Here is the code for the base, nothing fancy but it gets the job done. From the list I can decide to delete or link the file.

formulas:
  LinkedToThis: file.backlinks.map(value.asFile())
views:
  - type: table
    name: Table
    filters:
      and:
        - file.inFolder("Files")
        - formula.LinkedToThis.isEmpty()
    order:
      - file.name
      - formula.LinkedToThis
    columnSize:
      file.name: 566

#Obsidian

Via Ellie‽ (Radio Edit) (@ellieraejaye@chaosfem.tw) on Mastodon:

It looks like there's a photodump from the Artemis II mission.

Gateway to Astronaut Photography Query Results Thumbnail Display for 1777772559122361

#NASA #Artemis2

We've all felt like this
#SanDiegoZoo

Post tornado sky near Kansas City, MO.

Early morning scattered clouds over the Pacific off the San Diego coast before turning around and heading East. SAN > LAS > MCI
#travel #SanDiego

Giant video board at Petco Park in San Diego, California showing the NASA Artimis II Orion capsule splashing down off the coast of California.
#Artemis #ArtemisII

#birds #seagulls #GooglyEyes

'Researchers in the UK studied how European herring gulls ...in the city reacted to various types of takeout boxes. The gulls were substantially less likely to approach or peck at boxes that had googly eyes attached to them, they found. '

https://gizmodo.com/this-ridiculously-simple-trick-might-stop-gulls-from-nabbing-your-lunch-2000742276 ''

Obsidian and Cursor had a baby. It's open source

https://cushionmd.com/

#HackerNews #Obsidian #Cursor #OpenSource #TechNews #Innovation

Found this in the street last night around sunset.

fun fact anker docking stations are NOT designed to swap the usb cord between computers. ymmv but it landed me in the "usb last connected...." loop. I think i finally resolved it completely unplugging everything from the dock, rebooting the machine, and then making the anker software update/repair the firmware. It finally settled down. GEESH. You'd think that'd be basic functionality that a dock or usb hub might float.

#usb #anker #windows

#podcasts #BBC #history

"The series will explore the lives of influential figures through recordings held in the BBC archive."

https://podcastingtoday.co.uk/bbc-studios-and-pushkin-launch-big-lives-archive-podcast-series/

We were down near Petco Park this afternoon.Cannot wait for baseball!
#sandiego #padres

A survey of 1,692 US physicians: over 80% use AI professionally and the most common use cases are medical research summarization and clinical care documentation (American Medical Association)

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/ama-press-releases/ama-ai-usage-among-doctors-doubles-confidence-technology-grows
http://www.techmeme.com/260314/p1#a260314p1

Attached: 1 image

“Templater snippets (for Obsidian)” by Zach Young

🔗 https://zachyoung.dev/posts/templater-snippets

Snippets I’ve written for the Templater Obsidian plugin.

#Obsidian
⚓️ https://nicolas-hoizey.com/links/2026/03/12/templater-snippets-for-obsidian/

ROOTS - Return Old Online Things to your own Site That’s what Lisa Charlotte Muth is doing at her website. And that’s what I’m doing with posts like Some urgent note-making questions find answers - bringing scattered material back together.

#IndieWeb #PKM #Blogging #NoteTaking #DigitalSovereignty https://lisacharlottemuth.com/bringing-everything-back-to-my-website

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TRIBE TO GET BACK 125 ACRES OF ANCESTRAL LAND STOLEN DURING GOLD RUSH

Julie Watson/ Associated Press/ Mar 20

California’s Yurok Tribe, which had 90% of its territory taken from it during the #GoldRush of the mid-1800s, will be getting a slice of its land back to serve as a new gateway to Redwood National and State Parks visited by 1 million people a year.

#LandBack #Yurok #California
Northern California Tribe to Get Back 125 Acres of Ancestral Land Stolen During Gold Rush | KQED

Attached: 1 video

This could be "the largest data theft in history." - @alaw202@masthead.social

The Inspector General at the Social Security Admin was WARNED about the massive risk DOGE was taking with our private data, but the #DOGEBros wouldn't stop.

Chuck Borges, former Chief Data Officer of the SSA, quit & became a Whistleblower so it would be taken seriously.

On @nicolesandler@mstdn.social he said Congress should be jumping at the heels of #DOGE Bros to get the truth.

Check it out #Infosec friends
https://www.youtube.com/live/SxeRutsIqDw?si=9CwFV8HB2M77NEdd&t=2677 #uspol

@sergio_101@social.sixdegreesofohio.com @Ronguest@fosstodon.org I recently switched from DayOne to Obsidian for journaling and it was the best decision I ever made. I own my data, locally, and I can easily take it anywhere. I love #Obsidian in general and it’s perfect for #journaling. I wrote about it here: Saying goodbye to the oldest app on my phone - Drea's World

I wish there was some way of joining #Obsidian to my browser, such that when I search for something I get a popup saying "You have extensive notes on this after researching this exact issue 3 years ago and have since forgotten about"

Spotted this at Barnes and Noble last night. "Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I had this cappuccino yesterday and my first sip turned the barista's design into the heart hands symbol 🫶
#coffee

Bloom from within. Going through some of pics and this caught my eye.

February in Wildfire Country 🔥😳🫠
#sandiego

Windows 11 Notepad to support markdown via @andreynering https://lobste.rs/s/l4nw7u editors windowshttps://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/01/21/notepad-and-paint-updates-begin-rolling-out-to-windows-insiders/

This week was all about the frontend. I've been using Obsidian as the editor of choice because it works with Markdown files natively. My site is made up of static HTML generated from markdown by Eleventy (11ty). I was using a Vault (Obsidian's word for where your files are stored) for my Personal notes and another Vault that housed all the markdown and asset files for my website. That has worked well but there is a lot of overlap. My brain had to keep track of what was in my personal notes and what was on the website. So, I decided I'd combine the two.

One huge advantage to using Obsidian as your frontend is the ability to use the Templater plugin. This lets me create a temple for a blog post and another for a garden page. It will even auto name and move the file to the correct folder.

I keep a Digital Garden on my site so my idea is that I will continue to flesh that out and merge some of the notes that were hidden in my personal notes over into the Digital Garden. One nice thing is that in my Obsidian vault, everything is indexed so if I do move a note from one folder to the other, it is easily found in my local repository.
What about private notes? The default folder in my Obsidian vault is NOT one of the public folders. This means I can edit a post or keep a private note and it won't get published until I move it to the right folder. Also, I have 11ty ignore certain folders at build time so nothing from there gets published. Additionally, it's not like I keep info that is that private in my Vault.

On the 11ty side, I took the opportunity to completely rewrite my .eleventy.js file. This is the core of 11ty that tells it what to include, which plugins and filters to use and what to simply pass through. It was a mess after a bunch of experimentation with different things. I also implemented photogabble's awesome plugin that adds wikilink and wikilink embed support with tracking of backlinks.. This makes using Obsidian as the front end even easier because making a link to another note is as simple as typing [[noteName]] and 11ty will render it correctly as a web link when the site is published. They wrote more about the plugin here: Adding Wiki Links to 11ty.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I've either over-complicated things for myself or made it easier to do my "digital gardening". Either way, it was fun to figure out.

Happy Presidents Day.""""Two weeks ago, the CIA shut down the World Factbook - a public domain reference on every country, used by 6 million people monthly since 1997.""""We built a replacement: https://openfactbook.org""""261 countries · Instant search · Country comparisons""""Public data should stay public.""""OpenData CivicTech OpenSource PresidentsDay PublicDomain DataRescue

Valentines latergram. This mural spot has been repainted since we were here over Thanksgiving.

Jake visited Daycamp Coffee in Chico, California
#travelswithjake #LEGO #travel

Obligatory wing to tip photo. This time somewhere over California's central valley.
#clouds #mountains #California #aviation #travel

'Special Collections & College Archives digitized 201 letters written by the Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington between 1777 and 1792.'

https://news.lafayette.edu/2026/02/04/largest-known-collection-of-lafayette-washington-letters-now-available-digitally/

I don't think there is a digital sensor that can truly capture how vividly bright these are.
#flowers #bloomscroll

In my latest post, I teach you How to Remember Everything 😮 https://blog.erikhorton.com/2026/01/25/how-to-remember-everything.html \#anki \#KnowledgeManagement \#obsidian

Enjoying a snack by the ocean in La Jolla, CA
#sandiego #ocean #squirrel

Goodyear Blimp over Torrey Pines Golf Course for the Farmers Insurance Open with Scripps Pier in the foreground as seen from La Jolla cove.
#golf #blimp #sandiego

This cloud looks like an angel to me.
#sandiego #clouds

Auto Hide Obsidian Sidebars The minimalist mindset has you remove all distractions from your environment so you can stay focused on the task at hand. I use headphones to block out the kids in the house when I'm working, and endeavour to stick with the tools I have instead of trying to find something new.

Into this mindset comes the Auto Hide plugin for Obsidian. I love this type of tool, it does one thing a
https://curtismchale.ca/2026/01/29/auto-hide-obsidian-sidebars/
#PKM #Obsidian

My book, Accessibility For Everyone, is now free and online as a website.

https://accessibilityforeveryone.site

The book was first published by A Book Apart in 2017 but it holds up! It covers web accessibility for designers, developers, content folks, and really everyone who works in tech.

• Nice and cold so cooling it wouldn't be an issue.
• Located in a sweet spot between North America and Europe. There's already Greenland Connect right off the coast.
• They're already building one under the new White House ballroom so why not?

Sun shining through the window prisms in my front door VIBGYOR from my perspective. #color #light

Slurp Fixed Saving Web Articles to Obsidian In my recent Obsidian setup video I talked about how the ReadItLater and Obsidian Web Clipper were not working for me. I had to run through saving a web page twice to get the content I wanted.

A day after that video I was annoyed and searched "Read Later" in the community plugin manager and then found Slurp. With my first test it solved
https://curtismchale.ca/2026/01/08/slurp-fixed-saving-web-articles-to-obsidian/
#PKM #Obsidian #ReadLater

If, like me, you prefer a linear calendar for your yearly planning, I have created a 2026 linear calendar in \#Markdown today.

There are four versions available:

1️⃣ English, weeks starts on Monday
2️⃣ English, week starts on Sunday
3️⃣ German, week starts on Monday
4️⃣ German, week starts on Sunday

You can download the Markdown file from my Cryptpad below 👇

https://pad.tchncs.de/file/#/2/file/14eVdBkpkR2m68BgBMUNIoTJ/

I created an \#11ty extension that generates a list of links from a post (markdown). https://johnwargo.com/posts/2026/eleventy-adding-page-links-to-a-post/. Some cool configuration options make it very flexible.

Lifehacker: This Free Script Disables Every AI Feature in Windows 11. “If you’d like your operating system to go back to being an operating system, check out RemoveWindowsAI. This free script changes various registry keys to disable AI features including Copilot, Recall, and the Copilot integrations in applications including Edge, Paint, and Notepad.”

Jake visited the San Diego Mission yesterday.
#LEGO #TravelsWithJake

The internet is now rife with what I call "zettelkasten method one pagers" that describe what many people rightly (or very often wrongly) think that Niklas Luhmann's zettelkasten method entails. While doing some research about Luhmann's numbering system's antecedents, I recently came across a "one pager" (typescript) written by Luhmann himself in the form of some lecture notes from 1968 that folks may appreciate. Luhmann, Niklas. 1968-01-13. “Ms. 2906: Technik des Zettelkastens.” […]

Microsoft Office has been replaced by "Microsoft 365 Copilot App" 🙄 (not a joke, see office.com)

Fortunately there are many good alternatives on the Fediverse:

➡️ @libreoffice - Free open source office suite, can be used entirely offline
➡️ @CollaboraOffice - Online fork of LibreOffice, upstream contributor
➡️ @nextcloud - FOSS personal cloud including collaborative office tools
➡️ @CryptPad - FOSS online office suite with maximum privacy

(via @jbz )

My advice to newcomers:

1. Follow a lot of accounts. There's no algorithm here, so it takes a little work to make sure you have a lively feed.

2. Check and follow #hashtags of interest. It's a great way to find good accounts to follow!

3. Be sure to add alt-text to your photos and videos. We take accessibility seriously here, and your blind followers will appreciate it.

4. Enjoy! We're glad you're here!

Building an IndieAuth Comment System for Your Static Site | 🔗 https://brennan.day/building-an-indieauth-comment-system-for-your-static-site/

Loss32: An idea for a Linux designed around Win32 apps • The Register https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/06/loss32_crazy_or_inspired/?td=keepreading "The gist of the idea is to run the whole user environment, desktop and all, inside WINE. So it's something like a bare-metal WINE sitting on top of the Linux kernel, with just enough plumbing to connect them up. " #linux

Probably the most ambitious video I've ever made as a person at a desk: a 2.5 hour dive into Apollo 13 using mostly voice recordings!

I had a ton of fun putting this together, and I hope you love going on board with the crew!

https://youtu.be/gQUHVYYHTb0

New, by me: The Kimwolf Botnet is Stalking Your Local Network

Today's story is a long overdue series of scoops nestled inside a far more urgent Internet-wide security advisory. The vulnerability at issue has been exploited for months already, and it’s time for a broader awareness of the threat. The short version is that everything you thought you knew about the security of the internal network behind your Internet router probably is now dangerously out of date.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/01/the-kimwolf-botnet-is-stalking-your-local-network/

How Apple Nearly Ruined My Vacation - A little understood change in recent editions of iOS can spell disaster when you travel - https://louplummer.lol/how-apple-nearly-ruined-my-vacation/ \#Tech \#IOS \#IPhone

You already know the answer.

Well done, city of Del Mar, California.

Data center developers, facing grid access wait times of up to seven years, are turning to aeroderivative turbines and diesel generators to power the AI boom (Martha Muir/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/8deb1518-b650-4a21-b7d1-3e6180560056?accessToken=zwAGRupVmN1IkdON6xUYtlBKIdO30T5hgFYAVg.MEUCIQCqMj98894NtAnLVG9mc-J8UJeZh1dWiiu3AKfs8QgVGwIgQCgSRGsoCVwsGbw8aFQNG0mg35DaLqvm5_Q-p391GWA&sharetype=gift&token=41dadb15-0cc5-46fd-b387-cf9df835f1e2
http://www.techmeme.com/251228/p6#a251228p6

Went to this place called Crack Shack in Little Italy. That was the Firebird... spicy and delicious. #recommended
#SanDiego #LittleItaly

That Christmas sky this evening
#cloudpr0n

Ready for "Midnight" mass. Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄
#Catholic #Christmas

Ubuntu Studio is Linux's best-kept secret for creators https://www.howtogeek.com/ubuntu-studio-is-linuxs-best-kept-secret-for-creators/?user=dGVjaGxpZmVibG9nZ2VkQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ&lctg=2017937f2fb2d980da3058d6c9dda2222bab2e1719987346cffd9c1c28a5bb83 "Ubuntu Studio is an official variant of the Ubuntu Linux distribution specifically engineered for creative professionals and hobbyists. You can think of it as an open-source workstation designed to replace expensive proprietary software suites for audio production, video editing, graphic design, photography, and desktop publishing."

Apple nuking a customer's account over a bad gift card is a warning for everyone

https://this.weekinsecurity.com/apple-nuking-a-customer-account-over-a-bad-gift-card-is-a-warning-for-everyone/

Look Up Where Your Generic Prescription Drugs Were Made https://projects.propublica.org/rx-inspector/ \#HealthCare

When Trump announced a $300 million ballroom at the White House, something went off in my brain.
https://thedreydossier.substack.com/p/trump-isnt-building-a-ballroom

7 — Perfect, must try, life-changing, go out of your way to seek this out
6 — Excellent, worth repeating
5 — Good, don’t go out of your way, but enjoyable
4 — Passable, works in a pinch
3 — Bad, don’t do this if you can
2 — Atrocious, actively avoid, repulsive
1 — Evil, life-changing in a bad way

Here's a collection of free-to-use short music for any kind of project imaginable. I've been working on this project for over 10 years on and off, and it's a labour of love.

Whether you're doing work for TV, Radio, Film, your next podcast, show reel, powerpoint presentation, youtube video or university assignment that requires something to intro or outro it, there should be something for you, and if not you directly, maybe someone you know.

This is not the final form. I add to it whenever I find inspiration to do so. Check back every so often as you may find more content was added when you weren't looking 🔇

Currently:
1210 items
766 MB download in mp3
over 9 hours of music.

Absolutely no AI was used (or harmed) in the making of this collection.

If you feel so inclined, please do boost for reach. Many thanks.
https://onj.me/shorts

Two Virginia Men Arrested for Conspiring to Destroy Government Databases | United States Department of Justice https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-virginia-men-arrested-conspiring-destroy-government-databases?is=7954b7f440cecfd9b9243ddbaab5414f1d380add504b8c010e47738f0c1bfbda "According to court documents, brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, both 34, of Alexandria, Virginia, were indicted on Nov. 13 for conspiring to delete databases used to store U.S. government information. Both men were federal contractors. Following the termination of their employment, the brothers allegedly sought to harm the company and its U.S. government customers by accessing computers without authorization, issuing commands to prevent others from modifying the databases before deletion, deleting databases, stealing information, and destroying evidence of their unlawful activities."

pCloud is offering lifetime pay-once plans for cloud storage. Because, like I said, it's eminently possible to pay *once* for something and be done, without any subscription (which could and usually does go up over time based purely on whether the vendor feels like it).

If your first thought when you read this is: "Is this sustainable?", just understand that NOTHING IS SUSTAINABLE and that's really, really NOT what your first thought should be.

really, really impressed with posty: a mastodon archive -> html static site generator

it ingests your mastodon archive (post history) as a zip, and barfs out an entire static html site with indices and tags. all servable with any standard web server.

this is super helpful because when i shut down the dialup.cafe instance, there was no easy way to get access to my old posts and images.

it can either be run online here:
https://posty.1sland.social

or instructions here for running it locally:
https://codeberg.org/oliphant/posty

CrowdStrike catches insider feeding information to hackers https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/crowdstrike-catches-insider-feeding-information-to-hackers/ "American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has confirmed that an insider shared screenshots taken on internal systems with hackers after they were leaked on Telegram by the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters threat actors."

What's the best that could happen?

Choo cool. 🚂

Microsoft Open Sources Zork I, II, and III Source Code https://www.thurrott.com/classic-technology/329907/microsoft-open-sources-zork-i-ii-and-iii-source-code?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

HP, Dell quietly disable HEVC on certain laptops over minute license fee increase

Inter-corporation bullshit screwing over consumers - a tale as old as time.

Major laptop vendors have quietly removed hardware decode support for the H.265/HEVC codec in several business and entry-level models, a decision apparently driven by rising licensing fees. Users

https://www.osnews.com/story/143876/hp-dell-quietly-disable-hevc-on-certain-laptops-over-minute-license-fee-increase/

You can now convert your Notion pages and databases to durable, private, local files.

Your data, offline, forever, for free.

It's time for Gulls Hockey! #sdgulls #ahl

A pay phone in the wild in 2025. Apparently someone got pissed off they didn't have spare change.

Researchers Reveal New Method to Detect Primordial Life in Ancient Rocks — Scientists have developed a new technique to identify signs of Earth’s earliest life preserved in ancient rock formations. The method promises improved detection of primordial biosignatures and could reshape our… https://www.reuters.com/science/new-method-spots-signs-earths-primordial-life-ancient-rocks-2025-11-18/

Windows 11 agentic OS faces Xpia malware threat | Windows Central 'Microsoft is pushing ahead with its plan to add agentic capabilities to Windows 11 but has issued an important security warning for anyone who is interested in trying it out.'

Researchers tried plugging every possible phone number into WhatsApp's web app. They found they could collect 3.5 billion users' phone numbers, plus photos for half and profile text for almost a third, the biggest personal data exposure ever by some measures. A Simple WhatsApp Security Flaw Exposed 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers | WIRED

Three Chinese Astronauts Stranded in Space After Colleague Rescue — Chinese officials report that three additional taikonauts are now stranded in orbit following a recent mission that successfully rescued a colleague. The development raises safety and technical questions about China’s… https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/three-more-chinese-astronauts-now-183505360.html

Cloud pr0n

What do I mean, actually created? In Obsidian you can, in the text of a note, simply add [[My Grand Idea]] which looks like a link to the note called "My Grand Idea" but I might not have a real note called "My Grand Idea". This Base, which I keep on a note called "In Box" gathers up any non-created notes and shows them to me so I can be sure I create them for real.

formulas:
  Untitled: file.links.filter(!value.asFile().isTruthy())
properties:
  file.name:
    displayName: Origin
  formula.Untitled:
    displayName: Uncreated files
views:
  - type: table
    name: Table
    filters:
      and:
        - file.links.filter(!value.asFile().isTruthy())
        - '!file.path.contains("Support")'
    order:
      - file.name
      - formula.Untitled

The line that says !file.path.contains("Support") is meant to prevent anything in my Support folder or it's subfolders from showing up in the Base. This is where I keep my Templates. You can omit that line or change Support to something that makes sense for your Vault.

The second one is self explanatory: I want all notes to link to each other. This Base shows me any notes that don't contain links to other notes in the vault.

views:
  - type: table
    name: Table
    filters:
      and:
        - file.links.isEmpty()
        - '!file.path.contains("Files")'
        - '!file.path.contains("Support")'
        - '!file.path.contains("Daily")'

Like the above, I don't want false-positives showing up for notes in the Files folder (where I keep attachments), the Support folder or the Daily folder. These filters could be modified or removed.

These 2 Bases are part of my Obsidian Template Vault

Rain drops on a fallen leaf.

A collection that has been in the making for several weeks now:

https://chavanniclass.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/the-austin-kleon-catalogue/

\#California’s state agency CalPrivacy is building a new Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP 😂).

Starting Jan 1, 2026, you’ll be able to submit a request through DROP, asking data brokers to delete your data.

Starting Aug 1, 2026, data brokers are required to start regularly processing consumer deletion requests, reducing how many times your data can be bought, sold, and pop-up on sketchy websites. 😎

This is exciting, as it’s a FREE service for California residents, similar to existing, paid services like Optery, Incogni, Privacy Bee, DeleteMe, and EasyOptOuts.

#privacy #data #government

https://privacy.ca.gov/data-brokers/

Happy 55th Oregon Blew Up A Whale Day for those who celebrate!

Also: if you're afraid of doing something because you're worried you'll look like a jackass if you mess up, PLEASE know that you will never look like as much of a jackass as the State of Oregon did as chunks of rotting whale blubber pelted onlookers.

They caught the whole debacle on the evening news.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a34658153/exploding-whale-dynamite-video/

My current way of organizing and working in Obsidian is finally stable and working well for me. I’ve decided it's the right time to share my setup and write about how I use it. Like everything else here, I do this so I can remember what I did and why, and also to have a place to send people who ask me about it.

Here is a link to my Template Vault for Obsidian on github:
TechLifeWeb/ObsidianTemplateVault

Here's some information about the vault and how I use it. I've also added a section about my personal rules for using it. Your rules don't have to be the same as mine, but I strongly encourage you to take a moment to think about what you're doing with your notes and, even more importantly, why you're making these notes.

When I was setting up my vault, I believed that being able to find things easily was the most important idea. So, I thought about how to make notes that are quick and simple to create, while also including enough details so I can find them again without any trouble.

Folders #

• I avoid folders for content. Every note is stored in the Notes folder with the exception of Daily Notes which are held in the Notes/Daily subfolder.
• Notes that are not content are stored under the Support folder. There are subfolders for the special cases of Navigation notes (some call these MOCs or Maps of Content) and Templates.
• The "Files" folder is where attachments are held.

Bookmarks #

• I have all the Navigation notes bookmarked so they appear in the list of Bookmarks. That panel I have open on the upper left and is where I start all my navigation unless I just search.
• I loosely use the ideas of PARA presented by Tiago Forte: The PARA Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds. "Projects" is too work oriented in my brain so I use "Efforts" to mean essentially the same thing for personal stuff.
  • 📥In Box: This is a list of any file this has been linked to but not yet created
  • 🗂️Resources: Things I am interested in
  • 🌐Areas: Areas of Responsibility are the roles you take on in life and the hats you wear (Spouse, Mother/Father, Team Leader, Soccer Coach)
  • 💼Efforts: Things I'm actively working on
  • 😎 Favorites: Any notes tagged "favorites" will show up here
  • 📈Stats: Uses Dataview to show the current number of files in my Obsidian Vault and has a list of the 10 most recent notes.
• Having Bookmarks always handy in the sidebar like this is very helpful for temporarily keeping notes handy. For example, if I'm on a trip I'll bookmark my "Trip to London" (or wherever) note and it is then a click or tap away when I pull up Obsidian while on the road.

Vault Setup Notes #

• I store this file at the root level of my folder structure for quick and easy access. Whenever I add or modify a plugin, I update the notes in this document accordingly. Some changes are straightforward, while others are more complex, so maintaining a record ensures clear documentation for future reference.

Templates #

• Default Template: Gets applied to all notes except Daily Notes
• Daily Notes: For Daily Notes
• Code - Subcategory List
  • This is code is magical Dataview code that pulls in a Base with a similar name. It is for displaying linked notes by Subcategory.
• Code - Category List
  • More magical Dataview code the pulls in a Base.
• The "magic" of these code snippets is that the snippet pulls in code when the note is displayed rather than actually living on the note itself. This allows me to change the design of the template ONCE and it is applied to ALL notes where this code is displayed. For example, I could change the design of a Base or add text to the template and now instantly all notes with that code have the changes rather than having to reedit all the notes.

Plugins I Use #

• Commander
  • Commander is a plugin for Obsidian which allows you to add commands to different parts of the user interface.
• Dataview
  • Create and display queries to your content. Obsidian now has the core plugin called Bases which does something similar however, I've found there are still use cases for Dataview
• Harper
  • Harper is a grammar checking plugin that doesn't violate your privacy.
• Lazy Plugin Loader
  • Load plugins with a delay on Obsidian startup, so that you can get your app startup down into the sub-second loading time.
• Linter
  • This Obsidian plugin formats and styles your notes with a focus on configurability and extensibility.
• Minimal Theme Settings
  • This plugin accompanies Minimal Theme, allowing you to customize the theme from the Obsidian Settings panel. This plugin is not required to use Minimal Theme, but highly recommended.
• Omnisearch
  • Omnisearch is a search engine that "just works". It always instantly shows you the most relevant results, thanks to its smart weighting algorithm.
• Paste image PNG to JPEG
  • The plugin automatically handles the following when the image (png jpg jpeg) is pasted into the notes
    • 1,Convert the image to jpeg format and compress it
    • 2,store the image in the current notes directory in the images folder
    • 3,Change the name of the image to the name of the current note plus a number
• Plugin Update Tracker
  • Know when installed plugins have updates and evaluate the risk of upgrading
• Style Settings
  • This plugin allows snippet, theme, and plugin CSS files to define a set of configuration options. It then allows users to see all the tweakable settings in one settings pane. Style Settings allows both toggling classes on and off the body element, as well as setting numeric, string, and color CSS variables.
• Templater
  • A templating language that lets you insert variables and functions results into your notes. It will also let you execute JavaScript code manipulating those variables and functions.

Personal Usage Guidelines #

I usually keep the following in a separate note that I keep in the Root or as a Favorite. It helps to keep handy so you can remember your decisions

• Have a purpose about why you are making the note. This helps you be more focused on noting the details and not copy/pasting things whole cloth.
• Avoid splitting content into multiple vaults.
• Avoid folders for content.
• Avoid non-standard Markdown.
• My default note template is very minimal and works for all my content.

---
date: 2025-11-13
category: 
subcategory: 
tags: 
aliases:
---
# Details
 <% tp.file.cursor() %>

• ⭐Every singe note gets a category
• Category:
  • Category is the broad area the note refers to (Python, Obsidian, Windows)
  • These are always a link so the Category page
• Subcategory:
  • Subcategory is a further definition of the Category.
    • Example: Category: [[Windows]] Subcategory: Utilities
  • Sometimes I do make the subcategory a link.
    • Example: Category: [[Restaurants]] Subcategory: [[Coffee Shops]]
    • The reason for this is sometimes, like this case of Coffee Shops, there are many similar items in the subcategory and I might want to report on them in a different way using Bases or Dataview.
• Tags:
  • Always pluralize tags.
  • Always lower case, single word tags.
  • If multi word tags are absolutely necessary, use camelCase
  • Tags = the type of note (examples: links, meetingNotes, clippings)
  • Keep the number of tags to a minimum
    • Start with as few as possible and build from there if you come up with a really good use case for a new one
• Use internal links profusely.
• Use YYYY-MM-DD dates wherever dates are needed. ISO 8601 exists for a reason.
• Usage Examples (you'll find these in this template vault as well):
  • You read a good book called Daemon
    • Name of the note: Daemon
    • category: [[Books]]
    • subcategory: Fiction
  • You want to save a link to a web page about Dataview in Obsidian
    • tags: links
    • category: [[Obsidian]]
    • subcategory: Dataview

Thanks for reading. Hope you found something you can use!

Other Obsidian notes

Scientists Demonstrate Quantum Light Transmission from Earth to Satellite — A new study shows transmitting quantum signals from Earth to a satellite is achievable, demonstrating feasibility for space-based quantum communications. The result opens the door to more robust, encrypted global… https://scitechdaily.com/thought-to-be-impossible-scientists-show-quantum-light-could-be-beamed-up-to-space/

To display stars instead of numbers in \#Obsidian bases (e.g., movie ratings), click Properties → Add formula, name it, and enter:

“★★★★★”.slice(0, rating) + “☆☆☆☆☆”.slice(0, 5 - rating)

Replace “rating” with the key you saved in your notes’ properties. This works only for 1-5 scales.

Supermassive Black Hole Produces Record Flare After Devouring Massive Star — Astronomers say a supermassive black hole unleashed a record-breaking flare after consuming a star at least 30 times the mass of the Sun. The eruption—reported to be brighter than 10 trillion suns—is drawing… https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/unlike-any-weve-ever-seen-record-breaking-black-hole-eruption-is-brighter-than-10-trillion-suns

Your "Second Brain" is trapped in a Walled Garden.

Stop treating your knowledge as digital compost! Rewilding the Network means moving from isolated vaults to a Federated Digital Garden.

Why it matters: Compound interest on your learning.

How it works: Obsidian → RSS → ActivityPub → Serendipity.

We’re building a content-dependent web, not a platform-dependent one. Own your knowledge.

https://digitallyliterate.net/federating-second-brain/

There is no such thing as a 3.5 inch floppy disc

Wait, what?

The term 3.5 inch floppy disc is in fact a misnomer. Whilst the specification for 5.25 inch floppy discs employs Imperial units, the later specification for the smaller floppy discs employs metric units.

The standards for these discs are [...] all of which specify the measurements in metric, and only metric. These stand

https://www.osnews.com/story/143716/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-3-5-inch-floppy-disc/

James Webb Telescope Produces First 3D Map of Exoplanet Atmosphere — Scientists used data from the James Webb Space Telescope to create the first three-dimensional map of a distant planet’s atmosphere. Early analysis highlights complex atmospheric structure and notable water-related… https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/james-webb-telescope-makes-first-3d-map-of-an-alien-planets-atmosphere

China Delays Shenzhou-20 Crew Return After Suspected Space Debris Strike — China’s Manned Space Agency says the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft may have been struck by space debris, prompting officials to delay the crew’s return while assessing potential damage. Chinese authorities are examining… https://www.newsweek.com/china-assessing-damage-after-spaceship-hit-by-debris-11000832

How to disable AI “improvements” in YouTube videos https://manualdousuario.net/en/disable-ai-improvements-youtube-videos/ \#PostNoManual

You might've heard of its spiritual successor, https://neocities.org? Recently I put together a beginner-friendly tutorial showing you how to create your own gallery page and host it on Neocities for free.

https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/making-a-free-image-gallery-with-neocities-org/

I'll be turning this into a series, so stay tuned for more!

Airlines sell your travel data to the government ...

... but you can opt out of it

A guide: https://www.404media.co/how-to-opt-out-of-airlines-selling-your-travel-data-to-the-government/

Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/6FAao

If you use \#Obsidian and, like me, are an inveterate outliner – check out the Outliner plugin!

https://github.com/vslinko/obsidian-outliner

Ocean Gaia is Japan's first underwater sculpture to combine art and ecology.

Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor unveiled his latest underwater artwork off the coast of Tokunoshima Island. Weighing over 45 tonnes, the sculpture depicts the serene face of model Kiko Mizuhara and serves as a shelter for marine life.

More info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TidoecZ4uOI

Are you watching the World Series tonight? Well, here's a fun fact to share with your fellow fans: "jazz" started as a BASEBALL term!

In this week's podcast, @bgzimmer explained how "jazz" was baseball slang from 1912.

Players on the West Coast were talking about "jazz curves" and telling each other to "give it some of the old jazz" (meaning vim and pep) years before the word ever described music.

https://pod.link/173429229

ICYMI, Joe Menn had a good scoop this week about how the US govt is getting set to ban TP-Link devices from being sold in the United States. If that happens, a whole lot of small businesses will probably need to find new networking gear. I have never trusted TP-Link devices and have repeatedly warned readers away from them. They have a history of flooding the market with massively underpriced hardware, and this is a market where generally speaking the cheapest means the most hackable. Here's one reply I sent to a reader in 2023 who inquired about finding what appeared to be an undocumented cloud login page.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/u-s-agencies-back-banning-top-selling-home-routers-on-security-grounds/ar-AA1Pubbt

"Thanks for your readership and the nice note. I was posting on Mastodon yesterday about your very brand of router!

https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/110588154233185809

"I realize that NYT and others constantly recommend TPLink b/c of the features vs price point, but I would stay away from this brand, and any that force you to register "in the cloud" before you can use them as local networking devices. You do not want your router to do anything except when you tell it do so, and to my mind all this cloud business being attached to network storage and local network things is troubling."

"If you are at all confident around computers, I'd recommend getting something like a high-end ASUS router and then installing an open source firmware on it, like Tomato or something. Because the default software that is on most routers is complete garbage, and often turns on a lot of stuff you really don't want turned on, or has other stupid default settings. If updating your new $160 router w/ third party firmware that could brick it if you screw it up is too much, then just stick with a Netgear router and make sure you check for firmware updates periodically."

OpenAI Launches ‘Aardvark,’ a GPT‑5 Agent for Autonomous Cybersecurity Research — OpenAI unveiled Aardvark, a GPT‑5–powered autonomous agent now entering private beta that can discover vulnerabilities and assist in creating fixes. The tool is designed to automate offensive and defensive… https://www.zdnet.com/article/openai-unveils-aardvark-a-gpt-5-powered-agent-for-autonomous-cybersecurity-research/

Meta Shares Plunge After $16 Billion Tax Charge in Trump Bill — Meta shares tumbled more than 10% after a Trump-backed bill levied an estimated $16 billion tax charge on the company, erasing roughly $25 billion from Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth. The steep sell-off heightened investor… https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2025/10/30/mark-zuckerberg-loses-25-billion-now-worlds-fifth-richest-as-meta-shares-plummet/

Life sciences group Thermo Fisher agrees to acquire PE-owned drug trial software maker Clario for $9.4B in an all-cash deal expected to close by mid-2026 (Oliver Barnes/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/2d12fd44-dd56-4c77-a9b8-ca20c277bb66?accessToken=zwAGQljyyyIQkc8tEv1E3VZMd9OpuMogwne7Zg.MEUCIQCZ4SEfde62tM9mygGcJ790QtskBwkv5v5bfU3xAnBn-AIgSbj21inWsJouZBoljwmCcF3wI8-NaUOu9M0Th1s5KkQ&sharetype=gift&token=4bc15632-dfe1-45b4-b48d-1f5f64bd8fc7
http://www.techmeme.com/251030/p1#a251030p1

Balboa Park at golden hour. #sandiego

@libreoffice exciting, this will make it easier for me to export book projects from \#obsidian for editing/typesetting in LibreOffice Writer :)

A lot of people seem to consider Obsidian a very complex tool and often rule it out when looking for a simpler solution.

I understand where it comes from as a lot of content about Obsidian is about building complicated systems with tons of plugins.

But you don't need any of that. You can write plain text or Markdown notes with a good editor experience — and it's cross-platform!

https://hamatti.org/posts/obsidian-is-as-simple-or-complex-as-you-make-it/

I've been working on my first \#obsidian plugin the last few weeks and I'm ready to show it to the world. I wanted a calendar visualization of streaks for projects and habits. Would this be interesting for others to use? You can get it here: https://gitlab.holloway-web.de/holloway/hw-streaks

Uber Offers $4,000 Grants to Drivers to Switch to Electric Vehicles — Uber is offering $4,000 grants to drivers who trade gasoline cars for electric vehicles as part of its pledge to reach 100 percent EV trips by 2030. The incentive aims to speed fleet electrification by reducing upfront… https://www.theverge.com/news/802983/uber-electric-ev-driver-4000-grant-price

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Atlas AI-Powered Web Browser on macOS — OpenAI released ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser built around ChatGPT, and made it available on macOS today. The product positions OpenAI to challenge Google and other browser makers by embedding generative AI directly into web… https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-atlas/

NASA Confirms Small Asteroid Becomes Temporary Second Moon — NASA confirmed that a small asteroid has been temporarily captured as a second natural satellite of Earth, designated 2025 PN7. The agency says the object will remain in Earth’s orbit until about 2083, creating a rare… https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/nasa-earth-two-moons/

• Go to the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu (Windows and Linux) > File > New Private Window;
  OR
• Type ‘New Private Window‘ in Quick Commands;
  OR
• Use the Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl Shift N / ⌘ Shift N;
  OR
• Create a new Mouse Gesture for opening a new private window.

*** For Android see https://help.vivaldi.com/android/android-browse/android-tabs/#Private_Tabs

• Open the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu on the right side of the Address Bar;
• Select New Private Tab.
  OR
• Open the Tab Switcher;
• Slide to Private Tabs;
  OR
• Tap on the + button in the middle of the bottom toolbar
• In the Tab Switcher, tap on the overflow menu on the right side of the bottom toolbar.
• Tap New Private Tab.

**** For iOS see https://help.vivaldi.com/ios/ios-browse/tabs-on-ios/#Private_Tabs

• Open the Vivaldi menu button Vivaldi menu on the right side of the Address Bar.
• Select New Private Tab.
  OR
• Open the Tab Switcher.
• Slide to Private Tabs.
• Tap on the + button in the middle of the bottom toolbar.
  OR
• -While viewing a web page or the Speed Dial, long-press on the Tab Switcher button until a context menu opens.
• Select Open in Private.

Project Gutenberg has an AI bookshelf that provides several stories, novellas, and novels that explore AI's potential impacts on humanity.

https://readbeanicecream.surge.sh/2025/10/18/gutenbergs-ai-bookshelf/

Enjoying a sunny afternoon by the Scripps Pier (UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Jake considers a career in Oceanography.
#LEGO #sandiego #travelswithjake

AlphaPhoenix's video about the home-built 2 billion fps camera is one of the coolest videos for a long time. The premise is so simple that anyone (even people without degrees) can follow and understand it. Educational and cool as heck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4TdHrMi6do

  eleventyConfig.addFilter("fixHashtagClass", function (content = "") {
  return content.replace(
    /class="mention\s+hashtag"/g,
    'class="mention p-category"'
  );
});

Hi Fediverse friends,

The new update to powRSS is almost ready!

Here is a preview of Shuffle Mode coming later this month. Browse posts regardless of publishing date and find blogs going all the way back to 1995!

It's a great way to discover new writers and new voices even if they haven't published recently. And that's one of the key aspects of writing for the #indieweb that matters most. We strive for quality, not urgency.

I can't wait to see what you discover.

-P

I made a thing called Wellness Ping because someone I care about went silent and it took too long for anyone to notice.

You get regular check-ins via email. If you don't respond, your emergency contacts get notified.

Built it for anyone who might go missing and needs someone to notice: activists, journalists, researchers, solo folks.

I paid for premium hosting (high-reliability VPS in Sweden) and a quality email provider because uptime actually matters for something like this. Also paying extra for minimal data retention (7 days email activity, working toward zero content storage).

Free forever (as long as I'm alive) and open source.

https://wellness-p.ing

I've never seen the skeleton of a mermaid. #halloween

Jake had lunch at Clayton's in Coronado #travelswithjake #LEGO

Good morning, Friday #sandiego

these guys made Hank Green mad. didn’t know it was possible for him to be this mad. and he’s right https://youtu.be/Vz0oQ0v0W10?si=vAQu2kVZVvBCis6t

Just updated my vault template to show how I use the new Maps feature for \#Obsidian Bases. Super useful for travel planning.

If you've got a blog no one reads, youtube channel no one watches, twitch channel no one visits, then please read this on how to thrive in obscurity:

https://www.jeetmehta.com/posts/thrive-in-obscurity

I found an interesting approach to journaling that looks like it would be very helpful in different scenarios; it's called the "Two-sentence journal".

https://lwgrs.bearblog.dev/re-the-two-sentence-journal/
#Echo #Journal #Writing

Jake chillin under a mushroom 🍄 #travelswithjake #LEGO

A couple toads could sit on this toadstool. 🍄

Reach out to Shanda if you are looking for Peacocks or Ducks 😂

That smoke right there means you're in for a treat!
#kansascity #gatesbarbq

Quite by accident, I found a pretty good spot for watching the Blue Angels during yesterday's MCAS Miramar air show. I had the spot completely to myself. I'll have to bring something better than my phone next year.
#sandiego #blueangels

5 tips for getting better answers from AI - Librarian-approved techniques for getting the most out of AI searches. - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/09/02/ai-search-engines-tips-use/

🔖:bookmark src="/emoji/1f516.svg"> Bookmarked: Sanding off friction from indie web connection – Tracy Durnell&\#39;s Mind Garden https://tracydurnell.com/2025/01/09/sanding-off-friction-from-indie-web-connection/

Tracy Durnell looks at how indie web tools can be made easier to use, lowering the barriers for people to connect through their own websites.

🔥:fire src="/emoji/1f525.svg"> Read more: https://tracydurnell.com/2025/01/09/sanding-off-friction-from-indie-web-connection/

""So, you're saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that's going to burst and take the whole economy with it?" I said, "Yes, that's right... The WSJ writers compare the AI bubble to other bubbles...and conclude that the AI bubble is vastly larger than any other bubble in recent history."" https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/econopocalypse/\#subprime-intelligence

That"s worrying.

I am a huge fan of obsidian to write notes from research papers. But manually managing the note creation with all the bibtex info is also a pain. So my husband and I decided to automate it. I give you the bibtex-to-obsidian tool: Give it a bibtex key existing in your master bib file, and it will create a pre-populated obsidian note for you!

https://github.com/jrenoux/bibtex-to-obsidian

And it can be integrated with Emacs too :)

Obsidian has been my writing tool for 3 years now. I looked back and compiled a list of plugins that continue to make the writing experience better. https://danielprindii.com/blog/18-obsidian-plugins-for-writing

Large-Scale Attack Targeting Macs via GitHub Pages Impersonating Companies to Attempt to Deliver Stealer Malware https://blog.lastpass.com/posts/attack-targeting-macs-via-github-pages?is=7954b7f440cecfd9b9243ddbaab5414f1d380add504b8c010e47738f0c1bfbda "the fraudulent repositories redirected potential victims to a repository that downloads the Atomic infostealer malware."

San Diego sunrise

Deprecation of Power BI Integration within SharePoint Lists and Libraries https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deprecation-of-power-bi-integration-within-sharepoint-lists-and-libraries/ "Starting December 11, 2025, all reports previously created using the ‘Visualize the List’ or ‘Visualize the Library’ features will become permanently unavailable."

Maui seems to be proving that banning short-term rentals actually does drastically reduce housing costs for locals.

https://beatofhawaii.com/maui-condo-market-collapse-what-it-means-for-travelers/

Just found this today -- an @obsidian plugin to publish posts directly to Write.as! Works really nicely.

https://github.com/encima/obsidian-writeas-plugin

Jake visited the Seaport area in Boston last week. #travelswithjake #LEGO

The WKRP: Johnny Fever Mix is a three-hour playlist of great 70s rock hits compiled from every DJ break that Dr. Johnny Fever made on "WKRP in Cincinnati," with introductions and comments by the Doctor himself, news from Les Nessman, and a commercial read by Venus Flytrap.

https://www.awphooey.com/wkrp

I've listened to more than an hour so far and only heard one bad song.

A friend sent me this link, which caused us to rewatch the first episode of "WKRP." It holds up.

Jon Nelson, who created the mix, describes himself as a college and community radio producer, audio editor and artist.

https://www.awphooey.com/about-1

He's also done mixes for other fictional DJs.

https://www.awphooey.com/retrofit

These include WKRP's Venus Flytrap

https://www.awphooey.com/venus

and Chris in the Morning from "Northern Exposure."

https://www.awphooey.com/kbhr

After listening to the Johnny Fever mix for a while, I remembered that there are Internet archives of hours or radio DJ sets, recorded off the air on tape, digitized, and uploaded to the Internet. I found this hour of Dan Ingram on WABC New York from September 1976.

https://youtu.be/ryzWW-3vFjY?si=d1KO8GCGPlw457Ar

I was a teenager then, living in that area, and might have listened to that hour live!

But listening to it for a little while this morning reminded me that I didn't much like WABC; I was a 99X guy and, in the 80s, WBAB. Listening also reminded me that 99% of the pop music in the 1970s was bad. However, Sturgeon's Law probably applies here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law

Dan Ingram had a heck of a career, well respected for his quick wit, spanning 50 years on radio stations and a little TV, including 22 years at WABC.

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

According to Wikipedia: "One of Ingram's unique skills was his ability to 'talk up' to the lyrics of a record, meaning speaking over the musical introduction and finishing exactly at the point when the lyrics started."

Y'all can keep your coffee mermaids, this one brings beer!

After years of neglect, blogging service TypePad is shutting down and taking all of its users' blog content with it.

The Multi Properties plugin was a lifesaver for my recent project (you know, that one 😉:wink src="/emoji/1f609.svg">). It made adding and removing properties from several \#Obsidian notes super easy. If you’ve been looking for a way to do that, I just published a video explaining exactly how to use it. https://youtu.be/TPm7puFxHJc

Fediverse doesn't have "verified accounts", but did you know that you can add a verified link to your profile? And it's free!

1. Make a simple website with https://simplepagebuilder.app.
2. Add a little bit of HTML. https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/resources-for-keeping-the-web-free-open-and-poetic/#make-your-website-fediverse-ready

Meredith Whittaker (Signal President) gets it right. Agentic AI is really scary. https://youtu.be/jE_CNezjV7o?si=9gNxr12Q4b4UP4Ve \#signal \#ai \#agentic \#security \#dystopian @Mer__edith @pluralistic

I love RSS. I have used RSS readers multiple time daily for more than 20 years. One of the first things I do when I get to my desk, while I’m eating breakfast and even before coffee, is check my RSS reader. https://www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-rss/

Download here
'Issue #1: Dream to Reality follows Callie's trailblazing path as the first woman on the Moon. Callie and her robot sidekick, RT, overcome setbacks, disappointment, and tragedy along the way. From her childhood dreams of space travel to being selected as an astronaut candidate, Callie takes us on her journey to the Moon.'

'Issue #2: Expanding Our Universe picks up where we left off with Callie, RT, and Dan in a treacherous situation on the Moon. Callie and her new team, Astronaut Meshaya Billy and Canadian Astronaut Martin Tremblay, use their training and human ingenuity to deploy a next-generation space telescope. We see how teamwork and perseverance help the crew overcome the challenges of living and working on other worlds.'

Butterfly horse #publicart @lacywilsonart

Surfin' cowboy

Browser extensions turn nearly 1 million browsers into website-scraping bots - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/07/browser-extensions-turn-nearly-1-million-browsers-into-website-scraping-bots/ "MellowTel causes extensions to activate a websocket that connects to an AWS server that collects the location, available bandwidth, heartbeats, and status of extension users. Besides the privacy erosions, the websocket also injects a hidden iframe into the page the user is currently viewing that connects to a list of websites specified by the Amazon Web Services server. There’s no way ordinary end users can determine what sites are being opened in the invisible iframe."

This little Hummingbird stops by the back yard most mornings lately. Finally had a chance to capture an image. #birdphotography #sandiego

The Loma theater was turned into a bookstore. The inside is cool too. #sandiego

Honey, are you a Padres fan? #Padres #Mural

Hawaiian Airlines Hacked as Aviation Sector Warned of Scattered Spider Attacks - SecurityWeek https://www.securityweek.com/hawaiian-airlines-hacked-as-aviation-sector-warned-of-scattered-spider-attacks/?is=7954b7f440cecfd9b9243ddbaab5414f1d380add504b8c010e47738f0c1bfbda "The agency pointed out that Scattered Spider typically relies on social engineering techniques to gain access to the victim’s systems, noting that the hackers may target airlines’ trusted vendors and contractors as well."

Dear Fedi friends,

I just published a blog post with the links to all the versions of my Fedi promo video - so that they can be easily found in one place: https://news.elenarossini.com/a-video-celebrating-the-fediverse-available-in-english-francais-italiano/

Direct links:

#English: https://videos.elenarossini.com/w/64VuNCccZNrP4u9MfgbhkN

#français: https://videos.elenarossini.com/w/hxzy97B63KJBtVC6jU5Cf4

#italiano: https://videos.elenarossini.com/w/petiQESS6xH5B68Pysqfug

A routine reminder that there are subtitles in 14 languages thanks to wonderful Fedi volunteers. Adding more today. Credits: https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/

More versions coming soon! ✨:sparkles src="/emoji/2728.svg"> 🚀:rocket src="/emoji/1f680.svg">

🎬 Swingers: Directed by Doug Liman. With Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn. A wannabe actor has a hard time moving on from a break-up, but he is lucky to have supportive friends. 🔗

To use this yourself, click and drag this link up to your browser favorites bar: IMDB copy details to clipboard
Note: You can right click on it in your browser bar and rename it.

The code:

javascript:(function() {
  try {
    const title = document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText.trim();
    const descriptionMeta = document.querySelector('meta[name="description"]');
    const description = descriptionMeta?.content.trim();
    const url = window.location.href;
	const link = `<a href="${url}" target="_blank">🔗</a>`;
    const text = `🎬 ${description} ${link}`;
    
    navigator.clipboard.writeText(text).then(() => {
      alert("IMDb info copied to clipboard:\n\n" + text);
    }, () => {
      alert("Failed to copy to clipboard.");
    });
  } catch (e) {
    alert("Something went wrong: " + e.message);
  }
})();

Squirrel practicing its morning meditation.

Spent way too much time trying to get an image link to work properly inside a table in \#Obsidian. The pipe to indicate the width has to be escaped (obvious in retrospect), and a link target with spaces has to be enclosed in angle brackets. Who the fuck came up with that harebrained syntax? Markdown can be ... unpleasant.

Final syntax inside a table: [![[Foo/image.png\|200]]]()

Or outside of a table: [![[Foo/image.png|200]]]()

Change your Google password https://myaccount.google.com/security

Change your Facebook and Instagram passwords https://accountscenter.facebook.com/password_and_security

Be sure to turn on 2 factor authentication as well.

172.67.195.244 www.makemkv.com
172.67.195.244 makemkv.com
172.67.195.244 forum.makemkv.com

You'll need to edit the file in elevated "administrator" mode. Easiest is to just edit in notepad++ and it will prompt to elevate when needed.

Original solution here: r/makemkv

If you're an \#Obsidian Publish user struggling with the default \#RSS feed, this video is a walkthrough of how I 'hacked' a chronological RSS solution. Please also head over to the article mentioned in the video for step-by-step instructions. 👇:point_down src="/emoji/1f447.svg"> https://youtu.be/TmmDQDkSniE

Long COVID is Now the Number One Chronic Illness in Children https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/long-covid-is-now-the-number-one “Newsweek’s piece relates the shocking findings of a new RECOVER study: that up to 5.8 million American children now have Long COVID, making it the most common chronic illness affecting children. However, this fact is not treated with any urgency by Newsweek, nor is the current approach to COVID- do literally nothing- questioned as the proper one.”

@mattl This is - the mother load - of online courses, all free. There's certainly Ruby in here somewhere.

https://github.com/ossu/computer-science

Tech wizards, could you combine a version control system like \#git with a markdown based notetaking program like \#obsidian to have version control over collaborative documents? I'm in a work group that is trying to define procedures and could use something like that.

The famous Cabazon dinosaurs! #Dinny #MrRex #roadtrip #socal

Don't see the actual "golden arches" much any more. #architecture

for the \#obsidian folks… i've wanted the ability to see 'nearby notes' and create new POI-based notes based on my current location, and just got a working prototype together called obsidian-here. test it out if you're similarly minded! https://github.com/tmcw/obsidian-here

I found some nifty CSS code created by Kepano that got me about 99% of the way there. What it does it let you click and hold on an image and view it full screen. That itself is pretty cool. I added a line to the code to make it size the images down to something more manageable. Since you can click+hold and still see the whole image it gives you a very nice working solution.

Examples

This screenshot is a page in my vault with an image from the International Space Station. The whole image isn't visible without scrolling down.

Here is the same page after I've applied the CSS. Other elements are clearly visible because the images aren't massive.

And here is the image when I'm click+holding on it. Look ma, no scrolling and you can see the whole thing!

The code

You'll be adding custom CSS to Obsidian. If you've never done that, this guide will show you what you need to do. CSS snippets - Obsidian Help Note, where it says "Create a css file", that is a simple text file with a name like "imagesize.css" or something equally clever. You'll see the name in your obsidian settings so name it something that makes sense to you. And don't put spaces in the name.

Paste the code below into your cleverly named css file. Save. Refresh in Obsidian. Done.
Caveats: There could be conflicts with your theme. This seems to work fine in Minimal and Border. In the default theme, it appears to only resize the images and not allow for the click+hold.
Improvements and other ideas welcome.

/*
author: Kepano
source: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/image-zoom-click-hold-to-expand-images/5164?u
purpose: Clicking and holding on an image expands it to full size
=====
modified by: TechLifeWeb
source: https://techlifeweb.com/blog/2025/05/post-2025-05-30T175849/
date: 2025-05-30
purpose: Modifies images so the don't take up as much screen space
*/

.view-content img {
  max-width: 100%;
  max-height: 2%; /*This is the only change. Modify the value to your liking */
  cursor:zoom-in;
}

.view-content img:active {
  cursor:zoom-out;
}
.view-content .markdown-preview-view img[referrerpolicy='no-referrer']:active,
.view-content .image-embed:active {
  background:var(--background-primary);
  cursor:zoom-out;
  display:block;
  z-index:200;
  position:fixed;
  max-height:100%;
  max-width:100%;
  height:100%;
  width:100%;
  object-fit:contain;
  margin:0 auto;
  text-align:center;
  padding:0;
  left:0;
  right:0;
  bottom:0;
}
.view-content .image-embed:active img {
  top:50%;
  transform:translateY(-50%);
  padding:0;
  margin:0 auto;
  width:100%;
  max-height:100vh;
  object-fit:contain;
  left:0;
  right:0;
  bottom:0;
  position:absolute;
  opacity:1;
}

\#Obsidian 1.9 changes its front matter format for array values, so "tags: tag1, tag2, tag3" no longer works. If your vault is full of front matter in that format (aliases, note IDs etc.), then here's what you can do about it:

https://forum.actions.work/t/front-matter-format-in-obsidian-1-9-and-how-to-deal-with-it/671

• Option 1 is for my Actions For Obsidian customers (you're good folk)
• Option 2 is for everyone (you're also good folk) 🖖🏼:spock-hand src="/emoji/1f596-1f3fc.svg">

\#music \#MusicProduction \#Fender \#free

'The iconic instrument and amp maker Fender is diving deep into the digital domain. The company just announced Fender Studio, an all-in-one music-creation software platform. It's basically a digital audio workstation (DAW) but one that's intended for newbies. Think GarageBand and not Pro Tools. Just like GarageBand, Fender Studio is free.'

https://www.engadget.com/audio/fender-just-launched-its-own-free-daw-software-for-recording-music-130007067.html?src=rss

In my wiki/digital garden I have a collection of tutorials on webmentions including the basics — you can get up and running with only two lines of HTML! — using microformats to enrich your mentions; adding a webmention form; and parsing, displaying, and updating them with Eleventy, Netlify, and Bridgy.

Hope it can be helpful to someone!

https://reillyspitzfaden.com/digital-garden/tutorials/webmention-tutorial/

this is nifty, someone has already made an open source Dataview → Bases conversion tool for \#Obsidian 1.9 https://bases-toolbox.vercel.app

Geolocation & GEOINT cheatsheet

• Google Maps Alternatives
• Aerial Imagery
• OSINT on the Ocean and in the air
• Open Streep Map and Overpass Turbo
• tips & tricks

and more.

https://cheatsheet.haax.fr/open-source-intelligence-osint/human-recon/geolocation/

"Instead of using actual spray cans, some artists are just cleaning dirt off of certain areas to make their masterpieces and they are calling it reverse graffiti"

(This one is by Paul 'Moose' Curtis of the Reverse Graffiti Project )

Gnarly #trees

in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice "That was a tasty burger!"

Introducing the newly redesigned Fediverse Onboarding feature 🥳:partying_face src="/emoji/1f973.svg">

Now this is something we can share and use to help people find their way in this federated community ✨:sparkles src="/emoji/2728.svg">

https://fedidb.com/welcome

Feedback + boosts greatly appreciated, I spent a lot of time on this, for the benefit of everyone ❤️:heart src="/emoji/2764.svg">

37signals is completing its on-prem move, deleting its AWS account to save millions - Industry ‘pulled a fast one convincing everyone cloud is the only way’ says CTO David Hei... - https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/37signals_cloud_repatriation_storage_savings/

Backyard bunny

I wasn't aware that the San Diego Police Department had Mustang Mach E's. Apparently they have 22 with 18 being used for parking enforcement. #cars #sandiego

@grammargirl You want Settings > Desktop & Dock and scroll down to Window Tiling. Turn off "Drag windows to screen edges to tile" and “Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen." It's a relatively new feature, but one that's way too easy to trigger accidentally!

Seriously, this is such a basic hack, but it's been a game-changer for me. For ages, I had both \#Obsidian and Google \#Calendar constantly open, driving me a little crazy with all the back and forth. Now, one click and I'm there 😉:wink src="/emoji/1f609.svg">. So simple, so helpful. 👇:point_down src="/emoji/1f447.svg"> https://youtu.be/jOiXCxVxP78

oh wow this \#obsidian theme is AMAZING

https://github.com/ElsaTam/obsidian-fancy-a-story

@verge I've already replaced duolingo with AI. Generating flash card ideas and flashcards with AI voicing and explanations. All in \#obsidian for free!

I wrote about the process here but someone should really make it as a standalone free app:

https://upskill.quest/obsidian-with-spaced-repetition-plugin

Looking to replace Duolingo?

Your library might provide you free access to Language Learning Apps.

No, not CDs or cassette tapes (when was the last time you were at the library? ).

Actual apps. That you download onto your phone.

My library provides me access to TWO language learning apps that compete directly with Duolingo. Mango Language App and Transparent Language App.

What apps does your library provide?

Pink Azaleas #bloomscrolling

Dandy!

More #clouds in the Midwest

Midwest, USA cloud pr0n #clouds

Want to monitor news and hashtags on \#Mastodon but you live on a small instance with low news flow? I've put VibesMasto News Monitor on the Web so you can get trend and hashtag information from larger instances as well as keep an eye on your favorite \#RSS feed. Completely free, no Mastodon account required.

Article on the way but in the meantime:

https://mastogizmos.com/vm.html

New 'Star Wars' Movie Announced Set 5 Years After 'Rise of Skywalker' - A new Star Wars movie — starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy — will be... - https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/04/19/2211253/new-star-wars-movie-announced-set-5-years-after-rise-of-skywalker?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed \#starwars

Good Friday #goodfriday #catholic

Since vulnerability databases and catalogs are top of mind right now thanks to what's goin on with CVE.org, I thought I'd explicitly share this resource I've been maintaining for a while.

https://shellsharks.com/infosec-tools#vulnerability-catalogs--tools

It's a list of all manner of vulnerability catalogs and vulnerability-related tools. That same page also features a plethora of other #infosec / #cybersecurity "tools".

Might as well reshare this too for anyone interested in my thoughts on the CVE stuff - https://shellsharks.com/the-death-of-cve. 👍:+1 src="/emoji/1f44d.svg">

Homestar Runner might have just dropped the indie web anthem:

https://homestarrunner.com/toons/backtoawebsite

Free Wi-Fi Is On Its Way To American Airlines - American Airlines announced today that it will add free in-flight Wi-Fi starting i... - https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/04/16/0021259/free-wi-fi-is-on-its-way-to-american-airlines?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed \#wireless

Flowers in the neighborhood #bloomscrolling

The Obsidian plugin to import JSON files from the Day One journal app has just been updated. I created a new vault today to test it out and it worked great with 16 GB of data! (Day One just layed off more than 100 devs) \#Obsidian \#ObsidianMD \#PKM

https://github.com/MarcDonald/obsidian-day-one-importer

I'm going to include this whenever I finally make part 3 of my Obsidian tutorial series, but if you are an Obsidian Lover such as myself and want a sync solution that also provides google-docs-style real time editing of your notes both in-app and on the web, you should very much check out Screen Garden: https://screen.garden

There’s no reason RSS and social media have to be separate worlds. RSS is the easiest and fastest way to connect systems. When I see people endorse RSS over social sites I think we took a wrong turn somewhere because all these systems should be connected on the open web.

https://www.howtogeek.com/how-to-install-and-optimize-obsidian-on-linux/

How to install, and optimize Obsidian.md on Linux.

Obsidian is great, but as it's an electron app it can have.... issues. This guide goes over several ways to install the app, and how to get the best performance from it.

#ObsidianApp #Linux #ElectronApps​ #NoteTaking​ #Productivity​ #Markdown​ #ObsidianMD​

This video demonstrates how I use \#Obsidian Canvas to organize and find information about a project or topic that has numerous ramifications. 👇:point_down src="/emoji/1f447.svg"> https://youtu.be/4WZODHH6nUc

If you are into watching videos to learn, Bryan Jenks is pretty awesome for teaching how to get a lot of Obsidian:

https://www.youtube.com/@BryanJenks/search?query=obsidian

PS: He has a lot of other great videos on ADHD and Home labs and more.

Schedule 1, a drug-dealing simulator made by a single developer, tops Steam charts with an estimated 2M+ copies sold after going viral on streams and TikTok (Harry Alston/TheGamer)

https://www.thegamer.com/schedule-1-tiktok-streamer/
http://www.techmeme.com/250405/p12#a250405p12

I am a fan of using Obsidian sync because it lets me have different settings on each device where I use the app, but I recently found out that if you use Syncthing for DIY syncing, you can omit the .obsidian folder, where all the settings are kept and get the same result. \#Obsidian \#ObsidianMD \#PKM

Nintendo delays Switch 2 pre-orders in US over Trump tariffs https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3305310/nintendo-delays-switch-2-pre-orders-us-over-trump-tariffs?utm_source=rss_feed

Windows Hotpatch comes to client version of Windows

Good news for Windows users, and for once there's not a hint of sarcasm here: Microsoft has started rolling out Windows Hotpatch to the client versions of Windows. This feature, which comes from the server versions of Windows, allows the operating system to install patches to in-memory processes, removing the need for a number of res

https://www.osnews.com/story/142059/windows-hotpatch-comes-to-client-version-of-windows/

Missions to the Moon have used wheels to get around. Makes sense if you're on a perfectly smooth terrain of powdery regolith. But we know the surface can be rocky and crater-filled, a terrain that might be best explored by a four-legged walking robot. In a new paper, researchers explain how the gait of the robot changes its ability to do science. Fast-walking robots let you cover a lot of ground, while a slower gait senses the ground's structure with every footstep.

https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/pdf/2660.pdf

using \#firefox or a derivative? Setting browser.ml.chat.enabled=false turns off the brand-new AI features.

You're welcome.

(RIP my mentions, muting this)

in the address bar type:
"about:config" then press enter.
You will see an "accept the risks" warning. Continue.
in the search bar, type:
"browser.ml.chat.enabled"
All the way to the right, you'll see two buttons, click the left one to toggle the true to false if it is not false already.

Baseball is BACK! Happy opening day to those that celebrate ⚾💛🤎 #mlb

If you're in KDE and can't tell where the edges of your @obsidian windows are (for example if you use Solarized theme in Obsidian and the terminal window behind it), turn on "Native frame" for the "Window frame style" option under Advanced in the Appearance settings.

Best Obsidian Plugins for Writers: 1- Better Word Count 2 - Language Tool Integration 3 - Editing Toolbar 4 - Readability Score 5 - Text Generator \#Obsidian \#ObsidianMD \#PKM

https://amerpie.lol/2024/12/28/obsidian-plugins-for-writers.html

Cherry Blossoms at Balboa Park, #SanDiego

23andMe Files for Bankruptcy, Loses CEO: What That Means for You and Your Data https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/23andme-files-for-bankruptcy-loses-ceo-what-that-means-for-you-and-your-data/

With Obsidian, using multi-file search and replace in a text editor like Bbedit or Notepad++ is a huge time saver for editing properties or just notes in general. Much better than trying to use the handicapped plugin that tries to do the same thing. \#Obsidian \#ObsidianMD \#PKM

Well played, IKEA. #marketing #severance

Snail on the sidewalk in the rain at night. #sandiego

Turntable and roundhouse at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. #railfan #trains #history

The iconic Sundial Bridge in Redding, California.

Looking up under a Redwood tree. #trees #California

SAN approach #sandiego #airport #aviation

Full moon

Tonight's sunset did not disappoint #sandiego

Morning sun hitting my just-finished #LEGO model of London.

#LosAngeles #wildfires #DisasterResponse #DisasterSupport #crowdsourcing

'A doctoral student in the field of information science currently based in New York City, [Johan] Michalove developed an interactive map at fireaid.info that has become an online hub for thousands of people in the greater Los Angeles area who need provisions, are looking to donate supplies or want to get involved.'

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/01/student-spins-spreadsheet-online-hub-wildfire-relief

Why programmers like cooking: You peel the carrot, you chop the carrot, you put the carrot in the stew. You don't suddenly find out that your peeler is several versions behind and they dropped support for carrots in 4.3

"A friend of mine works in the federal government and wrote a guide for their fellow federal workers on how to use Signal. There are lots of good reasons for switching to Signal for messaging, and this does a great job of laying it all out." This is good: #Technology https://werd.io/2025/a-guide-to-using-signal-for-government-workers

Google Maps to show Gulf of America after government updates https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/27/google-maps-to-show-gulf-of-america-after-government-updates.html "Google said it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” and change Denali to “Mount McKinley.”"

Fediversians. I just spent three weeks blogging EVERY SINGLE NIGHT to give you a COMPLETE list of instructions to RECLAIM YOUR DATA. Go dark, scatter your traces, stay secure, erase your data footprint. Accessible to all.

Just in time too. Data sovereignty and protection are no longer a luxury but a MUST.

Data traces are political traces. History teaches us that data by you and about you can and will be used against you and those you love.

For you, your neighbors, your families. #optout NOW, and help others to do so too.

The Cyber-Cleanse: Take Back Your Digital Footprint - The Opt Out Project https://www.optoutproject.net/the-cyber-cleanse-take-back-your-digital-footprint/

Cool landscape over by Scripps Institute of Oceanography that is meant to make you feel like you are swimming along a reef

In Balboa park, San Diego, there are various International Houses. I spotted this flag I hadn't seen before flying outside the House of Scotland. It represents various Celtic nations.

We can be heroes. Just for One Day.

I'll add more as I hear about them.

Business Resources #

Federal Emergency Management Agency - (FEMA)
Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.disasterassistance.gov, by calling 1-800-6213362 or by using the FEMA Mobile App .

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loan
SBA disaster assistance for homeowners, renters, nonprofits, and businesses of all sizes affected by the wildfires and straight-line winds in California. Apply for a disaster loan here

LA City Disaster Recovery Center
Recover and Rebuild: Resources and Steps for Business Recovery | Outsmart Disaster will provide resources to businesses and workers at the Disaster Recovery Center on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at the UCLA Research Park. The center will operate from 9:00am - 8:00pm, 7 days per week. These centers will help people:

• who have lost vital records (birth certificates, death certificates, driver’s licenses, social security documentation)
• who have lost their homes or businesses apply for disaster relief loans
• and will provide referrals for mental health counseling and other services

Additional Resources:

• California to provide tax relief to businesses impacted by Los Angeles wildfires | Governor of California 'What you need to know: In response to the recent wildfires, the state has extended the January 31, 2025, sales and use tax filing deadline for Los Angeles County taxpayers until April 30, 2025.'
• Small Business Development Center Disaster Response Guide
• 2025 Los Angeles Fires | CA.gov 'Resources for Californians Impacted by Los Angeles Fires'
• Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) great resource for Business Recovery and Assistance Services.
• The Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network has provided a list (Google Doc) of resources available in multiple languages: MALAN Fire & Wind Storm Resources

Organizations Accepting Charitable Donations #

• Home : Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation
• Salvation Army Southern California Division
• American Red Cross
• Donate to Baby2Baby's LA Fires Relief Fund
• Los Angeles County fires: How to help those affected - Los Angeles Times list of state, regional and local grassroots organizations in need of funds or supplies..
• Gofundme verified fundraisers
• Donate Now - Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

Volunteer Opportunities #

• Flintridge Center
  • 236 W. Mountain St., Pasadena | Daily 10:30am – 7:00pm
• It’s Bigger Than Us
  • 4308 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles | Fridays 9:00am – 12:00pm
• YMCA Locations of Greater Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Wildfires: Volunteer & Support Guide - LA2050

Shelters #

• Palisades Fire Evacuation Shelters:
  • Westwood Recreation Center
    • 1350 S. Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
    • *Accepts small domestic animals
  • Calvary Community Church
    • 5495 Via Rocas, Westlake Village, CA 91362
  • Lanark Recreation Center
    • 21816 Lanark St, Canoga Park, CA 91304
  • Ritchie Valens Recreation Center
    • 10736 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Pacoima, CA 91331
  • Stoner Recreation Center
    • 1835 Stoner Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90025
• Eaton (Altadena) Fire Evacuation Shelters:
  • Pasadena Convention Center
    • 300 E. Green St, Pasadena, CA 91101
    • Parking available at 155 E. Green St; enter from Marengo Ave. The Humane Society is on-site to accept small pets for boarding. Service animals are allowed inside.
  • Dream Center
    • 2301 Bellevue Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026
  • Friends in Deed
    • 444 E. Washington Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91104
    • Nonprofit providing services for the homeless, including opening its Bad Weather Shelter amid the fires.

Animal Shelters #

• Palisades Area:
  • Agoura Animal Care Center
    • 29525 Agoura Rd, Agoura Hills, CA 91301
    • Serving as an evacuation site for small animals.
  • Westwood Recreation Center
    • 1350 S. Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
    • Accepting small domestic animals alongside human evacuees.
• Eaton Fire Area:
  • Pasadena Humane
    • 361 S. Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105
    • Designated evacuation center providing shelter and medical care for animals affected by the Eaton Fire.
  • Los Angeles Equestrian Center
    • 480 Riverside Dr, Burbank, CA 91506
    • Accepting large animals evacuated due to the fires.

Meal Kitchens #

• Los Angeles Times highlights several local L.A. restaurants providing food, shelter to fire evacuees and first responders
• 2025 Palisades, Eaton Fires: LA Restaurants Offer Free Meals and Relief - Eater LA 'Restaurants offering food and refuge to firefighters, first responders, and evacuees'

Charging Stations #

• Lineage Performing Arts Center
  • 920 E Mountain St, Pasadena, CA 91104
• South Pasadena San Marino YMCA
  • 1605 Garfield Ave, South Pasadena, California 91030
• The Kinn
  • 150 Horizon Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90291
• Village Well Books & Coffee
  • 9900 Culver Blvd, 1b, Culver City, California 90232

If you know of a resource I missed, let me know if the comments.

Mastodon becomes nonprofit to make sure it’s never ruined by billionaire CEO
Mastodon shifts to nonprofit ownership, calls for $5M in donations to expand.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20

This is the most delightfully nerdy thing I've ever seen: *In the Sunday New York Times Crossword, one of the clues was: The better of the two Sci-fi franchises But you can win the puzzle whether you put on Star Wars or Star Trek!*

If you're an Apple user and I spoof your phone number in a call to the legitimate Apple Customer Support line (800-275-2273), I can force Apple to send you a system level "Apple Account Confirmation" prompt to all of your signed-in devices.

This approach is commonly used by a prolific voice phishing group to convince targets they really are in a support call with an Apple representative.

Today's deep dive into this weird world was made possible in part by a series of live phishing videos, tutorials and other secrets shared by an insider that show in unprecedented detail how these voice phishing scams can be so convincing.

Please share this story widely, because I learned a ton reporting this and frankly the various methods used by these groups to dox and target people are really slick.

From the story: "Besieged by scammers seeking to phish user accounts over the telephone, Apple and Google frequently caution that they will never reach out unbidden to users this way. However, new details about the internal operations of a prolific voice phishing gang show the group routinely abuses legitimate services at Apple and Google to force a variety of outbound communications to their users, including emails, automated phone calls and system-level messages sent to all signed-in devices."

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/01/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-prolific-voice-phishing-crew/

https://youtu.be/F44un1_y2fs

Ever have a video that you need to just lop off the first few seconds where you had your finger in front of the lens? Or, maybe there are segments of a video you just want to separate into their own files. I've found the perfect utility to do all that and it works so fast you head will spin. Oh, and did I mention is it works on Windows, Mac and Linux?

This software is called Lossless Cut. This uses ffmpeg but you don't need to know anything about that. You don't have to learn any crazy switches or work at the command line or terminal. Just load a video, use the "scrubber" to find the spot where you want to split your video, rinse and repeat until you have them all marked then click export. Within seconds your files will be created. There's no time consuming re-encoding, you're done!

This isn't an editor in the sense where you'll be joining files and adding music, etc. It's just meant to cut up your video. You could then add your exports into your other editors and you've just saved time later because that editor is only working with the footage you want.

Per github, the following formats should work: MP4, MOV, WebM, Matroska, OGG and WAV. The following audio codecs: FLAC, MP3, Opus, PCM, Vorbis and AAC. Video codecs: H264, AV1, Theora, VP8, VP9 and H265 (needs hardware decoder)

There's a quick video here:

I built a new blogging platform https://lmno.lol

No #tracking #ads #paywall or #bloat

Blogs render everwhere. Even terminal :)

Start a blog in 2025.

Not a blogger? Sign up anyway. Support a web without deceitful tech.

Tell you friends ;)

I've abandoned one of the main reasons many people use #Obsidian, the Daily Note. I just don't need a new markdown file created every day for the rest of my life. Here's what I'm doing instead.

For quite awhile now I've been using a journaling process called Interstitial Journaling*. Basically this is just writing down what and where you are and any fleeting notes you have. Some days I might only have a line or two and some days quite a lot depending on what's happening in life. It works for me but creating new files everyday via the Daily Notes plugin is just overkill.

Now, I have One Big Text File (OBTF). I've seen a couple in the Obsidian community discuss this and after trying it for awhile it just works better for my brain.

Here's how it works: Right now, I have a file called "OBTF - 2024" and I'll make a new one on January 1, 2025. I don't have to create a new one, it could just go on and on but I think it will make more sense to create new notes. I could go a whole decade that way and only have 10 notes as opposed to 3650. I like this so much that after I started doing this for a week a couple months ago I went back and merged all my 2024 daily notes into my OBTF then deleted all of them.

Here's the way I do it:
Everyday open Obsidian to the current OBTF and create a new line at the top of the file like this:

"##### 2024-11-30 - Saturday"

This creates an H5 heading with the date and day and it's easily done with the Templater Plugin. Since this file scrolls I don't really need the day of the week on there but I like seeing it later on when I scroll down and there is another benefit I'll get into in a later post. There are other people who scroll to the bottom and create their new entry there but I like this kind of blog form of writing.

Under the date I start each new line with a "-" character which creates unordered lists. Sometimes I enter the time if that seems relevant and sometimes just some notes I think will be handy later. Something like:

• 13:00 got to the coffee shop to do some journaling
  • ran into Bill and Kate from church. They have a new puppy named Max

Simple things like that. Later I can search or scroll the OBTF and find the entry if I'm trying to remember the name of Bill and Kate's new dog.

Do use a OBTF? Give your current set up some thought, it might prove a better solution for you. In a post soon, I'll get into how I'm linking to my OBTF in a way that helps bring things together in a unique way.

*If you'd like to read more about Interstitial Journaling, Anne-Laure Le Cunff has an excellent article here: Interstitial journaling: combining notes, to-do & time tracking - Ness Labs

The Templater code:

##### 2026-02-23 - Monday

TP-Link faces possible US ban as hijacked routers fuel Chinese attacks - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/report-us-considers-banning-tp-link-routers-over-security-flaws-ties-to-china/#tplink

Via Mastodon: https://post.lurk.org/@freebliss/113731283102905259

Faircamp 1.0 – A static site generator for audio producers https://simonrepp.com/faircamp/

In 2015 a data scientist computed a US road trip to hit 50 major landmarks. You can start from anywhere in the country as long as you follow the rest of the map. 13,699 miles (22,046 km) of driving! #travel #roadtrip | Computing the optimal road trip across the U.S. https://randalolson.com/2015/03/08/computing-the-optimal-road-trip-across-the-u-s/

Via Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@sylumer/113710090910978337

Just in time for Christmas I'm sharing my novice notes on my #3dprinting journey. It is essentially just my personal 3D printing #Obsidian vault I'm building out tweaked to make it more widely shareable.

https://forge.thoughtasylum.com/

So if you happen to have a new 3D printer under the tree, maybe have a browse through, or if you are looking for cool stuff to print, or print with, you'll be seeing my recommendations (based on my good and bad experiences) appearing on this site.

Via Mastodon: https://researchbuzz.masto.host/@researchbuzz/113718113584748441

#UK #walking #exercise

'Thousands of miles of footpaths that faced being lost forever could now be saved after the government committed to lifting a deadline for all rights of ways in England to be mapped.

People had been given until 2031 to have all historic but unrecorded public paths and bridleways added to the nation's official "definitive map".'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy89yddg

Cuetlaxochitl: A Flower by a Native Nahuatl Name | Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum https://mbgna.umich.edu/post/cuetlaxochitl-flower-native-nahuatl-name "How a revered solstice shrub native to current-day Mexico and Guatemala and sacred to the Indigenous peoples of the region was captured by Joel Roberts Poinsett, a man whose legacy has prompted a move away from its stateside name: Poinsettia. "

Join Gretchen Rubin and Bookshop.org for Read 25 in '25 | Gretchen Rubin https://gretchenrubin.com/read25in25/ "Gretchen Rubin is partnering with Bookshop.org for her annual group challenge which, this year, is to read 25 minutes a day in 2025."

This Poinsettia has survived in our backyard since last Christmas ('23). The leaves are smaller but the only care it has had is weely watering.

USS Midway all decorated for the holidays #SanDiego #Navy

#Obsidian #PKM Anyone have one of the latest eInk writing tablets (Kindle Scribe, Supernote, Remrkable, Boox, etc.)? I hate paper and these seem interesting. I do sync Obsidian to my phone and tablet but I've found that taking notes in a class setting is a little too fiddly. I could bring my laptop but then there's a screen popped open and I don't like that vibe. Plus the click-clacking of a keyboard. A notebook (Moleskine, etc.) is a heck of a lot cheaper than one of these eink devices and I probably shouldn't be adding one more device to my life but I thought I'd see what others are doing.

#microsoft #outlook wrote back on X with these details regarding the differences between the New Outlook and a pinned browser tab: The 'New Outlook' for Windows is indeed more than just a wrapper around the web version. While pinning a tab in your browser is convenient, the full client offers several advantages:

1. Offline Access: You can access your emails, calendar, and contacts even when you're offline.

2. Performance: The desktop client is optimized for handling large volumes of emails and calendar events smoothly.

3. Advanced Features: It includes rich formatting, mailbox rules, and integration with other Microsoft 365 apps.

4. Customization: More extensive customization options, including add-ins and custom forms.

5. Security: Enhanced security features like encryption and advanced threat protection.

You can submit comments through this link https://msft.it/6019ob8u1 to assist us in improving your New Outlook experience.

Is "New Outlook" anything more than a wrapper around their web version? What's the advantage to having a full client when I can just pin a tab in my browser? #microsoft #outlook

Via Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/113682609897194918

Oh my! That was fast.

#Bluesky subscriptions confirmed >>> https://buffer.com/resources/bluesky-subscriptions-monetization/

What will users be paying for? “It’s a way for users to get more what we call ‘self-expression tools’,” !!!

Plus... "The plan is to build a system where creators can get paid right on Bluesky and any other platforms built on their open AT Protocol ecosystem."

One can assume similar to Substack, they would take a percentage.

So, subscriptions for good stuff and a payments system... Let the cow pies bloom.

SDG&E customers to see rate increase in 2025 https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/sdge-customers-to-see-rate-increase-in-2025/ 'Electricity bills will increase by 2.6% and gas bills about 1.8%' #SanDiego

Via Mastodon: https://indieweb.social/@Techmeme@techhub.social/113675133101283356

Flipboard launches Surf, an app to create custom feeds from Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, RSS, podcasts, and YouTube, in beta on iOS, Android, and iPadOS (Harry McCracken/Fast Company)

https://www.fastcompany.com/91248612/flipboard-surf-app
http://www.techmeme.com/241218/p26#a24121

Sometimes, when doing support, it's better to teach people "how to fish" so they can do it themselves next time. Useful yet exhausting.

Via Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@mcnado/113665755498709002

FYI, if you’re new to the Fediverse and want to drive engagment, just start following people. Anyone. Follow ‘em all. We got cool motherfuckers here. We have nerds. We have bikers and BIKERS. We have Ukranians, Germans, Haitians, and self-reported aliens. We’ve got shitposters and bad punsters. Just follow ‘em all. They’ll follow you back. They’ll boost your shitposts and your rants and your awesome educational posts. Just follow follow follow. We don’t have an algorithm, we have a weird-ass bar

Coyote outside our back gate in the middle of the day

dotepub — download any webpage as an e-book https://dotepub.com/ "dotepub is software in the cloud that allows you to convert any webpage into an e-book."

Why doesn't #tiktok just build a progressive web app and start pushing people to that? I get that being in app stores is better for them but unless America blocks IP addresses there really wouldn't be a ban. Yeah you can get to the web version now on mobile but itt's a crap experience because they push the app on every video load.

Via Andrew McCarthy on Xitter: https://twitter.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1867253878309138914

The full resolution detail gets you so close to the moon it feels like you're seeing it from Lunar orbit.

Get the print or download the full resolution image here: https://t.co/dTWFVLUhTy pic.twitter.com/8oFsgSEqLZ

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) December 12, 2024

In a Microsoft environment the Outlook and To Do combo are nice because they are tightly integrated and you don't need some external software. Flag an email and it gets into To Do almost instantly. If they could just add a boards feature (kanban) it would be great. They have boards in Planner but that isn't tightly integrated and you end up with a kludge that just doesn't work well. #Productivity

Via Mastodon: https://indieweb.social/@stux@mstdn.social/113641556673476296

Pretty cool but also terrifying..

Voyager 1 is now about one light day from Earth! And that took about half a century

While the nearest star besides the sun is about 4 light years away from us

What I’m trying to say is.. space is terrifyingly big

My goodness, no Guiness?? Via Mastodon: https://assortedflotsam.com/@NewsBot/113641292207880838

British Pubs Are Running Out of Guinness https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/world/europe/britain-guinness-shortages-limits.html #AlcoholicBeverages #BarsandNightclubs #ConsumerBehavior #Irish-Americans #London(England) #GreatBritain #GuinnessPLC #SupplyChain #DiageoPLC #England #Ireland #Beer

Porter Airlines launches nonstop service from San Diego to Canada https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/porter-airlines-debuts-nonstop-flights-connecting-san-diego-and-toronto/ "our weekly flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays." #SanDiego

Research reveals how fructose in diet enhances tumor growth - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis https://source.washu.edu/2024/12/research-reveals-how-fructose-in-diet-enhances-tumor-growth/ "Fructose is a sweetener added to ultra-processed foods, typically in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. WashU research shows that the liver turns fructose into lipids that many types of cancers crave."

What is your mobile browser of choice? #Android or cross platform preferred.

Breaking | US appeal court upholds law banning #TikTok if it is not sold | South China Morning Post https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3289783/us-appeal-court-uphold-law-banning-tiktok-if-it-not-sold?utm_source=rss_feed "Citing national security concerns that Beijing could pressure ByteDance to alter its algorithm and collect personal data in ways that could harm US interests, ByteDance must sell it to a non-Chinese buyer by January 19".

I've been using Phanpy (https://phanpy.social/) as my #Mastodon client of choice on mobile and occasionally on the desktop for about a year. The Boosts Carousel is too cool, and the threaded posts just add to the experience.

This evening, I was digging into the settings a bit more and whoa, next level! I always loved the Mastodon "advanced web interface" because it was like Tweetdeck of old. Phanpy lets you create columns like that on your desktop. Or, for your smaller screen devices, you can set up easy menus at the top of the screen or floating that let you easily switch between the items. For example, I have shortcuts/columns for my home feed, a list or 2 I have created, a couple hashtags I like to keep up with and one for my notifications.

Give Phanpy a try!

#SanDiego County new Road Closure tool | Public - COSD Road Conditions https://gis-portal.sandiegocounty.gov/arcgis/apps/experiencebuilder/experience/

A recent report looked at the largest 50 U.S. cities and ranked them based on the costs of household bills. Four California cities landed in the top 10 for highest household spending, including #SanDiego. | PDF https://www.doxo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/doxoINSIGHTS_50_Largest_U.S._Cities_Household_Spend_Report_2024_FINAL.pdf

Testing the #Kanban plugin for #Obsidian. I support and work on many different things, so I was thinking about not using it in the traditional Kanban method but rather lists of things all on one screen. Like a column header could be "SupportGroupA" then use that column for the things I do for that group. This actually kind of works until you go to archive the task. At that point you lose the context of what it was for because the header isn't listed with the task.  I could do something like add data like a hashtag or something to the task, so I know what it relates to in the future.  That looks redundant when you look a the columns. I could make separate boards but the defeats seeing everything at the same time. Should probably abandon trying to shoehorn this into Obsidian. Still working things out.

Via Mastodon: https://fedihum.org/@lavaeolus/113588298791306157

'Metadata Menu' This plugin is made for data quality enthusiasts: access and manage the metadata of your notes in #Obsidian https://github.com/mdelobelle/metadatamenu #UsefulTools (thanks @Drezil !)

Via Mastodon: https://dmv.community/@jcrabapple/113588812637498207

Here's another blog platform I hadn't heard of until this morning. Apparently their main selling point is that you post from email.

Pagecord - Publish your writing effortlessly from your inbox

https://pagecord.com/

Prototype UEFI Bootkit is South Korean University Project; LogoFAIL Exploit Discovered - SecurityWeek https://www.securityweek.com/prototype-uefi-bootkit-is-south-korean-university-project-logofail-exploit-discovered/?is=7954b7f440cecfd9b9243ddbaab5414f1d380add504b8c010e47738f0c1bfbda "The bootkit, discovered by ESET after samples were uploaded to VirusTotal, was created by the university researchers to demonstrate real-world security risks below the operating system. "

Via Mastodon: https://indieweb.social/@timklapdor@mastodon.social/113570255171069311

Found some time today to play with #MarkWhen. This is what I've been looking for! Being able to create timelines and calendars using basic data structures so that I can pull together some planning for 2025.

https://markwhen.com/

This is so good and fits in perfectly into my #Obsidian workflow.

Nov 29, 2024, 09:2

Bridging all my Fediverse posts over to #Bluesky. If you're only on Bluesky you can also follow those on https://bsky.app/profile/techlifeweb.indieweb.social.ap.brid.gy

Via Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@hmjournalcom/113558199476039571

A million #Bluesky posts were scraped for AI training, raising concerns about data privacy despite the platform's promises and highlighting the challenges of decentralized networks. https://hmjournal.com/posts/bluesky-fa

Via Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@pablolarah/113558550023105758

Using Bluesky posts as blog comments by Emily @emilyliu.me #Bluesky #BlueskyComments #comments #blogComments #webdev

https://emilyliu.me/blog/comments

#Inoreader has a way to save highlights but there doesn't seem to be a way to get them into #Obsidian. I guess I could use the Obsidian web clipper 🤔

GetRSSFeed: #RSS Feed Extractor & Finder for Websites, Blogs & Podcasts https://getrssfeed.com/ 'Helps you discover and extract RSS feeds from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, and blog / websites.' Side note: Maybe stop making people jump through hoops and actually PUBLISH THE FEED ON YOUR WEBSITE?!? /rant