@scruss@xoxo.zone
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

scruss

@scruss@xoxo.zone

auld hairy scottish git in Toronto. Does futile things with electronics, including trying to sell them. This ended very badly, so now I build cameras instead. I've built and operated wind farms in many places: I may know what I'm talking about here.

I've been known as scruss since 1981. Some people know me by it and may not recognize my real name.

(he/him)

formerly https://mastodon.social/@scruss

Hey! If you follow me and you've got 0 posts and 0 people following you, I'm going to block you.

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

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

must remember that posting memos to self here isn't useful: I can't find them.

Built-in search doesn't

google search finds one old post

and duckduckgo is in Sardinian again, bless its heart

johnefrancis, to Canada
@johnefrancis@mastodon.social avatar

Scammers furiously calling my cell today from the customer service number of a Canadian financial institution....

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@johnefrancis just wait until you get some "carrier verified" callers that you can't screen

andypiper, to random
@andypiper@macaw.social avatar

I got sad that the GUI app for converting images for the BrachioGraph that I was using uses PySimpleGUI, and that that library went to a closed source model, so I made a new-but-similar thing using PySides https://github.com/andypiper/brachiograph-converter-gui

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@andypiper shame about PySimpleGUI: I hate it when that happens

I keep meaning to see how hard it would be to make a BrachioGraph-like thing but driven by a Pico (and preferably, MicroPython). Sadly, the BrachioGraph plot format is not very microcontroller-friendly

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@andypiper I see that Kitronik are already on it:
https://kitronik.co.uk/blogs/resources/making-an-advanced-pico-drawing-robot-arm

Might take a bit to unpick it from their hardware (which does have a nice PIO-based servo driver, admittedly). I enjoyed being a Kitronik reseller immensely: they were pretty committed to their products

scruss, to Eurovision
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

eek, I really do remember Abba winning 50 years ago ...

KathyReid, to stackoverflow
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Like many other technologists, I gave my time and expertise for free to because the content was licensed CC-BY-SA - meaning that it was a public good. It brought me joy to help people figure out why their code wasn't working, or assist with a bug.

Now that a deal has been struck with to scrape all the questions and answers in Stack Overflow, to train models, like , without attribution to authors (as required under the CC-BY-SA license under which Stack Overflow content is licensed), to be sold back to us (the SA clause requires derivative works to be shared under the same license), I have issued a Data Deletion request to Stack Overflow to disassociate my username from my Stack Overflow username, and am closing my account, just like I did with Reddit, Inc.

https://policies.stackoverflow.co/data-request/

The data I helped create is going to be bundled in an and sold back to me.

In a single move, Stack Overflow has alienated its community - which is also its main source of competitive advantage, in exchange for token lucre.

Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow's former instantiation, used to fulfill a psychological contract - help others out when you can, for the expectation that others may in turn assist you in the future. Now it's not an exchange, it's .

Programmers now join artists and copywriters, whose works have been snaffled up to create solutions.

The silver lining I see is that once OpenAI creates LLMs that generate code - like Microsoft has done with Copilot on GitHub - where will they go to get help with the bugs that the generative AI models introduce, particularly, given the recent GitClear report, of the "downward pressure on code quality" caused by these tools?

While this is just one more example of , it's also a salient lesson for folks - if your community is your source of advantage, don't upset them.

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@wraptile @krans @KathyReid don't make me post the "Copying and Pasting from Stack Overflow" ORLY meme.

LLMs don't teach you to program. They teach you to consume without discernment

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

I am talking o a reporter about this in a couple hours: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/from-outer-space-sask-farmers-baffled-after-discovering-strange-wreckage-in-field-1.6880353

This is about an hour away from my farm, so this'll be a fun conversation, and yet another great opportunity to tell a lot of people about what a huge problem we have with unregulated commercialization of orbit. (Also I just redid my slides for my public talk next week, this is going in!)

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@WTL @sundogplanets nah, you don't want random carbon composite stuff lying about. It's hazardous: similar to asbestos

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

TIL about git-restore-mtime and I am glad
https://github.com/MestreLion/git-tools

(git - everyone's second-least-favourite version control system - destroys the original modification time of files when you clone or pull. git-restore-mtime at least sets the modification time of each file back to when it was pushed, so you can see files in folders in chronological order. This matters to me.)

scruss, to music
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

So if we're to remember Steve Albini for the good things he left us, he did engineer Fred Schneider's pop-punk masterpiece "Just Fred" (1996).

It includes this very unlikely but rewarding cover of Nilsson's "Coconut":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfplM6obrxU

Once heard, never forgotten. No matter how hard you try.

#music #RIP #SteveAlbini #Nilsson #earworm

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

At least Albini — like Lester Bangs before him — tried to atone for his early dickishness. But he still made a lot of edgelords along the way

#RIP

18+ gnomon, to random
@gnomon@mastodon.social avatar

Normally when there is a topic making the rounds that I don't care about, I put in a bit of effort to just not say anything about it. Sometimes I put on a timed mute for a couple of keywords, keep it out of my eyes for a couple of days so I don't have to deal with feeling annoyed.

But that Apple thing today... man. It saddens me to see so many people spill so many words about computers built so carefully to prevent you from stretching your imagination.

🤷‍♂️

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@WTL @gnomon you can save files on an iPad?

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@dennyhenke @WTL @gnomon I tried a few apps. None had save to Files that I could see

grivettcarnac, to Alberta
@grivettcarnac@mstdn.social avatar

The absolute fuckery of carbon capture both in what is basically wealth transfer from 🇨🇦s to an oil and gas company and… 9 million tonnes of CO2 supposedly sequestered since 2015? Over 100 million tonnes of carbon produced by 🇨🇦 oil and gas in 2022 alone? Get the fuck out of here with this tech and “subsidy” bullshit #cdnpoli #alberta https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/shell-greenpeace-quest-1.7196792

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@grivettcarnac see also what Boundary Dam did in SK: it was an attempt to give Cenovus ~$1 billion

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

-
How to win an information war : the propagandist who outwitted Hitler
by Peter Pomerantsev

a kind of of Sefton Delmer, the Berlin-born British counter-propaganda expert who ran several successful anti-Nazi stations brodcasting into ww2 Germany.

Pomerantsev is an expert on contemporary propaganda, and parallels Nazi propaganda with that produced by Russia to justify its atrocities.

A good read, if not a particularly jolly one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sefton_Delmer

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Just passed a cell tower that appeared to be on fire … which was nice

Jennifer, to scifi
@Jennifer@bookstodon.com avatar

I need some new science fiction to read, who has some suggestions? I don't like military sci-fi. For reference, my favorite series is the Expanse, I also enjoyed Scalzi's Collapsing Empire, I love Robert Charles Wilson's books. I mostly enjoy space operas and unique stories about technology, for example I really liked the recent book Mountain in the Sea about AI and intelligent octopus. Suggestions from the awesome Bookstodon community? @bookstodon

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@Jennifer @bookstodon Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory

One volume, big space opera, alternate timelines, all-pervasive AI consciousness and some very hard decisions.

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Hey, there are two capable dev boards in the swag bag!

  • Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect

  • Soldered InkPlate 2 (ESP32 / colour e-paper screen)

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@vik I don't stray far from MicroPython these days

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@vik wait until MicroPython 1.23. It will have high-level USB device support on rp2 and samd. Right now, the low-level support in 1.22 would be ugly to port.

Not sure I have the bandwidth for this, tho.

scruss, to pareidolia
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Put-upon nocturnal woodgrain robot face

(as seen between seats in this Via train)

gadgetoid, to random
@gadgetoid@fosstodon.org avatar

Let’s goooooo

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@gadgetoid my boss, who is from Vienna, makes a pork roast infused with garlic that has the best crackling

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

If I had an attention span and any programming skills whatsoever, I'd rush to remedy the complete lack of video games based on the classical Japanese artform of He-Gassen: fart battles.

No, really ...
https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/chi04/chi04_01029/chi04_01029.html

GrantMeStrength, to random
@GrantMeStrength@hachyderm.io avatar

This new sound card for the features a socket to house the fake AY chips that proliferate on Amazon and eBay.

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@GrantMeStrength my eBay AY seller took it to the next level: they didn't even ship it

Binder, to random
@Binder@petrous.vislae.town avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    scruss,
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    @Binder I spent so many years working on Fortran-based time series analysis tools.

    ISO 8601 can't even generate 24:00 time stamps any more … so much wisdom has been lost.

    mathowie, to random
    @mathowie@xoxo.zone avatar

    ❓Did Instagram change their color temperature and exposure handling lately? Any previously edited photo uploaded to Instagram looks totally blasted out after posting. Photos that look ok in drafts get big color shifts and exposure changes after.

    It’s been this way for a couple weeks. It’s annoying that a photo app can’t do WYSIWYG editing reliably.

    Is it just me? Makes me never want to post to Instagram again.

    scruss,
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    @mathowie the sun always shines on TV^h^h Instagram

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