On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

In Case of Canadian Disasters?

2026-03-20T11:23:18Z

This seems like a good idea...

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/03/20/japan/japan-roaming-service-disasters/

Update: When I raised the question on Bluesky, reporter David Reevely pointed out to me that it was already in place to some extent:

https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/emergency-communications/en

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About Facebook These Days?

2026-03-19T00:24:53Z

If anyone's trying to reach me via Facebook these days, I'm having issues navigating the site these days. At least until 10 PM most nights. The pages load up slower than I'm used to these days...

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Checking In - 16 August 2025

2025-08-16T17:10:46Z

Chores.

That's my word for today.

Bedding-laundry, shopping, computer-mouse replacement, new colour-pencils for Mom, and if I can push myself the rest of the way, new storage bins to keep the basement reorg process going. Not sure that last item is going to be doable with today's local weather. Hot and humid.

Talked with the writer of San Francisco 2161 last night about proposed maps for his now-finished Trek-inspired fanfic project about the negotiations to co-found the Federation. What maps should there be attached, what forms they should take, that sort of thing.

I'm also toying with an idea for a prose fanfic project of my own centred on one of the participants in that story and a prequel, In the Raptor's Claws about the Coaltion-Romulan War that preceded the Federation. Specifically Nathan Samuels, whom Enterprise-watchers may remember as portrayed by Harry Groener. Not sure if this is going to go anywhere beyond maybe a couple of paragraphs before getting derailed by a job offer or loss of housing or whatever.

We'll see.

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Bots and AO3

2025-06-12T13:50:29Z

You might want to take a look at this warning:

https://verushka70.dreamwidth.org/121513.html

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Foreign Policy: DOGE is Hacking America

2025-02-12T12:40:31Z

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/11/doge-cyberattack-united-states-treasury/?tpcc=gifting_article&gifting_article=ZG9nZS1jeWJlcmF0dGFjay11bml0ZWQtc3RhdGVzLXRyZWFzdXJ5&pid=PNIhyCeS5sb3yqh

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Keyboards

2024-06-30T00:41:15Z

I went shopping at Staples this afternoon, and there are several good options on offer. The trouble was in making up my mind which one to go with.

Opinions and suggestions, anyone?

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Art: Digging Up Some of the Past

2023-12-25T02:41:01Z

I just finished scanning a batch of old Local Hero pages into my current primary computer. Twenty years onward, and it's as if the technology and its affordability finally caught up to the needs I have for it. I'm planning to continue digitally inking the better-pencilled pages as time allows over the next weeks to months.

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Tech: Wireless Keyboards

2023-12-21T03:59:35Z

Bought my first ever such tonight after caregiving travels. It's a little awkward, this keyboard, but then, that's usually how it goes for the first few days, right?

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Winter Knees, 12 Hours Later

2023-12-20T01:58:29Z

My knees feel mostly fine now.

No pain.

Now, the "t", "o" and "i" keys on my A1243 Apple keyboard seem to be wearing out under continuing heavy usage...

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dewline @ 2023-12-04T21:54:00

2023-12-05T03:00:23Z

Okay, current set-up:

I have a Mac Mini running Catalina. It's hooked up to a Wacom Cintiq and an HP monitor as well. The HP monitor is also now hooked up via the HDMI switch device to a laptop computer loaned out to me by the client of my current employer. (No, I am not explaining that any further.)

It's a simple one-button, three input sources-one output destination device, this HDMI switch. Doesn't even need a wall socket for power.

There's assorted other devices hooked up to the Mac Mini, including an Epson WF-something-something for scanning big art boards as well as printing out stuff on larger scales. And I think I'll stop explaining for now...

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Work: Tech Happiness

2023-12-04T13:58:47Z

My new HDMI switch works with the Mac Mini, the office loaner machine and the external monitor I need those two machines to share.

More on other topics later. On to work!

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Janitorial Lasers

2023-11-27T22:34:34Z

Guessing that some of you might have already heard of this.

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Selected News Items - 21 Oct 2023

2023-10-21T23:13:43Z

1. Mikmaq keyboard to be available for Apple products. I first heard of this via CBC Weekend World Report on the radio.

https://www.kinu.ca/stories/mikmaw-keyboard-available-in-apple-products

2. Anti-trans laws in the US getting support from a Canadian researcher. CW: anti-trans rhetoric quoted at some length, with "protest"-march posters to match.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/james-cantor-gender-affirming-care-bans-1.6979356

3. The argument for off-planet mining is gaining strength in some quarters.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/space-is-starting-to-look-like-the-better-mining-operation/

4. The political state of "British Columbia", from one perspective:

https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/10/20/BC-New-Political-Map-Right-Split-Kevin-Falcon-Conservative-Surge/

5. An argument for Pharmacare in Canada:

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/10/19/Pharmacare-Big-Moment-Political-Will-Trudeau-Liberals/

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Health: Heart Check

2023-06-24T00:01:06Z

Had an ultrasound and ECG today. Lasted about 45 minutes. Felt like it was 30 minutes, but that may have been because I showed up early and they weren't feeling rushed by the fact.

I was able to see the screens as the technician did the work today. Everything looked okay, so far as I could tell. *shrug*

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Pandemic: Getting Good Tests

2023-06-17T13:41:55Z

Okay. We need ways of getting our hands on good-quality self-administered COVID tests, no matter what our respective current local governments want for our futures. Wherever we live.

I am wondering what we need to do to make that availability happen.

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ByMUG: Presentations

2023-05-05T01:45:44Z

So I'll be doing a presentation over Zoom this upcoming Sunday.

https://bymug.ca/may-7-2023-meeting-information/

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"Not by AI" Badges?

2023-03-19T21:31:07Z

I'm not sure if this is a good idea or a bad one.

https://notbyai.fyi/

Throwing it open to discussion, though.

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New Cleverphone

2023-03-02T02:40:26Z

This will be cleverphone # 4 of my life thus far.

Still getting used to it. Ditched the Netflix and Amazon apps ASAP, and added CBC News, the Guardian and AP, flawed as those organizations all are.

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Eyeglasses: Problem

2023-01-10T15:22:34Z

My glasses just broke at the left-side hinge.

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Pandemic: Air Purifier Question

2022-12-17T00:14:07Z

Anyone using a Bissell MyAir device at home or office? Or in their home office?

Looking for opinions.

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Heads-Up re: 503 Messages

2022-12-09T23:28:41Z

Passing this along from the management:

"Well, the good news is that Dreamwidth is hopping this week! The bad news is that our recent changes to make the site auto-scale during periods of high server and database load have apparently been too conservative, and that's leading to the Varnish/503 errors that people are getting. (The mysterious ones that say "backend fetch failed, guru meditation error" -- the error message is highly unhelpful, but in our defense y'all aren't supposed to see it!)

We are continuing to tweak things to improve performance, and we apologize for the errors. We'll have them fixed as soon as we can."

Source for that explanation?

https://dw-maintenance.dreamwidth.org/90468.html

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"Space is Part of the Land"

2022-12-05T13:56:01Z

Noting this for ongoing discussion...and Musk is clearly enmeshed in this particular mess, by our settler-nations' encouragement.

https://apt613.ca/space-is-part-of-the-land-indigenous-knowledges-and-colonization-by-light-and-satellite-pollution/

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Sunday Plans

2022-12-04T03:50:19Z

I've got a ByMUG meeting tomorrow, so I'll be in the house for that. Bedding as laundry, maybe, too. Or that might wait another week. Depends on what the rest of the household needs to do in the morning.

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Job Search: Weird Workopolis Tips

2022-11-07T20:17:54Z

Workopolis is one of the job-search engines that started up here in Canada, and I maintain subscriptions to several alerts from that service by informed choice. Weirdness from them this past couple of weeks is as follows: I keep getting notes about jobs at Cargill out in Saskatchewan. I don't recall signing up for those alerts!

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Fonts: Comicrazy Adds Hebrew Support

2022-11-01T23:36:13Z

Okay, Comicraft is holding a 30th Anniversary promotion right now. They're the first big comic book design-oriented font design house in the world that I know of, started by Richard Starkings and John Roshell. They decided to kick off with thirty days of releasing remasters of their offerings, starting with their first font family, Comicrazy.

They're already set up for most European languages using Latin script, and back in 2015 added Cyrillic support. This year, they've added support for Vietnamese adaptations of Latin, as well as Hebrew script, which marks a first for that font family.

If you already own a license for Comicrazy, you'll get the update as part of your long-term support arrangements. Just check your "My Account - Order History" files if you bought a license after 2010.

(I bought a license back around 2015, hence my downloading.)

If you haven't got Comicrazy yet, my advice would be to wait for Comicraft's annual New Year Font Sale. I expect every family in the catalogue to be on offer during that sale at US$20.22 per next New Year's. Unless you've suddenly hit it big in the local lottery, or are otherwise highly fortunate, in which case, I would recommend you splurge now.

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