Long ago Usenet and BBS networks worked in a manner that we could describe as federated, if you mean a decentralized system where servers could communicate with each other. I saw something a few months ago about a modern service that sounds kind of similar, but I don’t remember the name now. It seemed interesting but I put it in the back burner and then lost it.

I’m from the US and English is my native language. I took French in high school and minored in it in college and was actually pretty fluent in it for a while. A decade after graduating I married a native French speaker from Quebec, but our semiannual trips to Quebec to visit her parents now remind me just how much fluency I’ve lost. I’m still fine in common daily tasks but get into a deeper conversation and I start floundering.

I used to work in a technical role at a Spanish-language TV station and picked up some, but that’s also disappearing now ten years on.

I guess it’s a use it or lose it situation.

We lost power for a week when I was a kid after a hurricane. Our house was in a neighborhood out in the country, maybe a ten minute drive from what was more inside the city limits. I didn’t fully experience it, though. I was 13 at the time (I think this was 1996) and mom took me and my siblings into the city and we crowded into my grandmother’s house, which only had one guest room (I can’t remember if I slept on the couch or an air mattress, something like that). Dad stayed out at our house, I guess to guard it. I’m not sure why I went back out with him after a week; maybe the weather was cooling off? But as we were driving out we were listening to the radio and people were calling in, excited to have the power back on, and as we drove out we kept seeing lights on the houses as we got closer to home and were very happy to find the power was back on when we got home. I think everyone else came back home the next day.

I was just looking into this and going to post a similar question to the community. I saw a post recently about Friendica and thought that and Pixelfed might be things I’d be interested in self-hosting my own accounts, since I’d probably want those to be things I keep followers-only and connect only with people I know IRL. I’ve only used shared web hosting before and Friendica looked straightforward enough, but Pixelfed seemed much more involved. I’ve never done anything with a VPS before; I think I could do it but if anything went wrong I might be in trouble. Would that be an okay starting point or is that jumping in the deep end? I assume I’d be able to host both on the same VPS?

What legal stuff you need to do will depend largely on what country you’re in, the legal jurisdiction. Are you doing this just for fun? Then probably very little. Are you hoping to make money from this? You might want to set up a legal entity, a company that owns and publishes the website, probably something that limits your personal legal liability in case someone decides to sue you. Speaking of which, you’ll probably want to become very familiar with legal requirements for libel/defamation where you live, as well as where you can legally take photos/videos without permission and if you need someone’s consent to publish their image.

In registering your company you’ll also need to register with the tax authorities. Keep in mind that there are usually fees involved with these registrations, so you’ll want to have a plan to hopefully break even if not turn a profit, unless you don’t care about losing money.

You’ll probably need to have some legal documents like Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, etc. Even if it’s not legally required where you are those are good to have. If they are required you’ll want to be sure you’re familiar with those requirements and what they mean, such as what data you collect and how you safeguard it. I’ve found this write-up informative; it’s U.S.-focused but should at least give you an idea of the kind of things you need to consider if you’re creating a website with a significant audience. You might also want an explicit statement about AI/LLM training with your content, and be familiar with copyright laws in your country; do you need to register/submit your content for protection?

That’s not necessarily exhaustive, but probably a good starting point. Depending on how serious this venture is for you it might even be worth consulting with an attorney. Most news organizations have some level of ongoing relationships with an attorney or attorneys, either in case they are sued or perhaps they need to sue for open access to government records or similar.

I can see some of the appeal. Getting the right size can make a world of difference in whether condoms make the experience bad or not; even just a little too loose or tight can detract from the sensation. What could be a better fit than something literally custom molded for you in that moment?

That said, there are a lot more options online to find something the right size than what you’ll find at a local pharmacy. If anyone’s in the US I can recommend Lucky Bloke and their sampler packs. Follow the instructions at that link (slightly NSFW) to figure out the general size you need, then order the corresponding sampler. There will still be some size and material variations in there to narrow down your best options.

The biggest problem, however, was that the drying process took 2–3 minutes before the condom was dry enough to use, which was too long to be truly marketable.

I guess you couldn’t use it to make several perfectly sized/shaped in advance?

I’m a stepdad, so I chose this life and this kid. Their bio dad is pretty awful; the mental abuse has really messed this kid up in some ways. I’m glad to be a part of their life and show them they’re worthy of being loved (mom is great, but feeling rejected by dad will still do a number on just about anyone).

I wouldn’t want to have another kid now. If I’d been in the picture when the kid was a lot younger I think I would’ve wanted them to have a sibling; I think in general that’s pretty great to have (of course, situations vary). But now in our 40s and with this kid so close to finishing high school we definitely don’t want to start over. Plus we’ve learned my wife and her kid have a genetic condition for a chronic illness that can make life a lot harder, and it seems to be getting worse with every generation, so we wouldn’t want to risk passing it on.

When I was younger I was sure I didn’t want kids. As I got older I realized if I was with the right partner and they wanted kids then I’d be happy to try for them. I feel like having the right partner is key. It’s certainly possible to do a good job as a single parent, but with the right partner it’s a lot easier, or at least less challenging. If you’re not in a solid, supportive relationship that you can see lasting for the long haul—through ups and downs—then I would not recommend having kids, especially if you’re uncertain about the whole idea. It’s pretty much the biggest commitment and most responsibility any person will ever have.

I used to love my Livescribe!

I think I used to use this website to try to figure out when I should go to sleep based on when I needed to wake up. I eventually stopped because I got to where I could figure out 6, 7.5, or 9 hours + 15 minutes on my own (or even 3 or 4.5 hours if I made poor decisions about when I’m going to sleep). It seemed to help.

The backup singer on the right looks really familiar. Has she had success in another band?

I always enjoyed this cover he did of “Everlong”

Chevy Equinox? I guess it depends on what you call affordable and how long the $7500 federal tax credit survives

There was never really a need in ICE vehicles since they can primarily use waste heat from the engine.

Maybe try a different password manager and see if its interface is easier for her to use? There are lots of options, not all of them FOSS but this might be a time to accept a well-regarded commercial solution. Or, since she has the iPhone, try using their password solution. They integrate that pretty thoroughly in their apps and OS, and I think with this year’s OS releases across the board they have turned it into more of a fully-fledged password manager with its own apps. I know very little about it, but there might be a way to integrate it with Firefox on desktop now.

I don’t think they’re even paying minimum wage; Costco is well known for above average pay for store employees.

My wife is willing to clean the remaining meat off the carcass when we’ve eaten one. She really gets our money’s worth out of those chickens, usually making stock from them as well. So far she’s been happy to do the work even in situations where she’s making something needing a lot of chicken. I think one time she actually bought two chickens and pulled the meat herself for whatever she was making, just because of the cost savings. Still, I think depending on time and her energy levels she would consider buying these packs at some point in the future.

“Apple is being thoughtful about doing this in a (theoretically) privacy-preserving way, but I don’t think the company is living up to its ideals here,” observed software developer Michael Tsai in an analysis shared Wednesday. “Not only is it not opt-in, but you can’t effectively opt out if it starts uploading metadata about your photos before you even use the search feature. It does this even if you’ve already opted out of uploading your photos to iCloud.”

Reading the article, the service itself is interesting and it sounds like Apple might have found a way to process the data while preserving user privacy, but the fact that they unilaterally opted everyone in without giving them a choice is the biggest problem.

One of the six fingered man’s promises was a lie

Something I haven’t seen mentioned: there were a lot of tracks in the original Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and its immediate sequels that looked like nice areas.

I’ll start a store to compete with both Joja Mart and Pierre!