Mozilla has been the subject of some online discussion for its recent changes to Firefox's privacy and data collection policies. Back in 2022, I examined a more lighthearted Mozilla-Firefox story: marketing gobbledygook regarding Colorways.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/mozillas-colorways-gobbledygook/
#Mozilla #Firefox
Welcoming the first day of spring (in the northeastern United States, at least) with the story of how the forget-me-not flower found its name.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/how-the-forget-me-not-flower-found-its-name/
I read that Amazon was discontinuing its Appstore on mainline Android. Like many others (I suspect), my first thought was to ask myself whether I knew that Amazon Appstore was available for regular Android. But it turns out I do have some Amazon Appstore members from my old Kindle Fire HDX 7 and BlackBerry Classic, so I took a trip down memory lane while providing an F-Droid PSA for Amazon Fire users.
I was taking a (very) long walk on May 26, 2024. Early on my walk, I happened across the McLaughlin Park World War I Memorial in Downtown Brooklyn. I present my photos of the marker and a brief history.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-mclaughlin-park-world-war-i-memorial/
Back on December 6, 2020, I wrote an article with my ideas for reforming the less-than-great fact checking industry. I dare say it holds up.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/proposals-for-fact-checking-reform/
Back in 2021, I wrote an article advocating for RSS as an alternative to Facebook for the purpose of reading good writing on the internet. My thoughts on some points have evolved since then, but I still view RSS/ATOM/JSON feed readers as the best way over social media or other algorithmic solutions to find and read good writing on the web.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/around-the-web-rss-as-a-facebook-alternative/
Three years is nothing, I spent about 15 in QWERTY land -- last 10 or so with a BlackBerry. I'm holding out hope for a good QWERTY comeback.
Three years ago to the day, I published an article wherein I studied a 1923 book on reading tea leaves (available thanks to Project Gutenberg) for notes on the symbolism of musical instruments. Why did I do this? We have a "music" category on The New Leaf Journal but it is almost entirely filled by my friend, Victor V. Gurbo. I wanted to make my own musical contribution.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/reading-tea-leaves-the-symbolism-of-the-guitar-and-other-instruments/
Back in June 2023, I came across a bar of OatMilk chocolate at CVS. It struck me as odd. I was curious, but it was $5.79. I don't think I'd pay that much for any bar of chocolate. A few months ago, I saw the chocolate at LotLess for $1.99. I decided to try it. Final take: It was decent, but I'll stick with the traditional chocolate.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/trying-lindt-oatmilk-chocolate/
#Chocolate #OatMilk
It snowed for the first time in December today (in NYC). Back on December 17, 2020, I snowed much more (and stuck). I shared some fun snowy photographs from a walk around Brooklyn.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/brooklyn-snowman-and-winter-storm-gail-sights/
#Brooklyn #NYC #Photography #Snow
In May 2020, I shared the story of how Boston police officers used a phone and a recording of a peacock mating call in wrangle a peacock (a peacock, to be sure, not a peahen).
https://thenewleafjournal.com/boston-police-and-peacock-maintenance/
#Bird #Peacock #Boston #Police
It's health insurance season, which reminds me of the time my hosts adblocking solution (not using at the moment) successfully blocked my attempts to navigate the New York State of Health website.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/hblock-and-my-attempt-to-purchase-health-insurance-in-new-york/
#Linux #hBlock #HealthInsurance #NYStateofHealth
I accidentally opened the mpv Media Player GUI the other day (I usually point mpv at something from the command line). I noticed that the mpv logo was wearing a Santa hat. This led to an investigation. One nice thing about using open source applications is that they are amenable to being investigated. (P.S.: I approve of the Santa hat.)
https://thenewleafjournal.com/mpv-media-players-december-santa-hat/
#mpv #Christmas #Santa #Linux #OpenSource
Autumn is coming to a close (in New York City, at least). But because it is still autumn's winter instead of winter, it is not too late to enjoy Lizzie Deas' autumnal 1898 poem, "Hawkweed."
https://thenewleafjournal.com/hawkweed-an-autumnal-poem-by-lizzie-deas/
#Poem #Poetry #Autumn #Fall #Hawkweed
I wrote about having a failed 4GB stick of RAM in my Lenovo T400 laptop. My replacement arrived. Fingers crossed that it will live longer.
https://social.emucafe.org/naferrell/lenovo-t400-ram-issue/
#Lenovo #T400 #RAM
I received my copy of Pokémon Red for Christmas in 1999. I combine my own perspective with additional readings to examine the importance of imagination in the success of the generation 1 Pokémon games and lessons that could be applied from that to more modern projects.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/imagination-in-pokemon-red-and-blue/
#Pokemon #VideoGames #Imagination #Anecdotes #GameBoy
I wrote about my writing workflow at The New Leaf Journal back in December 2021. While nearly 3 years have passed, it remains the same at its heart. Everything starts with Ghostwriter, my favorite markdown editor.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/my-wordpress-writing-workflow-at-the-new-leaf-journal/
#WordPress #Workflow #Ghostwriter #Markdown #LibreOffice
I am a proponent of using feeds to follow websites and I offer RSS, ATOM, and JSON feeds (as well as some less common formats) for my projects. However, I do not offer full archive feeds. I considered the topic and the arguments for and against full archive feeds in a new feed essay.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/on-full-archive-rss-and-atom-feeds/
#RSS #ATOMFeeds #RSSFeeds #FullArchiveFeeds
Introducing my longes-used oldest computer-related device: A Newpoint Switcher 2000 Plus from 1996-97.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/b/6cr
#PowerSwitch #SurgeProtector #Newpoint #Windows95
Revisiting our all-time most-read article, my 2021 review of /e/ OS as used on a Murena Teracube 2e phone. While I no longer use that phone as a "phone," it is still alive and well and I use it for two things. First, it is a Syncthing node. Second, I have the MikroTik app installed on it for quick access to my router. My daily driver phone these days is a Google Pixel 6a with LineageOS.
https://thenewleafjournal.com/b/2EY
#Murena #eos #OpenSource