jeshyr

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Posted by John Gruber

https://apnews.com/article/russia-internet-crackdown-facetime-restrictions-06301be480510b18ae02039c6524cd80

Dasha Litvinova, reporting for the AP:

Russian authorities said Thursday they have imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online. State internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged in a statement that the service is being “used to organize and conduct terrorist activities on the territory of the country, to recruit perpetrators (and) commit fraud and other crimes against our citizens.” Apple did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Russian regulator also announced that it has blocked Snapchat, a messaging app for sharing photos, videos and text messages, citing the same grounds it gave for restricting FaceTime. It said that it took the action Oct. 10 even though it only reported the move on Thursday.

I’m sure the crime rate in Russia will soon plummet. (I’m curious why iMessage isn’t blocked too.)

★

https://apnews.com/article/russia-internet-crackdown-facetime-restrictions-06301be480510b18ae02039c6524cd80

daringfireball_feed

Posted by John Gruber

https://workos.com/radar?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=q12025

My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring last week at DF. Does your app get fake signups, throwaway emails, or users abusing your free tier? Or worse, bot attacks and brute force attempts?

WorkOS Radar can block all this and more. A simple API gives you advanced device fingerprinting that can detect bad actors, bots, and suspicious behavior. Your users trust you. WorkOS Radar lets you keep it that way.

★

https://workos.com/radar?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=q12025

daringfireball_feed

Posted by John Gruber

https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit

Mike Isaac, reporting for The New York Times, “Meta Weighs Cuts to Its Metaverse Unit” (gift link):

Meta is considering making cuts to a division in its Reality Labs unit that works on the so-called metaverse, said three employees with knowledge of the matter.

The cuts could come as soon as next month and amount to 10 to 30 percent of employees in the Metaverse unit, which works on virtual reality headsets and a V.R.-based social network, the people said. The numbers of potential layoffs are still in flux, they said. Other parts of the Reality Labs division develop smart glasses, wristbands and other wearable devices. The total number of employees in Reality Labs could not be learned.

Meta does not plan to abandon building the metaverse, the people said. Instead, executives expect to shift the savings from the cuts into investments in its augmented reality glasses, the people said.

Meta confirmed the cuts to the Wall Street Journal, and Blooomberg’s Kurt Wagner broke the news Thursday.

I’m so old that I remember ... checks notes ... four years ago, when Facebook renamed itself Meta in late 2021 with this statement: “Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” And Mark Zuckerberg, announcing the change, wrote:

But all of our products, including our apps, now share a new vision: to help bring the metaverse to life. And now we have a name that reflects the breadth of what we do.

From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services. As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for.

Many of us never fell for this metaverse nonsense. For example, I’m also old enough to remember just one year later, near the end of Joanna Stern’s on-stage interview with Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak at a 2022 WSJ event, seven months before Vision Pro was announced (at the 29:30 mark):

Stern: You have to finish this sentence, both of you. The metaverse is...

Joz: A word I’ll never use.

He might want to use the word now, just to make jokes.

Om Malik, writing in April this year:

Some of us are old enough to remember that the reason Mark renamed the company is because the Facebook brand was becoming toxic, and associated with misinformation and global-scale crap. It was viewed as a tired, last-generation company. Meta allowed the company to rebrand itself as something amazing and fresh.

Lastly, yours truly, linking to Malik’s post:

And so while “Meta” will never be remembered as the company that spearheaded the metaverse — because the metaverse never was or will be an actual thing — it’s in truth the perfect name for a company that believes in nothing other than its own success.

https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit

squidgiepdx

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

ysabetwordsmith

Satellites spot rapid “Doomsday Glacier” collapse

Two decades of satellite and GPS data show the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf slowly losing its grip on a crucial stabilizing point as fractures multiply and ice speeds up. Scientists warn this pattern could spread to other vulnerable Antarctic shelves.

Current Mood: busy

daringfireball_feed

Posted by John Gruber

https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/2025_app_store_award_winners

One small update I just appended to my piece Friday taking a look at the winning apps from this year’s App Store Awards:

Lastly, I have questions — some really hard questions — regarding Tiimo’s app icon. Such as, “What is that?”

Perhaps it got picked because it makes Apple’s new OS 26 icons look good by comparison?

★

https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/2025_app_store_award_winners

ysabetwordsmith

Join the Christmas Bird Count from December 14-January 5. This is a popular piece of citizen science. To participate, see a map of active circles to find one near you. If you're inside one, you can also count birds at your own feeders.

Are you taking pictures of birds in your locale? Share them on

birdfeeding and see what other folks have in their areas.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy, chilly, and foggy. Much of the snow is melting or subliming with the water vapor just hanging in the air.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I bagged up Pink, Johnathan, and Johnagold apple seeds with damp sand to cold-stratify in the kitchen.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a pair of cardinals.

EDIT 12/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

The three act structure and holidays

So, now, I'm thinking of organizing holidays/really exciting events around these three factors:
* buildup appropriate to the event (edit: with a sense of joy and wonder, as a friend points out)
* a climax that is fun/exciting/enjoyable enough to justify all the buildup
* the day of the event should be low enough stress that the participants have the energy to enjoy it

This is a very astute analysis of holidays, how they work, and how to make them enjoyable. While it can't fix the problem of holiday sprawl in the wider culture, it CAN make a huge difference in how you approach them personally or as a family to create better experiences.

I've got a long comment under this post discussing some of my observations and practices too.

Current Mood: busy

maju

When I answered the question about "something you wish you had done earlier in life" with "travelling", I was reminded that the other night I was lying in bed planning out a short road trip for myself to Provincetown, MA. Living here with my daughter, I am free to go away on short or long trips without having to worry about leaving my house empty or having to arrange pet care, so what is stopping me? At the moment, the thing that's stopping me is the arrival of winter; I have no desire to be driving in snow and/or ice. But next spring I could think of some places I could get to by car within a few hours drive of here. Like Provincetown. S and I spent a night there on our north eastern road trip back in about 2015 (I think), but due to less than perfect trip planning, it took us twelve or so hours to get there and we arrived exhausted late in the day, and then because we had accommodation booked further north, we left fairly early the next morning and didn't spend much time seeing the town. It appears to be about a four hour drive from here and it wouldn't be too tiring to drive over, spend a couple of nights, and drive back, and that would give me a day to walk around exploring. It's such a small town that that would probably be plenty of time. I'd also like to explore more or northern New York State, which S and I also visited on the same north east road trip.

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Lord of the Rings; How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Pairings/Characters: Gen; Sauron, the Mouth of Sauron, Pippin, Sam Gamgee, the Hobbit community
Rating: General Audiences
Length: (Fic) 957 words; (Comic) 30 panels
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply
Creator Tags:
Erisif | Valarhalla: #i could have done something useful today #instead i wrote this #i hate myself
english-history-trip: #lotr #nonsense #well that was my day how was yours #why is sauron in a cave and then a tower #go to hell that's why #why is frodo bartholomew cubbins instead of a who #the answer won't surprise you

Creator Links:
(Fic): Elisif: (AO3)

Elisif; (Tumblr)

valarhalla
(Fancomic): english-history-trip: (Tumblr)

english-history-trip

Theme: Amnesty, Crack, Crossovers/Fusions, Just Plain Fun, Non-Fic Recs: Fanart, Non-Fic Recs: Fancomic, Poetry, Tumblore

Summary: Every being in Eä liked peacetime a lot…
But Sauron, who was also in Eä, did NOT.

Reccer's Notes: Elisif’s retelling of The War of the Ring in Seussian rhyming verse, firmly informed by The Lore, maps the Shire onto Whoville without introducing an anachronistic Christmas (that’s for Narnia.)

And then, in proper cumulative Tumbloric fashion, english-history-trip proceeds to remix Seussian illustrations to match. (Spoiler: Sauron does not experience redemptive cardiac enlargement; another character gets to preside over the grand climactic celebration.)

Fanwork Links:

Fic: AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26135110
Tumblr: https://valarhalla.tumblr.com/post/190955320437/every-being-in-eä-liked-peacetime-a-lot-but

Fancomic: https://english-history-trip.tumblr.com/post/636994579930939392/english-history-trip-english-history-trip-part

maju

5. What artistic medium do you use to express yourself? The only artistic things I do are knitting, crocheting, and sewing, so I guess those.

6. Who or what is the greatest enemy of mankind? Greed.

7. What’s something you wish you had done earlier in life? More travelling.

maju

I am disgusted. I wasted a *lot* of money on socks that don't keep my feet warm, and also that aren't quite big enough. The socks I've been wearing in winter for years are 100% wool smartwool maximum cushion hiking socks, and I thought that was what I was buying last week when I ordered socks from Amazon. However, when they arrived they turned out to be 74% wool and 26% various other materials including nylon, although they are still marketed as max cushion wool hiking socks. I've been wearing one of the new pairs all day and my toes have been getting colder and colder, so I've just changed to the one clean pair of older socks on hand. Also, between us, S and I had some pairs in size medium and some pairs in size large, and the medium fitted me better so this time I ordered medium, but they aren't big enough. Obviously Smartwool has changed the way they make socks in the years since I last bought any, and not for the better. And even if I went to an actual shop to buy socks, it wouldn't be possible to try them on before buying, and there would be no way to know whether they worked well to keep my feet warm before wearing them for a few hours. I think what I really need is new feet with better circulation.

oursin

This week's bread: Country Oatmeal aka Monastery Loaf from Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno's Bread (2:1:1 wholemeal/strong white/pinhead oatmeal), a bit dense and rough-textured - the recipe says medium oatmeal, which has seemed hard to come by for months now (I actually physically popped into a Holland and Barrett when I was out and about the other day and boy, they are all about the Supplements these days and a lot less about the nice organic grains and pulses, sigh, no oatmeal, no cornmeal, etc etc wo wo deth of siv etc). Bread tasty though.

Friday night supper: groceries arrived sufficiently early in the pm for me to have time to make up the dough and put the filling to simmer for sardegnera with pepperoni.

Saturday breakfast rolls: adaptable soft rolls recipe, 4:1 strong white/buckwheat flour, dried blueberries, Rayner's Barley Malt Extracxt, turned out very nicely.

Today's lunch: savoury clafoutis with Exotic Mushroom Mix (shiitake + 3 sorts of oyster mushroom) and garlic, served with baby (adolescent) rainbow carrots roasted in sunflower and sesame oil, tossed with a little sugar and mirin at the end, and sweetstem cauliflower (some of which was PURPLE) roasted in pumpkin seed oil with cumin seeds.

senmut

AO3 Link | Cat and Bird (300 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Selina Kyle & Dinah Lance
Characters: Selina Kyle, Dinah Lance
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Post-Crisis, +Modern Age (1986-Present)
Summary:

Selina's in the neighborhood

Cat and Bird

"Hey there, little birdie," came a voice from above Dinah, and she looked up to see her friend Selina on the roof. That made Dinah's mood much better, and she hastily made use of the fire-escapes — and walls — to get up there.

"Hey yourself, tabby cat," she said with a grin, barely breathing hard for that exercise. "A bit out of your territory, aren't you?" She plopped herself down on the roof-edge next to the other girl.

"Hmm, came to check on one of the ones that got adopted out, make sure it was on the up and up."

"This neighborhood? It better be, or word will get around. Bunch of nosy people around. And Dad hears all the rumors like that."

"Nice older couple, and the kid was from their faith. How he wound up in a Catholic orphanage is anyone's guess," Selina said, giving Dinah the clues to keep her own ears out for the kid.

"Glad you decided to stick around when you got done," Dinah admitted, leaning over against Selina.

"Knew you'd be out sooner rather than later. Make any money today?"

"No; this tutoring is a trade. I help the blockhead learn, Mom gets her bad cooler fixed for free."

"You seem to be the one giving up time and effort a lot for these trades," Selina said, disapproving.

"Family business, Selina. Have to support mom somehow, and Dad uses it as an excuse to keep her off my back when I go out in the evenings." She slung her arm around Selina's shoulders and squeezed. "I get what I need."

"If you say so." Selina shrugged. "C'mon. I know who's working the door at the Regal. We can catch a movie and be irresponsible teenagers for once."

Dinah considered, then grinned broadly. "Sounds fun!"

lilliane posting in

holiday_wishes

Hi! I'm Lilliane, a 60 yo person who has chronic illnesses & is disabled, neurodivergent and newly diagnosed with brain cancer (biopsy being performed on 12/9/2025) who is not only looking for some assistance this holiday season but is also looking to help others in this community!

It is my 4th year participating and while it's been a tough year, it's been nothing compared to the last two weeks. Being diagnosed with a brain tumor (Glioblastoma), having a stroke and a seizure is no joke, boys and girls. Not even close.

Some of the things that I would love to give & receive this year are:

1) Correspondence via email or snail mail! Contact me via my Inbox here and I will give you an email address or my snail mail address, whichever is to your liking. It could be exchanging holiday cards, postcards, or even letters/emails throughout the year. I, of course, will be reaching out to those of you who wish for the same.

2) Groceries and prescriptions are more and more difficult to come by, as I think they are for a lot of folks, particularly this year and going into 2026. I would be grateful for any denomination of Walmart, Kroger, or VISA gift cards. Physical ones are fine, please ask for an address (obviously) but probably the quickest and simplest way are probably e-cards.

3) Be of service to your local animal shelter, library, memory home, art program, unhoused shelter, aging agency or city council in your community. It is so important to give back in your community if you are able to! There are so many different ways to be of service, not just monetarily. Even one hour of helping a senior at the library every week learn to use the computer, or bring a neighbor some groceries each week, read to a blind person or a child who is not yet able to read, help the local shelter get dogs out of their cages for a day outside…so many different ways to assist! You can even write letters or send cards to people in nursing homes! Get your kids or spouse involved and have fun with it!

4) I have an Amazon wish list: Lilliane's Wish List
I have all sorts of things on here, and trust me, they do NOT have to come from Amazon. If you wish to send them from somewhere else, like walmart.com or even yourself, just ask for my address. My roommate says my list is boring and made me add fun stuff. Not sure how I feel about that. :-)

5) Be kind to each other. It’s free, and I think we can ALL use a bit of kindness each and every day. However, remember to not confuse kindness and niceness, there is a distinct difference!

Thank you for taking the time to read wishes and help each other out! You are all fantastic!

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Athens, GA, USA
Current Music: The dryer

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

There were some real lows this week -- possibly having less to do with Leslie Fish's death (see Sunday) than with my realization on Tuesday that I was a month away from Colleen's and my 50th anniversary. Possibly also including communicating with my healthcare providers, which required an email to my GP's clinic (also on Tuesday) and a phone call to my oncologist's office on Friday. I prefer using a website, but both websides and the app are broken in various ways.

And Tuesday evening there was a huge wave of something negative, but I've no idea what or why.

However, I got the things done. And there were also a couple of unexpected highs, notably Thursday afternoon when somebody from the family of previous occupants came over to get a misdirected package. And I was able to hand them a nearly-full grocery bag of stuff that had accumulated over the last year, and which I had failed to find the last couple of times I had a chance. As I noted afterwards, it apparently doesn't take much to lift my spirits for a few moments.

But four walks, and four (admittedly short) guitar sessions. I'll take it. And today is my daughter's 7th anniversary! (I had forgotten, but I'd gotten a DM Friday night to say that they needed money because their car had died. Good timing.)

Linkies! Raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor. Dumuzi's Dream - world's first film in ancient Sumerian. (With subtitles, of course.)

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

oglaf_comic_feed

https://www.oglaf.com/signs/

susandennis

When someone dies here, they put out a small frame with or without their photo and with their name and birth and death dates. It stays for a week. I have seen weeks when there were 5 or 6 frames out. But, lately, like since Halloween, deaths have been few and far between. It's been a few frameless weeks. Until yesterday. When I got out of the elevator on the way back from volleyball, there was a group of non-residents getting in discussing funeral plans so I knew the no deaths string was broken. Turns out it was Harriet's husband. Harriet was the first person who ever left me a thank you note for my creatures. I did not even know who she was then. But now I do. She's a force. She's in charge of the pea patch program and next year will be head of the Food and Beverage Committee. And she has a giant golden retriever named Apple. She and Apple sometimes visit volleyball on their way back from morning walks. Also Apple has a job visiting folks in the memory wing.

I never knew her husband but saw them at the Abba cover concert last year. He needed a walker to move but clearly was ready to boogie. He kept getting up to try and dance and she kept getting up to try and stop him. Over and over and over again. He looked like a ton of fun. As most of us here, I have a healthy stash of sympathy cards. I'll drop one off for her on my way to swim this morning.

It's still dark out and foggy. Perfect for swimming. I think I'll go do that.

davidgillon

I was parked at the end of the London-bound platform at Chatham yesterday evening, waiting to catch the train into St Pancras, along with the passenger assistance guy with the ramp. As we're standing there the train to London Victoria heads out, and then we chatted for a minute before hearing an announcement about my train being delayed, despite it being at Gillingham station, which is only a couple of minutes away.

We're just wondering what the issue could be when a train pulls into our platform, but heading coastbound. Passenger Assistance guy's eyes bugged-out and he mutters something and then turns to repeat it to me: "I've worked here for forty years, and I've never seen a coastbound train come into this platform! Excuse me while I go and find out what's happening."

Turns out he still hadn't seen one, it wasn't a coastbound train, it was the Victoria train reversing back. Apparently a freight train had broken down alongside the platform at Rochester (two minutes up the line London-bound) and they'd sent the Victoria train back to Chatham to wait while they got things sorted out.

We were only delayed 20 minutes, which wasn't too bad because I was still five minutes early for meeting the university crowd for pre-Christmas drinks. And as we're now using the Betjeman Arms inside St Pancras station it was much more convenient for me than our get togethers used to be as I now just wheel from one end of StP to the other and don't need to haul myself and the chair down to Ye Old Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. (We swapped pubs a couple of years back to make things simpler for me, but this is the first time I've been able to get there since, OTOH it also makes things easier for another two out of the five of us).

We'd booked a table, and because they were using their dining room for a Christmas party we were put in 'the study', so effectively had our own wood-panelled private dining room for the night. Very swish! (As well as the big dining room and a big bar they also have an 'outside' patio area looking out across the Eurostar platforms, the place must be doing a bomb). Given how crowded it was at the bar when we arrived (I only maimed one ankle, and we'd told him to move), I let one of my friends get the beers in sight unseen, which is how I ended up drinking 'Hazy Pale'. You know how some wheat beers are slightly hazy? Well this is a bit like that, but hazy to the point of being completely opaque. Not something I'd drunk before, but would definitely drink again. Though I might have paced myself a bit differently if I'd known it was 5% ABV.

The food was mostly good - I thought the mushrooms on toasted sourdough was a bit bland, but the fish and chips I had were done to perfection, and the other choices around the table - chicken pie, Cumberland sausage and Lancashire Hot Pot - all got the ex-Lancastrian seal of approval.

I packed in at 9:30 in the hope of catching the 9:50, as my neck had suddenly decided to become very unhappy, only to discover when I got to the platform that there isn't a 9:50 anymore, so I had to wait on the platform for about 40 minutes until the 10:20 arrived. Fortunately it was a fairly amiable crowd, I was even offered a beer by the guy sitting next to me - 'No thanks, I've had quite enough already'. There were one or two sparkly party frocks and jackets wandering past in the crowd, but style points had to go to the woman wearing the Snow White dress and tweed hacking jacket, both of them adorned with large cardboard and tinfoil stars.

Into Chatham by 11, in bed and asleep by 11:30!

Current Mood: Tired
Current Location: Surprisingly warmish

Profile

Ricky Buchanan

Not Done Living!

|

Network

Expand Cut Tags

Russia Blocks FaceTime and Snapchat

WorkOS Radar

★ Meta Says Fuck That Metaverse Shit

Beta Request

Climate Change

One Last Note on Tiimo: What’s the Deal With That Icon?

Christmas Bird Count

Birdfeeding

Holiday Activities

(no subject)

Lord of the Rings; How the Grinch Stole Christmas: How Sauron Stole Eä, by Elisif.

365 Questions 2025

(no subject)

Culinary

LadiesBingo: Teenagers

Holiday Wishes 2025!

Done Since 2025-11-30

Signs

Death spurts

I've never in forty years!

Profile