@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

kevinbowen

@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org

Avatar: A picture of a Binturong holding up its left hand in a sign of peace.

Profile picture: A cropped image of Viennese fantastic realist painter Ernst Fuchs' Moses & the Burning Bush

I route the packets that make the Internet sing.
Documentation supervisor & contributor to :xfce: #xfce
moderator at r/xfce

Currently exploring :python: #python :django: #django :docker: #docker
Occasionally dabble in #guitar #painting #drawing
:fsf: :opensource:

Generally a recluse in the #PNW #Seattle area

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lulu_powerful, to random
@lulu_powerful@fosstodon.org avatar

Perfect Mother's Day morning. The man and little-man have gone to McDonald's to get me an egg and cheese McMuffin (no meat) because that's what I wanted!

While I wait, I'm watching YouTube videos about Linux things. Bliss.

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@lulu_powerful

You had me panicked, for a second, that I haven't called my mom today. Then I remembered your location.

Enjoy your day & your minions!๐ŸŒป

kevinbowen, to music
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Damn. Just learned of Steve Albini's death at 61. He's left a huge legacy behind him. RIP.

He was a big influence on helping me develop my own ideas on approaching music from an aesthetic, philosophical, practical, and cultural perspective.

Here's his thoughtful essay "The Problem with Music" from December 1993:

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music

#RIP #SteveAlbini #music #obituary

kevinbowen, to random
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

I learned a couple new phrases for odd symbol combos today.

I've been familiar with "#!" (a shebang) for decades from bash & perl. And I've know of ":=" (the walrus operator) for a few years from python.

Today, I've learned about "~>" (the pessimistic version constraint operator) aka "twiddle-wakka" or the "squiggly rocket" courtesy of Ruby.

The world of computers is, truly, a magical place. twiddle-wakka.

kevinbowen, to Shoegaze
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Stumbled across this article late last night. Listened to a couple tracks. Picked up the album today.
Sounds like it's right up my alley: a little , maybe some , and dash of Cluster & perhaps some Yay! New !

"Seattle Space-Rockers somesurprises' New Album Poised for Meteoric Impact"

https://www.thestranger.com/music/2024/04/19/79461524/seattle-space-rockers-somesurprises-new-album-poised-for-meteoric-impact

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@brianokken

Heh. That's fantastic!

Being accidentally hip is even cooler than trying to be hip! Shoegaze is cool, daddy-o!

isagalaev, to ubuntu
@isagalaev@mastodon.social avatar

I'm back! Borked my laptop by upgrading #Ubuntu to the recent 24.04 beta. Looks like the upgrade process removed/disabled #AMD #GPU drivers, and for a while I was left with looking at a plain non-GUI shell, which required an actual real-life magnifying glass, because of my HiDPI display!

Now it's operational again with built-in drivers, but I still want to figure out how to bring the AMD 3-rd part drivers back and restore OpenCL support.

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@isagalaev

Kudos for you having an actual, old-timey magnifying glass. Or, condolences for having aged out from being able to read the fine print. ๐Ÿ˜‰

I should get one of those. Lately, I've occasionaly cheated using the zoom feature on my phone camera to read some tiny ingredients lists on packaging in poor lighting...

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@isagalaev

That's frustrating. Up until the last 2 years, my prescription had remained unchanged for ~35
years.

Now all you need is a pipe & a cap, Sherlock!

brianokken, to random
@brianokken@fosstodon.org avatar

Itโ€™s nice when youโ€™re kids are old enough that you can stop pretending to be offended by swearing.

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@brianokken

Indeed. It's an odd, little signpost/marker of your child's path to growing up(and your acceptance of some of that).

mariatta, to random
@mariatta@fosstodon.org avatar

I was pair programming with a new developer yesterday to help debug her code. She was feeling frustrated, and she asked if there would ever be a time (and how long until) she wouldn't feel like that anymore, until she her code would just work the first time without needing lots of trial and errors.

Well, my code still doesn't always work and still need lots of debugging too. I just learned to not feel so frustrated about it.

@nedbat's blog post explains this so well.

https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/201709/beginners_and_experts.html

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@mariatta

Always a useful reminder. Thanks

Heh. Poor Ben in the article comments. ๐Ÿคฃ

kevinbowen, to brainfood
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Sure. Why not? I wouldn't mind an #Eno #documentary with a gagillion permutations.

Though it might be frustrating thinking one has missed some crucial parts. Would that make it more compelling, or just pretentious(of course it's gonna be artsy-fartsy)?

Are there any worthwhile Eno bio-pics out there? Might as well make it a non-linear, collage pic.

If only Ken Burns had the courage to do a 10 part series on the guy... /s

https://thequietus.com/articles/34001-brian-eno-documentary

#music #film

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@msokolov

Yep. Plus there is the archive at http://www.moredarkthanshark.org/ that I occasionaly browse.

I've read his "On Some Faraway Beach" bio years ago; but haven't, yet, gotten into "A Year of Swollen Appendices".

I guess I'm a only a half-commited fanboi...

kevinbowen, to movies
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Ugh. Repo Man is 40 years old.

Not my first exposure to punk or indie cinema. But, probably the first that combined those two great tastes together.

Such a big influence on my lifelong love of music & film (and Harry Dean Stanton, of course!).

Tonight, let's go get sushi and not pay!

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@msokolov

Such a quotable film.

At the time, amongst our group of friends, it was right up there with The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@msokolov

That band name is not ringing any bells for me. Mid-80's ska from Mass(according to discogs)? Yo no se.

I wouldn't be surprised though.

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@msokolov heh.

The phrase 'plate of shrimp' has had an entry in the Urban Dictionary for 20 years. It has a legacy of sorts.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=plate%20of%20shrimp

kevinbowen, to random
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

After watching the first episode, last night, I'm finally getting off my metaphorical butt and starting to read the Three Body trilogy. It's only been sitting on my hard drive for...just under 10(!) years.

I've got a bit of a media backlog.

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Finished NetFlix the series a couple of days ago.

After watching the first episode, I realized that I was missing a great deal of nuance, so I started the book. It's been fantastic, so far.

The Netflix series kept my interest. It's a mainstream adaptation shrug. I don't mind it. I was not offended. It was good enough to binge the entire series.

I've got another 100 pages left in the 1st book of the trilogy. Am excited for the rest!

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Finished Dark Forest last night. A fantastic (and funny) follow up to The Three Body Problem.

Really got a kick out of the Killer 5.2 virus. I think Da Shi may be my favorite character, so far.

On to Death's End tonight!

At some point, soon, I may have to revisit Greg Bear's Eon/The Way trilogy. I forgot how much I enjoy these sprawling trilogies.

#3BodyProblem #scifi

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Finished Death's End(and the trilogy).

Book 3 was a bit of a let down after Dark Forest. I had to take a little break after the fairy tales & the 4-dimensional bubble discovery. I enjoyed most of the individual sections; but, as a whole...eh.

After the first two books, it seemed, to me, like a bunch of deus ex machinas being flung around(which was kinda of funny in a meta way), in an effort wrap things up.

Definitely a great trilogy.

#SciFi #Literature #3BodyProblem

kevinbowen, to random
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Aging out of being culturally relevant(if we ever were), it's more like Geriatric X, than Generation X, amirite???

We're about due for a Time magazine cover to provide a retrospective on our generation's short-comings and failures, no?

kevinbowen, to Zines
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Where do 'zines belong, culturally & institutionally? How do "we" document & archive these sub-cultural artifacts?

'zines were a significant part of my adolescence & young adulthood from ~'84 through ~'96. Mostly for the music & art scenes. I may have "published" a couple 'lil tracts. Definitely contributed a bit o'terrible poetry, pics, and illustrations to a few of them(fortunately now lost & thankfully forgotten!).

https://www.documentjournal.com/2024/03/copy-machine-manifesto-brooklyn-museum-zine-fair-archive/

msokolov, to random
@msokolov@fosstodon.org avatar

are these bookmarks I make on fosstodon.org web site going to carry over to my phone client? Somehow I doubt it?

kevinbowen,
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

@msokolov

Been using Tusky for ~1 week on my phone. I can see all of the bookmarks & favorites that I made from the desktop web page.

Haven't used it for much more than a read-only interface; but, I am liking it so far.

kevinbowen, to chemistry
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

"The invention of blue and purple pigments in ancient times"

A chemical & historical analysis of "Egyptian and Chinese copper-based pigments"

Section 2 contains most of the (if you wish to skip over the technical details).

Section 3. Examined Objects provides specific examples from Egyptian & Chinese

Section 5. The dissemination of the blue pigments and technology transfer

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2007/cs/b606268g

kevinbowen, to random
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

Considering how my last phone (a Samsung Galaxy S6) went EOL/support sometime around 2018, I'm a bit overstimulated by how my 'new' phone is so chatty with updates & notifications.

It's gonna take some getting used to having this new noise box in my life.

kevinbowen, to random
@kevinbowen@fosstodon.org avatar

I now have it on good authority(my partner) that I make the best omelettes.

And here I am always being terribly embarrased at how I can't fold them properly.

I. Am. The. Egg. Man.

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