Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
mastodon
4.6.0-nightly.2026-03-16
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that
(previously https://twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked)
Small hacks: https://git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
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Joined March 31, 2017
Pronouns:
he/him
💍:
Home:
🇨🇦 Toronto, Canada
Trash animals:
raccoons, possums, skunks, rats, squirrels, not geese
Posts
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2 posts in path
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
RE: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/1 10 years today.
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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1d ago
@Gargron@mastodon.social holy cow. That's one for the history books, in all seriousness.
View full thread on mastodon.social
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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3d ago
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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6d ago
The Yoink / Yeet Dichotomy
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
·
Mar 04, 2026
Something poignant about seeing the logo line "CLEVER DEVICES" displayed every nine seconds on the overhead in the bus
As the widget busily boot-loops over and over again
Because it's broooooooken
("This device is clever, and part of a clever system. We considered ourselves a clever species. The cleverness exists in your time, as it did in ours.")
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
·
Feb 27, 2026
May the patron saint of crosswalks and hydraulic bollards preserve me from old, entitled, oblivious men awkwardly piloting high powered sports cars that far outstrip their ability to control them safely; and preserve me also from all the other power they hold but cannot safely control, and for which they refuse to take responsibility.
(Sick and tired of luxury car drivers almost crushing me & other pedestrians by trying to push through a line of people crossing at a light. NO RIGHTS ON REDS.)
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Feb 27, 2026
I get the strong impression that early, learning developers are better served by the tools offered with fantasy game consoles than by professional dev tools these days.
That impression underscores my belief that good dev tools should optimize for joy, experimentation, discovery, learning, and play *first*, and raw throughput second, if it all.
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Feb 27, 2026
Katie and I just got home from Eddie¹ Izzard's one-woman performance of Hamlet. It was fantastic: delightful, hilarious, chilling. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were _perfect_.
https://www.mirvish.com/shows/hamlet
https://www.eddieizzardhamlet.com
Go see it if you get the chance.
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2 posts in path
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@nova@lunar.place
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@nova@lunar.place
:ablobcatyawn:
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Feb 22, 2026
@nova "back to being a normal cat" an extra floppy tube sock with fangs
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@SiteRelEnby@transfem.social
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@SiteRelEnby@transfem.social
AAAA records are called that because that's the noise of frustration you make after 30 minutes of troubleshooting when you realise you only updated the A record (insert DNS haiku here)
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Feb 20, 2026
@SiteRelEnby
DNS haikus
During the outage bring truth
But not clarity
View full thread on mastodon.social
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Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
·
Feb 19, 2026
Some friends and I have been exploring alternatives to Discord and Slack since both services are heading in intolerable directions.
We've looked at obvious choices like Matrix and Zulip, less obvious ones like Signal and Delta Chat, and some weird ones like the chat system built into the Fossil version control system.
I hoped Delta Chat would add channels, but no luck. I kind of expected we'd end up defaulting to Matrix.
But IRCv3 (Ergo / Goguma / Irctoday) is in the lead. Surprising.
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
Psst: Microsoft's suicide note just dropped https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/115770620333626312
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
·
Dec 24, 2025
@cstross@wandering.shop I don't think it's that, exactly. (I know you know the first 80% of what I'm about to say, but bear with me.)
Microsoft has such a hold on corporate shops, ABS extracts so much revenue from them, that MS can afford to offer negative value from their OS & office suites for at least a decade before it starts actually changing customer purchasing decisions. The shops are as locked in as Oracle customers, and they're about to be just as badly abused while MS fucks off to find itself.
1/n
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
@Ameboid@mastodon.social gifted me a loupe. #Caturday #CatsOfMastodon
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Dec 13, 2025
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social It could very well be that quality of clothing has gone down as companies try to “optimize” the manufacturing. Probably varies by brand and country. But I’d say we live in the
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Dec 01, 2025
@Gargron@mastodon.social alas, you've hit on an awfully likely hypothesis there.
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social Ihlo - Legacy and Karnivool - Asymmetry
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Nov 25, 2025
@Gargron@mastodon.social thank you! I'll check em out!
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
We have a mailing list that we put on our blog whenever we announce some new merch is being worked on. Roughly half of the plushies have been sold before we posted about it on #Mastodon, just from tha
Ancestor 2
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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@gnomon@mastodon.social
@Gargron@mastodon.social I want to frame this only as a question and not a request, because I understand that managing sales and logistics in foreign countries across multiple currencies can be a nigh
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social I'm afraid not 😦 Sorry.
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Nov 25, 2025
@Gargron@mastodon.social no no, don't apologize, it's all good! I understand. Thanks for the info.
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
You may have seen it over on @Mastodon@mastodon.social, but in case not: The new plushies are now live on the shop, alongside restocked and new mugs. Shipping to EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway, and the U
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@Gargron@mastodon.social
Open
@Gargron@mastodon.social
We have a mailing list that we put on our blog whenever we announce some new merch is being worked on. Roughly half of the plushies have been sold before we posted about it on #Mastodon, just from tha
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Nov 24, 2025
@Gargron@mastodon.social I want to frame this only as a question and not a request, because I understand that managing sales and logistics in foreign countries across multiple currencies can be a nightmare, but: do you happen to know if shipping to Canada might become an option in the future?
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@cstross@wandering.shop
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@cstross@wandering.shop
This is crazycakes idiocy from Debian! Random example (I don't use Debian day to day) but as a working novelist, I'm in the UK but my primary publisher is in the US so I want en_US locale for dictiona
Current reply
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
Ben Zanin
@gnomon@mastodon.social
Robertson screwdriver owner, believer in the value of personal-scale computing and skeptic of the value of computing scales any larger than that (previously https:// twitter.com/gnomon ; account de-funked) Small hacks: https:// git.sr.ht/~gnomon/
mastodon.social
@gnomon@mastodon.social
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Nov 23, 2025
@cstross@wandering.shop this was a mistaken assumption by the original poster, thankfully, and is clarified further down the thread.
If Debian had made an internationalization decision this wrong-headed I would have expected it to be picked up very quickly for attention. They're not perfect, but they're good at catching this kind of thing - particularly so in the last couple of years, I've noticed.
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