Craig Maloney ☕ ✅ @craigmaloney@octodon.social

Pretty sure landscapers will be the death of us all.

It's an air quality alert day, which means:

"People and businesses are urged to avoid activities which lead to
ozone formation. These activities include...refueling vehicles or
topping off when refueling, using gasoline powered lawn equipment
and using charcoal lighter fluid."

And yet I hear the dulcet tones of a riding lawn mower (The upright version) zipping away on our neighbors lawn.

I blame our eventual demise on you, dear neighbor.

@mwlucas You'll be happy to know that it wasn't sucking up: I genuinely like this. I think it's the most brilliant April Fool's Joke I've seen in a long while.

That it's also useful is the chef's kiss on an otherwise perfect meal.

@guerrillarain Nope, we get the taste of diesel fuel in the back of our throats too and they suck.

I have a large nose, but the thing with those sprays is they're supposed to get into your sinus cavity. I'm not sure how you do that without a minor miracle of aim and precision spritzing.

@viTekiM Apologies, but I'm not seeing the article. Have a link?

(OK, taking a break for tonight. Thank you all for liking and commenting on the #stuffilike posting!)

@viTekiM Any steps are good steps. Frankly the app is a distraction. Glad to see you making the cut.

Scheme / Guile / Racket

I've often said that I would love to take @cwebber's brain and shake it to see what all pops out because I know that anything in there will be amazing. One of the languages that he introduced me to was Scheme. Scheme is a functional language that borrows heavily from Lisp. It's a teaching language but still retains a lot of Lisp's power. I haven't explored it fully but I want to get back there again.

#stuffilike

Blue Snowball / Blue Yeti

I wonder sometimes if Blue Microphones are more marketing hype than actual substance but what I've seen with these two microphones is a quality and ease of use that i haven't seen duplicated in any other microphone. They sound good, they look great, and they obviate the need to have a mixer / pre-amp to hook up to the computer.

I'm really happy with these microphones.

#stuffilike

Ed Mastery

@mwlucas took what could be a rather silly joke book and created a masterful book on something that normally would be lost to the ages.

Michael writes tech books the way they used to be written; full of opinions, humor, and a-ha moments that too often get overlooked in some modern books.

https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/?product=ed

(If only he made a book for the C programming language. 😁 )

#stuffilike

@feoh They do: Atari 400, 800, 800XL, and XEGS, along with an Amiga 1000, 500, and I think 600.

Mechanical Keyboards

I have two Leopold keyboards with Cherry Black switches and I find whenever I type for any length of time on another keyboard that returning to those Cherry Black switches just feels right.

#stuffilike

Rabbit Engineering

3D printed models of retro computers of a bygone age

https://www.rabbitengineering.com/products-store.html

For those of us who can't afford a proper Jupiter Ace but want a little one for our shelf.

#stuffilike

Sinclair Computers

Clive Sinclair is an inventor. His earliest inventions were stuff that nobody really needed but were interesting nonetheless. Pocket TVs that were visible from certain angles; portable radios of middling quality, and calculators that were inexpensive but sacrificed precision for chip count.

It was this spirit of cutting every conceivable corner that made the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81, and ZX Spectrum the most amazing machines on the market, even though QC was less than great.

Red Dwarf

There are few shows that can do space comedy for any length of time. Most of them become stale when they run out of material to parody.

Red Dwarf is an anomaly. It shouldn't work. THe story of a man frozen in time for 3 million years on a desolate ship with a resurrected crew member, an evolved cat, and a daft computer should not work. But it works, and works in surprising ways. Add to that the android Kryten later in the series and you have one of my favorite show of all time.

Pepper&Carrot, @davidrevoy

https://peppercarrot.com

(You knew this was coming)

Pepper&Carrot is the amazing comic strip of Davod Revoy, an unbelievably gifted and kind artist who releases everything he does with P&C under the CC-BY license. He is open to collaboration and contributions from the community and together they contribute storylines, translations, fan art, derivations, and much more. He's built an amazing community around a clever story and I adore everything about it

#stuffilike

Leo Babauta, Zen Habits (http://zenhabits.net)

There are a lot of folks out there who do the whole mindfulness gig. They're the ones that usually tell you the amazing benefits of mindfulness and focus and then have you exit through the gift shop of books, guided meditation, and courses.

Leo Babauta has all that stuff available but he doesn't make that his primary focus. He is genuine in his desire to help people.

His blog is public domain and folks have re-worked it into unique ways.

Getting Things Done methodology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

I've been practicing GTD in one fashion or other since around 2000 when Palm devices were all the rage, and the Internet bubble was but a mere sphere in everyone's eye. It's the one productivity system that stuck for me and it's what I try to practice on a daily basis.

It's not for everyone, but I've had good luck with it.

#stuffilike

Ranma 1/2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranma_%C2%BD

The story of a cast of characters, most of whom have been submerged in cursed Chinese springs where someone or something has met an untimely demise and has now cursed those who fall into that spring's waters.

Sure it's goofy but sometimes we need something a little lighter in our day.

#stuffilike

Doctor Who

When people ask me who is my favorite doctor I demure by saying that they all are. While it sounds like a cop out I really do like every doctor in their own unique way. Hartnell's kindly grandfather, Troughton's dandy clown, Pertwee's physicality, Baker's charisma, Davidson's charm, Baker's savvy, McCoy's Geniality McGann's quirkiness, Eccleston's urgency, Tennant's versatility, Smith's puckishness, and Capaldi's musicality. (And Hurt's burden)

All amazing.

#stuffilike

One Deck Dungeon

http://www.onedeckdungeon.com/

One Deck Dungeon does what it says on the tin. It's one deck of cards that simulates a rogue-line dungeon. It is a little fiddly to learn but once you do it's an engrossing and re-playable game.

And all of the heroes in the game are women.

#stuffilike