Communick News

I was originally planning to copy the whole post in a lemmy body, but mastodon makes it too painful to copy-paste as it truncates each link and images have to be copied manually. I also don't know if it fits in a post body. Anyway, If anyone wants to try their hand at copy pasting it in its entirety here, feel free.

A few years back, my local mom Facebook group started a weekly thread to share the best deals on groceries around town. We tried to look through supermarkets’ circulars to pull out the best deals we saw. Someone started a spreadsheet comparing prices at Costco versus non-warehouse stores.

The effort fizzled quickly. Why? Not because it wasn’t useful, but because it was so much work to do on a volunteer basis.

What if a local news organization did this for us, making it part of a reporter’s job? Better yet, what if local news organizations around the country made it part of their mission to help readers compare grocery prices around town? What if, on every digital local news site, a “groceries” vertical highlighted the week’s best deals across stores? Where I live, Market Basket generally has the lowest prices on everything — but once in awhile Star Market beats its price on butter or broccoli or bagels. A weekly digest letting me know this would provide a genuine service. A regularly updated Costco or BJs spreadsheet on a local news site? Yes, please.

Michael Jackson "Remember the Time" music video (featuring Eddie Murphy, Iman, and Magic Johnson):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc

[gift link]

I have been raging about the font rendering on Linux for years. It just sucks. Font has jagged edges and it looks very weird. I dual-boot with windows and the font there is very nice. So, I asked Claude ai to help me and it did a great job and my font is now is actually better than windows. I wanted to share it with everyone in case you have the same issue with the font on Linux.

Here it is:

1. First, install required packages:

sudo pacman -S freetype2 cairo fontconfig

2. Install better fonts:

sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation noto-fonts ttf-roboto ttf-roboto-mono ttf-droid ttf-opensans ttf-hack ttf-fira-code

I have also installed Segoe ui and Segoe UI Variable fonts and that is what I'm using now.

3. Create or edit the font configuration file:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/fonts/conf.d

sudo nano /etc/fonts/local.conf

4. Add this configuration to local.conf:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match target="font">
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
<edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
<edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
<const>hintslight</const>
</edit>
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
<edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign">
<const>lcddefault</const>
</edit>
<edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
<edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- Increase contrast slightly for all fonts  This is not mandatory and can be commented out-->
<match target="font">
<edit name="weight" mode="assign">
<const>medium</const>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

5. Create a file for FreeType settings:

sudo nano/etc/profile.d/freetype2.sh

6. Add these export commands (I found it there already, but it was commented out. Just removed the "#"):

export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=40"

7. Enable subpixel rendering: (You might get a message that says "File exist", that's ok. It means it was already there)

sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

8. Clear and regenerate font cache:

fc-cache -fv

9. For better Java application fonts:

sudo pacman -S jre-openjdk fontconfig

10. Reboot

Additional optional steps: a. For better Firefox font rendering, in about:config: Set

gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode

to 5 (This doesn't exist in FF. You create it, set it to "number" and give it a value of 5)

Set

gfx.webrender.all

to true

b. If you use VSCode, add to settings.json:

{
"editor.fontFamily": "'Fira Code, 'Droid Sans Mono', 'monospace'",

"editor.fontLigatures": true
}

Truly hope this help someone. Share it with others if you think it will help them.

Thanks :)

I don't own decorations of any kind for any holiday. I live alone and I don't really celebrate much of anything. So my questions are:

1. Do you decorate your home, office, automobile, etc. at all?
2. If so which holidays?

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• ghostarchive.org - click 'continue without supporting us'

A philosophical project for an open source non-government ID: https://memdeklaro.github.io/

Article: https://medium.com/@memdeklaro/self-declaration-of-identity-memdeklaro-de-identeco-5fd96231da44

There's no central database, just a self-declaration of your (self-chosen) name, birth date, photo and signature that you print yourself.

Looks similar to the Digitalcourage ID (https://shop.digitalcourage.de/gadgets/lichtbildausweis-mit-selbst-waehlbaren-daten.html) and World Citizen Passport (https://worldcitizengov.org/what-is-the-world-passport/).

Access options:

• gift link - registration required
• archive.today

i told my partner that if he charged up the gopro, i'd make a video for him when i took the dog out to the local nature preserve. turns out it makes some nice crunch-crunch sounds.

As a kid I hated veggies but as I got older I really enjoy some veggies, especially broccoli, roasted in a drizzle of olive oil and a little seasoning.

As an American, I also used to abhor vegemite when I tried it until I learned how to properly spread it on toast during my visit over there and I’m obsessed now!

What did you hate, but gave a second chance to? I’d love to try some new stuff!

One of my favorite places to go when I lived in L.A. was The Museum of Jurassic Technology. It’s an almost impossible to describe museum of just weird stuff (unfortunately only open by appointment these days). One example is an exhibit of the parts of the late magician Ricky Jay’s dice collection that were disintegrating because of the material they were made of.

But one of my favorite exhibits was a collection of letters cranks had sent to Mount Wilson observatory from its opening in 1915 until 1935. Happily, I discovered recently that the whole thing was transcribed and I can now read it and, even just flipping through it, I forgot how hilariously funny it is. The addition of photos of the original letters and telegrams along with the transcriptions adds to how much fun it is. The transcriptions are as accurate as possible, including misspellings and sometimes a total lack of punctuation.

Basically, it's what insane people used to do before there was an internet and they could amass a following who would go out and harass anyone who dares to suggest that Saturn is not, in fact, a chili cheese burrito. They just bothered the poor scientists directly.

At least they had to buy stamps.

My favorite so far has been a long screed which begins with, in all caps, "I HAVE THE KEY TO ALL EXISTENCE," and a Christmas card from a Jewish person who stated that Jews would rule the world because of people like Einstein was a real head scratcher.

I'm too lazy to type in what's in the book, but someone on a website transcribed this telegram:

GENTLEMEN. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SEPARATING VALUABLE CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS FROM THE SUNSHINE RAY? WORTH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. APPRECIATE AN AIRMAIL REPLY.

The link is to buy it directly from the museum, which is one of the coolest places you can go in Los Angeles, but it's available elsewhere.