Austin
Nov. 20th, 2025 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootmallorys_camera telling us about the Texas Book Festival, but believe R's thoughts turn more to sunshine and live music. We could get a house and a car for a couple of weeks, maybe do some exploring. Today, there are pink warning clouds in an icy sky. It snowed, not much but by god I felt it. I have been miserably cold, even in the house, though now the thermostat has cranked up. Heat and music sound alluring.ClaireBell
Nov. 20th, 2025 11:26 amaurumcalendula( Read more... )
French Is Such A Scary Language.
Nov. 20th, 2025 03:18 pmrionaleonhart( Death Note/Danganronpa: Light and Genocider Syo. )
( Clair Obscur: Verso/Maelle from Alicia’s perspective. )
( Clair Obscur: Maelle/Verso, Maelle struggling with her crush after act two. )
( Lost: Jack/Kate, post-finale. )
( Omori: Headspace Aubrey meets real Aubrey. )
( Omori: the real Hero enters Headspace. )
( The Long Walk: Pete/Ray, written from osmosis. )
( Forgotton Anne/The Amazing Digital Circus: Ragatha meets Fig. )
( Deltarune: Snowgrave route Kris/Noelle. )
I’ve been getting assorted anonymous requests from people who evidently know my fandoms and taste in themes extremely well! Are they from multiple prompters, or am I receiving a lot of carefully calculated requests from some sort of mysterious Riona expert? I’m so curious!
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
Nov. 20th, 2025 09:09 amjames_davis_nicoll
A park guide's life is upended by a pandemic and her charming, idiot son.
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
larryhammerA 9-minute summary of the history of Japan. (via)
History OverSimplified summarizes the First part 1 | part 2 and Second part 1 | part 2 | part 3 Punic Wars. Bonus: the Emu War. (via Eaglet)
Two recently authenticated organ works have been added to the catalog of J.S. Bach’s works: BWV 1178 and BWV 1179. (via
conuly)---L.
Subject quote from Gimme Shelter, The Rolling Stones.
The New Box of Internet
Nov. 20th, 2025 01:31 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
scalziwhatever_feed
I like where I live for most things, but one of the things I don’t love about it is that it is in a not great place for Internet access. I’m on a rural road where providers will not send cable or fiber, because it’s not profitable to do so. It’s always been an access desert: When I moved here in 2001, the only local provider of Internet ran at a speed of 9600 baud, which even for the turn of the century was appallingly slow. Then came satellite at a blistering 1.5mbps (provided there were no clouds), followed by DSL at 6Mbps for a decade and a half, which finally and grudgingly on the part of the DSL provider bumped up to 40Mbps. However, Brightspeed (my current DSL provider) has no intention of ever upgrading anything here, and the connection we do have has been getting progressively spottier.
But! Finally! Networks with 5G capability have finally begun to admit I can get signal at my address, and have offered home Internet via wireless to me. I had a couple of vendors to choose from and I went with Verizon, for no other reason than my phone is already on that network and I know it works here. I got their rectangular prism of a router a couple of days ago, and, after I moved it into Athena’s room, where my computer would not somehow confuse its ability to pick up a signal (this did happen), we were good to go.
And how is it? Good enough so far. The download speeds I get are wildly inconsistent — sometimes it’s at 20Mbps, sometimes it’s at 220Mbps — but most of the time it’s between 80Mbps and 120Mbps, which is twice to three times as fast as the DSL line. The upload speeds are a magnitude faster, too, which is nice. All for a cost that is a third less than my DSL package. Verizon doesn’t have bandwidth caps on the level of service I ordered (which honestly means that bandwidth caps of any sort are just excuses to charge more, not an issue of network capacity), so there aren’t going to be any particular cost surprises on that score. An average 80-120Mbps throughput is still far lower than one can get with cable or fiber (the church has 300Mbps via cable), but, from where I’m coming from in terms of speed, it’s a genuine and substantive bump up.
I’m going to keep the DSL for a month or two to get a bead on the quirks and capabilities of the 5G set-up, but if things continue as they have we’ll make that switchover. The only drawback for this is that we got the DSL as part of a package with our landline, and I am loath to give up that number; it’s still a point of contact for several things. I will have to figure out what to do with that.
In the meantime: Hey, do I feel faster to you?
— JS
Homo homini lupus
Nov. 20th, 2025 12:46 pmmetafilter_feed"At a youth detention centre in north-east England, the paedophile Neville Husband raped and assaulted countless boys. Why was his reign of terror allowed to go on – and why hasn't there been a public inquiry?" Other coverage (The independent) British state supplied victims to 'worst sex offender in history' as abuse continued unchecked at notorious detention centre A new play, Bad Lads, written by Mike Kenny created from a story by Jimmy Coffey and the testimonies of the other Medomsley boys. Directed by Jenny Sealey.
Scam USPS and E-Z Pass Texts and Websites
Nov. 20th, 2025 12:07 pmbruce_schneier_feedGoogle has filed a complaint in court that details the scam:
In a complaint filed Wednesday, the tech giant accused “a cybercriminal group in China” of selling “phishing for dummies” kits. The kits help unsavvy fraudsters easily “execute a large-scale phishing campaign,” tricking hordes of unsuspecting people into “disclosing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or banking information, often by impersonating well-known brands, government agencies, or even people the victim knows.”
These branded “Lighthouse” kits offer two versions of software, depending on whether bad actors want to launch SMS and e-commerce scams. “Members may subscribe to weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual, or permanent licenses,” Google alleged. Kits include “hundreds of templates for fake websites, domain set-up tools for those fake websites, and other features designed to dupe victims into believing they are entering sensitive information on a legitimate website.”
Google’s filing said the scams often begin with a text claiming that a toll fee is overdue or a small fee must be paid to redeliver a package. Other times they appear as ads—sometimes even Google ads, until Google detected and suspended accounts—luring victims by mimicking popular brands. Anyone who clicks will be redirected to a website to input sensitive information; the sites often claim to accept payments from trusted wallets like Google Pay.
Scam USPS and E-Z Pass Texts and Websites
Nov. 20th, 2025 12:07 pmschneier_no_tracking_feedGoogle has filed a complaint in court that details the scam:
In a complaint filed Wednesday, the tech giant accused “a cybercriminal group in China” of selling “phishing for dummies” kits. The kits help unsavvy fraudsters easily “execute a large-scale phishing campaign,” tricking hordes of unsuspecting people into “disclosing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or banking information, often by impersonating well-known brands, government agencies, or even people the victim knows.”
These branded “Lighthouse” kits offer two versions of software, depending on whether bad actors want to launch SMS and e-commerce scams. “Members may subscribe to weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual, or permanent licenses,” Google alleged. Kits include “hundreds of templates for fake websites, domain set-up tools for those fake websites, and other features designed to dupe victims into believing they are entering sensitive information on a legitimate website.”
Google’s filing said the scams often begin with a text claiming that a toll fee is overdue or a small fee must be paid to redeliver a package. Other times they appear as ads—sometimes even Google ads, until Google detected and suspended accounts—luring victims by mimicking popular brands. Anyone who clicks will be redirected to a website to input sensitive information; the sites often claim to accept payments from trusted wallets like Google Pay.
The Day in Spikedluv (Wednesday, Nov 19)
Nov. 20th, 2025 05:57 amspikedluvI took mom’s vehicle up to the garage before her appointment because I’ve been hearing a strange noise. When I mentioned it to Pip, he was worried it might be the wheel bearing and wanted to test drive it. The bad news is, it is the wheel bearing. The good news is, it’s in its ‘infancy’ (Pip’s actual word, lol), so we can still drive her car. (She finds it difficult to get in and out of mine and sister S’s, for different reasons; mine is too low, hers is too high (she drives a pick-up).) He’s checking into wheel bearings and we’ll schedule something in the next couple of weeks. For someone who has been mostly house-bound since June, she’s spending an awful lot on this vehicle.
I drove mom to her treatment, hand-washed dishes, went for a couple walks with Pip and the dogs, browned ground beef to make lasagna tomorrow, scooped kitty litter, and showered. I did find a nice chuck roast and put it in the crock pot when I got home from downtown (before I went to pick up mom’s vehicle). It was quite yummy.
I read fanfic and drank egg nog. Zoo North Carolina was my background tv in the evening.
Temps started out at 19.4(F) (BRR!!) and reached 39.7. There was some blue sky peeking out behind the clouds and even a little bit of sun!
Mom Update:
Mom was doing okay today. ( more back here )
Hobbies: Quilting
Nov. 20th, 2025 12:14 amysabetwordsmithQuilting is a fibercraft hobby of sewing layers of fabric together, usually to make colorful designs. If you feel frustrated by planned obsolescence, artificial intelligence, and other current issues then consider quilting as a form of protest. Make something beautiful that will last.
On Dreamwidth, consider communities like
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
crafty, cross_stitch, everykindofcraft, get_knitted, intertwined, justcreate, quilting, quilters_chat, sewing, and sewing101.( Read more... )
The stuff of nightmares
Nov. 20th, 2025 08:57 ammetafilter_feedHealth: COVID symptom whack-a-mole?
Nov. 20th, 2025 02:46 amelisemI continue resting LIKE A POTATO.
Whatever's going on in there, COVID (or something) has apparently been playing with the sliders and the lit-up buttons on my disabilities and chronic ailments. The good leg because the bad leg for several days. Really bad, pain-wise. Now that seems to be easing up a lot. The bad leg is doing something with sensations on the part of the leg where some nerve rerouting/regrowth happened after surgery 16 years ago; I did not need it to play with pins-and-needles, burning, freezing, and shocks on that leg below the replaced hip. Also, the sudden decrease in my hearing was distressing, though that seems to be mostly back where it was now.
Am using what skills I have to treat everything as temporary, and not decide This Is How It Will Be From Here On Out. (Fibromyalgia has a ton of temporary things happening, at least for me, that seem like a Big Deal and then suddenly shift or go away.)
So yeah, silly body is silly.
Not as much pain in the temporarily bad leg today, so that is a huge win. I'll take it.
Does your body ever tell you something like "Augh, my toe is broken!" and then go "just foolin'! It's fine!" a while later?
Pimp: Miami Vice (TV) by Mxcatmoon
Nov. 20th, 2025 02:22 ammxcatmoon posting in smallfandomfest
( Read more... )