) effect with all of them jabbering at you. It’s funny how quickly it goes from sort of cute to driving you mad.

A second reboot of the router fixed the issue.

But if I could, I’d use the HomePod’s saucy Australian male voice on every device, because hearing that echo through every room would be amazing.

Apple’s October 30, 2023 Scary Fast event

If you’d like a nice, non-sarcastic (mostly) take on what Apple unveiled today, have a look at Jason Snell’s post on Six Colors.

If you’d like my take on the actual event, which may contain a wee bit of sarcasm, read on!

Scary Fast

Everyone knew this event would be all about Macs since the preview image included the Mac Finder and so it was. It began at an unusual 5 p.m. Pacific and, being a day before Halloween, had a spooky Halloween theme. The scariest part is checking the prices of everything in Canadian dollars.

I didn’t do timestamps for the event, but the whole thing wrapped up in 30 minutes. There were no interminable sketches about how great Apple is doing on the environment or constant reminders about Apple’s (newly more expensive) services–though there were still reminders.

  • The event starts with music that is bad, but not overly loud, possibly because really loud music is not spooky.
  • We then transition into a Mac ad about “hard work” where everyone is cute and riffs on comments everyone else makes, including a guy from Porsche, because everyone can relate to the simple pleasures of a Porsche. At the end, everyone has a good laugh about how they may be doing hard work, but working isn’t hard on a Mac! I can see the marketing team high-fiving each other over this.
  • We see Apple Park at night, but it’s been enhanced to look all foggy and spooky (I will be using that word a lot). The camera is flying all over, but you know its destination: Tim Cook. Will he be dressed as a pirate? The ghost of Steve Jobs? A giant carbon credit? He is dressed as none of these things. He is dressed as Tim Cook, though he is favouring dark clothes because spooky.
  • Tim doesn’t say much and we move on to the “lab” with Johny the Chip Guy. The lab is dark and spooky. In the back is a glowing pumpkin that is actually an orange iMac from like 2002 or something.
  • Johny intros the M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max and M3 Fred. Just kidding, Fred is not ready yet. Neither is the M3 Ultra, but it will presumably come out later, as did the M1 and M2 versions. These chips are totes faster, though if you look, they constantly emphasize performance vs. M1, because vs. M2 they’re merely 10-15% faster, which is nice, but not roll-your-socks-up-and-down exciting.
  • Dynamic caching is introduced for the GPU. It will help with demanding applications and make for better games. Both of them!
  • Ray tracing, just like on the iPhone 15 (they don’t say this, but it’s basically the same thing). Ray Tracing would also be a great character name in some future noir thriller.
  • More vague graphs comparing M1 to M3.
  • M3 Max now supports up to 128 GB ram, which is impressive until you remember the Intel Mac Pro supported 1.5 TB.
  • We now transition magically to Kate! Kate is dressed in black because spooky.
  • Kate talks about the MacBook Pros. They have axed the 13″ MBP ($1299) and replaced it with a 14″ MBP ($1599). You may be thinking, “Don’t they have a 14″ MBP already?” Yes! Now they have two. This new one is basically the same 14″ model, but only gets the M3, no Pro or Max. Also, the touch bar is DEAD. They should have had a ghostly visage of it floating behind Kate.
  • I kid you not, they highlight performance by showcasing Myst. You know, that game that came out 30 years ago. It’s like they sit down and say, “We need a list of popular Mac games” and no one ever comes up with anything other than Myst.
  • For some reason, taking 18 months to bump memory from 96 GB to 128 GB of ram is touted as a great feat.
  • 22 hours of battery life. Impressive!
  • They slam Intel laptops, including older Intel Mac laptops. 11x faster! 11 hours more battery life! WHY ARE YOU STILL USING INTEL MACBOOKS YOU GODLESS HEATHENS? Intel Mac laptops actively seek out kittens and rub their fur the wrong way. It’s true.
  • Modest card: “World’s best laptop display”
  • A new colour!
  • An ad for the new oclour!
  • It’s Space Black, or as everyone else calls it, dark gray.
  • They promise it hides fingerprints better and is durable, a handy quality for an electronic device.
  • Suddenly an awkward plug for Monarch, coming next month to Apple TV+. Totally worth the price increase! It’ll look great on these new Macs, see?
  • Baldur’s Gate 3 is name-dropped. This is actually a current top-tier game, a unicorn among Mac titles.
  • Suddenly, Kate is standing in someone’s living room. Behind her a guy on a couch is playing a guitar while a girl sits next to a coffee table kind of looking at her MacBook. A keyboard is on the floor. Neither of them seem to notice Kate is suddenly with them and talking to what would be a wall.
  • Kate suddenly zaps into a lab of some sort. It is an immaculate lab, everything perfectly arranged. It’s not spooky, though.
  • Kate leaps again (not literally, though that would have been awesome) to her final stop: Some tony home where a person is using a MacBook to control three monitors and what seems to be a large TV above them. The little nook he’s in has foam on the walls to dampen and absorb sound, such as all the gabbing Kate is doing, which the guy sitting there does not seem to notice.
  • It has taken 24 minutes so far to say “We have new chips in our laptops, which are otherwise unchanged.”
  • Back to John. He announces prices, which are the same as before but truly scary when converted to Canadian, just in time for Halloween and forevermore.
  • He also mentions the 24″ iMac getting the M3. No other changes. Price the same. He talks about all its features, which, again, are not new or changed in any way. You can sense the audience starting to squirm at this point. I am starting to squirm.
  • One more potshot at Intel: 4x faster than their lousy old iMacs.
  • John then claims the 24″ iMac is the “perfect size” to replace both the 21.5 and 27″ intel iMacs, which is an odd thing to say. I suspect some people with 27″ iMacs would not consider a smaller display to be better, nor would they like the utter lack of ports or other compromises in the 24″ iMac, which, again, is a desktop computer, where thinness and lightness are not really a top priority.
  • Back to Tim! He reveals himself to be a gay werewolf. Nah, just kidding. He actually says “Only Apple can deliver” the deep integration between all their devices, so BUY ALL THE DEVICES, OK? Especially Macs, because sales are way down.
  • We are now 30 minutes in and the event ends with a card that notes it was shot on iPhone and edited on Mac. It will later be cut up into memes and posted on TikTok.
  • And that’s a wrap!

One of the shortest Apple events ever, with no real new products (the low end 14″ MacBook Pro is kind of new), so basically 30 minutes to say, “New chips, yay!” to plug Apple TV+, and mercilessly diss Intel. It could have been a press release.

Linux Mint update October 2023

After re-installing Linux Mint on its own separate drive back in September, I pretty much ignored it. Whoops! As a result, when I do log into it, there’s usually a pile of updates awaiting. Some updates on using Mint itself:

  • Update Manager: This is currently not responding when launched. It shows updates, but everything is greyed out. I’ll probably have to reboot, or recompile the kernel or whatever it is you do in Linux when these things happen.
  • TickTick: There was a version of TickTick in the Software Manager, so I don’t need to use the web version. Yay! The window widgets are the same as the Windows version, because this is apparently a wrapper based on the Windows version. I’m okay with that.
  • Diarium: Still no progress here.

Overall, I have to say, I’m just not feeling it this time. If everything I did was inside a web browser, it might be decent, since Mint comes with Firefox, which is my preferred browser. But there’s just too much other software I use to give up both Windows and Mac right now.

I will check back again sooner, though, mostly to avoid a giant pile of updates again. Assuming the Update Manager works again in the future.