orca @orcas.enjoying.yachts From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free 🇵🇸
Oh boy…
I watched every Terrifier movie, The Substance, and started watching a show called Teacup.
It’s been… a ride.
Someone I know had an old friend on their Facebook timeline say that schools should be reformed and don’t need classes like algebra. Then they proceeded to list fields kids could receive training for instead… and all of them required math of some sort.
Maybe the intent is to make people even dumber. It’s just misinformation all the way down.
I still have some screenshots from my old Android G1 that is skeuomorphism galore. It’s nostalgic.
I’m curious to know where on Lemmy you’re seeing pro-Trump videos… so I can block the instance 😂
Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.
My shoulders have been permanent cement since all of the election shit kicked off here in the US. I’d like it to end also, but that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to hear about the inevitable riots, Elon mouth drivel, etc. It’s a never ending mental hellscape here in the US.
I’m convinced that most of what they say is to simply piss people off. Once someone is in a negative space long enough, they start to crave that attention and anger as their new norm.
Your dad went through a hell of a gambit to be here.
Man, the US really is getting its mileage out of the Red Scare.
Florida is filled to the brim with Hispanic folks that love Trump. It makes no goddamn sense to me.
It wouldn’t surprise me if both of those things are true.
Trunk or Treat is big here too. I see ads for multiple around town. If families aren’t at those events, they’re driving to the historic neighborhoods.
That’s a bummer. It’s a great idea and you’re giving away some awesome figures.
I’m a hard lefty and even I will tell people not to give any votes to Stein. She rubs shoulders with Putin and a bunch of his cabinet members. There was also the time she called for a recount, took a bunch of donations to get the recount going, and then when it inevitably failed, she vanished with the money.
Just bought Veilguard, so I’ll be playing that. I also got a handful of new parts to do a refresh on my inline skates so I can do my usual Saturday morning skate session.
This is awesome! I have all of these except Leatherhead. How many ended up going?
Henry Ruleins
A meme that shows an image of Jordan Peterson on the left, and Henry Rollins on the right. The title at the top reads: > Why listen to glorified motivational speaker Jordan Peterson when you can just listen to Henry Rollins
The left column below Peterson reads:
- Thinks there is a "crisis in masculinity"
- Insists that the "hero's journey" is a long, strenuous process
- Never collaborated with Tool
- Zero scene cred
- Writes self-help books
The right column below Rollins reads:
- Never belittles or puts you down for your inner turmoil
- "Hero time starts. Right. Now."
- Provided a visceral monologue on Tool's debut album
- Well respected in the music scene
- Writes about his travels and interacting with foreign cultures
Baruleny
Alt text: Screenshot from the Pause menu of the video game “Barony”. The selected menu item reads “end life”.
Why you will never be fast enough
This is a rough thought I've had bouncing around in my head for quite a long time now as a developer. I wasn't sure exactly where to put it, so here we are.
Why you will never be fast enough
With the ongoing, endless growth and enshittification of tech and the internet as a collective, speed has always been a primary focus of programming. It's why things like Tailwind exist. Tools like this are a byproduct of a society that is constantly being driven further into the ground by capitalist ghouls and tech moguls.
"We've got to iterate faster!", "Move fast and break things!"
If you're in tech, chances are high that you've heard variations of these phrases. While moving quickly and iterating are completely valid focuses, the driving factors of late capitalism start to make things burst at the seams. Capitalism has no ceiling or end to its satisfaction. It is a beast that constantly requires infinite growth in an increasingly finite world. We see it with the neverending erosion of workers' rights, and we see it every day with the further destruction of our own planet. Capitalism and all of the ghoulish figures involved, will take until there is absolutely nothing left.
This includes your own sanity as a programmer.
Gone are the days of writing thoughtful, sane CSS for projects. Gone are the days of writing and delivering basic HTML. These things have been replaced by massive SPAs that contain everything but the kitchen sink, or CSS utility class libraries that make code maintenance an absolute nightmare. The creators of these tools will use the excuse that they were made to solve problems, but they fail to identify that the core problem they are focused on is speed. How fast can something "go to market"? How quickly can we get this feature out before our competitor?
Enshittification is coming for absolutely everything and it will not stop even when all resources have been completely depleted. The reality though is that "enshittification" is interchangeable with "capitalism" here. Let's be honest. So many of these initiatives are rooted in being as fast as humanly possible. When you try to couple that with the fact that capitalism is a hoarder of infinite wealth and resources in a finite world, it just doesn't work. Tailwind will never be fast enough, just like you will never iterate fast enough. It's impossible to match the speed of a monster that will burnout absolutely every member of the working class, while also actively trying to replace a good chunk of them with AI.
AI, burnout and other not great words
The primary reasons for replacing workers with AI are pretty easy to suss out: money and speed. If the system requires an infinite amount of money, it will also require an infinite increase in the speed with which to gain that money. That means that even if you listen to your boomer dad droning on and on about working hard and you push yourself to be faster, you will inevitably have deja vu when a tech bro says that the team has to "iterate faster". All of those long work days you pulled that seem to become more and more commonplace, are now reduced to ash. That thing you were proud you cranked out in 2 weeks? 6 months from now, you'll be expected to carry out the same task in 1 week. Sure, you can push back and we all have at some point, but tech is about throwing yourself completely upon the gears of capitalism. If you don't buy into it wholesale, you might as well find a new career elsewhere.
It is mathematically impossible to ever be fast enough for any capitalist venture. If you keep holding yourself hostage to this magic undisclosed number that capitalism dictates, you will end up in a world of hurt (otherwise known as burnout).
Be kind to yourself. You will never be fast enough and that's okay. Expectations are unrealistic right now and they are just going to get worse as the enshittification plague crawls across everything in sight.
My current setup
Powerslide Next 100s on unrockered PS Katana frames and PS Spinner 110 wheels. They’re not in the picture but I’ve since added 2nd Skin liners. The stock liners were way too thick.
Mail config fix and Lemmy version update
Hello there!
Some quick updates:
I recently updated Lemmy to v0.18.3, which has helped significantly with decreasing resource usage (release notes).
In doing so, the SMTP/email configuration got borked along the way and the site was unable to send emails. Fortunately, I caught this really quickly and have since fixed the issue. This should fix signups and all email failures that might've occurred.
Fixing the email issue also allowed me to ditch the postfix Docker container, which was also an additional resource boost.
Please don't hesitate to report any issues you encounter. You're welcome to post in the comments here.
Happy swimming!
Server and Lemmy updates
Hello! I recently completed an upgrade to the server that doubles the memory from 1GB to 2, doubles the throughput, and puts things on a better Intel processor. I found (as I expected) that Lemmy was running steadily with maxed out memory, and the increase has already done wonders.
For quick reference, I recommend (and I'm pretty sure docs recommend) having a minimum of 2GB of RAM on your server. I was able to get away with 1GB, but I don't recommend it, especially as your instance grows.
Here are some screenshots that show the change:
CPU usage:
Memory usage:
In addition to upgrading the server, I've also updated Lemmy UI to 0.18.2 and the backend to 0.18.1. This should cover some fixes that were recently made to address the JWT hack issues lemmy.world and some other instances recently encountered.
Happy swimming!
OG Leo meets the new Leo
The left one is the remake from the old mold, but I have the real OG stored away. Leo was always my favorite. I want to collect all of the new ones though.
Mac’s favorite way to chillax
He’s been doing this ever since we got him and I hope he never stops. Bonus thumbs!
Supercharge pull request merges on your busiest branches by enabling your team to queue.
Handy new feature for when you're working within a large team all contributing to the same codebase often.
Getting Started With Lemmy
With the mass exodus from reddit and the influx of new users in the federated world, I wanted to try and write a simple guide to help get someone started quickly with Lemmy, and remove some of the (understandably!) confusing things. Hopefully this circulates and people gain value from it.
Please also make contributions or corrections if I've misspoke or could explain something more clearly. I'm all about collaboration and sharing knowledge!
What is "Federation"?
Federation in relation to platforms like Lemmy is when each Lemmy instance (this term is interchangeable with terms like "website" and "server") is aware of the others around it. By default, when a Lemmy instance is created, federation is enabled by default. This means that as instances come online and become populated with their own content and communities, they can then automagically share that content with other instances.
The Join Lemmy Federation page has some additional information that you may find helpful.
I'm still confused, Mr. Orca!
Fret not, my fellow aquatic friend. In the old days of forums or message boards, your username was limited to the forum it was registered on and could only be used there. If you register on Forum B, your account could not interact with posts or users on Forum A, and vice versa. This is what's considered centralized. All of the content exists in one monolith and can only be interacted with by users on said forum.
Lemmy is different. Think of Lemmy like your email inbox. Let's say you've got a Proton Mail email address and you want to email someone that has a Gmail address. This is easy, right? You send them an email and go about your day. Lemmy has a similar flow. Once you've signed up on a Lemmy instance that you like (I will provide some basic selection guidelines further down), you can interact with other instances and their users without having to sign up on them as well. One account to rule them all!
Another way to think of Lemmy is like crowdsourced RSS. As new instances come online, they become aware of the content "federated" from other more mature instances. A good example is lemmy.world. If you were a part of the Reddit exodus, chances are high that you've heard of Lemmy.world. It was where I initially landed before I created Orcas Enjoying Yachts.
How do I pick an instance to sign up on? There are so many!
This is one of the key things everyone gets hung up on, and that is completely understandable! There are a ton of choices. I'm going to try to provide some really easy and quick bullet points to pick a community:
Start browsing instances
Start with something like the official Lemmy servers page. This page is handy because it provides recommended instances, instead of simply throwing you to the wolves
There are a few things I look for: the topic the server focuses on (tons of them are general purpose like this one, so don't feel like you have to narrow your search to a specific interest), and... how fun the URL is. The latter sounds silly but you really can keep your criteria this loose. This was a big driver behind why I chose the URL I did for this instance (which you can read more about here).
ProTip: With Lemmy.world being so heavily populated right now, I recommend checking out lemmy.ml or lemm.ee. If you're feeling a little more adventurous, sh.itjust.works is a lovely Canadian instance (and a fun url to fly your Lemmy flag under!).
What are communities?
Lemmy is comprised of 3 main things:
- Communities - Topic-focused areas that contain posts
- Posts - The content that users write (housed under Communities)
- Comments - The replies you and others write to one another under Posts
You'll find that all of the above is commonplace on the web. When you get rolling with Lemmy, you'll slowly find familiar patterns and flows.
Communities are user-created (or sometimes admin-created) spaces for topics of interest. As your adventure on Lemmy unfolds, you'll find that you can create communities on some instances, but not on others. One of the configuration settings a Lemmy instance administrator (or just "admin") can modify is whether or not users can create communities. This is handy for when someone wants to have more finite control over how their Lemmy instance is shaped.
I signed up on a small instance and my feed is empty! Help!
Here are some simple questions to ask yourself when selecting an instance to call home:
What type of Reddit (or just any social network) user are you?
The Casual User™: If you're a casual user that often lurks and browses everything that's hot, find a server that is listed under "popular", and take a little time to peruse it quickly. If it grabs you, sign up! If not, try another one. This allows you to let content creators across the Lemmiverse do the heavylifting, while you enjoy (and upvote and comment on if you're feeling saucy!) the content, memes, and fun facts they share.
The Intermmediate User™: You're the person that grandpa always calls when the interwebs and router go down. You like to shape your experience and put in some work. You might comment here and there but you find yourself mostly lurking (perhaps in a short list of favorite subreddits or communities).
Try digging a little deeper. Peruse the aforementioned server list and maybe find something that has a summary that stands out. Just because you're a Linux geek and registered under a heavily Linux-focused instance/server, doesn't mean you can only post there. If you're like me, you anchor your decisions about certain things to interests or hobbies. I'm a programmer, so I often gravitate to communities comprised of similar nerds.
The Hardcore "HACK THE PLANET" User™: I don't think I have to say a lot here. Find a community (like this one!) that is in its infancy. You can become a core contributor (with a rad super short username like "orca"!) and help shape a community. If your interest continues and you find yourself invested, offer to become an administrator, or perhaps host your own Lemmy instance!
If you can figure out where you fit in above, I hope that it helps give you some insight into how one goes about finding their home in the Lemmyverse. The popularity and amount of active, contributing users a Lemmy instance has, will determine how much content it produces and provides (via federation, which allows each instance to essentially create a linked copy of content from other fellow instances).
If you want more content and you want it on auto-pilot, go with the Casual User route. Willing to put in a bit of work? Go the Intermmediate User route.
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This is all I can write for now but please let me know if anything can be improved, corrected, etc. I created this initial guide after having a long discussion with a more casual user that primarily lurks. It helped me see the caveats when trying to explain things like Lemmy and Mastodon, and I genuinely enjoy helping others and trying to condense concepts down to something everyone can get started with.
Thank you!
On that note, I can't recommend Lemmy-Easy-Deploy enough. I tried both the official Ansible and Docker instructions and encountered issues with both (part of it was probably PEBKAC).
What is Orcas Enjoying Yachts?
I'm creating this write up to give our newcomers a quick rundown on the why, how, and what of the OEY community. If there is still some confusion or clarity required, please don't hesitate to reply in the comments!
What is this community?
Like a lot of other new Lemmy users, Orcas Enjoying Yachts was created in the wake of the Reddit debacle.
Prior to creating this instance, I already had experience with the federated world via tools like KBin and Mastodon, but this was my first foray into Lemmy. My years of web development and programming experience came in handy when getting server, SMTP, etc. specs all squared away.
Where does the silly name come from?
The name is derived from the recent stories about orca whales attacking and capsizing yachts.
With the onslaught of attacks and blatant lies being leveled at the working class by sociopathic types like Elon Musk and Reddit's Steve Huffman, alongside the painfully boring capitalist homogenization of the internet, the name "Orcas Enjoying Yachts" acts as a tongue-in-cheek nod to our seafaring friends that carry out these yacht attacks.
It's a symbolic phrase for fellow working class members like myself that are sick of watching all of our former web platforms and communities become soulless blackholes that serve to act as nothing more than IPO fodder for the wealthy.
I often call this "IKEAfication": the act of draining something of its life, to the point that its reduced to nothing more than a room filled with boring white furniture. We see this in our daily lives as we transition into adulthood. Next time you go to an IKEA, look at the furniture for kids, vs the furniture for adults. I could go into a tangent about the methods used to homogenize and control the population in a capitalist society, but I'll save that for another time.
Why didn't you call it "Orcas Sinking Yachts" instead?
- It felt too heavy-handed. The intent was to appeal to likeminded people that are angry and frustrated with the direction everything is heading (both in terms of web communities as well as the world), while also keeping things fun
- The sinking.yachts domain was taken
- I thought this name had a nice ring to it, and also acts as a fun, silly URL to fly your flag under as you continue to traverse the Lemmy world like myself
Can you share any of the technical aspects?
- The instance is hosted on a scalable Digital Ocean droplet running Ubuntu 22 (it's a basic setup right now while I gauge how things go)
- Automatic backups are enabled and run every few days
- I was unable to successfully use the official docs for Ansible or Docker setup, and instead used Lemmy Easy Deploy, which I highly recommend checking out
- Federation is enabled and registration is open
- Users can also create communities
What's in store for the future
As time permits, I'm going to work on a logo to represent the community, a new banner, and eventually a custom theme. I'm also toying with the idea to start digging into Swift so that I can try my hand at creating a Lemmy iOS app, but that is a little further off.
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If you are curious and have any other questions, concerns, or ideas, please feel free to post in the comments. Additionally, if you're trying to find your new home for Lemmy stuff, sign up and take a moment to read the Community Rules and Guidelines post.
If you got this far, thank you! See you on the Lemmyverse!