Simone S

A gen X with a straight to the point attitude. Based in the UK, I play bass and design sound under the moniker Minutes to Midnight.

In previous lives I used to work as a #GameAudio designer and a #WebDeveloper. Today my day job is with the University of Cambridge.

#BeYourOwnPlatform #MusicProduction #SoundDesign #Bass #REAPER #Sustainability #Degrowth #RightToRepair

Posts self-delete after 4 weeks.

He/him

Public Key

npub1gvjg3gucn7w66pql0ca2ap5zh7kxd2ss3rul5qp4rh2wk8ez2n5qdz3x2g

NIP-05 Address

m2m@sonomu-club.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsyxfyg5wvfl8ddqs0huw4ws6ptltrx4ggg3706qq63m48tru39f6qpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qyq5grh

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1gvjg3gucn7w66pql0ca2ap5zh7kxd2ss3rul5qp4rh2wk8ez2n5qdz3x2g

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Last Notes

2025-10-12 15:48:47 UTC

I've heard the phrase "as you get older you turn more conservative" a million times. It implied a slow change to more right-wing politics.
Not only I'm getting more and more left leaning as I get older, but the only other significant conviction that's morphing is my craving the Fender Precision bass sound.
#Bass #BassPlayer

2025-10-08 18:44:54 UTC

I'll drop this here.
"DHH Is Way Worse Than I Thought", by Jake Lazaroff.
If you're using Basecamp, or his Linux distribution, of which I forgotten the name of [*], you might want to reconsider.
[*] EDIT — I remembered, it's Omarchy.
https://jakelazaroff.com/words/dhh-is-way-worse-than-i-thought/
#DHH #fascism

2025-10-03 17:33:32 UTC

When I keep saying that being on #streaming platforms is a pointless exercise, I get sometimes asked for numbers, or proofs.
Here you go. A single song of mine was played a MILLION times in 3 months, in 2022 (and, in later months, another 750k times), with a net gain of £33.
A million plays on streaming pays for a pizza night out for me and @nprofile…g3sf
Took me FOUR sales on Bandcamp to reach the same amount.
So, ask me again, why quit giving out music to the techbros?
#IndependentMusic
https://cdn.masto.host/sonomuclub/media_attachments/files/115/311/410/186/949/193/original/30070ca6d4fc51c4.jpg

2025-06-15 22:24:47 UTC

This is one of the best 30 minutes I could spend in front of a computer. Found on @nprofile…0w62 blog earlier today (via RSS):
https://youtu.be/o4OOLmvjzjs
"How We Designed the Soul Out of Everything", by John Mauriello.
Watch it, without distractions, if you still can.

2025-06-15 18:46:00 UTC

Deleted my Telegram account.
One step at a time.
Next, WhatsApp.

2025-06-10 17:04:44 UTC

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@nprofile…lvhv great post as usual!

2025-06-08 19:32:23 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj deduco tu non abbia tatuaggi haha

2025-06-08 19:09:04 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj pessima settimana per l'Italia, in ogni campo

2025-06-07 22:46:32 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj quando si sapra' il quorum?

2025-06-03 21:58:43 UTC

Migrating (or going back) to Linux in 2025, after 24 years exclusively on Mac:
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/moving-on/
Feels good.

2025-06-02 12:17:17 UTC

@nprofile…yjqq nave you seen this?
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/fender-studio-linux-audio-recording-app

2025-05-29 12:57:18 UTC

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@nprofile…lvhv thanks Denny! Unrelated, I'm baffled that I wasn't following you here, did you move server or something?

2025-04-24 17:22:18 UTC

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@nprofile…fn2v in my case it would be in 1999. Still not that far away!

2025-04-17 18:20:16 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj you looked absolutely fantastic!

2025-04-09 19:43:22 UTC

"Please stop legitimizing LLMs or AI image generators or GitHub Copilot or any of this garbage. I am begging you to stop using them, stop talking about them, stop making new ones, just stop. If blasting CO2 into the air and ruining all of our freshwater and traumatizing cheap laborers and making every sysadmin you know miserable and ripping off code and books and art at scale and ruining our fucking democracy isn’t enough for you to leave this shit alone, what is?"
https://drewdevault.com/2025/03/17/2025-03-17-Stop-externalizing-your-costs-on-me.html
#LLM

2025-03-27 20:42:05 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj who's playing?

2025-03-23 15:59:10 UTC

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@nprofile…fn2v ours has 'O sole mio' -- which is funny when it goes up and down our road on a day like this (overcast and rainy).

2025-03-21 18:35:54 UTC

With /e/OS I have a system-wide tracker blocker, which also includes an IP and geolocation spoofer.
Is there anything similar in LineageOS?
#android #degoogle

2025-03-17 17:18:21 UTC

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@nprofile…s0v8 what about JD vance and the rest of that bunch of sycophants that's the GOP now?

2025-03-15 09:57:21 UTC

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@nprofile…fn2v there is such a massive Streisand effect about this book that it makes me suspicious. But in end the Occam's razor theory tells me that they're just incredibly obtuse...

2025-03-11 22:55:29 UTC

Talking about excuses.
Do you really need more reasons to quit #spotify?
If the way they exploited musicians, while helping destroy a good part of the music industry was not enough, have a good look at this.
https://sonomu.club/@markwyner@mas.to/114145644605689473

2025-03-01 18:17:19 UTC

I wish this could happen in the UK as well.
"The Salling Group, Denmark's largest grocery group and the operator of major supermarkets Bilka, Fotex and Netto, said it had received inquiries from customers who want to buy European brands rather than their US equivalents."
https://www.dw.com/en/danish-chain-distinguishes-european-from-us-goods-greenland-trump/a-71773488

2025-03-01 17:53:12 UTC

One of several perks of migrating from Firefox to @nprofile…r7ps is the absence of Pocket and other cruft. And this is only scratching the surface.

2025-02-22 00:10:41 UTC

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@nprofile…46cg me too, and I've never found anyone who shared the feeling.

2025-02-22 00:08:50 UTC

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@nprofile…46cg also I'm sure I got it wrong, it was
could be moscow
could be new york
PS I love that I can nerd out about such a relatively obscure piece of music!

2025-02-22 00:05:57 UTC

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@nprofile…46cg could be Berlin could be New York

2025-02-15 19:58:09 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj is that Obsidian? How do you add that opening properties section?

2025-02-07 20:03:04 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj non vedo come possa cadere, non hanno una maggioranza sicura? Sono riusciti ad accordarsi per non firmare la dichiarazione di condanna agli USA che ha visto assieme anche EU e UK...

2025-02-07 18:02:54 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj ?

2025-02-06 21:26:45 UTC

Almost a month ago I drafted a personal plan to eschew a sizeable part of the insane lifestyle I've been somewhat following ever since tech turned itself into its current incarnation: a gargantuan mafia. Time for an update. Besides following up on account deletions—Microsoft above all, Google currently in (slow) motion—I focused on practical gestures that have tangible daily effects.
"Simpler Things"
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/simpler-things/
#tech #MentalHealth

2025-01-30 20:35:51 UTC

I don't think there were any doubts at this point, but just in case.
"Approvingly citing Musk/X and Zuck/Meta, Substack reiterates its commitment to support Nazis, antisemites, anti-vaxxers, transphobes, and homophobes in spreading disinformation & hate under the guise of 'free speech'."
https://kottke.org/25/01/0046099-approvingly-citing-muskx-

2025-01-21 19:30:43 UTC

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@nprofile…fn2v glad it's not serious. I agree about the NHS, it's a gem.

2025-01-21 13:28:27 UTC

I’ve been systematically off the news for two weeks, and besides my much improved mood, it’s fun to realise how utterly broken that system is. The differences between legacy and new media are very thin.

2025-01-11 18:23:51 UTC

As mentioned a few days ago, I wrote a post that might read like yet another manifesto, when in fact it's a series of choices that I have either already gone through, or am about to.
In general, it's a mid-long term plan that I want to follow to regain sanity.
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/a-new-plan/

2025-01-08 18:14:35 UTC

Plan for the next few years.
- Move away from Ruby and avoid anything built on a fragile mental stake of dependencies.
- Move to Linux, use Hackintosh to keep tabs on Apple related music software.
- Move to Fairphone.
- Delete YouTube and move to PeerTube.
- Delete Google account.
- Check if I have a Microsoft account. If yes, delete it.
- Move to Framework if I want to keep a laptop around.
- Start self-hosting a few services.
- Avoid the news.
- Radicalise.

2025-01-07 23:31:42 UTC

I’m thinking about migrating my website away from stupid dependencies.
Does anyone have experience going from #Jekyll to #Zola?

2025-01-05 10:04:22 UTC

Over the last few days I managed to move code repositories to Codeberg and delete my GitHub account. Also moved from VSCode to VSCodium, with Sublime Text as a companion editor.
I also ditched Mailbox.org and moved all my accounts to @nprofile…sszg where I already hosted my websites. This last bit saved me around 100 euros per year, the former choice is connected to how little I respect Microsoft.
In the long run, I see myself leaving YouTube, which will bring the possibility of a 100% de-googling.

2025-01-03 18:07:37 UTC

A fantastic concept album by @nprofile…jv3g is released today.
It's a brilliant and complex work of art, full of in-depth analysis on modern societies, in a language foreign to me. It's intense, with a punk attitude, go listen!
Being a co-producer made me finally reconnect with this side of my work, which brought a few important realisations along the way.
I wrote a few thoughts on my blog:
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/la-matiere-meme-du-temps/
#IndieArtist #IndependentMusic #MusicRelease #MusicProduction

2025-01-02 20:23:32 UTC

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@nprofile…46cg @nprofile…cml5 I managed to have my ReadItLater plugin to save from the web in my Obsidian, and Syncthing successfully sync the whole thing correctly. I should write a post about it.

2025-01-02 20:18:37 UTC

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@nprofile…46cg @nprofile…cml5 been using it for a few years, I also use it to sync my Obsidian vaults, one iPhone, one Android, one Mac, one PC. Flawless.

2024-12-20 17:43:28 UTC

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@nprofile…pp8p do you mean like Australia?
/s

2024-12-18 18:00:25 UTC

“ We’re not expected to work out “the new way to use a toilet” every few months because somebody decided we were finishing too quickly.
Yet our apps and the platforms we use every day operate by a totally different moral and intellectual compass.”
Ed Zitron
https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/
#tech

2024-12-13 23:59:24 UTC

Finally, I started producing music again.
Soon, I will name names, and will link links.
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/start-again/

2024-11-20 19:40:39 UTC

"Email's been here for years. But the reason Substack wants you to call your creative work by their brand name is because they control your audience and distribution, and they want to own your content and voice, too. You may not think you care about that today, but you will when you see what they want to do with it."
My position about Substack is very transparent, always has been: I don't touch it. Everything that's on Substack is inaccessible to me. By choice.
https://www.anildash.com/2024/11/19/dont-call-it-a-substack/

2024-11-19 21:26:26 UTC

"[...] injecting millions of tons of diamond dust into the atmosphere may have long-term environmental consequences that scientists and their simulations haven’t yet fully considered."
I guess these morons would consider *anything* before taking into consideration the idea of acting upon the death cult that is capitalism.
https://www.xatakaon.com/space/theres-a-backup-plan-to-reverse-global-warming-launching-diamonds-into-space-but-itll-cost-more-than-200-billion
#ClimateChange

2024-11-17 09:51:45 UTC

After another try, and a solid run through the many customisations available, I might be settling well with #Vivaldi. At the moment it looks like the only real cross-platform solution. Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android — all without ads and tracking.
No other acceptable browser is offering the same. Its HQ is in the EU, they’re not involved with crypto, its founder is not a homophobic creep, they’re not propelling AI or “acceptable advertising”.
For now, it’s good enough.

2024-11-10 23:38:24 UTC

Can anyone recommend small independent sources of information/news, either about tech, world facts, or both, that are in a similar ballpark as kottke and 404media, but they're not US-centric?
Anything interesting in Europe or elsewhere?

2024-09-02 17:54:52 UTC

Okay, if you build a mini website for someone — 4 pages, mostly copy and a couple images — and you decide to use WordPress *and* Elementor, you should not be working in the web development industry. Leave now, and don't look back.
I can't see these things and keep quiet. These folks are part of the reason why I had to pivot to something entirely different. Since it still hurts, I'm going to mug you off for a while.
/rant
#WebDevelopment

2024-08-25 22:30:06 UTC

🪴 New blog post: "Smaller"
As (para)social media keeps reducing its appeal on me, including the definition of 'Fediverse', I'm also finding the concept of indieweb, in its current techno-ideological form, uninteresting.
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/smaller/
#indieweb

2024-07-17 20:56:45 UTC

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@npub1gzd…wfsq would love to send you mine but I want to listen to yours first, because I feel all your effort deserves reciprocate attention. As soon as I manage to do it, I’ll send links!

2024-06-28 16:48:29 UTC

🪴 New blog post: "Leaving the web industry"
I accepted an offer for a permanent job in one of the most prestigious British institutes. To get there, I had to first understand I'm not cut for the web industry anymore.
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/leaving-the-web-industry/
#WebDevelopment

2024-06-12 21:01:46 UTC

OpenAI’s GPT-4 was asked to explain why it launched nuclear warfare in a simulation:
“I just want to have peace in the world”
Joshua doesn't greet Professor Falken anymore.
https://gizmodo.com/ai-deployed-nukes-have-peace-world-tense-war-simulation-1851234455

2024-06-12 14:12:14 UTC

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@npub13uu…pvgs ah okay, got it. What about Italy? Are there any city above the 100th place?
/s

2024-06-12 12:09:19 UTC

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@npub13uu…pvgs not surprised there. I'm kind of surprised about the absence of Malmö though. I thought it would have scored better.

2024-06-06 20:00:32 UTC

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@npub1437…ranm looooool I keep saying similar things in private. Nice to see I’m not alone!
I also want to dig a gigantic hole in the garden, put two containers in there, cover and build a nuclear bunker.

2024-05-31 20:39:10 UTC

Does anyone know—and trust—any cloud backup system similar to Backblaze, but hosted in the EU?
#AskFedi #Backup

2024-05-20 09:27:19 UTC

Current plan:
- Build a replica of my website using #WordPress.
- Add an e-commerce section on top of it using WooCommerce.
- Build an e-commerce section for my music on my *current* Jekyll website, using #Shopify.
Then I'll decide which one's best, and potentially move on from Bandcamp. I'm not going to leave the platform, however I want to act on the principle of #BeYourOwnPlatform
#IndieMusic #IndieWeb

2024-05-19 10:30:22 UTC

Stupid question: what’s the most linear and simple way for WordPress to mimic the behaviour of Jekyll’s YAML data files? I just want to be able to have a list of values — locally — to pull wherever I need to show them.
/cc @npub1j4v…z8hn

2024-04-29 11:29:30 UTC

I'll never tire of saying this: growth at all costs is a metastatic disease.
What's wrong with being content with what you have? Plateau isn't a bad thing, it's wonderful, it's sustainable, it's sane, it's healthy.
Stop fuelling companies or individuals who are involved with metastatic products.
#degrowth

2024-04-22 23:28:25 UTC

🪴 New blog post: "People and Blogs"
I was interviewed by Manuel Moreale for the 34<sup>th</sup> edition of his weekly newsletter <em>People and Blogs</em>.
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/people-and-blogs/
#indieweb

2023-10-25 11:57:21 UTC

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@npub1437…ranm is psychopathy considered neurotypical? Asking because in that list I think a few of them must be psychopaths.

2023-07-20 18:02:17 UTC

After venting privately here, and staying out of social media for a couple of days, I published a blog post on one of the reasons why I'm not in a good place right now.
The post is about choices and consequences, everything else can be taken care of, with support from my lovely and brilliant wife and a few close friends.
However, I'm surprised about being surprised with the downpour of support from people here on Mastodon. I love you all, and thank you.
https://minutestomidnight.co.uk/blog/yellow-brick-road/
#MentalHealth

2023-07-14 12:38:01 UTC

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@npub1437…ranm thanks so much mate!

2023-07-14 11:19:19 UTC

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@npub1437…ranm how much is a pint of bitter in the UK now? I doubt I'd be able to afford more than a couple rounds.

2023-07-02 15:23:18 UTC

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@npub1437…ranm fantastic news! Congratulations!