@bigzaphod@mastodon.social
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bigzaphod

@bigzaphod@mastodon.social

You may know me from Twitterrific or Frenzic: Overtime or as the ex-galactic president. I'm just this guy, you know?

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gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

Well, I finally had enough with MLB‘s blackout restrictions. Signed up for a VPN so I can watch all the blacked out games including them playing the Orioles right now which I can never watch. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it working on the Apple TV.

bigzaphod,
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@gedeonm play ball!

bigzaphod, to random
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Tonight's movie night movie will be, "Raising Arizona (1987)." This is another one none of us has seen for some reason. I guess it's time to remedy that!

bigzaphod,
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Raising Arizona was amazing. It's like a manifestation of a feeling. It's a whole mood. I'm not sure how to mentally classify it, tbh. I think "a Coen brothers movie" is about the best I can do. They really have a gift of inducing déjà vu for experiences I've never had.

bigzaphod,
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I love how in every Coen movie I've seen, the characters are seemingly dumb simpletons for the most part, but they all have a more varied and interesting vocabulary than I do. They're also all very deeply aware of their motivations in a way that I find almost envious. Everything the characters do makes perfect sense while being simultaneously absurd.

bigzaphod,
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@gedeonm exactly. Who talks like that? And yet... it sounds perfectly reasonable and poetic!

bigzaphod, to random
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When I started CS in college (~1998) the first classes were C++. Of course I already knew some Pascal, C, VisualBasic, C++, Perl, JavaScript, etc. so I was way ahead. I didn't need to learn any of the "how to think in code" stuff so the classes were pretty boring.

Back then, I programmed by typing a few lines, hitting build to make sure it was syntactically good, typing some more, hitting build, etc. This was before IDEs did that for you (at least none I had used) by showing errors as you type.

bigzaphod,
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This combined with already thinking in code meant I was really fast at finishing the tasks in the computer lab. The prof would come around and by the time she got to me I'd often be done.

Eventually she started taking a close interest and watching how I worked.

And I remember one time she says something like, "I see you're building all the time. The skill you're supposed to be developing is how to write the code correct the first time."

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

Tried 3D printing a simple box-thing for a project yesterday. A 5 hour job. Box-like structures always take forever to print.

It didn't fit quite right.

Dammit!

Slight redesign, printed it again over night.

It still didn't fit quite right.

ARGH!

(I am not an engineer.)

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

I could really use a new Kingdom Rush game right about now.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm @agiletortoise already preordered. 😁

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm @agiletortoise I forgot! I get their emails for some reason and saw it announced a bit ago.

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

Happy Towel Day to all those who hitchhike across the galaxy!

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@jamesthomson don't panic.

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

Sometimes I do things in front of my cat or dog and imagine how I must look like a magician or god or something. "OMG you made water appear out of a tube on the counter?!"

And then I come across some makers on YouTube that make me feel the same way. "OMG you made an entire robot out of a box of wires and a python script?!"

Migueldeicaza, (edited ) to random
@Migueldeicaza@mastodon.social avatar

Public service announcement

I am not paid for this or have any interest in this company

We give our kids debit cards using tillfinancial.com - we give their allowance there, and they get debit cards and Apple Pay integration

Zero fees, or hidden shenanigans.

Love it.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@Migueldeicaza hmmmm.. this seems nice, but I'm not sure how they make any money with this business model. Maybe just interest on the all the combined holdings (or whatever the financial term for that would be)?

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@Migueldeicaza I decided to submit a support question to ask Till what exactly their business model is, and surprisingly they replied already!

(/cc @senj @viniciussalvati)

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

This came with one of my eBay orders that arrived today. They aim for FIVE STAR service... by demanding their customers only give them five stars. 🤔

bigzaphod, to random
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

So my sewer pipe (which has been an endless source of fun, let me tell you), runs through the power company's land and whoever cut their grass the other day was clearly daydreaming and mowed right over the pipe AND the bright orange fiberglass stick that was marking its location.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@Klaxun because my property is landlocked by a few feet for stupid historical reasons and the only route the city would allow the sewer pipe to go was through there which was already a utility easement zone. Then the city also mandated where the clean outs had to go.. and of course TWO of them ended up over in that zone. Luckily one is way down in a ditch where they don't bother to cut, but this one is right there on the edge.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@GeekAndDad hmmm. I've been wondering about this. Kinda pissed because this pipe basically bankrupted us and it's still causing problems. I wonder if a plumber could install these cheaply or if there's some reason they didn't. It's stupid having the pipe sticking up. Worse is that the run was so long there's actually 4 of these - one by the house, and then 3 along the length. All varying heights, too - not even consistent.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@dxzdb @GeekAndDad my clean outs are 100ft apart (as was required by the code, I guess) and they also installed a metal wire along the length of the pipe which I gather is useful to find the pipe later with a detector. Not sure if the metal wire thing is code here or just a convention, though.

bigzaphod, to random
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I really appreciate that the long, illustrious internet tradition of shitposting is poisoning AI.

bigzaphod, to Ds9
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Jake Sisko, who has never written on paper before, has perfect cursive handwriting. 🤔

bigzaphod, to Ds9
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It’s always dark in the mirror universe.

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

Mirror universe Klingons should have been peace loving hippies.

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

Bought this rubber carrot dog chewie for Max and boy he loves it. He usually destroys his dog toys in seconds but he’s been working on this thing for over an hour now and it’s still in one piece.

It’s made of some kind of rubber/silicone material that is fun to chomp (not too hard) and the crinkle leaves are really well bonded to the interior. He hasn’t been able to pull them out (yet). Gonna leave a ★★★★★ for this thing. 👍 https://a.co/d/j7CFSyQ

bigzaphod,
@bigzaphod@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm we have that for our dog named Carrot and it has been remarkably durable.

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