If current trends continue—and they’ve been consistent for the past month—then #Pixelfed will reach 1M users by February.
So far, #Mastodon and #Misskey are the only #Fediverse services than have more than 1M users.
The #Pixelfed and #Loops Kickstarter just got a nice write-up in Forbes!
The #Ghost folks are talking about bringing long-form journalism to the #Fediverse at FOSDEM ‘25!
Had a Nestlé Crunch for the first time in 30 years because I hadn’t seen one for awhile, and I bought it out of nostalgia.
Blech!🤢
It’s horrible! This should have stayed in the past!
Playing Commander Keen on the Game Boy Color is a bizarre experience.
It’s not the “true” Commander Keen. And believe it or not, it was released in 2001. But it’s wild how this was the only time the franchise appeared on Nintendo hardware.
I remember the first time a girl was ever interested in me.
There I was in the computer lab, messing around with this Excel spreadsheet because, you know, what else are you gonna do during free time? I wasn’t even doing the assignment—we were supposed to be making some chart about class surveys or something. Instead, I was just clicking buttons, seeing what would happen.
That’s when Anya, who was sitting next to me, leaned over. She wasn’t working on her spreadsheet either—her screen was blank. So I decided to say something.
“Hey, uh, you wanna see something cool?” I asked.
Her eyes lit up, and she nodded like I’d just asked if she wanted to see the secrets of the universe.
I clicked on the column I’d been playing with. “Okay, so check this out. You can take all these numbers, highlight them like this… then hit this button right here… and BAM!” I hit the sort button, and all the numbers instantly rearranged themselves. “See? Biggest to smallest. Or, if you want…” I clicked again. “Smallest to biggest.”
Her jaw actually dropped. “No way,” she said, leaning in so close I could feel her excitement. “It does that? That’s genius. Do it again.”
I did it again. “Yeah, it’s just the sort function,” I said, trying to sound casual, but I could feel my heart racing because she was into this.
“How did I not know this?” she asked, her eyes still glued to the screen. “This changes everything. Can you show me how to do it?”
“Yeah, it’s super easy,” I said, scooting over so she could try it on her spreadsheet. “Highlight the column first, like this. Then go up here, click this button, and boom—sorted.”
She followed along, and when her numbers snapped into order, she turned to me, smiling like I’d just solved world hunger. “That’s amazing. You’re, like, a spreadsheet wizard.”
I laughed, trying to play it cool, but inside, I was thinking, Did she just call me a wizard?
For the rest of class, she kept asking me little questions about Excel. “Can it do letters too? What about dates?” Every time I showed her something, she got more excited, like sorting data was the most thrilling thing on Earth. At one point, she just stopped and looked at me.
“You know,” she said, “this is really impressive. Like, you actually know this stuff.”
I shrugged. “I mean, it’s just Excel,” I said, but the way she was looking at me made it feel like way more than that.
By the time class ended, I didn’t even care about the spreadsheet anymore. I just cared that Anya thought I was some kind of Excel genius. And honestly? That felt pretty cool.
It was the best day of my life. I was seven years old, and for once—just once—I was completely free.
My mom were busy assembling a desk in the garage, shouting about tools, and my sisters were off in the yard, screaming over the hose like they always did.
Nobody was watching me. Nobody cared what I was doing. And that’s when I saw it: the back fence. Freshly painted. Green. Wet. Glorious.
I don’t know what hit me, but it was like magic. I dropped to the ground right in front of it, my knees in the dirt, my eyes locked on the paint. It glistened in the sun, almost glowing. I couldn’t believe it. This was it. This was my moment. I leaned in close—so close I could smell the sharp, chemical scent of the paint—and I just watched.
The wet streaks started to change right in front of me, bit by bit. It was like watching the world transform. The shiny parts turned dull, the wet spots disappeared, and the whole thing slowly came to life as the paint dried. I couldn’t stop staring. I couldn’t even blink. My heart was pounding like I was getting away with something huge. And I was.
When my mom called out, “Where are you?” I didn’t move. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t let this moment go. I stayed there, watching, until every last inch of that paint dried. It felt like I had discovered a secret universe, like I had broken some unspoken rule of childhood. Nobody else was ever going to understand it, but I did.
Even now, I can still see it in my mind—the sunlight on the fence, the smell of the paint, the feeling that I had found something special. Watching paint dry—exciting as hell.
It wasn’t nothing. It was everything. It was freedom, it was magic, it was mine—a true highlight of my childhood.
If you think I talk a lot, believe me, most of my life is spent saying to myself, “Shut the hell up, no one needs to hear your opinion on that matter.”
You’re only seeing 10% of what goes through my mind.
The ironic thing about the hacker mythos is that it’s a dude fantasy about going to war using your L337 skillz.
Meanwhile, Grace Hopper—the inventor of COBOL—literally used her programming skills to go to war against the Nazis. That’s why she was in the navy.
My theory about why programming became masculinized is the emergence of the hacker myth.
A hacker doesn’t just type variables and functions. He goes to war.
And if there’s anything men like, it’s going to war without the inconvenience of injury, disability, and death.
In addition to Grace Hopper, three other people helped invent COBOL: Mary K. Hawes, Jean Sammet, and Saul Gorn.
And yes, COBOL was mostly created by women.
One major reason for this is that, in the 1950s, women were the pioneers of computing.
This is why, when you watch sci-fi shows of the era, it’s mostly women in charge of computers and comms. For example, Lt. Uhura in Star Trek had the role of comms officer.
I don’t know when computing became a male-oriented profession, but it’s interesting to me.
Many of you are curious about Grace Hopper, who (mostly) invented COBOL.
Here’s she is interviewed on David Letterman.
And as you can see here, her personality impacted why COBOL is the way it is.
If a programming language is defined by prompts that instruct a computer on what to do then a WYSIWYG editor is a form of programming language. Here’s why:
* **Prompts as instructions** - In a WYSIWYG editor, user actions (e.g., clicking, dragging, and typing) serve as prompts that instruct the computer to generate specific outputs
* **Abstraction layers** - Like high-level programming languages, WYSIWYG editors abstract away the underlying complexities (e.g., raw code) and allow users to focus on their goals
* **Rule-based execution** - The editor operates under a set of rules (e.g., how elements are positioned or styled)
However, by definition, traditional programming languages offer more opportunities for expression, and WYSIWYG editors generally lack syntax and grammar that typical programming languages have.
But if we define programming as “instructing a computer to perform tasks,” then WYSIWYG editors fit as a visual, domain-specific “language” for programming layouts and styles.
Great story about how Warren Buffett’s decision to lay off Canadian Heinz factory workers triggered the Great Ketchup War.
Watching sci-fi from the 60s, and I’m struck by how computers and comms were associated with women’s work.
Is it because most telephone operators were women?
#Tumblr just confirmed (again) that it will be enabling ActivityPub.
Which means that Tumblr is definitely joining the #Fediverse!
https://wip.tumblr.com/post/773574776721702912/about-a-year-ago-wordpress-ceo-matt-mullenweg 
Many have love that #Pixelfed is an alternative to #Instagram, but are there any other federated alternatives?
Yes, there is! Check out @frequency@frequency.app, made by the wonderful @jesseplusplus@mastodon.social!
But can an account #Frequency follow a #Pixelfed account? Yes, because it is ActivityPub-enabled it can follow all #Fediverse apps such as Pixelfed, #Mastodon, #Akkoma—and more!
Here’s the iOS app:
Folks on #Bluesky are getting smug about how #Threads are serving ads.
But let’s be real: ads are likely to come to Bluesky too. And it will be worse on Bluesky because Bluesky controls the relays and firehose.
However, on the Fediverse, I control both relays and feeds—the server that I own does everything.
The Lone Ranger is based on a real person.
His name was Bass Reeves.
He was a U.S. Marshal, gunfighter, and a runaway slave. 
Great mention of the #Pixelfed and #Loops Kickstarter campaign in TechCrunch.