@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

I asked the other week if people thought they could use more celebration days, and people mostly said yes.

This is what prompted it: celebrating thousand days birth anniversaries: a slightly nerdy alternative to Big Birthday.

I've sat on this idea for over 20 years without doing anything with it. I'd be really happy if someone else expanded on the idea

Here's the concept doc: Thousand Days: Concept — https://gist.github.com/scruss/3e52ce929b651eedc815baf78df10874

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@elb Thank you!

But it has a +1:

( (birth_date - 1851-10-01) mod 1000 ) + 1

and calculates exactly as I'd want it (except in Excel for Mac, which doesn't like the concept of 1851 at all)

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Please ignore my dorky little camera rig

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

I uploaded 183 Traynor / Yorkville Sound / A.R.T. manuals to Internet Archive because I was mad at ManualsLib

https://archive.org/details/smycv50b

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

With the choice of any quality pointing device I could buy, why am I using a grotty mouse from a defunct Australian electronics chain* that I got as surplus five years ago?

--
: Dick Smith*
**: fnarr, fnarr.

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Wind Turbines, Near Tracy, CA, 2010.

Statistically significant pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4491948497

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@NeadReport @mattblaze It's the way that the lights are all magically synched ...
Or at least, should be

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@NeadReport @mattblaze The old ones were too short to need aviation lights

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@NeadReport believe me, I have: I used to design and build wind farms.

The huge long trains of blades snaking out of Vestas's factory in Colorado were particularly impressive

misty, to random
@misty@digipres.club avatar

I need you to listen to the deeply broken text-to-speech narration from this Google blog post. (They removed it after people pointed out how bad it was, but I promise you this was actual audio on a real official Google blog post.)

https://cohost.org/SnepShark/post/5195186-real-i-broke-ikea

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@misty @adr Lime seems to be enjoying that speech just a /little/ too much ...

Good old DECtalk does a better job than that. Try it here - https://webspeak.terminal.ink/

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@datajake1999 @misty @adr yup, it's a mighty good speech synth. Thanks for keeping it going [aeiou]

uastronomer, to random
@uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za avatar

emacs vs vi

What's that all about? I've been messing about with Linux and commercial unixes since 1998, and I've never used emacs, nor met anybody who uses it. I assume it's a text editor (else why would it be vs vi), but apparently it can visit websites, join online chats, edit graphics, wash the dishes and solve world peace?

I'm not sure how I know this since, to repeat, I've never knowingly met anybody, in person, or virtually, who uses it. What's going on?

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@flockofnazguls @leoncowle @uastronomer confirmation bias, innit?

Three different Solaris/Linux workplaces in two continents in the late 90s - early 2000s: all solidly emacs.

vi's okay for small system files, but I wouldn't want to debug a multi-gigabyte PostScript print job with it.

counternotions, to random
@counternotions@mastodon.social avatar

This is in Halifax, capital of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Would you look at those street names (in the 2nd map).
They’ve already given up. How can you take this country seriously!
↓

Streets named: This St, That St, The Other St.

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@tantramar @miu @counternotions Etobicoke has Random Street, though:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=43.65852&mlon=-79.54413#map=18/43.65852/-79.54413

scruss, to RaspberryPi
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@ukscone you wrote to control GPIO on the …?

vicgrinberg, to random
@vicgrinberg@mastodon.social avatar

I love passing by wind turbines. They are such an essential solarpunk element to me. Seeing one feels like a sign of hope: a different future is possible.

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@vicgrinberg as someone who spent many years designing and operating wind farms: thanks!

for the replies: https://donotreply.cards/en/do-not-tell-me-why-the-thing-i-like-is-bad

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

Idea: Sloppy Joe but curry flavored, and maybe with tiny bits of diced potato mixed in

scruss,
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

@MLE_online @linux_mclinuxface basically an aloo roti, but on a bun?

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Whee! on just got device support!

It's very preliminary, and only in the nightly builds so far

https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/library/machine.USBDevice.html#class-usbdevice-usb-device-driver

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Hmm, this thing looks suitably daft .. just wondering which of my old macs (a Classic II, a PB 180/150 frankenhybrid, a 540c) might be least faff to get onto

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

ⓕⓞⓡⓖ

scruss, to Electronics
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Fifteen Minutes of Transistor Noise — https://archive.org/details/1007_20240313

#noise #sound #electronics #randomness #entropy

scruss, to Toronto
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Small company security request: a local arborist has been hacked, and someone's sending fake e-transfer requests and quotations to clients. Looking for a #ComputerSecurity #consultant in or near #Toronto who can handhold a non-technical client and get their business back

Also, I'm guessing there's no-one at Toronto Police, the OPP or RCMP who'd be interested in this. Seems that the scammer's working from an IP address in another country

#smallbusiness #IT #security #scam #canada #help

flockofnazguls, to random
@flockofnazguls@mastodon.flockofnazguls.com avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    scruss,
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    @flockofnazguls Gambaccini playing his usual "clueless eejit" character, even though he's extremely bright.

    Vince almost smiled in this, which would've been a first

    mathowie, to random
    @mathowie@xoxo.zone avatar

    I will never stop getting mad about how it's free to fly with golf bags filled with clubs on most airlines, but costs $150-300 per flight leg to fly with a bike packed into a similarly-sized bag

    scruss,
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    @mathowie golf must die, you knew that already

    scruss, to Electronics
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    Oh, basement section of the College and Spadina Home Hardware, how have I missed you! With your ICs that even surplus suppliers give the hard nope to ...

    scruss, to random
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    If you want to play one of the earliest versions of for the in your browser, here it is:

    https://archive.org/details/APPLE-pds108-OregonTrail

    It's mostly written in BASIC

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

    It's so totally nuts to see all the creators with giant microphones blocking their faces. You can do that when you're doing radio and nobody sees ya'. You don't do that for video unless you want to look like an utter amateur. Jeez.

    scruss,
    @scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

    @lauren and yet the amount of money in play is huge

    A teen I know has a streaming channel and is pulling in about $5K a month

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