I've been using this account as my primary for about a week now, and I'm think I'm settled on using it for the foreseeable future, so I guess it's time to do another #introduction post.
I'm a dad of four kids, and a web developer. I have a college degree in #Theater (or #Theatre) and had aspirations of being an actor. I kind of fell into web development as a career. It was a hobby back in high school, and I just needed to pay some bills after college, so I ended up doing this.
I always have aspirations to do other things, but for now, I'm pretty happy spending most of my time as a dad and husband.
Some day, I'd like to get back into #acting, or maybe do some #VoiceActing. I also enjoy #writing and will, from time to time, post some #MicroFiction, usually from somebody's #WritingPrompt.
I love #StarTrek, and usually watch at least one episode nearly every day. I like all #SciFi really, though, as well as #fantasy. I used to read a lot, but find I don't have as much time or mental capacity for it as I used to. I also enjoy watching #anime, and have really been enjoying the new episodes of #Bleach lately.
Feel free to follow me if you think we have similar interests, and I may follow you back, if I think likewise. 
#WebDev #PHP #BackEnd #Laravel #introductions #Parenting #DadLife 
Dan Jones shared 3 days ago
Everyone may be entitled to their own opinion, but nobody is entitled to force theirs on you. While it is honorable to have an open mind, do not hesitate to close it in the face of hatred, of bigotry, of dishonor.
Dan Jones shared 3 days agoDo not allow words directed against you to become your burden. You have enough weight on your shoulders already -- don't let those who wish you ill encumber you with more.
Dan Jones shared 6 days agoKahless tells us to give it all to keep from giving in or giving up. Stand tall, and let cynicism and despair crumble in the face of a true warrior's resolve.
Dan Jones shared 9 days ago
@isilzha314 @evacide @danjones000 @eff @CNN That's not the point that Dan is making. Dan is saying that Signal's present infrastructure and architecture provide significant opportunities for a sufficiently funded and motivated adversary -- i.e., the NSA, or some other branch of the US government -- to monitor metadata about who is talking to whom. Signal may not explicitly collect that data and store it in a discoverable database, but that won't stop an adversary from gathering the metadata anyway. And the phone number requirement --which Signal *does* store and which *is* available to discovery-- is itself a very risky gambit when that adversary decides that anyone using Signal is a fair target.
And since [we kill people based on metadata](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-we-kill-people-based-on-metadata) and a fascist coup is currently in progress in the United States, Signal's users (as well as the Signal Foundation itself) should be laser focused on eliminating those opportunities. Unfortunately, Signal has
* Recently indicated that it does not consider network-layer anonymity as within its scope: https://gist.github.com/hackermondev/45a3cdfa52246f1d1201c1e8cdef6117
* Has shown no interest in working with others (including myself) in the Free Software ecosystem to integrate such anonymity technology into its stack and make it a default for its users: https://community.signalusers.org/t/use-an-anonymizing-overlay-network/62670
* Has remained mum on the fediverse when the organization and its current president have been invited to previous conversations on this matter: https://tenforward.social/@aspensmonster/113946901827746517
Signal has an ethical responsibility to bring anonymity into scope.
Dan Jones shared 10 days ago
Now THIS is a #SuperbowlSundae !
(It's #HootinTootinTuesday again! Post some jokes or funny memes under this hashtag today, and bring lots of smiles to #Mastodon.)
#Humor #Humour #FunnyMeme #Superbowl #SuperBowlSunday #SuperbowlLIX #Sundaes #IceCream
Caption
Picture of a large blue bowl full of ice cream, covered in chocolate syrup with a cherry on top. The bowl has a "Superman" logo on the side. The meme reads "Superbowl Sundae."
Dan Jones shared 10 days ago
I had a superb owl for tonight, courtesy of the British Trust for Ornithology but they're a bit shy...
#SuperbOwlSunday
Caption
A shy tawny owl peeking out from behind a tree trunk. The owl has ginger, brown, white and black feathers with a single big, black eye looking at the camera and a small yellow/white beak
Dan Jones shared 10 days ago
A Great Horned owl takes flight in Florida, 7 February, 2025. Photo by Ali Xaidi.
#OwlsOfMastodon
#SuperbOwlSunday
The only superb owl I need today is one that can help me with my mouse problem. #SuperbOwlSunday
I happened to read some articles from a couple years ago, forecasting Trump's 2024 presidential bid, and completely missing the mark.
And it occurred to me that a lot of these political forecasters are just completely failing when it comes to Trump (at least, that's been my impression).
And something popped into my head. The character of The Mule from Asimov's Foundation series completely eluded Hari Seldon's psychohistory forecasting. He was an individual so far out of the norm that someone like him couldn't be predicted and accounted for, to devastating consequences.
I certainly don't think Trump is a genius telepath like The Mule, but he certainly seems to be trying to set himself up as a dictator, like The Mule, and he seems to be having much more success at his attempt than most people thought possible.
It's a scary time, and we don't have R. Daneel Olivaw pulling strings in the background to get us back on track.
Dan Jones shared 12 days agoAllow yourself to celebrate even the smallest of victories in the face of adversity. Don't snuff out a light because it is not bright enough. Nurture it, and fight to make it grow until the shadows retreat. Even the greatest beacons may be lit with the smallest spark.
My wife just put on Scorsese's film The Irishman.
I'd never seen it before, and wasn't really watching, just sitting with her playing on my phone while she watched it.
But, I look up at the screen for a moment, see this CGI young Joe Pesci, and I'm filled with a deep sense of ick. Like, all the icks.
I let out an audible, ewwwww. My wife asks me what's wrong. I'm like, "this CGI de-aging. The Uncanny Valley. Yuck."
She looked at me like she had no idea what I was talking about.
Do some people just not see Uncanny Valley? I couldn't explain it, besides just ick.
#UncannyValley #TheIrishman #Scorsese #RobertDeniro #JoePesci #ick
Dan Jones shared 16 days ago
98GiB of CDC datasets have been uploaded to Internet Archive, before they were taken down from CDC's website to comply with Trump's executive order:
https://archive.org/details/20250128-cdc-datasets
This means that the @internetarchive will quickly become a target for the fascists currently running the US government.
Now would be a good time to start thinking how can we help protect it and help out.
Donating is the simplest thing we can do right this moment:
https://archive.org/donate
Dan Jones shared 16 days ago
Awesome! In the US, a nationwide protest is organized for Wednesday.
Boost this because Trump deserves it.
https://www.newsweek.com/50-states-anti-trump-protest-nationwide-february-5-details-2025300
Via @MontyRunner — thanks! ♥️
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
https://mastodon.social/@randahl/113945836475979928
This is the Superb Owl that I'll be watching on #SuperbOwlSunday
Caption
A truly superb owl, silver and gray, staring ahead with its wings flapping high
Can someone explain to me when the Republican Party switched from being about small government to supporting authoritarian rule?
I'm not crazy, am I? Those are two fully incompatible ideologies, right? Like, 200 executive orders in a single day, and dozens every day for the following week doesn't exactly scream small government to me. It screams massive government overreach, from my perspective.
Am I misunderstanding something?
And when did it happen? Did Reagan do it? Did he start it and it happened gradually? If I were a student in a world history class in Europe in 2090, how would that teacher explain this?
#HelpMeUnderstand #AskFedi #AskMastodon #USPol #USHistory #USGovernment
Dan Jones shared 18 days ago
Day three of Trump's term and the largest push for surveillance capitalism yet has been made: Project Stargate will be a $500.000.000.000 (500 billion USD) data center used for running a multitude of AIs with the purpose of spying on you.
Larry Ellison, the world's second richest man and CEO of Oracle, one of the main partners of Stargate, said:
“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we're constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on [...]. We're using A.I. to monitor the video.”
— Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle on how the company's A.I. systems will be used for in the future [Source: Business Insider]
This is who is in power now. This is the vision they have.
Dan Jones shared 19 days ago
Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?
Applicant: Gap?
*interviewer pulls at the gap and makes the hole bigger to reveal a tunnel leading to the prison’s sewage system*
Dan Jones shared 19 days agoInterviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?
Jesus: That was when I carried you.
Interviewer: *into intercom* Security.
Dan Jones shared 20 days ago
Changing your Browser User-Agent shouldn't make your browsing experience faster on certain sites, yet it does, particularly with YouTube. If you're not using Chromium based browsers, YouTube will load slower on average on purpose.
YouTube artificially slows your experience if you're using browsers not based on Chromium, and is noticeable on browsers like Firefox or Floorp, but if you spoof your User-Agent to Chromium or variant of Chromium, YouTube loads faster.