#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 23. There's satisfaction in crafting a good sentence. What satisfies your writer's ear?
A sequence of well-formed sentences that gradually build up a sense of alienation from the mundane so striking that by the end of the paragraph up is down and dragons are deflagrating.
Viz, from yesterday's work session:
I made the mistake of searching the internet for this phrase "how large is the personal VPN industry?" š±
This is a multi-billion dollar industry based on the manufactured fear that Evil Baristas are going to break into your bank account if you use public wi-fi. š¦¹ ā It's just not true.
@zackwhittaker just posted this excellent article in which he writes, "...VPNs are only helpful in a handful of situations. For some, using a VPN can be as dangerous as not using one."
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/15/think-you-need-a-vpn-guide-start-here/
Exactly right.
People are often surprised that all your banking and shopping connections are fully encrypted without needing to pay anyone. My results are almost certainly typical for banking and shopping:
https://medium.com/@boblord/attack-of-the-evil-baristas-b204436f0853
To my TLS denier friends, please think about this question: āWhat would change your mind?ā What specific technical changes would you like to see for you to abandon your coffee shop VPN addiction? What changes would you need to see in IETF standards, cryptography libraries, browsers, operating systems, websites, and CAs? Also, what crimes would we see reduced as a result? (That last one is a trick question. Evil baristas are not cracking your bankās TLS connections.)
If your answer is ānothing would change my mind,ā then you have made a decision based on religion and not facts.
"Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars"
It's great to see someone FINALLY mention the magnetosphere issue, in the very first sentence no less, but this article rips into the idea so much more thoroughly than that, and with admirable gusto.
https://defector.com/neither-elon-musk-nor-anybody-else-will-ever-colonize-mars
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Marsās dead core? No? Well. Itās fine. Iām sure you have some other workable, sustainable planā¦
Let's see how many Muslims are out there on Fediverse. Are you a #muslim?
Please boost it so we can have more accurate statistics.
WELP THAT'S THE END OF THAT I'M DONE! 
Raspberry Pi is now a publicly traded company. The #enshittificaton can only vastly accelerate at this point.
All right, Chooms, time to find alternatives!
Charlie Stross
SwiftOnSecurity
Bob Lord š 
kottke.org
Dan Wentzel š³ļøāš
Pipford
Farooq Karimi Zadeh
The 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus
