@jackvinson indeed. Looks like it was a gasket connecting my sink to my garbage disposal - massive gash leaking lots of water. If they don’t make the replacement gasket anymore (old disposal) it’s a new disposal… so could be much worse (it’s been much worse before - I called the plumbers that dealt with our “standing water in the crawl space” issue previously) but wasn’t my plans for this morning.
(But a plumber who shows up an hour after you call is a good thing)
totally random idea, which I probably won't do myself (though since I do want to run a few test servers for other reasons...) what would an "in-character" #ttrpg Fediverse server look like? Could it work? My first thought is it could but only with a server instance that allowed a "local only" post and defaulted to that... otherwise federation would include a lot of fairly out of context posts. I also suspect CW's could be repurposed in interesting ways by the storytellers on a server
Not entirely random idea - what if a publisher partnered with one or more non-profits or other organizations to make a series of books based on public domain works - but with annotations and updates reflecting the orgsnizations mission and what’s changed in the world the likely 100+ years later. With a model of expensive limited edition hardcovers, high quality print on demand/mass editions, and well edited ebooks and for some works good audiobooks.
Sharing with my son’s permission - he built a Lego shuttle (from instructions) so he designed a launchpad complete with three retractable arms (that in fact can be retracted). Though it is all history now, at ten he knows the full launch procedure and timing for when each arm retracts, when the boosters detach etc. #lego#nasa#parenting
Currently reading Soonish by @ZachWeinersmith fantastic quote “As always, technology grants opportunity, but not ethics”
This remains true and important - as a citizen and as a technologist to keep in mind as the dizzying pace of technology advances ethics has to be prioritized by all when considering the opportunities around any new technology.
Are there publishers who you trust to such a degree that nearly any book they publish is one you probably would buy? As a parent First Second and Toon Books kids books are reliably fantastic - any book of theirs my son wants I’m happy to buy (and I will probably pick up many of First Second’s teen and adult titles as well.
Related are there any music labels that still matter to you? Where if that label publishes it you are likely to listen to it no matter who the artist is?
So update to Bluesky - still really not liking it or seeing much of the appeal for others. I find the UI frustratingly horrible (try to click on your own profile. It doesn’t open your profile even if you click on the word profile it opens your home page)
I lost followers (guessing bots that since I didn’t follow them back stopped following me) but still have more than 50% utter strangers/bots following me
@elisa I think a key to my experience here is that I’ve followed a lot of folks who are active here and engaged with them - many folks whom I didn’t follow previously on the other site. A lot of the folks I followed there were relatively inactive on Twitter in recent years and remain similarly sporadic here. I have a better chance actually of seeing their posts here but most of my engagement has been with newer follows. I tend to follow folks I see boosted by my network
How many books do book reviewers (for publications not amateurs who just post to social media/Goodreads/Amazon etc) read for every book they actually publish a review of?
My brother-in-law was a restaurant critic (regular column) worst part of his job was that for every place he wrote about, he tried 2-3 (or more) other places that didn’t make the cut (trying some multiple times). NYC has everything - places that screw up caprese salad and bread and butter along them. (From personal experience)
Simple #FediTips if someone you follow boosts something of interest to you, and you read the thread, take a look at the original poster whose post was boosted and consider following them directly. I find myself following a lot of really interesting people here because people I follow boost really interesting folks
(And consider this as you boost - each time you do you are helping your followers discover other interesting people and accounts to potentially follow themselves.)
Years ago I build a smart calendar system (building both my own calendaring platform and bottom up machine learning process to convert semi-structured data into structured data (not using training techniques, it was however code that rewrote itself based on the data it encountered) anyway it was about 20 years too early.
But I've long thought that shared views of time & what we are currently and in the future paying attention to maps nicely to shared interests and could help in social networks
the point is that what we block off/schedule our lives around/make travel plans around likely maps to groups we associate with and belong to - some are very broad (i.e. all parents of school age children broadly make plans based on the school calendars - though specifics of holidays and start/end of school vary by school)
Fans even in the age of on demand shows likely pay attention to when movies or books or tv shows will be released. And in some cases may track related releases (like toys)
the point is that if you can list (and somehow share/compare) what you are paying attention to in the future with what someone else is paying attention to, you likely can find where/if you have overlapping interests even if you speak different languages, use different "hashtags" (or don't use them at all) and potentially even if the specifics you are tracking differ (i.e. you track your local sport's team's schedule not a rival team's)
More than half of the places on this list are places my wife and I enjoy fairly regularly. One is in walking distance of our home and many others are places my wife’s family have been enjoying for decades (she grew up here in San Jose)
I’d add a lot of other places (tons of better choices for many of the cuisines covered) but that’s because the South Bay has so much to choose amongst - after a decade here I’ve just sampled a small portion (ok a big portion often)
I’d also add that many of the places listed have multiple locations (in some csses I think the other locations may be better options). That said given how good the places I go to regularly are I’m going to try the places that I don’t go to as often / have ever tried as I trust they are worth trying at least once.
(For example however I do think there is better bbq in the South Bay than Henry’s World Famous Hi Life which I’ve only tried once - I will try it again)
Adding two fiction books by a Hollywood major star to my to read list is a bit unexpected but looking forward to both of Tom Hanks’ books, his collection of short stories and his forthcoming novel. This article by The Atlantic (long read) explains why.
Feature request - has any #Fediverse software considered making it easy to add a license to any original works you publish here?
Ie like Flickr years ago once allowed you to automate added a specific CC license to the works you uploaded.
For example of how I want to use this - a few days ago I posted a photo I took of @annaleen and @pluralistic at the SFPL - I’d love to be able to attach a CC license to that photo to make it clear I’m happy with reuse of it
Not sure how Mastodon could apply an automatic license, it would not know if an uploaded image was yours or someone else's.
Low tech way-cut and paste "Photo by me CC BY-SA" to include in your post. Or maybe make an assertion in your bio that all photos posted by you are, say CC-BY (?)
There is an EXIF Metadata app for iOS- again, advantage is putting a CC assertion here goes where the photo goes.
@cogdog@annaleen@pluralistic as you point out your server probably can’t easily tell which photos are yours (but this is equally true of any service or app) but one option might be client apps (including web based ones) offering a license option much as alt text is offered today. Perhaps with a configurable option to set your typical license when you apply one.
It’s been a few years since I looked closely at cc license options - I’d want help picking the right one from some service/tool