C.

I'm a (recovering) software engineer by trade, an electronics hobbyist and amateur guitarist by night, and a house-rabbit enthusiast and ambassador all the time.

I live in the windswept prairies of Canada.

I like fixing things and taking things apart to figure out how they work. I volunteer at the local Repair Cafe and enjoy helping others with their broken stuff.

#RabbitsOfMastodon #rabbit #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #RodentsOfMastodon #electronics #retro #1970s #70s #blinkenlights #repair

Public Key

npub1pdaz4j0ezt8km4e4p0tmt3qx7st49gkw8f9gg6unz47glzd8j4hqr64jrl

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cazabon@mindly-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqk732e8u39nmd6u6sh4a4csr0g96j5t8r5j5ydwf32ly03xne2mspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsfzfz8q

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1pdaz4j0ezt8km4e4p0tmt3qx7st49gkw8f9gg6unz47glzd8j4hqr64jrl

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Last Notes

2026-10-26 22:57:30 UTC

Frying large quantities of garlic, which in the prairies is considered a vegetable...
#smell #yum #cooking #garlic #Ukrainian #Polish #German #prairies #SK #Canada

2026-10-23 03:25:22 UTC

Since #PHP is at the top of peoples minds, a short diversion.
In the Before Times of 20+ years ago, I worked for a smallish tech company that did some of everything. One of the #consulting jobs we took on was to #audit a #codebase for a company that was buying another company - the application was the acquiree's crown jewels, and the purchaser wanted a good solid analysis of it.
It was in PHP. I was not looking forward to it. As a betting person you are unlikely to go wrong with "very #niche market-specific software application developed in-house by small company working in that space is likely to be pretty terribly #designed and #implemented", and most of the PHP I had looked at by that point was, well, bad.
And it absolutely was not. It was in the then-new PHP v.5. And it was cleanly designed, nicely modular, very #readable #code and well documented, good #development practices. Sure, there were some things in it that could be improved, mostly more efficient algorithms / data structures IIRC, but all software can be improved *somewhere*. The final report was fairly glowing about it.
Anyone who tells you all code written in $LANGUAGE is awful, or all #programmers who use it are idiots, is showing you their whole ass. Languages are #tools. Some are easier to use for certain purposes than others, but they're all useful for something. Don't be closed-minded.
#engineering #software #SoftwareEngineering #RightToolForTheRightJob #homily

2026-10-15 04:37:39 UTC

"What'd you do today?"
"I learned how to shout "Oh FFS" exasperatedly in 29 different languages."
"Seems like that'll come in useful."
"Already has."
"Got a URL?"
Original Mastodon thread: https://things.uk/@eclectech/117071859569448514
Resulting art: https://eclectech.co.uk/ffs
#MicroFiction #FFS #OhFFS #TheFFSProject #FFSProject #translation #cursing #swearing #sweary

2026-10-07 00:40:41 UTC

So Hungary's new Prime Minister, who replaced the dictator Orban in an election that was essentially a bloodless people's revolution, is proposing a wealth tax on 3-millionaires and above.
Orban's orange fanboy-in-the-white-house-turned-circus must be losing his mind over this. And there's probably a whole lotta billionaires frantically dialing their ~~co-conspirators~~ accountants and investments people, telling them to hide their wealth.
Well, hide their wealth *more*.
If it can happen with a change-in-power in Hungary, there's no reason it can't happen elsewhere...
#billionaires #oligarchs #OligarchChop #guillotine #IKEA #ShittingBricks #WorldPol #USPol #TaxAvoidance #TaxEvasion #TaxHaven
#nevent1q…rax2

2026-10-01 16:44:53 UTC

It is nice to see some #FOSS projects decide to ask their communities significant questions before taking major action. The current big example is, of course, whether the project should accept, limit, or ban contributions created with LLMs ("AI").
However, too often those projects try to collect opinions using outside services - like Google forms (or whatever they call it). By doing so, you're instantly cutting off responses from that chunk of your community who are focused on privacy, anti-fascist, anti-billionaire, or various other topics which are hugely represented in the FOSS community in general. So you're collecting responses from a horribly biased sample.
In this case, Google is a pro-fascist, privacy-destroying, gatekeeping, billionaire-controlled USA corporation that is helping to destroy the open web to build its own walled garden a la Apple. They're also a huge pusher of "AI", and are demolishing small sites' business models by stealing their content to create "AI answers" in search without sending any traffic to the sites they're stealing from.
Can you see how asking people whether you should allow LLM contributions via a Google form would skew the results quite badly?
Yes, #Audacity, I'm looking at you today.
#OpenSource #FreeSoftware #privacy #security #Google #GoogleForm #LLM #AI #survey #SurveyBias #DeweyDefeatsTruman

2026-08-25 22:28:03 UTC

Wrong 80-year-old, dammit.
#DollyParton #RIP #MangoMussolini
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/117/158/497/855/351/153/original/f09573ccd46546a8.jpg

2026-08-25 20:41:40 UTC

Brilliant. The city of #Regina has replaced its in-house map of current road closures and restrictions due to construction etc with an embedded Waze map.
Which doesn't show anything other than the bare map to me, in Firefox *or* in Vivaldi.
Well done, lads. Well done. In addition to sending visitors' locations to a US company who then resells it, you've actually stopped it from doing anything useful at all.
#SlowClap #incompetence #YQR #SK #Waze #privacy #DoesntWork

2026-08-18 19:19:59 UTC

Saw a couple of mentions of the Unix `finger` protocol/command go by in my feed, and thought I'd relate a personal story about using it, because many people using Unix-derived OSes today never experienced it.
The command `finger <username>` would show you information about a user account. Depending on options you used, how other users configured their accounts, and how the system administrator configured things, it could show you the user's real name field, which terminal they were using, whether that terminal was open to writing from other terminals [1], when they logged in, how long their session had been idle, office location and phone number [2], whether they had unread email and when they last read email, and other things.
This was great for determining if someone was using the system at the same time as you, and e.g. what computer lab they were in.
You could even do this if they were on a different machine: `finger <username>@<hostname>`.
More interestingly, you could get a list of all users logged into a machine, with `finger @<hostname>`.
Yes, this was probably a bad idea from a security point of view. It was a different time.
This frequently led to another command: `talk`.
1/x
[1] You could send another user a message, and it would just pop up on their terminal.
[2] Unix really shows its roots in research and educational settings with this sort of thing.
#Unix #finger #talk #terminal #internet

2026-08-11 18:17:54 UTC

So, #Nvidia is organizing a bunch of Wall Street firms to put together a half-trillion dollar "AI" infrastructure investment fund - which I'm guessing means "fund to loan money to companies so they can buy Nvidia systems".
Totally normal. I'm sure this means the "AI" market is healthy and profitable. Not at all like the other financial games they're playing, "investing" in customers directly to generate orders to themselves and all the other Ponzi schemes and cheque kiting and booking future revenue and hiding costs off-book and and and ...
#AI #StockMarket #WallStreet #WorldCom #Enron #accounting #bubble

2026-08-05 02:32:44 UTC

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@nprofile…w4yy @nprofile…0hde
It's my understanding that this fact is behind the recent rise in anti-tourism sentiment? Because short-term rentals for tourists (and to a lesser extent expats / "digital nomads") are pricing the locals out of the housing market?
AirBnB etc are evil and destructive.

2026-08-03 03:46:38 UTC

Unions aren't perfect. I've pointed out various flaws in the past. However, I am 100% in the corner of the flight attendants in their fight against WestJet.
The correct number of unpaid work hours for any job is "zero hours".
Zero.
Not 35 hours / month.
Not 15 hours / month.
Not 5 hours / month.
Zero hours / month. Period.
Shame on WestJet - and every other airline that does this.
#Canada #WestJet #FlightAttendant #UnpaidWork #UnpaidHours #strike #airline #union #labour

2026-07-27 19:40:38 UTC

Aw... Bill Oddie, well-known from all kinds of British comedy (including The Goodies), passed away.
I remember him most fondly from the classic BBC Radio series "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" (1964-1973).
He'll be missed. As Lauren Weinstein says, "Peace."
#BillOddie #ISIRTA #comedy #RIP

2026-07-27 00:36:35 UTC

So, Codeberg (which is a FOSS/freedom-focused code hosting site) is run as a cooperative, with members able to nominate measures/policies and vote on them etc.
They just had a vote and approved policies making "AI" / LLM-based projects basically unwelcome there. The vote wasn't close; 70% voted in favour of the policy. It's not a hard & fast "if you use LLM, you're banned" or anything of the sort - it's quite a measured, reasoned stance.
The slopcoders are freaking out. They just don't understand how this is possible. Imagine! A community of people that makes their own decisions and you can't just make them do what you want or ignore them and consume their resources without their consent!
"I like slopcoding, actually" is turning out to be a *really* good litmus test for people you want to have absolutely nothing to do with your project or your community.
Look at some of the whining (this is the only reason I would ever link to YCombinator [1]):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49021856
[1] Your occasional and irregular reminder: "Hacker" "News" is neither.
#NoAI #NoLLM #sloperator #slopcoding #vibecoding #consent #Codeberg #hosting #forge #community #FOSS #HackerNews #YCombinator

2026-07-19 05:38:21 UTC

Today was this month's Repair Cafe in my city. I think it also marks a full year I've been volunteering at them. I enjoy it a lot.
After last months good results - everything brought to me successfully fixed *except* one item - I got exactly the same result today. A bunch of successes, and one failure. And it's a weird and annoying coincidence - they are basically the same thing, #Sony all-in-one bookshelf #stereo systems. You know the type, they're on the order of a cubic foot and look like a small stack of stereo equipment units, but it's just a cosmetic look. Inside, the tuner, preamp, amp, CD player / changer, tape deck are all one thing. #Boombox in a suit, basically.
Both times, I figured out what was wrong - but I couldn't get to the bits I needed to actually fix them. I got stumped trying to take the front #fascia off the chassis. There's usually a few screws to take the back and/or top off, and then some #clips holding the front fascia to the (usually) one-piece sheet metal sides and bottom. Taking a #spudger to them releases all along the top and sides, but at the bottom of the fascia, it doesn't release - there's something weird about the clips I can't see, and I don't see any #screws responsible, inside or out. I don't want to force it more than I have because it will break.
Any Sony-heads out there know the secret with these things? They're from the 80s and 90s, at least the ones brought into me.
#RepairCafe #YQR #repair #fix #FixDontReplace

2026-07-16 03:01:32 UTC

We had a visitor in the back yard early this evening. This is a young white-tailed jackrabbit (which is a species of hare, not a true rabbit) probably from this spring's first batch, so he's probably about 3 months old. The proportions are different from an adult. This species is also known as prairie hare or "white jack", or just "jack" hereabouts.
This one was sitting in the long grass and then sat up when I came into view. He wasn't scared, but kept a wary eye on me. Pardon the lousy picture quality; I didn't get out the Big Lens so this is a tiny crop out of the middle of the frame. I have a little video I might post later.
Of course, he immediately started being cute(r), having a bath, after I put the camera away.
Pardon the weeds; it's been too hot and humid to mow lately, and I went chemical-free a few years ago.
#wildlife #UrbanWildlife #jackrabbit #hare #WhiteTailedJackrabbit #PrairieHare #jack #SK #YQR #prairies #Canada #RabbitsOfMastodon
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/927/416/295/834/951/original/110d307098ee0e99.jpg

2026-07-14 19:41:49 UTC

Marco Rubio said he's going to "dismantle" the International Criminal Court.
I'm sure the Nazis who were tried there post-WWII would also have liked to dismantle it. The only people with an interest in shutting down the International Criminal Court are International Criminals, and they know it.
Hang the lot of them.
#USPol #ICC #hanging #Trump #MangoMussolini #DipshitDonnie #MarcoRubio #InternationalCriminalCourt

2026-07-13 18:53:08 UTC

"I would have liked to have seen Montana."
#RIP #SamNeill

2026-07-13 03:20:48 UTC

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@nprofile…5uqu
Sitcom: without a doubt, "Corner Gas" (CTV). Set in a small prairie town, created by someone from such a town - and immediately recognizable to anyone who's spent any time on the prairies. We felt seen - and it was funny as hell. I think what pushed it above and beyond was the fact that it didn't come out of a committee like pretty much every CBC sitcom since ... leaded gasoline, probably.
There were a bunch of good scifi series that came out of canada over the last twenty years, but I won't go over those in detail. It would be hard to pick just two.
#CornerGas #BrentButt #sitcom #comedy #Canada #prairies #SmallTownLife

2026-07-04 16:32:19 UTC

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@nprofile…y6rq
If they decide to arrogate the power to decide which votes to count, eliminating those they judge as not a reasoned, informed opinion, does the IETF management/board/whatever slap them down hard?
I'm wondering if they can just bulldoze through opposition and make this the fait accompli they wanted it to be all along.

2026-07-03 05:31:04 UTC

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@nprofile…y6rq
They're also getting really testy about us "regular Joes" showing up and voting against publication of the deliberately-weak solo PQ recommendation.
You can practically feel their frustration - "We stuffed this list to pass this vote, and they're stuffing it against us!".
The blatant hypocrisy of the "not standards-track" thing bugged me too when it came through the list.
Anyone who follows me and cares about cryptography or their privacy: read djb's short blurb here:
https://nsa.2026.action.cr.yp.to/
There's action you can take to try to prevent the NSA's attempt to get the world to standardize on deliberately weakened cryptography in TLS - i.e. the thing that protects every important web connection on the planet. They have form for doing this in the past, and are trying again.
There are other links in the above page for more information.
#TLS #HTTP #HTTPS #cryptography #privacy

2026-07-01 02:18:37 UTC

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@nprofile…y6rq
You're not kidding about the NSA-backed participants' bad-faith support for specifying PQ-only rather than a belt-and-braces approach. There's an argument on the list right now, and the NSA shill is arguing based on the (unspoken but obvious) assumption that being cracked by quantum computers is the only threat you need to base your decision on. "If that happens, ECC won't help you".
Sheesh.

2026-06-28 04:43:19 UTC

This new "tags.pub" instance that just blasts out boosts of anything with a matching hashtag is ... annoying.
Pointless.
Practically abuse.
It just boosted a post of mine with *seven* different accounts. Didn't ask for permission to follow/do things with my content.
Its account overviews say "You can opt out!", which is absolutely *not* how bots should be interacting with people in the Fediverse. This should be opt-*in* only.
How is this okay? Frankly, I think it should be completely defederated, it's not operating in good faith.
#Fediblock #OptOut #consent

2026-06-18 04:25:22 UTC

Jerry Pournelle, a polymath, used to say that a dark age was not when people forgot how to do a thing, but when they forgot that anyone was ever able to do it. I don't know where he got it from, if anywhere.
At a previous job just a few years ago, my team were mostly young and junior engineers. I remember showing them some photos of the new electronics workbench I'd built, because I was proud of it. I was having trouble getting this across - it eventually became clear that they all thought what I meant by "I built this" was "I assembled this".
They were flabbergasted when I said that no, I bought wood and sheetgoods and stain and varnish and designed it on a notepad and made it exactly what I wanted it to be. And they didn't ask me "why" - they asked me "how".
I sometimes get the impression that (in the West, at least) we are already living in the dark ages. Many young people are unaware that you can actually create things, and that it used to be common to do so. To them, it seems that civilization is something you pull out of a sea-can from China.
#DarkAge #DarkAges #China #SeaCan #container #cargo #civilization #maker #making #JerryPournelle

2026-06-09 21:13:17 UTC

Hello, I'm your host Enormous Rabbit, and welcome to today's edition of "Dutch or rot-13?". Here's today's challenge:
#Dutch #rot13 #DutchOrRot13
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/722/205/739/537/136/original/03c716b4ccb0dbb5.png

2026-06-09 02:29:11 UTC

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@nprofile…0hde
Spitballing a hypothetical, more peer-oriented exchange / gathering rather than presenter / audience model...
I propose to call it the "Meatbag Meet-Up".
😉
#meatbag #meetup #MeatbagMeetUp #conference #NoAI #NoLLM

2026-06-08 03:37:03 UTC

"What do you get when, in 2026, you tell a 19-year-old underpaid graphic artist to 3D-render you a scene for a cheap product listing, in which a Walkman-type portable cassette player is shown alongside another cassette standing on end, and the artist is too young to have ever actually seen a cassette, much less used one?"
See also alt. text.
#horror #HorrorShow #cassette #legacy #Walkman #1980s #1970s #AudioEquipment #YoungPeople #young #OldMan #WhatWasThatGrandpa
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/712/344/683/404/730/original/938ef90705866f4d.jpg

2026-05-17 19:58:45 UTC

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@nprofile…dyu0
That slacker Al again! That'll show him.
Seriously, cool embroidery.
#Al #Allan #slacker

2026-05-14 23:03:47 UTC

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@nprofile…mvqa
Sorry you have to deal with it.
It's the Mastodon HOA. They're the online version of the sanctimonious pricks who have to walk up to strangers in public to tell them they're breaking some rule or other, when it has absolutely no effect on them or anyone else. You know, the kind who wonder why they never get invited to parties.
Try to ignore them. Mute and block away! It's restorative.
#MastodonHOA #Mastodon #HOA

2026-05-14 05:16:49 UTC

My toolbox is gonna be better organized for the Repair Cafe this Saturday. 💪
#RepairCafe #toolbox #organize
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/571/219/015/481/442/original/5827c91be0488e7d.png

2026-05-09 18:54:04 UTC

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@nprofile…8cjr
Great video. Nice 5/5 score!
The printer restoring fluid might be the same as something I have. I was first introduced to it repairing laser printers 30 years ago - pickup rollers and other rubber parts in the paper-handling path that had "dried" or become dirty and would slip, causing paper jams or failure to feed.
The stuff I have is made in Canada by MG Chemicals. It's called "Rubber Renue 408C" (there have been other formulations in the past with different numbers). The active ingredient in it is methyl salicylate, which is pretty harmless - it's used as a food additive. It's in an IPA base.
The way it works, I'm told, is that it temporarily swells the rubber and opens its pores, which allows trapped dirt, dust, and other contaminants to be washed away, restoring the friction properties and swelling it a bit, fixing shrinkage from age. I've also used it on capstan rollers and other rubber parts in the past.
#RubberRenue #restore #rubber

2026-05-08 03:59:27 UTC

Headline:
> US and Iran launch attacks amid tenuous ceasefire
#ThatWord #WordsMeanThings #ceasefire #YouKeepUsingThatWord
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/536/947/901/312/317/original/d975a2da02261b4d.mp4

2026-05-07 02:24:13 UTC

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@nprofile…x8t7
I'm not leaving Linux, but I am leaving systemd. I've been in the process, slowly, for quite some time, but took some real concrete steps more recently. Then the systemd age field BS popped up and erased any remaining doubts I had.
So, unless Debian brings back a non-systemd option, I'll be switching the remainder of my machines to Devuan.
#Debian #Devuan

2026-04-20 19:41:50 UTC

Of interest to #Canadians. With the Fedi skew to tech-knowledgeable people, this probably isn't news to many.
But if you're looking to buy #electrical stuff - power bars, extension cords, multi-outlet wall taps that convert 1 #socket into 3 or 2 into 6, all this sort of stuff - be careful where you buy it.
The big hardware stores / home centres sell this stuff, but at stupidly-high #prices. There's no reason a 10-foot extension cord should cost $25, or a power bar $40. So many people reasonably look for #cheaper alternatives.
A lot of #stores and sellers operating in the ... less-well-regulated portions of the market bring this stuff in cheap directly from sellers/manufacturers in China or other countries. Independent stores, mall kiosks, people selling out of their home - their products may not be approved for sale in Canada, because they don't have the necessary #safety #certification. And many of *those* products are actually downright dangerous. I've taken a lot of them apart and seen the many, many ways they can kill you or burn your house down.
Instead, get this stuff at #Dollarama. Their stuff is actually safety-certified by one of the required labs - #CSA, #UL, or most likely #ETL. It's approved for sale in #Canada. And it's still cheap. It might be a little more than guy-with-a-sales-counter-in-a-dilapidated-strip-mall, but not by enough to matter.
Other big chains might be okay - but I haven't personally verified those.
#PowerBar #ExtensionCord

2026-04-19 16:23:47 UTC

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Oh, ALSO...
One of the things brought to me was a toaster that wouldn't stay "down", but otherwise worked fine. This is a semi-common problem - I had another #toaster with the same problem at the last Repair Cafe.
And this one... the manufacturer secured the bottom base to the chassis with Torx screws (fine) ... but SECURITY Torx screws. If you're not familiar with these, they're regular Torx screws but there's a pin that sticks up in the middle of the fastener head, so regular #Torx drivers won't go into the head. You need special #drivers with a hollow bit to go over that pin.
Now, I have "security" Torx drivers because fuck you, you don't get to lock me out of something that belongs to me [1], but this is ridiculous. It's a CDN$40 two-slot toaster, not some #unobtainium magic technological wonder. It's one great "Up yours!" from the #manufacturer to the #consumer and the #environment.
Name-and-shame time: it was a Black and Decker (they can pay me if they want me to use their vanity typography to refer to them). This is another of those brand names that maybe used to mean something, but now is just marketing. There are a *lot* fewer #factories making toasters than there are brands selling toasters. They just tick boxes on an #OEM's feature list to get "their" product.
[1] It's easy to get the drivers these days, so they don't have much effect, but when they first came about almost no one had them, so it was a major pain in the ass.
#BlackAndDecker #VanityTypography

2026-04-18 23:27:04 UTC

So, just finished this month's Repair Cafe in #Regina.
There's a depressing pattern where small #appliances, typically #kitchen stuff, fail after just a year or so. The warranties are invariably one year. Nobody, especially the manufacturer, offers service - "Just buy a new one, it's cheaper" is the refrain. Of course, we're trying to "reduce, re-use, recycle" and keep this stuff out of the #landfill.
Even trying to service them is a pain, and sometimes impossible. The cases/shells of modern stuff are frequently absolute b*stards to take apart, and really new stuff now features "one-way clips" - there's literally no way to unclip the shell after it's been clicked together at the factory. You can't access the latching bit, so you have to force it and break the #clip, and then #bodge it back together somehow.
Mandating a longer #warranty, like in the EU - two years, three? - would help, because stuff would have to be designed better.
The two most frustrating from today:
1) A Keurig coffee maker, used twice, a year old. Got it apart, it had leaked water onto the back of the (massively #overcomplicated) CPU board, and shorted it out. Poof, magic smoke gone, tears in the rain, time to die, etc. Who puts the CPU directly under a join in the #water pipe?
2) A gas-powered leaf blower. Fuel line rotted, but to be able to feed new one through from the carburetor to the fuel tank, you have to take the shell apart - which requires disassembling the engine!
#RepairCafe #SK #EWaste

2026-04-15 19:09:32 UTC

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@nprofile…e2np
It also does a reasonable impression of a fox wearing a cloak. Very cute regardless!

2026-04-11 20:49:01 UTC

So, I rescued a 12-year-old Macbook Pro, given up by its owner because Apple had orphaned it from security updates, and also it was suffering from Apple High-Qwality Spicy Pillow Syndrome.
I replaced the battery and installed Linux on it.
And I gotta say, this was the most satisfying thing I've done with a keyboard in years:
# apt-get purge systemd libnss-systemd
#Devuan Excalibur installed/upgraded from Debian Trixie like a champ. Now I don't have to deal with extraneous horseshit when Lennart adds systemd-mountd, systemd-sshd, systemd-bourne-shell, systemd-emacs, etc, etc...
Thanks to @nprofile…2lyr for the post that finally convinced me to give Devuan a go. I'd been thinking about it for years, but didn't feel like setting aside a bunch of debugging time which I assumed would be needed.
Now to figure out how to switch to s6 from runit. ( @nprofile…euty )
#Debian #systemd #UnixPhilosophy #runit #s6 #init #Unix #Linux

2026-04-04 20:47:15 UTC

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@nprofile…u76z
He's a nice old man rat!
Please forgive me 🙏
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/348/388/692/148/017/original/5cb1ffa41d7e5441.jpg

2026-03-31 20:20:58 UTC

With posts going around about the Mastodon HOA, I disagree with some of the points made by some.
Should you join the Mastodon HOA and annoyingly "correct" everyone who doesn't do things the way you want them to do them?
Hell, no!
Will people do things in ways other than how you want them to?
Yes.
Is this a moral failing on their part?
No.
Does this, by itself, constitute an attack on you, or an injury to you?
No.
But what are you supposed to do about it?
Nothing. That's the hardest part for members of the HOA to accept. You don't need to do anything when you see someone do things their own way. Ignore it. Move on with your life. See also: bean soup syndrome.
To clarify and defend against some attacks the HOA has directed against me in the past:
I think alt-text on images is a good thing.
I think people should use alt-text on images they post.
I put good, descriptive alt-text on pretty much every image I post, not just "Photo of <X>".
Do I yell at people who post images without alt-text? No.
Do I boost posts containing images without alt-text? Yes, if they're worth boosting.
Do I yell at people for boosting posts without alt-text? No, of course not. See above.
If you're in the HOA, you're part of the problem. Just stop.
#HOA #MastodonHOA #Mastodon #AltText #busybody #NosyNellie #JustStop #stop #browbeat #LetItBe #MYOB #MindYourOwnBusiness #CorrectileDysfunction #BeanSoup #BeanSoupSyndrome #DoNothing #DontDoAnything #LiveAndLetLive

2026-03-28 07:01:17 UTC

Oh, this is #fun.
#Applebot - Apple's web crawler, used for various things - is ignoring robots.txt rules governing crawling of websites.
I have Applebot (and Applebot-Extended, which isn't really a crawler) in my robots.txt files, set to disallow all access. Has been that way for #yonks.
And Applebot is consistently the highest-traffic crawler to my sites - at least of ones that actually bother to fetch robots.txt. Yesterday, for example, Applebot fetched robots.txt from one of my websites almost 800 times.
Yes, it's really Apple, not someone faking the user-agent identifier. It's coming from the networks that Apple says can be used to identify Applebot access. DNS matches, everything.
e.g. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/119829
So: legendary Apple software quality. Documented to do the right thing, but actually doing the wrong thing. And completely failing to cache content, fetching the same file 800 times a day when it hasn't changed in years.
Hey, Apple! Need a software engineer who's actually, you know, good at it? I'm available.
#Apple #AppleInc #TimApple #WebCrawler #RobotsTxt #quality #WeveHeardOfIt #qwality #AppleQwality #legendary #TwoHardThings #caching #fail #engineer #software #SoftwareEngineer

2026-03-25 21:25:56 UTC

Proposed age verification interstitial dialog.
#AgeVerification #anonymous #anonymity #privacy #stupidity #age #MaliciousCompliance
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/291/919/024/087/159/original/36ff98b26bcc0e9f.png

2026-03-22 17:40:38 UTC

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@nprofile…atnr
I do really like Villeneuve's work - Arrival (2016) was the best scifi film in years (and from a short story...) in my opinion.
I wasn't aware he was doing Rendezvous with Rama, but that should be interesting. I'm always surprised by how few of Clarke's works have been adapted for the big screen.
The new Dune movies are (again, IMHO) not a good example. 1 and 2 were terrible - I posted about those when they came out.

2026-03-22 17:14:50 UTC

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@nprofile…atnr @nprofile…c3d6
I will probably read the novel some day. Scifi is virtually always better in written form; there's just so much you have to leave out to fit a story into a 2-hour movie. I think that's why many of the best scifi movies are based on short stories or perhaps novellas, rather than full-length novels.
On the subject of nitpicking: if the spaceship has magical engines to get it to near lightspeed, why would the crew have to travel in suspended animation/induced coma state? Time dilation would mean the trip was subjectively short, maybe just days or even hours, for everyone on board. Obviously I haven't seen it yet, so maybe that's addressed.
#nit #pick #nitpicking

2026-03-22 16:52:46 UTC

I love #movies. I love #scifi. I love scifi movies.
I like hard scifi, but I'm aware of the compromises that must be made when bringing technical material to a broad audience on the big screen. I can make allowances for that. So I don't have a problem suspending my disbelief when a technical or scientific clunker is required by #story mechanics.
But suspension of disbelief only goes so far. If @nprofile…c3d6 is right about "Project Hail Mary" (2026), I strongly suspect I'm not going to enjoy it. So I'll wait for it to come out for home viewing, I think. Easier to "walk out" when it's just pressing the "stop" button and you didn't fork out $40 for tickets and a bucket of #popcorn.
His take - not really a review as such:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/22/the-last-andy-weir-movie-i-will-ever-waste-money-on/
#SciFiMovie #AndyWeir #ProjectHailMary #SuspensionOfDisbelief #film #BadMovie

2026-02-27 02:33:09 UTC

I've hinted at this (below) before, as we've watched the #USA slide into #fascism. But with #ICE and the #DoJ now routinely ignoring court orders, or engaging in malicious compliance, and offering obviously bad-faith arguments about how their actions didn't actually violate court orders, it's become pretty apparent that the #immigration issue is the one driving this #lawless #government.
Did I say immigration? Sorry, I meant the #racist issue. The administration has been very clear and very explicit about their actual goals - bragging about how they're going to "restore" #America with 100,000,000 #deportations. That's basically the number of non-white people in the #country, most of whom were born in the USA and are lawful, #inalienable #citizens. Then there are the slogans and mottos stolen directly from the #Nazis, talking about #purifying Germany and all the rest. They are not being subtle about this.
Building #concentration camps is a pretty solid clue, too. The death #camps in #WWII started out like this, trying to #deport people. But when you can't move fast enough, well, you gotta do something, right? So #gas chambers and #crematoriums... ICE isn't meeting its #deportation quotas, so they're letting people die of neglect and abuse. It'll get there.
So, the point: if (big IF) #USAnians can recover their #country, it won't really be over until #Stephen #Miller meets his end after a short #drop and sudden stop at the #Hague.
#USPol #AmeriKKKa #StephenMiller

2026-02-22 19:10:15 UTC

The 365-day year has been subdivided a number of ways over time; the current 12 months of not-quite-uniform length with exceptions every 4 and every 100 years is undoubtedly messy. The French revolutionary calendar had 12 30-day months plus a 5 (or presumably 6) day "intercalary" period, but even that feels suboptimal.
Clearly the correct solution is five 73-day months. At least then the only variance is the leap year.
"My birthday is Julgustber 59th."
#AModestProposal #calendar #month #year #intercalary

2026-02-10 02:16:32 UTC

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@nprofile…2m30
Remember Satya bragging about how "30% of our code is now written by AI"?

2026-01-24 04:34:36 UTC

SCENE: INTERIOR, WHITE HOUSE. SUNNY, MID-MORNING.
Deputy Chief of Staff: Hi, Susie.
Chief of Staff: Hey, Dan. What's up?
DCOS: Is The Donald up yet?
COS: I haven't seen him. Why?
DCOS: You probably want to keep him from seeing this newest Canadian poll. 70% of Canadians wish Trump was dead.
COS: Hmm. Well, given his provocations, 70% isn't actually too bad.
DCOS: The other 30% want to piss on the corpse.
#WhiteHouse #USPol #Trump #MangoMussolini #DipshitDonnie #MicroFiction #dead #piss #corpse #poll #Canadian #Canada #CanPol

2026-01-14 01:31:50 UTC

Anyone know if there's an "Anna's Archive"-type free repository for standards documents, like from UL, CSA, IEC, ISO, etc? You know, the ones that are mostly developed with public subsidies but then are paywalled at absolutely ludicrous prices that mean only big companies can actually get access to them?
Searching a bit didn't find anything for me.
Asking for a friend ... 😃
#standards #StandardsDocuments #download #PDF #archive #free #open #paywall

2026-01-07 04:21:23 UTC

Before Grand Theft Autocomplete destroyed most of my industry, I used to say I had something I wished tech company senior management - basically, the C-suite - would understand and take to heart. I haven't got to say it in a while, but feel it needs to be written down somewhere.
So here goes.
If you think you can meaningfully motivate tech workers with company-branded knapsacks and tee-shirts, while senior management pockets bonuses and stock incentives worth 6 or 7 figures, you need to start hiring smarter tech workers.
There is very, very little that is more demotivating than being thrown scraps of useless tat branded with the company logo as a permanent reminder of just how little their contribution is valued.
#software #engineering #SoftwareEngineering #GrandTheftAutocomplete #AI #management #bonuses #bonus #incentive #tat #CEO #CTO #CSuite #motivation #demotivation

2025-12-29 05:26:53 UTC

Ooh! Ooh!
#AliExpress #radium #toxic #poison #RadiationSickness #radiation #MarieCurie #curie #LostInTranslation #Chinglish
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/115/801/181/321/111/193/original/2d0fb57046ca61c9.png

2025-12-26 20:08:33 UTC

45 years ago, at about this time, my parents joined the home computer revolution. I think they did it at least partially with the idea that it would give their children skills or opportunities in life that we might have otherwise not had. They were probably right about that.
So, Dad picked out an Atari 800, with the RAM expansion board to take it to the full 48 KB. [1] He also opted for the expensive 810 floppy disk drive, which stored 90 KB per disk! The cost of the two together was about CDN $2100, a huge amount at the time.
If you had approached me at that time, using an 8-bit processor at less than 2 MHz, and told me that today I would be able to buy a computer with 2 (!) >100 MHz 32-bit processors (and 6 times the memory of that Atari) for CDN $2.50, delivered, and that it would be small enough that you could lose it down the back of the couch cushions, I would have thought you were out of your mind.
We truly do live in an amazing technological future. With all the Big Tech crap being pushed on us all the time, I think it's too easy to lose sight of that.
[1] Wikipedia's page on the Atari 8-bit series says RAM came on 16 KB cards, and that the 800 needed 2 add-on cards to reach the 48 KB max capacity. I distinctly remember the machine having only one additional expansion card, which must have been 32 KB. So Wikipedia would appear to be incorrect about this.
#8bit #Atari800 #Atari8Bit #Atari #computer #HomeComputer #computing #retro #Pico #RaspberryPiPico

2025-12-22 06:17:28 UTC

I haven't said this in a while, so for anyone new following me:
You need a little nonsense in your timeline. Some good, natural fun, with no motive, no agenda, which does nothing but make you smile or laugh. Maybe you have some in your feed already. But you probably don't have enough.
And so, you should follow @nprofile…lhws . I get more smiles out of their posts every day than I know what to do with. Consider this a formal endorsement.
#nonsense #fun #feed #timeline #smile #laugh #enjoy #recommend #recommended

2025-12-20 05:31:45 UTC

Every #Mastodon / #Fediverse poll that includes the text "boost for larger sample size" should be required to have "Dewey Defeats Truman" as one of the poll answers.
#peeve #PetPeeve #statistics #poll #sample #bias #DeweyDefeatsTruman #SamplingError #SamplingBias

2025-11-15 21:55:21 UTC

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@nprofile…vqch
Longjohns don't usually go on the outside 😜

2025-11-15 20:22:18 UTC

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@nprofile…vqch
Another benefit: you'll probably pay less for "men's". Though I'm sorry women have to put up with this BS.
Good luck with whichever longjohns you find!

2025-11-14 14:17:56 UTC

Mozilla: We're going to start listening to our users!
Users: Don't put any more "AI" in Firefox.
Mozilla: Not like that.
#mozilla #users #AI #NobodyWants #firefox #listening

2025-11-04 05:32:32 UTC

People who follow me may know that I've been without work for some time. I don't talk about it much. I was laid off from a public #benefit corporation undergoing some restructuring just as companies started firing engineers due to the "AI" hype.
I'm basically semi-retired at this point, mostly involuntarily, but I would love to find #work that I could feel good about to occupy some of my time.
I'm a #software engineer with two-plus decades of experience in a large number of areas. I've worked as an independent consultant in many industries, worked for a consulting company in many others, and held staff positions with tech companies of different sizes in various fields. Most recently I've tended to be designing and implementing APIs for internal and external use. I've been using Python professionally for 25 years, and personally for longer. The list of OSes, languages, and technologies I've worked with is long.
If you need some software-engineer-y things done but you're now saying "We can't possibly afford to #hire someone like that", keep reading.
1/3
#FediHire #NoAI #AI #ethics #affordable #engineer #Python #API

2025-11-04 02:49:16 UTC

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@nprofile…ppe2
He also does not know that a "budget deficit" and a "trade deficit" are not the same thing. It's why he sees balance-of-payments trade figures showing a country sold more things to the USA than the USA sold to that country, and thinks they're "ripping America off", taking money from America and giving nothing in return.
So many of his bizarre and idiotic policy positions / tantrums are purely the result of his not understanding the material.
#deficit #tariff

2025-10-31 04:10:37 UTC

Who's with me? Got ahead of the "Don't let LInkedIn use your data to train AI!" panic by never signing up for LinkedIn in the first place. 😉

2025-10-30 20:54:27 UTC

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@nprofile…6zuf
Picking a #1 is hard!
But for its absolute ubiquity, I'd have to pick Google Analytics. I think that marked the first really pivotal moment of the conversion of the web from useful tool to shiny distracting toy hiding spyware etc.

2025-10-30 03:28:28 UTC

"It's absolutely ridiculous that we had all our business-critical systems running on AWS and had it go down, stopping us in our tracks. So I had IT move half our applications to another cloud provider."
"Uh, boss..."
#cloud #TheCloud #TheClown #clown #AWS #Amazon #Azure #Microsoft

2025-10-25 16:44:52 UTC

A week or so ago, I wrote about an absolutely horribly-designed poll from the government of Canada, theoretically asking Canadians what they thought we should be doing about "AI". I said that it was tilted so far in favour of AI - the questions basically embedded assumptions that we need AI, we need to subsidize it, we need companies to build it here - that it may as well have been written by Sam Altman.
It was 99% propaganda.
Well, this fellow has posted the questions and his answers. I encourage Canadians to read it, and answer the poll themselves as well.
Blog: https://exple.tive.org/blarg/2025/10/24/pattern-recognition-and-repetition/
The poll URL: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/public-consultations/help-define-next-chapter-canadas-ai-leadership
#Canada #AI #Canadians #poll #government #PushPoll #propaganda #subsidy

2025-10-17 01:19:09 UTC

I have been trying a new way to use #Mastodon / #Fediverse for a week or so now.
What I do is, a few times a day, when I see a name / user go by in my timeline that I don't recognize, if their post is even a tiny bit in my wheelhouse, I follow them.
Sometimes, after a couple of days, I realize they're not frequently posting things that engage me (which is fine!), and I un-follow them.
But mostly, it's great. Either they're posting interesting things I wouldn't have seen otherwise, or they're boosting such, giving me stuff to follow that I wouldn't have found on my own.
("Duh, that's how you're supposed to use fedi" replies unnecessary.)
#follow #UnFollow #random #user #interesting #toot #boost

2025-06-10 19:46:57 UTC

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@nprofile…8wwf
"Salad bar for bunnies"
😆

2025-06-07 21:23:16 UTC

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@nprofile…cl5w
None of this wussy MAY and MAY NOT stuff. MUST all the way.

2025-05-31 04:51:01 UTC

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@nprofile…rqes
Well said.
"Avoid for the Trumpiness, stay away for the crimes against humanity"

2025-05-25 23:39:55 UTC

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@nprofile…zp6v #SillySummerHatting challenge, I think...
@nprofile…9q8r

2025-05-21 16:26:52 UTC

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@nprofile…cl5w
Counterpoint: the most annoying child character in a major motion picture since John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

2025-05-19 04:57:01 UTC

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@nprofile…wtj5
I don't know if the doc here would agree with this, but it was explained to me as "Many times more men die *with* prostate cancer than *from* prostate cancer", i.e. it's generally slow progressing and something else - even just age - will be what actually gets you.

2025-05-01 22:09:11 UTC

I saw an article today that was talking about some cloud #hyperscaler - Google, I think - switching to a high-voltage DC power system in anticipation of supporting #racks with a power density of 1 MW.
A #megawatt, in a standard rack? I know Nvidia's selling GPU racks at 120 kW, which is much more than a traditional rack can handle, and there's talk about 250 kW, but this is 4 times more than even that. It seems ... impractical.
Doing a few calculations - a 42U standard rack is 600mm wide, a meter deep, and 2 meters high, for a total volume of 1.2 m^3. If that was a solid block of mild steel, it would mass ~9500 kg. In round terms, 1MW input would be able to raise the temperature of that almost-ten-tonne steel block from the freezing point of water to the boiling point of water... in one second flat.
The cooling requirements for a system like this would be prolific, but I think it would require some never-seen-in-computing changes as well, like a "thermal crowbar". Just as a crowbar circuit shorts the power to cause a breaker to trip when some failure condition is detected, you would need something to immediately kill power to such a rack if the cooling system was impaired at all. You don't have time for this to take ten seconds!
They're also talking about it being an 800VDC system, so you need 1250A. For that, you would need a copper busbar with a cross-sectional area of more than 500 mm^2...
This doesn't smell right.
#electronics #electricity #power #datacenter

2025-04-24 05:40:34 UTC

Daniel J. Bernstein (#djb, to those who know and love him [1]) has a new blog entry about the NIST post-quantum #cryptography standardization process that's been ongoing for some years. Also, follow him @nprofile…cshz .
If you're not aware of some of the controversy about how NIST is running this process, it's a must-read.
https://blog.cr.yp.to/20250423-mceliece.html
My $0.02: it sure looks like NIST is backstopping an attempt by the NSA to get everyone to standardize on cryptography #standards that the #NSA knows how to break.
Again.
Yes, they did it before. If you read up on the Dual_EC calamity and its fallout, and how this time it was supposed to be different - open, transparent, secure - then prepare to be disappointed. NIST is playing #Calvinball with their rules for this contest, yanking the rug out from under contenders that appear to be more #secure and better understood, while pushing alternatives that are objectively worse (#weaker encryption, less studied, poorer #performance).
Frankly, I think organizations outside of the #USA would be foolish to trust anything that comes out of #NIST's current work. Well, those inside the USA too, but some of those may be forced by law to use whatever NIST certifies.
[1] Some people think djb is "prickly", not lovable. Oddly, it seems that the only people who say this are those who are wildly incorrect about code/algorithms and are being gently but publicly corrected about by djb at the time
#quantum #PostQuantum #PostQuantumCryptography

2025-04-09 18:15:15 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
"Attention proud US citizens: buy our new Freedom Bonds! We need to preserve our freedom in the face of them darn forriners!
Oh, and to keep our billionaires from going broke.
"

2025-04-07 19:35:37 UTC

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@nprofile…ukux
Add:
"If you didn't *know* you were voting for this, that's on you."

2025-04-06 03:18:37 UTC

Line manager: Uh, Boss?
Boss: Yes?
L: We finished that new run of the component. We sent it to QA.
B: Okay? Is there a problem?
L: I just got the report back. This batch, uh, didn't meet the tolerance goal.
B: [rubs temple] Okay, shit happens. I guess it goes out as 10%. That's not too bad a hit.
L: Uh, it didn't meet 10% tolerance, either.
B: What? How bad is it? 20%?
L: Uh...
B: It's *worse* than 20%?
L: Most of the parts are barely within 50% tolerance.
B: ...
L: So, uh, we should probably ...
B: Who was running the line?
L: ...
B: It was Chuck, wasn't it?
L: ... yes.
B: Was he drunk again?
L: I don't know. I sent him home.
B: Nobody's made these components in 50% tolerance for thirty years. Where am I going to sell them?
L: ...
B: Okay, AliExpress it is. Go to the noodle shop across the street and offer him some new boxes if we can have the ones his supplies come in. No way I'm putting these parts and the company name in the same room together.
(inspired by some parts I received today...)
#electronics #hobby #AliExpress #tolerance #components #ShortFiction #qwality #ShipIt #scene #business #Chinesium #YumCha

2025-03-31 02:08:03 UTC

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@nprofile…cvct @nprofile…maqk
There are lots of theories that "enhance our understanding" of gravity, or faster-than-light travel, or time displacement. Doesn't mean that any of them are true.
MMT frankly looks like a con job at first glance. As M. G. said, it promises a free lunch. Niven had something to say about that.
#TANSAAFL

2025-03-27 22:34:17 UTC

#USPol
Questions and an idea for my #USAnian friends...
Your ~~feral~~ federal government is currently being commandeered by an executive that believes that it can rewrite the U.S. constitution via executive orders. One of the primary techniques they are using is usurping the congress's "power of the purse", by either refusing to spend congressionally-allocated funds, or by spending those funds on things other than congress allocated them for.
If the executive branch thinks it's fine to ignore your constitution and screw taxpayers with tax dollars, then...
1) Most of the feds' tax income comes from income tax and various #employment taxes.
2) Employers collect these taxes and remit them to the government.
3) Q: exactly *who* do they remit them to? Based on history, I would think this would be a state agency, who would keep the state/municipal portion and remit the rest to the federal government. Is this correct?
4) "Blue" states are, in general, net payers of tax dollars vs. federal services received.
5) "Red" states are, in general, the opposite - they receive more in federal services / support than they remit in taxes.
So, depending on the answer to (3), my #idea is: why don't blue states stop remitting funds to the federal #government? Don't steal it, just hold it in trust until the feds can be made to follow the law correctly.
I would think this would hurt the feds, a *lot*.
#American #taxes #remissions #remit #income #spending #RedState #BlueState #trust

2025-03-27 02:00:46 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
I love this story, because it means that either:
(1) Oracle straight-up lied about someone getting into their systems.
or
(2) Oracle *didn't know* someone got into their systems when they made their public denials.
I can't decide which is worse.

2025-03-22 06:41:45 UTC

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@nprofile…cgs9
Did they just file the "Where in the solar system is Carmen Sandiego?" engraving off and give this a new name?
More seriously, if they were including not-yet-launched missions, then at least someone on the team was a space fan. Nice.

2025-03-22 06:28:29 UTC

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@nprofile…cfuw
While I like the idea, making this sort of thing from scratch every week or whatever sounds like a lot of work. I've enjoyed almost every hummus I've ever bought - until this one.

2025-03-22 06:09:52 UTC

Random #bitching...
I like #hummus. I happened to be at Sobey's and decided to get some, though it's not where I usually buy hummus. They had this brand, "Fontaine Sante" (sorry, I can't type diacritical marks), and I bought the roasted red pepper "classic natural hummus". It's this one:
https://www.fontainesante.com/en/products/hummus-rrp
It has the usual ingredients you'd expect - chickpeas, tahini, garlic, salt, lemon juice, oil - plus the roasted red pepper. Nothing unusual there.
And it's ... awful. Not only does it not taste like any hummus I've ever had, it actually tastes downright unpleasant. I'm going to end up throwing the nearly-full container in the trash, and I *hate* wasting food. And no, it's not past its best-before date or anything like that. It's fresh.
I feel bad, because it's a Canadian company, but this stuff is inedible. The brand I usually buy is Sabra, but they don't carry that at Sobey's, plus it's American. I can eat their stuff by the pound.
Anyone familiar with this Fontaine Sante brand? Is it always like this?
#chickpeas #tahini #garlic #FontaineSante #Sabra #food #Canada

2025-03-22 02:39:03 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc
Agreed. The place is closing because ... no one wants to shop there. Yes, there's bad management on top of that, particularly because of the private equity / hedge fund angle, but it's going bankrupt, not being closed and locked with people banging on the gates to get in.
If no one's shopping there, it's not going to be "quite a loss" for anyone not personally connected to it.
Stupid news analysis bugs me....

2025-03-20 01:56:13 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc
Trading one murderous midwit wannabe dictator's regime for an actual murderous dictator's regime isn't really a great set of goalposts for Canada if you ask me.
We can continue to trade with China without getting "closer" to them, and we can continue to condemn their human rights abuses in Canada and abroad.

2025-03-18 03:33:35 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
Somewhere in a meeting room in AMD headquarters there's a manager asking his engineers, "Okay, we did 192 cores per socket. Did Jerry max that out? Where can we go from here?"
#AMD #CPU #core #Overkill9000

2025-03-18 03:24:17 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
This post went from clicking "reply" to post it to receiving a notification from Jerry's instance that he'd fav'd it in approximately 1s. That's some seriously efficient fediversing...

2025-03-18 03:22:48 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
Welcome, Mew! Get healthy and strong.

2025-03-08 02:42:37 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
He holds still enough for a long exposure to be sharp? You have a professional cat model on your hands...

2025-03-07 01:24:32 UTC

> Canadian leisure travel to U.S. down 40% in February, Flight Centre says.
That is a *lot* of Canadian money not going into Florida, Arizona, Texas (and other places) as usual. Like, a lot a lot.
That much of a drop in tourism income is undoubtedly killing jobs in those very MAGA states.
So, #Floridians, #Arizonans ... contact your congresscritter, contact your senator. Yell at them to stop the BS your president is stirring up. You're the ones who can stop this.
#Florida #Arizona #USA #tourism #income #MAGA #jobs

2025-02-26 18:37:54 UTC

"... and in the end, maybe the real AI boom was the friends we laid off along the way."
#AI #LLM #boom #AIBoom #hype #pop #crash #bubble #GenAI

2025-02-15 00:11:01 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn
Oh dear.
I've seen responses from both sides of this one. I almost wish I could go see what the misunderstanding was...
You do pretty good for a task that is both thankless and invisible 99.44% of the time.

2025-02-14 04:06:50 UTC

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@nprofile…vrl0
Unfortunately, I've been programming in Python professionally for 25 years, and personally for 30, which makes me spectacularly out of date on how to learn Python from scratch today.
Back in the day, I frequently recommended people start with the basic tutorial included in the Python official documentation. It was well written and not too difficult for a beginner, even someone new to programming in any language. After that, you could go on to various books (I'm old...); the tutorial got you started, but didn't get you all the way to "design and implement my first useful program".
Others here can probably give better and more recent recommendations for online tutorials, YouTube video series, or even (gasp) books. Adding some tags...
#Python #LearnPython #programming #LearnProgramming #learn #tutorial #Python101

2025-02-14 03:49:08 UTC

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@nprofile…vrl0
No, I don't think Python's too tricky in that sense. For one thing, kids are a lot better at figuring stuff out than adults usually give them credit for. But more specifically, there are editors that straddle the line between "just a text editor" and real IDE and have minimal IDE functionality, giving you a Python console in the same window and a button to re-run the code, etc.
So in that sense, it won't be much different. Arguably better, since it will have proper GUI elements, scrollback in the console and code, etc.
Python-the-language is bigger and more complex than it was 20 years ago, but you don't have to use all the complicated stuff! You can still learn Python writing code that resembles code from that era, and then start adding the fancier stuff as you find a need, want a challenge, or simply want to expand your repertoire. "You/your" being your kid in this case...
Many, many years ago I taught programming to kids at the Y, using BASIC. If I was doing it today, I would be teaching Python, and it would be much, much easier for them to understand.

2025-02-14 03:27:15 UTC

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@nprofile…k4sp
It's a good question. For Canadians, the USA has always been a "meh" in trustworthiness as a trade partner - every trade agreement we've had has been violated unilaterally, and repeatedly by the US, and every single time it ends up at a review panel, it's decided in Canada's favour -- even when the panel has been majority-American. And then the Americans have generally ignored the decisions and continued breaking the agreements.
The recent unpleasantness has provoked Canadians in a way I have never seen in my lifetime. We are ready to drop US vacations, US goods, US brands, US services, and most definitely the US dollar. If other countries react to Mango Mussolini's spate of tariffs and threats the same way, it might get very difficult for the USA to keep the dollar as the world reserve currency.
About five minutes after it first looks plausible for the world to switch, China will stop buying US T-bills. And about five minutes after that, American citizens will get a real close-up view of what hyperinflation is like, rather than laughing at Zimbabwe from afar.

2025-02-14 02:25:44 UTC

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@nprofile…vrl0
What are the specs of the laptop? Python is perfectly capable of running on a 32-bit machine with not much memory - the resources required will be mostly due to the graphical desktop, if you're using one.
Even a 10-year-old laptop at this point probably has multiple CPU cores and a couple of GB of RAM, and will be plenty fast enough for console-mode Python applications. There are lightweight Linux desktop environments that will also happily run on such a system.

2025-02-05 19:45:39 UTC

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@nprofile…wuyc
I would add "Canadian Hoser" to the list, based on Dave Thomas' voice.

2025-02-03 23:12:28 UTC

In a response to another post, I noted that Trump had just spent all of the goodwill that Canadians held for the USA for generations -- and then some. I said the damage to our relationship would take a long, long time to repair - possibly multiple generations.
Here's a heartfelt editorial from the Vancouver Sun that says it better than I did.
https://vancouversun.com/news/opinion-farewell-america-pete-mcmartin
#USPol #MangoMussolini #tariffs #America #USA #Canada

2025-01-30 23:33:30 UTC

An #action shot from today. There's six #jackrabbits in the front yard in this one, and getting them crammed in like this results in territorial behaviour.
The three across the center of the frame, from left to right are:
1) "Boxing" the one in the middle.
2) Jumping straight up in the air to escape the boxing, since there's basically another jackrabbit in every other direction. He's a good 50-60cm in the air here, and went higher before coming down.
3) Preparing to rear up, possibly taking up the boxing challenge of #1.
The other three aren't in the thick of it yet.
#ActionShot #photograph #wildlife #animal #jackrabbit #hare #rabbit #bunny #boing #Canada #SK
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/113/919/907/039/221/035/original/949e17e38a4ba140.jpg

2025-01-29 03:35:24 UTC

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@nprofile…cgs9
> I guess it works, but it's an ugly API
Isn't that the functional definition of Windows?
😉

2025-01-14 17:43:53 UTC

I found some info on #Hollywood's tent-pole releases for this year that I haven't seen anywhere else. Posting for other #film / #cinema buffs.
Rick's Place - a remake of #Casablanca (1942), starring Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, and Jean Reno, and for some reason a digital recreation of Peter Lorre. Test audiences wanted a happier ending, so in the end, Rick and Ilsa fly off together, and Victor and Captain Renault take over Rick's while developing a "beautiful friendship" of their own.
Star Wars Episode 10: Ambition. Debuting in May, Disney describes it as a reboot of Star Wars (1977), but test audiences report it is virtually a shot-for-shot remake of that film with a new cast, but which for some reason cost $350 million to make. Episode 11 is in post-production, and principal photography for Episode 12 is scheduled to begin as soon as the receipts for Ambition's opening weekend are known. Insiders report those two films are remakes of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. So, basically the same as episodes 7-9. Stars Timothée Chalamet, John Cho, Miley Cyrus, and for some reason a digital recreation of Kenny Baker.
1/3
#NewRelease #movie #money #greed #StarWars #franchise

2025-01-01 17:26:17 UTC

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@nprofile…c5zd
#Fudzilla always has the best response.
#linux #desktop #LinuxOnTheDesktop #YearOfLinuxOnTheDesktop
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/113/754/260/475/212/274/original/10014a533e40d41a.jpg