Hello Rails: A modern course designed to help you start using and understanding Ruby on Rails fast - Andy Leverenz https://hellorails.io/

I say this with no hyperbole: @Firefox is one of the most important projects we have, and it should be used, supported and celebrated. @Mozilla's decision to focus on privacy and performance means that you don't have to run Google Chrome if you care about those things.

WordGrinder on GitHub: A word processor which gets the hell out of your way and lets you get some work done https://github.com/davidgiven/wordgrinder

WordGrinder is a word processor that runs in your Linux, Mac or Windows terminal https://cowlark.com/wordgrinder/

Finland's news in Latin: 'For such a crazy idea we had a remarkable run' Jon Henley/The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/28/finland-latin-news-radio-bulletin-nuntii-latini-cancelled-30-years

Google's new reCaptcha has a dark side - Katharine Schwab/Fast Company https://www.fastcompany.com/90369697/googles-new-recaptcha-has-a-dark-side

Subway (as in sandwiches) got too big. Franchisees paid a price. - Tiffany Hsu and Rachel Abrams/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/business/subway-franchisees.html

A unicorn lost in the Valley, Evernote blows up the 'fail fast' gospel - Erin Griffith/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/business/evernote-what-happened.html

New tool aims to bring Python apps to Windows, Mac and Linux desktops for people who have never heard of Python - Liam Tung/ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/programming-language-pythons-existential-threat-is-app-distribution-is-this-the-answer/

Upcoming features in Fedora 31 Workstation - Paul W. Frields/Fedora Magazine https://fedoramagazine.org/upcoming-features-in-fedora-31-workstation/

Those Koch Industries ads on @axios are starting to work on me. It's like, "hey, we aren't just a firehose of GOP campaign cash, we also MAKE ACTUAL THINGS."

Reinventing Firefox for Android - Mozilla.org https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventing-firefox-for-android-a-preview/

I got some developer responses to my Firefox/Conexant/Flow bug, and I added some replies to their questions. Thanks to the Mozilla people who are looking into this. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1555726

The new Apache NetBeans website is built with the JBake static site generator written in Java. I appreciate that they're dogfooding one of the few Java-bases SSGs as listed on https://www.staticgen.com. https://github.com/apache/netbeans-website/tree/master/netbeans.apache.org#tooling

C/C++ support is slated to come to Apache NetBeans in September 2019 https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Apache+NetBeans+Release+Roadmap

NetBeans 11.1 and 12.1, including installers, are set to be released on July 15, 2019 https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Release+Schedule

Apache Netbeans 11 does have installers for Mac, Linux and Windows, but they are deemed "experimental" at this point https://github.com/rtaneja1/incubator-netbeans/tree/installer-bin-11vc4/nbbuild/installer/binaries

I clicked on a thing, and now my Twitter is in dark mode and also redesigned

JGT Review: Sadowsky Guitars LS-15 & SS-15 - Jazz Guitar Today https://jazzguitartoday.com/2019/04/jgt-review-sadowsky-guitars-ls-15-ss-15/

This "Learning Synths" page from Ableton is a blast!! https://learningsynths.ableton.com/

What's Salesforce? https://tryretool.com/blog/salesforce-for-engineers/

Note to Windows 10: Just because I'm hitting the ESC key in GVim, it doesn't in any way mean I need the Edge browser to open with an unhelpful Windows Help screen.

Yes, I need a newer WSL than Ubuntu 16.04. I will upgrade at some point.

My Unison test on NearlyFreeSpeech.net was a success: NFSN uses the current version of the Unison File Synchronizer, but no Linux distros package it. I built it from source on Ubuntu 16.04 in the WSL, and it works like butter. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

The Amazon Lightsail FAQ is extensive https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/

Even though Amazon Lightsail starts at .50/month, they kind of want you to pair it with a /month managed database. But I think you can use a database from within your VPS, though it won't be as beefy. https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/

Amazon sees its Lightsail VM product as a gateway drug to EC2 https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/features/

When it comes to price, performance and bandwidth Amazon Lightsail (basically a VM) is looking pretty attractive https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/

Raspberry Pi on Raspberry Pi: It’s good enough to run its own launch website with tens of millions of visitors | Mythic Beasts https://blog.mythic-beasts.com/2019/06/22/raspberry-pi-on-raspberry-pi/

Since I disabled @conexantsystems's awful Flow.exe (by renaming it _Flow.exe so the Conexant drivers can't find it), I can run @firefox again. It's an ugly hack, but it's all that works in Windows 10.

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is out: Faster CPU, GPU, dual-screen 4K, up to 4GB for | ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-4-model-b-is-out-faster-cpu-gpu-dual-screen-4k-up-to-4gb-for-55/

Hey there, @medium writer, they're probably not paying you, so I'm not crazy about paying them ...

I would have dumped @googlechrome for @firefox already if @ConexantSystems' terrible audio driver didn't wreck the performance of thousands of HP laptops, including mine https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1555726

Is Firefox better than Chrome? It comes down to privacy. - Geoffrey A. Fowler/The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-become-surveillance-software-its-time-switch/?utm_term=.744d8f025e70

Reminder to law enforcement PIOs: If your way of distributing images to the media is to embed them in Word documents, you are not doing it right

Mattermost raises million to advance its open source Slack alternative - Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/19/mattermost-raises-50-million-to-advance-its-open-source-slack-alternative/

Slack's direct listing may render the IPO obsolete - Michael J. Coren/Quartz https://qz.com/1642378/slacks-direct-listing-may-render-the-ipo-obsolete/

Fullstaq Ruby: Ruby, optimized for production https://fullstaqruby.org/

Publishing simple books with Jekyll - Bradley Taunt https://bradleytaunt.com/2019/06/20/publish-with-jekyll/

iRedMail: Free, open-source mail server solution https://www.iredmail.org/

Mail-in-a-Box: Take back control of your email with this easy-to-deploy mail server in a box https://mailinabox.email/

Bill Gates wrote much of the code in the TRS-80 Model 100 https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc35

The TRS-80 Model 100, journalism workhorse of the 1980s - Wayne Lorentz http://wayne.lorentz.me/This_TRS-80/

Facebook: I'm there for the jazz guitar and old-technology posts

Not to copy other bloggers, though I'm totally doing just that, I'm thinking of adding an e-mail newsletter. E-mail is newly "hot" because it's a direct connection that doesn't involve a smarmy social-media interloper

I really don't like seeing the cheesy Disqus ads Disqus on my blog. Disqus deserves to make money, but I'm reluctant to pay. Like other bloggers, I might start creating "discussion" links on Reddit or Hacker News. Also, who needs the extra JS that loads with Disqus?

I've seen a few people delete their Facebook accounts more due to lack of interest than anything else. They are mostly moving to Instagram, so it's all in the family, so to speak.

I don't know what's worse, a company that only responds to your complaint when you shame them on social media, or one that DGAF even then

Why Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles - Bengt Halvorson/Motor Authority https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1121372_why-mazda-is-purging-touchscreens-from-its-vehicles

The Unison file synchronization tool is too fragile. I need to find another way. Client and server need the exact same Unison version in order for sync to work, and it's getting harder to make that happen.

This @NewYorker article on @ewarren (aka Elizabeth Warren) is so long, I can't read it in one sitting. I'll have to wait for the paper magazine to come out. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/can-elizabeth-warren-win-it-all

Say what you will about @Microsoft, but they are putting money and people behind efforts to provide more tools for developers well beyond the MS-only languages and frameworks https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/

Announcing the Visual Studio Code Installer for Java | The Visual Studio Blog https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/announcing-visual-studio-code-java-installer/

The Ruby Style Guide https://rubystyle.guide/

The new Dropbox sucks - Daring Fireball https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/06/13/dropbox-sucks

I would be running Firefox right now if it weren't for @BangOlufsen and @ConexantSystems' broken audio driver https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1555726

Apple reveals 'Lisa': Its million gamble (1983) - Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/apple-reveals-lisa-its-50-million-gamble-207032

GIMP is never going to fix IPTC captions. If they haven't done it by now, it's never going to happen. https://www.gimp.org

It's not like I'm all that and a bag of chips, but writing on Twitter is better than reading on it

A brief history of how your privacy was stolen (by Google and Facebook, that is) - Roger McNamee/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/opinion/google-facebook-data-privacy.html