Turning off Twitter, hello Mastodon (for now?)

6FPS V4#12: November 14, 2022

Subscribe & Archives: chuq.me/6fps

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

It’s December, and as I write this, looking out my office window, this is what I see.

Well, we got snow again. In a couple of storms, we seem to have ended up with about a foot. My neighbors have told me this kind of snow is unprecedented up here (we’re at about 500’ above sea level in the hills outside Silverdale), and here we are, second winter in a row with inches of it sitting outside my window.

We are less unprepared than we were last winter, but we’re still not going up that driveway until it melts more than it has. Fortunately, we’re into a sort of warmer and dry spell, and I expect it’ll be passable in a day or two. Of course, I neglected to think to buy chains for the Ridgeline when I traded in the Honda Pilot, and we did pick up a small snowblower (from Snow Joe) that has turned out to work very well, but to be honest, nothing smaller than a drivable unit would allow us to clear the 1/3-ish mile of sloped driveway out to the postboxes.

So I’m starting down a path to plan C, which is to install a 2” hitch receiver to the front of the truck, and pick up a basic snowplow that goes into that. Not helpful for this week’s fun, but I see a way to get prepped up for the next one, and as long as I clear snow a fairly regularly, I think I can make the driveway passable (or mostly).

Whee! It’s always something… right?

Climate change is causing weather patterns to change, and leading to more extremes both in heat and in cold, and I am willing to suggest this snow is part of all of that. How bad is it getting? We are close to having Lake Powell effectively go dry and shut off all of that hydro electricity it generates.

Maybe we shouldn’t have broken the planet for short term profit?

Retirement?

I turn 65 in July, and since that’s kind of a landmark age here in the States where your Social Security payout goes up and you qualify for Medicare, it has gotten me thinking about my next phase in life and if or when I want to stop working.

The short answer is I’m considering formally retiring when I hit 65, but it’s not a decision I’ll make for a few months. I have started talking to my bosses about this (so this won’t be a surprise to them). But maybe I’ll push it out somewhat further. I don’t know, but it’s officially on the table now. That said, I really like my job, I like my co-workers and of course the paycheck. But I also have always wanted to step back from the corporate grind while I still could enjoy life and do things specific to my interests.

If I retire, one thing I’m considering is to finally take that trip back to Yellowstone in the 2nd half of September, the one I’ve been considering since my last trip in 2014. Michael Frye went there this year, and Sarah Marino has published some really amazing images from there, and that has me wanting to go and explore again. Sure would be a nice retirement gift to myself, no?

If I do retire, what next? Honestly, I don’t expect much to change, although I’ll have more ability to take regional trips overnight or for a couple of days mid-week, which I prefer over weekends. It’ll mean I can get up and go birding rather than sit at the keyboard. Or I can write more. Or work in the workshop more.

We’ll have to see how this plays out in the next few months, but I’m starting to feel like I’m ready to start planning out that next big chapter in my life.

World Cup in Qatar

To be succinct: I wasn’t all that interested in the World Cup before it started, but the quality of the soccer has sucked me in, and so I’ve been watching it and enjoying the games so far. And doing so with some guilt, because everything else about these games is a disaster, from fraud and bribery to human abuse. But the actual games have been good, so I’m watching. I will think of some way to pay a bit of penance for supporting FIFA and Qatar in even a small way with my eyeballs.

Greg Bear - RIP

We’ve lost a major name in Science Fiction: Greg Bear passed away after suffering a massive stroke. He was a great writer and an even better person. I got to work with Greg a bit early, as he was president when I joined the Science Fiction Writer’s Association and then started doing volunteer things for them, and he was a joy to work with. But I first met Greg before that, at a friend’s wedding in San Diego, where I spent the evening sitting and chatting with a group of people at the reception, and it wasn’t until he got up and left to go home that someone mentioned who he was.

Which in many ways really sums Greg up for me: very intelligent, very well spoken, quiet, and not at all full of himself (meanwhile, at that same wedding reception, David Brin was holding court, and everyone knew that he was there and sharing his knowledge. Which is also very much how Brin was and is).

If you have never read anything by Greg, might I suggest what I think is his best work, Blood Music. He wrote a lot of good hard (and hard-ish) SF with more of a biology slant than much of the hard SF writing we’ve seen, and this one is a classic.

Snacks for Diabetics

As someone who’s been diabetic for many years, one of the things I’m always on the lookout for are tasty snacks that (a) aren’t just busloads of carbohydrates, and (b) aren’t jerky, which tends to be a massive busload of salt, and which I find I can only eat so much of before I’m thinking of starving instead.

It has been especially hard to find good snack things that don’t require refrigeration, where I can keep some in the truck while I’m out on the road or birding. There are some companies (like Clif) that make protein bars that aren’t inedible, but most of them use nuts and almonds for the protein base, and that comes up again a food allergy of mine (but Clif does do some products based around pea and soy protein that are decent)

This is starting to change, in part, I think, because of the Keto movement. One we’ve found recently are protein chips from Quest Nutrition, which are creating potato chip-like things our of dairy proteins. One thing I really like about them is they are well-spiced and the chili lime and sweet chili flavors are really quite good. The texture isn’t quite the same as a normal potato chip, but they are quite tasty without the flavor compromises you often find in these kind of “non-traditional” snacks. Well worth a try.

Free Prints to Subscribers

I started this giveaway last month, and I’ve decided to continue it for now. And yes, there are a couple of you who haven’t yet gotten your prints, and I’m sorry, I had printer problems and I’m working on it (well, I’ll get the printer running again this month, honest. Yes, it’s been sidetracked).

Anyone who’s interested in a free 8x10 print of one of my images si welcome to it. All you need to do is check out the images in one of the four portfolio galleries on my photography page, and then send me an email with the request, including the title of the image (or URL to the image), your name and a mailing address. My only requirement is that the email the request comes from must be a subscriber to 6FPS when I get the request. I will mail these out at no charge worldwide for any request I get during November, as quickly as I can make the prints and get them packaged up.

What do you want to hear about?

Since I’m done with the e-book projects, I expect to put more time on writing for the blog again, and while I have a number of topics in the to-do list, are there things you want me to talk about and write about? I have been asked recently about how I produce the e-books, and that’s on the list, but what else do you want me to cover? Drop me an email and let me know.

And with that, see you next issue!

What's New from Chuq?

  • It was a busy month spent mostly away from the keyboard. Although teechnically, tied to my work keyboard crunching a deadline. Sorry!

Turning off Twitter, hello Mastodon (for now?)

As I said about a month ago in Elon and Twitter:

Things this big don’t die quickly, they mostly stagnate, then slowly whither, and then slide into irrelvance

Wwell, Musk has set a new record for making vastly disastrous decisions, to the point I decided Twitter no longer was really bringing me much of interest (because much of it moved very quickly to Mastodon; bonus points to Reuters for being the first major news site to set up shop there that I found and did it well), and his policy changes were ones I honestly couldn’t continue to support with my presence, so I’ve put my twitter app on hiatus and deleted the apps from my devices, so I’m not looking at it or posting to it at this point.

Long time technologist Tim Bray has also done so, and wrote a very good piece on why.

Will I ever go back? I’m not deleting the account, mostly so scammers can’t take it over, but never say never. But to me, Musk has been a surprisingly enthusiastic and fatal addition to twitter, and I’m not sure some other company could revitalize it even if they took it off Musk’s hands tomorrow.

And it looks, since Musk pissed off all the advertisers and they reacted by closing their wallets, that he may end up taking a massive financial bath on this, one that could potentially cost him Tesla. And if that happens? Well, he and his ego earned it.

But don’t look for me on Twitter again any time soon, if ever.

And Mastodon?

I've said this elsewhere, but I figure I'll say it here, too: as an ancient one who not only remembers USENET but was one of the builders/managers of the place, there's a strong "USENET II" vibe to Mastodon that has me thinking it's not going to do well as it scales. The challenge isn't technical (and I keep being told by mastodon fans how federation solves all these problems), but that there seem to be zero differences in how mastodon manages trolls and bad actors, and as they move in, there are going to be huge problems taht will be hard/impossible to solve. (hint: "we can defederate a server" isn't the solution; we had that same ability/policy with USENET, and it only works until sites start refusing to defederate sites or have absent administration that doesn't bother...)

But for now, mastodon seems the best place to hang a shingle if you're taking down your twitter shingle. But I expect this is a transitional setup, not the next great solution. What is the next great solution? I have no freaking clue. (but I'm on Post's waitlist, and I'm looking forward to exploring that when I'm in).

It’s not so bad

To be honest, having worked with Mastodon for a bit, it’s not really well-designed from a User Interface perspective for non-nerds, but it’s not terrible. What made it really useful for me was figuring out to follow topic #hashtags (like #photography). That said, there is currently no way to see what hashtags you’ve followed, which is the kind of basic UI feature that makes me wonder about how this thing will scale.

But yeah, now that I’m sort of moved in and figuring it out, it’s… OKAY. and following hashtags seems rather nice, if incomplete, and since I always hated twitter lists, maybe this will end up a better variation on that concept.

We’ll see. I’m still unconvinced it’ll handle the onslaught of new users (and as they move in, the trolls and spammers and attackers) well, but I’m kinda hoping they prove me wrong.

Recent Photography

As I create new images and re-process older ones, I post them on my site in the Recent Work area. Additionally, every Wednesday is Photo Wednesday on the blog, where I post one of my non-bird images, and the bird images are posted on the blog each week as part of Feathery Friday.

Not a prolific month with the camera, either, but please enjoy this shot taken at the Thelar Wetlands in Belfair, which I explored for the first time birding this month. Interesting place I need to explore further (when it’s not snowing)

For Your Consideration

Photography

Birds and Birding

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

Recommendations

This month let me recommend to you a couple of interesting woodworking books:

I have actually been working in the shop again, as the weather has gotten cooler, and in listening to episode 279 of the Fine Woodworking Podcast(recommended if it syncs with your interests), they talked with Asa Christiana, who has a new book out.

Build Stuff with Wood, and his just released Build More Stuff with Wood are beginner manuals to the woodshop, and I decided it would be a nice idea to try them as kind of a refresher about the tools and workshop as I start getting back into this hobby.

They are great books. The first book is ideal for the curious beginner, because unlike a lot of beginner books, it starts with the absolute basics and does so with the idea that you only have a few basic tools, like a circular saw and a drill. it doesn’t require a shop, there are no expensive tools like a table saw. On top of it, the projects are designed to actually be interesting to build and useful once they’re built.

The second book builds off the first, but the only significant addition to the tool set needed is a basic table saw in the $500 range. Again, a lot of practical projects, with the second book offering a number of shop projects to help you get it set up and running well.

The book talks about safety and I felt it was well covered. It also offers advice on tools you might want, and I quickly realized how valuable I found the book as I ended up adding about half a dozen things to my shop inventory based on his suggestions.

If you are woodworking curious but haven’t really gotten started at it, these would be really good books to guide you into the hobby and help you decide if it’s really for you.

About 6FPS

And with that, I'll see you in the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

Some links in this newsletter may point to products at Amazon; these are affiliate links and if you use them to buy a product, I get a small cut of the sale. This doesn't make me rich, but it does help pay my web site bills. If you use the link to buy something, thank you. If you prefer not to, that's perfectly okay, also.

Know someone who might want to subscribe? Send them here. You'll also find the archives there if you want to look at previous issues.