John Sullivan @johns@librem.one

One thing it should obviously not be is a platform actually owned and run privately by government officials (truth social, X..).

Government use of private social media has become an issue that bothers me disproportionately to what it should (naked promotion/enrichment of specific private businesses while compelling citizens to become their customers), but here's more https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-social-security-administration-is-reportedly-moving-all-official-communication-to-x-223201698.html . Would it be okay if what they were using federated? Or does there just need to be a publicly run platform (federated or not)? Or should it be privately run on a bid-based system like other government contracts?

Recently finished The City and Its Uncertain Walls (Murakami) which lead me to start rereading parts of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. When not doing that, finished The Vegetarian (Han Kang) and now need something a little less real / destabilizing, so probably starting The Book of Love by Kelly Link. #books

Happy birthday Libre.fm! Can't believe I've been using it for 16 years. Thanks to @mattl and all the contributors who made it possible.

Libre.fm turns 16, updates for March – Libre.fm blog
https://blog.libre.fm/2025/04/libre-fm-turns-16-updates-for-march/

(and it's possible none of this is #LibreOffice's fault -- maybe #Wayland could be to blame? It happens most often upon switching back to the window after being somewhere else)

Ask me how many times a day I get burned by the #LibreOffice race-ish condition where I hit C-f and then start typing but the C-f handler doesn't leap into action until after the other keystrokes have been processed as normal input, so I end up accidentally replacing the contents of a spreadsheet cell that I also can't easily find because where was focus...and then the cursor jumps to the search box.

Always a bummer when there's a cool thing for a while, which then inspires a formal organization to run/lead the cool thing, and then the formal organization ends up messing up the cool thing. (NaNoWriMo "closing down") https://lithub.com/nanowrimo-is-shutting-down/

Other tales like this?

Do we really not have bipartisan and public consensus for "you can't pardon anyone who gave you 6 figures in campaign contributions"?

Currently installing the #Debian VM on my #CalyxOS Pixel. So excited!

(Probably) proving once again that the biggest security issues with encrypted communication are the persons using it.

What does it mean if I have a Sailor Pro Gear 21k #fountainpen with just "M" on the nib, vs one (Realo 1911) that has "H-M"? I thought all of Sailor's Ms these days were H-Ms..? The M was bought within the last 5 years; the H-M I have no way of knowing but the other nib markings look contemporary.

Got my first vendor/distributor email about a tariff driven price increase. Here we go.

Trying to understand the ramifications of living jn a world where we have not only tequila bottle dog toys but *reposado* tequila bottle dog toys. I just hope it's not over-oaked.

TIL that the Big and Little Dippers are not constellations. Quality liberal arts education I had.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper

Next week, Amazon is stripping away your ability to download your ebooks.
https://lithub.com/next-week-amazon-is-stripping-away-your-ability-to-download-your-ebooks/

I think they have a point here and I'm glad that someone, anyone, is pushing against #Apple's "unapproved apps still need to be approved" stance. The sort of one-and-a-half party approach to third-party distribution.

https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-is-deeply-concerned-about-altstores-porn-app-005013457.html?src=rss

After reading this, I'm left wondering, did Murakami kick off the cats in Japanese fiction motif? Or is he just another practitioner? (He is not mentioned in this article.)

In Tumultuous Times, Readers Turn to ‘Healing Fiction’ - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/books/healing-fiction-japan-korea-before-the-coffee-gets-cold.html

I'm a little behind on the news, but this is an amazing story. Import ban lifted for the very noble reason that they lost the only copy of the ban.

India Scraps Import Ban on Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/08/world/asia/india-salman-rushdie-satanic-verses-book-ban.html