@TerryHancock@realsocial.life
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

TerryHancock

@TerryHancock@realsocial.life

Fan of space, film, free/open-source software and free culture. Former pro astronomer. Writer, blogger, editor, visual artist. Occasional free-software developer. (Personal Account)

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

imtheq, to random
@imtheq@realsocial.life avatar

Whose kid was in a car accident at 1am this morning? MINE.

Fortunately everyone is ok. It was pretty scary, though. She wasn’t driving, but it was on the freeway and several cars were involved. Her friend’s car is totaled. My girl is pretty shaken up, taking the day off.

The best part of this story, however, is that the person who rear-ended them was a drag queen. What a scene!

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@imtheq
Oh no! But I'm glad no one was hurt.

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Okay, actually, after watching this video, I'm pretty much 120% pro- now...

https://conf.tube/w/05857289-4f99-4109-bd71-f5e0a779a544

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

On the other hand, I bet his colleagues at Owncloud were pretty annoyed by this presentation. You can just smell the burning bridges here. :dumpsterfire:

lauren, (edited ) to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

I'm occasionally asked what is the most disturbing film I've ever seen. This one is easy because there is absolutely no doubt: "Salò" (aka "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom"). Directed and co-written by Pier Paolo Pasolini, it's focused on portraying graphic atrocities in Italy during WWII. It is widely considered to be the most notorious professionally produced film ever made, and has been frequently banned (in some cases to this day) in various countries. I've never walked out on a film as an adult, but it is probably the only film that I almost walked out on during a theatrical screening.

Sidenote: Pasolini himself was murdered three weeks before the film's release.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@lauren
Huh. I remember reading a review of it many years ago. Did not sound like something I wanted to see.

jra, to random
@jra@soc.jra.sh avatar

The gradual obliteration of theme customization in everyday software is one of the things I regret the most, whenever I think about how we interacted with computers as I was growing up.

The vast majority of today's kids will never leave the sanitized computer experience of auto white/dark themes and hamburger menus. Having their local music player (no internet required, what a concept!) wrapped in a Kare Kano skin (🤍) would be unthinkable.

And yet, there's more soul in this single skin made by a random person just for the fun of it than in all the legions of UI/UX designers justifying their existence through ad placement maximization metrics.

https://botsin.space/@winampskins/112441690432216910

TerryHancock, (edited )
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@jra
I never used Winamp itself, but XMMS on Linux was compatible with the skins, so I used a lot of those! We need to bring this kind of style back!

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar


If I need to collect e-forms from people with confidential information on them, what's the best/responsible way to do it?

Is there an easy way to use for this?
Should they just email the forms? (But that's not encrypted, right?)

I have a fillable PDF form set up, but it's going to have legal names and bank accounts, etc. I need to keep that private.

Surely there is some standard practice for this kind of thing? 🤔

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Nextcloud has group folders and stuff, but is this the use case for those?

Ideally, there'd be some sort of inbox where they could upload, but not read other people's forms.

Alternatively, email is fine, but I need to figure out the right way to do it so as not to leak their data.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@ditol
I didn't know you could set permissions like that. That might be my best option. Thanks!

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@ditol

Yes. Just tested that. It's exactly what I need -- the "File drop" setting on a shared folder.

Thanks again!

andybaio, to random
@andybaio@xoxo.zone avatar

me: “I wish people would stop calling individual blog posts ‘a blog.’”
monkey’s paw curls
https://xoxo.zone/@mathowie/112439941615950550

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@andybaio

I mean, "blog" itself is a sin against the English language. 🤷‍♂️

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

That Blender is completely free is amazing.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 @tsturm

It's really a whole set of 3D applications in one. I draw up a pipeline and Blender just pops up all over it!

evan, (edited ) to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

Do you say "Fediverse" or "Social Web"?

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@evan
Never heard it called "social web", and now that I have, I hate it. It sounds so bland!

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Well, I'm starting to tame the Fillable Forms workflow in LibreOffice after watching this nice intro by Melissa Compton.

I have found a bug, though. Sometimes trying to adjust the position of a form element causes LibreWriter to crash. Not sure what exactly is triggering it. Something to do with table cells, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ1cGt-hops

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

FWIW, it seems like it is much safer to cut and paste form fields than to try to drag and drop.

Sylvhem, to random
@Sylvhem@eldritch.cafe avatar

Fediverse, I have a slightly unusual request for you. Can you recommend me video games where the main setting is a library, where the main character is a librarian or where the plot revolve heavily around libraries in some way?
Thank you.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@Sylvhem
Closest I can think of off hand is that Gabriel Knight runs a book shop in "Sins of the Father." 🤔

nixCraft, to linux
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Which installation method do you prefer for your or desktop? 🤔

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@nixCraft

I think we now have to name a package manager "freinds".

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

We may need a supercut of all the aliens arriving at our solar system, flying right by Saturn.

Because even aliens know you can't miss checking out those rings, I guess?

carolynporco, to TierraSapiens
@carolynporco@mastodon.social avatar

Fellow Mastodonians ...

Do any of you do video editing ... perhaps for a podcast or maybe personal home videos? If so, what is the best, most easily used video editing software out there?

I don't need all the bells & whistles, but will need features like splicing video segments (from diff't sources) together, some nice (not over the top) transitions, ease of use, & good quality end results.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@carolynporco
I use Kdenlive.

Has a nice built-in title editor, simple transitions, handles all the video formats I've thrown at it, and after v22 has automatic subtitling.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@carolynporco
Apparently. There's a Windows download for it:

https://kdenlive.org/en/download/

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@carolynporco
I don't know.

But my guess is that "standalone" is some kind of self-contained binary that runs in place, while "installable" is some kind of package that installs natively. (?)

The last time I did anything on Windows was 2017, though.

Craigp, to random
@Craigp@mastodon.social avatar

... what is the car autobody shop doing that requires them to seal their doors like this yet leaves their front desk open for business...

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@Craigp
Spray painting?

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@Craigp

They might also be using it as an oven to dry paint or seal films of something. So it'd be to keep hot air in.

Just guessing, of course. 🤷‍♂️

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

The kind of nightmare where it's basically okay, because the bear in your backyard that you were worried about ate the little dinosaur that was charging you. 😱🤷‍♂️🐻🦖

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

"Oh wow. Libreoffice can do fillable PDF forms!"

2 hrs later...

"Is it possible for mere bad UI design to cause physical pain..?"
:welp:

It is pretty awkward.

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

The Nextcloud package defaults to providing a "Photos" app that collects ALL of the photos on the site into one ginormous gallery.

There are PNG streams in this collection. :welp:

I could hear the server fans spinning up as it tried to preview literally 10s of thousands of images...

So, I guess I'll just disable that app...

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Would've been kind of cool if it respected directory structure.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • Leos
  • mdbf
  • Youngstown
  • ngwrru68w68
  • ethstaker
  • slotface
  • PowerRangers
  • hgfsjryuu7
  • khanakhh
  • kavyap
  • tsrsr
  • InstantRegret
  • DreamBathrooms
  • cubers
  • tester
  • magazineikmin
  • rosin
  • tacticalgear
  • thenastyranch
  • Durango
  • osvaldo12
  • vwfavf
  • modclub
  • everett
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cisconetworking
  • normalnudes
  • anitta
  • All magazines
    •