@bigzaphod@mastodon.social
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bigzaphod

@bigzaphod@mastodon.social

You may know me from Twitterrific or Frenzic: Overtime or as the ex-galactic president. I'm just this guy, you know?

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bigzaphod, to random
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Just found out, entirely by accident, that I'm under a tornado watch. I only discovered it because of a national news story I happened to notice most of the way down the page on CNN about an especially dangerous weather condition in the midwest.

And I'm like.. "Wait, I'm in the midwest!" I clicked the story.

Turns out, yeah, my county is in the watch area and there's a line of serious storms coming that have already spawned tornadoes and killed people today.

No trace of this in Apple Weather.

bigzaphod,
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They're predicting 80-90mph winds. Apparently it has been destroying wind turbines in western Iowa for the last few hours. Not good.

bigzaphod,
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It's surprisingly difficult to get live weather updates during several weather when you don't have cable/sat/antenna television.

Luckily some of the local TV stations will freely livestream during storms like this.

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

My feelings about this feature are somewhere between horrified and appalled.

I admit that sometimes it might be useful, but I think at this point I'm willing to live without it because... :yikes:.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/microsofts-new-recall-feature-will-record-everything-you-do-on-your-pc/

bigzaphod,
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Cops learning about the new Windows feature that records everything you do on your PC:

Dancing cops.

rafa, to random
@rafa@mastodon.design avatar

Anyone has recommendations for a nice soldering kit?

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@dxzdb @rafa @GeekAndDad I've been liking my Pinecil. It's not a kit, though. I just got the cheapest stand on Amazon to go with it. Also, I learned this the hard way... get a silicone USB-C cable so it doesn't melt when you inevitably touch it with the iron. 😛

bigzaphod, to random
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No one listens to the ancient oracles anymore. They’re old muse.

bigzaphod, to Ds9
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“Hail them!”
(0.003 seconds passes)
“No answer!!”

Sometimes they don’t even wait long enough for a person to push an answer button that their finger was already on let alone use a voice interface to accept the incoming call.

bigzaphod, to random
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I'm beginning to think this OpenAI company I've heard so much about isn't entirely on the up-and-up.

bigzaphod, to random
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Tonight's movie night movie will be, "The Core (2003)." None of us have seen this one before, but it fits right in with our "turn of the century disaster movie" kick that we've been on. Can't wait to see how deep the plot goes!

(Yes, I said "turn of the century." It's technically true! No, I don't like this fact either!)

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

If I had known this was going to be as painful as it turned out to be, I may have seriously considered just trying to design a PCB and having it manufactured professionally. Cuz wow.. this was... well.. not fun, exactly.... More like yikes.

I don't think I've ever actually built anything on one of these prototyping boards before. Probably should have started with something a bit... simpler?

Oh well - it seems like this part of my idea is working anyway. Still a lot more to do/experiment with.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

It seems like it should be possible to 3D print a PCB. I suppose it probably is, but it's likely some hacky process that requires a better printer than I have, special materials, more equipment, and hours of wrangling software tools that were probably never meant to work with each other.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

Maybe I should get a CNC mill... that could do it, right? Should be able to mill out a PCB design on a copper coated plate, I'd think? Plus it could drill holes. This probably exists too but is probably too expensive.

bigzaphod,
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@Luke omg I want it.

bigzaphod,
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@sanguish I ran across an article that tapped a marker to a 3D printer and used it to draw the lines on a board and then did the etching the old fashioned way.

jackamick, to random
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@gedeonm does this count as a twitterrific knock off? 😅

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm @jackamick @piraino lol

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

Was doing a little soldering today. Messed up, of course. Wanted some solder wick to try to fix it. Didn't have any.

It's times like this that I really hate that my town no longer has a single proper hobby/electronics store that I'm aware of. There's nowhere to go to grab stuff like this when you suddenly need it on a Saturday afternoon. There's nowhere to buy extra resistors, or LEDs, or microcontrollers, stepper motors, breadboards, etc.

I have to order everything.

bigzaphod, to Ds9
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They should put seatbelts on the Defiant.

bigzaphod,
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@gedeonm this episode has James Cromwell playing an alien.

gedeonm, to random
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Getting Five Guys for dinner. Right after I make a withdrawal from my savings account… 😳

bigzaphod,
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@gedeonm yeeeeah. Can't afford to eat there with a family at all.

bigzaphod, to random
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This https://www.macrumors.com/2024/05/17/ios-17-5-bug-wiped-devices-photos-resurfacing/ is kinda bad, but it's probably NOT actually a bug anymore - it's probably only happening now because they fixed the original bug that prevented the originals from actually being deleted in the first place.

At least... I hope so!

They really need to comment on this, though.

Edit: Okay, I mean, obviously it's still a bad bug, but maybe it's on the server side now. Which is especially bad. But they could fix without an update.

They need to comment on this.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

That said, though, as far as I can tell, this latest version of the story - that photos reappeared on a wiped device seems to be sourced to just that one single Reddit user.

The earlier variation where iCloud photos reappeared seems quite plausible to me and apparently happened to a large number of people. This one, though, if true, would be... like... an epically colossal fuckup.

But considering it's seemingly just one person saying it at this point... I dunno.

bigzaphod, to random
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There's a part of me that loves to see log messages flying up in the console. It's like... satisfying? Things are happening! Look at all that computing! The gears are grinding, the bits are flowing, stuff is getting done! Hell yeah!

Wait, what was that one? What did it say? I think that was wrong! COME BACK HERE! DAMMIT THERE ARE TOO MANY LOGS...NOOOOO!!!!

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Dumb question, but if I bought one of those "MagSafe stickers" on Amazon, that are traditionally used to give an Android phone MagSafe-like-stickiness, could I instead use it in reverse, and stick it to a non-MagSafe accessory so it would stick to my iPhone?

For instance, say I want to stick it to a banana so the banana magnets to my phone

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig I have nothing of substance to add to this conversation.

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