#techisshitdispatch I am perpetually amazed by the fact that nearly all the companies that offer Flexible Spending Account administration services to businesses in the United States are complete and total clowns who apparently can't make it over even the incredibly low bar of, "When you send […]

@jik https://adoptastation.org/

I considered for a moment doing a bracket poll competition just for fun to see which kind of Girl Scouts Cookies the fediverse thinks is the best but then I came to my senses and realized there's no point because Thin Mints would clearly blow away the competition.

Welp, I just found out why there's so little continuity in the personal care aides that the agency sends to my uncle's apartment to help him, why he has so many different aides. They won't let any one aide work more than 40 hours per week, presumably because they don't want to pay overtime (and […]

This #breach notification letter I received yesterday from #700Credit is right up there with the worst ever. According to https://outpost24.com/blog/700credit-data-breach/ and a number of other available articles about this, the breach affected >5.6 million […] [Original post on federate.social]

Please, folks, I am begging you, stop reacting to the news that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down by saying (or thinking) that PBS is shutting down. CPB and PBS are not the same thing. PBS is not shutting down. If you don't understand what I'm saying, then please stop […]

Several times recently, my uncle's building's management has sent emails saying the heat was out and they were working on restoring it. My uncle was in the hospital/rehab, so he was unaffected But now he's home, and today they sent email saying the heat is going to be out for *eight hours* […]

I'm at 2,966 followers. So close to 3,000! That's an arbitrary number with no significance, but I have a petty streak so I'm staring at 3,000 in envy. I like to leverage my pettiness for good, so here's the deal… - For every additional follower I have at the end of January, I'll donate US$5 to […]

It's all well and good to say people in the U.S. military should refuse unlawful orders. But if you refuse an unlawful order and your chain of command (CoC) doesn't end up seeing it that way, you're looking at at least a ruined military career, and possibly also time in military prison, a court […]

"Health Speculations Swirl As Trump Seen With Damage Numbers Above Head" https://theonion.com/health-speculations-swirl-as-trump-seen-with-damage-numbers-above-head/ #theonion #Humor #funny #politics #uspol #trump

*sigh* We have entered the "USB-powered hand-warming fingerless gloves needed to survive the cold in my basement office" phase of the winter. Ugh.

I'm at the auto shop this morning for a new battery. Fortunately we have a jumper pack, so I didn't have to call AAA or rely on a stranger to get the car started to bring it to the shop. If you still have a gas car and you don't have a jumper pack, I recommend it as essential equipment. Keep it […]

Oh, hey. Circumstances compel me to remind you not to boost stuff that confirms your priors without checking first to make sure it's true. Just because you like the sound of something, just because it's plausible, doesn't mean it's true. People say things that aren't true. They have lots of […]

Bullies keep testing, pushing limits. When they get away with something, they always take it one step further to see if they can get away with that as well. Trump wouldn't have illegally kidnapped Maduro if the treasonous GOP members of Congress or the UN had done something about the illegal […]

[toilet logistics (adding a bidet)] Recently I finally got off my ass (pun intended) and started seriously investigating adding a bidet seat to one of our toilets. I was going to save time and energy by buying the fanciest model available at #costco, but it won't fit our toilet because of a […]

The Trump admin, GOP, and complicit media will continue to gaslight you, claiming what Trump did in Venezuela is normal and legal, so let me remind you: it's not. The normal, legal way to bring someone in another country to trial is to extradite them or arrest them when they enter your […]

Wow, OK, so, I need to tell you why I am not supporting this leftist idiot #jasonpoulos (@[email protected]) who's running for #congress in #ma04. #politics #uspol #mapol #mapoli (1/8)

December 2024: My dad, who is quite confused nowadays, sends a Hanukkah card to my daughter and encloses not only a check for her but also one for us in her card. June 2025: My sister closes the bank account that check was written against while cleaning up my parents' finances. December 2025: My […]

I see a lot of people talking here about search engine alternatives to Google, but I don't see much about #startpage, which surprises me. Yes, StartPage has ads, but the ads aren't targeted, or at least so StartPage claims. They also claim they protect people's privacy in other ways. And […]

My annual #boston property tax bill just went up by 18%. I understand why this happened. And I know that our city's property tax rate is significantly lower than that of many nearby communities. And I, personally, can afford the increase, at least for the time being. But it's still unpleasant […]

A few September highlights from The Onion's year in review "Trump Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From" https://theonion.com/trump-spends-entire-u-k-trip-trying-to-figure-out-where-he-knows-prince-andrew-from/ "Netanyahu: ‘These So-Called Genocide […]

It's always nice to write a how-to article that people find useful. But the niceness is reduced by the people who respond by asking questions or raising concerns that they would know are addressed in the article, if they'd actually read it. If you think you need to comment on something, you […]

A former colleague in civic tech recently reached out: they've a started a new job at a government contractor, and they there's another opening there they thought I might be perfect for. How I responded: "I am not currently considering fed. govt. or fed. govt. contractor positions." How I didn't […]

It's sad to look at how many prominent accounts—with lots of followers and lots of great content shared on an ongoing basis—were nuked when med-mastodon.com went offline without morning. I hope they make the effort to rebuild their presence here. And if they weren't already, I hope they'll start […]

RE: https://mastodon.design/@alx/115831377753680575 This, this, so much this thread. Look, if you're opposed to what Putin is doing in Ukraine, but you're ok with what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank or with what Trump is doing in Venezuela, then you can just fuck off all the way into […]

Someone who understands the nuts and bolts of how #mastodon and #ActivityPub work better than I do, please explain this to me… @galacticstone posted a reply to my blog's ActivityPub feed: https://mastodon.social/@galacticstone/115827838709434007 I want to reply to their reply. Pasting the URL of […]

RE: https://federate.social/@jik/115815986218199771 Spoke to the hospital social worker again this morning. She said the doctor called all the prescriptions in Wednesday before the pharmacy closed. Unfortunately neither the hospital nor the pharmacy saw fit to call me and let me know that had […]

This should be a law: Any company that claims "We are experiencing higher call volume that normal" is legally required to regularly post graphs and data in a publicly accessible location on the web showing daily, weekly, and monthly data for call volume vs. call center staffing level […]

Friend of mine who still uses #amazon told me this bizarre story that just happened to him. What do you think the explanation is? He gets a notification on his phone that his package has been delivered. The notification includes a photo of his front porch with a package on it. He goes out to get […]

RE: https://federate.social/@jik/115652076876325960 A month later, the guy at my Uncle's apartment management company who is responsible for tenant paperwork still hasn't sent me a corrected lease packet to sign. I just sent him another email message enumerating all of the errors in the […]

You may have heard that the maintainer of med-mastodon.com, a large, prominent Mastodon server, recently decided to shut down the server without warning, leaving his users with no access to their data. This could happen to you at any time. If you care about this, you should be backing up your […]

Heads up! I just got this incredibly convincing phishing email trying to steal people's Ledger accounts. The page the email wants you to visit, https://amz-recover-sign.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/signrecover.html, is also incredibly convincing and well-done […] [Original post on federate.social]

My wife and I watched "Thelma" (2024) tonight. It's a charming movie. We enjoyed it and I recommend it. #movies https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thelma_2024

Heads up! I just got this incredibly convincing phishing email trying to steal people's Ledger accounts. The page the email wants you to visit, https://amz-recover-sign.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/signrecover.html, is also incredibly convincing and well-done […] [Original post on federate.social]

I challenge you to find a single concrete thing that #ayannapressley accomplished in 2025 to slow the advance of fascism, judging from *her own description* of her so-called "accomplishments". She talked a lot. That's all. I suppose I'll give her credit for one tiny thing: she voted in favor of […]

#techisshitdispatch It's been more than a year since #debian #linux deprecated the insecure #sha1 hash algorithm in #apt repositories. The #keybase and #slack APT repositories (I'm sure among others) are still using SHA1, and therefore for over a year they have not worked in Debian without […]

New York City is now using locking dumpsters that require a cell phone to be touched to a sensor on the dumpster to unlock it. This is what's known in evolution as a forcing function. The raccoons are going to be on social media within a year.

It's here! Just in time for our friends to enjoy it at our #newyearseve party tonight. #theonion

You know that feeling of utter powerlessness you have when you're fighting with The System, and despite your best efforts you're losing, and when you look to the future all you can see is more fighting and more losing? That's how I feel every single day when dealing with the healthcare system on […]

I just unsubscribed from the email list of a really important activist organization that I support with monthly donations, because they've sent me five emails in the past week hitting me up for money. When I already donate monthly! I sent them this email. smdh #charity #fundraising #fail

Apparently #Vanguard believes in the meme that 2020 never ended. Seriously, though, I Can't Fucking Believe that a company I've entrusted to hold hundreds of thousands of dollars of my retirement savings is confused about what year it is. (I checked my email […] [Original post on federate.social]

One of the finest investigative journalists of our times, a veteran of CBS news foibles himself, has posted a definitive explainer -- with deep context -- of the "60 Minutes" takedown by "oligarch functionary" Bari Weiss […]

[Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)] If a country has a robust, equitable social safety net and healthcare system, I support #maid there. Otherwise, legalizing MAiD inevitably results in some people opting to die not because all better options have been tried, but rather because better options […]

Uncle's commode is broken, needs repair or replacement. Rehab submits order for new commode to med supply company (MSP). MSP tries to authorize order with insurance company, gets denial because he already has one. MSP calls Uncle to notify him about denial. I call and explain that Uncle has […]

I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but I just placed an order at #newegg and remembered to uncheck the fucking mailing list subscription checkbox before clicking the "Place order" button. You should be impressed.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@FoodieKenobi/115803554542984025 Yet another reminder that the only thing preventing us from seeing the full extent to which Trump has managed to destroy the American economy in a single year is the AI bubble. When it pops, we're looking at a major recession and […]

Where I'm coming from: the first #wicked movie was practically perfect in every way. Where I'm at: the second Wicked movie was a disappointment. It was OK, and it had a couple of truly shining moments, but overall it failed to meet expectations. Reasons why: #movies (1/3)

“43 women in Argentina say they were lured to Opus Dei schools as children and teenagers under promises of receiving an education. Instead, they say they were forced into working up to 12-hour days, cooking and cleaning for the elite male members…left without money, clothes or qualifications” […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@palin/115800008994696781 Cue DC area liberals complaining that all these cancellations are so unpleasant because now they can't go to these shows. (To be clear: I 100% support that artists cancelling their shows—it is EXACTLY the right thing to do—and I am trying […]

Oh look, another Torment Nexus Silicon Valley has decided to build: they've named a home security system for ridiculously rich people "Sauron". We are living in the worst possible timeline. https://www.sauron.systems/ I'm won't be long until somebody starts a meal prep company called "Donner Party".