Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

My 87 year old parents just called me extremely distressed. They told me to remain calm and proceeded to tell me that my son called crying saying he was in jail. He said he'd hit a pregnant woman with his car and needed bail money. An attorney then called with details saying he would need $7,500.00 to be released. It was a SCAM. I'd just talked to my son. They would have paid except for the fact that I have their bank cards. Please be careful out there.

A little known secret on the Internet is that if you came to a stupid question, you are allowed to scroll past insted of making fun of the author in the comments.

#Putin signs expanded anti-LGBTQ laws in #Russia in latest crackdown on #rights

#news #hate #lgbt #lgbtqia #rights

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/europe/russia-lgbtq-propaganda-law-signed-by-putin-intl/index.html

Here's a little #Christmas tale for you. My father-in-law is a #rockabilly icon. (Not hyperbole, he actually is.) His name is Larry Collins, he and his sister Lorrie were known as The Collins Kids and they were rockabilly pioneers. He was the second person EVER to own and play a double-neck #guitar and it's his signature instrument. I'm telling you this so I can easily explain that he has many guitars and ALL of them are custom... 1/5

RED ALERT, please boost! We got word this morning that Senate leadership has cut a deal to include #JCPA in the must-pass #NDAA.

This is a terrible, Rupert Murdoch backed bill that essentially creates a "link tax" and would make Big Tech and big media cartels even more intertwined. AND, apparently what Schumer "traded" for it was ... the vaccine mandate for the US military. I kid you not.

@team has a contact-congress tool here, please contact your Senators!

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/tell-congress-protect-our-access-to-credible-news

@DemocracyMatters @jwalk1230
Here’s the research he did a decade ago.
https://jimstewartson.substack.com/p/flynns-blueprint-for-insurgency

GPT-3 is going to make finding quality information on the internet a nightmare. The generated text will look good to search engines, and garbage sites that rely on SEO for clicks will just have GPT-3 write about whatever the big topics of the day are. This could even be easily automated.

@olavf What a different experience back on Twitter for each of us! Wonder why. Maybe because I was so active on it for the last 3-4 years and had amassed the "right number" of follows/followers?

I'm going to very clear about this. Lots of valuable people DO need help with the Internet in general and social media specifically. They don't feel it's offensive to either ask for that help or receive it. I deal with such people all the time. Much of the arrogance I'm finding here on #Mastodon appears to be from people who never deal with such folks. That's sad. Pitiful actually. I fervently hope that this isn't widely representative of the #Mastodon culture that evolved before my arrival here a month ago. I mean that with all sincerity. -L

@TransitBiker @lauren @daskeit @calcifer @dermedientyp @Ciantic

“The app has a clear step by step process”

Which app would that be? Where? How does it explain the process? How do they find it?

Also, the whole “find an instance that matches your interests” thing makes no sense to most people. Never mind how they find it. Which interests? Most people don’t walk around defining themselves as belonging to one community with one set of interests. I chose Infosec because I knew I’d know some people here. I knew they’d share common interests and values. And that would likely make it stable and a safe place to post. The fact that they post about things I’m interested in was secondary and really not relevant—because I can follow them from anywhere. How did I know that? Because I spent 40 years on Twitter and G+ and mailing lists and USENET with some of them. Arrogance is thinking this process is easy and well defined for people who don’t spend 90% of their free time online.

And all that is before we get to things like, “When should I make a reply public vs. limited and how do I know who will see a limited reply and when?”

0500UTC - 05Dec2022 - 4840kHz - VORW Voice of tge Report of the Week - News / Talk / Music - Tecsun S2000 using telescoping antenna and 6ft extension - Good signal into Olney, IL. #Shortwave #KE0FFT

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Humor

I had assumed that weaning myself off of #Twitter after 14 years (and a legacy blue check!) would be slow and painful. It's been the opposite. I check there maybe twice a day. And it's like a ghost town, a deserted alley with the odor of decay. My timeline is a pale shadow of what it was only a month ago as users move out. Most of my regular correspondents are already here on #Mastodon. Fascinating.

Static electricity ⚡️

Mastodon seems to have a whole lot less drama and very thoughtful users. 
Boost if you’re happy here and reply to boost your own account. 💙

Do you use the traditional one column view or the advanced web interface?

I find the advanced web interface ("tweetdeck"-like, if you will) hard to follow so I prefer one column at a time.

Boosts for reach.

Rainy day #bees #beekeeping #beestodon