I started a little wiki to document things I learn about home/building maintenance, just for fun, in case any of it helps somebody else solve a similar problem faster. A few pages:
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I grew up in LA, and my friends and family are ok, but everyone's heart is broken. Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network has a spreadsheet of hundreds of efforts, if you're looking for a place to send money: https://mutualaidla.org/. If you want 501(c)(3) type orgs: Friends In Deed in Pasadena has a long record of supporting local unhoused people (https://friendsindeedpas.org/); Direct Relief specializes in logistics, which is often the hardest part (https://www.directrelief.org/2025/01/los-angeles-fires-responding-with-medical-aid-free-n95-masks-and-more/).
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Alternatives considered: just borrow a decent cordless electric drill from a neighbor when needed (good option, may do this). Corded drills aren’t always practical. Considered checking whether my own drill’s battery packs are compatible and bringing one of them back and forth in my carry-on, but airline regulations around lithium-ion battery packs are a little complicated (for good reason).
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Tool question: at my parent’s house, a few times a year I need to drill holes in drywall or wood. There’s a good DeWalt electric drill but the battery packs have stopped working, and replacing them is $$. Don’t want to go off-brand for batteries due to fire risk. Since this is such occasional light use, I’m wondering about replacing it with a hand drill instead of getting new batteries that will go bad again. Is that reasonable? Particular items to look for? I see this: https://www.reddit.com/r/handtools/comments/8h1aa9/looking_for_a_high_quality_long_lasting_hand/
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Helpful list of orgs that provide legal aid to immigrants in California: https://ask.metafilter.com/383221/Where-can-I-donate-for-legal-aid-to-immigrants-to-California-2024
"Donations are crucial right now because of a massive withdrawal from the philanthropic sector from funding immigration work...People can imagine the cost in mass deportations and visible policy changes, but it's also coming because a bunch of orgs get some portion of their operating budget from federal contracts"
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I made a Poshmark account because a seller had a fun household item that I couldn't find anywhere else (eBay, Etsy, etc), and I found out that Poshmark is a tangle of growth-hacking and dark patterns: tons of notifications, contradictory labels about shipping costs, complicated layers of offers, discount promotions that don't work as expected. I'll buy a second item because it /seems/ like I can get a deal on it, and then I'm going to delete this account.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Almost ten years ago I pitched a program where Wikipedia editors would reach out to genealogy enthusiasts to recruit them as new editors, and I still think this is a great idea: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Outreach_to_people_interested_in_genealogy_and_family_history
There's a huge community of people, mostly women, who enjoy and are really good at research and citing their sources! They could improve articles about towns, companies, etc, relevant to their family history.
I don't have capacity to make this happen in the near term, but maybe somebody does?!
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Steps I took today to wipe an old HP laptop that couldn't boot into Windows, in case helpful for anyone else on a Mac:
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I was amused by a recent newspaper article being like "we're just not sure why this vacant lot in SOMA is filling with water", so I made a page that explains it used to be part of a large marsh: https://localwiki.org/sf/360_5th_St
When you look into the history of any particular lot in San Francisco, you get a capsule history of the city, so of course this spot was also previously a Burning Man camp hangout / artist studio place and then a startup incubator.
=> View attached media | View attached media
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Delighted that I got to see a Depths of Wikipedia live show at #xoxofest, a celebration of fun parts, including because I love when people learn the pretty funny story of where Wikipedia’s seed funding came from (Bomis). This thing been part of my life for 23 years and 8000+ edits, and I still really enjoy working on it and helping other people fix issues.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I wrote a Wikipedia article about a cool software library, a behind-the-scenes project to make the internet more secure by replacing OpenSSL with something better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustls
I love it as an example of working toward change in a complex non-hierarchical environment. The technical strategy and implementation have to be excellent, but that's not enough - people need to wrangle and process funding, write press releases, get companies and governments on board. And it takes years!
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
FedRAMP is planning to hire a Security Director and will hold an information session about the role on Thursday August 22: https://join.tts.gsa.gov/join/FedRAMP-Security-Director/
FedRAMP has a huge influence on the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS tools that federal agencies can access, so the person in this role could do a whole lot of good for both the government and the tech industry. #GetFediHired
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Do you need a template for reaching out to businesses if you get something in ULINE packaging? This is mine!
"[Greeting. Compliment about their products.]
I just wanted to write a quick note because I saw that your packaging was manufactured by ULINE. Unfortunately this company's profits fund anti-democracy and anti-abortion candidates and organizations: https://refuseuline.com/
I would love to encourage seeking out an alternate supplier that reflects your [positive attribute]. Thank you!"
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
That was part of a short series of retrospective posts I wrote in 2017. You can check out the other ones too:
Those who went before us: Web 1.0 bookmarking sites - https://web.archive.org/web/20170627013120/http://blog.del.icio.us/?p=1204
Reddit’s origin in a conversation about Delicious - https://web.archive.org/web/20170627013005/http://blog.del.icio.us/?p=1268
The April Fool’s joke that caused data migration headaches - https://web.archive.org/web/20170627013201/http://blog.del.icio.us/?p=1295
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
The story at https://www.404media.co/where-facebooks-ai-slop-comes-from/ reminds me of when I did anti-spam work as the Delicious community manager in 2005-2009. Bots were posting tons of spam links using the API, for no good reason - nobody clicked them and they had no impact on SEO. I found a messy ecosystem of get-rich-quick scams that included people selling spam-bookmarking-as-a-service to people who were trying to make money off ads on their crummy semi-automated websites: https://web.archive.org/web/20170627012958/http://blog.del.icio.us/?p=1225
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Three years ago, encouraged by East Bay Yesterday (https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/were-no-longer-afraid-to-be-black/), a couple other Wikipedia editors and I wrote a brief article for the Afro-American Association, a study group that became "the most foundational institution in the Black Power movement": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-American_Association. It's known for having a direct influence on the founders of the Black Panther Party - and it's where Harris' parents met in 1962. So a handful of new people have stumbled on this article in the past few days!
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Learned some things about locks today! This Schlage Everest on a public-facing commercial door held up against a recent attempt to break in, and my key even still worked. Thanks to friends for tips and support while figuring out what to do about it. (It’s been replaced.) Kept the damaged lock in case anyone at DU wants to try it for lockpicking practice. :)
=> View attached media | View attached media
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Do I know anyone who has spent some time trying to improve relevance in Postgres full text search? I am curious to ask a couple questions, especially about improving results for queries with 3+ words. This is for a thing that is open source and non-commercial. (You can assume I’ve read the docs.)
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
⛄ Do you want people working in Antarctica to howl with frustration when they try to load or update the application you work on? If not, check out my friend's post about how to make complex web apps, software updates, and other large downloads more usable even for people on extremely limited and high-latency internet connections: https://brr.fyi/posts/engineering-for-slow-internet
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I always enjoy the stylish typography in 1970s Federal Register issues. NARA could do a fashion collaboration like USPS did with Forever 21.
(You can check out issues back to 1936 on GovInfo.gov: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/fr)
=> View attached media | View attached media
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
=> This profile with reblog | Go to brittag@xoxo.zone account This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).Proxy Information
text/gemini