@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

nitpicking

@nitpicking@mstdn.party

So I've been a science teacher, museum guide, freelance writer, software dev, software product manager, network admin, and for a long time now a business trainer. And I run SFF conventions.
Member: #tootfinder.

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

nitpicking, to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

So, I found a restaurant to order dinner from using Bing Maps. I called China Star using the number I found by clicking its link from the map. I turned out to be ordering from the China Star in St. Louis, MO. I am in New York. Apparently Bing didn't do a great job vetting that link. (I'm in an unfamiliar part of the state and didn't realize the area code was wrong.)

nitpicking, to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

Visited Storm King Art Center (https://stormking.org/), a New York State Park. Unfortunately it was a cloudy, overcast day and my camera seems to be bad in those conditions. It's well worth seeing, though.

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Breathless headlines about “the Air Force AI drone killed its human operator so it could score more kills” do not illuminate anything.

The simulated Air Force drone simulated killing its human operator in a simulation so it could score more simulated kills.

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@mattblaze

I think you could summarize it as "The simulation worked, by identifying a problem before it could actually harm an actual operator, just as it was intended to do."

nitpicking, to science
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

India is apparently being run by Ron DeSantis."Schoolchildren in India will no longer be taught about evolution, the periodic table of elements, sustainability, pollution or energy sources such as fossil fuels and renewables."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01770-y

dansup, to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

✨ Pixelfed + Post Edits, now available on the official mobile apps!

https://pixelfed.org/mobile-apps

Pixelfed mobile app showing an edited post
Pixelfed mobile app showing an edited post

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@dansup I don't especially feel like playing with an APK. Any idea when the app will appear in the Android store?

pantransautie, to random
@pantransautie@elekk.xyz avatar

where do you order your n95 masks from online? can i have a link to said source please?

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@pantransautie

I just bought a box of 20 3M N95s from Staples online: https://www.staples.com/3M-Lightweight-Particulate-Respirator-8210-N95-20-Box/product_504336

Less than a dollar each. These have been tested as among the best 95s made.

nitpicking, (edited )
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@pantransautie

The particular one I bought (3M 8210) is not a surgical respirator. 3M explains the difference here: https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1839703O/surgical-n95-vs-standard-n95-which-to-consider.pdf

For a person who isn't getting squirted in the face with blood all the time, there's probably no effective difference. If I was going to up my filtration, I'd be getting N100s rather than going for the surgical N95s.

EDIT: I looked it up, and they cost roughly 15 x what N95s do.

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@pantransautie "The Mask Nerd".

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eE2BERAvRzs28kG87ft3a27FS9-gHvdC

nitpicking, to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

1/2

Everyone has to calibrate their anti-COVID precautions. Case reporting being unreliable and such, wastewater testing is the best way to know the current status. Here in the USA, the risk is dropping pretty consistently over the past few months.

Source: https://biobot.io/data/

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

2/2

Detail on the last half-year from that graph. Top (darker) line is wastewater readings, lower (lighter) line is reported COVID cases.

spamless, to random
@spamless@mastodon.social avatar

My wife bought some lettuce from a regional farmer. The label amused me. "Frischer bunter Salat aus Hessen." ("Fresh, colorful lettuce from Hesse.") There was a map with the State of Hesse filled in and a curved arrow, as if to say "You Are Here." My thought was, of course the lettuce is fresh and colorful. What else could it be that they would want to print? Stale and drab?

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@spamless

In German, would it make sense to contrast a savory soup with, say, a sweet one?

nitpicking, to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

2/2

@mattblaze has written about people who inexplicably harass him because he dares to post black-and-white photos, which they don't like. They even create sockpuppet accounts to get around his blocking them. What is going on in their heads?

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@elithebearded https://mstdn.party/@nitpicking/110442715014095782

Did part 1 not appear in your feed?

Something is up with Mastodon now. 5/6 of the posts in my feed have disappeared. (Web client.)

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@elithebearded

That's very weird, especially since one person favorited it.

nitpicking, to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

So, I follow the hashtag, because I'm interested in respiratory protection. Today, that brought up video of a man masturbating in a pig mask. Mind you, he correctly marked the content as adult so it would be hidden from the sensitive. (I'm not.) I'm just saying, it was a surprise.

briannawu, to random

If you’re picking up on some sarcasm this morning, I have a good friend of mine who is literally one of the most famous people in a certian industry who just quit Mastodon.

She is trans. She’s an extremely nice person that doesn’t do well with conflict when it’s personal.

Why did Mastodon get mad? She forgot alt-text once and she didn’t think it was reasonable to get yelled at over some extremely mild posts on Trans healthcare as “political.”

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

1/2
@briannawu The thing is, nobody runs Mastodon. It is by design a collective, with very few rules other than the API. The thing to do if you find someone's posts disturbing or upsetting is ... to block them. I feel it's OK to politely say, "Did you forget to add alt text?" or "Would you mind adding this hashtag so filters can properly locate your post?" In the end, though, just block people whose messages you don't want to read.

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

Colorless nanoparticles used to create lightweight, colorful paint

Nanoparticles manipulate light at specific wavelengths to create colors.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/colorless-nanoparticles-used-to-create-lightweight-colorful-paint/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@arstechnica Guys? "... light at specific wavelengths ..." is what "color" mean.

nitpicking, (edited ) to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

I was trained on a mainframe.

The IBM System/370 at my university was upgraded to 20 megabytes of storage during my short time at the University of South Florida. I/O was by punched cards and line printers.

https://www.newegg.com/p/2SW-003Z-00006?Item=9SIBFJJJ6H2581

This device has 4K video. For USD $129. You can drop a terabyte SSD into it. Wow.

The ad copy is very poorly translated, and the claim to be a gaming PC is silly, but it fits in your badwording jacket pocket.
#MiniPC #FutureShock

spamless, to random
@spamless@mastodon.social avatar

I'm in the middle of a live chat with a CSR right now. The company or the subject doesn't matter, but I want to share what I just said. Yes, I know it's a bit cheeky of me.

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@spamless That looks more like chatting with a bad chatbot.

brienneofsnark, to random

So… anybody going to mention that Rudy Guiliani’s convictions as a prosecutor should be audited?

No? Just checking.

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@brienneofsnark Rudy left office as US Attorney in 1989. Presumably almost all those convicted have served their sentences. Many are likely dead, that's 34 years.

nitpicking, (edited ) to random
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

1/2 Long Island remembers I-CON. I have worked for 15 of them, as well as chairing two LI-CONs run by the same nonprofit.

We've been on hiatus for a long time, now.

We're back, baby! Not with a convention just now, but back.

https://www.iconsf.org/2023/05/19/i-con-in-the-park/

We're hosting a picnic at Bethpage State Park, with the Long Island Linux Users Group (LILUG).

See next message for more.

#I-CON, , -CON

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

2/2 I-CON guests will come hang out with us: authors Keith R.A. DeCandido, David O. Miller and Patrick Thomas. We'll have food and drinks (if you want to bring something, that would be great, but not required). Games! Kid's crafts! More! Completely free (but registration requested). Details at the link in message 1.

We'll get together rain or shine (because we have a covered pavillion reserved). I hope to see you there.

spamless, to random
@spamless@mastodon.social avatar

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

— James D. Nicoll, in the Language Log

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@spamless Pretty sure James actually wrote that in rec.arts.sf. He now writes for Tor.com.

https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/

.com

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@spamless I'm sure that's the case, but I'm a fellow Usenet veteran, and James once yelled at me for something that wasn't my fault, so I feel oddly obligated to help him get correct attribution. (He didn't know everything about the situation, which was totally understandable.) Also I wanted to plug his excellent writing for Tor.

mattblaze, (edited ) to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

I’m once again reminded of how deeply I despise the default behavior of this (and damn near every other) social media platform to crop photos to a pre-set aspect ratio in previews. (Some clients allow viewers to disable this, but that’s outside the control of the poster, who has no way to predict how your work will render)

The reasonable behavior to conserve screen real estate in previews is to downsize. Cropping alters the image, often in ways that destroy its meaning.

Grumble

nitpicking,
@nitpicking@mstdn.party avatar

@mattblaze Suggest a feature to the devs: thumbnailing. It isn't that big of a load (I could script it myself) to have the Mastodon/Pixelfed server create a downsized version of the image automatically.

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