@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

samueljohnson

@samueljohnson@mstdn.social

Scientist, MBA, ex IT professional, Irish & European
Lived 30+ years on 4 continents, now back in Ireland.

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

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Donald Trump verdict: guilty on all 34 counts. 👌👏

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sellathechemist No appeals. Sentencing next on 11 July.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sellathechemist @Teri_Kanefield is a non-partisan expert worth a follow for US legal analysis.

stevelord, to random
@stevelord@bladerunner.social avatar

New blog post from me about making active decisions about what's important to me around the software I use: What I Want From Technology

https://thedorkweb.bearblog.dev/what-i-want-from-technology/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@stevelord Much to agree with. I use Tiddlywiki among other things (Obsidian, Joplin and several others) which may be worth a look.

Privacymatters, to random
@Privacymatters@mastodon.social avatar

The first social media babies are adults now. Some are pushing for laws to protect kids from their parents’ oversharing

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/29/us/social-media-children-influencers-cec/index.html?

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@Privacymatters The US's absolutist position on free speech is going to make progress on this difficult. Families of victims of serial killers who tried to prevent killers profiting from book and film deals under "Son of Sam" laws in NY and CA had Supreme Court overrule those laws. It's going to take a privacy amendment or something similar but as long as govt likes buying the data that isn't looking on the cards. 🤷‍♂️

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

They have a handy map of where I’m going tomorrow 🙂

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@jon Have someone else send a transcript / video.

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

Well, after having leased an Polestar 2 for eight months, this will be the first night I get to charge it at 7.5p/kWh

This car has cost me a fortune so far. Hopefully, I'll manage to recoup some of that, and the £1k EV charger installation cost over the remaining 16 months of the lease.

(It's super fun to drive though, so that makes up for some of it)

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Surely you'll use the charger on your next EV?

FWIW my favourite EV source of information is Mr EV's YouTube channel. @tillathenun. Mrs EV is a delight. Better than Top Gear.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

A case of the mail being in the Czech

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2024/may/29/royal-mail-takeover-daniel-kretinsky-ofwat-fines-water-companies-business-live

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

https://mastodon.green/@davidallengreen/112523959168869114

Droll story about a desire to finish toast* in this characteristic piece from DAG.

*reminds me somehow of the sad tale of one of Sultan Mehmed's brothers who asked to be allowed to finish his chestnuts before being strangled with a bowstring (recounted in Constantinople - City of the World's Desire by Philip Mansel), even if revolution isn't necessarily a death sentence.

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

I think everyone can relate to this systems archetype!
https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2024/05/29/tb871-archetype-1-fixes-that-fail/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Ofc, not all unintended consequences are negative. Viagra (sildenafil)'s effect was discovered as side effect of a treatment for heart problems. I'm assuming it causes more benign results than negative!

logickinlambda, to random
@logickinlambda@mastodon.social avatar

I will pin this post at the top because I know this is a concerning topic which not many seem to aware.

This will also be an alert to my reasoning.

https://joanwestenberg.medium.com/the-death-of-critical-thinking-will-kill-us-long-before-ai-781fdd23cc7c

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@logickinlambda

> a multi-generational decline in reading comprehension

Zero evidence is adduced to support the proposition. I read reports in the 1970s that the average age at which people read Lord of the Rings eg (today Harry Potter?) has declined steadily. At the time it was being read by older teenagers.

What has changed is social media allowing morons to form groups, chose their own facts and shout down experts, not reading ability or comprehension.

Post propter ergo hoc failure.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

The take over of the Internet by billionaires just might have passed its peak w the acquisition of Twitter and the growth since of federated instead of centralised, algorithm-driven social media.

Too many still use billionaire-controlled email when Internet mail uses open standards. If you care to take back control you may like to consider

  1. https://Fastmail.com

Employee-owned business. Ethical. Better than Gmail.

  1. Self-hosting

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mwlucas/run-your-own-mail-server/

$15 "How-to" e-book.

andymckay, to random
@andymckay@mastodon.social avatar

I gave Jira AI a try. So I typed this into AI to see what would happen. Was not disappointed. Well alright I was. Haven't found it give a useful or correct answer yet.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@andymckay Why did nobody think of this before?! It's fantastic.

sjvn, to random
@sjvn@mastodon.social avatar

C. Gordon Bell, Father of the PDP-8 and VAX, Has Died.: https://thenewstack.io/c-gordon-bell-father-of-the-pdp-8-and-vax-has-died/ by @sjvn

Bell transformed the technology world from his start at DEC in the 1960s until his work at Microsoft Research in the 2020s.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sjvn Making me feel old 😬. I was one of the first 3 VMS programmers on the first VAX sold in Ireland (and RSX on PDP 11 earlier. Followed shortly after by all the things in yr bio footnote, in the US). I can remember the promo video extolling the unimaginable 4.3 gigabytes of VM. It was a blast.

The video was confidential at the time and was "borrowed" from a locked room in Galway in order to make the sale (an entrepreneur jumped out the window and took it to Dublin). 🤣

mwl, to random
@mwl@io.mwl.io avatar

Kickstarter Update

https://mwl.io/archives/23601

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@mwl Never did hear back from Kickstarter but managed to back today using different browser (Firefox instead of Brave; same plugins, so 🤷‍♂️).

JoePajak, to random
@JoePajak@mstdn.science avatar

According to an analysis by @HSJnews, there was a 4-fold rise in deaths linked to long delays in ambulance responses, hospital handovers, and emergency department waits since 2021. @krhignett
Why? @UKHSA
Capacity issues, overcrowding, staffing issues?
https://www.hsj.co.uk/emergency-care/revealed-four-fold-rise-in-emergency-care-deaths/7037171.article?mkt_tok=OTM2LUZSWi03MTkAAAGTXPk9dJWwFuPUZ8G8pJAegBmAE75DYbYsSiGS-7a14dIs984PRE2phXxAhAO6rk0Hk9JYR_jZJkoPXr6z8rDbt-NYb4DkMKjnf-RfpEwRx_jg

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@JoePajak On a visit to UK last summer I visited Kelmscott Manor (former home of William Morris). We passed a woman collapsed in the road nearby being made comfortable by local people pending arrival of an ambulance. Passed a few hours later and saw she was still waiting and heard that she would be for hours more. Shocked (and relieved to have left UK).

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Do people who are not oceanographers know that elephant seals have been helping us collect temperature and salinity data in inhospitable areas of the ocean for the last 20 years?

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@fizzily @davidho Are you a vegan? Refusing all medications tested on animals? Wearing shoes and clothing produced with zero environmental impact? Walking everywhere?

Maybe it would be an idea to consider the value of the data and the cost of alternative methods of acquisition vs temporary inconvenience to one animal?

If you think the researchers (and funders) didn't consider the ethics you haven't ever done any biological research.

randahl, to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

On September 3, 1967, Sweden switched to driving on the right side of the road, to align their traffic standards with everyone else.

Looking at how many countries around the UK and Ireland actually drive on the right side of the road, it really is astounding to me, these two countries never thought of following the common standard.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@randahl Part of Ireland is still controlled by the UK after centuries of colonisation, ethnic cleansing and oppression. It's not reasonable to blame the Irish for maintaining cross-border compatibility as long as partition persists (it will not last forever). The day after reunification Ireland will join Schengen. Other changes will follow but we'll likely keep UK electric plugs and sockets as they're superior (see YouTube for details).

campuscodi, to random
@campuscodi@mastodon.social avatar

Thanks to that stupid EU cookie bs, the
Wayback Machine is now capturing those popups instead of a site's content

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@campuscodi it isn't stupid. The Wayback Machine doesn't get to override EU law. The rights of Europeans not to be subjected to indiscriminate and pervasive surveillance without consent should be set aside to suit the Internet Archive?

🙄🤦‍♂️

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@knightlie @campuscodi Care to indicate where I made a contrary assertion?

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Crystal clear, as usual, from Katy Hayward

https://theconversation.com/uk-taking-back-control-of-its-borders-risks-rolling-back-human-rights-protections-230044

YorksBylines, to random
@YorksBylines@mastodon.social avatar

Contrary to what some Brexiters believe, the decision makers on the future of Gibraltar are the Gibraltarians, in consultation with the UK Government | Debbie Eade

https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/brexit/gibraltar-brexit-deal-dinosaurs-alive-and-well/?feed_id=1209&_unique_id=6654cc7fb9318
https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/brexit/gibraltar-brexit-deal-dinosaurs-alive-and-well/?feed_id=1209&_unique_id=6654cc7fb9318

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@YorksBylines Chris Grey had a perfect description for their leader

https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-first-post-brexit-election.html#comment-form

Chris Fildes in The Spectator years ago wrote that that the wise dinosaur asked himself two questions on waking up each morning

  1. Am I still alive?
  2. How long have I got left?

Bill Cash and fellow dotards have less than 6 weeks left. 💪

raghnallborders, to politics
@raghnallborders@mastodon.scot avatar

A reminder just what an equal and voluntary #union does and doesn't not look like.

#politics #scotland #libdembrexit #libdems #liberaldemocrats #labour #labourbrexit #torybrexit #tories #conservatives #IndyToRejoinEU #europeforscotland #EU2024 #GeneralElection #ge2024 #GE24 #uk #brexit

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@raghnallborders Ireland was coerced into the UK, never voted for it, fought for hundreds of years to get out of it, still forced at gunpoint to accept partition of the country.

Come on in, the water's lovely.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@raghnallborders I attended a Hogmanay party here a few years ago (have some Scottish friends--lived there for 5 years) and FWIW all had switched from NO to YES voters since Brexit. Mostly academics - Ireland gets first class applications from GB (surprise!)

All, and most of their families here, had, like my wife, applied for Irish citizenship in order to retain freedom of movement. I should think all have it by now. And they can (and will) vote anti-Tory.

Paperposts, to random
@Paperposts@zirk.us avatar

Be the seagull

(Edit: unless you live in the Netherlands - if so, enforce the sign. Thanks Edgar for telling me about that)

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@aubilenon @Paperposts @williampietri It's seagull racism: no melanistic seagulls.

The gull is a Black Headed Gull in summer plumage. On Reddit some years ago there was a pic of several on a wall with one with black head (winter plumage). Caption: spot the IRA member.

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