Got an email from Dark Horse Comics (publisher of Hellboy, Witcher, Cyberpunk and Avatar comics) announcing that they are killing the digital comic book libraries their readers accumulated over the years.

Their FAQ makes it painfully clear you DO NOT own the DRM-ridden digital products the stores claim to be "selling" to you.

@pluralistic

The biggest government handout recipient, and this figure is a fraction of the total he got.

“Over the years, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often at critical moments, a Washington Post analysis has found, helping seed the growth that has made him the world’s richest person.”

https://wapo.st/43dkbBI

I've shared some thoughts on here before about learning to communicate with your cat. I might try to find that thread and link it.

Here's another tip.

You don't need to spend hundreds on one of those cat talker pads. It's easy to teach your cat to answer yes or no questions. Teaching them some words first is useful, but "treat" and "nip" are a good place to start this training.

Sometimes Midnight meows at me randomly, I ask, while exaggerating the question tone, "Do you want a treat?" If she meows, I treat it like a yes. I give her a treat. If she stays silent, I'll ask her the next thing. "Midnight, do you want nip?" Same deal. Meow, she gets nip. Silent, I'll move to the next thing. "Do you want lovin'?" (That's our word for pets.)

I'll usually only do these three, but sometimes mix it up, like playing, or when I used to dance with her. It does require consistency, but eventually they'll learn the meow = yes formula, because sometimes they don't WANT a treat but they get one anyway! (Before she caught on I'd lecture her a bit when she refused what she'd said yes to.)

Then you can move to more useful questions. Like going outside, while it's still cold out in this new place where she's not comfortable out there yet. I want to be sure she's consenting to go out so she doesn't freak out and get stuck hiding under the porch again 😬. So I ask, and then don't bother if she stays silent.

Once they catch on, any word you've taught your cat, you can ask if they want it.

#CatsOfMastodon

Programming languages: "We are just a way to operate computers in a way that makes sense to humans."

Programming languages [takes a big joint hit]: "What if there were 5 kinds of nothingness?"

John Allspaw on Common Ground and Coordination in Joint Activity - originally posted on Jun 14, 2016

📺 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgC_N9glqMs

#paperswelove #video

Time for a footnote to this: nearly 40 years of writing my stories on computers has taught me two things:

1. Always have backups. More than you think you need, too (backups can go bad).

2. Always have an exit strategy from a hardware, operating system, or writing software choice: vendors can go bad or remove support for older products.

Sub-footnote: Linux isn't an exit strategy, it's a 9-5 job. Open source is less bad than closed, but rug-pulls are still possible.
https://wandering.shop/@cstross/113995800386923701