Darkshade

Due to the recent PHP vulnerability exploit I had to disable the SMF forum and look for an alternative. I didn't want to go with any Node.js solutions either due to the frequent supply chain exploits there. Setting up a new forum in my environment and migrating was sufficiently troublesome it was actually easier to just write my own! With the help of a local AI coding agent, we created dsExpress! "ds" for Darkshade, "Express" in tribute to the BBS software I ran in the 90's, BBS Express.

Did you opt out of Alexa sending your every word back to Amazon?  Better bin those devices, because Amazon is ditching the option (assuming they ever really honoured it).

Facebook and Instagram stored your passwords in plain text, and now they’ve been leaked. Always use a password vault and different passwords for every service.

It has been a long running joke that so many people have been using WinRAR for free past the 40 day trial period.  Now the joke is on you, if you haven't updated your copy already.  Hackers in Russia and China are using a serious exploit in WinRAR to run malicious scripts on victim's computers.

In this day of high inflation and mass layoffs, it will be refreshing to have another discount department store other than just Walmart.  HBC, who owns the Zellers brand, has announced they're opening new stores, including one in Cambridge!  After Target lost $5.4 Billion trying to replace Zellers in Canada, I really hope the original is able to come back strong.  I actually liked their little in-store restaurant, and it was always the first store I'd visit for new every-day-wear clothes.  The price was right.

Let's face it.  Twitter is done.  Elon Musk has killed it by laying off half the employees, banning remote work, adding a monthly subscription cost, and even considering putting content behind a paywall.

Twitter users are looking for a new home, and many of them are flocking to Mastodon.  This is a distributed social media that's been around for several years, and lets you host your own server.  Darkshade even has an instance!

It's like twitter, but tweets are called toots (following the elephant theme) and accounts are named @user@server.  You can follow me @diddly@darkshade.social

Time marches on, and the ability to run our old message forum has been lost with recent system updates.  If there were posts you want to revisit, there does exist a snapshot on the wayback machine at archive.org.

The current message forum is still fine though since it's much more recent software.

You might have heard recently of an AI called Stable Diffusion that can generate images from text prompts.  I just installed it on my M1 Mac Mini tonight using a tool called DiffusionBee and put it to work.

Among the images I had it create were "The Predator steps through The Stargate", "Two Galleons battling at sea during sunset", and "a woman walking her dog, in the style of Monet".

It takes a while to run, since I have only 8GB of RAM instead of the recommended 16GB.  It does still work though, as you can see.

Due to a dramatic drop in their stock price, Netflix is considering adding Ads to lower level subscriptions.  If you're concerned about 200,000 subscribers suddenly leaving, adding advertisements doesn't sound to me like a way to entice others to stay.

In an effort to calm soaring house prices, Canada has banned foreign buyers for two years.  Now, apparently foreign purchases account for only 3.4% of property buyers, so will this change make much difference?

The Dodge Challenger and Charger will both be discontinued in 2024 in favour of hybrids and electric cars.  I guess it wasn't going to be long after Ford bastardized the Mustang into a hybrid SUV crossover that the competition would follow suit.  It's sad to see cars with character reaching the end of their line.

One of the things I miss about living and working in Toronto is the food.  There are so many great restaurants in / around downtown.  One of those places is The Burger Priest, and it's coming to Waterloo!