Dear Sony, why are you so bad at this
What should have been a simple transaction on my PS4 instead turns out to be an hour+-long debacle of things going wrong.
Why you should stop circulating that study about COVID in poop from airplanes (a.k.a. please stop screwing up the messaging about COVID safety)
It’s a bad study, it doesn’t prove anything about whether it is or isn’t safe to fly, you should stop circulating it, and you should stop and think about the impact that catastrophizing flying is having on COVID being taken seriously (or not) by the public.
Why you should not use RegScale
Companies that engage in slimy marketing practices tend to be slimy companies. RegScale fits that description, so you should avoid doing business with them.
How to protect your anonymity online when the services you use could be breached
Twitter is in the news again with another security breach in which 235 million users’ email addresses, phone numbers, and Twitter handles were exposed. These seems like a good opportunity to talk about what you can / should do to protect yourself if you need to maintain anonymity online. The basic rule is this: if… Read More »
Your data is yours: backing up your Mastodon data to protect against server failures and account suspensions
Long-time readers of my blog will know that I am obsessed with backups and with keeping control over data that belongs to me. For example, in additional to a comprehensive backup system I built myself, I have an archive of (legally obtained) music files and movies because I don’t trust any of the cloud music… Read More »
Comics: Funky Winkerbean ceased publication, Crankshaft; Mother Goose & Grimm moved from Comics Kingdom to GoComics
Regarding my comics aggregator, three updates effective January 1, 2023: For those who don’t know what I’m talking about…
How to cook amazing home-fried potatoes
I will now tell you how to cook amazing home-fried potatoes, which are the perfect breakfast food, at least for people who don’t eat bacon (or so I’m told, seeing as how I don’t eat bacon). Equipment you need: Ingredients you need: Steps:
How I lost 40 pounds and you can too
Several years ago, I decided I needed to lose weight. Here’s what worked for me (I went from 170 to 130 pounds, and I’ve kept off the weight). Maybe it’ll work for you as well. First, a word of warning: there are good reasons to want to lose weight, but there are also bad reasons,… Read More »
“Archiving Your Tweets at Archive.Org” for Dummies
[UPDATE: As of May 26, 2025, I don’t think the instructions on this page work anymore, because I believe Twitter/X has blocked archive.org from archiving tweets.] I’m all done with Twitter, but I also didn’t want to just delete my account and remove over a decade of content that I created from the internet. I’m… Read More »
Why you probably shouldn’t use Express Scripts
My health insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, currently uses Express Scripts as its mail-order pharmacy. They’re switching to CVS Caremark as of January 1, 2023, which as you’ll see from below is probably a good thing. However, if your insurance company is still using Express Scripts, then I to encourage you to… Read More »