Month: March 2025

Last time on Phil’s Newsletter: We switched email providers, and it went well.

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In this light issue: Some cool open source software (COSS), RetroStrange GIFs, and then the Good Links at the end. I can feel most of you immediately scrolling past the bulk of the newsletter right now. No shame in that.

Cool Open Source Software: kew, a terminal-based music player

You point kew to a folder with your music in it, and it brings up a library view where you can play songs, make playlists of folders, etc. You can get an EQ, album art, and everything, and it looks fantastic in Cool Retro Term on macOS. Some serious COSS (Cool Open Source Software) which I stumbled across in my Cyberdeck project (which needs a writeup of its own, coming soon).

RetroStrange TV GIF Of The Issue

This issue’s RetroStrange TV GIF is from A Colour Box (1935). Catch this and thousands more watermark-free GIFs for your viewing and using pleasure at the RetroStrange GIF Library. Just one of the many services provided thanks to the support of my Patrons.

Phil’s Good Links

The links are there for you when you need ’em.

• “Protoclone, the world’s first bipedal, musculoskeletal android” good ‘ol fashioned Nightmare Fuel
• Several states and localities in the US are trying to ban public masking, effectively forcing people with compromised immune systems out of society and ensuring the next pandemic is even worse. We can stop them. https://www.stopmaskbans.com
• The SE/30 is one of Apple’s most iconic designs, and personally may be my favorite computer they ever made. Over on Kickstarter, someone is raising funds to print a replacement case for it out of clear material. Looks neat.
• “Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover didn’t make people like him, study shows” you can’t buy “cool,” buddy.
• Biographer: ‘There Is No Evidence’ [Elon Musk] Has Any ‘Intellectual Achievements’
• In an effort to, I guess, piss off as many people as possible, Hewlett Packard implemented a new policy which forced tech support callers to wait a minimum of 15 minutes before being helped. Insane shit! Hard to even believe. They backpedaled and abandoned the policy within days.
• Jacobin: Tech Workers Can Still Fight Silicon Valley’s Overlords
• What Did She See, At The End? “She is Melanocetus johnsonii, the humpback anglerfish, the black seadevil. ” Prose about a rare sighting of a deep sea fish.
• The real cause of “food deserts?” The 1980s repeal of the 1936 Robinson-Patman Act which had barred massive chain grocery stores from putting pressure on distributors to give them cheaper prices
• San Francisco named 4th ‘rattiest city’ in America. I’m so proud I might cry
• Wired: DOGE Is Working on Software That Automates the Firing of Government Workers. Coming soon to a job near you, mark my words. See also: Blood In The Machine
• Pillsbury Wiener Wrap
• Firefox deftly drowns the baby in the bathwater, begins selling user data to third parties.

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My Patreon account is what keeps RetroStrange, Set Side B, and this newsletter running. Without the monthly support of Patrons I simply could not justify the cost of running this infrastructure myself. Each $1 patron makes a difference in both our ability to make new stuff, but also keep the existing stuff happening. Become a Patron. I’ll always try to make it worth your while.

Thanks for reading,

Phil Nelson
Wizard Tower, SoMA, Earth
2025.03.03 +8UTC

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