#Modern PHP

[aedininsight]

Leveraging HTMP in WordPress: A Modern Approach to Interactive Web Apps

🚀 Ready to level up your WordPress game? Learn how to integrate HTMP for interactive, dynamic web apps! 💻✨ Boost your dev skills with modern PHP! #WordPress #WebDevelopment #HTMP #PHP #InteractiveDesign #Gutenberg #AJAX #Innovation #Technology #WebDev

As web development evolves, it’s crucial for developers to adopt tools and frameworks that streamline workflows while enabling modern, interactive experiences. One such tool is HTMP (Hyper Text Markup PHP), a new approach designed to make PHP development simpler and more interactive for web applications. If you’re working with WordPress and want to harness the power of HTMP, this post will show…

[thunderlina]

In the wake of the TikTok ban and revival as a mouthpiece for fascist propaganda, as well as the downfall of Twitter and Facebook/Facebook-owned platforms to the same evils, I think now is a better time than ever to say LEARN HTML!!! FREE YOURSELVES FROM THE SHACKLES OF MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND EMBRACE THE INDIE WEB!!!

You can host a website on Neocities for free as long as it's under 1GB (which is a LOT more than it sounds like let me tell you) but if that's not enough you can get 50GB of space (and a variety of other perks) for only $5 a month.

And if you can't/don't want to pay for the extra space, sites like File Garden and Catbox let you host files for free that you can easily link into NeoCities pages (I do this to host videos on mine!) (It also lets you share files NeoCities wouldn't let you upload for free anyways, this is how I upload the .zip files for my 3DS themes on my site.)

Don't know how to write HTML/CSS? No problem. W3schools is an invaluable resource with free lessons on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and a whole slew of other programming languages, both for web development and otherwise.

Want a more traditional social media experience? SpaceHey is a platform that mimics the experience of 2000s MySpace

Struggling to find independent web pages that cater to your interests via major search engines? I've got you covered. Marginalia and Wiby are search engines that specifically prioritize non-commercial content. Marginalia also has filters that let you search for more specific categories of website, like wikis, blogs, academia, forums, and vintage sites.

Maybe you wanna log off the modern internet landscape altogether and step back into the pre-social media web altogether, well, Protoweb lets you do just that. It's a proxy service for older browsers (or really just any browser that supports HTTP, but that's mostly old browsers now anyways) that lets you visit restored snapshots of vintage websites.

Protoweb has a lot of Geocities content archived, but if you're interested in that you can find even more old Geocities sites over on the Geocities Gallery

And really this is just general tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. If you dig a little deeper you can find loads more interesting stuff out there. The internet doesn't have to be a miserable place full of nothing but doomposting and targeted ads. The first step to making it less miserable is for YOU, yes YOU, to quit spending all your time on it looking at the handful of miserable websites big tech wants you to spend all your time on.

[thepearl256]

Top Tools for Web Development in 2025

Web development is an ever-evolving field, requiring developers to stay updated with the latest tools, frameworks, and software. These tools not only enhance productivity but also simplify complex development processes. Whether you’re building a small business website or a complex web application, having the right tools in your toolkit can make all the difference. Here’s a rundown of the top…

[ceburealestate88]

modern 5BR HOUSE CORONA DEL MAR TALISAY CEBU

[sophiaseo34]

Evolution of PHP and Its Future

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, is a widely used scripting language for web development. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, PHP has evolved significantly, adapting to changing technology trends and incorporating new features and improvements. In this blog, we will delve into the evolution of PHP, exploring the significant versions, modern development practices, and the future outlook of this dynamic language. As a PHP developer or someone interested in web development, understanding the evolution of PHP is crucial to stay up to date with the latest advancements and make informed decisions when building web applications. So, let's embark on a journey through the evolution of PHP and discover how it has shaped the world of web development.

Evolution of PHP Versions

Since its inception, PHP has undergone several major releases, each bringing significant improvements and new features to the language. Let's explore the evolution of PHP versions and understand the key advancements in each iteration.

PHP 1: 

The first version of PHP was released, providing basic functionality for web development.

PHP 2: 

The second version of PHP introduced support for dynamic web pages and database connectivity.

PHP 3: 

Support for object-oriented programming, which greatly enhanced the language’s capabilities.

PHP 4: 

Introduced several new features, including support for XML, improved database connectivity, and the ability to create web services.

PHP 5:

Enhanced error handling mechanisms, Improved performance, and memory management.

PHP 7:

Introduction of the Zend Engine 3, Addition of scalar type declarations for function arguments and return values, Introduction of anonymous classes, and closure improvements.

PHP 8:

Introduce JIT compiler, Addition of union types, allowing variables and function return types to accept multiple possible types. Enabling metadata to be attached to classes, methods, and properties.

The evolution of PHP versions demonstrates the continuous effort to enhance the language's performance, flexibility, and functionality. Each release has introduced features and improvements to make PHP more robust, secure, and developer-friendly.

Modern PHP Development Practices

With the evolution of PHP, modern development practices have emerged, enabling developers to write more efficient, maintainable, and scalable code. Let's explore some of the critical practices that have gained popularity in the PHP ecosystem:

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP):

Embracing OOP principles allows developers to organize code into reusable objects and classes.

Encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism facilitate modular and structured code development.

OOP promotes code reusability, separation of concerns, and easier maintenance.

PHP Frameworks:

Utilizing PHP frameworks, such as Laravel, Symfony, or CodeIgniter, streamlines development by providing pre-built components, libraries, and MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.

Frameworks facilitate rapid development, code organization, and everyday tasks like routing, database handling, and user authentication.

They promote best practices and standardize coding conventions, leading to cleaner and more maintainable codebases.

Dependency Management:

Adopting dependency management tools like Composer simplifies the integration of external libraries and packages into PHP projects.

Composer allows developers to define project dependencies and automatically manages their installation and updates.

It promotes code reuse, reduces wheel reinvention, and ensures project dependencies are easily maintainable.

Unit Testing:

Writing unit tests using frameworks like PHPUnit helps ensure code correctness, identify and prevent bugs, and facilitate code refactoring.

Unit tests provide a safety net when making changes, allowing developers to validate that existing functionality remains intact.

Test-driven development (TDD) is an approach that emphasizes writing tests before writing the actual code, leading to more reliable and maintainable software.

PSR Standards:

The PHP Standards Recommendations (PSR) are guidelines and standards established by the PHP community to promote interoperability and consistency in PHP projects.

Adhering to PSR standards improves code readability, collaboration, and compatibility across different frameworks and libraries.

Following PSR standards ensures that codebases are well-structured, easily maintainable, and accessible to a broader community of developers.

Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD):

Implementing CI/CD pipelines, utilizing tools like Jenkins or GitLab CI, automates the building, testing, and deployment of PHP applications.

Continuous integration ensures that code changes are regularly integrated into a shared repository, preventing integration issues.

Continuous deployment automates deploying code to production environments, ensuring a streamlined release process.

Future Outlook of PHP

PHP has come a long way since its inception, and its future looks promising as it continues to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing web development landscape. Let's explore some key aspects that shape the future outlook of PHP:

Performance and Scalability:

With the introduction of the Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation in PHP 8, performance improvements have already been made.

Further advancements in PHP's runtime engine and optimizations are expected, enhancing its performance and scalability for handling modern web applications.

Language Enhancements:

PHP's development community is continuously working on introducing new language features and improvements to enhance developer productivity and code maintainability.

Future PHP versions may introduce additional language constructs, syntactic sugar, and language-level abstractions to simplify everyday development tasks.

Security Enhancements:

PHP developers increasingly focus on security practices to protect applications from vulnerabilities and attacks.

The PHP community actively releases security updates, and future versions are expected to include enhanced security features and improved default security configurations.

Support for Modern Web Standards:

PHP is expected to continue adapting to modern web standards and technologies, such as HTTP/2, WebSockets, and Progressive Web Applications (PWAs).

Frameworks and libraries will continue to evolve to support these standards, enabling developers to build cutting-edge web applications.

Integration with Emerging Technologies:

PHP will likely integrate with emerging technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Integration with these technologies will open up new possibilities for PHP developers to build intelligent and data-driven applications.

Community Growth and Collaboration:

The PHP community continues to grow, fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and open-source contributions.

PHP conferences, meetups, and online forums provide platforms for developers to connect, learn from each other, and stay updated with the latest trends and advancements.

Compatibility and Legacy Support:

PHP remains committed to backward compatibility, ensuring existing PHP applications can be migrated and maintained without significant disruptions.

Future PHP versions will likely strike a balance between introducing new features and maintaining compatibility with earlier versions.

Conclusion

PHP has evolved significantly over the years, transforming from a simple scripting language to a powerful and versatile tool for web development. In this blog, we explored the evolution of PHP versions, modern PHP development practices, adapting to modern PHP development tools, and the future outlook of PHP.

Are you looking for a trusted partner to develop your software projects?

Contact NodeSol Corp today and schedule a free consultation meeting.

[syscraftonline]

Top 5 PHP Frameworks to Consider in 2023 for Web Development

Explore the best PHP frameworks for web development in 2023. Our top 5 PHP frameworks will help you make the right choice and streamline your workflow.

https://www.syscraftonline.com/blog/php-frameworks-for-web-development-2023

[trainsinanime]

I've finally fixed trainsingames.com, so you can now actually read the things I wrote there, see the screenshots and so on. Just to be clear, this isn't my best work, it's all from 2013 or earlier, I'd definitely do and say things differently now, but hey, I still made it, and I don't want to see it gone.

The site is basically archived. I have no plans to write anything more for it at the moment. Never say never, of course, but given how few games I played over the past years, I don't really see it happening, sorry.

(I also have no plans to open it up to others, sorry, because that's something I'd need to manage, I'd probably need to install a proper CRM and so on, and I just don't have the time or energy for that among all my other hobbies.)

On the website front, I may do some changes, just to make it look nicer, but there's no set time frame for that. I also want to change it to a system where the site is just static HTML that gets regenerated from PHP when I update it (or something like that) to avoid any issues like this one in the future. For the record, the problem was that the Markdown parser I had from ~2007 didn't work with modern PHP versions, so I finally updated it.

And yes, I made trainsingames.com long before this blog, that's where I got the idea for this URL from.

[mckinnon-mp4]

unremarkable days: Sirius black is trying to be a good man, a good brother, a good person. Sirius has a steady job designing book covers for a publishing house, a flat he never leaves, and a traumatized brother who was just removed from the custody of his parents. All in all, it's wildly unremarkable.

archive tags: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Regulus Black, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), ok so this is mostly just sirius trying to take care of a traumatized regulus, Modern AU, Sirius trying to be a father figure, to his brother who was just removed from his home, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Artist Sirius Black, Writer Remus Lupin, Young Regulus Black, Past Child Abuse, Trauma, everyone is sad, Custody Battle, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Past Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Anorexia, Eating Disorders, Domestic Violence

words: 103,104 chapters: 27/?

this is kind of my baby in terms of fics i’ve written, i love it so much. it will probably end up around 30 chapters, but lord knows. artist!sirius x writer!remus in a modern take on a high society young adult recovering from his fall from grace while trying to hide his sexuality, take care of his brother, and fall in love. will his secret self destruction be the only thing that stands between him and the future he wants?

read it on ao3 here!

It was stressful to figure out what he needed, in the way of treatment. He had finally gotten things sorted today after several hours of meeting with Vincent Square and then following up with Orri. He would be spending the next weeks in the Orri PHP program, while he was working through supervised visitation with his parents, as well as the holidays. If, during that process, he needed a higher level of care, he had to take a bed at Vincent Square. If they decided, upon the completion of the holidays and the scheduled return to his life, January 15th, that he needed a higher level of care, he needed to take a bed at Vincent Square. None of this was binding or anything, but it was something he agreed to, so it wasn’t like he would be comfortable backing out. He wished he would, somewhere in the back of his mind, because he was just so much more comfortable at home, making the same disordered decisions he was making right now. He wanted to keep avoiding meals, expelling his demons with his purges, and destroying himself. But he couldn’t. No, if he wanted to continue to be Reggie’s guardian. 

It was a long fucking year.

Sirius had crashed on the couch. If he was honest, he crashed on the couch more often than he slept in his bed. He was sure that it was overwhelming to Reggie upon his arrival here, but they were coming up on a milestone soon. Almost a year of the two of them living together, almost a year of his parents trying to ruin him. He almost wondered when they would start trying to laud him with money, considering nothing else had worked in strong-arming Sirius into giving them what they wanted. The worst part, if you asked Sirius, was that he would consider it. He would be a liar if he said that the amount of money he could surely get out of his parents could really change his life. He could buy his flat, and instead of worrying about rent each month, he could take the time off he needed to make sure that he got his head on straight, he could finally maybe stop feeling like he was a ghost haunting his own life. That would be nice. 

Going through the motions was becoming exhausting for the artist. He was struggling desperately to be an active participant in his life, too bogged down by the static in his brain. His tether to reality had been fraying for a long time, and it had become dangerously worn. How easy things would be if he could give up. Sure, Reggie would be left in the lurch, which was why he didn’t. But giving up had a level of appeal to him that nothing else could. An end to his exhaustion, to his fear, was so far out of his reach. The only way out he could see from where he was right now was his end. As of now, he was staring down what felt like an unending torment of visits with his parents, meetings in court, stacks of work, appointments with therapists, and answering to Severus somewhere in the middle he would have to find time for maintaining his relationship with James, even though he was still resentful, trying to be supportive to Pete in the absence of his father, hopefully building a relationship with Remus– fuck he was overwhelmed. To die felt so much easier, but so completely unattainable. 

The loud buzzing of his phone vibrating on the hardwood floor pulled him out of his restless sleep, and he answered without taking a moment to check the caller ID. He would regret that he was sure. 

“Why did you answer, it’s four am?” No greeting. Typical Severus. 

“Most people start with something like alright, mate? Greetings are a part of a civilized society.” 

“Are you not sleeping again?” 

“I cannot imagine you called me at four am to confirm I wasn’t sleeping, Sev. And for your information, I was sleeping.” 

“And you’ve never heard of the do not disturb function?” 

“What do you want, Sev?” 

“I wanted to leave a voicemail.” 

“Why can’t you just tell me?” 

A pregnant pause met Sirius from the other side of the phone call. Sirius didn’t want to think about what it meant that Sev wasn’t answering the question. He wanted to let his brain keep blurring out of his understanding. He wanted to go back to living in his isolated, foggy brain. He didn’t want any of the struggle of actual interaction. “Please don’t make me humiliate myself by actually telling you to your face.” 

“This is a phone call.” 

“Close enough.” 

“Why are you calling me, Severus?” Sirius was sure that the other man could hear the way his silver eyes were rolling back in his head. He wanted to go back to sleep. It felt as though Sirius was constantly in sleep debt, even when he had hours of sleep. Any number of hours greater than one felt like a win to Sirius. He was so exhausted, his eyes permanently half-lidded and glassy with his deprivation. 

“Please,” Severus responded, and Sirius felt like he could taste the other man’s desperation. Maybe that was why the universe never let him sleep. Maybe his vigilance was some kind of superpower he unlocked when he didn’t sleep. He found his mind wandering back to the past, whirring on his time believing in something. He was never one for faith, never a true believer in god. He remembered the way his family forced him into itchy, uncomfortable dress clothes to sit on a pew that was far too uncomfortable. He remembered being eight, and the way that it would hurt to sit on that pew. He remembered the way he would shift, and be smacked by his mother for moving too often. 

“Would you prefer I hang up and let you call back?” Sirius responded, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I somehow find that would be more humiliating.” 

“Whatever,” Severus mumbled, and it was then that Sirius tasted the saltiness that was the tightness in the other man’s voice. 

“Shit,” Sirius mumbled, sitting up on the couch. He was sure Severus could hear the crinkling of the couch around him. If he wasn’t full of a toxic mixture of existential dread and sleep deprivation, he would be confronted with how awful it felt to make such a noise. God, it was so stupid when he thought about it all honestly. How pathetic, to know that the way a couch moved would be enough to send him reeling. “ Areyoualright ?” The words stumbled out of his mouth all as one, for fear of leaving too much space in between them for the acrid taste of even more emotions. If he were on the other end of the phone, he may have heard it the way Severus did. He would’ve heard the way his voice was heightened and the way anxiety seeped into his voice. But he couldn’t hear that, it was drowned out by the ringing in his ears, and the way his blood was rushing up to flood his vision with stars. If he were like Remus, if he were a poet, he would say that the stars couldn’t wait to meet him, and he couldn’t wait to meet them. That all of his issues were an outward expression of his soul’s desire to take his rightful place amongst Canis Major. If he were a scientist, like Severus, he would say that he was starving his body of necessary nutrients and that these were the standard consequences of that. But he wasn’t a poet, and he wasn’t a scientist. He wasn’t even sure he was an artist anymore. Artist implied some level of care, compassion, and vision. He didn’t have any of that anymore. All he had was a hollowed-out gnawing in his stomach, a desire to be swallowed up by the earth, and the pathetic rocking back and forth of his anxiety. 

Whatever Severus said in response fell on deaf ears because Sirius couldn’t anything over the loud sounds of his stars falling all around him. It felt like they were careening into the leather around him, burning up on entry to his atmosphere and crashing to the tune of his heart hammering in his ears. 

“– about you. I care about you a lot alright? I know I’m not Remus and I know you love him, but I just–” 

“Severus?” Sirius interrupted, “You called me about this at four in the morning?”

“Couldn’t stomach the idea of you dying without knowing....” Severus mumbled in response, “Couldn’t stomach the idea of you dying at all.” 

“I’m not going to die, Sev,” Sirius sighed, as shaky footfalls carried him out to the fire safety window. 

“Could’ve fooled me, Siri,” Severus sighed, voice tight on the other end of the line, “are you seriously going out for a smoke right now?” 

“You have a problem with smokers now?” 

“Christ,” He mumbled, “I hate you.” 

“Oi,” Sirius chuckled, “I thought you were calling because you didn’t want me to die thinking you didn’t care about me.” 

“Fuck off.” 

 This was off-limits, and they both knew it. The easy banter between them wasn’t something they could have, and they both knew it. It was too much history, too complicated, and involved far too much of their shared trauma. Even if Sirius had wanted it, which he didn’t, it required sacrifices Severus could never make. He was too close to his mother to distance himself, and Sirius was too far from him to reintegrate. Severus had a tight, bitter, and stiff relationship with the Black family. Sirius couldn’t remember anymore how, but he was sure Severus’s mother knew his mother somehow. He knew that the Snapes were also very close with the Rosiers, and if he thought back on it enough, Sirius had fuzzy memories of Eileen, sitting in on the book club, or whatever it was, that his mother ran on Sundays after church. 

“Sev,” Sirius mumbled, “Do you ever wonder....” 

“What if?” Severus responded, his voice tight with desperation and disappointment, “What if it was all different? What if we met at school instead of at your mum’s house?” 

“What if they didn’t hurt us?” 

“Maybe, in that world, we would’ve ended up together.” Came Severus’s watery whisper, like he was afraid to even say it out loud. It wasn’t like Sirius never thought about it. Of course, he thought about it. He had thought about it when he was younger, more naive, trapped in both the literal and figurative closet with Severus. He had even thought about it before he met Remus when he first gained custody of Reggie because maybe it could’ve made everything make sense. But he never took it seriously, especially because back then, they were still hate fucking, as far as Sirius was concerned. He knew, sure, that Severus was all over him, and would get jealous about him, but he thought that they both viewed each other as a prize to be won, a conquest to be made, a dance they did before they fell into a familiar pattern. It was easier for Sirius that way. Finding a new partner, someone who he viewed as more than a sexual conquest, was something had long since given up on until he met Remus. Love had gone out the window a long time ago, and new sexual conquests had been abandoned since he welcomed Regulus into his home. It made everything easier, especially when he thought about the idea of someone new seeing his body under the soft, warm lighting of his bedroom, or the harsh overhead lighting of someone else’s. The thought of someone new seeing the twists and turns, hills and valleys of his body had made Sirius feel physically ill, and it was only when Remus came careening into his life that he considered welcoming someone new in.

“Don’t cry, Sev.” Sirius replied, his own voice sounding tight, “Maybe someday, it won’t hurt to think about it anymore.” He mumbled, “You’ll find someone who can love you the way you deserve. I could never do that for you, no matter how much I wanted to in the past.” 

“I know, I see your family too often,” Severus mumbled back, with a tight chuckle. Sirius felt a tension in the pause between them before Severus’s voice came through the phone again. “You’ve wanted to?” The question hurt in a way he wished it didn’t. He had wanted to when they were younger. He wanted to, but he wasn’t brave enough to ask. He wanted to ask Sev to put distance between himself and Sirius’s family, he wanted to stop the game they played of irritating each other in front of their respective friends so they could storm off and meet in a broom closet, but Sirius was so insecure. He had been so scared of asking for something he couldn’t have, so he settled into their routine and never said anything. Eventually, he grieved what he knew he couldn’t have, and found his way into his life now.

“Sixth form...” Sirius mumbled in response, feeling his chest bloom with shame and his cheeks break into a blush. 

“You never said...”

“Of course not. You hated me.” Sirius chuckled, his own eyes welling up with tears at the thought of their youth, a youth that was so broken and marred with problems. “Even if you didn’t really, I couldn’t fathom that.” 

“But you should’ve –” Severus began before Sirius was quick to cut him off. 

“Oi, I’m pretty sure you didn’t say anything until three months ago. Glass houses and all that.” 

“I don’t know, Siri. Thinkin’ it’s probably time for me to give up on love.” 

“Sev, we’re way too young for that,” Sirius responded, taking a long pull of his cigarette. “I think it’s probably time you give up on me.”  That pulled a broken sob out of Severus, which the former aristocrat hadn’t anticipated. 

Why was Sev crying? He couldn’t understand that, even if an outsider would have to be blind to miss it. There was so much subtext in that kind of statement. Everyone knew that Sirius wanted them to give up on him, to let him starve himself off and die in peace. You’d have to be an idiot to miss that the statement twisted the knife in Severus’s chest, making him yearn just that much more for the world where he could have exactly what he wanted. Too bad Sirius was an idiot, and he couldn’t read his own subtext, let alone someone else’s. 

“Why do you insist on saying that?” Severus snapped. Once again, Severus was beyond his understanding. “Why do you insist that everyone should just let you destroy yourself?” His voice was tight with his tears, but his tone was harsh. “The people in your life care about you, you fucking dickhead. I love you for fucks sake, and I keep tearing myself apart to be here for you even though you’re an arsehole, and your brother because you’re losing your shit. I let your tosser of a best mate run around saying I’m into his girlfriend, just so that nobody asks you a godforsaken question you don’t want to answer. Why do you have to beg me to give up on you all the time? Don’t you know how that feels?” A broken sob ripped out of Severus amid his rant, and Sirius couldn’t help the way he felt guilty. 

“Severus, hey–” He tried to interrupt, but it was fruitless. Severus was going to keep saying his piece until he got everything off of his chest, and it seemed like he really needed to get the rant out, despite however much it hurt Sirius to hear. “Sev, it’s okay...” Sirius whispered into the phone, “I’m okay. ‘S not what I meant, mate.” He would be a liar if he said that none of that was new information. He knew Severus was into him, and always had been decently intro him enough to sleep with him, but he had been under the impression that Severus was in love with Lily, as was the widely held belief in his friend group. It never occurred to him that Severus would be trying to protect him. It never occurred to him that everything he said sounded like a veiled plea for everyone to just let him go. 

“I wish you could see yourself the way I see you, Siri,” Sev whispered. Sirius could practically feel the earnestness in his bones, the whole conversation had grown bitter and sad. 

“I wish you could see you deserve more than endless pining,” Sirius responded in kind, prompting them to sit silently. It was an unfair response because even though they both meant exactly what they said, they were subtle digs at each other. Severus knew Sirius couldn’t fathom anything but his own bitter hatred for himself, just like Sirius knew his endless chaos kept Severus’s wrapt attention.

He heard his door buzzing inside, which was his cue to wrap this up. “Thanks for calling, mate. I’ve gotta jump somebody’s buzzing and I dunno who could possibly be here at this ungodly hour.” 

“Cheers, mate” Sev responded, although Sirius could tell he wasn’t happy about it. Granted, Sirius wasn’t exactly shocked by that. 

He collected himself and made his way back into his home. It wasn’t the most comfortable for his tired joints, but he ignored their loud protests and climbed back into his living room, taking notice of the clock on the wall, when had it become 5 AM? 

“Oi, do you know what time it is?” Sirius mumbled into the buzzer’s microphone.

“Can I come up?” Remus’s voice garbled through the speaker, and immediately Sirius was buzzing in the other man. God, he was glad Remus was here. He didn’t remember asking Remus to come over, but if Remus was here then he was sure he must have. Either way, he was glad Remus was here. He wanted to be held, to be loved, to be touched. He just wanted to feel okay again, even if he knew he wouldn’t any time soon. He unlocked his front door in preparation for Remus arriving at his flat. Sirius was overtired and he knew it, he was practically buzzing, and as he looked around his home, it struck him that his living room made him look like a slob. There were cups everywhere, his couch cushions were all kinds of fucked up, and his blanket was crumpled up in a ball. Bleary, wide eyes remained unfocused as he collected the dishes around the room, hoping to make his home look slightly less like a pigsty and more like a legitimate home. 

Remus walked into Sirius’s home, his rambling steps ringing loudly in his ears, and the man felt ashamed. His voice cut through the white noise in Sirius’s mind, and he felt himself sinking deeper into himself. 

“Shit, Siri,” Remus mumbled, “You alright, love?” 

“Yeah,” Sirius mumbled, silver eyes cast down on his hands. God, he should’ve cleaned up more. He should’ve kept his home nicer, he should’ve kept himself together, he needed to be better. The subtext in his mind was always that better was thinner.   “I’m fine,” He shrugged, “just tired.” It took him a moment, to step outside of his own selfish mind and notice what was going on. Remus’s eyes were rimmed with red, his skin had adopted a pallor, and his frail body was shivering. 

“Re–” Sirius said, eyes trained on the other man. God, he wished this was easy, He desperately wished he could keep himself from spiraling or getting too worried. “Are you alright?” 

“‘M fine,” Remus responds, grey eyes trained on the tile.

“I’m fine...” Sirius trails off, his eyes blown wide with a desire for the floor to swallow him up

The two of them were both sitting there, across from each other, trying to distract the other from just how out of it, and how fucked they felt. Neither was going to be able to shake this discomfort or fear. Sirius didn’t realize that Remus didn’t ask again, his mind too busy elsewhere. 

Maybe he was distracted by his fears, his stress, or the ever-looming holidays. Maybe it was everything, maybe it was nothing. Either way, in an instant Remus was clamoring into his lap, pressing a hungry kiss to his lips. Sirius responded in kind, scabbed and angry fingers tangling in Remus’s golden hair. If he was just a bit more with it, just a little bit more aware of the world around him, maybe he would have noticed the way Remus’s hands shook as they tangled into the hair behind his neck or the fact that he only had a jumper on and it was freezing outside. It took Remus’s cold hands on the back of his neck to snap him back into the dark reality of the moment. “Moony, you’re freezing.” And my heat was off was a silent understanding between them.

“Then warm me up,” Remus responded, pulling on Sirius’s hoodie to bring them closer together. He was daring Sirius not to take exactly what he wanted, and god, was it hard. But Sirius could taste some kind of desperate fear in his overtired hypervigilant state, and he cared too much for Remus to wholly ignore it. “How did you get here?” He whispered, before pressing his lips to the hollow beneath Remus’s ear. In between leaving hickies in his wake, maybe he could get some information out of the smaller man. 

“Ran,” Remus responded, a small gasp escaping him as he leaned into Sirius’s attention. However, the response prompted Sirius to pull away and stare blankly at the other man. “You ran over here? In this weather? With no jacket? From your flat?” He asked, voice blown with shock, “Fuck, do you need a cup of tea or something, love?”  

“No,” Remus responded, his voice still dripping with a desperation that was starting to feel like one Sirius didn’t recognize. The fear that he could previously taste at the back of his throat was starting to creep further and further to his awareness, and he was starting to pay more attention to what was happening around him. Remus’s cold hands met the waistband of Sirius’s boxers, where it stuck out from his pajama pants, and whined, “I want to blow you.” 

“Re–” Sirius mumbled, trying not to let his resolve to figure out what was going on crumble because of his desire for the older man. “Why didn’t you ask me to come get you?” He asked, steely eyes looking over the smaller man.  

“What’s with the twenty questions, Sirius? Don’t you want me?” His voice was sharp with his insecurity. Sirius felt like he was watching in slow motion as Remus’s golden brown eyes welled with tears, and he whispered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–” This time it was for once Sirius’s turn to hush him and press a gentle kiss to his forehead like Remus had for Sirius so many times before. 

“What happened, love?” 

“Nothing.”

“Moony, something must have happened...” He replied, his arms wrapping tighter around Remus. 

“It’s fine, Siri...” He responded, “Just leave it.” Once again, he was closing the distance between them with a crushing speed. He let his hands wander down to Sirius’s waistband once again and pulled Sirius’s lower lip between his teeth. 

Sirius pulled away, which elicited a high-pitched whine from Remus. “I’m serious, Moony. Something’s wrong.” It tasted like metal.

“If I wanted to talk about it I wouldn’t have run over here unannounced.” Remus snapped back, “I don’t want to talk.” He mumbled, “Did you get bored of me?” He whispered, golden brown eyes cash down and brimming once again with tears. 

“No,” Sirius replied, a sad chuckle pulling from somewhere deep within him. “No, Moonshine, I’m not bored of you. I just want to know what made you so upset you ran several miles in freezing weather with no jacket.” 

“I can’t have just wanted to see you?” Remus replied, pulling a smug smile. 

“Not without a jacket, you can’t,” Sirius replied, “Let me get you a cup of tea, love.” He replied, scooping up the smaller man and carrying him to the kitchen. He knew he was pushing it with his body. He knew that this was a bad choice for him, as far as risking passing out again, but Remus was so cold he could feel it radiating off of him. He sat Remus down on the counter walked over to the thermostat and turned the heat on. When he returned to the counter, Remus pulled Sirius into another kiss. “Turning on the heat for me? How romantic,” Remus chuckles. 

“Of course,” Sirius responded, leaning into Remus once more, “Moons, please talk to me.” 

“Fen called me,” Remus replied, his eyes drifting off behind Sirius. He couldn’t look the other man in the eyes while he talked about this. Those three words made Sirius’s heart drop into his stomach. He immediately pulled the smaller man into his arms.  “I didn’t know it was gonna be him. It was a Bangor number.” Remus mumbled, burying his face in Sirius’s chest and tightening his arms around Sirius’s waist. 

Sirius wished he wasn’t reminded of how awful he felt about himself, about his insecurities about his body. He didn’t have time to dwell on his thoughts, about what was going on. So instead he focused on pressing kisses to the crown of Remus’s head and whispering sweet affirmations. “You’re safe. He can’t hurt you here. He can’t find you here.” 

“I just feel so awful.” Remus whimpered, “and weak.” 

“You’re one of the most resilient people I’ve ever met,” Sirius responded.

“I’m so scared, Siri.” Remus replied, “What if he finds my flat?”

“Why don’t you stay with me until you go up north?” 

“What about the PI?” 

“They called off the PI when they won visitation. Now it’s up to if Reggie wants to keep seeing them and how Social Services feels.” 

“O-okay...” Remus whimpered in response, “I don’t wanna put you out... I just– he knows Lily and I moved in together. I know he knows.” 

“Baby, you should stay here.” Sirius responded, “I’ll keep you safe.”

It felt like the conversation was stretching on in a way that Remus hated. Sirius saw him bristle every time he asked a question, and every statement sounded like a whimper from a beaten dog. He knew that in Remus’s position, he wouldn’t want to talk about it anymore. He would want to talk about anything else. But he and Remus were different. While Sirius would run in this position, Remus had always been touch-motivated. Maybe that was something that happened before Fenrir, maybe it happened in the touch-starved years since, but Sirius noticed the way his brain stopped whirring at spiraling out of control when Sirius’s hands met the smooth expanses of his pale skin. Sirius put a finger under Remus’s chin, lifting it to pull him into a kiss. He didn’t mind that Remus’s eyes were rimmed red, or the tear tracks staining his cheeks. He found an overwhelming love for the other man, and all he wanted was to fix things. 

“Let me take care of you,” Sirius mumbled, met with a hungry and desperate response from Remus. “Please, Siri. Please .”

It was explosive and beautiful and wild, and when the sun rose on that late December day when Remus’s thighs were covered in hickeys and his mind was fuzzy from pleasure, Sirius felt like things were finally unremarkable.

[nonsensical-pixels]

Would you be interested in converting the co-sleeper crib (first picture) from this set: patreon com/posts/tiny-dreamers-73393850 and make it so that it is indeed functional as a co-sleeper crib? I have seen one made by Snowstorm here: sims2artists com/index php?topic=3211 msg43501#msg43501 but it is a bit old-looking, so I would really like a modern looking one as in the first link. Thank you!!!

hello! most of that set was already done here by @kestrelteens. i don't see the co-sleeper there though (crib no. 8) so i guess that i'll be converting it as an addon to mari's conversions! 😊

[troythecatfish]

Sources:

Wheatcroft: http://www.melgrosh.unimelb.edu.au/documents/SGW-UkranianFamine_mortality.pdf

Tauger: http://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/89/90

Getty: http://www.cercec.fr/materiaux/doc_membres/Gabor%20RITTERSPORN/Victims%20of%20the%20Gulag.pdf

Prison Mortality In the USSR (the source is in russian): http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2007/0313/tema06.php

Prison Mortality in Modern Russia: https:// inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/russian-prisons-getting-more-lethal/

Prison Mortality in the USA: https://www.bjs.gov/ content/pub/pdf/msp0114st.pdf

Any other sources are internally cited.

EDIT: I know some people will retort to this by saying something like "that number is still too high, nothing justifies the death of so many people", so I just want to clarify: Any single death of a person is a tragedy, so yes the numbers are still too high because any number of people dying is too high. It's always a huge tragedy when anybody dies. But the point is to have an honest understanding of what actually happened in the Soviet Union so we can assess it's overall performance as a system and compare that to the alternative, i.e. capitalism, because we ultimately have to make a choice about what system we want to adopt. And people dishonestly smearing the Soviet Union with the "20 gorillion mass murder genocide" claims just get in the way of us making that rational choice about the future of humanity.

Plus on top of all that, I just value honesty and the truth as basic moral virtues in general, so I think it's immoral to go along with lies and misinformation imo.

Dishonesty should be combatted and we should seek the truth from facts.

[st-just]

So why do I have a more powerful text editor on some legacy php forum that's been around since the Bush administration than I do on literally any modern social media, anyway? Actual technical reason, or just corporations convinced that their userbase is a bunch of idiots who react to being given any sort of options by screaming and sprinting for the nearest cave?

[musogato]

My website had its 23rd anniversary today. To celebrate, I brought it back from the grave. I mean, technically. It currently only has the front page and the (very necessary) 404 page, but its better than the nothingburger that's been there for the past year when the server it was on died and took everything with it.

Twenty-three years. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure reviving it isn't a mistake. I was 16 when that site went up. I am, very much, no longer 16. I don't blog about myself like I did back then. I don't create like I did back then either. Fansites are very much a thing of the internet past, and just glancing at html/php coding and what updates I would have to make to my old pages in order to safely upload them gives me a headache. There was a reason why most of my sites hadn't been updated in seven years. There was reason why I let it sit, deleted, for most of last of year.

And as much as I am proud of Distant Horizon and all the hard work I put into it, and how my heart is warmed by people who still came to visit it long after it had gathered dust, or used the TCG card image gallery for their current games, it doesn't change that it's all still visible and accessible on the internet archive. Nor that I still, very much, do not ever want to update it with modern atla info ever again.

I'm sorry, I'm old and tired and got other things I want to do.

So why revive it?? why pay for hosting, why go through the trouble of updating the code and uploading everything once again, if I'm not committed to keeping it online? If I don't have any other ideas for what to do with the space? I don't know. Part of me jokingly wants to make a WHA fansite that just. highlights my favorite characters. Make some old-school LJ icons, or little blinky banners. God is that Fanlistings site even still up??

So much has changed. And it feels like everything is unraveling at the seams. But I laughed, seeing my old homepage in that sky-blue color. Seeing that silly Appa art with the gaang barely hanging on on the 404 page. Musogato.com was my home before everything else took over online.

So happy 23, MG. I don't know what your future is, but then, it's not like I know mine, either. 🎂

[rtiodev]

Do you have recommended resources for a total php noob?

Beginner-Friendly Tutorials and Courses

The official PHP manual It’s the best place to understand core functions, examples, and the most recent updates in PHP. To be used for consultations.

W3Schools PHP Tutorial: beginner-friendly. It’s easy to follow and gives you simple examples that you can run quickly.

PHP: The Right Way: good overview of best practices, coding standards, and modern PHP usage.

Laracasts is more known for Laravel (the framework) users, but they have a fantastic PHP basics series.

There’s a comprehensive YouTube tutorial from freeCodeCamp that covers the fundamentals of PHP.

Books

PHP & MySQL: Novice to Ninja by Kevin Yank

Modern PHP by Josh Lockhart

Join local PHP communities!

[ifuckinglovedinosaurssomuchjesus]

Something kind of interesting, for a brief second Attenborough comments like a usual paleodoc, mentioning the "rising rocky mountains" and calling the Styginetta "primitive relatives of ducks." Usually the show tries to avoid directly referencing the modern day

What a great segment! The Pectinodon family is really cute and I love the showcasing of new and weird behaviors that I constantly praise this show for doing, this is really what makes PHP unique to me.

A bit off topic but Styginetta or some other kind of Presbyornithid is high on my wish list for inclusion in Prehistoric Kingdom, mainly because "Cretaceous Duck Flamingo" sounds like a great addition to any dinosaur zoo.

Damn, Troodontid teeth are scary! 

The dad gets something a bit meatier for dinner by snatching a bird right out of the air in a moment clearly meant to evoke wild cats like Servals. The censor rocks are really goofy though.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

NEXT SATURDAY (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

#15yrsago Britain will subject everyone who works with kids to multiple, repeated police-checkshttps://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/07/false_positives.html https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/07/false_positives.html

#10yrsago Australian bill will put journos in prison for 10 years for reporting leaks https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/16/journalists-face-jail-leaks-security-laws

#10yrsago NY DA says he won’t prosecute minor drug possession; NYPD officers ordered to go on arresting https://www.techdirt.com/2014/07/16/nypd-tells-brooklyn-officers-to-continue-making-low-level-drug-arrests-da-has-stated-he-wont-prosecute/

#10yrsago Fake TSA screener infiltrates SFO checkpoint, gropes women https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Fake-screener-probes-passengers-at-SFO-5626732.php

#10yrsago Google Plus drops “Real Names” policy https://web.archive.org/web/20140717024719/https://plus.google.com/+googleplus/posts/V5XkYQYYJqy

#10yrsago New Mexico threatens inmate with 90 days’ solitary because his family made him a Facebook page https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/new-mexico-inmate-faces-90-days-solitary-over-facebook-profile

#10yrsago Yet another TSA screener doesn’t know that DC is part of America https://web.archive.org/web/20140715200126/https://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/orlando-tsa-agents-getting-geography-refresher/ngfmH/

#5yrsago How F Scott Fitzgerald conjugated the verb “To cocktail” https://www.openculture.com/2015/06/f-scott-fitzgerald-conjugates-to-cocktail.html

#5yrsago When Trump’s #TaxScam meant that affluent people no longer had to use the paid version of Turbotax, Turbotax started charging poor people, disabled people, students and elderly people https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-tax-law-threatened-turbotax-profits-started-charging-disabled-unemployed-and-students#164493

#5yrsago Tennessee police to drug users: don’t flush your dope or you’ll create “meth gators” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-police-warn-locals-not-flush-drugs-fear-meth-gators-n1030291

#5yrsago Read: Trump’s grandfather’s letter, in which he begs not to be deported https://harpers.org/archive/2017/03/the-emigrants/

#5yrsago Lessons from testing decades of forgotten rape kits: serial rapists are common, they don’t follow a pattern, they’re not very bright, and they’re often the same men who commit acquaintance rape https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/an-epidemic-of-disbelief/592807/

#5yrsago In 1943, the chairman of the NY Fed backed Modern Monetary Theory: “Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete” https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/16/in-1943-the-chairman-of-the-ny-fed-backed-modern-monetary-theory-taxes-for-revenue-are-obsolete/

#5yrsago How To: play Vlad Taltos in an RPG https://annarchive.com/files/Drmg220.pdf#[{"num"%3A197%2C"gen"%3A0}%2C{"name"%3A"Fit"}]

#5yrsago Podcast: Occupy Gotham https://ia903008.us.archive.org/30/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_303/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_303_-_Occupy_Gotham.mp3

#5yrsago Many of the key Googler Uprising organizers have quit, citing retaliation from senior management https://googlewalkout.medium.com/onward-another-googlewalkout-goodbye-b733fa134a7d

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

[bwv572]

I think it's funny that so many reactions about 4chan's hack have mocked the fact that the site ran on an old version of PHP and has used the same software since 2014, as if that isn't endearing and soulful.

So much cybersecurity is just no-fun-allowed anti-soul BS. No, you can't have fun messing with 20 year old software (and yotsuba was built upon futaba granting a software equivalent of apostolic succession between 4chan and futaba), you have to use the most up to date soulless garbage with all the worst accompaniments of the modern internet otherwise evil people will break into your system and dox you. I genuinely hate it. It's like how you can't connect a windows XP (the last MS operating system with any soul) machine to the internet without instantly getting a virus, because evil people hate us having fun and they explicitly target people who are having fun.

It's not enough that computers in general are trying to kill us and that our entire economy is built around a machine killing us, but we can't even HAVE FUN when we embrace the killing machines.