Dаn̈ıel Раršlow 🥧 @pieist@qoto.org

Once when I was killing time before going to a show in Santa Fe by nosing around a New Age shop. I overheard someone calling out to the proprietress: "Oh, Charlotte Ann..."

Talk about nominative determinism

I used to enjoy the Penelope Cunk segments on Charlie Brooker's "wipe"s, but it's since developed that the interview subjects are in on the joke (In fairness they could hardly be otherwise these days) and in essence, acting.

It's sort of spoiled it for me, like staged reality shows.

On reading a rec for the Netflix series "Traitors", I've just gone an looked, and it certainly seems to present a logical sequence of events:

A free speech argument on the intarwebs, distilled to its essence:

"Shut up."
"Don't tell that person to shut up!"
"Oh, am i not allowed to express an opinion?"

Was just steered to a commentary by Porphyry (AD 234-305?), and I am *so* going to have to use this line in an argument on the intarwebs:

"I not only pitied, but was indignant with you, that, being persuaded by certain frigid and very corrupt sophisms, you have deceived yourself"

https://twitter.com/KnowNothingTV/status/1620708464623513601

Is there a word for Star Trek fans who really only like the original series and cast, one or two of the films based on it and maybe the cartoon?

If an astrophysicist says "the stars are but pinpricks in the dome of night through which the light of heaven can be seen", then it's perfectly reasonable for you, as a reasonably informed layperson, to tell him he's either lying or delusional.

An academic credential in the area someone's lying about doesn't make lies true.

Not only was that asteroid the size of a bus, the wait for it was nearly as long.

Also, we just barely missed it so there's that as well.

Your accent is always the correct one.

OTOH I can just put basic http auth in front of it. I mean that's double-authentication the first time but one can just save that login and never see it again in any given browser.

... aaaand done.

So I've done something I didn't want to do: deployed a PHP-based webmail client on my server. There doesn't seem to be a stable, currently-maintained webmail client that isn't PHP.

Sure, enough, less than one day later, the logs are filled with attempts to run PHP remote exploits against it from all over the world.

Yes, I'm running an updated PHP: version 8.1 But am I really supposed to just assume that any and all attacks will fail? PHP has a TERRIBLE security record: historically it's more attack surface than functionality.

So I'm probably going to have to compromise and write something along the lines of the old port-knocking trick to enable the webmail interface when I need it, and turn it off again when I'm done.

I'm still boggled by the fact that nobody ever considers using a serious professional platform designed for grownups when writing webmail clients.

@JohnShirley2023

(Yes, i know you were making a very different point, but thought I'd mention it.)

@JohnShirley2023

It's fascinating to see the effects of the online review dynamic. One thing I noticed when traveling in Europe is how the behavior of small hotels has changed: they respond with incredible warmth and alacrity to small requests, in a way I never saw in the 90s or aughts. They know how powerful each little review on tripadvisor etc. is, and it's a good investment to them to take 5 minutes to be really nice when you bring up something that matters to you.

Basil Fawlty would be in a lot of trouble nowadays.

One way I feel increasingly disconnected with the rest of society is when people complain about a particular commercial.

I cannot remember the last time I saw a commercial, but it must be easily a decade. If a source a) has commercials and b) I can't block them, I don't watch that source, ever.