"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.

Please, PLEASE use Libby. OverDrive. Hoopla. CloudLibrary. Kanopy. Flipster. Freegal. Transparent Language. Mango. Jstor. Your library would not offer it if they could not afford it, and we afford things by reporting the number of people who use that service, so if you don't use the service we can't afford it. It's a cycle. Keep it going, keep using it, and we'll keep providing because we'll be able to justify the cost to the bean counters in government.

Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1

The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.

So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.

So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.

Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.

And the probe is working again.

From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.

an article on the subject for the curious:

omg i told a million times just bc the amulet glows a bright pulsating red every time i'm about to commit acts of great evil doesn't mean the amulet is *driving* me to evil. it just gets excited is all

it's always "take off the amulet it's cursed" and "cast it into the flames before corrupts your soul" and never "woah cool amulet where did you get it" or "i like your amulet it looks nice on you"

It's a lot healthier to go for a daily walk than to sign up for a gym membership you won't be using because you hate that kind of exercise. It's a lot healthier to eat a frozen meal than to skip a meal because you were too tired to cook something healthy. It's a lot healthier to take a quick shower than to procrastinate an elaborate routine for days. Don't aim so high that you won't be hitting anything!

this is actually really helpful and affirming thanks

while you were studying girls i was kissing the blade

who is laios

there is so much intimacy in creating something together

no I'm so serious. I'm thoroughly convinced this is how I got so close to my online friends. a significant amount of bonding with my s/o came from rping together. tumblr rp introduced me to new mutuals. writing trr brought me so much closer to the person I wrote it with. this applies to irl friends too. my irl I worked on cosplay and fanfic and oc stories with, it brought us closer. sharing your creativity with someone, creating something with someone, creates an inseparable bond between you and them. in this essay I will

Hey I'm really struggling right now. I recently go kicked off food stamps & government assistance for Internet wasnt renewed & my taxs are still being processed

I need $1400 to afford rent, Internet bill, as well as groceries to last the month

Im looking for more permanent work and trying to figure things out But please I could any & all help

V*nmo: redloop

c*shapp: $TropScream

paypal: tropscream

MY RENT OF IS DUE IN LESS THEN TWO WEEKS PLEASE HELP IM NOWHERE CLOSE TO MAKING MY GOAL

IM STILL LOOKING FOR BETTER WORK AND ANY IS APPRECIATED

I think about this tweet all the time

"Capitalists, sheltered and insular in their dealings with fellow human beings, don’t understand that they are not sympathetic characters, so they shamelessly self-victimize in the press in the hopes of winning sympathy from the masses, in a futile effort to rally the necessary fervor for military intervention. The situation looks grim for the forces of reaction."

— Roderic Day

don't miss out on the new preorder items 😳

Oooooooof!!!! 450k+ views on TikTok. That’s a first! 🤯

I'm t5t. I'm sorry if you haven't gotten the upgrade yet

t2t over here and BOY is it a lot of work to be this way. had to get a weird download from archive dot org and now i can't turn Microsoft Photo Manager off

That's rough. I've got a friend who is still on t1t and they have to load their gender off a 5.25" floppy disk every morning.

And a couple years back I saw one of the developers of MS-GOS (Microsoft Gender Operating System) at VGF (Vintage Gender Festival) explain how, back in the day, he was working on t0t and had to toggle a gender bootloader into the front panel every day just to have a driver to load the rest of his gender off paper tape.

One of these beauties.

Wait you're not running Linux-based genders?

Look I'm too computer and too gender to just run one.

I've got a KVM with a windows machine, Mac, and two Linux machines. My gender is even more complicated!

my gender is like doom you can run it on anything

You know I'm the "my job gave me a gender survey that I was pissed off at, so I base64 encoded the install floppy disks of Doom and uploaded them into the custom-gender field" person, right?

note to self: make a DOOMGENDER pride flag.