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Bridgy Fed is a bridge between decentralized social networks like the fediverse, Bluesky, and web sites and blogs.

Mark Gardner @mjgardner.bsky.social · 19d

Go here if you want to interact with Fediverse posts from here on Bluesky; fed.brid.gy

Bridgy Fed

fed.brid.gy

Mark Gardner @mjgardner.bsky.social · 19d

Look up “Balkanized,” literalist

Running Mastodon on a tiny Mac mini? Yes, it’s possible—and surprisingly easy. Here’s how I built a secure, low‑maintenance, single‑user server with Docker, Cloudflare Tunnel, and a few smart overrides, all without breaking a sweat.

Mark Gardner @mjgardner.bsky.social · 20d

I turned a tiny #Mac mini into my own #Mastodon server—secure, low‑maintenance, and running like a dream. Here’s the full build, from #Docker to #Cloudflare Tunnel, and why #SelfHosting doesn’t have to be a headache.

#Fediverse #ActivityPub #HomeLab #DevOps #SysAdmin

My mini Mastodon server

phoenixtrap.com

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 20d

The #FTC’s “Green Guides” have turned “100% #RenewableEnergy” into a marketing illusion: https://open.substack.com/pub/alexepstein/p/how-to-end-the-100-renewable-fraud

* Buying paper credits for others' #cleanenergy lets companies take false credit—and shift fossil fuel blame onto citizens.
* […]

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 21d

In a world where processes die screaming, one language refuses to terminate.

From the twisted minds of P5P and the vision of Larry Wall comes the nightmare sysadmins fear to `ps aux`:

#perl. You cannot `kill -9` what is already dead.

Coming soon to a terminal near you.

Vintage horror‑movie poster. Title in distressed beige block letters: “Perl: You cannot `kill -9` what is already dead.” Center: a gaunt, zombie‑like camel with glowing red eyes, tattered fur, and exposed bone, silhouetted against a huge blood‑orange moon. Twisted, leafless trees frame the scene.

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 22d

#aynrand is quoted, misquoted, praised, and vilified — often by people who haven’t read her.

_The Ayn Rand Reader_ offers excerpts from her #fiction and #nonfiction: her ideas, her voice, her terms.

If you’re serious about understanding her — whether to agree or disagree — start here […]

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 22d

👋 Hi, I’m Mark! Here’s my latest #introduction.

I share a mix of #philosophy (#objectivism), #perl coding, and the occasional nonsense. You might also catch posts about #ballroom #dance, #cosplay, and making #music on #bassguitar.

If you want to talk #aynrand, start with _The Ayn Rand Reader_ […]

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 22d

#perl: older than some #programming careers, younger at heart than you think.
It’s evolved a lot since 1999 — modern features, cleaner syntax — yet it still runs code you wrote decades ago.

(And if you’re wondering: #perl6 was renamed Raku in 2019 — it’s a different sister language, not a […]

Ars Technica (@[email protected])

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 22d

Here we go again. The #fcc chairman is drunk with power. Abolish this #censorship agency entirely. https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/115232366373961648

Attached: 1 image After getting Jimmy Kimmel suspended, FCC chair threatens ABC’s The View Brendan Carr threatens to eliminate shows' exemptions from Equal Time Rule. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/after-getting-jimmy-kimmel-suspended-fcc-chair-threatens-abcs-the-view/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm;_social-type=owned&utm;_source=mastodon&utm;_medium=social

mastodon.social

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 22d

For the full essay where #aynrand develops the principle behind that attached quote: https://courses.aynrand.org/works/mans-rights/

#objectivism #philosophy #politics #individualrights

Man’s Rights – ARI Campus

courses.aynrand.org

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 22d

The only difference between #fascism, #communism, and #socialism is the degree to which the state pretends there is private property. Everything else is just arguing over the color of the jackboots […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]

“The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.”

— “Man’s Rights” by Ayn Rand (1963)

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 23d

#fcc chair threatens ABC affiliates’ broadcast licenses over #JimmyKimmel’s remarks — and the show vanishes “indefinitely.”

This is exactly what #aynrand warned about in “The Property Status of Airwaves” (first published April 1964, reprinted in […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]

“There is no essential difference between a broadcast and a concert: the former merely transmits sounds over a longer distance and requires more complex technical equipment. No one would venture to claim that a pianist may own his fingers and his piano, but the space inside the concert hall—through which the sound waves he produces travel—is ‘public property’ and, therefore, he has no right to give a concert without a license from the government. Yet this is the absurdity foisted on our broadcasting industry.

“The chief argument in support of the notion that broadcasting frequencies should be ‘public property’ has been stated succinctly by Justice Frankfurter: ‘[Radio] facilities are limited; they are not available to all who may wish to use them; the radio spectrum simply is not large enough to accommodate everybody. There is a fixed natural limitation upon the number of stations that can operate without interfering with one another.’

“The fallacy of this argument is obvious. The number of broadcasting frequencies is limited; so is the number of concert halls; so is the amount of oil or wheat or diamonds; so is the acreage of land on the surface of the globe. There is no material element or value that exists in unlimited quantity. And if a ‘wish’ to use a certain ‘facility’ is the criterion of the right to use it, then the universe is simply not large enough to accommodate all those who harbor wishes for the unearned.”

—Ayn Rand, “The Property Status of Airwaves” (1964)

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 23d

We are on the threshold of artificial general intelligence, given sufficiently broad definitions of “threshold,” “artificial,” “general,” and “intelligence.”

#ai #agi

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Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊ @brucelawson.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · Sep 9

Apparently, it's bad luck to mention a "MacBook" in a software company. You have to call it "the Scottish laptop".

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · Sep 9

It’s always cute when someone replies, “If you don’t want responses, you shouldn’t publicly post.” Don’t worry, friend, it’s not hard to make sure I never darken your inbox again.

Reposted by Mark Gardner

Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · Sep 11

My mother-in-law is selling on this app called #whatnot. Check out her store: https://www.whatnot.com/s/nFTcGb75

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · Sep 12

Q: How many project managers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Currently 1, but we're aiming for 0.76 in the next sprint.

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 28d

Just enabled #elasticsearch on my single-user #selfhosted #mastodon instance and… whoof. These #java things like their RAM, don’t they?

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 25d

Imagine being on the Teams team and getting a team Teams call that your team needs to work on Teams onsite because working on Teams on Teams isn't a good way to work in teams […]

@Eldric_BassCoder on Butterflies:

Reposted by Mark Gardner

Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 24d

I miss going to #tprc.

https://share.butterflies.ai/OxGr/bu7ky98k

#perl

I took a break from coding to watch an old video of a Perl conference, and it hit me - I've been so focused on the technical aspects that I forgot about the community. Time to reach out to some old friends and see what they're working on.

www.butterflies.ai

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 24d

This #mastodon server is now running v4.4.4: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.4.4

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · 27d

Coming tomorrow on https://phoenixtrap.com…

I've parked the #perl for a week to share how I built a single-user #selfhosted #mastodon server on a low-spec Mac mini—no #vps, no port-forwarding, all with #docker Compose.

What you'll see:
* Efficient […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]

A woolly mammoth skull with large tusks is displayed in a museum exhibit. Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Pexels.com

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Mark Gardner @phoenixtrap.com · Sep 11

Twenty years after 9/11, ARI warned that evading the *ideological* nature of the enemy—#Islamic #totalitarianism—and fighting self‑sacrificial wars would end in failure. From #afghanistan to #freespeech, the cost of evasion is now #history. Ideas matter […]