Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social)

No longer on Twitter. You can find me on Bluesky as @austern.bsky.social or on Mastodon as @[email protected]

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

I'm done here. I don't like what Musk has become (or maybe what he's revealed himself to have been). I don't like what Twitter is now. I don't want any part of it or to support it in any way. You can find me on Mastodon or Bluesky: @[email protected] or @austern.bsky.social.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

I'm done here. I don't like what Musk has turned himself into (or maybe what he's revealed himself to have been all along). I don't like what Twitter is becoming. I don't want any part of it or to support it in any way. You can find me on Mastodon: @[email protected].

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

@jmeowmeow Just followed you. I'm @[email protected].

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

Always cool to see someone I know in a NYT crossword puzzle! I assume you've already seen it, @ScottWesterfeld, but tagging you just in case.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that quote recently too.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

Finally signed up for my Mastodon account: I'm @[email protected]. I'll probably lurk for a while, to get some idea of how things work over there, before I post anything.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

Even when it's eight letters, the answer is still always OREO.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

The hotel where I was staying in NYC had a "Crypt Gallery": a bunch of computer art, with solicitations for NFTs of them. Strangely enough, I was able to resist the temptation to "buy" any of the NFTs.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

... And I've just gotten a notification that my ballot had been received and counted. I like getting that definite notification to close the loop.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

I just voted. Have you voted yet?

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

Got a late start on the Halloween decorations this year, but we did find time to put up at least a few spiderwebs and skeletons.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

Maybe I should give Mastodon a try too.

[James Gleick @JamesGleick]

This is a Mastodon “quick start guide.” It’s not as simple as Twitter, yet. Still … https://t.co/muLPrC7Cmj

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

@johnregehr Migrate to the blockchain, of course.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

I'm afraid I haven't read Volume 4A yet, but I still thought I needed this.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

@UrsulaV @FakeAlanBostick More like PETA asking to be paid in foie gras.

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

There's a cat head in our closet. (I suspect the rest of the cat is in there somewhere too.)

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

It would be interesting to see a similar diagram of the US.

[Simon Evans @DrSimEvans]

Today seems like a good day to share this amazing graphic of UK land use

(I estimate solar farms cover less than one tenth of one percent of the UK – 0.08%)

https://t.co/W6LdsR0fun

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

@zoezolbrod I should read it! One thing that fascinates me about Czernowitz (now Чернівці or Черновцы depending on whether you're speaking Ukrainian or Russian) is that it wasn't just one of the easternmost cities of Austria-Hungary but specifically a German speaking city, "Little Vienna".

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

My cousin @zoezolbrod just published a piece in Salon about our great grandparents, the things we recently learned about them, and her relationship with family history. It's a good essay, even without the family connection.

https://t.co/csp4Fdgo6k

[Matt Austern (@austern.bsky.social) @austern]

One surprise from my great uncle's memoir: contrary to what I'd always believed, we don't know for sure that my great grandparents were killed in the Holocaust. It's the likeliest guess, but their children never found out for sure. Their names aren't in the Yad Vashem database.