Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

THEN he loaded some tabs, and he made a domain,
On a ramshackle instance, and he gave it a name.
Then the Grinch said, "First post!" and his posts started down,
Toward the timelines where Toots lay asnooze in their town.
All their windows were closed. No new posts filled the air.
All the Toots were all dreaming sweet dreams without care.
When he came to the first instance down on the square.

My tote is done! This one went quite a bit faster than the previous ones (16 hrs start to finish), and the basic leather punch kit I bought was well worth it. I'm really pleased with how the color combination worked out, it made the tote a cool-toned version of the original warm-toned tote (also pictured).

#weaving

And he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great Grinchy fate!"
"With this RoR app I can now federate!"
"All I need is sysadmin..." The Grinch looked around.
But, sysadmin were scarce, there was none to be found.
Did that stop the old Grinch? No! The Grinch simply said,
"If I can't find sysadmin, I'll make one instead!"
So he called up his app. Then he started a thread,
And he found someone who'd use their desk as their bed.

Over a year ago I got this antique porcelin shaving mug, but only recently started using it (I had to use up my other soap first). Most mugs I've seen have a single bowl you put soap in and lather from.

What is pretty unique about this mug is that it has a lower bowl you can fill with hot water and soak your brush, and an upper bowl for your shaving soap. Before this, I had been soaking my brush in a separate container.

#shaving #antique #wetshaving

And the more the Grinch thought of this new fediverse,
The more the Grinch thought, "I must now make it worse!"
Why for two or three weeks I've put up with it now!"
"I MUST stop Fediverse from coming! But HOW?"
Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE GRINCH GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!
"I know just what to do!" The Grinch laughed till he fell.
He would make his own Mastodon instance from hell.

We are all aware that many surnames are derived from professions (Smith, Cooper, Weaver). In the course of my research into the history of weaving I didn't realize how many others derived from cloth production:

* Fuller - someone who fulls woolen cloth (works cloth in water to shrink/fluff it)
* Walker - derived from Waulker, someone who Waulks, or fulls, fabric
* Shearer - shears sheep, or removes excess nap from cloth
* Draper - weaver/seller of cloth
* Dyer - dyes cloth

#weaving #fiberarts

BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!
They would boost local timelines, fediverse timelines too.
Which was something the Grinch couldn't possibly do.
And THEN they'd do something he liked least of all!
Every Toot down in Tootville, the tall and the small,
Would see the full timeline, not one paid post or ad.
They'd get more engagement, more good and less bad.
They'd reply! And they'd reply! And they'd REPLY!
REPLY! REPLY! REPLY!

Then he growled with his Grinch throat nervously crowing,
"I MUST find some way to stop Fediverse from growing!"
For Tomorrow he knew the Toot folks of all kinds,
Would wake bright and early. They'd post to timelines!
And then! Oh, the toots! Oh the toots!
Toots! Toots! Toots!
That's one thing he hated! The TOOTS!
TOOTS! TOOTS! TOOTS!
Then the Toots young and old would sit down to their boosts.
And they'd boost! And they'd boost! And they'd BOOST!

While following people's boosts and hashtags is enough for me, I understand why some people new to chronological timelines are fearful they will miss out on popular posts.

It might be interesting if each instance had a "trending" account you could follow that routinely boosted the latest popular posts. That would be opt-in and it doesn't mask the rest of your timeline.

Whatever the reason, the app or the bots,
He looked at the Fediverse, hating it lots,
Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown,
At the new registrations, below in their town.
For he knew every Toot down in Tootville beneath,
Was busy now, posting decentralized tweets.
"And they use content warnings!" he snarled with a sneer,
"And with Federation there's no 8 buck tier!"

Every Toot down in Tootville liked Fediverse a lot
But the Grinch, who lived just north of Tootville, did not!
The Grinch hated Fediverse! The whole federation!
Now, please don't ask why, there is no explanation.
It could be his app's round trip times weren't tight,
It could be, perhaps, the bots weren't counted right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been his net worth's $42B too small.

I was interviewed about supply chain security (around 15 min mark) in a longer CNBC feature about manufacturing phones in the USA. In short, it's less about trust concerns with any particular country/govt., and more about reducing the links in the supply chain to reduce the opportunities to tamper with hardware.

Our Made-in-USA-electronics Librem 5 USA phone also got a number of shout-outs. Pretty neat!

https://youtu.be/YdbA7Z8Ae4w #security #supplychain #infosec #manufacturing

I think everyone recognizes just how bad algorithms can be at predicting your interests. Relying on algorithms so you don't miss out on something means you do miss out on a lot of posts from people you do follow. I always wondered just how many posts on Twitter my followers actually saw.

Ultimately, the only one who knows what I want to see on my own timeline is me, and even then my tastes/interests change. My timeline is an information garden I tend to, weeding, pruning, and planting.

I've been on a chronological timeline both here and on Twitter for a few years. Here is how I manage it:

I don't follow lightly. Following means I want to see all your posts. I read each post.

I filter. When ppl fill up my whole timeline with streams of posts too often, I either filter boosts or unfollow. It's nothing personal.

What about trending? Easy to tell what's trending because people w/ shared interests who I follow post/boost about the topic. If not, I follow someone new who does.