Tonight I was reminded of my trip to Cabo Verde in April/May. My favorite part of that trip actually occurred in Casablanca.

I had a 12 hour layover so rode the light rail into the city. On the way back to the airport two women and a two year old sat next to me. In my (very) broken French we had a nice conversation about our kids.

She was trying to keep the two year old awake so she would take a proper nap when they got home instead of a 20 minute nap on the train. It was funny because not too long ago I was on the MAX in Portland with my daughter trying to keep her awake to take a proper nap when I got home.

Not that I’ve really had a problem with seeing humanity in others but it was just a really special and humanizing experience for me. Here I am on a train on a continent I’ve never been to before where they speak a language I barely fathom and here’s a family having exactly the same experience I had with my family.

Ponderosa Pine

#ThickTrunkTuesday

Big news in my little world: next month I’ll become the owner of the bookshop where I work. It’ll be amazing; for now, though, I’m digging into the nuts and bolts of starting a business, because other than the inventory and bookshelves, I’ll basically be starting from scratch.

The biggest decision to make now is what POS system to use, because we’ll do final inventory under the current ownership November 2 to 4 and I’d like to list the inventory in the new system as part of that process. Bookmanager’s waiting list is closed for a year, whereas I’ll be looking for a system to be up and running by the end of this month. Any advice on that? We’re on Shopify now, but I think it might be more than I’m looking for, going forward. The shop is teeny-tiny, and I’m into simplicity (including zero AI) but would like to accept all modes of payment. I’ve heard suggestions for Square, with which my experiences have been mixed in the past, and Basil Lite, which I’d never heard of. . . .

#POSsystems #bookshop #bookstore

Chris Nicholson and I recently wrote about the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)'s plans to use "AI" to streamline permitting workflows. This comes at a time when US historical preservation protections (esp. Section 106) face multiple legislative and regulatory threats.

See: https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=870459&p=21&view=issueViewer

#archaeology #culturalheritage #section106 #policy #AI #governance

@Em0nM4stodon @emilymbender This might become my email signature line quote: "When we do not have enough time or energy to properly evaluate the consequences of data collection, our default response should always be no."

Update: the large classroom style pull down map I installed continues to be a win. I quiz my kids on geography & current events using it.

(I also make them practice on apps. Current fav is Geotrainer - not sponsored, just a user - since it's good and has fam sharing: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geotrainer-geography-map-quiz/id527868789 )

everyone should learn about #JuryNullification, it's awesome! https://www.washingtonsun.com/metro/house-republicans-investigation-dc-jury-nullification

They've always had the Firefox ESR, but this is a solid product move from Mozilla (for once). A lot of companies have been blocking Firefox for security reasons.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/introducing-firefox-enterprise/

#firefox

Some picture perfect Amanita in my backyard!

#mycology

@jnl
My best tips for cheap cooking are this: learn how to cook potatoes, rice, and beans. Potatoes will always be dirt cheap, and rice is an excellent calorie-dense food.

Between potatoes, rice, beans, and butter, you will never be hungry, and it will take a very long time to develop nutritional deficiencies if you have to live on those exclusively.

Learn a bunch of different kinds of meals that use those ingredients.

555 timer gone rogue

The iTunes Store opened closer to the 1970s than to today.

A couple of yard birds this windy and cool Monday morning-

Hermit Thrush
California Quail

#Birds #Birding

What I would like to do: Grant minimum privileges between car and phone and Toyota and their 4.7E+19 partners such that I can view maps and play the static audio files on my phone through the car's speakers AND NOTHING ELSE. No optional services, no trial offers, nothing but music and maps, full stop.

My options seem to be full telemetry to everybody + dog or the surveillance infotainment console is a blue-screened brick with an always-on nag screen that can't be dimmed or turned off.

I mean THIS IS COMPLETELY WHAT I EXPECTED WHEN I BOUGHT THIS CAR. I AM NOT SHOCKED OR SURPRISED, just gravely disappointed that Toyota won't do better.

I'm just so tired of zero-consent coercive phone-oriented computing. In the analog hardware world there would be a breaker I could pull or pins I could jumper to coerce the system into the desired operating mode. This is worse than a brick. Bricks don't actively nag you.

I doubt Toyota is the best or worst in this regard and that there's no modern vehicle that doesn't pull this shit. All roads lead back to Google and Apple so what do you expect?

The missing features aren't going to kill me but I'm stuck with this massive dead-to-me display in the middle of the dash that would be better replaced with a double-DIN bay and third-party non-integrated electronics.

“Daddy, what is class inheritance?”

The perpetuation of class distinctions and oppression through bloodlines over generations. Avoid it.

“I meant in programming?”

Avoid that too.

#Books question:
My brother (in Berlin) is reading his daughter into the Potter-verse.

Ugh.

I want to propose an alternative. It should be something that is as magnetic as the Potter books (and if you don't get or agree with that, please refrain) but without contributing to a trans-hating horror's media empire. I want something that can out-compete Rowling in the contest for an 8 yr old US/Polish/German girl's heart.

I don’t think there are many mastodon followers who are confused about the CO anti-trans measures on the ballot this year, but here’s more information on the billionaires funding them

https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2026/10/new-group-joins-ballot-campaign-against-trans-athletes/82380/

Hint: a free HAM euro-oval bumper sticker with "ARRL member" in tiny text isn't going to get me back.

#AmateurRadio #ARRL

Hey former ARRL members, looks like ARRL is sending a survey to former members for insight to why they're no longer members.

I plan to fill out this survey and let them know that the current president and board don't have my trust to be good stewards of the main national organization for our hobby, stifling dissenting opinions within the organization, and their rejection of calls to support diversity within the hobby.

(Edit: Zero judgement of current members or many folks in local/section volunteer roles. I just didn't think my annual membership was worth it given the problems at the top.)

Can anyone remind me the name of the Firefox extension that makes it easy to identify which GitHub repos have been vibecoded?