Back in the early 2000s, I used to have to buy Linux distros on CD from eBay. People burned ISOs onto CDs and sold them to those of us who only had dial-up Internet, which made downloading Linux on our own take an ungodly amount of time. Once or twice I bought a distro from an office store. It came in a nice cardboard package with a printed user guide. It was so exciting to install Mandrake Linux and Red Hat back then. I loved StarOffice. Those were the days. My first taste of freedom from Microsoft, which was known at the time for its dreaded "blue screen of death."

Am I the only person here who is addicted to natural peanut butter? Peanut butter is not safe around me when I have an apple, dark chocolate, or even a spoon.

I really don't understand how so many freedom-loving and privacy-respecting people using Nostr ignore #Monero in favor of Bitcoin. I've used Monero to send to individuals, to pay for VPNs, to buy a Pixel phone (with GrapheneOS), to buy ebooks, to tip waitresses, and more. It's dirt cheap to send and it's private -- no one can see who sent how much to whom. It's truly like digital cash. It needs no "lightning network." I assume BTC's popularity here comes from its quick rise in value (in relation to the dollar). What's more important: fast wealth or privacy? I will never have to worry about people seeing how much crypto is in my wallet (could lead to physical threats), or taxing my "unrealized gains" (could be financially devastating), or tracking my crypto spending (invading my privacy). In your "freedom," don't be taken by greed for wealth. That's not true freedom. www.getmonero.org

I find that most Nostr desktop web apps totally suck. Which ones do you use for microblogging that work decently?

I would love to try duck eggs.

If there isn't one already (I don't imagine it would be hard for the smarties to create), there should be a Nostr landing page, or home page, for individual IDs. It could show links like Linktree, or intros, contact info, etc. Something we can update. More extensive than our normal profiles shown in most Nostr apps.

How do I know which Nostr ID is the real one for Ross Ulbricht? I see at least a couple of them.

It makes sense to me, due to the nature of Nostr, that people should have two or three Nostr IDs. With one, you should have the freedom to say whatever is on your mind in the presence of contacts you don't know in real life -- but that one should be an anonymous ID. It can be reserved for potentially controversial posts that could be used against you, like those that express certain political, pharmaceutical, or religious views. Another ID might be a more measured, professional one, a public face of sorts, where you are well "behaved" and won't get in much trouble with the thought police. Thirdly, one could have a personal ID for contacts you know in real life. (Better yet, don't be on social media with your real-life friends -- actually be with them! Or send personalized direct messages through Signal.) All the while, in any case, it's important to keep in mind that whatever you say will likely stay on your "permanent record." You don't want to post stupid things in your 20s, for example, and have it haunt you in your 40s.

Sometimes when I use another Nostr client meant for the same purpose (such as microblogging), I feel like I'm cheating against the one I normally use. Of course that's silly. But the experience just shows that the protocol is decentralized and user-centric -- it's not meant to tie us down to one centralized platform. I hope Nostr developers continue to make strides in their great work. It's already cool; I just want it to be extra, extra supercool in five years.

I might be kind to a random woman in town, because we should love our neighbor as ourselves. But God forbid that we worship her! I should love my mom in a significantly greater way, because we are to honor our mother and father. But God forbid that we worship her! We should love the Virgin Mary more than any other woman, because she is Jesus' mother -- i.e., the Mother of God -- and because Jesus gave her to us at the Cross to be our mother, too. But God forbid that we worship her! Catholics are big on both reverencing Mary and having no other gods before the true God.

It's been hard to hang out on Nostr because of the non-stop Bitcoin chatter. But I come back today after a few months, and I see people are mostly taking about normal human things. That's great. I also learned of a new Linux client and the existence of remote signers. Super cool.