@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social cover
@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

ethanschoonover

@[email protected]

Factotum. Former @ethanschoonover on twtr / Photo & Design & Tech & RPGs / SeattleACS ham radio volunteer / Cascadia Radio cofounder / TeenHorrorCast.com intern / "skoon-over" / he

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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random
electronic doorbell with a label on it reading "this is not a ring camera"
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Honestly great news. You know when Zuckerberg goes "ALL IN" on something it's the tech equivalent of a death rattle.

headline reading "zuckerberg goes all in on ai as the new social media"
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Just put my kid on a flight to St. Paul.

Checked she had her travel stuff:

  • Water bottle
  • Travel pillow
  • Hidden airtag in case feds steal her phone so I can find her
  • Charm bracelet I made w/my tel # so that she can throw it to someone in case she is getting grabbed by ICE

So, the 2026 basics

a charm bracelet with plastic discs with letters spelling "text" on it
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

caught her in the act of trying to transmit on my unlicensed (she's failed her license test twice)

cat jumping up to reach a small ham radio on a shelf
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

My folks asked me what present I, a grown man, wanted them to send me for Christmas from back home in Wisconsin. BEHOLD:

a block of 10 year aged cheddar cheese
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

If you are thinking now is a good time to know about things like & alt communications tools, here's a reminder that I co-founded an inclusive, welcoming ham radio community based in the Pacific Northwest. Available via Discord: https://discord.gg/mJmsV5jGxz

Learners are welcome. No haters :)

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

I can only celebrate the focus of the two guys next to me in line at Costco.

About 60 oversized pumpkin pies and a similar number of spray whipped cream cans on a flat bed cart at Costco checkout.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Tech is littered with guys that had one idea.

Screenshot of headline reading "Meta’s Reality Labs posts $4.4 billion loss in third quarter" with picture of zuckerberg underneath.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Can you imagine being the guy who spends decades building a company to CONNECT PEOPLE & without doubt this company does reach deep into American's lives & yet after DECADES, by YOUR COUNT the average American has only 3 friends & you don't just think "wow I'm a colossal failure" and close up shop.

screenshot of a quote about a mark zuckerberg interview reading: Zuckerberg explaining how Meta is creating personalized AI friends to supplement your real ones: “The average American has 3 friends, but has demand for 15.” Photo below this shows mark zuckerberg wearing camera glasses.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Once this land was barren & we built a city on it out of pure HTML. Those that came after thought the city had always been here & that another could never be created but this was wrong. We built it. We can tear down & rebuild.

You can leave substack. You can leave twitter. We can make new things.

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

90% of Apple TV's Foundation series is just Lee Pace sneering condescendingly at things and it carries the show

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

The UI/UX around is SO BAD. I fully understand passkeys on a technical level yet even so I feel like I'm fighting accidental dark UI/UX patterns the entire time I am deploying them.

Password manager, browser, and OS all seem to fight for passkey flow UI. UI is inconsistent. Text is vague.

a pop up window from chrome browser showing a "so you want to make a passkey" prompt
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Presenting my horror short indie film for tonight: I am in the basement folding laundry and the cat keeps getting riled up and then freezing and staring fixedly over my shoulder towards the empty room behind me, watching something.

A cat on a low table in a room at night looking past the photographer who is sitting on the floor.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Taking a moment to give a shout out to one of my favorite bot feeds on this site: @livelakemichigan ... I'd say about 80% of the shots are pure liminal horror set pieces.

distant lights on the other side of a lake or in the middle of a lake. very low resolution image.
dark video camera feed of a beach at night, almost all black with only a scary bit of beach visible
just waves, lots of lake waves. gray skies. the horizon line is slightly askew.

just waves, lots of lake waves. gray skies. the horizon line is slightly askew.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

finally took a few minutes to solve a real world UI problem

collection of usb chargers on a table, some black, some white, each with a prominent diy label stuck on listing the wattage of the charger.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Thinking about just shaving off the part of my beard with the most incoming gray hairs and going full Harry Du Bois.

Also thinking about never taking this bathrobe off again and going full Arthur Dent.

50ish guy, in bathrobe, staring tiredly at camera, clearly word down by years, an unkempt beard upon his face. Bookshelf full of promising fun titles behind him.
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ethanschoonover OP ,
@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

@aeva at this stage of 2025, yes

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Folks, unlike internet comms radios can't just be disconnected by a service provider. It's just you, another radio, and physics.

Now is a good time to get a license in the US. The FCC could take away our spectrum rights but regardless you would still have radio gear and know-how.

ethanschoonover OP ,
@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

@JessTheUnstill yep, that's the idea

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

"Imagine if you could only get texts by going to a specific coffee shop and paying money to check them"

me trying to explain planning your weekend with friends back in the days of internet cafes and no phones

ethanschoonover OP ,
@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar

@JessTheUnstill a really good way to frame it. we still have a home phone line for emergency use and I remember when I set it up I had to explain to my kids that it was calling the building, not any one of us, and it was a novel thing to them.

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

Yes, at FIRST it may seem like a contradiction that my "Billionaire Hunting Club" has no members who are billionaires but let me explain

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

My cat is really not very smart as you can see by how easily she was taken in by the French Defense.

Cat sitting at chessboard with a standard french defense configuration on it. Cat looks surprised.
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@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

That's close enough, friends.

(Virginia forest in autumn, X-E4 16mm ƒ2.8)

@ethanschoonover@mastodon.social avatar ethanschoonover , to random

My daughter drove my trail-mud covered pickup and parked in front of our local elementary school and it's good to see the kids understood the implied assignment.

a muddy side panel on a pickup truck with a classic stylized S drawn on it
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