@simonwood@mastodon.social
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simonwood

@simonwood@mastodon.social

Lecturer in Medical Education at Cardiff University, lapsed mathematician, garden railway builder & Doctor Who appreciator.

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simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

"Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers." One sentence, common words, but never before placed in that order. And yet, oh and yet, all of us spend our days saying the same things to each other, time after weary time, living by clichaic, learned response: "I love you", "Don't go in there", "You have no right to say that", "shut up", "I'm hungry", "that hurt", "why should I?", "it's not my fault", "help", "Marjorie is dead" #ABitOfFryAndLaurie

Edent, to fediverse
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Finally fixed the weird bug which stopped people following my blog using #ActivityPub.

If you are so inclined, could you please give @blog a follow and let me know if it is working?

Thanks Midnight Warriors!

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@Edent @blog Works now for me, an 8am warrior, too.

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

The Met Office app tells you the actual temperatures forecast and also has a ‘feels like’ temperature, reflecting that our experience of hot or cold depends on other factors too.

I think films ought not only to have an actual duration, but also a ‘feels like’ duration based on the number of times you have to check your watch is still working… https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/29/whats-the-perfect-movie-length-only-a-lightweight-really-wants-toilet-or-food-breaks

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

The EU is kindly helping Apple with the fragmentation problem they created for themselves (and more importantly their users) - I think this will mean in the EU you can download an app from the same store to both your iPhone and iPad… https://www.macstories.net/news/the-eu-pulls-ipados-into-the-dma-fray/

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

In the UK from today “manufacturers of phones, TVs and smart doorbells, among others, are now legally required [to prompt users] to change any common passwords.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/29/devices-with-weak-passwords-to-be-banned-uk

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust I presume it could be the device rather than the manufacturer, though obviously I’d rather they insisted on that.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust 1Password literally has a feature that does this (it’s called Watchtower or some such - and not just common passwords, but it checks against leaked passwords).

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

But… 1Password has complete access to your passwords, sure. All of them. Fine. But the home router you mention - it can do the same thing with a list of 1, at least while the manufacturer is in business. Of course there’s a cost associated with that. But there’s also a cost associated with allowing unscrupulous manufacturers and hapless consumers to assemble giant botnets. (2/3)

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust Ok, looking at the legislation, I don’t think it’s nearly as ambitious as you think it is. (1/3)

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

It’s just that the manufacturers get away without paying the price and the consumers think they’re winning because their IoT tat costs peanuts.

So I think the legislation ought to do what you think it’s doing, and I wish it was. (3/3)

LoneLocust, to DoctorWho
@LoneLocust@mastodon.social avatar

Goddamit the BBC and Disney+ bullshittery. This is worse than than the UNIT dating controversy.

If you say you’re releasing Season 1 on Blu-Ray in August, you’d damned well better be talking about William Hartnell.

Otherwise, it’s .

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust Eventually you’re all going to come round to the fact this is Season 40.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust They’re specials, but I have no problem with them being under the umbrella of season 30. I’m a bit less keen on The Church on Ruby Road being part of season 39*, but you can’t argue with the Natural Order of Things.

  • I’ve just noticed season 39 has more specials than actual episodes…
simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust There’s no way it can be season 14. Either you decide that whatever the BBC calls it is what it is (hence season 1 in 2005 and season 1 in 2024) or you use actual arithmetic to count up properly (hence season 27 in 2005 and season 40 in 2024). You can’t do it one way one time and then the other way the next…

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust Au contraire!

All those ‘Season 14’ holdouts who slept through the 2005 ‘Series 1’ debacle will finally wake up and smell the coffee.

Sequential numbering’s time has come, and the Collection Blu-rays for the 21st Century episodes will be able to have their correct ordinals. (Except in the US of course.)

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Oh yeah, Vision Pro ☹️. Read “Apple Event in London” and thought for a moment they might finally have got round to bringing us Apple Pay Cash after only 6 years… https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/27/apples-let-loose-ipad-event-said-to-include-a-special-event-in-london-as-well/

julian, to random
@julian@community.nodebb.org avatar

There have been some scattered discussions I've seen over the past year that mention that @pfefferle's WordPress ActivityPub plugin federates their blog posts out as an as:Note, and that the only reason this is done is because Mastodon only treats as:Note (and as:Question) as a first-class object and relegates anything else to a fallback handler that takes a short snippet of the content, and shows a link back to the original source, thus losing any in-app benefits (boosts, replies, etc.)

Whether this is actually true or not, I do not know. So that's why I'd like to ask Mattias — or anybody else with some context — here.

For reference:

  • as:Article: Represents any kind of multi-paragraph written work.
  • as:Note: Represents a short written work typically less than a single paragraph in length.
  • as:Page: Represents a Web Page.

I have also noticed that Lemmy, perhaps out of principle, sends out an as:Page for new generated content, and only the replies federate out as as:Note. It has unfortunately led to some assertions that Lemmy's federation is "broken", even though it is arguably not the case.

@nutomic, care to weigh in?

I don't even blame Mattias for opting to send everything out as as:Note.

End of the day right now it doesn't matter how Mattias or Nutomic represent their higher-level collection of data, because Mastodon is the largest implementor and neither they — nor anyone else I know of, for that matter — treat anything that's not as:Note or as:Question specially.

But that ought to change. The question is how, but this WG is not at the point where we start throwing around decrees and making up standards.

What's important to me right now is what the landscape looks like right now, and why that is the case.

N.B. The discussion here will eventually make its way to online real-time discussion at one of the future WG meetings.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@julian @nodebb Note is the default in the WP plugin but the user gets some options…

EU_Commission, to random
@EU_Commission@social.network.europa.eu avatar

Our commitment to the fediverse is here to stay.

We are working on a solution to ensure our continued presence on your feeds, taking full advantage of Mastodon's identity portability.

And we are even growing the team behind our Mastodon presence, increasing efforts to engage with your comments on our posts.

We are fully committed to being a real part of the conversation in the fediverse.

Interested in our next steps? Follow us as we take on this new chapter.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@EU_Commission Hope that whatever platform software you choose, you have your own instance, setting the lead for other governments’ social presence.

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

“…driverless cars…have the potential to revolutionize land use…If it’s cheap enough to take driverless cabs basically everywhere you go rather than owning a car, then you don’t need a parking space. And if a critical mass of people start going the robotaxi route, then your destination doesn’t need a parking space either.” https://www.slowboring.com/p/self-driving-cares-are-underhyped

david_ingram, to random

I think this from @mattyglesias is directionally correct: "autonomous vehicle technology has become underhyped." https://www.slowboring.com/p/self-driving-cares-are-underhyped

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust Yeah, I guess what made Odi pop into my head was what we talked about in terms of androids driving. You can put more sensors all around a car to get that better handle than a person could have… but the alternate Swedes put an artificial person in the car instead.

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Not much use the Grauniad publishing the perfect recipe straight after I had heuvos rancheros for breakfast. I see I should have had the salsa on top of the egg? At least I used small tortillas, even if only because I ran out of large… https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/apr/24/how-to-make-the-perfect-huevos-rancheros-recipe-felicity-cloake

respros, to random
@respros@mastodon.cloud avatar

Has anyone succesfully used ethernet over power lines to get internet to an outbuilding or shed?

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@respros Yep, for myself, my sister and a friend, worked ok - including in one case (to my surprise) through a fuse box! Have replaced my own with a Unifi wifi now though - for video conferencing I found the power line stuff not great even indoors.

finiteattention, to random Norwegian
@finiteattention@mastodon.social avatar

In this, the Year of our Lord 2024, somehow there are still commercial websites that forbid the pasting of 16-digit credit card numbers into web forms, making you type it yourself. This seems disadvantageous for many different kinds of user, from me (irritated and briefly inconvenienced) to those with cognitive or other difficulties who might be seriously challenged by this to-and-fro task. You're leaving money on the table, people.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@finiteattention And, in this Year of our Lord 2024, there are popular browsers that respect this…

I’ve been meaning to try ‘Stop the Madness’ which is supposed to override that kind of nonsense. https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/

vinceknight, to random
@vinceknight@fosstodon.org avatar

Moved in to our building 3 years ago.

I have never been able to clean my whiteboard.

I have been for 3 years, trying every single internet tip and trick. Buying cleaning products etc…

Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and emailed our maintenance staff to say that: “I need a new whiteboard, I've essentially tried everything and now there's just no white space left".

About an hour later, someone turned up and with kindness slowly removed the protective film I’ve been writing on for 3 years…

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@vinceknight 🤣🤣🤣

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

It seems to me that in the UK the response to the real damage social media can cause has mostly consisted of anguished flapping about whether smartphones are allowed in schools.

Meanwhile, the EU has just gone ahead and suspended TikTok Lite’s task and reward programme under the DSA because they suspect an addictive effect and TikTok didn’t do a risk assessment. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_2227

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