@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com cover
@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

CWSmith

@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com

Owner / Creative Lead for Mechanized Armadillo Productions and Publications

Multiple projects active but sometimes going no where.

Probably would offend most of you if I started going on about things.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

BeAware , to random
@BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

The ADHD leaving my body when someone tells me to "just do it"....🤦‍♂️

They act like I'm Nike or something.🙄

CWSmith ,
@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

@BeAware

You keep a horde of children from South East Asia locked up making cheap shoes you sell at extreme prices?

CWSmith , to random
@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

So, as of now I have nuked all of my instances except this one. I will need to figure out if Mastodon was the right call for those sites or if I should try something else for them. I still want to provide a nice federated experience eventually, but it's not easy.



BeAware , to random
@BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

I am in this meme and I don't like it...😳

A meme that features a progression of increasingly enlightened brain images alongside text that describes different stages of project management or creative processes. There are four levels in total: 1. The top level shows a brain with minimal lighting and is labeled “Finishing projects.” 2. The second level has a brain with slightly more illumination and is labeled “Abandoning projects.” 3. The third level depicts a brain with more intense lighting and a glowing aura, labeled “Starting a new project before finishing the other.” 4. The bottom level shows an intensely illuminated and intricate brain, almost transcendental, labeled “Continuously coming up with new ideas without doing anything.”
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    • CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    I'm not even diagnosed with anything and I am in this meme, you Bastard!

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    It's kinda wild that people STILL think Fedi has some sort of "protection" from their public posts being scraped/used by anyone for whatever they want.

    How would you even know? You can watch your instances federation like a hawk and go to each and every one of the 20,000+ instances, but let's be honest, that's not realistic...

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Not to mention how every timeline has an RSS feed built in.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Who would be interested in an instance built on sharing supernatural and dark fantasy content? Maybe some darker gritty Cyberpunk or TechNoir?

    I am thinking of rebuilding an old community I called Darkscribes. I still have the domain but I am doing nothing with it currently. It was the 2000s and we were cringe... But we were free.

    Thoughts?





    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    If anyone can help me figure this out it be appreciated.

    https://www.drupal.org/docs/extending-drupal/contributed-modules/contributed-module-documentation/activitypub

    jerry , to random
    @jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

    I find it interesting that around 90% of spam account signups on Infosec.exchange use a gmail address to register. Now, that’s partly biased because I’ve blocked most of the junk email services that allow creating email addresses without needing to sign in or register, so I don’t know what it would look like if those were permitted, however it must be quite efficient for people to create large numbers of gmail accounts.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @jerry

    Remember that for the most part every Google service is an avenue for them to sell Ads, or recently test and aquire information for their AI projects. Plus, when it comes to their competitors they really only have one even though a few companies pop up trying to offer better security.

    And that competition is Microsoft.

    youronlyone , to random
    @youronlyone@c.im avatar

    Isn't this a missed opportunity for the #fediverse, #Pixelfed in particular?

    «A social app for creatives, Cara grew from 40k to 650k users in a week because artists are fed up with Meta’s AI policies»

    https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/06/a-social-app-for-creatives-cara-grew-from-40k-to-650k-users-in-a-week-because-artists-are-fed-up-with-metas-ai-policies/

    #Cara #Meta #Instagram #AI #ActivityPub #Mycelial #MycelialWeb #SocialWeb #DDFON #Photography #Creatives #Mycelium #MyceliumNetwork

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @youronlyone

    @BeAware

    I am trying to get back to photography, but also thinking about art of somekind. Just wasn't sure what was a good idea at any one time and such. Mastodon just seemed a safe option for a jack of all trades to start.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Not giving up on my sites, but am disappointed that isn't working properly. The module is minimally maintained, meaning the dev is working on things they feel is more important.

    I want this working.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Interesting thing is that everything seems to be functioning as intended with and the module which provides a Mastodon like setup for reading things. but I still can't follow or be followed.
    I am stumped on this subject. I THINK that maybe there is an issue with NGINX config maybe, or something else. Just don't know.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    I could use some advice from anyone who has used or can help me troubleshoot the module in . I just can't get the thing to work. I ever redid the system to try and ensure I got proper permissions on the keys.

    Any thoughts folks?




    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    So, I still haven't figured out the issue. It SEEMS to be functioning as it should in my side some, but any attempt to actually get it to do ActivityPub related functions seems to fail.

    The Readme file isn't too clear on what I should do, but it was indicating I should be able to search a user name at least so. I don't know currently.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Hmmmm.

    Checked for log permissions on the build. Got an error for ActivityPub logs indicating:

    Error creating the signature: Unable to read key

    Which tells me the module isn't seeing the key in the private file folder. So it might be a permissions issue.



    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Woot! Updated to Mastodon v4.2.9!

    Not exactly sure if it's immediately beneficial to me, but just in case there's something critical there, I did it as soon as I was able to.

    Any Mastodon Admins running the main branch should probably do the same if they haven't yet.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Hasn't seen the update notification yet so will probably do that after while. Still fighting Drupal to get it to be ActivityPub friendly.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Agreed. And honestly it Should work. Still figuring it out.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    For anyone interested, the module can be found here.

    https://git.drupalcode.org/project/activitypub

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Got the private file issue handled, but I can't find the username on the site now that is enabled.

    Nothing I can find so far about this error from or and frankly it be nice if I could find info.

    The user name it says to look for is CWSmith@hybridized-concepts.com without the leading @. Thoughts?

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Here I am, hoping that I can someday have a politics-free social media experience. And some of you are on other platforms, sending political people here specifically to talk politics.

    Can we have some other topics besides Linux and the end of the world? Please?!?!

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Working on it. It takes a bit.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @LavenderPawprints

    @BeAware

    You aren't wrong. The extreme political stance left ward was something I was warned about when I discovered the Fediverse. I was hoping I could keep that sort of stuff out of my feed or at least minimize it. Besides, the idea of sharing to many communities appealed. I didn't want the closed walled garden setup.

    I turn a lot of blind eyes towards the politics. I have to.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    @LavenderPawprints

    It's like how my Dad is RL... He's always been an absolutist. You either side with him, or your inferior in someway intellectually, morally, or ethically. He's always been that way. Of course it's less a real moral stance and more a blame anyone but himself for how the last 20 years went for him

    mte90 , to random Italian
    @mte90@mastodon.uno avatar

    I remember that this account is not anymore updated from my Twitter account (that has more stuff).
    I am not able to find a tool for crossposting without dedicate a server for that.
    No I will not switch this as my main social account.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @mte90

    @BeAware

    r/Mastodon might not have an answer. As far as I am aware, all the automated crossposting utils stopped functioning when X took its API private so there might not be an easy solution.

    I honestly just copy and paste depending on what I am sharing and if I feel it's worth putting on both platforms.

    BeAware , (edited ) to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Now I'm wondering. If I didn't setup cloudflare with Backblaze for my mastodon instance from the start, could it be done and updated in the .env.production or would that screw it all up?🤔

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Not sure about backblaze, but Cloudflare works at the DNS level so it shouldn't need any editing to .env.production at all.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Since the addresses for media aren't ip addresses it should be OK.

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Oh boy...Anti-AI taking over my timeline already...time to get off Fedi for today...🤦‍♂️

    Be back later.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Anti-anything folks usually suck hard.

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    My instance, I did bork,

    Cause my Linux knowledge is just too short,

    I just hope my users aren't mad,

    That would make me kinda sad,

    I'm attempting to run a fork of Misskey,

    But things are just kinda fishy,

    In the end, I might just have to wait

    For my Linux buddy, he might not be back till late.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    What did you do, and does your host have backups?

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Hmmm.

    I don't know about how sharekey works, and I am assuming you have at least restarted the specific services.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Yeah, these are always fun to run down and I have had more than a few times where I get the same issue with Mastodon.

    So the sharekey services themselves are running.

    It's definitely a pain in the ass, and I assume you don't have the ass pain of a CDN like cloudflare on top of it to deal with as well.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Cloudflare can be a bitch and has caused me issues before. Set the domain for developer mode so it bypasses CDN and see what happens.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Never know. And yeah, it looks like a default nginx error screen.

    Without some time and access to the logs I don't know how helpful I will be. All I can recommend is going through Sharkey's start up instructions for a setup server at the point it goes up.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    All daemon-reload does is reset systemd and reload the I it scripts so when you do start on anything it uses the new file.

    Unless you changed something I wouldn't run it.

    What is sudo systemctl status sharkey saying?

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Yeah, I think it's in that error. Some issue in the backend.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    No problem, these can be trying pains in the ass.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Maybe, but it's worth checking. They may have been started on setup, but it's worth running a status on to see what's going on.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Well I checked that error and it is a redis error. So see if this command runs properly.

    redis-server --daemonize yes

    As it relates to the postgres status, the entire service is postgresql so that's probably where you hit the snag.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    No problem, I honestly think it's Redis at the point now anyway.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Yup... Classic troubleshooting. Have the problem sort itself and have no idea what happened in the first place.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Is there any documentation on migrating a Mastodon instance to ?

    CWSmith OP ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Seems to be the way. Can't really find a good option to migrate an entire server instead of just one account anywhere for anything and I sort of don't want to redo all of that even if the majority of accounts are just me and bots.

    CWSmith OP ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    @BeAware

    You think it's worth trying to migrate?

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Here's a thought for folks on and other servers.

    Would it be possible to build a server in Docker and move to it, accepting that I will not save anything, then migrate it to the proper URL after thst part?

    I figure this procedure might solve my server issues and maybe cut down how much I use as well as maybe migrate from Mastodon to something with better features.

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Ugh. I am SO jelly of android today after spending a bit of time with , it's very robust and has some pretty neat features.

    Not to mention, it works with Sharkey.😩Where's the iOS native app love for Misskey forks? We have like...2. And they can't touch Megalodon with a mile-long pole...

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    ON Android I relly just use Fedilab myself. It seems to hit all the buttons I need and I have since removed the extra apps, including the default.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    I don't have a good answer on that one as I only use it on my mastodon instances currently.

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    The uphill battles continue to get steeper. Is it really worth the work to fight against wrong first impressions due to bad actors, misinformation, Meta's true intentions, AND people accusing me of ridiculous things?😔

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Honestly, at this point until Meta actually makes it two way we can't really do much more.

    We tried, and frankly due to the nature of the setup we can't even point to the good things because it's all coming soon TM.

    BeAware , (edited ) to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    It's great when irony shows up on my timeline unprovoked. It's quite amazing.

    PS. Complaining about Blockchain while having "cryptographic experience" in another post is not as good of a look as you think it is....😳🤦‍♂️

    Edit: I'm too high. It'd be an issue if one was a Blockchain dev complaining about cryptography, but not the other way around like I described here. Leaving this up anyway.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Not sure on that. Cryptography and Blockchain are two very different things. Though Blockchain beyond the hype train demands an understanding of cryptography.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Yeah, but you do have cryptography without Blockchain. And Blockchain is really a specific use of the process.

    I need to lock down everything in encryption.

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Apparently on Threads, you have to make a post complaining about not being seen because of the algorithm, to be seen because of the algorithm.🤦‍♂️🤣

    If that's not ironic, then idk what is.😳

    #Threads #Fediverse #Fedi #Meta #Threadiverse

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    It's not ironic...

    It's domestic abuse...

    Threads is begging you not to leave... Threads can change.

    CWSmith , to random
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    Looking at how to create an RPG, I could do it in RPG Maker and play around with that to get a good idea of basics. I got a free copy one day on Steam on a ucky find. I also have Godot installed.

    Just no idea what to do.

    CWSmith OP ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @BeAware

    Will do. WIll probably start with RPG Maker due to it being very simple to get started and from what I can tell it is built to be more for storytellers who want to create a game with their story. Godot is open source and more complicated as an angine, but if I can actually do something... in general, it be sweet.

    hyakinthos , to random

    We need to stigmatize centralized people farms like , , , etc just like users were in the 90s. Make it clear that these accidental supporters are made aware that they lack a nuanced understanding of the concept. If it’s as successful as the AOL stigma was, we can get more people to join the free world.

    CWSmith ,
    @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com avatar

    @hyakinthos

    @BeAware @madeindex

    I am on at the moment.

    What I need is a good alternative to it's services or a good reason why I don't need them at all. I use Linode/Akamai for my VPS service.

    I do agree about the issue with the big boys, but that's gonna be an issue with users understanding of what everything is. It's still difficult to get people to understand that it's not a difference like it is between Meta or X.

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