@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

bigblen

@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz

FOSS using resident of Christchurch, NZ
Moderator of mastodon.nzoss.nz, cyclist, parent, gardener. Occasional electronics/software engineer.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

Last night I dreamed I was in a string quartet performance that was somehow a talk about satellite pollution. I wish I could figure out how to do this... playing angry music sounds way more fun than giving an angry lecture.

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@sundogplanets the quartet plays nice music. Every few seconds someone runs across the front of the stage blowing a kazoo

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

"Another protester, draped in a Palestine flag, told 1News Seymour was 'a dick'."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/513573/up-to-schools-to-decide-if-protesters-absences-were-justified-principals

Future leader right there.

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey It does occur to me that if supposed libertarian Seymour wanted students to be able to have a say in an "acceptable" way, he would support lowering the voting age to 16.

bigblen, to random
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Ugh. finally caught up with me today. Fingers crossed that the vaccines protect me from the worst of it.

thunderbird, to email
@thunderbird@mastodon.online avatar

It's Thursday, and we've got a Thunderbird two in one tip! If you use tags to organize your emails, today's tips are all about activating and moving tags in the Folder Pane.

  1. Click the Folder Pane Menu (three dots on right side of 'New Message') 📁
  2. Hover over Folder Modes ➡️
  3. Enable Tags ✅

Want to move the tags around? Click on the vertical three-dot Tags menu to shift them up or down.

#Thunderbird #Email #Organization

This gif demonstrates how to open the Folder Pane Menu, hover Folder Mode, and Enable Tags by clicking on the Tags option in Thunderbird 115.*
This gif shows how to move the Tags in the Folder Pane on Thunderbird 115.* up or down using the vertical three dot menu in the Tags field.

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@thunderbird This is new to me, and would be useful.
But I find that when I select a tag, the message list is empty until I disable the Quick Filter. I can enable it again and still see the messages.
#Thunderbird

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

For the record my question is here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1441784

(Not expecting a response from you @thunderbird)

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Yep, I can do a lot better. The radius on that point is a smooth 2 microns (big blob in the lower right is the hypodermic tip). The smoothness is beyond my current optics, but shows no significant deviation at 0.25 microns/pixel. Woohoo!

Ultrafine wire point vs. end of a hypodermic needle. A sequence of zooms. 1 micron per pixel.
Ultrafine wire point vs. end of a hypodermic needle. A sequence of zooms. 250 nanometres per pixel.

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik what kind of incident are you hoping to create with your superneedle?

strypey, to workersrights
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Anyone know which trade union would be the best one for tech workers in Aotearoa to approach if we want to organise our workplaces?

#WorkersRights #TradeUnions #Aotearoa #NZ

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey going by the name only : https://www.atu.org.nz/

strypey, to showerthoughts
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

#ShowerThoughts: I'd like to be part of a digital age version of the old record club.

I'm imagining getting an email every time a kiwi music act releases a new record. The email tells me where I can listen to the record. It also tells me the best way to give money to the act if I like it, so that most of the money goes to them rather than intermediaries.

The cool thing is that an email newsletter like this is totally platform independent, and requires minimal coordination.

@radiofreefedi

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey
Not quite what you're asking for, but are you subscribed to Elsewhere? https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/newsletter/611/
l

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

#Wairarapa power is in on again, off again mode.

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik my power is going on and off about 100 times every second

vik, to 3DPrinting
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Finally got round to making a new stove knob on the #3dprinter! https://www.printables.com/model/697724-oven-and-hob-knob-14

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik why 3d print when I can have these beauties?
#ifixit

bananabob, to nz
@bananabob@mastodon.nz avatar

Anyone have any idea what this is hiding in the shrubbery. It looks like a spy microphone. t is connected to the grey box that is beneath the shrub. I spotted this on an old stretch of Highway 1 in Waikanae.

#NZ #Mystery #Question

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@bananabob Is it pointing at the top of a hill or tower? Or the sky, in which case is it pointed north?

bananabob, to nz
@bananabob@mastodon.nz avatar

NZ Geographic Board moots new spelling for Franz Josef Glacier and village

And why can't we just use the Maori names?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501954/nz-geographic-board-moots-new-spelling-for-franz-josef-glacier-and-village

#RNZ #NZ #Aotearoa

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@bananabob yes isn't the Māori so much better!

"The Māori part of the name for the glacier was also being standardised to Kā Roimata-o-Hinehukatere, meaning tname he 'tears of the Avalanche Maiden'."

strypey, (edited ) to aotearoa
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

A quick reminder that after 6 years of Labour government, Aotearoa still has a housing crisis. Despite what the NatACTs continue to claim, it's still not going to be solved by just doing anything you can get away with justifying as "increasing supply";

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/04/03/guest-blog-danyl-strype-some-home-truths-about-house-shortages-housing-affordability-and-the-generation-gap/

I wrote this piece in 2017, but other than who is the leader of TOP, very little has changed.

#Aotearoa #NZ #NZPolitics #housing

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@futuresprog @strypey "Nact" may be Winston And National and aCT - WANCT. In my head they are already the Coalition of Chaos. I'm sure this is what Luxon meant when he repeated the phrase ad-nauseam

bigblen, to Astronomy
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

#astronomy #satellite is something rendezvousing with Tiangong now. Saw 2 objects over Christchurch #nz

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

What's the best self-hostable tool for adding a survey to your website. Looking for something that's 100% Free Code, not a mostly proprietary tool with source code released for a few non-essential bits released for openwashing purposes.

This article is a bit dated (2017):

https://opensource.com/article/17/2/tools-online-surveys-polls

... but it lists LimeSurvey, JD Esurvey, Quick Survey, and TellForm. A quick web search also turned up Surveyjs and KoboToolbox.

#surveys #FreeCode

@lightweight

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey can you clarify if you're looking for a full multi-question survey or more a simple poll tool?
@lightweight

strypey, (edited ) to tv
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

the TV3 election debate with leaders from TPM, Greens, Winston First and ACT:

https://piped.video/watch?v=db6k68wgwHA

It annoys me that the news media elevated the leaders of the legacy parties to their own private Chrisfest, instead of having a leaders debate that included these 4. That would have been a much more robust and insightful debate than listening to two sheets of human wallpaper dribble talking points at each other.

(1/?)

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey I was just saying I'd like RNZ to pre-record (or delay) interviews with the understanding that any time the interviewee repeats their talking point verbatim, it gets deleted. The audience has heard your f***ing talking point already

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

In s01e13, a TV news announcer says;

"... an unusually bad 'flu season is buffeting the country. Doctor say the strain, originating in China, is particularly severe. Children and the elderly are most at risk."

... and Sheldon, panicking, says;

"We're all gonna die!"

... then his mother Mary says;

"But you need to understand that sometimes the news says those things just to scare people."

Hmmm...

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey ... to confirm that masks and boosters aren't disproportionate compared to "making a bubble boy habitat"

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey @nu " But that's not the comparison I'm making." - that is how I (and it seems others) have read your original toot.
Please clarify what comparison you were trying to make.

bananabob, (edited ) to nz
@bananabob@mastodon.nz avatar

Daylight Saving starts in New Zealand on Sunday 24 September. There is a bit of discontent every year. So what do you think?

Please boost for wide coverage.

#NZ #AotearoaNZ #NZDST #NZTwits #DaylightSaving

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@bananabob 12:00 at solar noon every day ;)

aral, to ai
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

We call it AI because no one would take us seriously if we called it matrix multiplication seeded with a bunch of initial values we pulled out of our asses and run on as much shitty data as we can get our grubby little paws on.

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@aral https://xkcd.com/1838/

cliffwade, (edited ) to fediverse
@cliffwade@allthingstech.social avatar

Does your computer have a CD/DVD drive in it currently?

Please BOOST for maximum exposure to the

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@cliffwade I have usb3 DVD drive for laptop. + desktop with DVD drive

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Interesting example here of conservation vs. climate change. Turns out that by banning nasty sulphur-laden ship propellant we've in fact made global warming measurably worse. The good news is that by going back and improving the effect we can make things better, the bad news is that a massive international environmental campaign to implement the original change needs to back down: https://www.science.org/content/article/changing-clouds-unforeseen-test-geoengineering-fueling-record-ocean-warmth

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@vik I don't see any argument for reverting (Your "needs to back down") to dirty fuel there.

The proposal mentioned in the paper is doing something different:
"one such strategy to slow global warming, called marine cloud brightening, would see ships inject salt particles back into the air, to make clouds more reflective"

bigblen, to random
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Interesting article on stuff homepage right now.

ike, to random

my move from firefox -> chromium -> microsoft edge -> vivaldi -> qutebrowser really doesn't bode well for eventually fitting into society

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@alcinnz @ike before DIY there's still lynx, curl, wget...

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

I've been getting a lot more messages about Bea Wolf suddenly this week, and all I know is I was at a librarian conference last weekend, and perhaps they have some sort of underground network?

bigblen,
@bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@ZachWeinersmith My local (Christchurch, New Zealand) librarians are on the job...

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