marnanel

[marnanel]

Well put.

when you were in my machine and I was in yours

I’m halfway through Indra Sinha’s The Cybergypsies.

Among other things it details a “pre-internet” group of computer enthusiasts/addicts/users. The most striking thing about them is their disdain for the Internet, which at first I could not understand at all.

After reading more (and playing some Uplink), it started to dawn on me. They mourned for the loss of the direct connection between two machines. The “physical” connection between one modem and another over a copper wire. There was an intimacy there shared by all those who dialed into the same BBS or MUD.

With the internet, I can still SSH or telnet somewhere–and, indeed, have basically the same experience–but now our data is mediated by the Internet, a labyrinth so immense and entangled as to put any Creten maze to shame. It delivers our data for us through some dizzying number of hops. It plays with us an ironic game of “telephone” that, by the graces of TCP, tends to give us what we wanted.

That computer-to-computer intimacy is replaced by a swarming, unfathomably large horde of troll-faced minotaurs.

Interestingly, the type of interaction afforded by BBS-dialing has gone nowhere: I can open up a terminal right now and telnet or ssh to any number of interesting places. Such means of networking have simply fallen out of vogue among mainstream computer users.

As the web becomes more and more commercialized, censored, gated and banal, look for me not on a blog, not on Twitter, not on Facebook, but on some machine out “there.” I’ll be hiding from the information apocalypse behind a telnet connection, sitting in a well-described garden, reading plain-text poetry, waiting for you to utter a “say” command.

I might even brew you an imaginary pot of Earl Grey tea with a few Lapsang leaves tossed in.

[marnanel]

please do not go so hard at "Elon is terrible and the Cybertruck is a dumpster fire" (which is true) that you somehow make your way to "electric cars are all ticking time bombs" (which is false, and mostly said by people who want to keep driving combustion engine cars perpetually because they think the climate crisis is made up)

[marnanel]

One that stuck with me was "A) You are outside. You will die. Do nothing. B) You are inside…" in "Cybergypsies" by Indra Sinha.

this is by far my favorite safety/warning sign btw. they really went off with this one

#ominous signs #indra sinha #cybergypsies

[marnanel]

[marnanel]

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

[marnanel]

[marnanel]

[marnanel]

this is really useful! Thank you!

Something that really bothers me is the error message "Couldn't find what you asked for. Please don't be upset. Please." It sometimes puts me off searching at all!I think many people who've been through abusive relationships might think similarly.

how to find literally any post on a blog in seconds (on desktop)

there are so many posts about ~tumblr is so broken, you can’t find any post on your own blog, it’s impossible, bluhrblub~

I am here to tell you otherwise! it is in fact INCREDIBLY easy to find a post on a blog if you’re on desktop/browser and you know what you’re doing:

url.tumblr.com/tagged/croissant will bring up EVERY post on the blog tagged with the specific and exact phrase #croissant. every single post, every single time. in chronological order starting with the most recent post. note: it will not find #croissants or that time you made the typo #croidnssants. for a tag with multiple words, it’s just /tagged/my-croissant and it will show you everything with the exact phrase #my croissant

url.tumblr.com/tagged/croissant/chrono will bring up EVERY post on the blog tagged with the exact phrase #croissant, but it will show them in reverse order with the oldest first 

url.tumblr.com/search/croissant isn’t as perfect at finding everything, but it’s generally loads better than the search on mobile. it will find a good array of posts that have the word croissant in them somewhere. could be in the body of the post (op captioned it “look at my croissant”) or in the tags (#man I want a croissant). it won’t necessarily find EVERYTHING like /tagged/ does, but I find it’s still more reliable than search on mobile. you can sometimes even find posts by a specific user by searching their url. also, unlike whatever random assortment tumblr mobile pulls up, it will still show them in a more logically chronological order

url.tumblr.com/day/2020/11/05 will show you every post on the blog from november 5th, 2020, in case you’re taking a break from croissants to look for destiel election memes 

url.tumblr.com/archive/ is search paradise. easily go to a particular month and see all posts as thumbnails! search by post type! search by tags but as thumbnails now

url.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/audio will show you every audio post on your blog (you can also filter by other post types). sometimes a little imperfect if you’re looking for a video when the op embedded the video in a text post instead of posting as a video post, etc

url.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/croissant will show you EVERY post on the blog tagged with the specific and exact phrase #croissant, but it will show you them in the archive thumbnail view divided by months. very useful if you’re looking for a specific picture of a croissant that was reblogged 6 months ago and want to be able to scan for it quickly 

url.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/audio/tagged/croissant will show you every audio post tagged with the specific phrase #croissant (you can also filter by photo or text instead, because I don’t know why you have audio posts tagged croissant) 

the tag system on desktop tumblr is GENUINELY amazing for searching within a specific blog! 

caveat: this assumes a person HAS a desktop theme (or “custom theme”) enabled. a “custom theme” is url.tumblr.com, as opposed to tumblr.com/url. I’ve heard you have to opt-into the former now, when it used to be the default, so not everyone HAS a custom theme where you can use all those neat url tricks. 

if the person doesn’t have a “custom theme” enabled, you’re beholden to the search bar. still, I’ve found the search bar on tumblr.com/url is WAY more reliable than search on mobile. for starters, it tends to bring posts up in a sensible order, instead of dredging up random posts from 2013 before anything else

if you’re on mobile, I’m sorry. godspeed and good luck finding anything. (my one tip is that if you’re able to click ON a tag rather than go through the search bar, you’ll have better luck. if your mutual has recently reblogged a post tagged #croissant, you can click #croissant and it’ll bring up everything tagged #croissant just like /tagged/croissant. but if there’s no readily available tag to click on, you have to rely on the mobile search bar and its weird bizarre whims) 

[marnanel]

In Japanese, they don’t say “moon,” they say “tsuki,” which literally translates to “moon,” and I think that’s how language works.

[marnanel]

Dr Paul Erdős, probably the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, used amphetamine and methylphenidate daily. Dr Ron Graham bet him $500 that he couldn't give them up for a month.

Erdős won the bet, then went back on the meds. He said:

"You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month."

Undiagnosed ADHD, no? But it wasn't recognised in those days. See the difference medication made even to Erdős!

[marnanel]

hey guys i just finished a draft for one of the stories in my comic but could really use some critique. basically ive been interviewing multicultural people and then writing short comics based on our conversations. i think ive been staring at it too long and need a fresh pair of eyes. please be harsh idc. are the drawings too stiff or monotonous? do i need to add more background? is it written ok should i rewrite anything?

[marnanel]

Ever since Hamas began, there have always been some people who support them.

I have no idea how the public decides what they care about. Why isn't there an international movement requesting the eradication of the government of North Korea or of Burma?

I'm tired of arguing with genocide denialists. Go away.

“But they voted for Hamas…”

Whatever your sympathies on the Gaza situation, please stop using this as a justification for anything, because it's not true.

most recent election in Palestine: 17 years ago in 2006

age of suffrage: 18

∴ minimum age now to have voted then: 17+18 = 35

Palestinian population: ~5 million (Gaza plus West Bank, per CIA World Factbook)

…of which, people under 35: ~3 million

∴ ~ 60% of current Palestinians could not possibly have voted for Hamas

And

in the last election, 44.45% voted for Hamas (who were then using the name "Change and Reform")

turnout was 75% (per Palestine's Central Elections Commission)

∴ 34% of voters voted for Hamas

ASSUMING that vote share was equal by age, AND that the age breakdown was similar in 2006, THEN 13% of the current population voted for Hamas

∴ 87% did not vote for Hamas

(Feel free to share this.)

[marnanel]

today on neat hozier retweets: disappearing birds!

[marnanel]

[marnanel]

Before asking "why", ask "whether". Opposing Hamas on their home turf is a dangerous thing to do.

Public support of Hamas has been increasing since the IDF began the current campaign, which is only to be expected. (If people are invading your town and killing your relatives, then an organisation whose best-known policy is opposing them is going to seem pretty appealing. This is horrific, since Hamas are despicable war criminals, but predictable. Wars kill off nuance.)

“But they voted for Hamas…”

Whatever your sympathies on the Gaza situation, please stop using this as a justification for anything, because it's not true.

most recent election in Palestine: 17 years ago in 2006

age of suffrage: 18

∴ minimum age now to have voted then: 17+18 = 35

Palestinian population: ~5 million (Gaza plus West Bank, per CIA World Factbook)

…of which, people under 35: ~3 million

∴ ~ 60% of current Palestinians could not possibly have voted for Hamas

And

in the last election, 44.45% voted for Hamas (who were then using the name "Change and Reform")

turnout was 75% (per Palestine's Central Elections Commission)

∴ 34% of voters voted for Hamas

ASSUMING that vote share was equal by age, AND that the age breakdown was similar in 2006, THEN 13% of the current population voted for Hamas

∴ 87% did not vote for Hamas

(Feel free to share this.)

#hamas #gaza

[marnanel]

here is my ao3

some things that are here

Molesworth explains coding

Horatio explains hope to Hamlet

Some awful puns

Some Doctor Who slash

Elrond/Agent Smith slash

An unfinished novel about the Matter of Britain

[marnanel]

here is my ao3

some things that are here

Molesworth explains coding

Horatio explains hope to Hamlet

Some awful puns

Some Doctor Who slash

Elrond/Agent Smith slash

An unfinished novel about the Matter of Britain