liampomfret

liampomfret, 2 days ago to random

It's simply absurd to see some people suggesting those helping Ukraine are warmongers because they're not going along with bad-faith suggestions of a ceasefire from Moscow.

If Moscow really wanted a true ceasefire, they could get that at any time simply by giving up on their invasion and withdrawing their troops beyond the pre-2014 borders. But Moscow doesn't want a true ceasefire and cessation of hostilities. They just want time to train and rearm their troops before their next offensive.

liampomfret, 3 days ago to random

....why has this student submitted an essay with their paper in landscape orientation instead of portrait? Oo;

liampomfret, 5 days ago to random

Either retailers are way more desperate than I thought, or this company has made a hell of a typo in sending out this email!
(The amount also appears in the email subject, so that's 3 separate places with this figure.)

liampomfret, 6 days ago to random

Really not impressed with the current EOFY sale offers for tech products. Was hoping I'd be able to get myself a few decent discounts on the NAS I want to set up, plus a new SSD for the laptop, but nothing so far is catching my eye.

liampomfret, 15 days ago to random

It doesn’t feel like there’s been enough fire on stage this year. Maybe Georgia just used so much that there wasn’t enough budget for more pyro. #SBSEurovision

liampomfret, 16 days ago to random

San Marino not getting through is a bloody shame. They deserved it. #SBSEurovision

liampomfret, 16 days ago to random

Please let that be a giant hamster wheel, it's been too long. #SBSEurovision

liampomfret, 17 days ago to random

We're only on the third song, and we've already had two sung in languages other than English. A good omen for the rest of the night, hopefully. #SBSEurovision

liampomfret, 21 days ago to random

The argument that "solar can't provide baseload power" always struck me as a bit silly, even before I got our solar panels, simply because solar was never intended to be the sole provider of power, but rather part of a mix of a variety of renewable sources that combined were still cheaper than polluting fossil fuels.

Since getting the solar panels, the argument seems even more silly to me, since even on cloudy, rainy days my modest system is fully providing for our daytime electricity usage.

liampomfret, 22 days ago to random

Interested in getting a proper NAS set up. Without having used one before, am I better off just buying one off the shelf, or is it reasonable/cheaper to build one using open source software? I've still got an old Fractal Design Define R4 that would fit plenty of drives, though I expect I'd need to buy everything else — wouldn't want to run it on an old i5-4690.

liampomfret, 23 days ago (edited 18 days ago) to Eurovision

For those following me, this is your warning ahead of time that you may want to mute the #SBSEurovision hashtag prior to the Australian broadcasts of #Eurovision this coming week.

Unless of course you enjoy snarky tooting and hot takes fuelled by about 1/3 of my annual alcohol intake, in which case, I hope you'll join us for the broadcast!

liampomfret, 1 month ago to random

A counterpoint to those saying the Australian government deciding to geoblock X/Twitter would be pointless given that people can get around it with VPNs.

Australian-based organisations won't be using a VPN to get around it. They'll stop using it entirely. That means lots of companies, news organisations, and federal, state, and local government entities. They're going to need to go somewhere, and that could trigger regular Australian users to follow them.

liampomfret, 1 month ago to random

Just had an idea of how to explain to people the cost/benefit trade off of privacy and convenience, in a way that might make sense to the average person. Stop me if this isn't as original as I think.

I call it the "take-out coffee test".

It's fairly common for a lot of working people to buy a take-out coffee at some point in their work day. Basically, they're paying for the convenience of not having to do it themselves, and the confidence that it'll be done to a certain minimum standard. (1/n)

liampomfret, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

gets package sent to him via Express Post
Tuesday night: Package is in NSW, estimated delivery is Wednesday
Wednesday morning: Package is now only only two suburbs away, estimated delivery is now Thursday

liampomfret, 1 month ago to random

Having finally settled on my new laptop purchase, I’m now fully expecting that I’ll spot a much better deal on something within days.

liampomfret, 2 months ago to random

Fediverse, please help me decide on my new laptop. I've narrowed down my shortlist to two different options, but I'm having a hard time deciding between them. Whichever laptop I get is primarily going to be used in my lap while I'm resting off health issues in bed, but I also need to be able to take it with me and use it as my primary work and streaming laptop while overseas. I'm also expecting to remove Windows 11 and run Linux.

In the left corner, we've got the ASUS TUF A16 Advantage. (...)

liampomfret, 2 months ago to random

So I see the usual suspects in gaming spaces are at it again. 2016's manufactured outrage was bad enough. Now they're going after a narrative development company that they falsely believe is somehow forcing diversity into games. All because these groups seem to be fundamentally unable to accept the idea of any games company wanting to improve representation of marginalized groups in their stories. https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428

liampomfret, 2 months ago to random

Ugh. That's twice now that I've attempted to purchase a bunch of gift cards for prize winners from our holiday contests, and each time the company selling them has said they were "unable to authenticate and complete" the order. Given the hold on the funds from my card, the problem clearly isn't with my payment, so I've got no idea what's going on. Some sort of misplaced fraud protection flagging it solely because it's a large order of gift cards?

liampomfret, 3 months ago to random

So multiple US mobile phone networks seem to have gone down simultaneously, nationwide. If this isn’t a cyberattack of some kind, what would cause this? Some kind of common flaw or bug in the software/hardware used across each provider? Yet there’s other providers that are still up, so what would they have been doing differently?

liampomfret, 3 months ago to random

One of Trump's lawyers is named Alina Habba
Her first name is an anagram of the abbreviation IANAL.
How is it that I'm only realizing this for the first time today?

liampomfret, 3 months ago to random

Stuck in bed due to issues with my hip and glutes. Thought I’d try to resurrect the old laptop so I could at least get some work done, but no dice. Literally won’t turn on, even while plugged in. Guess I’ll be spending the rest of the week fruitlessly shopping laptop deals online while unable to justify the expense to myself when there should be bigger discounts once the laptops announced at CES actually hit the market.

liampomfret, 4 months ago to random

I'm well and truly sick of people trying to re-frame boycotts as " cancelling", in an attempt to stigmatize boycott behaviour and remove one of the limited ways in which average people can express their power under capitalism.

Today, boycotts aren't just about voting with your wallet, they're about voting with your attention, depriving an organization or individual of views, and limiting their ability to derive revenue from their online activities. There is nothing wrong with boycotting.

liampomfret, 4 months ago to random

Listening to everything about these tsunami warnings in Japan kind of makes the severe weather warnings we've been under all day here in SEQ feel like child's play. They're expecting 5m waves in Noto in Ishikawa, and something like 3m waves across around a third of their western coastline? Bloody hell.

liampomfret, 4 months ago to Eurovision

All the #kohaku toots tonight are giving me the same kind of vibes as #eurovision. Just the right mix of fangasming and snark.

liampomfret, 4 months ago to random

When you think about it, online advertising is remarkably primitive. The algorithms focus on showing ads to consumers the data shows may be interested, but typically fail to consider the best time to show that ad to the consumer, and the best context in which to show that ad. As a result, it ends up being more about just assaulting the consumer with a mass volume of ads in the hopes they’ll click on something, which just alienates consumers even more from the already intrusive advertising.