Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
@unvarnished.com
Entrepreneur, Speaker. 🤓 Owner HopStudios.com web-design-dev. ExpressionEngine++ CraftCMS #eecms #craftcms 🌐 OpenMedia.org board president #YVR #YYC 🥏 Spirit of the Game wonk (VUL/ UC/ WFDF/ USAU) #Ultimate #SOTG @[email protected] #2SLGBTQ they/them
Pinned
Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
@unvarnished.com
· Dec 4
Blueskys, Substacks and Mastodons, Oh My! - Hop Studios
I was recently asked if I recommended moving to Mastodon or Bluesky, given that Bluesky is experiencing a big influx from X right now. I thought I’d answer here to share with a wider audience.
hopstudios.com
A client recently asked if I recommended moving to Mastodon or Bluesky, given that Bluesky is experiencing a big influx from X (a.k.a the big Xit) right now. I thought I’d answer here to share with a wider audience.
hopstudios.com/blog/bluesky...
hopstudios.com/blog/bluesky...
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
This evening's thought to ponder from Maggies Farm.
December 25, 2025 at 4:14 AM
This evening's thought to ponder from Maggies Farm.
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Your donation to Democracy Now! today will go 3X as far. If you give $10, we'll get $30 to support our independent journalism. Please don’t miss out on this opportunity to triple your impact.
Donate today! Your support is vital to sustain and grow Democracy Now!
A daily independent global news hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González
www.democracynow.org
December 23, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Your donation to Democracy Now! today will go 3X as far. If you give $10, we'll get $30 to support our independent journalism. Please don’t miss out on this opportunity to triple your impact.
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
"The democracy world is kind of in one silo, and we tech people are in another silo," said EFF's Cindy Cohn at an event hosted by @harvard.edu's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. "If we don't start talking to each other soon, bad things are going to continue to happen."
How technology supports and undermines democracy - Harvard Law School
At a recent event, experts urged collaboration between technologists and policymakers to protect the rule of law.
hls.harvard.edu
December 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
"The democracy world is kind of in one silo, and we tech people are in another silo," said EFF's Cindy Cohn at an event hosted by @harvard.edu's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. "If we don't start talking to each other soon, bad things are going to continue to happen."
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
If you pay attention to any large industry long enough and follow it to its logical conclusion you eventually end up sounding like a communist even if you started off testing CPU case fans. youtu.be/cUrJVdF2me0?...
December 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
If you pay attention to any large industry long enough and follow it to its logical conclusion you eventually end up sounding like a communist even if you started off testing CPU case fans. youtu.be/cUrJVdF2me0?...
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
December 22, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Remember that picture of the earth rising over the horizon of the moon, with every living person captured in the frame?
Well, either this gorgeous, majestic spiral contains that much life times (some fraction of) its 100 billion stars….
Or it has none.
Well, either this gorgeous, majestic spiral contains that much life times (some fraction of) its 100 billion stars….
Or it has none.
A storm of new #stars: located over 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba, #galaxy NGC 1792 is rich in star-forming regions.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
More information & links: esahubble.org/images/potw2...
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
More information & links: esahubble.org/images/potw2...
December 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Remember that picture of the earth rising over the horizon of the moon, with every living person captured in the frame?
Well, either this gorgeous, majestic spiral contains that much life times (some fraction of) its 100 billion stars….
Or it has none.
Well, either this gorgeous, majestic spiral contains that much life times (some fraction of) its 100 billion stars….
Or it has none.
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
ever since i was a little boy i knew i wanted to stare at rectangles that make me angry
December 18, 2025 at 6:55 AM
ever since i was a little boy i knew i wanted to stare at rectangles that make me angry
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Found only in the Galapagos Islands the marine iguana is the only marine lizard species in the world, they can dive as deep as 30m (98 ft) and spend up to 30 minutes at a time underwater
📹Shelton Dupreez
📹Shelton Dupreez
December 14, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Found only in the Galapagos Islands the marine iguana is the only marine lizard species in the world, they can dive as deep as 30m (98 ft) and spend up to 30 minutes at a time underwater
📹Shelton Dupreez
📹Shelton Dupreez
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Wow. This is an absolutely terrifying read. We now live in an age when a single company can, through what appears to be plain old bureaucracy, can more or less brick your entire digital life.
December 13, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Wow. This is an absolutely terrifying read. We now live in an age when a single company can, through what appears to be plain old bureaucracy, can more or less brick your entire digital life.
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Deeply disappointed to hear that the BBC has pushed out one of the most brilliant presenters in all of science communication for speaking with integrity and honor in support of human rights and dignity.
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Deeply disappointed to hear that the BBC has pushed out one of the most brilliant presenters in all of science communication for speaking with integrity and honor in support of human rights and dignity.
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
The UK has turned into a censorious nightmare state because of transphobia
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 1:00 PM
The UK has turned into a censorious nightmare state because of transphobia
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
I mean, the Penn student newspaper isn't wrong, but www.instagram.com/p/DSH1X4EDwP...
December 12, 2025 at 2:23 AM
I mean, the Penn student newspaper isn't wrong, but www.instagram.com/p/DSH1X4EDwP...
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
We're excited about the Drupal AI Summit in Paris tomorrow!
@andrewmallis.bsky.social will give a presentation on AI-Assisted Migrations in Drupal as part of a 3-day event featuring 400 speakers discussing all aspects around the future of tech.
Register:
new.drupal.org/ai/events/Dr...
#Drupal #AI
@andrewmallis.bsky.social will give a presentation on AI-Assisted Migrations in Drupal as part of a 3-day event featuring 400 speakers discussing all aspects around the future of tech.
Register:
new.drupal.org/ai/events/Dr...
#Drupal #AI
December 8, 2025 at 6:47 PM
We're excited about the Drupal AI Summit in Paris tomorrow!
@andrewmallis.bsky.social will give a presentation on AI-Assisted Migrations in Drupal as part of a 3-day event featuring 400 speakers discussing all aspects around the future of tech.
Register:
new.drupal.org/ai/events/Dr...
#Drupal #AI
@andrewmallis.bsky.social will give a presentation on AI-Assisted Migrations in Drupal as part of a 3-day event featuring 400 speakers discussing all aspects around the future of tech.
Register:
new.drupal.org/ai/events/Dr...
#Drupal #AI
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
A thing I believe is that governments should¹ pass laws banning the development or deployment of machinery that reads thoughts. The fact this technology does not exist makes it even more important it be illegal
¹ If someone wants narrow cutouts for accessibility devices I do not see a problem
¹ If someone wants narrow cutouts for accessibility devices I do not see a problem
December 6, 2025 at 8:59 PM
A thing I believe is that governments should¹ pass laws banning the development or deployment of machinery that reads thoughts. The fact this technology does not exist makes it even more important it be illegal
¹ If someone wants narrow cutouts for accessibility devices I do not see a problem
¹ If someone wants narrow cutouts for accessibility devices I do not see a problem
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Developer attempts to replicate "Liquid Glass" in CSS, and once finished realizes what she'd actually created is an exploit for a fundamental, previously unknown, and rather serious browser vulnerability
lyra.horse/blog/2025/12...
"CSS hack accidentally becomes regular hack"
lyra.horse/blog/2025/12...
"CSS hack accidentally becomes regular hack"
SVG Filters - Clickjacking 2.0
A novel and powerful twist on an old classic.
lyra.horse
December 5, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Developer attempts to replicate "Liquid Glass" in CSS, and once finished realizes what she'd actually created is an exploit for a fundamental, previously unknown, and rather serious browser vulnerability
lyra.horse/blog/2025/12...
"CSS hack accidentally becomes regular hack"
lyra.horse/blog/2025/12...
"CSS hack accidentally becomes regular hack"
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
—FDR, 1944
—FDR, 1944
November 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
—FDR, 1944
—FDR, 1944
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Attacks on VPNs are attacks on digital privacy and digital freedom. And that battle is being fought by people who clearly have no idea how any of this technology actually works. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They're Doing
It's unfortunately no longer enough to force websites to check your government-issued ID before you can access certain content, because politicians have now discovered that people are using Virtual
www.eff.org
November 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Attacks on VPNs are attacks on digital privacy and digital freedom. And that battle is being fought by people who clearly have no idea how any of this technology actually works. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
Im really trying to keep my posts non political today........
This FUUUUUUUCK just has to ruin that!!!!
I would have returned the insult in a childish voice to mock him further!!!
This FUUUUUUUCK just has to ruin that!!!!
I would have returned the insult in a childish voice to mock him further!!!
November 28, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Im really trying to keep my posts non political today........
This FUUUUUUUCK just has to ruin that!!!!
I would have returned the insult in a childish voice to mock him further!!!
This FUUUUUUUCK just has to ruin that!!!!
I would have returned the insult in a childish voice to mock him further!!!
Now that ExpressionEngine can use Twig for templating and Gutenberg for entering content, I think it's the most flexible, most powerful CMS available. #eecms > #cms
expressionengine.com/add-ons/layr
expressionengine.com/add-ons/layr
LAYR | Add-ons
Sick of losing clients to WordPress? Bring the Block builder to ExpressionEngine. FREE IN BETA!
expressionengine.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Now that ExpressionEngine can use Twig for templating and Gutenberg for entering content, I think it's the most flexible, most powerful CMS available. #eecms > #cms
expressionengine.com/add-ons/layr
expressionengine.com/add-ons/layr
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
i’m not crying you’re crying
xkcd: Fifteen Years
xkcd: Fifteen Years
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:58 AM
i’m not crying you’re crying
xkcd: Fifteen Years
xkcd: Fifteen Years
Here are the final Spirit of the Game statistics for World Beach Ultimate Championships 2025 in Portimao Portugal #wbuc #ultimate #beachultimate #sotg
November 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Here are the final Spirit of the Game statistics for World Beach Ultimate Championships 2025 in Portimao Portugal #wbuc #ultimate #beachultimate #sotg
Reposted by Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
As a teenage electronics and Linux hacker in the 90s, I remember all the buzz around Y2K vividly. This episode about it from @arshy.bsky.social and @canadaland.com is so, so good. 😯
www.canadaland.com/podcast/was-...
www.canadaland.com/podcast/was-...
Was the Y2K Bug Really a Hoax?
The Millenium Bug was supposed to bring the world to a halt, but governments claimed they squashed the problem. Was it all a panic over nothing?
www.canadaland.com
November 28, 2024 at 8:42 PM
As a teenage electronics and Linux hacker in the 90s, I remember all the buzz around Y2K vividly. This episode about it from @arshy.bsky.social and @canadaland.com is so, so good. 😯
www.canadaland.com/podcast/was-...
www.canadaland.com/podcast/was-...