🔗 Manton Reece - An update on the pricing update
Micro.blog is such a great value. Like omg.lol, Micro.blog is a positive community built by people who didn’t see exactly what they wanted on the web, so they decided to make it.
Links
I do something similar (even in name), with quicklinks.(dot)lol, but Floh Gro’s solution using an action in Drafts for iOS is faster, and private.
Update February 1, 2025: I let my above quicklinks domain lapse and someone else snagged it, and it redirects somewhere weird, which I don’t have time to vet for malicious or nefarious intent, so I’ve removed the hyperlink. However, you should still be able to access the latest version on both this website, at ql.joeross.me, and at the GitHub repository.
🔗 Manton Reece - Recommendations and blogrolls on Micro.blog
I’ve long meant to get a blogroll up on this site, and it’s another testament to the fact that I’ve chosen the right community that it was recently integrated into Micro.blog, including auto-updating, public OPML and JSON exports.
🔗 U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction – Six Colors
I haven’t read the complaint yet, but this was… not what I expected Attorney General Merrick Garland to have his people focused on…
🔗 Scholarfy | Google Scholar bookmarklet by Johan Ugander
This is a useful bookmarklet to move a standard Google search to Google Scholar. I use it with modified version I made with ChatGPT to search an exact phrase, for use in searching for legal opinions.
Here’s “my” code:
javascript:location = ‘scholar.google.com/scholar"’ escape(document.forms[0].elements[‘q’].value) ‘"';
The best part about the 32-Bit Cafe is that we’re trying to move the internet forward productively in the ways we can make an impact, participating in the creation of web services, websites, and weird, wacky web projects. We want to bring back the idea of personal websites to the many of us who have been stuck in social media cycles since the emergence of Web 2.0. Not to mention, we’re not just helping people build their first websites; we’re also making our own hosted services for anyone to use and participate in to help with decentralizing hosted services.
This is exactly the kind of thing I love to see.
Chris Geidner at Law Dork has the best explanation of why the 5th Circuit’s jurisprudence has become so, to use a legal term of art, whacky:
At the end of the day, there are essentially three groups of active judges on the Fifth Circuit: There are “mad vibes” judges, legally conservative judges, and legally moderate (or more left) judges.
Geidner is so insightful and prolific that, and I mean this as a high compliment, it irritates me a little.
🔗 Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice
Bill Toulas, writing at Bleeping Computer:
Targeting open-source software developers tends to backfire for companies, as others fork or clone the code repositories to prevent the projects from disappearing.
At this time, the Haier home assistant plugins have been forked 228 times, many occurring since the news of the legal threats.
Now?
1,462 forks.
These were niche plugins for niche software for a niche audience before Haier let the lawyers loose.
Hey Haier, Ms. Streisand called… she wants her effect back.
List of Indie Dev Sales Events
Matt Corey put together a list of developers holding sales in an indie software version of Amazon’s Prime Day:
Below, you’ll find a list of over 100 (🤯) Indie apps that are offering discounts for Indie App Sales, July 11-12! Each of these apps is developed by an Indie App Developer - that can mean a lot of different things, but generally speaking, these are built by very small teams, or individuals either full time or part time. Indie App Developers are the epitome of small businesses, and sure do appreciate your support!
Mark Frauenfelder, writing at Boing Boing:
A recent study of sleep loss and depression found that one night of total sleep deprivation generally worsens mood and emotional regulation in healthy individuals, but induces a temporary lift in spirits for some individuals with depression. . . . The findings were remarkable: lack of sleep escalated negative mood among the healthy subjects, but eased depressive symptoms in 43% of the patients with depression.
Presented without comment. 😐
Here’s a link to the study itself. Let me know if any copies fall off the back of any trucks, because i don’t have access to PNAS.
Firefox address bar modifiers - the tilde.institute wiki:
The address bar has become our entry point to the internet these days. Firefox in its default configuration does some sort of smart guess on what you type there. If it resembles a URL then the browser makes that request. If not, it sends the string you typed to your default search engine. It also includes some fuzzy search matches from your history and all that, which is fine 90% of the time, but sometimes you need a bit more control over what results it shows you.
I had no idea. These are super-useful.
(via Hacker News)
CEO Steve Huffman’s bumbling, slow-motion destruction of reddit would be a huge loss to collective knowledge on the web.
Without the ability to append “reddit” to most queries, Google Search is mostly worthless unless you’re looking for sponsored content or SEO-abusing nonsense results.
“Lawyers’ vile emails exposed”
Sometimes I write a long, angry blog post about a thing, fully intending to post it all for the world to see, but then I save it to my journaling app, and just post a link to what prompted the angry draft while I decide if I should make my angry thoughts public, whether I should edit them a bit, whether the anger is productive or will just be seen as virtue signaling.
This is one of those links. 1
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The New York Post broke the story, but I’m a fan of supporting that rag with even a single link on my minuscule blog, so I’m linking to the Daily Beast re-write. You’ll find the Post link there easily enough if you want it. ↩︎
Oldest Search - Search for the oldest result on internet
This is one of those things I just love about the internet, a fun, simple thing, done well. The oldest result for my name is a 1982 NY Times obituary on Joe E. Ross, another New Jersey native, of Car 54 fame.
Markdown images are an anti-pattern | daverupert.com
Dave Rupert doesn’t see a place in Markdown for images, and I agree. Just use an img tag. But his good point and my agreement with it aren’t really the reason I’m sharing a link to his post.
I’m sharing it because he writes with the voice of a sage but slightly jaded manager who’s just trying to save new developers from bad habits and messy code. It’s refreshingly devoid of arrogance, and refreshingly full of practical examples of why his position makes sense.
It’s also how I try to approach working with less experienced lawyers. Just replace “developers” with “lawyers” and “code” with “argumentation.”
Thanks to Eric Meyer for linking to Rupert’s post on Mastodon, where I found it.
Craig Hockenberry, announces ‘Blank’ for Apple tvOS
I’m happy to announce the release of a new tvOS app called Blank. It turns your screen black and keeps it that way until you press any button on a remote. Seriously, that’s all it does.
Simple and useful.
Mac Gmail client Mimestream reaches 1.0
Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:
If you’re a Gmail user, Mimestream will be a revelation. Since it was built from the ground up to understand Google’s approach to email, it doesn’t suffer from the weird workarounds required to map an IMAP protocol metaphor onto Gmail’s particular quirks. Instead, it behaves… like Gmail. But in a pure, Swift-driven Mac app.
Mimestream is by far the best experience a Gmail user can possibly have on a Mac. It’s been rock solid in my daily use throughout the beta, and having those familiar keyboard shortcuts let’s me move through email like lightning.
But, while betas are free, honest-to-goodness one-point-ohs have price tags, as they should:
The biggest change in going to version 1.0 is that, after two years of using an in-progress email app for free, it’s time for Mimestream to become a real app—with real money changing hands. The app is available as a $5 monthly subscription or a $50 annual subscription. (There’s a 40% discount offer for year one available for the next few weeks.)
I just put down my $30, and I won’t think twice next year to put down the full $50. Software that saves you frustration and time is worth every penny.
Court Junkie podcast episode on Eric Frein trial
Monday, May 8, 2017
Court Junkie podcast episode on Eric Frein trial I was a law clerk when the murder of Corporal Bryon Dickson and near-murder of Trooper Alex Douglass sparked a weeks-long manhunt that resulted in the capture, trial and conviction of Eric Matthew Frein. I won’t talk about anything I did with …A disturbing sex trend called 'stealthing' is on the rise
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
A disturbing sex trend called ‘stealthing’ is on the rise ‘Stealthing’ is the non-consensual removal a condom during sex. Alexandra Brodsky’s article in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law [PDF] is powerful, nuanced and well-presented. And I, too, can be powerful, …New Orleans: an unethical District Attorney and an overworked Public Defender
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Prosecuted by her legal counterpart: ‘It destroyed my life in so many ways’ This DA should resign, now: At least six defense attorneys and investigators say they faced threats of criminal charges by the Orleans parish district attorney for doing their jobs, the Guardian has found. Since …A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place
Friday, April 21, 2017
A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a lot of things. But so far, none of those things include “good at being Attorney General.” Would you hire a builder who, when he finds out you …Sources: Nintendo to launch SNES mini this year
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Sources: Nintendo to launch SNES mini this year Tom Phillips writes at Eurogamer: The reality of a SNES mini is certainly exciting - while the NES was unique for being Nintendo's first home console, the SNES arguably boasts the better software line-up, and a catalogue of classics far more advanced …Alex Jones' rock and hard place: Authentic lunatic or performance artist and fit parent?
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
In Travis County custody case, jury will search for real Alex Jones Jonathan Tilove reports this story for American-Statesman: Beginning Monday, a jury will be selected at the Travis County Courthouse that in the next two weeks will be asked to sort out whether there is a difference between the …Unenforceable ban on atheists holding public office still on the books in 8 states
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Unenforceable ban on atheists holding public office still on the books in 8 states This is an old story but after reading an article about a study [PDF] suggesting there are many atheists who don’t want to admit they’re atheists, I remembered reading about how a country which prides …Mentally incompetent Utah man dies in hospital after jail episode left him paralyzed
Friday, April 14, 2017
Mentally incompetent Utah man dies in hospital after jail episode left him paralyzed Is this the kind of country where we let mental illness go untreated to the point where someone in jail for fighting with a couple of cops is effectively allowed to commit suicide, while on suicide watch? Jail video …United Airlines Tumbles After Social-Media Storm Goes Global
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
United Airlines Tumbles After Social-Media Storm Goes Global Justin Bachman and Linly Lin reporting at Bloomberg Markets: United Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz apologized on Monday for “having to re-accommodate these customers.” The airline is conducting a review and seeks to resolve the …The magnificent stupidity of the "nuclear option"
Monday, April 10, 2017
The magnificent stupidity of the “nuclear option” It’s a trainwreck. Republicans undoubtedly stole the nomination from Merrick Garland, which makes calls by the GOP for Democrats to stop being obstructionist rich in hypocrisy. But then again, there’s plenty of hypocrisy in Democratic …Senate Republicans Vote To Gut Internet Privacy
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Senate Republicans Vote To Gut Internet Privacy Hamza Shaban, writing for BuzzFeed: The Senate voted Thursday to make it easier for internet service providers to share sensitive information about their customers, a first step in overturning landmark privacy rules that consumer advocates and …Heinz running Don Draper’s ‘Pass the Heinz’ ads
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Heinz running Don Draper’s ‘Pass the Heinz’ ads Tim Nudd at Adweek: In a meta union of advertising’s real and fictional worlds, Heinz just greenlighted the ads—and will run them almost exactly as Draper intended, beginning today, in print and out-of-home executions in New York City. This is awesome, …Trans characters in the first big video games of 2017
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Trans characters in the first big video games of 2017 Laura Dale, writing at Polygon: The past month of AAA video game releases might be the most interesting I have ever experienced as a trans woman, meaning someone who was designated male at birth but is now living as female. While far from perfect …