@rdm@aus.social avatar

rdm

@rdm@aus.social

#Perth born and resident. #Linux #Sysadmin, SoT kayaker with a Hobie Outback, 3-wheel HPV user , #photographer, #boardgamer, #RPG player, and #SFF fan. I am a #mermaid (well mer-dude). Just an all-round geek. I am proud to live on Whadjuk #Noongar boodja.

I play #GURPS, #DnD5e, and #TravellerRPG .

I like to take photos of #birds (particularly #raptors), and other mer-folk. I also shoot #pinhole and #solargraph images. To round things off, I also play with in-camera #cyanotype imaging.

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rdm, to random
@rdm@aus.social avatar

The worst part of is only having three votes...

I want the full, 12,11,10...2,1 votes! I want to be able to grant my Douze Points!

Plus there were so many awesome tracks that deserved vote that I had to give to other deserving tracks.

I guess if I did have the full ranked range, I would still be stuck on who gets left out.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

It’s pretty intense when I play on my kit in the loft.

It’s drum attic.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@dgar
As always, have a song for every joke.

https://spray.bandcamp.com/track/overdramatic

rdm, to Astro
@rdm@aus.social avatar

"Emu Ablaze"

The great constellation with the setting it alight.

Shot at Trigg Beach, Western Australia.

8mm f/2.8 30s ISO400.

Postprocessing in

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Around the world, people are experiencing the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon of a brilliant aurora display, as massive doses of solar radiation bombard the atmosphere turning it into gigantic radioactive florescent lights (nothing to see down here in L.A. though this evening, and city lights make it even less likely). Enjoy the show!

BUT REMEMBER THIS, DEAR FRIENDS!

In the 1963 horror/sci-fi classic "The Day of the Triffids", a lengthy, once-in-a-lifetime spectacular display of massive glowing meteor showers lasts long enough for the entire planet to see it at night. Everyone able to do so was urged to see this wonder!

The next morning, everyone who had viewed the amazing display was blind. And then the giant mobile man-eating plants that had arrived with the meteors, spread across the Earth.

ENJOY!

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@lauren @jigmedatse
Book vs Movie. Book: Triffids have been around for years. Harvested for oil. Movie: Triffids arrive on the meteors.

rdm, to scifi
@rdm@aus.social avatar

It was a great surprise to everyone when an unassuming Australian physicist worked out the equations that permitted faster-than-light travel.

It was an even greater surprise to find that the engineering required to build a device to implement the theory was found to be almost trivial. It was not even particularly expensive - a typical EV car cost more than an FTL drive unit.

In accordance with things coming in threes, there was one final surprise: Organic life could not survive the process.

It only cost the lives of five astronauts - and several dozen test animals.

Once this was proven, enthusiasm for the FTL projects around the globe dropped dramatically. But some did continue. One of the more interesting aspects of the mathematics was that the process did not involve any sort of acceleration. The device simply created a field that linked two points in space. Increasing the energy just increased the size of the object transferred.

All you had to do was define the relative coordinates of the origin and the destination.

The first probe sent further than across a room vanished. So did the next three. On a hunch, the engineering team of the fifth probe fitted a powerful transmitter, and sent it on its way. Again, the return program appeared to fail.

And then, a few minutes later, the NASA Deep Space Network reported receiving a beacon message from the probe - just inside the orbit of the moon. The probe had been gone 30 minutes.

Astronomers quickly worked out what was wrong - it was not a problem with the probe, it was because the Earth, and the Solar System had moved.

Having worked out that problem, the next probe was retrieved successfully. And then sent on the first real mission: to a point outside the Milky Way to image our home galaxy.

The probe dutifully returned several hours later, to a point far enough away to not fall to Earth, but close enough to transmit the data it had gathered. The image of the galaxy was all that the designers had hoped for.

The radio transmissions were less expected. Hundreds of them, very high powered, but all structurally the same. And only able to be picked up outside of the radio noise and gas clouds within a galaxy.

When decoded they all basically said the same thing, in many different ways.

"Is there anyone here?"

rdm, to Astronomy
@rdm@aus.social avatar

If you have ever used a star map or application, you would have seen many many objects listed as "NGC(some number)" . But what does that mean?

NGC is short for New General Catalogue - or, more properly, "The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars". It is a catalogue compiled by John Dreyer in 1888 (yes, "new" is relative), and contains about 7800 objects.

You may have also encountered objects listed with an "IC" prefix. These are also part of the New General Catalogue - or more precisely the follow-up supplements called "Index Catalogues" - adding another 5400 objects.

The NGC (and ICs) are sufficienty important that they have been updated, most recently in 2019, and it now contains nearly 14000 objects.

Last night, I imaged one of the IC objects - the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, centering on IC4604.

This is an amazing and beautiful nebula complex, but it took some post processing to really bring it to life.

154x15s@gain 80 . Post processed in and .

lauren, to Youtube
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

I had to check the end of about a dozen "reaction" videos of Generation [N] watching Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959) before I found one where they appeared to "get" the gag Hitch used as the very last shot in the film (the train into the tunnel). This is what comes of too much time on smartphones, one suspects.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@lauren
So are we going to see a reaction video of you watching reaction videos?

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@lauren
:blobcatfearful:
I always find it slightly terrifying to find a stupid joke idea is real.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

When you use a software package for the first time and notice what appears to be a bug, so you mention it to the author and he replies quickly and he asks, "what are you doing exactly?" and you tell him and he doesn't reply quickly this time ...

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@lauren
Usually means "That's weird", followed by "Hey, this totally unrelated test isn't working", and "I really should fix the formatting of that block."

They'll get back to you in about 15 coffees.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

My friend started a band. Their first song was called “Duvet.” Their second song was called “Quilt.” Their third song was called “Blanket.”

They only do cover songs.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@dgar
There is a band called Boa who had an track called Duvet in the 90s.

rdm, to linux
@rdm@aus.social avatar

Does anyone know if there is a command line to converter for ?

Yes, I know it is completely bass ackwards, but I have reasons.

KathyReid, to llm
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Tay gently pushed the plastic door of the printer shut with an edifying "click".

Servicing Dark Printers had been illegal for years now. They enjoyed the seditious thrill.

It had started as a subscription grab after the printer companies tried hobbling third party toner cartridges.

"Subscribe for a monthly fee and you'll never run out of toner again."

"Let us monitor your printer so you don't have to."

People saw it for what it was - vendor lock in - but they had no choice really, not after all the printer companies started doing it.

Then came generative AI.

Everyone wanted to scrape every word ever written on the internet, tokenize it and feed it to an . sold out, then , even open source darling - selling out their user base for filthy token lucre.

So people started hiding their words, their art, their thoughts, their expression, not behind disrespected robots.txt, but through obscurity.

Rejecting Website Boy's "fewer algorithmic fanfares", they forked into the Dark Fedi.

Unscrapeable, unscrutable, ungovernable.

But people had forgotten about the printers.

The printers had to be connected 24/7, for "monitoring".

But you could tokenize postscript as easily as HTML.

And so every time a document was sent to a printer, it was harvested for tokens. Even secure documents. Documents not online.

Tay shut the metal door behind them, Dark Printer cossetted safely in its Faraday cage, and shuffled the hot stack of A4 paper it had borne.

It was a children's story, about how words were sacred, and special, and how you had to earn the right to use them.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@KathyReid
Frighteningly plausible! Great story!

DenisCOVIDinfoguy, to auscovid19
@DenisCOVIDinfoguy@aus.social avatar

🇦🇺 Australia: The health minister Mark Butler has announced the latest COVID-19 vaccination advice.

@Mark_Butler_MP @healthgovau @auscovid19

Source: https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-mark-butler-mp/media/covid-19-2024-vaccine-advice?language=en

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@DenisCOVIDinfoguy @auscovid19

It is something at least. But it is distressingly poor. Someone in ATAGI has badly dropped the ball.

isaackuo, to random
@isaackuo@mastodon.social avatar

Sorry, @nyrath ... toppling over on the side is now the official way landers land. Rotate all relevant Atomic Rocket images 90 degrees as appropriate.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@pauldrye @JoshuaACNewman @AntonPNym @isaackuo @nyrath

I used to fly model rockets.

We used to have a saying:
Clusters - just say no.*

It was only late in my time in the hobby that I learned about the N1.

In more recent times, I see things like the efforts of SpaceX, and I remember the old adage.

*And if you must cluster, use the smallest cluster you can get away with.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

Don't call me Shirley.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@msdropbear42 @dgar
The hospital? What is it?

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

Sysadmin: ephedrine

Chemist: I can't serve you that.

Sysadmin: sudoephedrine

Chemist: There you go.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@dgar Aaarg!

rdm, to random
@rdm@aus.social avatar

Yesterday I learned that, GMT+3 timezone notwithstanding, Ethiopia counts 00:00h from dawn.

So 06:00 is midday. 12:00 is sunset. And because they are sufficiently close to the equator, this does not significantly move during the course of the year. So they set all the clocks once, and, eh, good enough.

This is a massive "stuff you" to the western world - they are perfectly aware of how much it screws with everyone else, and regard this as a feature. Indeed, they absolutely delight in it.

Good on them!

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

A man gets stopped by a game warden with his basket full of fish.

Warden: Do you have a permit for all these fish?

Man: No sir. These are all my pet fish.

Warden: Your pet fish? How’s that?

Man: Well, every night I take all my pet fish for a walk to the lake, I let them swim for about a half hour, and then I whistle and they all come back and jump in my basket and we go home. We do this every night.

Warden: Well that’s just a crock of lies!!

Man: Here, I’ll show you...
*releases the fish into the lake.

Warden: Well this I gotta see!!

(5 minutes later...)

Warden: Well?

Man: Well what?

Warden: The fish!! Where’s your pet fish?

Man: What fish?

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@dgar
https://youtu.be/4UG1OpvYU9g?si=byKL2TFEKFCgEjkd

rdm, to Astronomy
@rdm@aus.social avatar

Horsehead Nebula . Taken with a 400x15s@gain 80, UHC filter. Post processed in and

rdm, to RaspberryPi
@rdm@aus.social avatar

Feeling super accomplished.

I just put a camera on my little tabletop 70mm dobs, along with a 5" screen.

One short shell script, and I have an image of the as a proof of concept.

Now I wait for night. Let's see if I can get with it!

Hcobb, to random
@Hcobb@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath, what could possibly be worth the astronomical costs of bulk cargo transport between the stars?
Well we know that the only place we need look for life is the thin galactic habitable zone that is just enriched enough in phosphorous, but not completely overwhelmed by the supernova that produce this precious element.
Hence ship phosphorous to the rim, in order to establish new colonies.

rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@michaelgemar @fnordius @nyrath @Hcobb

The IISS and the Xboat network would like a word...

rdm, to astrophotography
@rdm@aus.social avatar

I thought I'd do something a little different with the tonight.
This is a composite of composites. The pinkish tones come from the second shot with the 's filter removed.

So what we have is:
1/160s50@gain 30 with the IR filter active
and
1/320s50@gain 0 with the IR filter removed.

I then stacked the two stacked images in in "overlay" mode, and tweeked the opacity.

The result shows regions with differing IR and Visible light reflectivity, indicating differing compositions.

rdm, to random
@rdm@aus.social avatar

Today's . 10*1/200@0, ND1e6. . Post processed in and .

The large sunspot in the top right is the one that generated the big X5 flare a few days ago.

VisualInspiration, to aiart
@VisualInspiration@creativewriting.social avatar

2023-12-26 Visual Inspiration prompt.

What's that critter doing?

Use this AI generated image to write a very short story based on it. Or go squash some bugs ... Whatever it inspires you to do!

To find more inspiring images, browse the tag.




rdm,
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@VisualInspiration

The little robot dug through the leaf litter. It was not looking for anything, it was just digging. A little while later it moved on, and repeated the exercise.

And so it continued, turning over the soil, bringing the rich loam to the surface. Doing that which the small mammals no longer could, providing new areas for plants to grow. Overhead, other smaller drones flitted from flower to flower, carefully distributing pollen.

Back inside the habitat dome, Angela watched their progress. In another 50 years or so the O3 and CO2 levels should allow for animal life on the surface again.




rdm, to random
@rdm@aus.social avatar

@StuffByBez @leece and I finally did a against each other!

Snowperson vs Tree, and this is the result.

Judging was by @leece's mum who decided ttzfabjcrefbaddc (rot13 padded).

The process is competitive but meditative, which is a very strange headspace to be in. Really fun, but strange. This is very much a positive feature.

I can easily see one with a larger field count being playable by teams.

@StuffByBez you may reshare across multiple platforms.

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