Chris Wiegman @chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com

Most don't realize how unusual it should be that people the world over know exactly what is going on in US politics yet, if you ask Americans about these other countries, we often can't find them on a map much less do we know the 1st thing of their politics.

Over the next few years the world is going to start to realize how bad of an idea it was to let private US tech rise to the level of public utilities while also privatizing accountability and other basic functions to the same companies who's only goal is stock price.

It is possible to be fascinated by technology, including AI, voice recognition, etc and still horrified by the companies currently manning the gates by which people can access that technology.

I was kinda sad to write today's post but it was a necessary step to keep the devices we need online. https://chriswiegman.com/2021/10/stepping-back-from-nextdns/

It saddens me when people who have the platform and ability to lead others off of abusive platforms like Facebook or google instead defend those platforms because they make money from them.

Anymore I’ve stopped engaging with such replies but it gets me every time I read them (and it is a lot, especially on Twitter).

Be better.

I’m really enjoy writing lately but I’m also starting to look forward to doing more once I have a laptop again. I’m not even sure what “more” means yet but just the desire to do something again is already a big thing for me.

They have very rough lives

It is oddly satisfying to refill a fountain pen when it runs dry. I think it's part that I'm actually writing with it and part because regular pens are just so wasteful.

Last month I turned blog comments back on for my own site. They're not easy to manage without help, but totally worth it. https://chriswiegman.com/2021/10/blog-comments-are-hard/

It's Friday.

It's kinda amazing to me how, when I shared this on Twitter, the general reply (1 public, 3 in DMs) is "what damage, I make money on Facebook. I so want to dig into that and I'm so holding myself back. To claim that facebook is benign simply because you make money there is some serious denial or worse.

My team has been experimenting with VS Code's Live Share feature today and it really is amazing for pairing with folks around the world.

Don't quit Facebook because it is changing the name. Quit it because of the damage it is causing to you and the people you care about.

People will still be there if you're not on Facebook and, from experience, your interactions with many of them will be so much better.

Today's post is on a problem I've re-encountered recently: writing a good update routine for a WordPress plugin. https://chriswiegman.com/2021/10/running-an-update-function-in-your-wordpress-plugin/

Well, this should keep me busy for a while

I've had to remove both pi-hole and NextDNS from our network. It was causing so many issues with the router and other random things not working (and this is in a house where we avoid any IoT crap anyway). Ugh.

Today I'll order a new Mac, assuming I can get the order in. It feels like a step backwards but, it is what it is. https://chriswiegman.com/2021/10/back-to-mac/

This sobering post by my friend Heather is worth your time. It is, indeed, a grim world for those who want to advance digital rights in favor of people and not the orgs that attack those rights. https://webdevlaw.uk/2021/10/16/game-over-for-digital-rights/

I don't want better organizers for my tech when I travel... I want to be able to travel with so little tech that I don't need anything special to organize it in the first place.