@ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

ajsadauskas

@[email protected]

This account is now inactive. Follow me on Bluesky at @aj.gts.sadauskas.id.au.ap.brid.gy or on Mastodon at @aj[email protected].

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to random

When we discuss public transport in Australia, we often forget to mention how it's possible to buy a pie, a potato cake/scallop/fritter, or a flat white while you wait for your train.

Shop selling pies at a suburban train station.
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@ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to random

Okay, help me decide: Self-hosted Mastodon or GoToSocial? What's the pros and cons of each?

Recently, I set up a VPS running YunoHost.

I've been meaning to set up a personal single-user Fedi instance on it, but life's gotten in the way a bit.

I strongly considered Friendica, but it's not there in terms of UX.

So I've narrowed it down to GtS or Masto.

My understanding is that GtS is far more lightweight, but misses some key features. Masto is more resource hungry.

Will I need a relay server for a single-user instance?

Any other key things I should be aware of before diving in?

ajsadauskas OP ,
@ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

@electragician @tag-xxxxxx @instance-xxxxxx[email protected] The lack of support for relays and hashtags is concerning, but not necessarily a dealbreaker.

Do you know if @bsky.brid.gy works with GtS?

@_elena@mastodon.social avatar _elena , to random

There should be a word for it: the feeling of disappointment / sadness when you realize interesting people you got to know on the Fediverse have since decamped to Bluesky.

Of course, there must be valid reasons for it. Still, this makes me a little sad.

I have a dormant Bluesky account and from time to time I check in and see them posting so much there.

Not me. Why? I don't trust a place funded by Crypto Bros -> https://www.blockchaincapital.com/portfolio

I'm 1000% ALL IN on the Fediverse, not going anywhere ❤️

ajsadauskas ,
@ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

@dannotdaniel @benroyce @_elena I have a presence over on BlueSky, and let me tell you, it really is a fantastic app to have a presence on...

...using @bsky.brid.gy.

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @JessTheUnstill Kamala Harris' economic plan is still on the web if anyone's interested in what the alternative was:

    https://www.kamalaharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Policy_Book_Economic-Opportunity.pdf

    Here's a list of the policies she took in the last presidential election:

    1. Cut Taxes for Working People
    2. Lower Food and Grocery Costs
    3. Lower Health Care Costs
    4. Lower Prescription Drug Costs
    5. Lower Energy Costs
    6. Lower Costs by Protecting Consumers From Fees and Fraud
    7. Help Americans Buy a Home and Afford Rent
    8. Invest in the Small Businesses That Drive Growth, Innovation, and Jobs
    9. Invest in American Innovation and Industrial Strength Powered by American Workers
    10. Create Security and Opportunity for Workers and Build a Care Economy
    11. Strengthen Opportunity in Communities Across America
    12. Protect Americans’ Ability to Retire With Dignity
    13. Make Our Tax Code More Fair and Promote Growth

    When sections of the US media called Harris a "radical", it for policies like cutting taxes for low and middle income earners.

    Or cutting the cost of living by reducing the costs of prescription medicines.

    Or increasing funding for scientific research.

    Those same media outlets painted Trump as being the sensible economic manager.

    His policies included giving 18 year olds unfettered access to core government systems, and imposing massive tariffs on allies.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @JessTheUnstill They certainly should in any foreign government's bid to counter Trump's tariffs.

    A 10% tax on revenues on Google ads, Facebook ads, Amazon purchases, AWS usage fees, Netflix subscriptions, all Apple products, ChatGPT subscriptions, and all Tesla products would make Silicon Valley take notice.

    @kentparkstreet1@mastodon.online avatar kentparkstreet1 , to random

    The US is attacking our economy and the economies of our friends and allies.

    It’s difficult to end all US products and services, but we can all cut out some.

    Tourism is an easy one, and most food products can be replaced, usually by better quality.

    Let’s all boycott all we can from the US.

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @kentparkstreet1 Also, try to get the likes of Google and Microsoft out of your life as much as you can.

    And also support local artists and cinema!

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @rexbron @JessTheUnstill @kentparkstreet1 I could see something like Hostinger for email, domain, and VPS/web hosting; plus Nextcloud; plus Collabora Office filling the void. Perhaps alongside Odoo as an ERP/CRM/business application platform?

    I know for a single user, @nextcloud plus hosted email is a great alternative.

    And the setup I described would work well for small to medium sized organisations.

    I'm not sure how well it would scale for enterprise?

    If you had a university with 50,000–100,000 staff and students, or a large corporation or government department, could a Nextcloud deployment scale?

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @rexbron @JessTheUnstill @kentparkstreet1 @nextcloud And I answered my own question. Looks like there is a Nextcloud version for enterprise: https://nextcloud.com/enterprise/

    So hosted email + Nextcloud Enterprise + Collabora Office.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
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    @JessTheUnstill One of the big fuckups for BlackBerry was just the delays in getting BlackBerry 10, plus the Z10 and Q10, to market.

    I got to use BB10 for a couple of months, and it was nice. It was built on QNX, with a modern swipe/gesture based UI built with Qt.

    Arguably a better OS than the iOS and Android releases at that same time.

    There was a feature called the Hub, which wax a unified inbox for your email messages, social posts, and text messages. Plus a modern app store, and separate personal/work profiles built into the OS.

    There was a version without a physical keyboard (Z10) and with (Q10).

    The problem is they didn't start working on it until 2010, and BB10 wasn't released until 2013.

    For about two years before BB10 came out, BlackBerry didn't release any new phones.

    Had BB10 come out earlier, it might have saved the company.

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @JessTheUnstill From what I gather, the other issue was BB10 was stuck in development hell for around three years.

    Potential shipping dates repeatedly came and went with no new phones!

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @kkarhan @JessTheUnstill @fuchsiii On Nokia, I know @tomiahonen is on Mastodon, and might be able to shed more light on what happened internally there?

    But the short version is Nokia chose the worst of all possible worlds by going with Windows Phone.

    Yeah, Symbian was reaching the end of its life. There were three choices to replace it:

    a) MeeGo. Ended up only shipping on one phone: The Nokia N9 in 2011. People still rave about that phone today. Possibly the best option.

    b) Android. Basically, what Nokia's successor HMD is doing, except they would have had far more momentum by going early.

    c) Windows Phone. History shows how that multi-billion-dollar blunder worked out. And I liked WP. I used it for around a year at one point. But MSFT completely mishandled it.

    As for Firefox OS, I think Mozilla completely misjudged the market for it.

    No, the first market for an open source phone with an app ecosystem based on open web standards shouldn't have been underpowered devices for emerging economies.

    It was for people who run Linux on the desktop at home, people who run deGoogled Android, and people who work in software development/IT/InfoSec.

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    The thing about “freedom of speech” guys is they never mean yours.

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @Daojoan And when they're in power, it means "you have the right to vilify the marginalised communities that are being targeted by the government".

    And your right to free speech absolutely does not include the right to criticise them.

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to random

    Question for those of you outside the US: At what point does China become the lesser evil out of China and America?

    @atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar atomicpoet , to movies

    Hannibal Rising, released in 2007, is terrible. Horrible. Awful. Where do I even start?

    Audiences seemed to like it. Critics hated it. Sometimes, I think critics get things wrong, but in this case, they were right. The audiences were wrong. Hannibal Rising is a film that shouldn’t have existed.

    The movie tries to offer a rationale for why Hannibal Lecter became a violent psychopath. Guess what? It’s because of Nazis. This film paints him as a hero, as though he’s some kind of Nazi hunter avenging a great injustice—and that completely wrecks the character.

    In the first Hannibal Lecter film, The Silence of the Lambs, he was pure evil. That was the appeal: not just that he was evil, but that he was skilled at manipulation. Hannibal Rising kicks sand in the eye of that portrayal. It’s a total tonal shift. We don’t need Hannibal as a good guy. We don’t need to feel empathy for a serial killer. He doesn’t need to be an antihero.

    And what is with this obsession with antiheroes? Why do they need to exist? Why can’t bad guys just be bad guys? Do we really need a psychological breakdown explaining why Hannibal became what he was? I don’t know. This whole appetite for antiheroes rubs me the wrong way. We don’t need to pretend bad people are somehow good. And we definitely don’t need a sexy Hannibal.

    That’s another thing. This movie presents him as a suave bad boy, and it just becomes even creepier—but not in the way the film intended. And I’ll get into why in a moment.

    Because beyond all that, this movie suffers from inexplicable Orientalism.

    Young Hannibal—who, by the way, is a minor at the start of the film—has a guardian, a Japanese woman living in France. And somehow, she embodies every Asian stereotype imaginable. She has a basement where she worships her ancestors. She keeps ancient swords. Her house is full of kimonos and various Japanese knickknacks.

    I don’t know how Gong Li felt playing this character, especially given China’s history with Japan—particularly during World War II, when much of this film takes place. But the exoticism of her character really rubbed me the wrong way. It reduces Asian women to caricatures.

    And since I have a Chinese Canadian wife, I would never watch this film with her. I know she’d find it offensive.

    But it gets worse.

    This Japanese guardian—again, his guardian when he was a minor—becomes his love interest. That’s right. They kiss. She becomes his lover. Who approved that decision? My God, it’s so awkward. Why did she have to be his guardian? Why couldn’t she just be someone he met by chance in France? No, she had to be his literal guardian. And yeah, the whole thing felt incestuous.

    And let’s talk about the budget.

    This film cost $75 million. Seventy-five million dollars. And for what? The entire story is ridiculous. You know, yesterday I was talking about The Asylum—the kings of mockbusters—and how sometimes, just sometimes, their mockbusters are better than the blockbusters they’re parodying. If The Asylum had made a mockbuster of Hannibal Rising, it probably would have been better. And it would’ve cost $500,000.

    I mean, I see where the money went. The big crowd shots. The technically impressive cinematography. The sound design. Sure, it all looks good. But in terms of storytelling? In terms of characters making any sense? Nothing works.

    And the ending? Completely absurd. I won’t spoil anything, just in case someone decides to watch it, but let’s just say—I laughed. Not because the film was being intentionally funny, but because it was so bad.

    The one good thing about this film?

    Gaspard Ulliel. He gave a solid performance with what little he had. He played a decent Hannibal. If you judge the film solely on his performance—great. But one good actor doesn’t make a movie. He still had to act alongside everyone else. And as good as he was, one actor can only do so much.

    By the way, RIP Gaspard Ulliel. He passed away in 2022 in a skiing accident, which was tragic. But he donated his organs and saved six lives in the process. That’s something worth remembering.

    I’d like to check out his other films because Hannibal Rising did not do him justice.

    So, you probably know where I’m going with this—I don’t recommend Hannibal Rising. Out of all the Hannibal films and even the TV show, this is the worst offering by far.

    Skip this one. You don’t need a sexy, Nazi-hunting Hannibal who sleeps with his Japanese guardian.

    https://youtu.be/NCCFleJPTAU

    movies@piefed.social icon movies

    Hannibal Rising film poster
    ALT
    ajsadauskas , (edited )
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @atomicpoet movies@piefed.social icon movies I saw this one when it first came out in cinemas.

    I remember it being just hilariously bad.

    First, Castle Lechter is depicted as being a castle atop a mountain.

    Yeah, the filmmakers have clearly never visited Lithuania.

    It's a really flat country. The highest "mountain" is just 293.84 metres tall, and just outside Vilnius: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auk%C5%A1tojas_Hill

    That also ain't a Lithuanian-style castle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trakai_Island_Castle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaunas_Castle

    Next problem: The name Hannibal.

    The letters "f" and "h" are not native to Lithuanian, and only appear in loanwords.

    Also, it doesn't end in a masculine-form noun suffix such as -as, -ius, or -is.

    So something like Anibalas would be nontraditional but at least Lithuanian-sounding. Hannibal is pretty much by definition a loanword.

    Also, Lechter. The Lithuanian soft ch (like "cheese") is written as č. Hard ch is written as a k. And again, needs a masculine-form noun suffix.

    So maybe Lečturis or Lukturas, not Lechter.

    (For that matter, Misha sounds Russian. Robert, as in Robert Lechter, sounds English—it should be Robertas.)

    Back to that castle. Are these guys nobility from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1180s–1569), the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795), or the czarist Russian occupation (1795–1918)?

    1/3

    ajsadauskas , (edited )
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @atomicpoet movies@piefed.social icon movies Given all the non-Lithuanian names, I'm guessing it's probably one of the latter two?

    In which case, it was good on Antanas Smetona to let them hold on to the castle during the First Lithuanian republic (1918–1939): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Smetona

    And when the Soviets invaded the first time from 1939 to 1941 after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it was nice that they let them keep the castle. Especially given 130,000 people from the Baltic states were forcibly deported in that time: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_occupation_of_the_Baltic_states_(1940)

    And the Lechters somehow held on to the castle through the German Nazi occupation (1941–1944) as well.

    Now, let's run through the names of the Lithuanian Nazis. Vladis Grutas, Petras Kolnas are both plausible (-is! -as! Not hard!).

    Then Enrikas (okay) Dortlich. Dortlich I presume had a dad from Serbia or Croatia?

    Then there's Zigmas (okay) Milko. The charitable explanation here is his dad is Russian.

    Because in Lithuanian, the -o suffix denotes a noun in the possessive/genitive case. Roughly equivalent to -'s in English.

    For example, Kauno apskritis translates to Kaunas' county.

    Also, the word for milk in Lithuanian is pienas. But "milk" gets used sometimes as a loanword with imported dairy products.

    So there's a villain named Ziggy Foreign-milk's

    Or Ziggy Owned-by-a-foreign-milk.

    2/3

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @atomicpoet movies@piefed.social icon movies Now we fast forward to 1952, at the height of the Cold War.

    Stalin is still running the Soviet Union, and there's an anti-Soviet-occupation insurgency in Lithuania: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_partisans

    Castle Lechter in the Lithuanian Alps has finally been seized by the Commies and turned into an orphanage.

    (As an aside, my elderly mum still jokes about "that movie with the castle in the Lithuanian alps" 20 years later.)

    Young Hannibal's uncle is a descendant of Lithuanian aristocracy living in France.

    He somehow gets permission from the Stalinist Russian authorities to visit his family's ancestral castle in occupied Lithuania.

    This French citizen somehow managed to rescue/adopt a kid from Soviet-occupied Lithuania. And the Russians were cool with it?

    What gets glossed over is the potentially problematic detail of when Uncle Lechter moved to France?

    More precisely: Was it after the end of World War 2, or before?

    If it's before: The Germans that occupied France weren't exactly keen on interracial marriages at that time, even if it involved people from their AXIS partner. There's implications.

    That's before the action.

    Yes, I'm overanalysing an awful film.

    But if you set a film in a random country without basic research, you end up with "Belonging to imported dairy products" as a villain.

    3/3

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup My condolences 🫂

    Dogs (and cats) are a part of the family.

    And when they go, it hurts as much as losing a human loved one.

    This week will be tough. But it will get easier over time.

    Take care 💜

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    Thank you for the condolences and kind words, yesterday was the hardest day of my life.

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup My condolences 🫂

    Dogs and cats are a big part of your family.

    And I know, from experience, losing them can hurt as much as losing a human relative.

    Don't feel embarrassed or ashamed of being upset over the loss. It's natural to grieve after the loss of someone you love, whether they're a human or a canine.

    Give yourself the time and space to mourn, and cry if you need to.

    It might feel dark immediately after it happens, but please know that it will get easier over time.

    Take care 💜💜💜

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    Buzzfeed is building an AI powered social media network, just what nobody asked for lol. I’m sure this will end well

    https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/11/buzzfeed-is-taking-on-instagram-tiktok-x-with-a-new-social-platform-designed-to-spread-joy/

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup Here's the key part:

    “We do the doomscrolling for you so you can follow the biggest trends, find the hidden gems, and be in the loop without wasting your time and risking your mental health. We will also counter the anger and fear with a sense of humor, laughing at the buffoonery and ridiculousness of the most powerful people."

    So instead of hiring young journalism grads to write listicles, ChatGPT will do it instead.

    Yay—I guess?

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup The 503s were Pixelfed related?

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup Ah okay, sorry the way you initially phrased it made it sound like new Pixelfed posts or signups were causing mastodon.social's servers to become unstable.

    And if Pixelfed was getting that volume of growth, then that's a good/bad problem to have...

    @_elena@mastodon.social avatar _elena , to random

    Good morning Fedi friends!

    An update regarding my Fedi video, articles for (plus unreleased photos from FOSDEM):

    all my work has grinded to a halt because my little one has a bad case of stomach flu, so she is home from preschool – likely all week, poor thing.

    The most I can manage right now is the occasional toot (while she is asleep, like right now), but it’s impossible to do any deep work this week. I’m in mom / nurse mode.

    Wishing you all a great week, stay healthy

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @_elena I'm curious: At this stage, are self-hosted Ghost blogs on the Fediverse?

    I tried WriteFreely, but unfortunately it's a bit too minimalist for what I'm after.

    So I'm tossing up between WordPress and Ghost.

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @_elena @brunogirin @lenarossini.com The temptation to start up your own SearX instance, not because you need to host your you search engine but because you can, us definitely strong with Yuno 😂

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
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    @JessTheUnstill Depends on what style of protest it is.

    But generally with your classic protest march, what happens is you gather at a particular place and march as a group to a particular building. Often a town hall, government building, or corporate headquarters.

    If it's a bigger protest march, there's likely to be more than one group involved. They're likely to range from the friends of Kropotkin, Marx, Trotsky through to trade unions and issue-specific groups. March with the folx you most comfortable with/identify with.

    There will likely be people handing out leaflets of various kinds. If it's your first time at a protest, say hi and mention it's your first time. They'll fill you in on what's planned and generally be more than happy to talk about the cause.

    A lot of the chants will be call and respond. The person on the megaphone will say something and everyone else will answer back. You'll get the hang of it quickly.

    Usually at the start and end of the protest, there'll be people giving speeches. Possibly there'll be a singer songwriter performing some protest songs.

    Not bringing a phone is a good idea as it's likely to be tracked, but maybe bring along something like an Evercade for a few games if you have one?

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    Pixelfed, Loops, PubKit, Groups, Sup, FediDB, Stories, FediBlade, Cloud, FediCDN, RespectfulPlatforms.org

    2025 is our year, spread the word ✨

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup I love your work. Genuine question: Where do you find the time?

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random
    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @Daojoan Followed 😊

    @pojntfx@mastodon.social avatar pojntfx , to random

    That ... that's even worse

    Screenshot of https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/us/politics/trump-policies-immigration-tariffs-economy.html
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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @pojntfx A (small-l) liberal reformer, a social democrat, an anarcho-socialist, and a far-right nationalist might agree that the system is broken.

    But why it's broken, and what they suggest needs to be done to fix it, will vary greatly.

    And that seems to be the case in America right now...

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
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    @dansup Notify me on launch ✅

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup Official Pixelfed account on BlueSky? 🥺

    @osma@mas.to avatar osma , to random

    Uninstalled my Pixelfed beta app and reinstalled it from Play Store to see a fresh experience. I can't log into my pixelfed.social account because the Login button doesn't work. Using Firefox instead of Chrome on my Android 14 Samsung S22 phone.
    @pixelfed

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @kallekn @osma @pixelfed Over the past day or so, there's been a massive number of people migrating from Instagram to Pixelfed.social for Zuck-related reasons.

    Earlier today, it was particularly bad, because many were trying to pull across their Instagram posts and videos at the same time.

    You can probably imagine how thousands of people suddenly trying to upload hundreds of megabytes of photos and videos at the same time isn't great for server capacity.

    @dansup temporarily switched off file migration and, at one point, federation to keep the site online.

    It seems to have stabilised a little, but it's still intermittently patchy.

    Most of the first-time users are signing up at the main instance, so Pixelfed.Social is likely to be a bit wobbly where other instances aren't.

    Hopefully in the coming days, as more server capacity comes online, those issues settle down...

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    What a time to be alive, it’s now Pixelfed and Loops time to shine ✨

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup How's the servers holding up? Looks like they're taking quite the beating from all the new accounts!

    And is there a rough estimate of how many new accounts have signed up today?

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    To everyone who dismissed Pixelfed because it lacked a mobile app:

    Great news - we now have an official app, and true to our values, it's fully open source.

    The wait is over.

    Welcome to a new chapter of mobile friendly, decentralized photo sharing.

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup Any chance of the official Pixelfed account following BridgyFed?

    It's time to spread the propaganda on the butterfly app.

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to random

    The past few days, I've been toying with the idea of setting up a single-user Mastodon instance.

    I'm currently looking at Masto.host as a hosting provider. The prices seem reasonable?

    First, for those who have rolled their own instance: How has the experience been? Any advice you'd share with a self-hosting newbie? Any pitfalls or downsides?

    Have you gone with a specialist managed prover like Masto.host?

    Are there any major advantages or disadvantages over a vanilla cPanel web hosting provider that supports Mastodon?

    Another option I'm toying with is using a single instance of Friendica as my Fedi home, and consolidating everything there, including photos.

    Are there any managed hosting providers that support Friendica?

    ajsadauskas OP ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @_elena @ed @elena I just took a look at Yunohost and it looks interesting. I note it supports Friendica too, which is a big plus 😁

    Any particular VPS you're using to host Yuno? I'm definitely open to recommendations!

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    Pixelfed + Bluesky (via Bridgy)

    Interesting 🧐

    Pixelfed post bridged to Bluesky: AJ Sadauskas + Follow @ajsadauskas.pixelfed.social.ap.brid.gy Catching the overnight XPT train from Melbourne to Sydney in a sleeper cabin. (More photos on Pixelfed.) #train #trains #rail #railways #urbanism
    ALT
    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup I don't know what magic you and @snarfed.org weaved. But with Bridgy Fed working, Pixelfed is the best photo app for BlueSky 😁

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
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    @dansup @jstevenyork Can you include the ICQ uh-oh too? 🥺

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup @lefteristrip23 @supapp Will Sup's bridges include SMS (at least on Android), FB Messenger, BSky, and WhatsApp?

    If so, sounds like a great Beeper replacement 😎

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to random

    Here's a little trick for anyone reading this on BlueSky who wants longer posts.

    See the button below that reads "Original post on social. vivaldi. net"?

    Tap it to see the full post, where you'll learn how I did it 👇

    (You've probably seen other posts like this one. Here's how those posts are done.)

    Okay.

    So the fact you're reading this means you clicked the button. You're now reading a longer version of this post with a 1337 character limit.

    How I did it was by setting up an account on a different social media app called Mastodon.

    How you set it up is by going to https://mastodon.social and clicking the create account button.

    (Sidenote: This also works with most other websites that use the Mastodon software for their social media app. I use https://social.vivaldi.net, which is run by the same folks as the @Vivaldi web browser.)

    Once you've set up an account, upload your profile photo and follow @bsky.brid.gy

    BSky Bridgy is a service by @snarfed.org that makes your Mastodon posts visible on BlueSky.

    (Note: As an anti-spam measure, you need a profile photo and your account on Mastodon needs to be active for a week before your posts appear on BlueSky.)

    Once it's set up, all your posts on Mastodon will be visible on BlueSky. Including longer posts, like this one 😊

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to Not Just Bikes

    Great video by @notjustbikes notjustbikes@feddit.nl icon Not Just Bikes about what's really behind Doug Ford's bike lane ban in Toronto.

    It's basically a fartlighting distraction.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgFCQ7jEZxI

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to DeGoogle Yourself

    So I just took the next step on the de-Googling pathway and installed Asteroid OS on my smartwatch.

    For the uninitiated, Asteroid OS is an open source alternative operating system that replaces Google's WearOS: https://asteroidos.org/

    And my first impressions are that it's really nice 😁

    So far, I actually like it better than WearOS.

    The process for getting it set up was a little fiddly, and it took two attempts to get it right.

    That's as much to do with the fastboot menu on my phone and its tiny text.

    I wouldn't recommend doing it to my great uncle, but it's easy enough for anyone who knows their way around the terminal in Ubuntu. The instructions were very clear too.

    degoogle@lemmy.ml icon DeGoogle Yourself

    ajsadauskas OP ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @basyl degoogle@lemmy.ml icon DeGoogle Yourself From the FAQ:

    "AsteroidOS is an open source Linux distribution that runs on many different smartwatches. It uses Qt and QML to provide the graphical interface.

    "A phone is not required to use AsteroidOS, but several convenient functions are available when an AsteroidOS watch is paired with one of the synchronization clients listed in the documentation. A synchronization client is generically what we call software that runs on a phone or computer that knows how to talk via Bluetooth to an AsteroidOS device.

    "Android users can use "AsteroidOSSync" which is available for download on F-Droid. Or try Gadgetbridge from F-Droid with initial AsteroidOS support. Mind that on Android 13 and later devices, you will need to manually enable "restricted notification access". The option is hidden behind the three dot menu in app-info.

    "AsteroidOS does not collect any tracking data and you don't need to use or establish any accounts to use it. Nothing on the default installation is able to connect to the internet. While it is possible to connect an AsteroidOS watch to the internet this must be explicitly done by the user."

    More details here: https://wiki.asteroidos.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions_(FAQ)

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    Think Republicans rigged the election against Kamala Harris?

    The truth is far messier — and more painful — than any conspiracy theory.

    https://www.joanwestenberg.com/no-the-election-wasnt-rigged/

    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @Daojoan "A Black woman aiming for high office doesn’t just run a campaign; she walks straight into a minefield of deeply ingrained biases. These reactions aren’t always loud or obvious; they’re the quiet, insidious kind that people hardly notice in themselves. But they’re there, and they tip the scales. For centuries, folks have been programmed to see certain faces as “unfit” for power, and Kamala walks right into the crosshairs of biases her white male counterparts glide past without a scratch."

    Nailed it.

    Racism is real.

    Misogyny is real.

    Transphobia is real.

    Although Kamala isn't trans, she was up against all three in this campaign.

    Even against a pre-Trump Republican candidate — a Bush or a Romney — that would have been tough.

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars

    The Victorian government is opening up car parks near train stations for apartments.

    Despite not mandating enough affordable housing, this is a good policy that should be rolled out nationally.

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-train-station-car-parks-being-sold-off-for-hundreds-of-new-homes-20241105-p5knze.html

    fuck_cars@lemmy.ml icon Fuck Cars

    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar ajsadauskas , to PopHeads

    Okay, everyone drop what you're doing and take a look at this 👇

    It's an isolated vocal track of John Farnham, circa around 1987, singing his cover of When The War Is Over.

    If you want to skip to the big chorus at the end, it's at 3:30:

    popheads@poptalk.scrubbles.tech icon PopHeads

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys-w7YCWnhE

    ajsadauskas OP ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    popheads@poptalk.scrubbles.tech icon PopHeads @sheeds I think I can fairly safely assume everyone in Australia knows this song already.

    For anyone overseas who hasn't heard it before, or anyone who wants to see the original clip, here you go 👇

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfWrXc5eN8g

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup @loops All good ☺️

    Getting Loops working is a massive undertaking, and I'm sure I speak for many when I say we really appreciate your efforts 😊

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , (edited ) to random

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    ajsadauskas ,
    @ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net avatar

    @dansup Got my waiting list email 😁

    Thanks for sorting the issue that prevented existing Pixelfed users from signing up 😊