I just released Eve 2.0.4, the REST API framework for #python. It’s available on PyPI and includes a relevant security fix so you might want to update ASAP. Package info Docs

Nerdy prelude. Local Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) were all the range when I was a teenager. With my group of local hackers, we hacked our way into ITAPAC, the then-leading Italian packet-switching network (we are talking pre-Internet era here.) Via ITAPAC, we’d connect to so-called “out-dial systems” in the USA. From one of those, we’d finally call our target BBSes with a local call at no cost. We felt so invincible! I signed up on Channel One BBS; I think that was the name. This particular BBS was located in Cambridge, MA, and was chock-full of public domain and shareware I could download. Anyways, the SysOp sent me a postcard confirming my signup (an old-school paper postcard delivered via international postal service). Receiving a postcard from the US was exciting in itself, but what was startling was a handwritten note on the postcard. It said, “Ravenna, city of beautiful mosaics.” I was shocked that someone from Cambridge, MA, would know about my tiny, little hometown’s mosaics and let me know. ...

As someone who’s been on board with Twitter since 2009, I have to admit that I’m very concerned with recent developments. I admire and respect Elon Musk for his companies’ achievements, especially in space and electric movement industries, but the man himself, holy cow, what a drag. On The Verge, Nilay Patel’s brutal piece on the recent Twitter acquisition is chock-full of brilliant insights on what it takes to run a modern commercial social service. ...

I attended my first BJJ class a little more than a month ago. Going into it, I was hesitant. After many years doing what most people today call calisthenics, I wanted to try something new and challenging. But would it be appropriate for me to get into martial arts at the age of fifty-two? When I discovered that we have a branch of the renowned Roger Gracie Academy here in my hometown, I thought it was time to find out. ...

In 1701, in Middletown, New Jersey, Moses Butterworth languished in a jail, accused of piracy. Like many young men based in England or her colonies, he had joined a crew that sailed the Indian Ocean intent on plundering ships of the Muslim Mughal Empire. Throughout the 1690s, these pirates marauded vessels laden with gold, jewels, silk, and calico on pilgrimage toward Mecca. After achieving great success, many of these men sailed back into the Atlantic via Madagascar to the North American seaboard, where they quietly disembarked in Charleston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Newport, and Boston, and made themselves at home. ...

Last Saturday I went on a motorcycle trip with my club. We had about forty motorcycles, many coming from afar—a tremendous turnout considering how advanced the season is. This event was particularly involving for me, as my local group was in charge of the organization. We were going to visit the Foreste Casentinesi National Park, which isn’t far from our hometown. We know those roads and their surroundings well; we call them home, yet I insisted on scouting the planned route not once but twice, and I think it was crucial to the event’s success. On the narrow road that climbs to a mountain pass, we spotted a mobile traffic light (for a road construction site) with a long (six minutes!) red/green cycle. We arranged a plan in case the motorcycle’s column split at the light: almost one kilometer past the red light, there was a safe place where the forward group could safely stop off the road and wait for the rest to rejoin. All the participants were informed at the departure briefing: if you get stopped at the red light, don’t get over-stressed: we’ll be waiting for you one kilometer down the road. You won’t see us, but we’ll be waiting for you safely. Don’t rush it, and don’t stop to phone us. We won’t be at the first apparently-good parking place but at the second spot, which, despite not looking as good, is way safer (less gravel on the ground). Situations like these can cause confusion and danger to a large group of motorcycles roaming on narrow, steep mountain roads which are often in poor conditiong. The reconnaissance ride allowed us to plan for several potential pitfalls like this one. ...

Oh, joy. After many years with an iPhone, today I learned how to stop spam calls with a single, not-really-super-secret move. Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers That’s it. Unknown callers now go straight to my recent calls list for me to (eventually) review. Most importantly, the phone doesn’t ring. I initially had True Caller installed and enabled, which worked for a while. Spammers use throw-away numbers anyway, so it’s super-hard for tools like that to keep track. In Italy, we can enlist in a nationwide “oppositions register”. Once a phone number is registered there, national call services can’t call it. I signed up on the register’s opening day, which also worked for a few days. There are ways for spammers to go around the register, such as calling from abroad. I fell back to simply not answering unknown calls. That worked, but unsolicited calls still caught my attention and muting the phone helped only a little. ...

Yesterday I was at WPC 2022, “the most important Italian conference on Microsoft technologies”, where I presented a one-hour session titled “Reliable end-to-end testing for modern web apps with Microsoft Playwright.” Attendance was great and there was a lot of excitement up in the air; it was evident that people were happy to meet and interact in person again. After the forced two years hiatus, it was great to be back at a big on-site conference, let alone speak at it. I delivered my talk to a packed-full room of nodding, smiling and questioning attendees, which felt fantastic. ...

Studies have found that high levels of social media use are connected with an increased risk of symptoms of anxiety and depression. There appears to be substantial evidence connecting people’s mental health and their online habits. Furthermore, many psychologists believe people may be dealing with psychological effects that are pervasive but not always obvious. More here.

Ben Werdmuller has a terrific post up on his website. His “tortured” analogy of the web and governments as platforms for people to build upon is fascinating. I believe strongly in the indieweb principles of distributed ownership, control, and independence. For me, the important thing is that this is how we get to a diverse web. A web where everyone can define not just what they write but how they present is by definition far more expressive, diverse, and interesting than one where most online content and identities must be squished into templates created by a handful of companies based on their financial needs. In other words, the open web is far superior to a medium controlled by corporations in order to sell ads. The former encourages expression; the latter encourages consumerist conformity. ...