rotan

@rotan@mastodon.ie

Computer scientist (PhD from the 20th century!), Web/mobile evangelist, multilingual coder, chocoholic, technophile, imaginologist, geek, husband, father, would-be-chef... Clan #Hanrahan and previously @_r_h_ at the other place.

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rotan, to random

I had a dental bridge fitted yesterday. All this morning my tongue has been trying to oust the "foreign body" occupying the gap that for decades has been a place to hide beans, peas, toffee and other tooth-sized blobs. Now my cheek has joined in with an "Oi, what's this??"

Not going to get any work done with these distractions.

oisinmcgann, to random

I've just had to apply for Garda Vetting AGAIN, which requires you to fill out every address you've had since birth (I've had fourteen). Each vetting can only apply to ONE organization, a serious pain for freelancers, who can't get themselves vetted and have to work with numerous organizations in any given year. I've written about the whole process here:

http://oisinmcgann.com/known-to-the-police-what-ive-learned-about-garda-vetting/

rotan,

@oisinmcgann
My wife has volunteered with kids for years and has been vetted a few times. It's a pain. I once spent a day at a school presenting the maths of fractals to kids under 10y. One of the most rewarding things I ever did, and thankfully a one-off volunteering stint like that doesn't need vetting. If I needed vetting for something like that, I'd not volunteer. Surely some kind of official classified vetting certificate (with renewal requirements etc) would make more sense.

rotan,

@oisinmcgann
They could retain information if they asked for permission, explaining the exact purposes and period of retention. Of course, in that case they would have the overhead of maintaining a secure system to store (and eventually delete) such data. That may sound like an overhead, but as it would massively streamline the vetting process it would probably be a saving. A possible win for everyone.

(Until the day the secure storage is breached, which is what probably worries them...)

rotan,

@oisinmcgann
On the other hand, a digital signature applied to a certificate to prove that certain categories of background information were checked and found not to present a risk could remove the need to retain the original information, thus also removing the honeypot risk.

The cert holder could even keep a personal digital copy of the examined information, and a digital signature of that digital copy could be part of the cert, which will help validate it at the next time of cert renewal.

ryanc, to random

Thank goodness the names of coins and the utter nonsense of non-decimal currency divisions weren't on the test I had to pass to live in the UK permanently.

I do not, and I cannot emphasize this enough, care how many wensleydales there are to a grommet.

rotan,

@ryanc
Three, except on Tuesdays.

rotan, to random

I know opt-in full text is coming to Mastodon, and I have seen people looking for the right to follow for their various topics of interest, so I wonder if at some point Mastodon might support a search like this:

"Find me the hashtags that are most frequently associated with this search pattern: ..."

If that were a thing, it would make much, much better.

rotan,

@renchap

Is this just wishful thinking?

rotan,

@renchap
Thanks. Submitted.
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/26714

stephenfry, to random

I’m as buzzing and happy as a happy bee to be joining the splendid cast of Bleak Expectations as Sir Philip Bin from 8 to 13th August, at the Piccadilly Circus jewel-box that is the Criterion Theatre. Buy your tickets and find out more here
bleakexpectations.com

rotan,

@stephenfry

Poster in garish colours showing Stephen Fry's moustachioed head superimposed on a picture of a suited man with cup-holding hand (pinky finger out) spilling tea, other hand tipping a biscuit-laden plate.

The accompanying all-caps narrow-columned text says:

See Stephen Fry
This week 8-13 August
London's
Bleaking
Hilarious
New Comedy

Bleak
Expectations

Based on the award-winning comedy
by Mark Evans

Criterion Theatre in
Piccadilly Circus

rotan, to news

Reliable online by experienced journalists: good thing. Subscription/paywall to get more in-depth reporting (as an alternative to being fed advertisements), probably also a good thing. Journalists have to eat too. to the online news: good thing, journalists get to eat more, more people get informed.

Payment/ to publish links to aforementioned news? Unless those links are being accompanied by blatant plagiarism of the linked news articles, this makes no sense.

Wake up .

pluralistic, to random

Spotted in a toilet stall in JFK terminal 8, for your tablet-viewing-whilst-shitting needs

rotan,

@pluralistic
Not sure what to make of someone in a toilet stall taking-photo-whilst-shitting...

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