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Jon F

@AvonVilla@aus.social

Born in the 60s. Living on the South coast of NSW Australia. Former journalist, now full time carer for my disabled son. Music maker, dreamer of dreams.

I like:
Electronic (and all) music, science fiction/fantasy. Rollerskating, swimming, bushwalking.
Degrowth, atheistic post-doom, neo-Luddism; peace, love & anarchy!

I deleted my big tech accounts, I'm now pure fedi. Windows, Android, Apple etc., are expunged from my life, replaced by Linux et. al.

Posts auto-delete after 1 week.

0 Followers

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33 Posts

Joined July 10, 2020

web:

https://drongo.day

bookwyrm:

@AvonVilla@ramblingreaders.org

peertube:

https://dalek.zone/a/avon_villa/video-channels

funkwhale:

https://tanukitunes.com/@avonvilla https://open.audio/@AvonVilla

Posts

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 30, 2026

I was horrified/entertained by the 'Grand Designs' episode on TV here last night. A British tech bro discovers he can't afford his obscene "castle", when his credit runs out after borrowing millions.

His main product seems to be a light switch, part of a smart home system which remains largely vapourware. His business and his grand design frequently mention "sustainability", while wasting massive amounts of concrete, water, electricity and data centre tokens for meaningless extravagance.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grand-designs-castle-sale-wixford-home-b2858621.html

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 30, 2026

I've embarked on an ambitious project to create a sort of acid house version of "Canto Ostinato" by Simeon ten Holt. I'm about 10% into it now, grinding through the score, which is in the key of D flat, a challenge for me with only rudimentary skills at reading music.

I remember a story about S'Express acid guru Mark Moore taking Philip Glass to a nightclub, so it's not a new idea to mix classical minimalism and techno. But I am keeping the 10/16 time signature, it's very trance-like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canto_Ostinato

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 30, 2026

My shirt.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 30, 2026

Drought in England, yikes. Might as well stay in Australia.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/flash-drought-england-uk-areas-july-rainfall-b3023904.html

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 29, 2026

I'm pretty sure we are doomed.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/never-skilling-high-school-rush-to-ai-threatens-to-create-a-generation-of-dunces-20260728-p60j7r.html

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 28, 2026

I hate winter but I choose to categorise July as its last month. August is something else, a sort of pre-spring. The lengthening days show summer's approach is accelerating. Bring it on!

I'm talking southern hemisphere, of course.

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/australia/sydney?month=8&year=2026

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 28, 2026

Yeah, that newfangled AI thingummy is so great for journalism.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 27, 2026

The Vincent Namatjira book arrived. It is lavish, full of surprises, laughs, truth.
@sister_ratched@toot.community

#VincentNamatjira

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 27, 2026

The power line outside my house is a good place for supermodels to make love to the camera.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 25, 2026

Via the National Secular Lobby, an important reminder to answer the religion question carefully when completing your census form. @SecularLobby@mastodon.au https://censusnotreligious.org.au/ #census #census2026

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 23, 2026

I like keeping old tech as long as possible. My desktop PC is a Dell Optiplex 9020, which I intercepted on its way to e-waste from a local primary school. Maybe a 2013 model. I just did a bit of minor maintenance, replacing the CMOS battery. Now I don't have to manually select UEFI mode at every boot. Previously I souped it up a bit, adding a SSD. There was no slot for an additional device and I wanted to keep the big drive, so the SSD just floats between the drive bay and the CPU fan. Seems to be a perfectly cromulent way of doing it. #RightToRepair

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 04, 2026

Replying to @zazzoo@mstdn.ca

@zazzoo@mstdn.ca @kevinrns@mstdn.social Yes. Privatisation is a disaster.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jul 01, 2026

I'm ambivalent about lots of things, but I guess I'm finally all in on Mastodon, now that I've bought the T-shirt. (Someone re-gifted me a print-on-demand voucher, and the package came this morning). #mastodon

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 30, 2026

Replying to @kevinrns@mstdn.social

@kevinrns@mstdn.social It's not quite as good as that. It's for three hours a day and you have to opt in to the plan to take advantage of it, which might also involve higher charges outside the free period. If you don't guzzle it up in the three golden hours, it might end up increasing your bill.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 29, 2026

Replying to @ercanbrack@mastodon.online

@ercanbrack@mastodon.online Bitwig made me switch my amateur/fun music project from Windows to Linux. It completed the transition. Music was the last thing keeping me on evilcorp.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 28, 2026

I'm buoyed to read this morning that Paul Hogan called Pauline Hanson an outrageous racist, and Trump a stupid boofhead. It's also good to see that Hanson's weird and sinister "monoculture" speech has been followed by a fall in her poll numbers... not far enough, but it's still good. Also, coalition numbers still in the toilet, ha! #wellDoneAngus https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-australian-man-charged-with-murder-in-thailand-state-and-territory-debt-interest-balloons-20260629-p60as8.html #auspol

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 19, 2026

Replying to @failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to

@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to @thevhswizard@retro.pizza But the bit about the love tester in a Peruvian cave is ok, right?

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 11, 2026

Replying to @Nonilex@masto.ai

@Nonilex@masto.ai Trump's goon could have been talking about his wrinkly orange boss here: “Anyone who engages in or endorses political violence or assassination culture must be condemned in the harshest terms possible,” Ingle wrote. “They should also immediately seek psychiatric help

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 11, 2026

Replying to @emd@cosocial.ca

@emd@cosocial.ca I'm in Australia and can't help, but I'm sending good vibes from my own native garden project, such as it is.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Jun 01, 2026

A big tech company releases an AI tool and it's really cheap. Bosses tell everyone to start using it, and they get rid of staff because they are told AI will take up the slack. Then the AI company puts the prices up. By how much? Someone on reddit posted this as an example. What even is that, 15,000%?!?! Some of the other examples there are even worse. Turns out humans are cheaper and better after all. It's so extreme it looks like criminal fraud.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 11, 2026

Replying to @jti42@infosec.exchange

@jti42@infosec.exchange @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social If the bubble pops, you may find the winning strategy could be the booing, rather than welcoming your new "ant overlords". The coming of the internet which the speaker recalls also included a tech bust when a huge number of companies simply disappeared. How do you know which bits of the AI bubble are dot-com style tech wreck garbage, and which ones will survive? They ALL display appalling features right now.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 09, 2026

Replying to @crankylinuxuser@infosec.exchange

@crankylinuxuser@infosec.exchange @gwynnion@mastodon.social I oppose the death penalty, it's murder by the state, and if there is a social contract it needs to stay within those bounds. Even if you perceive that people deserve to die, killing them does a moral injury to the executioner, it actually adds to the damage caused by the guilty. Aside from that, depending on where you set the bounds, is it practical to kill that many people? If you lose your bloodlust before the job is done, the survivors could come back worse than before, and again, you are adding to your own injury.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 08, 2026

Replying to @gwynnion@mastodon.social

@gwynnion@mastodon.social I dunno about "exterminating" and "hanging traitors". And isn't "forcing democracy" an oxymoron? I've read the Autobiography of Malcolm X and various accounts of MLK's life and I think they might advise not using the language and methods of the oppressor. Mandela's Rivonia speech is the best thing I've read about when violence is unavoidable.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @frog_reborn@mstdn.social

@frog_reborn @Tubemeister @inthehands I don't think it's the "sub branches". The mainstream has made all sorts of bogus claims - the sun dancing, dead people coming back to life, levitation, transmogrification, direct communication with deities, etc. etc. etc.. I assume you are operating on a higher level in questioning the nature of evidence, and I respect that, but in the real world, this battle is fought in the gutters of culture and politics.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @Tubemeister@mstdn.social

@Tubemeister @inthehands I don't mind him being arrogant about atheism. That's not the problem. The problem is (among other things) the misogyny and the shocking alignment with the Trumposphere in the guise of the (gag) "intellectual dark web". When people call him arrogant I am reminded of his encounter with uber-Republican hate preacher Ted Haggard who imperiously told him "don't be arrogant", a few years before he was busted for smoking crack and paying men for sex. I'm not trying to support Dawkins. Dawkins is over. But from my perspective, it wasn't always this way.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @inthehands@hachyderm.io

@inthehands To me atheism is a more humble position than the essentially anthropocentric theism, especially when atheism is defined as a LACK of belief, i.e. "agnostic atheism". I think the arrogance of Dawkins is reflected in other ways, but the central argument against theism remains intact.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · May 05, 2026

Replying to @Infrogmation@mastodon.online

@Infrogmation I don't care if the content creators are "small". I block (therefore I am).

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @sellathechemist@mastodon.social

@sellathechemist I used to work next to the Darling Harbour precinct in Sydney. It was controversial when it was developed in the 1980s. But I was amazed when much of it was demolished and replaced barely 20 years later. On my lunch break I'd see immense machines smashing up concrete and steel which might otherwise have stood for centuries. This sort of thing is commonplace. The world, by which I mean humanity generally, is insane.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Apr 27, 2026

Replying to @sellathechemist@mastodon.social

@sellathechemist Taking the reality check of Jevons' paradox further, renewables still cause emissions, mostly at the manufacturing stage. They are a solution to our energy needs, but the solution to emissions per se is to reduce consumption generally. We need less of things, not more. I actually hate being a grinch, and even with the above, I heartily endorse your "wow".

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Apr 26, 2026

Autumn is very...summery this year. It looks like this will continue into May. It's nice but also worrying at the same time.
#weather

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @MattHatton@aus.social

@MattHatton @sizzle Just when you think it can't get any better... a Jack Russell terrier! No LLM could ever do this, not now, not in a hundred years.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Apr 11, 2026

Replying to @hotte@mastodon.pnpde.social

@hotte @CosmicRami Working together, you say? I'm showcasing the fact that it's "working together" with a nazi. Also I think you're overselling the scientific by-products of the space program. I would like to see NASA concentrate on the superb work it has done on climate science, but human exploration should be a much lower priority. I don't discount the value of "inspiration" per se. But compared to Apollo, Artemis gives very poor return on investment. Today's circus is mostly just a re-run of Apollo 8. It will be forgotten very very soon. Crossing the finish line 58 years after the winner is not that great.

Jon F @AvonVilla@aus.social · Apr 11, 2026

Replying to @CosmicRami@aus.social

@CosmicRami It is important and I celebrate it, but I worry that Artemis is also a project of oppression and inequality. It is in league with Nazi Musk. It is opening a path for capitalist exploitation of space. Unlike Apollo, it comes in the midst of a climate emergency here on earth. All my enthusiasm for space is erased by this dissonance.

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