Daniel DiDonato, 18, drafted new state senate districts at home on free software β and a judge picked his map ahead of professionalsβ efforts to remedy voting rights violations
And so it begins⦠New day, woke up to -7 feels like -17, is it any wonder i took the week off? Any how, to breakfast, hash brown patty in the air fryer, container of overnight oats in a pot of water, summer sausage and Gouda ready for the omelet, beans for the side, and the all important coffee
Trying something new, leaning towards th 70's style 8n wearing a jumpsuit, but like all clothes, the fit leaves something to be desired. Shoulders and upper chest are tight, as is stomach when i sit, the rest is fine. The waist ferls a bit loose, but i typically wear a belt, and wear it tight, so that's likely just me, i mean I've never liked drawstring pants or elastic waistbands either. I swear, i need someone in St Louis who can custom tailor clothes for me ad nothing fits, i mean i think my actual pants size is 39X33 which doesn't exist.
β’β’looks aroundβ’β’ Quiet at this time of nightβ¦ 0300, what's the pup doing up now? Well, its actually rather normal for me, I often get up to go to the bathroom, or just because, and wind up staying up for 2 or 3 hours, killing time with reading, solitaire and/or porn. Today we're trying something new, I'm basically just starting the day now, munching on some oatmeal, going to make the rest of the breakfast, even coffee, thenβ¦ Maybe go back to sleep, maybe stay up, dunno.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman announced his campaign to oust GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, who was appointed to replace former Sen. Marco Rubio last year.
This is my updated coffee area, just some sign changes, the ones on the shelf? Yeah, those were tossed wherever there was space because they had no way to be hung. So, put up a cheap picture ledge I wasn't using after moving the rise and shine sign up and the coffee sign over⦠Really should've mounted that one up there in the first place, looks great over there. Addicted to coffee? Nahh, not at all⦠Its not like there's a hanging basket of coffee pods out of the frame, nor a drawer with another basket of them, coffee pouches and a small amount of already ground coffee.
So on my third try of selling Vik's comic collection, and this one might happen, yay. That'll make some room, and once @RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist chooses any books he wants, that'll start going, and we'll get some space.
Its a little frustrating how much stuff there is to clear, but there's a story there. We had some low points in Phoenix, I'm undoubtedly somewhat to blame for that, I've never been great at sticking to a job, and I tend to create chaos. That said, I would work more if'n I could, sell off anything I could, I mean I really have never been attached to things, people, etc, particularly things since my bankruptcy, resulting in a house where maybe 20% of the stuff here is mine. Yeah, really, and that was before his mom passed, and he pulled in a lot of her stuff. Need to get someone from the family to come get a lot of this stuff, between just photos, quilts and her birds, I'll prolly have enough to fill a minivan
With that in mind, lots to sell here, and a great desire, a very great desire, to down size. Still considering the future, both location, likely Illinois, though there's a slim chance of Maryland, and likely building a house, maybe a tiny home, I mean I already know I don't need more than 900 sq ft, and could do as little as 600. An estate sale isn't really an option, companies like that really expect volume and/or stuff people want to buy... A few collectibles, no antiques, and Ikea furniture at best isn't really their thing. So, we'll be at the first three flea markets at Sunset Hills community center, those are... March, April and May I think, I've already paid for my spaces, but I do need to touch base as I haven't received an info packet or anything like that, but it might be too soon, we'll see.
So yeah, really clearing a lot out of here, not because I didn't love him, but because I need some space. Honestly, we were two train wrecks holding each other up, I started taking care of the finances because he just basically operated on a make and spend model, I made things work while he did what he wanted, on the other hand, I couldn't be trusted to stay at a job which didn't help, so he was the breadwinner.
I will say I'm loving this day and age, I do the type of work I like, without the constraints of a typical job, which fits my instability well. These days I basically do the same job as UPS, but using my phone, my car, and a gig app, and come and go as I please, if'n I get tired of deliveries, there's plenty of remote work out there. Or I'm thinking of getting a 3D printer and making things, find an artist so I can start a series of cryptid traffic signs, lots of ways to make money out there thanks to tech.
Ok, been trying a few new social medias out, and have very quickly come to decisions. Holos isn't for me, Loops is a great idea, and Wafrn is awesome. So, if'n you're following me here...
This place for the foreseeable future will be where I post my long blog entries, as well as where I follow Diaspora users ( @Andrew Pam any chance you have an AP account?) as well as my RSS feed reader.
@Vextaur will stick around, and hopefully the upload problems will be fixed so I can post my short videos, usually commentary on something work related
The specialty accounts here ( @The Taur Nation and @Recalls ) as well as the Admin account, @KΔpitan until I get my own hosted Wafrn instance. βββ So why's Holos going so soon? Really as I've mentioned, its not for me. I really recommend it for those whose social media is done through their phone, only one device is supported, and your phone/device is the server, you connect to the rest of the Fediverse via a relay so the only data that's anywhere other than your phone is the boosts, likes and friend requests from the Fediverse that came in while you were offline.
Why Wafrn? Amazingly enough despite being so young, its very polished, and somehow manages to have a lot of that Tumblr feel. Plus I love how posts are displayed there, along with the silly extras. Once I figure out how to link people to just post groups like I do categories here, I'll likely pack this place up, but that could be a while.
@mΚβ’ο»β’Κm jesuiSatire .. αβΜ€αα· Hosted, I'm rather clueless with computers, @GoFedi took over when SpaceHost shut down. Not sure for my Wafrn, no one really offers it yet, but I do have a lead on someone that might.
I don't have anything that speaks ActivityPub yet... but I plan to set up Friendica, and after your positive reviews I am interested in looking at Wafrn.
@Andrew Pam If'n you like Diaspora, I'd say give Wafrn a try, maybe jump on a instance like bark.wolp.chat where I am and take it for a test drive.
Friendica is pretty cool albeit a bit weird, I think its strong suit is if'n you like to do long text posts, images there's lots of other choices. Oh, and it doesn't do sound or video files.
The new stable release is out @Andrew Pam. You might wait a week or two to see if some last minute updates role in because of servers updating to the new release. The changelog states some fix in the installer so it might\should work again.
We are very happy to announce the availability of the new stable release of Friendica βBlutwurzβ 2026.01. In addition to several improvements and new features, this release contains fixes for security problems that Hrizi Bilel has notified us about. Thanks for your report! It also contains the first results of a accessibility review by Casey Kreer.
Some highlight of Friendica 2026.01 are
we overhauled the embedding of media from various sources and improved several aspects,
users can now sort widgets and channels,
the performance of system and user defined channels has improved,
admins can now export and import contact block lists and block access for non-logged in visitors to media included in posting.
If you have developed your own addons for Friendica note that we reworked our hook system and introduced a new AddonHelper class.
For details, please the CHANGELOG file in the repository.
What is Friendica
Friendica is a decentralised communications platform, you can use to host your own social media server that integrates with independent social networking platforms (like the Fediverse or Diaspora*) but also some commercial ones like Tumblr and BlueSky.
Ensure that the last backup of your Friendica installation was done recently.
Using Git
Updating from the git repositories should only involve a pull from the Friendica core repository and addons repository, regardless of the branch (stable or develop) you are using. Remember to update the dependencies with composer as well. So, assuming that you are on the stable branch, the commands to update your installation to the 2026.01 release would be cd friendica git pull bin/composer.phar run install:prod cd addon git pull If you want to use a different branch than the stable one, you need to fetch and checkout the branch before your perform the git pull.
Pulling in the dependencies with composer will show some deprecation warning, we will be working on that in the upcoming release.
As many files got deleted or moved around, please upload the unpacked files to a new directory on your server (say friendica_new) and copy over your existing configuration (config/local.config.php and config/addon.config.php) and .htaccess files. Afterwards rename your current Friendica directory (e.g. friendica) to friendica_old and friendica_new to friendica.
The files of the dependencies are included in the archive (make sure you are using the friendica-full-2026.01 archive), so you donβt have to worry about them.
Post Update Tasks
The database update should be applied automatically, but sometimes it gets stuck. If you encounter this, please initiate the DB update manually from the command line by running the script bin/console dbstructure update from the base of your Friendica installation. If the output contains any error message, please let us know using the channels mentioned below.
Please note, that some of the changes to the database structure will take some time to be applied, depending on the size of your Friendica database this update might run for days.
If you are using the daemon for your background worker, note that we have moved the functionality into the console. Adopt your setup to use the new bin/console daemon command.
Known Issues
At the time of writing this, none with 2026.01
How to Contribute
If you want to contribute to the project, you donβt need to have coding experience. There are a number of tasks listed in the issue tracker with the label βJunior Jobsβ we think are good for new contributors. But you are by no means limited to these β if you find a solution to a problem (even a new one) please make a pull request at github or let us know in the development forum.
Contribution to Friendica is also not limited to coding. Any contribution to the documentation, the translation or advertisement materials is welcome or reporting a problem. You donβt need to deal with Git(Hub) or Transifex if you donβt like to. Just get in touch with us and we will get the materials to the appropriate places.
Thanks everyone who helped making this release possible, and especially to all the new contributors to Friendica, and have fun!
We are very happy to announce the availability of the new stable release of Friendica βBlutwurzβ 2026.01. In addition to several improvements and new features, this release contains fixes for security problems that Hrizi Bilel has notified us about. Thanks for your report! It also contains the first results of a accessibility review by Casey Kreer.
Some highlight of Friendica 2026.01 are
we overhauled the embedding of media from various sources and improved several aspects,
users can now sort widgets and channels,
the performance of system and user defined channels has improved,
admins can now export and import contact block lists and block access for non-logged in visitors to media included in posting.
If you have developed your own addons for Friendica note that we reworked our hook system and introduced a new AddonHelper class.
For details, please the CHANGELOG file in the repository.
What is Friendica
Friendica is a decentralised communications platform, you can use to host your own social media server that integrates with independent social networking platforms (like the Fediverse or Diaspora*) but also some commercial ones like Tumblr and BlueSky.
Ensure that the last backup of your Friendica installation was done recently.
Using Git
Updating from the git repositories should only involve a pull from the Friendica core repository and addons repository, regardless of the branch (stable or develop) you are using. Remember to update the dependencies with composer as well. So, assuming that you are on the stable branch, the commands to update your installation to the 2026.01 release would be cd friendica git pull bin/composer.phar run install:prod cd addon git pull If you want to use a different branch than the stable one, you need to fetch and checkout the branch before your perform the git pull.
Pulling in the dependencies with composer will show some deprecation warning, we will be working on that in the upcoming release.
As many files got deleted or moved around, please upload the unpacked files to a new directory on your server (say friendica_new) and copy over your existing configuration (config/local.config.php and config/addon.config.php) and .htaccess files. Afterwards rename your current Friendica directory (e.g. friendica) to friendica_old and friendica_new to friendica.
The files of the dependencies are included in the archive (make sure you are using the friendica-full-2026.01 archive), so you donβt have to worry about them.
Post Update Tasks
The database update should be applied automatically, but sometimes it gets stuck. If you encounter this, please initiate the DB update manually from the command line by running the script bin/console dbstructure update from the base of your Friendica installation. If the output contains any error message, please let us know using the channels mentioned below.
Please note, that some of the changes to the database structure will take some time to be applied, depending on the size of your Friendica database this update might run for days.
If you are using the daemon for your background worker, note that we have moved the functionality into the console. Adopt your setup to use the new bin/console daemon command.
Known Issues
At the time of writing this, none with 2026.01
How to Contribute
If you want to contribute to the project, you donβt need to have coding experience. There are a number of tasks listed in the issue tracker with the label βJunior Jobsβ we think are good for new contributors. But you are by no means limited to these β if you find a solution to a problem (even a new one) please make a pull request at github or let us know in the development forum.
Contribution to Friendica is also not limited to coding. Any contribution to the documentation, the translation or advertisement materials is welcome or reporting a problem. You donβt need to deal with Git(Hub) or Transifex if you donβt like to. Just get in touch with us and we will get the materials to the appropriate places.
Thanks everyone who helped making this release possible, and especially to all the new contributors to Friendica, and have fun!
@π΄ Seph π πΎ Hi! I discovered Wafrn thanks to you. I've created an account and I find it absolutely fun. I'm still figuring out how the "bite" function works, but otherwise I like everything.
Besides Diaspora, I also use Mastodon, and in the past I've used other free social networks like GNUSocial.
By the way, my Wafrn username is @diegoch.at.app.wafrn.net
@Diego* (diaspora social) Bite I think is just their poke system, something silly. From what I hear Sharkey I think it is lets you unleash a swarm of bees.
Video. How to wash teargas out of someone's eyes. Use water only. Have them kneel and put their head back. Keep their hands out of their eyes. Use a squeeze bottle and wash from the inside by the nose outwards.
Video. Hong Kong protesters carry a waterproof bag filled partway with water. They pick up tear gas canisters with thickly gloved hands (tear gas canisters get hot) and put them in the bag and shake to neutralize the tear gas.
Short term, Tim Cookβs been terrific in creating gazillions in shareholder value for Apple and squeezing every penny out of its customers. In the long term, heβs been inflicting massive damage to their reputation for years now. Think different indeed.
βAppleβs Tim Cook is among a group of CEOs being eviscerated for traveling to the White House on the same day Border Patrol agents killed a Veterans Affairs nurse in Minneapolis.
"Cook, who gifted President Donald Trump a 24-karat gold desk ornament on his last White House visit, returned on Saturday to attend a dinner and screening of the first ladyβs new documentary, βMelania.ββ
When we look back on his leadership in the future, let this be Tim Cook's legacy.
We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:
"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."
"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. Theyβre also proposing the collection of DNA."
PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:
-All visitors must submit βtheir social media from the last 5 yearsβ
-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include βhigh value data fieldsβ, βwhen feasibleβ βtelephone numbers used in the last five yearsβ -βemail addresses used in the last ten yearsβ -βfamily number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five yearsβ -biometrics β face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris -business telephone numbers used in the last five years -business email addresses used in the last ten years.
We cannot speak for all Africans, but in various countries of Africa, we think it is fine, and we hope Europe copies USA. The reason is that we believe there is a brain drain and capital flight from Africa to the West. So this kind of thing the USA is doing will stop, or at least reduce it.
Moreover, China and South America (Brazil) plus BRICS+ countries are a better association for Africans.
In any case, even if Africans still want to study in USA universities, there is e-learning. That can be the case too for those who want European universities.
But overall, many in Africa think it is good for #Africa.
I really need some help with some specialist knowledge. Please boost for reach.
Does anyone have a detailed comparison of the carbon footprint of composting foodwaste as opposed to an anerobic digestor with the gas being collected and burnt for fuel?
Background and more info.
Tomorrow I'm going to be asking a question at my local District Council (UK) about their new food waste initiative.
They are going to provide a new weekly food waste collection with the rollout providing new bins but also plastic bags to put food waste into. The plastic bag is be removed at the disposal facility which will be incinerated.
Food waste, after the plastic bag removal will be put in an anerobic digestor with the aim to syphon off the gases for "energy use" which I'm pretty sure means burning them.
Our current system is the food waste goes in our green bin and goes to a large composting facility.
I'm pretty sure of my assertion that providing single use plastic bags that will be burnt will increase rather than reduce their carbon footprint.
My question I can't find the answer is the following:
Is it more carbon friendly to hot compost food waste or to use an anerobic digester which harvests the gases to be burnt as fuel.
Does anyone have a detailed, nuanced, comparison of the carbon footprint of composting foodwaste as opposed to an anerobic digestor.
Deadline to question is 20hrs (sorry for short timeframe got the original date wrong). However if you miss the deadline but have useful info I'm sure this is the first round.
Please boost for reach and thank you for taking to time read this long post.
I just found out that Tim Cook attended a private screening of "Melania" with Donald Trump at the White House the night after ICE killed Alex Pretti. Where the fuck even are we, as a country? As a society? No, I will not forgive and I will not forget. Apple was already pretty much dead to me, but if I ever needed a reminder as to why I'll never buy another Apple product, this was it.
The White House held an advance screening of Amazon's new Melania Trump documentary that included guests Mike Tyson, Erika Kirk, and Brett Ratner, the film's director.
I get "but but but, I have to look out for my company!" as an excuse, I can rationally see why someone would think that. But it's an unforgivable position. I'd rather fucking resign. Show a little goddamn backbone, for fuck's sake.
I will add this though: I'm NOT going to be upset at anyone who buys Apple stuff, or anyone who works at Apple, none of that. Totally 100% don't care, not my beef at all. I'm mad at Tim Cook and Tim Cook alone.
You've got to pick your battles. Me yelling at someone for buying an iPhone is going to accomplish nothing but making them resentful toward me. I view it like telling people to use paper straws instead of going after the oil industry. I would politely suggest that they not support Apple, but beyond that, no.
@keirFox @bigtuffal Fairphone offers a murena /e/os version. De-googled, european companies. My iPhone is quite new so I donβt want to e-waste it just yet, but when the time comes to replace it, I will probably be looking in that direction. Iβm still picking the walled-garden-vines off my legs and getting my data self-hosted first. I foolishly started using sign-in-with-apple and you canβt export passkeys
@bigtuffal @Truffles Have patience with others with regard to this. Many want to change but it isnβt immediately obvious to most consumers what to change to or how to go about it. Itβs better to show alternatives to others and assist them in their efforts than to call people out for a purchase choice they might not even have known had an alternative much less how to go about that shift.
@keirFox @bigtuffal The good news is that GrapheneOS has said theyβre going to announce a partnership with an unnamed non-Google hardware vendor early this year, to be available some time late 2026 or 2027. Thatβll be my next phone.
See now THIS - THIS I could get on board with. If it's a built from the ground up "I can just buy it and be DONE" phone. I'd absolutely consider it. Because it wouldn't be the whole "Buy [insert random generic well known android phone here]" and then flush too much time down the crapper rooting it / wiping the vanilla OS and installing Graphene or whatever your flavor of custom ROM is." Just...not an experience I want. I just want to buy the phone, set it up and be done. I don't want a project.
"We are opening an investigation into Grok because we believe that X may have breached the DSA. We have seen antisemitic content, non-consensual deepfakes of women, and child sexual abuse material. In Europe, no company will make money by violating our fundamental rights." announced the European Commission.
An investigation published by Declassified UK revealed that the Israeli government is funding an online advertising campaign appearing in search results in Britain targeting Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian medical organization providing essential services in Gaza and other areas.
Google transparency data shows that the Israeli government advertising agency pays to display the ad when searching for terms such as βDoctors Without Bordersβ and βMSF,β directing users to an official Israeli report accusing the organization of βserious misconductβ and aiming to undermine Israelβs legitimacy internationally.
This comes in the context of Israel opposing the organizationβs use of terms such as βwar of exterminationβ and βgenocideβ to describe events in Gaza.
Gotta say, as I expand into Wafrn... Spread like mold? I keep finding stuff I like, from being able to bite people, after all pokes are boring, or the barking and confetti when I woot, yes, woot not toot, and other cute things, then there's the little details...
Believe strongly in alt text? Its default required in the settings, you have to go and turn it off, or your media posts won't send without having something in there.
Sharing links? Sure, it sucks that you can't see the preview until after you post, but things like GoComics which never shows a thumbnail or synopsis here on Friendica works perfectly.
I think @gabboman the wafrn dev could prolly use some help on the project, but so far, what it does have works really nicely.
So, I've started migrating the people I follow over to my Wafrn account, @Chuff , following them there and unfollowing them here... And got into the B's and realized something, Wafrn doesn't give me any way to see my followers list nor migrate it far as I know which means I have no idea who I'm following over there.
Eh heh, heh, oops.
Well, no problem, just downloaded the list here, so at least I'll be able to recover the rest of them if needed, I do expect to switch to my own hosted Wafrn in the future if'n I'm lucky, poked one hosting service abotu it already even though I'm not remotely ready to do it.
Why my own? To avoid some of the stupidities I've had to deal with on other people's instances, once got warned about not CW'd a picture of a cowtaur (cow person upper body, cow lower body), not because of sex, not because she was topless, but because you could see her udder. Yeah, that was the straw that broke my back and why I just have my own instance. Currently here I have... 5 accounts? Not sock puppets, this one, Admin, Recalls, Taurs and the newest, my porn account. Yeah, that's enough to justify my own instance.
EDIT Eww, that is one ugly and barely useful CSV file, only exports two things, user account names and whether I can see their posts or not. Following, follower or mutual status not included, nor is the profile name. Bleah.
![πΈ TakaraTomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-44 Convoy (Ver.3.0) [Optimus Prime]](https://blog.taursnd.haus/photo/preview/640/7783565 "πΈ TakaraTomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-44 Convoy (Ver.3.0) [Optimus Prime]")
Kenny Chaffin
in reply to π΄ Seph π πΎ • • •π΄ Seph π πΎ
in reply to Kenny Chaffin • •