Notes for July 13, 2026

Bluesky Is Not The Center of The Atmosphere via The Digital Renaisance

I use Bluesky — it's pretty much my only social media presence. But Sam is right: it's only a small part of the Atmosphere, even if it was the original app here. The biggest reason I stick with the main instance instead of moving to something different (and with more/better features) like mu.social is because I have nightmares from when I first migrated to Mastodon from Twitter.

I found a cool instance, then it shut down so I had to migrate. Then I found another instance but it got raided by the FBI and its owners didn't tell anyone until months after the fact. Then I moved to another instance and that one shut down too. Decentralization is great and all, but I don't have any more migrations in me right now.

My website is ATmospheric via bekapod.dev

Really good read on hosting your blog in the Atmosphere. For people much more technologically inclined than me anyway; I always screw up anything I try to self host and that's why I love Leaflet.

the internet is becoming increasingly hostile towards VPNs via basement blog

I feel this more every day. I used to use an always-on vpn and it only broke things like banking apps or maybe the HR website for my job. Now it feels like almost nothing works. The only thing I use now is iCloud Private relay. It only works inside of Safari, but (most) websites will still load with it and I get the illusion of privacy or something like that.

Astronomers find sugar near the creamy center of the Milky Way via The Register

The discovery of interstellar erythrulose suggests that the interstellar medium could be a viable source of sugar feedstock for the prebiotic synthesis of the first nucleic acids, not only on the primitive Earth but also elsewhere in the Universe

TIL there is sugar in space.

Tribute Bands Team Up for "The Nu-Metal Values Ozzfest Rehash Tour" via Consequence

The three acts performing on most dates are Twist (Korn), Full Nelson (Limp Bizkit), and Diamond Eyes (Deftones), with select appearances by Oldschool Hollywood (SOAD), Projekt Hybrid Theory (Linkin Park), Stricken (Disturbed), Forfeit (Cehvelle), and Redefined (Sevendust)

This must be how my dad felt when he saw that Pink Floyd tribute band a few years ago 🤪