Dan

Dan

@danknauss.com

Cripping from the margins on maintenance, repair, disability, and conviviality. Blogs about the work of keeping things going (software, bodies, communities. and the commons) — and the things we have to refuse or do without so that work can stay humane.

132 followers 315 following156 posts

When another plugin overrides a WordPress setting, nothing tells you. #WordPress lets any number of plugins weigh in on the same setting, and the last one to run wins without a word. "Two thermostats, one furnace."

badsector.blogTwo thermostats, one furnaceWhen another plugin overrides a WordPress setting, nothing says so. WordPress lets any number of plugins weigh in on the same setting, and the last one to run wins without a word. Keel now says what your update policy is, what’s blocking it, and which other plugins are working the same hooks.

Keel 0.9.0 is better at detecting and warning you about conflicts affecting the key defaults it covers, especially autoupdate policies. It also gives you a heads-up and manual install option for the latest secure update on your branch if you're not on it.

Learn all about the lumpers and splitters in biomedical informatics relating to #CMT! No single entity defines #CharcotMarieToothDisease. Here is where the edge cases sit, who decides if/where they fit, and how they decide. cmt.blog/2026/10/27/w...

cmt.blogWho Decides What Counts as CMT?HMSN-P, SORD, HNPP, motor-only forms: where CMT's edges are, who decides what counts, and why 'CMT' is on its way out in clinics and labs.

To build semi-automated research and clinical trial watch tools for CMT.blog, I had to decide what terms to use to find and filter the likely most relevant "CMT" information. I'm a lumper, which is useful in cases like this, but without significant splitting you get only the haystack and no needles.

cmt.blogCMT BlogIndependent patient advocacy on Charcot-Marie-Tooth and other neuromuscular diseases: the science, accountability reporting on charities and drug developers, and Canadian resources.

A follow-up to my post on the WordPress Abilities API's public flag, prompted by questions from Nimesh Patel and Andrey Ovsiannikov. On a test WooCommerce store, a customer account was enough to get into the MCP Adapter. On any site, whichever permission filter runs last decides who can run an…

badsector.blogWith Abilities, the last filter decides who gets inAbilities don't give a plugin one new attack surface. They give it several, and some belong to other plugins. Which doors are left open depends on whichever filter runs last.

For 2,000 years, people making books worked out interfaces for reading, finding, citing and arguing. The web has learned almost nothing from them. It could have gone differently, and it still may.

m.arginalia.comThe Page Is an InterfaceTables of contents, indexes, glosses, footnotes, and even the size of a book emerged and evolved as the codex’s interface: tools for finding, checking, and arguing over ideas and their sources. This is a history of the book’s apparatus, its paratexts, and the page as an interface that the web’s standards and practices have never matched and still don't comprehend.

Books have been rich in metadata, good at social media, and made by many hands — scribes, printers, editors, readers in the margins. The lone author is the odd exception, not the rule.

Dan reposted

Matthias Pfefferle

@pfefferle.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

When I started with #ActivityPub for #WordPress, it was a small experiment. Now almost 4 out of 10 #Fediverse servers are WordPress sites, and it is still growing, slowly but steadily. Come and join us @activitypub.blog 🎉 https://fedidb.com/software?st=servers

fedidb.comFediverse Software | FediDBEvery software project on the fediverse, ranked by servers, accounts and monthly activity. Compare Mastodon, Pixelfed, Misskey, PeerTube, Lemmy and more on FediDB.

The FDA has promised faster, more flexible rare disease approvals, but rejections, reversals, leadership churn and pressure on research funding have made it less predictable. What that means for CMT patients and researchers.... https://cmt.blog/2026/10/23/fda-rare-disease-cmt/

cmt.blogFaster, Less Predictable: What the FDA’s Turbulent Years Mean for CMTThe FDA has promised faster, more flexible rare disease approvals, but rejections, reversals, leadership churn and pressure on research funding have made it less predictable. What that means for CMT patients and researchers.

Dan reposted

Spoonie Threads

@spooniethreads.bsky.social

You can’t always see what someone is going through. 💙 Invisible disabilities are real, even when they aren’t obvious to others. Listening, believing people, and letting go of assumptions matter. globalnews.ca/news/1002645... #InvisibleDisabilities

globalnews.caA decade of disability awareness: Invisible Disability Association marks anniversary | Globalnews.caThe Invisible Disability Association marked the third week in October as Invisible Disability Awareness week.

Dan reposted

Spoonie Authors Network

@spoonieauthnet.bsky.social

New post by lil’ ol me, @caitgauthor.bsky.social, about Invisible Disabilities Week, and what it means to me as a disabled person and disability advocate. Please consider reading and sharing. Thank you! wp.me/p88mKz-21v #Disability #InvisibleDisabilitiesWeek

wp.meIt’s Invisible Disabilities Week and yes, you do matter!Photo by Farman Kareem on Pexels.com (I chose this image because sunflowers are often the symbol of invisible or hidden disabilities.) I’ve been reminded on the socials that it’s Invisible Disabili…

Plain-Language Research Summary: A Blood Test for Nerve-Fibre Loss in CMT A 2025 study found the nerve-damage protein NfL more than twice as high in the blood of people with CMT, and loosely linked to severity. What it shows, what it can't, and how it fits with earlier studies....

cmt.blogPlain-Language Research Summary: A Blood Test for Nerve-Fibre Loss in CMTA 2025 study found the nerve-damage protein NfL more than twice as high in the blood of people with CMT, and loosely linked to severity. What it shows, what it can't, and how it fits with earlier studies.

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Unfortunately, nerve conduction velocity and amplitude don't map to clinical, physical symptoms, they don't track mobility loss, and they don't have much to do with the lived experience.

Hopefully that limited NCV data will increasingly be supplemented with the results of other test methods, like muscle biopsies and blood tests. Diagnostic tech for CMT is due for big updates and reform.

Plain-Language Research Summary: A Blood Test for Nerve-Fibre Loss in CMT A 2025 study found the nerve-damage protein NfL more than twice as high in the blood of people with CMT, and loosely linked to severity. What it shows, what it can't, and how it fits with earlier studies....

cmt.blogPlain-Language Research Summary: A Blood Test for Nerve-Fibre Loss in CMTA 2025 study found the nerve-damage protein NfL more than twice as high in the blood of people with CMT, and loosely linked to severity. What it shows, what it can't, and how it fits with earlier studies.

Nerve conduction studies are still the most common (and often poorly understood) diagnostic tech for CMT and related neuromuscular diseases. They date back to the 1960s-70s. I've had one done annually for quite some time, never on a machine with an edition of Windows newer than Windows ME!

In WordPress 7.1, a “public” ability is not a permitted one WordPress 7.1 adds a public flag to the Abilities API. It decides whether an ability can be seen and reached from outside, not whether a caller is allowed to run it. I checked the dev notes against the 7.1.3 code, WP-CLI, and the MCP…

badsector.blogIn WordPress 7.1, a “public” ability is not a permitted oneWordPress 7.1 adds a public flag to the Abilities API. It decides whether an ability can be seen and reached from outside, not whether a caller is allowed to run it. I checked the dev notes against the 7.1.3 code, WP-CLI, and the MCP Adapter: each channel has its own exposure rule, and one filter can let an anonymous request run an exposed ability.

In 1995, Daniel Pauly named the way we quietly lose track of our place in an objective decline and become blind to impending ruin. Shifting baselines apply to systems and tools as well as fish populations.… https://counterfoil.org/2026/10/20/shifting-baselines-and-the-second-watershed/

counterfoil.orgShifting baselines and the second watershedIn 1995, Daniel Pauly named the way we quietly lose track of our place in an objective decline and become blind to impending ruin. Shifting baselines apply to systems and tools as well as fish populations. Counterfoil’s tool catalogue and the Techno-Optimism Archive both attempt to ground us in historical baselines.

Great newsletter, awesome issue. Still catching up and incorporating the gems in here into cmt.blog.

cmt.blogCMT BlogIndependent patient advocacy on Charcot-Marie-Tooth and other neuromuscular diseases: the science, accountability reporting on charities and drug developers, and Canadian resources.

Dense Discovery@densediscovery.bsky.social

📬 Out now: DD396 / On being properly unwell www.densediscovery.com/issues/396/

densediscovery.comDense Discovery #396: On being properly unwellRead the archived version of Dense Discovery #396: On being properly unwell.

My tech catalogue at counterfoil.org might be seen as a Techno-Skepticism Archive, but it actually aims at finding a middle ground, so I am absolutely going to integrate it with the Techno-Optimism Archive's data. Really happy to find this, thanks to Dense Discovery.

counterfoil.orgCounterfoilCounterfoil studies the point where a tool stops serving the people who use it. A catalogue of convivial tools, research notes, and a few tools of our own.

Techno-Optimism Archive@technooptimismarch.bsky.social

The data paper for Techno-Optimism Archive is now published! All the data from the archive are publicly available on Zenodo, regularly updated, and open for research and other uses. For anyone interested in the methodological nerdy details, the paper explains everything. (all links in the comment)

I didn’t build a 2FA plugin. I filed bugs, then built around the best one. WordPress's Two Factor plugin already checks the codes. Instead of writing yet another 2FA plugin, I filed bugs against it, fixed some, and built two small add-ons beside it: one for policy, one for onboarding. Here's why…

badsector.blogI didn’t build a 2FA plugin. I filed bugs, then built around the best one.WordPress's Two Factor plugin already checks the codes. Instead of writing yet another 2FA plugin, I filed bugs against it, fixed some, and built two small add-ons beside it: one for policy, one for onboarding. Here's why separating mechanism from policy works.

Name Games: Why CMT Type Names Are a Mess, and How to Find Reliable Information CMT's type names grew out of nerve tests and a run of lettered genes. They no longer line up. Here is how the naming got this messy, where it is heading, and which sources to trust....

cmt.blogName Games: Why CMT Type Names Are a Mess, and How to Find Reliable InformationCMT's type names grew out of nerve tests and a run of lettered genes. They no longer line up. Here is how the naming got this messy, where it is heading, and which sources to trust.

What I’m working on for the next six months: more Sunlight on the CMTA, research and trial explainers, Canadian access guides, and monthly gene table releases.... https://cmt.blog/2026/10/19/coming-up-fall-2026-spring-2027/

cmt.blogComing Up on CMT Blog: Fall 2026 to Spring 2027What I’m working on for the next six months: more Sunlight on the CMTA, research and trial explainers, Canadian access guides, and monthly gene table releases.

#WordPress has silently delivered security fixes to older branches automatically since 2013. The historical record explains the approach—and where a manual patch option could help. badsector.blog/wordpress-se...

badsector.blogWordPress Security Backports: Quiet by Design | Bad SectorHow WordPress security backports became quiet background maintenance, and how a clearer manual patch option could complement that design.

Go fix something on Saturday, it's International Repair Day. h/t: themaintainers.substack.com/p/hail-the-r... - repairday.org

themaintainers.substack.comHail the repairers: International Repair Day celebrates 10 yearsThis Substack is reader-supported.

Sudo’s tests agreed with Sudo. WordPress didn’t. Sudo passed 1,663 tests while missing seven ways around its password prompt. Its code and tests shared the same mistaken model of WordPress requests. The lesson: check the assumptions against core, use independent review, and prove that tests fail…

badsector.blogSudo’s tests agreed with Sudo. WordPress didn’t.Sudo passed 1,663 tests while missing seven ways around its password prompt. Its code and tests shared the same mistaken model of WordPress requests. The lesson: check the assumptions against core, use independent review, and prove that tests fail when the guard is removed.

Trial Watch #1: CMT Clinical Trials, October 2026 The first Trial Watch: the CMT drug trials under way or changed since 2024, from a Novartis CMT1A study recruiting only in Canada to a cancelled govorestat trial, with a plain-English note on each....

cmt.blogTrial Watch #1: CMT Clinical Trials, October 2026The first Trial Watch: the CMT drug trials under way or changed since 2024, from a Novartis CMT1A study recruiting only in Canada to a cancelled govorestat trial, with a plain-English note on each.

The first bicycle with pedals (1867 to 1870) — it worked for strong riders on smooth ground and was relatively safe. It marks the first stage of the bicycle’s lineage — and the beginning of Counterfoil's proving zone for convivial technologies... https://counterfoil.org/catalogue/boneshaker/

CMT's gene and subtype names are a tangle, and there was no open, downloadable table that lines them up with the evidence for each gene. So I built one: the Open CMT Gene Table, 70 genes, free to reuse.

cmt.blogIntroducing the Open CMT Gene TableCMT's gene and subtype names don't line up, and I haven’t found an open table that sorts them out. So I made one: 70 genes, their old and new names, and how strong the evidence is for each, free to download.

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github.com/dknauss/cmt-...

github.comGitHub - dknauss/cmt-gene-table: Open table of genes linked to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and related inherited neuropathies, built from ClinGen and Mondo. Download as Excel, CSV or JSON; cite by DOI...Open table of genes linked to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and related inherited neuropathies, built from ClinGen and Mondo. Download as Excel, CSV or JSON; cite by DOI. - dknauss/cmt-gene-table

Coming Soon: a #WordPress plugin that gathers biomedical research (currently locked to #CMT #CharcotMarieTooth, #Neuromuscular diseases, and #HereditaryNeuropathy) to make it easier to review and curate new publications. Learn more at cmt.blog. #NeuroSkyence #InvisibleDisability & #ChronicIllness

cmt.blogCMT BlogAn independent blog from Edmonton on living with CMT: the science, lived experience, accountability reporting on CMT charities and Canadian resources.

CMT's gene and subtype names are a tangle, and there was no open, downloadable table that lines them up with the evidence for each gene. So I built one: the Open CMT Gene Table, 70 genes, free to reuse.

cmt.blogIntroducing the Open CMT Gene TableCMT's gene and subtype names don't line up, and I haven’t found an open table that sorts them out. So I made one: 70 genes, their old and new names, and how strong the evidence is for each, free to download.

Here's a richer representation and all the source code: github.com/dknauss/cmt-...

cmt.blogOpen CMT Gene Table: CMT Genes, Subtype Names and Evidence RatingsA free, downloadable table of 70 Charcot-Marie-Tooth genes: subtype names like CMT1A and CMT2A, inheritance, and ClinGen evidence ratings. Open data, CC BY 4.0.

Thankful this week for public health care and publicly funded research. They need protecting. Canada's National Research Council co-funds a CMT1A study with a US charity and the startup it holds a stake in, run by one of its own directors. Public science deserves public accountability.

cmt.blogShark Tooth: The CMTA's Stake in a Director's BiotechIn 2025 the CMTA held a $248,763 stake in a for-profit CMT1A company controlled by one of its own directors, built from donations earmarked for it.

The CMT and disability researchers, clinicians and advocates I most want to follow are on Bluesky, but can't be followed from the fediverse or from this blog. One follow of @ap.brid.gy would change that. Here's who I'm asking, and why it matters:

cmt.blogAn Open Invitation to CMT and Disability Voices on Bluesky: Please Bridge to the FediverseThe people CMTers most need to hear from are on Bluesky but invisible to the fediverse. One follow fixes that. Here's why it matters, and who I'm asking.

Alice Wong: Our Stories Belong to Us Alice Wong, who had SMA, built the Disability Visibility Project and #CripTheVote so disabled people could tell their own stories. Why it matters for CMT.... https://cmt.blog/2026/10/11/alice-wong/

cmt.blogAlice Wong: Our Stories Belong to UsAlice Wong, who had SMA, built the Disability Visibility Project and #CripTheVote so disabled people could tell their own stories. Why it matters for CMT.

Dan reposted

@thecritninja.bsky.social

"Do we have any truck nuts, daddy?" www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIcn...

youtube.comThe Alberta Referendum Advent CalendarYouTube video by Forward Canada

Dan reposted

University of Alberta Press

@ualbertapress.bsky.social

October 16 | 7 pm | Muttart Theatre, EPL. Free. Join Senator Paula Simons for a thought-provoking discussion with author Aaron Hughes at a critical time in our country. Host: Evan Osenton,@albertaviews.bsky.social @litfestyeg.bsky.social @senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social https://bit.ly/4dk5GjZ

Good grief, a 1520 Dürer woodcut is "Adult content" now?

Updated today with the results of a rescan of the same sample two days later.

Dan@danknauss.com

Who actually gets WordPress security backports? WordPress sends security fixes back to the 4.7 branch, and they install by default unless blocked. Ten hours after 7.1.3, 93% of sampled 7.1 sites showed the latest patch or the one before it. On… https://badsector.blog/who-gets-wordpress-backports/

Before the second watershed Illich asked counterfoil research to detect a tool’s harm in its first stages. Where that beginning lies on the road to his second watershed, and why it is so hard to see.... https://counterfoil.org/2026/10/09/before-the-second-watershed/

counterfoil.orgBefore the second watershedIllich asked counterfoil research to detect a tool’s harm in its first stages. Where that beginning lies on the road to his second watershed, and why it is so hard to see.

The Greeks worshipped Nemesis as a goddess of equity and equilibrium — the balance of life within limits. Over two thousand years, Nemesis shrank into a word for revenge. Today she returns as a term for the structural, endemic harm of modern institutions.

counterfoil.orgNemesis, the goddess of limitsThe Greeks worshipped Nemesis as a goddess of equity and equilibrium — the balance of life within limits. Over two thousand years, Nemesis shrank into a word for revenge. Today she returns as a term for the structural, endemic harm of modern institutional and technological overreach: medical systems that make us sick, food systems that malnourish, school systems that obstruct learning, communication tools that confuse and divide people, food systems that malnousrish...

Six ways of making coffee, from a moka pot to an espresso machine. Which one can I understand, repair, and replace? And which makes the best cup?

counterfoil.orgSix ways of making coffee: which is best?A moka pot, a Turkish pot, a French press, an AeroPress, a drip machine, and an espresso machine: which one can I most easily understand, repair, and replace? And which makes the best brew?

Who actually gets WordPress security backports? WordPress sends security fixes back to the 4.7 branch, and they install by default unless blocked. Ten hours after 7.1.3, 93% of sampled 7.1 sites showed the latest patch or the one before it. On… https://badsector.blog/who-gets-wordpress-backports/

Why I retired my own security plugin Sudo was a plugin that asked WordPress administrators for their password before they did something dangerous. An AI audit found seven ways around it with an active admin session. That points to a fundamental architectural problem that only WordPress core can…

badsector.blogWhy I retired my own security pluginSudo was a plugin that asked WordPress administrators for their password before they did something dangerous. An AI audit found seven ways around it with an active admin session. That points to a fundamental architectural problem that only WordPress core can address.

Releasing Keel 0.6.6 — get full control over auto-updates and create an upgrade policy for #wordpress — plus 38 other straightforward settings. badsector.blog/keel-defaults/

badsector.blogGet Keel Defaults for smooth sailing with WordPressKeel adds 39 configurable WordPress defaults, shows their real state in Site Health, and identifies the security patch for your own release line.

Do not, in order to do. Only when a person will not do some things are they capable of doing great things.

m.arginalia.comDo not, in order to do.Only when a person will not do some things are they capable of doing great things.

The New WordPress Dev Toolbox: Local-First, Agent-Assisted, Terminal-Shipped The last few weeks have been fantastic for anybody who builds plugins and themes for WordPress. Three tools dropped… https://wpyeg.org/2026/06/24/the-new-wordpress-dev-toolbox-local-first-agent-assisted-terminal-shipped/

wpyeg.orgThe New WordPress Dev Toolbox: Local-First, Agent-Assisted, Terminal-ShippedThe last few weeks have been fantastic for anybody who builds plugins and themes for WordPress. Three tools dropped that, stacked together, cover the whole build and deploy process: spin up a site, build something, ship it to the wp.org directory. No Docker wrangling, no "works on my machine," no SVN tap-dance. 1. WordPress Studio now runs on Linux For years the Studio desktop app was a Mac-and-Windows party.

Dan reposted

Milwaukee Removes Fonzie Statue Amid Reckoning With Greaser Past https://theonion.com/milwaukee-removes-fonzie-statue-amid-reckoning-with-greaser-past/