Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org

@mattblaze @sarahmaywalt @vy
I gotta warn ya, if you do that, people will encourage you to smile more. Just say no.

@jayarava
I look forward to that. What journal will it be in? Hoping for one of the open source ones.

@rvaughnmd
"I'll do every part of my job except the part I don't like" isn't something I could have ever gotten away with.

@Alphabetsoup
Because there really are people who think that they have secret knowledge that lets them get something for nothing. The infuriating thing is how often it actually works.

@rvaughnmd
Now is the time to start gluing together all those unused wall--warts in everyone's spare parts drawers everywhere. Problem solved.

@willmckinley
Boy, the way Glenn Miller played.

@LilHulkQ
It's the complimenting, cheering, and supporting that make me more suspicious, because those people are a little off somehow.

@jeffmartins@masto.ai
I DO have a decent VPN, though, as the article recommends. Hmm. I guess I'll have to think about that. Thanks again for your suggestion.

@librarianshipwreck
Or the door unlocked. I could go on if you like.

@librarianshipwreck
No, in that case you have to wonder if you left the clothes iron on.

@jeffmartins@masto.ai
Thanks very much for your attempt at help! I just wanted to stream their world radio as I would get it if I had shortwave, or as I used to get it on public radio stations in various other places I've lived. I CAN get Newshour locally over the air, but of course the are a slew of other things I like to hear, like Outlook as one example.

I know that somebody somewhere has to pay for BBC production costs and it does bother me that my thirty or so years of listening enjoyment was footed by UK taxpayers who owe me nothing at all.

Were the Beeb to set up a phone application to listen to their world radio service with a periodic fee, I'd gladly sign up. (Well, I'd have to ponder it for a bit as the quality has slowly gone down the last few years, but most likely yes unless the cost was ridiculous.) But to suddenly block my listening until I'd somehow figure out how to click through an advertisement-- that was so amazingly rude and unexpected that I just deleted the application in a fit of pique. And I don't think I'll put it back, either.

They could do a streaming version for only those who sign up for it that includes inline advertising, as a number of podcasts do. Leo Laport's "TWiT" network pulls in millions of dollars a year via that method. I would not be bothered by that because I would know that my payment was my ears and could walk away at any time.

@gothamgirlblue
Thank you very much! I'm really surprised that this isn't getting major-emergency levels of attention here and at newspaper sites. This is not a small thing. I'll try to continue to watch for more reporting on it, if that happens.

A little over a week ago, I wrote a post about how much I enjoyed using Moleskine pocket notebooks for everyday jotting. I noted how much pleasure I managed to get out of such a simple, though well-designed, product.

Ms. AB, @galand2dogs, replied to ask if I'd ever tried the similar Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, and I hadn't, so I went in search of those to see if I could get my hands on one. It turned out that I could, so I did, based on little more than her mention that it had TWO silk bookmarks. TWO, can you believe it?

So now that I've been using one for a couple of days, I can safely say that these are undoubtedly a step above even my beloved Moleskines. Not only does it have two bookmark ribbons, the pages are pre-numbered and the front contains an index to fill in. It also comes with a pen-holder loop should I choose to install it (not something I need) and label stickers for both the front and spine so that one can title the collection before putting it away on the bookshelf. That is AMAZING. The spine is nice and flat, so the sticker will attach well when I need it.

I like it well enough that I'm copying one of my existing daily records books over from a softcover Moleskine, even though it will take a couple of hours.

Thanks, Ms. AB! You have improved my life in a small way, and that's the best way. 😉