[](image ) [](image ) [](image )
If you find yourself saying “this time is different,” think first. History rhymes pretty damn hard, human nature doesn’t change much, if at all, and the very few times that genuinely do turn out to be different, we don’t tend to see or call out early on. Predicting the future is difficult, and we’re not good at it. It may feel good to think we’re special, living in a special unique time, and occasionally we are, but not often. End of history illusion, etc. This time is probably not different. At least, not significantly. And that’s ok. (This is not a subtweet about anything in particular, not even politics. Promise. But whatever you’re thinking about, it may still apply!)
For years now, we’ve been giving our 10yo a weekly allowance, and generally not buying her toys or video games etc, so that she has to buy them herself. Finally got some real world evidence that it might be working. [](image ) image
image
systemd, but make it French [](image ) image
#nofilter [](image ) image
Lake Merced image
[Learned just now]( ) that my name Ryan comes from Gaelic and supposedly, maybe apocryphally, [means “short king.”]( ) I am…neither of those things. 😆
Another stunning statistic: Google and Apple’s income from app store fees on games is likely higher than *all game publishers’ combined income*, both mobile and non-mobile. Holy crap. Talk about egregious rent-seeking. ([Matthew Ball]( )‘s *[The State of Video Gaming in 2025]( )*, page 42) image
Hi everyone! It’s been a while [since last time]( ), and we’ve been busy, so here’s another [Bridgy Fed]( ) status update. First, [we’ve made progress on cutting costs]( ). They’re down by half from their peak back in mid Nov, even though our user base and load has roughly doubled since then. [I still think I can get them lower]( ), but for now, I’m ok with where we are. We’re also still pushing [A New Social]( ) forward. Paperwork, people, and plans (ie roadmap), oh my. More when we know it! Other than that, I [wrote up a developer design doc]( ), and I managed to fix some bugs and add some features. Here are a few: <li><a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1406">New <code>block</code> and <code>unblock</code> DM commands to block/unblock accounts that aren’t bridged</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/39#issuecomment-2525113104">Improved PixelFed compatibility</a></li> <li>Improved UI and accessibility of <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1043">finding user pages</a> <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1666">and rendering them</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1571">Added aspect ratio for images in Bluesky</a></li> <li>Bug fixes for <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1750">DM command parsing</a>, <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1712">web site feed polling</a>, <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/636">large objects</a></li> <li>Skip <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1737">blank posts</a>, <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1736">old backdated posts</a>, <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1669">follow spam</a></li> <li>Store activities <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1360">more</a> <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1359">efficiently</a></li> <li>ATProto: <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/arroba/issues/33">finish <code>com.atproto.repo.describeRepo</code></a>, <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/lexrpc/issues/19">validate XRPC call parameters</a>, <a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1201">refresh DID docs more often</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1509">Add per-protocol user counts to nodeinfo</a></li> As usual, feel free to ping us with feedback, questions, and [bug reports]( ). You can follow the [*now* label on GitHub]( ) to see what we’re currently focusing on. See you on the bridge! [ ](image ) image