Veronica Explains

veronica@explains.social

Move slow and fix things.I'm an unsponsored PeerTuber/YouTuber making videos about Linux, vintage tech, and owning your digital destiny. I'm also a nerdy musician in a nerdy band with other nerds you might know. I'm not a fan of machine-generated slop - my mistakes are mine and I'm doing just fine.she/her(I'm trying out GoToSocial, there could be bugs!)

Posts

Post #4123741
If you have a platform, and someone criticizes you, consider not responding. I know, it's hard. I had a hard time figuring this out myself. It can be challenging to walk away when folks are saying crummy things about you. But you'll never please everyone, and you don't have to be right all the time. Sometimes people won't like you and you just have to live with that.
Post #4074721
I should write a book: I picked up a new toslink cable in order to avoid having my TV perform firmware updates which force data collection from me: the 2026 story
Post #4071577
Someone asked me if I'm still writing my own scripts, now that "AI can do all of that". Yes, I am still writing my scripts. I enjoy writing. No machine can stop that. No machine can take away the joy in creating something that didn't exist before. I won't cede that to robots; I couldn't if I tried.
Post #4047208
Just ran into a perfect example of Gentoo being awesome for me as a video maker: ffmpeg. I wanted to handle some goofy conversions of video files. The default ffmpeg wasn't compiled to include that codec. On Debian, this would have involved some weirdness with removing a system package and compiling from source, and then manually tracking ffmpeg versions... forever. On Gentoo? Update a USE flag.
Post #4040907
I've decided to enable Flatpak on my new Gentoo install, mainly since I'm using GNOME at the moment and they ship a lot of software via Flathub. I'm a monster, I know
Post #3992422
"But LibreWolf is based on Firefox, it needs Firefox to survive!" Who cares? Don't harp on someone else's excitement. (This wasn't an invite to tell me about software you like)
Post #3988805
Me: installs Gentoo Also me: installs GNOME and systemd, removes cron and does everything with timers 😈
Post #3975819
What have I done?
Post #3924683
"ABBA never played any rock songs" Listen to "So Long" and tell me that couldn't be a T-Rex song. It's a straight riff rock tune, you just missed it because girls are singing. https://youtu.be/J5ndJ96gurc?si=725YlfxBb675RrxG&t=504
Post #3918933
"Watch Out" by ABBA is a banger
Post #3869276
Every few weeks I get an angry email saying something like "why did you block me on Mastodon?" Folks: quit doing this, it doesn't help
Post #3865560
Ghost CMS is now offering an "Optimize your site for AI search" feature. I'm... disinterested? Is that the word?
Post #3862721
OK, I'm starting to see the charm in Gentoo
Post #3829401
Hey you! Take a drink of water
Post #3812677
books are lit
Post #3798672
Computers ingest information and pump out slop. We ingest information and pump out art, joy, and love. We are not the same.
Post #3795475
I don't know what's worse: XMPP stans or Ventoy bros...
Post #3766005
New video! I'm hosting an AIM server for my friends, and you can too. https://makertube.net/w/dVCTYsbMqChaWktWDZNmMd Also go follow my new MakerTube account: @veronicaexplains Also also, quit following me on Tinker Better please, that's my old account and I'm deleting it soon kthx lol
Post #3745151
In the time it took me to get halfway through compiling the kernel on Gentoo, I installed an entire Debian system. I'm starting to think that I might not have the patience for Gentoo.
Post #3674133
I just caught that Libera.Chat uses the phrase "insufficient human involvement" and I love that specific phrasing for flagging LLM-generated pull requests. https://libera.chat/#one-more-thing-about-llm-contributions
Post #3653412
Mastodon is great and all, but if you want Fedi to be more than just one dominant server, I urge you to consider financially supporting GoToSocial, a lightweight ActivityPub software. @gotosocial@gts.superseriousbusiness.org is halfway to their modest funding goal. Developing open source software is labor and deserves to be funded. Even if you don't use GoToSocial, I cannot overstate how important it is to fund projects like this which advance the protocol we all use. Even a buck a month is...
Post #3498277
Y'all want a fediverse that's not just big Mastodon instances, right? If so, you should consider financially supporting #GoToSocial. Even if you don't use it. https://opencollective.com/gotosocial#category-CONTRIBUTE
Post #3402318
Taking back your digital sovereignty involves sacrifice. If someone tells you it doesn't, they're uninformed or lying. I think that sacrifice is worth it. Coping with jank makes us more resilient. But it's not easy and it's dishonest to suggest otherwise.
Post #3339719
FWIW hosting GoToSocial has been pretty easy so far. The docs are top notch. https://docs.gotosocial.org/en/v0.21.2/ I think this would be a great choice if you wanted to host yourself and maybe a few friends. It can run on a potato and does exactly what I want social media to do and little else. Shared blocklists are awesome.
Post #3318470
"we need to know your age" no you don't You already know my habits, my marital status, my job and future prospects, how many kids I have (or want), where I live, who I live with, who I live around, who my parents are, how much money I make, how much money my parents made, what kind of car I drive (or don't), what food I buy at the store, how long I've had my bank account, what kind of computers I've used, what books I read, what kind of laundry detergent I buy, what my...
Post #3125508
Hey you! Yeah, you! You did a great job this week! :)
Post #2930679
Fedi is basically this scene, but there's someone using Gentoo to run a Eurorack sim in the background. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSB2O2Shts
Post #2740478
I have invented a new dessert. I started by robbing a trainload of ice cream. Then I combined that with some sugar I "harvested" from my neighbor's kitchen. Then, I mix it all together, and spoonfeed it to your boss until he gets all sugar high. Then, I jack up the price to $100/mo and use that money to hire more train robbers. I call it "Agentic Ice Cream" and I'm doing a funding round now. Free enterprise, baby.
Post #2739489
I genuinely believe that the Fediverse offers the best chance of recapturing the friendly, optimistic Internet I loved as a kid. We've got flaws, sure. I've been critical of aspects of fedi culture, and will continue to do so. But this place represents hope, and hope is where we start.
Post #2711196
Motion to strike "googling" as a verb https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/