Various plants in my garden 😀

Happy 25th anniversary to this Daily Mail article from the year 2000, proclaiming that internet "may be just a passing fad as millions give up on it".

#internet #TheWeb #OTD #OnThisDay #history

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A photograph of a Daily Mail newspaper article from December 5, 2000, with the headline "Internet 'may be just a passing fad as millions give up on it'". The article includes a cropped photo showing hands typing on a keyboard in front of a computer displaying a website.

@cR0w Hey! I hold degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Software Engineering.

... and you're correct. I did Mechanical first, and then laughed my way through Software. I've since been telling people that software development is more akin to craftsmanship - and my alma mater rescinded their offer to have me come and do a "hey look at my career" talk once they figured that out.

When I moved in three winters ago I noticed a pattern during snowstorms: everyone would shovel their own section of walkway and nothing else -- sometimes just from the door to the street and not the public crossway or they'd just shovel their driveway and nothing else. This lead to there being a 20 foot section of sidewalk that was clear, then 20 foot not clear, then maybe another clear section down and on and off again all the way down the street, forever. The sections that were not cleared would freeze and become impassable, school kids would wipe out on them, the mail carrier would have to navigate through yards, etc. And through all of this I was watching some people clear their short sections of walkways with gas powered, self-propelled blowers.

So I started shoveling the entire block each and every snow. Sometimes my idiot self would use an actual shovel so I could be a total dork and do it while partialing (gets lots of car honks, cheers, and photographs. I apparently made the village Facebook group a few times with people thanking whoever it was doing this anonymous work), other times I'd use a handheld electric snow thrower thing and just wear my tail so that anyone viewing security cam footage to see who did the work was a weirdo. But I always went from one corner all the way to the other. Then last winter I started doing both sides of the street as well as the block south of mine because I expanded my arsenal of batteries to two. I did this over and over again regardless of how much snow or time or took - sometimes it needed several clearings in a day/night - because it was a decent replacement for my gym and actually resulted in something tangible I could see -- a clear path three blocks long with no interruptions. A thing of beauty. Each time I'd be sore as hell but feeling wonderfully accomplished.

Now and then my neighbor would see me doing his portion and would tell me that I didn't have to do that, he'd handle it later, etc. Did it anyway. And then it started to click for others. Last winter I noticed someone up the street from me began clearing half of the block to widen the path I'd created. Then my neighbor began to clear the south side of my block to complete it. Across the street someone now widens my path for a row of five houses. With the storm yesterday I did my paths and then returned home to find someone had cleared the south block after more snow accumulated. This morning, I did it again. A few hours later: engine noises. Four snow blowers out there making sure the path was completely clear block to block, end to end including cross streets. Someone has taken to start clearing up to some people's doors as well. It's incredible.

I did this because some people don't care but also I know some people simply can't due to age or physical ability and it's cool as hell because now I feel like we have an secret, unspoken group of Guardians of the Neighborhood thing going. I freaking love it.

Hey everyone else: 3200-3300 Maple Ave blocks are putting you all to shame. Step up.

We (SCI Semiconductor) are about to hire some folks in the next couple of months (probably starting in January, since we're about to hit Christmas):

We're aiming to hire 1-3 FAEs, who can build out the open-source bits of the #CHERIoT software stack (including drivers / various communication stacks), build demos, and work with customers on use-case bringup.

We also want to hire someone else on the toolchain side. Primarily #LLDB + #OpenOCD, but also working with our #LLVM (and #RustC) folks.

Let me know if you're interested!

EDIT: We are a full-remote company. It's easiest for us to hire people in the UK (and one of our investors would really like us to hire more people in Sheffield), but elsewhere is possible (though might, for tax purposes, require you to be officially a contractor for a while).

We're also going to be hiring people for our hardware verification and RTL teams soon (more on the verification side than design at the moment, I think). I'm not responsible for them, but I can find out more details if anyone is interested. Our first CHERIoT chip is nearly finished, we're starting to work on the second.

EDIT 2: Thanks to all of the people who have expressed interest (in public and private posts). I'll try to get back to you all next week!

EDIT 3: I hope I've replied to everyone now! If I missed you (there were more replies than I expected!) please let me know. I think we'll aim to do another hiring round over the summer next year, so if the current timeline doesn't work out for you, please still let me know and I'll keep you in mind next time!

#GetFediHired

As a few folks have pointed out, this post is filled with inaccuracies. Please read the replies in the thread!

From "This Day in History" on FB:

"She left civilization to live in the forest with a lynx, a wild boar, and a thieving crow. Scientists called her crazy. She proved them wrong.

In 1975, a young Polish scientist named #SimonaKossak made a decision that baffled everyone who knew her.

She had a doctorate. She had credentials. She came from one of Poland's most prestigious artistic families—her grandfather was Wojciech Kossak, the legendary painter whose work hung in museums.

She could have had a comfortable university position. A modern apartment in Warsaw. A conventional career studying nature from a safe distance.
Instead, Simona packed a single bag and walked into the #bialowiezaforest . And she stayed there for thirty years.

Białowieża is no ordinary forest. It's the last remaining fragment of the primeval wilderness that once covered all of Europe—ancient, untouched, older than recorded history. Trees there grow so tall they seem to hold up the sky. Wolves still howl at night. European bison, extinct almost everywhere else, roam freely. It's the kind of place where you can still hear what the world sounded like before humans started building cities.

Simona found a small wooden cabin deep in the forest's heart. No electricity. No running water. No neighbors for miles.
Just trees. Silence. And the wild things.
Most people would have lasted a week.

Simona lasted decades.

But she wasn't alone.

She shared her bed with a lynx named Żabka. Not a pet—lynxes can't be pets. But Żabka had been orphaned as a cub, and Simona raised her. The massive cat would curl up beside her at night, purring like distant thunder.

She rescued a wild boar named Żabka who followed her through the forest like a devoted dog, grunting softly when she spoke.

And then there was Korasek. Korasek was a crow—but not just any crow. He was brilliant, mischievous, and absolutely devoted to chaos. He'd dive-bomb cyclists riding through the forest, steal shiny objects from tourists' pockets, and bring Simona "gifts": coins, buttons, pieces of foil.

He'd sit on her shoulder while she worked, cawing commentary on everything she did.

The locals whispered that Simona was a witch. How else could you explain it? Animals followed her. Birds landed on her outstretched hand. Deer approached without fear.

She spoke to them, and somehow, impossibly, they seemed to understand.
But Simona wasn't casting spells.
She was listening.

Most people walk through nature talking, making noise, asserting their presence. Simona did the opposite. She learned to move quietly, to observe patiently, to let the forest teach her its rhythms.

She studied animal behavior not from textbooks, but by living among them. She documented species that had never been properly observed. She proved that wild animals weren't just instinct-driven automatons—they had personalities, emotions, complex social structures.
Her research changed how scientists understood wildlife.

But her most important work wasn't in journals.

It was in the forest itself.

Because while Simona was studying nature, others were trying to destroy it.
#LoggingCompanies wanted to cut down the #AncientTrees. Developers wanted to build roads through the #wilderness.

Bureaucrats argued that the forest was "too wild," that it needed to be "managed," controlled, made productive.

Simona fought them all.

She wrote letters. She filed lawsuits. She gave interviews where she spoke bluntly about what would be lost if the forest fell.

She stood in front of bulldozers.
She made powerful enemies.
She didn't care.

"This forest has survived for ten thousand years," she'd say. "Who are we to decide it should end on our watch?"

Her cabin became a symbol. Journalists came from across Europe to photograph the woman who lived with wild animals. Documentaries were made. Her story spread.

And slowly, the tide began to turn.
Public opinion shifted. International pressure mounted. UNESCO got involved. The ancient forest, in large part because of Simona's tireless advocacy, gained greater protections.

The trees she loved were saved.
Simona Kossak lived in that cabin until 2007, when illness finally forced her back to the city. She died in 2007, at the age of 71.

But her legacy didn't die with her.
Today, Białowieża Forest stands as one of Europe's last true wildernesses—a living monument to what the continent once was. Tourists walk trails where Simona once walked with Żabka the lynx. Bison graze in meadows she fought to protect.

Scientists still study the forest using methods she pioneered.

And somewhere in those ancient trees, maybe, a descendant of Korasek steals something shiny from an unsuspecting hiker.

Simona Kossak proved something the modern world desperately needs to remember:

That you don't have to choose between science and intuition. Between civilization and wilderness. Between being human and being part of nature.

She proved that sometimes the most rigorous science comes from simply paying attention. That the deepest understanding comes from respect, not dominance.

She proved that one person, living authentically and fighting fiercely for what they love, can change the fate of an entire ecosystem.

They called her a witch because she spoke to animals.

She called herself a scientist because she listened.

And she spent thirty years in a cabin without electricity, surrounded by wild things, protecting an ancient forest from a modern world that had forgotten how to be still.

Simona Kossak wasn't running away from civilization.

She was protecting something far more valuable than anything civilization could offer.

And because of her, that forest still stands."

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/thisdayinhistry/posts/pfbid0R7LBNTBeTrH9zNf38kwxP75oWT2SYk8ToozGY7y6p17UEwwfGMMeTh9qHQoVBge4l

#Rewilding #NatureLover #CitizenScientist #Nature #SaveTheForest

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A black and white photo of woman in a bedroom, sleeping on the floor. A wild boar is sleeping on the bed. There is a writing desk and small bureau with drawers. Text: She left civilization to live in the forest with a lynx, a wild boar, and a thieving crow. Scientists called her crazy. She proved them wrong.

if you believe that a better world is possible, you may be tarred as a doomer, because achieving a better world involves calling attention to what is wrong with this one.

your very optimism is called pessimism, particularly by people for whom the current world is more than comfortable.

@dwaem

You might be missing the context. It's Meredith who came out claiming that it's impossible to not use hyperscalers, and included Mastodon (and later Matrix) as examples of other services where "most do".

When myself and others pointed out that it's not true, she doubled down and condescendingly told us that we don't know anything "about this space".

Either the president of Signal makes untrue claims knowingly when defending their choice to be centralized, or she really believes that it's not possible to be decentralized and not rely on hyperscalers.

None of the options provide me with confidence.

My post has nothing to do with Signal using AWS.

@signalapp

in 2023 alone the Signal Foundation spent $4,250,453 on the salaries of just 7 people. And this is suppose to be a non profit. They ask *us* for donations.

(these are just the posted numbers from 2023, no idea if they have gone up or down since then)

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a screenshot of the salaries of 7 signal foundation members

TIL that the president of Signal believes that people who run Mastodon and/or Matrix servers do so "in most cases" on hyperscaler* infrastructure.

This is my Mastodon server. And its UPS. And its networked KVM for when things get really hairy.

It's also my Matrix server. And Nextcloud. And Git. And Home-Assistant. And Jellyfin. And SearXNG. And Peertube.

When people objected to her claims, she doubled down and proclaimed condescendingly that we "don't have a clear understanding of this space".

TIL that I don't feel confident in recommending people to use Signal. Something's very off here.

*) "hyperscaler" basically means the big cloud infra providers with provisioning APIs that allow you to scale your resources up/down automatically with usage

#Signal #Mastodon #Matrix #SelfHosting

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A corner of a room featuring two black electronic devices on a wooden floor. Numerous cables are visible, some leading to a power outlet. One device has a control panel with a blue light.