Does anyone have a favorite wired (preferably USB-A for now, but I know everything's moving to USB-C) headset with mic for long-term wear? It also needs to be on-ear instead of cuffs that surround the ear, because cuffs dig into my eyeglasses and eventually hurt my head. My employer provided this Microsoft LifeChat LX-6000 headset, which has worked quite well for me. I need a backup, though, and I need something for use at my gaming computer. Microsoft apparently doesn't produce headsets any more, so I relied on their recommendations and ordered this Logitech H570E. I'm open to new ideas though.

I don't normally need a microphone at my gaming computer, but I've joined 2 others in a Discord chat to play in a newly-available (only in Early Access) MMO. Pantheon: Rise Of The Fallen is intended to be a game in the same vein as the original EverQuest. I played EQ1 for many years, and I'm enjoying Pantheon, despite its very rough state at the moment. I originally crowdfunded Pantheon back in 2014, but the Kickstarter failed because it didn't meet its fundraising goal. Apparently they've been limping along financially for a decade, with very slow progress using only a few developers. The prominent designer of both EQ1 and Pantheon died in 2019, which didn't help progress either. Once inside and playing, the game obviously needs a lot of work, but it also obviously takes on many of the features of the original EQ1. There are no maps, no quest markers, and you're expected to explore the world from your character's perspective. I'm still experimenting and finding things that fall short, but the "core" of EQ1 is actually there, with moderately improved graphics. This is definitely a computer game (mouse and keyboard) and not a console game (controller). It has a complex UI, with support for in-game macros, just like EQ1. It has easily accommodated my keybind changes to support my left-handed mousing and right-handed keyboarding.

If you're comfortable spending money on things that are still in development and might never reach full potential or might get cancelled, then I can recommend this one. It runs great on Linux with Steam Proton, with one glaring exception. I was confused and roadblocked for a while because selling items was literally impossible, a necessary step in game. Players on Windows computers are supposed to hold the ALT key and right-click an item to sell it at a vendor. I have to use CTRL-ALT-RightClick instead, but at least it works.

There's too much going on in the world and in my area of it, so today I'll share only Good News.

The first week of school has ended, and the pace of work is finally slowing. The high point was a long ticket where the phone caller said, "Don't leave me!" as I tried to exit politely after solving the main issue for them. By the end of the call, I helped a 75-year-old woman with signing up for her very first course at the university. It's a nice reminder that I, too, might someday return to college.

I've had a broken screen on my Pixel 4a phone for several years. A few days ago, it finally started causing problems when it wouldn't recognize touches on the screen to unlock it. I need it a few times each day for multifactor authentication at work. Today, since I didn't work due to USA holiday, I rode the bus to Best Buy in Roseville to buy a new Pixel 9 and switch my phone SIM card to it. It's up and running again, although not everything is reconnected. Among the first things to reconnect was the multifactor authentication. It was an expensive purchase but definitely an improvement over my last phone. Bonus 1: I learned that there's a single bus route (no transfers!) that goes straight from my area to that distant shopping area. Bonus 2: I saw during the round trip not just 1 but 2 people in masks!

The big news is this: Researchers might have found what causes the clots by SARS-CoV-2. I mentioned last year that the spike protein seemed to be the culprit, but it wasn't clear why. Now, this new research says that "fibrin binds to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, forming proinflammatory blood clots that drive systemic thromboinflammation and neuropathology in COVID-19." That's really big news. If they know the mechanism, then they can find counteracting agents. There's a lot more to that study, but I'm still exhausted and can't really follow it at the moment. I'm hoping to learn if it's the S1 or the S2 protein, or both together, that causes the clots. Still, though... this discovery is very good news.

The power at my house blinked off briefly yesterday afternoon. It wasn't just me, because I immediately heard yelling from the house next door. Power returned within a second or three, but my internet service did not resume.

I used my smartphone's cellular network to make a hotspot for my desktop computer, and I connected to a webpage chat with QuantumFiber. They couldn't fix it remotely and scheduled a tech to visit me this morning. The tech was late, which is unfortunate, since I couldn't connect to the work vpn on my hotspot, so I lost some work hours this morning. I expect to recoup that loss by working on Thursday morning instead.

The tech left the house a time or two. One time I thought they said they were going to the "FSAI", whatever that is. Ultimately, they couldn't fix it either. They replaced my modem, which I discovered because they left behind the old one. (I had a photo of its MAC in case it would help me with troubleshooting with QuantumFiber.)

So what open source firmware are the cool kids using these days for their routers? There are more options now than I remember from just a few years ago. I suppose each of them must have a list somewhere of what devices they support. I just need it to work on the C5500XK SmartNID. If I could get this one working, then it would be a great immediate drop-in replacement for whatever the next problem is. Of course, if some hardware failed inside this device, then I just have a doorstop with a pretty flashing blue light.

I've logged into MeWe only once or twice since I moved to Mastodon about half a year ago. I wasn't sure MeWe was still around, but then I saw this recent news that it's incorporating some new blockchain technology from Frequency.

Read announcements about the Polkadot parachain being incorporated into MeWe...

Blockchains make it possible to deliver a new era of social networking apps in which people, for the first time, can interact in digital spaces while retaining direct control over their data. However, until now, when blockchain technology has been applied to social networks – which entail high-volume transactions with low individual value – costs overwhelm a business model before an app reaches even a million users. Frequency enables apps to overcome this barrier with a revolutionary pricing model, allowing builders to reserve replenishing transaction capacity at a predictable, low cost.

"Frequency breaks the price barrier so blockchain technology can be used to decentralize social at massive scale," said Braxton Woodham, president of Amplica Labs, the team that was the initial technical contributor to Frequency. "This breakthrough enables a bridge for Web 2.0 apps to connect their existing user bases to Web3 value, and opens blockchain for use cases that go far beyond DeFi."
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/frequency-blockchain-to-deliver-decentralized-social-experience-to-mewes-20-million-users-301807957.html

Um... what? That's gobbledegook. It sounds like obfuscation meant to separate idiots from their wealth via venture capital.

According to the announcement, the integration between MeWe and Frequency is based on the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), which Woodham worked on as part of Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty. McCourt allocated $100 million to that project in June 2021.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/mewe-social-network-with-20m-users-to-integrate-with-polkadot-parachain

Yeah. Like that.

So who here is still on MeWe? Have you noticed anything different lately as part of this programming conversion? I hope Mastodon and Dreamwidth don't follow the blockchain bandwagon. I'm willing to believe that the technology could provide some theoretical utility in specific circumstances, but this MeWe conversion (I am stating without understanding it fully) is nonsense.

furr_a_bruin died a few days ago. He used that ID on Dreamwidth and Livejournal, but he was also known as "Furr Bear" on MeWe and "Grizzly Dabsquatch" on Mastodon. I knew from Mastodon that he was receiving chemotherapy for cancer, but I don't know any details of his death. Furr was one of the people I've known online for over 30 years but never actually met in person. He didn't shy from sharing strongly worded opinions. I can sympathize with the social trouble he could dive into. It did seem to me that during the last year or two he had "calmed" from some of those intense reactions... relatively speaking.

I went looking online to see if I could find when we first met. Google has my messages on soc.motss (like an early form of a Reddit group, for you youngsters out there) archived as far back as 1993, but he wasn't in those threads. Maybe I encountered him on the Bear Mailing List? (The BML doesn't even get a mention on the bear article at Wikipedia. Inconceivable!) Maybe I posted to Usenet under a different university userid than I first searched for? Yes, that's it! He posted here on 1991 March 3 in this thread on soc.motss, a long conversation that resulted from something I wrote and another person on the internet informed me in an intentionally funny way that I was "WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!" to say. *gigglesnort* At least I've lived my life consistently, asking sincere questions that trigger norm-violation panic. :)

Anyway, 1991 is the earliest occasion that we crossed paths that I can document. If we ever met in the late 1980s on Relay, there just wouldn't be any public record of it now. I went looking at MeWe after I heard the news, though, and I found our last private chat message:

2021 June 10
I know you're into PowerShell, but I have no idea if you're aware of - or interested in - this. I was looking for a way for a UPS-connected Windows machine could signal something else to shut down too and stumbled into this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26XHb_cpiAA

If you go searching it's a "LCUS-1 type usb relay" - or -2 if you want the dual relay version - in AliEx search terms.

Furr was good with electronics and homebrew gadgets. We shared an intense distaste for all things "New Trek". We also shared a deep appreciation for Babylon 5 (and Fringe), but he won't be here to enjoy the new B5 television series when it arrives. It makes me a bit sad to lose another gay old timer who experienced the days of the last epidemic under President Reagan. A lot of righteous anger is fading into the forgotten past. I worry that mistakes are waiting to be repeated.

These aren't exactly "Good News" items, but some are at least evidence that trends have the opportunity to move in the right direction.

1. Linux market share on Steam keeps increasing. The November results of their hardware survey showed Linux at 1.44% of their platform base. That doesn't sound like much, but it's more than 50% of the way to overtaking the MacOS share.  The trend line is very clear, and it seems to be accelerating thanks to the popularity of the Steam Deck which is opening in new eastern markets soon.


2. For the first time ever, the "eOD-GT8 60mer" HIV vaccine induced broadly neutralizing antibody precursors. Everyone's hoping that booster shots will finally put us "over the line" for this critical immunological milestone. That's something that doesn't even happen with infection, or so the rumor goes, which is why HIV+ people should still practice safer sex even with other HIV+ people. There's more than one variant out there.


3. It's not on their website yet, but the Minneapolis Monkeypox Task Force is having more free vaccine events, no appointment needed. The next ones are scheduled for December 8th and January 5th, 4:30-7pm. They are happening at my local Cub grocery store here in the warzone. I'm not sexually active (haven't been for much more than a decade), but I do sometimes socialize with other gay men who are. Monkeypox is still transmissible even in social settings, so I think I'll get one since they're openly available. I've programmed the dates into my phone calendar, so I don't forget.


4. I've mentioned the game Oxygen Not Included before. It's the hardest base-building game that I've ever played. This Canadian company keeps making good free updates to the game, but they also issue fundraisers like this Kickstarter plushie toy of an amusing in-game animal. The effort is already very successful, with only 24 hours left remaining. I'd absolutely spend money on it if I had income right now. I'm a little sorry that I'll miss out.

Microsoft isn't performing well.

Besides the Outlook.com email delivery troubles I had last year, the website is also unusually slow in a web browser.  I open it up and see emails okay, but I can't interact with them sometimes for a whole minute.  It just sits there.  I have no idea what's loading in my browser or processing in background on the server, but it's unusable for a while.  Painful.

I like Microsoft Teams, but I can't use the application on Linux as an individual. Apparently it's limited to use only with business/corporate accounts.  I even subscribed to the largest M365 Family edition, thinking it would finally unlock for me so I could easily do a scheduled job interview, but it doesn't.  I can answer Teams calls, but I have to use the Chrome browser.  Painful.

So I cancelled my subscription after only 2 months or so, since it wasn't actually helping me in any way.  There's no programming reason for tech to be so troublesome.  The problem is that we've collectively chosen to prioritize the wrong goals.  Corporatism/capitalism doesn't want to interoperate freely.

And don't get me started on Google (maker of Android, a kind of Linux) refusing to offer Google Drive on Linux.

Bring on the Star Trek utopia, please.  I'm ready.

I've mentioned the phrase "technological telepathy" many times over the years, both here and other platforms. It's strange, though, that I've never devoted a post just to that one concept alone. Are you ready to know whatever can be known yet maintain your own emotional equilibrium and reasoned behavior? It's a tough ask, I know.

You're almost there now.  In your hands, you probably have a cell phone with access to search engines to find much of recorded human history, knowledge, and theory, merely at a whim.  You can also find Twitter, where passing thoughts from humans across the planet skitter around like angry ants in a disturbed anthill.

Quoting myself to jump start this discussion:


Basically, it's the hardest thing that people demand from their most intimate relationships: somebody knowing what we truly think and feel yet not abandoning us in their disapproval.  I anticipate the social consequences that our technology inexorably carries us towards.  The only solutions I see are either 1) no technology, or 2) social/psychological change in the human animal, and soon.  The best legal salve I see is 3) the inviolate rule applied to every sapient brain that a mind must not ever be examined or altered without informed consent, so people can keep something private.  This prohibition might extend to include necessary trust-mechanisms for safe self-examination: doctors, psychiatrists, priests, and maybe even our private journals, smart phones, and personal AIs.

I consider current privacy laws to be atavistic reactions against this inevitability, and I think they are doomed ultimately to failure.  They hinder what must happen, which is the rapid (preferably immediate) review of historical data to in/validate any statement.  Self-absolution can be dangerous, because it allows us to indefinitely postpone confronting a potentially harmful habit.  What we have now is a boon to liars and charlatans.  Consider a better alternative.  Once you voluntarily release something from the confines of your own thoughts, then it ceases to be private or privileged.  It now belongs to all of humanity because it is in the minds/memories of other people, which you are forbidden from controlling.  And they can access your observable behavior (speech, writing, interactions), already fully indexed and footnoted with objective evidence for either the corroboration or the dispute of your perspective.  "Documented anarchy", as some have written.  There are no secret discussions or activities, if the audience is larger than your own internal thoughts.

Any lie would be quickly revealed.  I think that the right to be forgotten (even to delete regretted Tweets) is dangerously close to legalized gaslighting, erasing external evidence to prevent the confirmation of someone else's memory of history that you want to avoid.  Self-forgiveness can be necessary for growth too, but it should be part of our history rather than a forbidden topic.  The only fair future gives us the right to access corporate and government memory too, their memos and video recordings and meeting notes where they discuss how to use our personal data.  "Souveillance", as some have written. The unethical situation we have today is the asymmetric exercise of power to review.  They have it; we don't.

Could you know every other person's complete history (dna, childhood, schooling, psych evaluations, sex history, job history), just with the asking, yet restrain your curiosity for the sake of equilibrium?  Could you wisely and constructively use your freedom to ignore?  That future is beginning to materialize now.  How will you/we adapt to the knowledge of... well, everything?  What "filters" do you employ for your own benefit?  For instance, Dreamwidth includes "Age Restriction", but are there others that you would find useful?  Is there a social protocol for brutal honesty? 

Lesbian foxes are cute. Seriously, anyone still promoting the ridiculous "homosexuality is unnatural" nonsense needs to provide evidence of which mammals do not exhibit this behavior. It sure seems like all of them do.

Minnesota legalized THC (but only in edibles, and only 5mg or less per dose), thanks to Republicans not actually reading the laws they approve. We always thought they moved in lockstep without knowing what they were actually doing, but this oversight cements the impression. The bill's author and the DFL party are happy to take credit for essentially legalizing marijuana in the state. The law went into effect on Friday, and there were lines at local stores. The customers were predominantly white, which begs an obvious question: what about the darker-skinned people currently in jail for something now legal?

Quantum sensors are here. I'm not keen on the military applications, but Defense One publishes a good explanation of potential uses.