George Mari @GeorgeMari@social.cleverlibre.org

My passion for computing began when I was very young. I taught myself English by reading the instruction and programming manuals of my favorite platforms. My younger sister would look at me with the wide eyes of a little girl who saw a genius, for to her, I was her big brother - brilliant, heroic, incredibly strong. I was none of these things (except older), but to her, I was her role model. She would laugh hysterically when I purposefully dropped fruit on Donald Duck's Playground on the C64, just to see her laugh.

When I was photographed in front of my computer, she wanted to be included too, aspiring to be like me.

Later, she enjoyed drawing with Deluxe Paint on my Amiga, trying to understand how a computer worked. She was curious about what fascinated me so much about it, sharing my passion. But she was already drawing far better than I ever could.

On her 8th birthday, she decided to buy (with money gifted from relatives) a Sega Megadrive, knowing it was my dream console at the time. Since I let her use my computer, she wanted to reciprocate with something I would also enjoy.

30 years ago today, she passed away. She was just 8, and I was 14. I promised her that I would not pursue this career for "money" or anything else, but to prove to her that she was right to believe in me, because, as she used to say, “you love it when things work, even if it drives you crazy.”

Friends of the Fediverse, now you know why this time of year is not (and never will be) the happiest or most peaceful for me.

#TechMemories #SiblingsBond #RetroComputing #InMemory

If the schools faculty regularly eat the same lunch food as the kids the food is probably up to the level it ought to be. If the faculty and staff won’t touch it even if it is free/discounted— it’s unacceptable.

In theory food for young people would be *higher* quality than adult food— but we do not fund or run most public school cafeterias this way. I want to know why not.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued a proclamation Friday granting full and unconditional pardons to anyone convicted in the United States for the use or possession of marijuana.

https://www.voanews.com/a/president-pardons-people-convicted-of-simple-marijuana-offenses-/7409020.html

The definitive guide!

Banks use your deposits to loan money to fossil-fuel, emissions-heavy firms

Your $1,000 in the bank creates emissions equal to a flight from NYC to Seattle.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/banks-use-your-deposits-to-loan-money-to-fossil-fuel-emissions-heavy-firms/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

One of the most notable things about cycling in the Netherlands is that it’s treated as a social rather than solo activity—often done in groups of two, three, four or more.

If your city isn’t planning its infrastructure and policy around this possibility, then it is missing out.

@histoftech @jwz I can vividly remember the screaming when Bloomberg pushed the smoking ban through in NYC. It was going to kill the restaurant and nightclub industries! Every bar in the city was going to close!

None of which happened. Now people — including smokers! — would call you a crazy person if you suggested bringing it back.

There’s a moral or two about letting change-averse weirdos shout down obviously good policies that I wish we’d learned.

👋 Hi, I’m Stephen. #introduction

🎓Worked in #highered for a decade, as designer → web dev → director of digital marketing.

👨🏻‍💼I’m a freelance designer/dev working mostly with nonprofit & education clients. https://steedgood.com

👨🏻‍💻Tech: ❤️ #figma, #wordpress and #jamstack (#11ty, specifically). Lately I’ve been doing #a11y.

🏠Wife and I have 2 sets of twins (8 yrs old and 1 yr old). It’s exhausting & it’s great. My house is a mess. #twindad

🎸Learning #guitar in my tiny amounts of spare time.

The team behind the 90's animated series ReBoot has recently found their original D1 masters, and they want to transfer them to a more current format for archiving and potential re-release.

The catch is, that would require a working D1 tape deck, and those are really hard to find. So if you have a line on a D1 deck, please let them know; it'll help out a lot of fans:
http://tinyurl.com/yb69etyr (links to facebook)

https://www.postfix.org/smtp-smuggling.html

"SMTP Smuggling" vulnerability in Postfix allows to spoof senders even in the presence of some DMARC checks. Configuration workarounds exist.

Also, a wholehearted f* you to SEC Consult, who sat on this since June and disclosed it to some closed-source vendors and MSPs, but could apparently not be bothered to give e.g. Postfix a heads-up, publishing this close to the holidays.

Boosts for awareness welcome.

Voice assistant from hell

10x developers, unite and take over!

In case anyone is wondering if there is any engagement on here— this is the list of every book recommended after I asked if you’d share one book you enjoyed this year. You can scroll underneath the post to see these, but I think seeing them all together shows the true awesomeness of the people on here.

Thanks for being pretty darn great ❤️
#books #read #fediverse #booktoot @bookstodon

My friend of 20+ years, Meri, really really needs a break. If you happen to need an old skool sys admin or a technical writer, she's quite good. If you feel you can help tide her over until she finds a job, that's also welcome. #fedihired #mutualaide https://gofund.me/efa1bb95

No Right to Medical Care, Compensation for #Injuries or Time Off: How Immigrant #Dairy Workers Go From Vital to Disposable
==

Wisconsin’s dairy industry would almost certainly collapse without the #immigrants who do the dirty, dangerous work that #farmers across the state say citizens won’t.

But when #workers get hurt — and they get hurt with such frequency it’s considered a routine part of the job — the laws are stacked against them.

#News #Labor #Safety

https://www.propublica.org/article/wisconsin-dairy-farm-immigrant-workers-injury-safety?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

Four Health Data Science jobs at Uni Glasgow

Prof (salary negotiable)
https://my.corehr.com/pls/uogrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=134990

Senior Lecturer (£58-65k)
https://my.corehr.com/pls/uogrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=136089

Lecturer (£39-44k)
https://my.corehr.com/pls/uogrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=134991

Engineer (£39-44)
https://my.corehr.com/pls/uogrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=135988

🎯

Ergh, I always find #introduction posts difficult, because I don't know what to say about myself. I guess I'll start with the basics:

I'm a 38 year old Autistic digital nomad, originally from Toronto, Canada.

Two years ago, my wife and I bought a motorhome and moved in full-time with our German Shepherd, Beau. We picked up Zoe, our Husky, while in Las Vegas in the winter of 2022.

I post a lot about my experience being Autistic, as well as off-grid solar power and RVing. I also post a bit about tech and software development, since that's what I do for a living.

When I'm not in burnout, I love to tinker and dabble in a wide variety of interests, such as writing, drawing, playing guitar and making music, renovating and upgrading my RV, photography, game dev, 3D rendering and animation, ... did I miss any? Probably.

Some things I'm proud of:

- I completely rewired my RV to run off-grid from solar and battery power myself.
- I'm a certified scuba diver.
- I've lived in 8 different countries.
- I love learning and I've taught myself almost everything I know

Fairness is one of my most fundamental core values. I believe that all humans are equal and that everyone deserves joy and to live the life they want.

While I generally find being social exhausting, I love meeting new people. I express myself much more easily and comfortably over text than face-to-face or over the phone, even with the people closest to me.

On one hand, I don't know what else to say. On the other hand, I feel like I could probably ramble on forever with no focus at all.

Got any questions? Feel free to ask. 💚

Argentina’s new leader, President Javier Milei, has embarked on a series of aggressive steps to refashion the country’s economy since his inauguration on December 10, and according to senior officials in his administration, he is prepared to follow through with his promise to “dollarize” the country’s economy.

https://www.voanews.com/a/argentina-contemplates-major-economic-reforms-including-dollarization-/7403656.html