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I like to read and decided this weekend that I would self host an instance of Bookwyrm. I intend to start shifting my book purchases away from the big corporate players--my challenge is that I like e-books and I like tracking my reading list.

I will confess, the Bookwyrm import feature leaves something to be desired. Ran it three times yesterday, seemed like it was locked up and restarted it...just to find out from comments on Github that this seems like a fairly common issue. Left an import running overnight; 9 hours and 5% done...wonder if it's because I just setup the instance?

#bookwyrm #selfhosted #ebooks #reading

#reading reshared this.

in reply to Kevin W. Herron

Well, I may have figured out the issue. The export from Goodreads had the ISBNs surrounded by parentheses in the CSV file. I removed the "=" and the parentheses in both columns and it seems to be working. I only have about 200 items to import so I should know for sure in just a bit...
in reply to Kevin W. Herron

Still working this. I've now removed my written reviews from the file and added all the ISBNs that were blank since most reads were ebooks. Import progresses further but still only to 17%. Thinking it may be quicker to just manually enter them all 🙁

Kevin W. Herron reshared this.


FYI... good tips honestly for anyone who wants to avoid mass surveillance and understand how your mobile device can subject you to the same. You don't have to be a protestor for this to be important.

privacyguides.org/articles/202…

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Kevin W. Herron reshared this.


Because we need good news: Gary Larson is drawing again (he bought a tablet, taught himself how to use it, and suddenly drawing was fun again): thefarside.com/new-stuff/

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Kevin W. Herron reshared this.


Look, I'm just gonna say this and add my voice to the others who are saying the same basic things.

I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut that Microsoft decided that your Windows 10 laptop shouldn't work anymore. If you can't use it, do not throw it away. Find a Linux nerd. We're out there. There are lots of us. Find one of us and give us the computer. We'll use it. We'll put it to work. We'll make it work for someone else.

Do not throw it away, because goddess above what a waste.

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Kevin W. Herron reshared this.


In 1981, Shel Silverstein saw AI coming.

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Canceled fairly.social, snaps.social, and jabber.social this weekend to complete my transition to herrons.social. Moved away from managed servers to a VPS.

Last year, I had this grand vision of hosting public instances but the US political environment made me realize I'm probably not in a good position to do so right now. I'm thinking this personal instance of Friendica will be perfect for me.

#selfhosting #friendica


Kevin W. Herron reshared this.


Welcome to Opt Out October, our collection of tips to slowly break free from online surveillance and throw sand in the gears of overreaching large tech companies. Today’s tip is about establishing good online security fundamentals. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-…

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in reply to Electronic Frontier Foundation

Advertisers and data brokers use some pretty shady tactics to track you. Take back your privacy by disabling ad tracking on your phone in a few taps. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-… #OptOutOctober
in reply to Electronic Frontier Foundation

Decluttering is all the rage for optimizers and organizers alike, but did you know a cleansing sweep through your apps can also help your privacy? #OptOutOctober eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-…
in reply to Electronic Frontier Foundation

only access certain social media sites through a Private Browser instance or through an aftermarket Social Media App.

Never install the “Official” App.

in reply to Electronic Frontier Foundation

Don’t let companies spy on you while you browse the web. Today’s tip in our #OptOutOctober series is to install Privacy Badger, EFF’s free, tracker-blocking extension. eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/opt-…


Think I successfully managed to get Yunohost moved over to a new VPS. Had a few hiccups but the backup / restore feature did pretty well. Had one issue with Prosody configuration file ownership and a second issue with the filename for the Friendica log file. #yunohost #selfhosting

Kevin W. Herron reshared this.


"And as modern relationships continue to put pressure on 'the one' to be The Only One (where men cast their wives and girlfriends to play best friend, lover, career advisor, stylist, social secretary, emotional cheerleader, mom—to him, their future kids, or both—and eventually, on-call therapist minus the $200/hour fee), this form of emotional gold digging is not only detrimental to men, it's exhausting an entire generation of women."

harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat…

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in reply to Jonathan Yu

@ewen For all the progress in the world, the culture still expects men to be providers and breadwinners, and as late stage capitalism has broken all third spaces for people, ended all community ties that used to exist for men 50 years ago, and relentlessly chipped away—between inflation, global financial crises, etc.—at our ability to build wealth, the ability to maintain a standard of living is slowly slipping out of our grasp, forcing everyone to spend every waking hour working.
in reply to S★m V★rm★

@ewen I see my friends IRL at most 3 to 4 times a year. Speak to them on the phone more often than that.
in reply to S★m V★rm★

@jawnsy

Most of my friends who live overseas get more of my time than the ones who live within 10 miles. That's going to be a problem as I get older, it really is.

One of my very best buddies invited me to his daughters wedding a few years ago, and I was very humbled. I hadn't met his daughter very often so thought it was a bit weird at first. He later told me that he just doesn't have many friends left and he felt bad that most of the guests were on the grooms side.

This fella is one of the nicest most lovely people I've ever known, and he's run out of friends. What hope have I got? Making new friends IRL after the age of 30 is like shopping for a unicorn.

in reply to S★m V★rm★

@jawnsy

That "bread winner" mentality is so hard to unplug isn't it. Kind of goes hand-on-glove with being the boss of the household. Being the big man in charge. It's foundation for toxic masculinity.

I think I got lucky in my younger years and managed to find a sufficiently self-effacing path where I accepted I would be poor my entire life so stop trying to pretend otherwise.

Which led me to a strange place compared to societal norms. I found myself just being the champion of my parter, instead of the boss of my partner. I happened to have met some really amazing women over the year, and in most cases they were further down their career path than me. So I could be their support team, and help them be their best.

Turns out that works also when they're not further down a career path, but even when they're starting out. I've have a lot more experience in business than my wife, so when we met I helped her find her own path. Her success is my success. I think a lot of guys worry that if their partners are successful then she won't need him anymore. Instead of realising they can be a part of that success



I've been curious about Friendica for a while and finally decided to take the plunge this weekend and give it a try. I certainly like the layout and I'm left wondering if this might be more of an inviting user interface for introducing some people I know to the Fediverse.

I'm most familiar with Mastodon and Pixelfed but I'm wondering if I also might prefer to move my primary accounts over...need more testing 🙂

#friendica

in reply to Kevin W. Herron

So far I think I’m liking this better than the Mastodon and Pixelfed combination I’ve been using. #friendica