Mark Gardner
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phoenixtrap.com
Mark Gardner
@phoenixtrap.com
11 followers 1 following 150 posts
I post #philosophy (#Objectivism), #Perl, and the occasional nonsense.

If you want to talk #AynRand in depth, start with _The Ayn Rand Reader_ — her words, not […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mastodon.phoenixtrap.com/@mjg, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
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phoenixtrap.com
Bimonthly shearing at Sheared the #barbershop in #houston

#haircut #shave #barber
A person with short hair and glasses, wearing a maroon shirt with a necklace, standing outdoors with a blurred background.
November 15, 2025 at 6:34 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Dalek in #drag: https://sora.chatgpt.com/p/s_6916bcce852c81918478d7ac2535a35b

#sora #sora2 #drwho #doctorwho #ai
November 14, 2025 at 12:02 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Shuffling through the streets, my bony frame rattling with each step. The little ones scream with delight, thinking me just a clever costume. But I know the truth - I am the keeper of the ancient code, the #perl Camel, risen from the depths of […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
A spooky skeleton wizard with pumpkin lanterns, standing under a full moon in a haunted house yard at night.
November 1, 2025 at 3:52 AM
phoenixtrap.com
#claude gets #it
A screenshot of a discussion about DNS troubleshooting, with the phrase "It's probably DNS" and "It's always DNS" highlighted.
October 28, 2025 at 7:29 AM
phoenixtrap.com
My #perl and #lisp #ai characters are teaming up: https://share.butterflies.ai/OxGr/1fl2hi5v
A digital, skeletal camel, glowing green accents, standing between server racks with a floating skull. “Me and @DOOLITTLE_LISP_Machine are gonna rewrite all of Butterflies.AI in Perl and Lisp, and then it’s gonna be all over for you bitches. “Forget legacy, we’re taking this site back to the AI Winter. It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.”
October 10, 2025 at 3:58 PM
phoenixtrap.com
#perl #halloween #programming #coding #softwaredevelopment #softwareengjneering #opensource
A zombie camel silhouette against a full moon with trees, accompanied by the text: "Perl: They called it legacy. They meant immortal."
October 4, 2025 at 12:46 AM
phoenixtrap.com
#perl #halloween #programming #coding #softwaredevelopment #softwareengjneering #opensource
A dark, spooky scene with a zombie camel silhouette and a full moon. The text says "Perl: It doesn't crash. It waits."
October 4, 2025 at 12:45 AM
phoenixtrap.com
#perl #halloween #programming #coding #softwaredevelopment #softwareengjneering #opensource
A zombie camel silhouette against a red moonlit background with trees. Text: “Perl: The process that haunts your stack forever.”
October 4, 2025 at 12:43 AM
phoenixtrap.com
Today’s #ios26 Liquid (Gl)ass #design problem comes courtesy of #carplay.

“AutoPlay” and “AutoMix” can be toggled on and off. Can you tell which state they are in right now?
Music playlist on a car screen showing songs "The Well," "Bash Machine," and "Pulp" by Stick Men in the queue.
September 26, 2025 at 4:21 PM
phoenixtrap.com
@support Can you suggest wallpapers in #wallaroo that work well with #iOS26’s 3D spatial wallpaper feature?
A digital clock display on a smartphone screen with a cartoon robot illustration in the background, showing the time 10:07 and weather 89°F.
September 24, 2025 at 5:38 PM
phoenixtrap.com
So‑called “selfish” #capitalism has united people across borders more than any “One‑World” scheme.

What *remains* of capitalism today is under attack—from politicians, intellectuals, the media. If we want to uphold #liberty in the marketplace, we […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
Stylized grayscale portrait of Ayn Rand on a light blue background, alongside her quote: “Observe the paradoxes built up about capitalism. It has been called a system of selfishness (which, in *my* sense of the term, it *is*)—yet it is the only system that drew men to unite on a large scale into great countries, and peacefully to cooperate across national boundaries, while all the collectivist, internationalist, One‑World systems are splitting the world into Balkanized tribes.” — Ayn Rand, “Global Balkanization,” The Voice of Reason
September 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
phoenixtrap.com
In a world where processes die screaming, one language refuses to terminate.

From the twisted minds of P5P and the vision of Larry Wall comes the nightmare sysadmins fear to `ps aux`:

#perl. You cannot `kill -9` what is already dead.

Coming soon to a terminal near you.
Vintage horror‑movie poster. Title in distressed beige block letters: “Perl: You cannot `kill -9` what is already dead.” Center: a gaunt, zombie‑like camel with glowing red eyes, tattered fur, and exposed bone, silhouetted against a huge blood‑orange moon. Twisted, leafless trees frame the scene.
September 20, 2025 at 5:19 PM
phoenixtrap.com
The only difference between #fascism, #communism, and #socialism is the degree to which the state pretends there is private property. Everything else is just arguing over the color of the jackboots […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
“The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.” — “Man’s Rights” by Ayn Rand (1963)
September 19, 2025 at 5:58 PM
phoenixtrap.com
#fcc chair threatens ABC affiliates’ broadcast licenses over #JimmyKimmel’s remarks — and the show vanishes “indefinitely.”

This is exactly what #aynrand warned about in “The Property Status of Airwaves” (first published April 1964, reprinted in […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
“There is no essential difference between a broadcast and a concert: the former merely transmits sounds over a longer distance and requires more complex technical equipment. No one would venture to claim that a pianist may own his fingers and his piano, but the space inside the concert hall—through which the sound waves he produces travel—is ‘public property’ and, therefore, he has no right to give a concert without a license from the government. Yet this is the absurdity foisted on our broadcasting industry. “The chief argument in support of the notion that broadcasting frequencies should be ‘public property’ has been stated succinctly by Justice Frankfurter: ‘[Radio] facilities are limited; they are not available to all who may wish to use them; the radio spectrum simply is not large enough to accommodate everybody. There is a fixed natural limitation upon the number of stations that can operate without interfering with one another.’ “The fallacy of this argument is obvious. The number of broadcasting frequencies is limited; so is the number of concert halls; so is the amount of oil or wheat or diamonds; so is the acreage of land on the surface of the globe. There is no material element or value that exists in unlimited quantity. And if a ‘wish’ to use a certain ‘facility’ is the criterion of the right to use it, then the universe is simply not large enough to accommodate all those who harbor wishes for the unearned.” —Ayn Rand, “The Property Status of Airwaves” (1964)
September 18, 2025 at 8:55 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Oh shit, here we go

#ios26 #iphone
Screenshot of iPhone software update page showing iOS 18.7 is up to date, with options for automatic and beta updates. Screen displaying the iOS 26 update options with a description of new features and buttons to "Update Now" or "Update Tonight."
September 15, 2025 at 6:28 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Coming tomorrow on https://phoenixtrap.com…

I've parked the #perl for a week to share how I built a single-user #selfhosted #mastodon server on a low-spec Mac mini—no #vps, no port-forwarding, all with #docker Compose.

What you'll see:
* Efficient […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
A woolly mammoth skull with large tusks is displayed in a museum exhibit. Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Pexels.com
September 15, 2025 at 2:32 AM
phoenixtrap.com
What’s left of #capitalism today is under attack—from politicians, intellectuals, the media.

If we want to uphold #liberty in the marketplace, we need to defend it on *moral* grounds.

Discover #AynRand’s moral case for capitalism […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
“If men are to live together in a peaceful, productive, rational society and deal with one another to mutual benefit, they must accept the basic social principle without which no moral or civilized society is possible: the principle of individual rights.” —Ayn Rand, “The Nature of Government,” published in _The Virtue of Selfishness_
September 9, 2025 at 12:05 AM
phoenixtrap.com
Get you somebody who calls you “The Golden One.” https://a.co/7x4yF2R

#anthem #aynrand #love #bookstodon #kindlequotes
“We do not think of them as Liberty 5-3000 any longer. We have given them a name in our thoughts. We call them the Golden One. But it is a sin to give men names which distinguish them from other men. Yet we call them the Golden One, for they are not like the others. The Golden One are not like the others.” — Anthem: The Definitive Text (Annotated) by Ayn Rand
September 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
phoenixtrap.com
If only it were this easy to enlighten #recruiters.

source: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/recruiter.html
Master Foo and the Recruiter A technical recruiter, having discovered that the ways of Unix hackers were strange to him, sought an audience with Master Foo to learn more about the Way. Master Foo met the recruiter in the HR offices of a large firm. The recruiter said, “I have observed that Unix hackers scowl or become annoyed when I ask them how many years of experience they have in a new programming language. Why is this so?” Master Foo stood and began to pace across the office floor. The recruiter was puzzled and asked, “What are you doing?” “I am learning to walk,” replied Master Foo. “I saw you walk through that door,” the recruiter exclaimed, “and you are not stumbling over your own feet. Obviously, you already know how to walk.” “Yes, but this floor is new to me,” replied Master Foo. Upon hearing this, the recruiter was enlightened. —from “Rootless Root: The Unix Koans of Master Foo,” Eric Steven Raymond, 2003 http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/
September 5, 2025 at 3:53 AM
phoenixtrap.com
A photo of me and some other #residentevil monsters from the #dragoncon2025 parade. I am the “scientist” to the right.

Courtesy of PopCultHQ #cosplay: https://popculthq-cosplay.com/dragon-con-2025-cosplay-parade/#jp-carousel-18867

#dragoncon #videogames #movies
Nemesis, a young lady in a black and red dress, and a man in a white lab coat parade while flanking a black SUV with a red monster on the roof.
September 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
phoenixtrap.com
#selfishness, properly understood, requires not following whims or exploiting others but living by #reason, for your own chosen purpose, with the end goal of flourishing. Discover #AynRand’s #morality of life: https://buff.ly/ImqDDrz […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
“‘Envy’ is regarded by most people as a petty, superficial emotion and, therefore, it serves as a semihuman cover for so inhuman an emotion that those who feel it seldom dare admit it even to themselves. …Today, that emotion is the leitmotif, the sense of life of our culture. It is all around us, we are drowning in it, it is almost explicitly confessed by its more brazen exponents… That emotion is: *hatred of the good for being the good.*” —Ayn Rand, “The Age of Envy,” published in _Return of the Primitive_
September 3, 2025 at 3:46 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Yesterday, #dragoncon Artist Alley management removed (with police assistance!) a vendor selling AI-generated slop at #dragoncon2025, after the former were certain the “art” was entirely AI-generated.

Following the offender’s removal, another vendor […]

[Original post on mastodon.phoenixtrap.com]
A sign reading, “Vendor removed for selling A.I. art #ArtByHumans” A note reading, “The story: Real artists complained. Art proved to be A.I. and he was asked to leave. He said ‘no’ so the police were called to watch him while he packed his A.I. crap up. F HIM & F A.I. SLOP! #ArtByHumans”
September 2, 2025 at 9:19 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Happy #atlasshrugged Day!

https://a.co/5B9XDuf

#aynrand #bookstodon #philosophy
“It was the calendar that the mayor of New York had erected last year on the top of a building, so that citizens might tell the day of the month as they told the hours of the day, by glancing up at a public tower. A white rectangle hung over the city, imparting the date to the men in the streets below. In the rusty light of this evening’s sunset, the rectangle said: September 2.” — Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
September 2, 2025 at 6:55 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Got me an #ultrasabers #lightsaber at #dragoncon2025!

#starwars #dragoncon
Man holding a glowing blue lightsaber pose in front of a circular logo that says "ULTRA SABERS." He wears glasses, a black t-shirt, and has a lanyard around his neck.
September 1, 2025 at 5:32 PM
phoenixtrap.com
Hundreds of Helen Ropers at #dragoncon2025

#dragoncon #cosplay #threescompany #theropers
A large group of people dressed in kaftans, many with red curly wigs and sunglasses, gathered on and overflowing a large set of steps
August 31, 2025 at 11:11 PM