I keep seeing versions of this post, which imply a bizarre misunderstanding of how we know the world.

Do people imagine that if we'd never observed galaxies or neutrinos or exoplanets or the cosmic microwave background, we could have *imagined* these things & that would be just as real?

Or that we've magically reached the point, just now, where we no longer need to observe the world?

#science #nature #technology

In today's issue of "This Week in Plasma", Mr. Vader says...

https://blogs.kde.org/2026/03/21/this-week-in-plasma-time-zone-offsets-and-type-ahead-on-the-desktop/

#FreeSoftware #desktop #Plasma6 #OpenSource #RoundCorners

Google has news on what you will need to do for still being able to sideload apps:

* enable developer options
* confirm that you are not tricked
* restart phone and re-authenticate
* wait one day
* confirm with biometrics that you know what you are doing
* decide if you only want unrestricted installs for 1 week or forever
* confirm that you accept the risks
* enjoy the few apps that still have developers motivated to develop for a user-base willing to put up with this

https://goo.gle/advance-flow

"This Week in Plasma" brings the news that...

You can use long-presses on your regular keyboard to access alternative glyphs—just like on your phone, e.g. press and hold down [$] and a popup appears that let's you choose between €, £, ¥, ¢, ₹. Also new is that you can download and install alternative sound themes and that we reduced CPU and GPU load for full-screen windows on screens using more fractional scale factors, and much more!

https://blogs.kde.org/2026/03/14/this-week-in-plasma-press-and-hold-for-alternative-characters/

#desktop #FreeSoftware #openSource

LOL true Mastodon verification:

YOU MUST VERIFY YOURSELF ON MASTODON BY:

- Posting a picture of a cat in your lap
- Random photos of flowers
- Wax poetic about your favorite episode of Star Trek TNG (or your hate of the series)
- Random, undecipherable technical blabbering about ham radio electronics
- Mention something about your favorite Linux command line
- Say hello to your many LGBTQ followers/friends here, just because you're glad they're here
- Toot a picture of some mushroom you ran into while walking in the forst
- Something something astronomy
- Random gadget/device/bicycle post
- Post a random picture of a tree or window
- Photo of your sewing/mending project!
- Hand drawn art post