All the good stuff still exists (and there is more of it, in fact). But it is no longer the mainstream. The popular discourse is always around what is happening on the major platforms, but there is constantly great creativity happening over at Neocities and MakerTube, just to name a couple platforms. Hell, even YouTube and TikTok have amazing stuff happening on them. It’s just not the top-viewed content.

One of the best things you can do is stop using algorithmic recommendations for a few weeks. Download the Unhook plugin for YouTube, etc. Then you actually choose the internet media you are exploring.

I recently switched from Linux Mint to Ubuntu Studio. Both are fantastic and intuitive. Ubuntu Studio just has more of the Linux audio configuration worked out by default.

Reading Connected Places and being reminded that the Fediverse is truly one of the greatest technical-social innovations in recent history. And we get to be part of it :)

Love it! I’ve saved a copy, because I think it’ll make future explanations a lot easier. Thanks!

Initially I did yeah, but eventually learned that different people use it differently. So good practice to never assume sarcasm through emojis unless you know the person well

Yeah ReNoise is great! Though since I’ve transitioned to a full-FOSS workflow, I now use OpenMPT as my main, and Furnace for Game Boy specific tracks.

I’ve listed my main tools here if you’re interested: https://johnoestmannmusic.com/tooling/

Will do! Wait, you know flight_school from somewhere? :o

As much as I love what they’re doing, tieing an OS to a specific region via name seems like the opposite of Open Source values… Then again, I suppose it could just be forked into a more generalized version

according to the linked article, it sounds like it is for performance reasons.

I do suspect Qi is a useful abstract concept for focusing and activating parts of our physiology. But while it feels like a single thing (“energy”), it is more a very complex bunch of processes the same way our consciousness feels like a single thing, but is actually a very complex bunch of processes.

I’m just going to use this opportunity to publicly grieve again for Winamp fake becoming open-source: https://hackaday.com/2024/10/16/winamp-taken-down-too-good-for-this-open-source-world/

GitHub here: https://github.com/allenai/OLMoE.swift

Ai2 make as much of their training data available as possible: https://huggingface.co/datasets/allenai/OLMoE-mix-0924

Yeah I’m super keen, but my lower-tier Samsung isn’t supported. I really wish FairPhone would offer a cheaper option :(

Is this Club Penguin?

oh cheers for the heads up. Hadn’t heard that!

hahah both are good

Or use Waterfox which does most of this by default

Ah okay, cheers for the info! I’m new to US-based sources

I grew up as a Christian. When I was around 15, someone asked me “if I hadn’t been born a Christian, would I be a Christian?” Considering it, I opened my Bible and immediately a verse popped out (in classic God fashion) saying “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have”

So then I felt called even more to really explore, based on that:

• 1. I couldn’t currently defend my faith reasonably
• 2. If God was actually real, he wouldn’t be scared of people exploring arguments against Christianity, because the faith would be based on something ultimately true.
• 3. By exploring other faiths, arguments, etc, if I returned as a Christian, I would have a much stronger faith.

The more I explored these arguments, as well as gaining a better understanding of what the Bible actually is (in a historical and literature sense), more and more of the belief system unraveled, eventually to the point I didn’t call myself a Christian anymore.

Then over the next decade I went back and forth exploring alternative denominations in Christianity, as well as other religions (Daoism, Buddhism, Judaism), especially as I still felt a “spiritual pull” / intuition in a lot of situations. So it took me a really long time to separate that intuitive sense of direction from the belief system around the Holy Spirit specifically, and learn where trusting that intuition is effective, and where it can be misleading. That’s been the most complex part of all of this.

I still enjoy exploring other belief systems, components of Christianity, and connecting with whatever that intuition is occasionally, as I do think there is a lot there for human psychological and emotional health that Western modernity sorely lacks. (I suspect this hole in our culture is why a lot of fundamental US Evangelism has flourished btw) But that’s how I lost my faith - God gave me the push I needed :P