Ben Pfaff

GNU PSPP maintainer. RenFaire enthusiast. D&D player. Against fascism and tyranny. He/him.

Location: 🇺🇸, California, San Francisco Bay Area

Public Key

npub1cl9znrln9m5apaexu5xrlqurj8mqmpjpstxkj4zd6u6wx5l5cz5szwfrgq

NIP-05 Address

blp_at_framapiaf.org@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv0j3f3leja6ws7unw2rplswperasdseqc9ntf23xawd8r206vp2gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds58cfz4

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1cl9znrln9m5apaexu5xrlqurj8mqmpjpstxkj4zd6u6wx5l5cz5szwfrgq

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Last Notes

2026-10-29 18:40:08 UTC

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Also nice are hoodies with built in fingerless gloves (mittens?) at the end of the sleeves. They're basically a longer sleeve with an extra hole for your thumb.

2026-10-22 22:50:23 UTC

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I was part of a startup back in 2008. We were initially running out of one suite in a small office building. Over the summer we installed a rack of servers for QA runs. The QA folks sweat like mad for a week or two in their crowded room. Finally I went to take a look out of curiosity. I stared at the thermostat for a minute, and then I flipped it from "heat" to "cool" which, hilariously, solved the problem.

2026-10-22 18:46:08 UTC

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I remember going to a retirement savings seminar at work once where they presented a table of investments showing results assuming 7% average annual returns. I asked, "Which of these investments in the table has achieved 7% average annual returns over the last 10 year?" The answer: none.

2026-09-30 18:04:32 UTC

GitHub is so awful

2026-09-30 17:44:09 UTC

It's frustrating when I order directly from a vendor's online store to avoid Amazon but the vendor then takes days and days to ship a simple allegedly in-stock item.

2026-07-28 20:48:11 UTC

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Dark magic I think

2026-06-16 18:12:06 UTC

I am tired of accounts that seem to have no way to cancel, just endless reminders to pay up for renewal.

2026-04-01 13:17:22 UTC

It's April 1. Don't believe things.

2026-03-23 17:39:12 UTC

Windows has a hardcoded hotkey for LinkedIn that is Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Windows+L so I don't want anyone to complain about Emacs keybindings anymore.

2026-02-24 23:23:18 UTC

I didn't agree to respond to your survey and recurring "reminders" are not helping your case.

2026-02-16 20:54:27 UTC

"Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
--Douglas Adams, as quoted by @npub1fdr…lvhs

2026-02-14 17:39:50 UTC

It bugs me how some people think that social media being a problem for some people is a good reason to shut it down for everyone.

2026-02-12 19:44:00 UTC

A Scot told me the other day that only people who grew up in America like peanut butter.

2025-12-06 16:22:05 UTC

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Can you SSH to a machine with Emacs and then use tramp in the opposite direction?

2025-11-16 18:57:24 UTC

My dental office is once again asking me to review them on Google+.

2025-11-11 15:53:58 UTC

If you think a demogorgon is tough, try taking on a production gorgon.

2025-10-23 23:52:20 UTC

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I can't even tell if that's satire.

2025-10-15 15:48:48 UTC

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There's a locally famous one near where I grew up, in East Lansing, Michigan, nicknamed the Habitrail.
https://stockage.framapiaf.org/framapiaf/media_attachments/files/115/378/963/417/437/731/original/d7ad1097955287ae.jpg

2025-08-11 18:06:19 UTC

@npub1fdr…lvhs I have suspected for a long time that five-paragraph essays were a bad idea, on the basis that I've never been asked to write one anytime in my academic career beyond high school. Glad to see the confirmation in your writing today. https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/11/five-paragraph-essay/

2025-06-06 22:17:06 UTC

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He was in fact human smuggled, maybe they're charging him with all the crimes the administration itself committed.

2025-06-04 21:45:54 UTC

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Maybe @npub1lq6…nf7e has advice.

2025-04-25 15:28:10 UTC

My #framework laptop's power button acts funny sometimes, in that it won't turn on in the usual way. Holding down the power button for any normal amount of time makes the light come on and then turn back off a few seconds later. To get the laptop to really turn on, I have to hold it down for 30-60 seconds (based on counting in my head), then it turns on just fine. Usually this happens after the laptop has been powered off for days at a time.

2025-04-10 23:18:26 UTC

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Two very different adventures!

2025-01-27 05:00:47 UTC

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Do you have any fun anecdotes to share?

2024-12-15 05:49:49 UTC

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If I unsubscribe then it would probably be because I get most of the same through Mastodon these days.

2024-12-12 23:44:27 UTC

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I'm pretty shocked that you even had to submit a proposal rather than being invited for a keynote.