Riffing on @numericcitizen’s recent post about Micro.blog taglines:

Micro.blog: Write. And share.

A new feature for Fastmail:

Manage your incoming mail by email address. Set up your address to file or label, forward a copy, or delete mail.

Enhancements without the off-topic nonsense 👍

They don’t gotta burn the books, they just remove ’em

— Rage Against the Machine, Bulls on Parade

Almost thirty years ago.

-> GP appointment for treatment cancelled before Christmas
-> Pain and difficulties worsen
-> Leave for re-scheduled appointment
-> Bus just doesn’t appear at all
-> GP surgery phone queue is “full”
-> Now have to re-schedule again
-> The pain and difficulties continue again

… in “Great” Britain.

I’m also super thankful that we didn’t grow by some scary massive number. Hooray for more slowly-paced, sustainable growth!

— Adam Neatnik, 2023 omg.lol Recap

One of the many ways Adam and Manton are quite similar, all within the context of a thing I believe is important:

It is very easy to say “things should be better”, however what truly matters is when you have this opinion and then do the work.

Adam and Manton are more than willing to put their money where their mouth is, at a time when it is so easy to simply mouth off.

Hire more writers.

— Giles Turnbull

Adam Newbold in day 2 of 25 Days of omg.lol:

But, it turns out, there is a special beauty in the process itself.

Not only is it reassuring to see him taking this approach for omg.lol itself, it is great to see advocacy for care in development. You don’t need to break things to move fast.

Well, how about being really appalling when he was fifty.

When discussing David Cameron on Have I Got News For You eight years ago, Ian Hislop spoke to a long-running and crucial flaw in our society; our inability to focus on what really matters.

The idea that people will pay to support a free product is very nice, but largely unrealistic. Most simply won’t.

— Ben Werdmuller, There’s no money in free software

An observation I wish I could tell my younger self.

I have a text file open in iA Writer, “Digital planning”. In it is a list of various random thoughts for outlining my collection of digital assets, resources, and so on. At the top I left myself a note:

TRANSFER THIS TO NOTEBOOK — NO MORE PERSONAL NOTES BEGIN DIGITALLY

This idea is compelling still, despite months of inactivity regarding the task. I believe the space between the physical notebook and the subject of the work, the digital objects, will provide the necessary separation for making good decisions towards the goal of maintaining focus and clarity of thought on a regular basis.

-> make quick to-do list for right now
-> anxiety recedes

Updated my MB bio:

“herder of small beasts” -> “herder of beasts”

Hogan is in no way “small”.

via Micro.blog News:

Fixed an issue processing some Substack feeds. Also now prefers the full-length text of a post (newsletter email?) from Substack.

Ahem. That’s content blob, thank you very much.

It feels good to be back:

It has been both a lot of fun and a relief to work on TIL again. The feeling I get from connecting to more of the open web, at the cost of the closed web, is… comfort, I think?

Racism, sexism, classism and elitism is “widespread” in English and Welsh cricket

S H O C K I N G

“A quick reminder to review-”

-> delete email

Yesterday I learned about Sydney Smith, due to use of the following quote:

It is the greatest of all mistakes, to do nothing because you can only do little…

Now I want to read whatever remains of his work.

Most of us use language like an awkward and crude tool to gesture vaguely at the inexpressible within.

— Jeremy, Towards Better Postcards

My gravestone will read:

He tried to update his blog.

Photos are a different story. A single photo with no text can convey a lot that others might appreciate… if they can see the photo.

— Jean MacDonald, ALT descriptions and Micro.blog’s Discover timeline

A very good first step for assertive improvements to accessibility on Micro.blog.

If you wouldn’t take someone’s guide cane to show off how well you can twirl it about, you absolutely shouldn’t be misusing alt text for the sake of a joke.

— Becky Brynolf, the head of social media at the Royal Institute of Blind People

Quote tweets are happening but you can’t block anyone and muting doesn’t work.

(emphasis mine)

— Elizabeth Lopatto, They’re ‘skeets’ now

Is this post a joke or serious? Still trying to work out why Micro.blog is connected to this thing.

That is two and a half times as much as Covent Garden and English National Opera put together.

Meanwhile, in London, Arts Council England is sticking to its opera cuts.

— Norman Lebrecht, Paris pays its Opéra’s energy bills

Strong and stable; prosperity for miles. All going well. 👍

ERB said it best:

You pulled out of Paris
Should of pulled out of Stormy Daniels

… the data is badly entered and there’s no way for listeners to edit it, even locally. You can do that in Apple Music, but not in Apple Classical Music. So you’re stuck with whatever the label gives you and sometimes that’s just not the way it needs to be.

— Gregory Pittman, on Apple’s Classical Music app.

This sounds awful and yet more reason to focus on locally owned and managed music for anybody who cares even a little bit about having a good experience.

Music is too important to me that l would continue to allow Apple’s terrible efforts to dictate the role it plays in my life.