@ahnlak@kavlak.uk
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

ahnlak

@ahnlak@kavlak.uk

Freelance (Web|System|Game) Developer. Builder of BlitHub, among other things. Can still be found https://kavlak.uk/@ahnlak on Twitter. Ex-Londoner Livin' la Vida Loca in Rural(ish) Wales. He/Him. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

reader of sci-fi : average cook : lazy gardener : intermittent homebrewer : semi-retired drinks blogger

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

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

Nothing quite like a morning spent solving a problem that, it turns out, 5-years-ago-me already solved.

/headdesk

danieldurrans, to random
@danieldurrans@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Looking to buy some heat shrink tubing. At most I need about 10cm.

Amazon is all “500 assorted heat shrink tubing kit”.

The really annoying thing is that I won't be able to buy what I need cheaper locally.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@danieldurrans much like watch batteries, the secret is to buy one of those kits, use the one item you want, and flog the rest in parts on ebay for 10x what you paid 😉

etchedpixels, to random
@etchedpixels@mastodon.social avatar

Every time some wannabe economics nut starts explaining how people should be economically rational explain that economically rational people would look at their pet cat when it needed the vet and conclude that since new cats are basically free it's not economically rational to repair the existing one.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@etchedpixels I mean to be fair goldfish and hamsters are already viewed that way...

dorothyporker, to random
@dorothyporker@mstdn.social avatar

@kavey Can I ask how you set up your own instance? I feel like the one I'm on has been blocked by a lot of other instances while I was away

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@dorothyporker @kavey we host it on a fairly cheap VPS, which is simple but does require some moderate technical knowledge.

If you're less technically minded (or just don't want the hassle) folk like @beasts will run a managed instance for you (other similar services exist, but MB are the only ones I've used - for other stuff - personally and would recommend without hesitation)

gadgetoid, to random
@gadgetoid@fosstodon.org avatar

Okay it looks like between Arch 6.6 and 6.8 the "subsystem" of /dev/ttyS* nodes changed from "platform" to "serial-base" which may or may not be wrong, but does not play nicely with pyserial's assumptions- does anyone know where this change might have occurred and/or how to report/raise it upstream and sniff out if it's an intentional (or unintentional) change?

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@gadgetoid I think that context may have summed up 90% of micropython fixes...

Edent, to wordpress
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

A question for my friends.

I've found a plugin which hasn't been updated for over a year. It needs a few fixes, which I've written and tested - not security related.
The maintainer stopped answering support questions about 2 years ago.
I've tried emailing them, but had no response.
The code isn't on GitHub.

I know GPLv2 says I can fork and republish the code - but do you think a year is too soon to be stepping on the maintainer's toes?

Advice welcome!

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@Edent speaking as someone with published plugins that I haven't looked at for years, I can't imagine forks being anything but welcome...

revk, (edited ) to random
@revk@toot.me.uk avatar

This is unexpected…
I took panels off the hot tub ready for new heat pump install work.
The heating has run almost 100% since. Maybe 80% now.
So the panels matter. I had no idea how much!
So now I think adding more, some celotex, to the panels may help even more.
Update: power graphs…

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@mart_brooks @revk the secret is not to heat them (although just the pump/chemicals isn't exactly cheap - pools are a dumb idea)

revk, (edited ) to random
@revk@toot.me.uk avatar

I just rotated a hot tub by 90 degrees, with the help of Tom.

This was not, err, easy.

But it means the heat pump conversion this week will be much easier.

The hot tub came with the house, and I had no idea at the start how expensive they are. A heat pump will help a lot, I hope.

The house also came with a fence approx 1m inside the border wall, which was silly, but was cheaper than making up the wall to a good standard, which we are now doing.

Houses are costly some times!

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@revk assuming the fence was on that line between grass and concrete, was it a false wall to make it easier to reach the back of the tub, rather than just covering up a scrappy wall?

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@revk ahh, fair enough then!

(although I rather like a stone wall...)

gadgetoid, to random
@gadgetoid@fosstodon.org avatar

Ah nothing like a severe allergy hangover to make me want to curl into a ball and die 😫

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@gadgetoid urgh; I can't help feeling that a hangover where you don't even get to be drunk the night before is doubly cruel 😢

revk, to random
@revk@toot.me.uk avatar

By the way, as some people may be interested, my rants to the council have finally worked. A nice waste supervisor visited, very apologetic. Somehow the two teams each though my property was on the other teams round. But he was happy with where we are leaving the waste (edge of my property) and even gave me his mobile so we can make sure there are no more problems. Success.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@revk the moral of this story would appear to be - never buy a house on a corner 😉

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

The only thing we get to vote on this May is the PCC; rarely have I read through all the candidate statements and felt such a strong "Christ Almighty, the squirrels in my garden would be a better choice than any of you" vibe.

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

I love Korean TV, but the more I watch the more I realise that their entire industry appears to have one courtroom they use for all dramas. Also, one emergency room and one hospital room. And some of their cafes are starting to look very familiar too...

Edent, to wordpress
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Oh, great. Now wants £170 per year so I can access the stats I've accumulated over the decades.

Looks like lots of other sites are having the same problem - https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/jetpack/

Can anyone personally recommend a self-hosted stats package which works with WordPress and doesn't require JavaScript? All I need is per-post counts. I don't care about anything else.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@Edent does it need to be within WordPress? Something like umami will give you all the stats you like

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@Edent actually forget that, falls foul of the no JavaScript rule

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

Thanks to what I can only assume is a hilariously bad bit of stock planning, the local Tesco is selling boxes of Creme Eggs off at 62p, which is a shade over 12p per egg.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in a diabetic coma in the corner.

revk, (edited ) to random
@revk@toot.me.uk avatar

What a surprise!
Monmouthshire council really are inept.
We had one correct bin collection day this month, and now a 6th missed bin collection day.
This is taking the piss.
(OK, I would not trust them to "take the piss" if that was a thing any more)

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@revk that's odd; it shows our blue bins being collected the same day as recycling (not that we've ever had a blue bin, mind...)

You're on a very odd schedule 😉

bloor, to random
@bloor@bloor.tw avatar

Many would venture the nuclear bomb as the worst invention of all time. Some might suggest leaded petrol, or social media even.

All wrong.

The worst invention of all time is the speaker phone on a mobile phone.

Yea, I’m on a train.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@bloor I think it's impressive that after decades of research and development, the mobile phone speaker actually sounds worse than a 70s transistor radio.

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

Ahh, the joy of spending the day patching up little niggles after a major website overhaul.

You can test all you want, there's no substitute for live data and live users for finding all the nooks and crannies you've dropped something, is there?

ChrisMayLA6, to Weather
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Surely its only a matter of time before the right wing press & their political associates start to complain about foreign rain flooding the country.....

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 coming over here, watering our crops...

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@pedestrians1st @FiveSeventeen @ChrisMayLA6 no, I think that's all good British effluent ;)

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

I know it's supposed to be helpful, but sometimes couriers just sound ... sinister.

I keep expecting them to follow up with a demand for bitcoin.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

@karohemd not yet; apparently is coming "by 10pm". So now they're in a race with Amazon... /sigh

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

Bah. Not only have they decided they can't be bothered to deliver it today, they sent me another taunting email saying "ha! we've got your parcel again!"

ahnlak, to random
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

Using a quiet morning at home to play "what switches do what" on our consumer unit.

Leaving aside the "why does this one bathroom have a circuit all to itself", I'm now at the point of turning three different breakers off that don't seem to do anything, and waiting to see what now doesn't work.

And that's not counting the one that I'm pretty sure runs power to an entirely different building.

I'm starting to wonder who did the wiring in this house, and how drunk they were at the time.

ahnlak,
@ahnlak@kavlak.uk avatar

To clarify; no problem with having spare circuits. Bigger problem with unused circuits being vaguely labelled as in use, and in use circuits being marked as spare.

Not a big fan of "lights" being used to indicate a small and remarkably random selection of lights, either.

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