david

david, 19 days ago to tech

I am amused. One the one hand, Microsoft is introducing Recall, which literally takes screenshots of everything you do on windows, but on the other hand, they are taking users ability to take screenshots of their browser away if their company configures it as such.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2336462/microsoft-edge-will-begin-blocking-screenshots-on-the-job.html

#amusing #tech #windows

david, 8 months ago to random

In honour of World #cassowary day, here’s the only one I have encountered in the wild. It gave absolutely no fucks and was content to stand on the beach watching the surf.

#beMoreCassowary #bird #AustralianWildlife

A large black bird holding some kids clothes and bags to ransom on a beach in far north Qld.

david, 3 months ago to random

TIL Australia is wider than the diameter of the moon.

Width of Australia: 4,000km [1]
Diameter of the Moon: 3,474 km [2]

Never really thought about it before, but there you go.

[1] https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/dimensions/continental-extremities

[2] https://nineplanets.org/questions/how-big-is-the-moon/

david, 11 months ago to random

You infrequent reminder that if you can glue googly eyes to your rubber ducks you should glue googly eyes to your rubber ducks.

david, 29 days ago to random

TIL Italy has a new supercomputer dedicated to studying climate change, and they’ve called it Cassandra.

Somewhat appropriate really, given how Govt’s of the world have steadfastly been ignoring climate change for decades.

david, 9 months ago to retrocomputing

Unlike the several attempts to install FreeBSD on this IBM Thinkpad T40, OpenBSD installed first time, including X11.

Yeah it’s bare-boned, but it works.

#retroComputing #openBSD

david, 9 months ago to retrocomputing

#retrocomputing freaks of Australia, does anyone have 2 x 1Gb PC2100 SODIMMs lying around they don't need anymore?

david, 9 months ago to random

https://ulurustatement.org/training/#/

This is pretty much the only thing I’m going to post on this subject. The “No” campaign’s “if you don’t know, vote no” slogan is bullshit. Click the link above, and find out.

#theVoice #ulurustatementfromtheheart #findOut

david, 7 months ago to random

On the way back to camp, we had to stop for yet another Echidna crossing the road, but this time I could reach the camera. Shot through the windscreen in an idling vehicle, so the quality is crap, but there it is walking across the road.

#tassie2023 #echidna #monotreme #marsupial #AustralianWildlife #WildOz

david, 7 months ago to random

We had to kill some time before checkin (it’s a caravan relocation day) so we stopped at the Bonorong Sanctuary to look at animals.

Pictured are a Tasmanian Devil, a pair of Blue-tongued Lizards, a Wonbat and an Echidna (they are furrier in Tasmania).

#tassie2023 #AustralianWildlife

Two blue-tongued lizards cuddling together for warmth. They are flattened out to absorb as much heat from the sun as they can.
An adolescent wombat (approx 15kg) having a scratch.
A Tasmanian short beaked echidna eating an ant porridge substitute. This one is in permanent care due to being almost entirely blind.

david, 6 months ago to Bread

A bit short, but smells great. Plain loaf with edible lavender.

#breadPosting #bread #baking

david, 4 months ago to random

Spotted on our office notice board just now.

david, 11 months ago to random

Things I should know better by now…

Always test the cables before going to all the effort of cable management.

I installed and made very neat, a 4m DisplayPort cable for our big boss today (luckily on leave) only to find after, it was a dud cable and didn’t actually work. D’oh!

david, 1 month ago to random

Science type field researchers, I’m after a good quality wildlife/trail camera with excellent night video/photo abilities and reasonable battery life. Ideally suited to Australian conditions.

It will be situated in a high rainfall area, with ambient temperature ranges of 5ºC to 45ºC depending on time of year.

My current cheapy ali-express one often decides it isn’t going to record anything.

Given how crap web searching is these days, I figured I’d get better recommendations from people who actually use these things professionally.

Boosts welcome :)

#citizenScience #wildlifeCam #trailCam

david, 1 month ago to random

Coat rack replacement project has begun. This is the first of hopefully six very similar hooks. The first picture shows the starting stock next to it.

#blacksmith #metalwork #hook

Another angle of the hook. The single punched screw hole can be seen. A smaller hole for a stabilising nail will be drilled below it.

david, 23 days ago to random

Well, that's interesting, and potentially useful.

If you need to use Google search (I mostly do not but this may change).

Add: &udm=14
to the end of the search string in the URL and it will force Web mode.

My limited testing this morning shows the results as being similar to say 2019 era results (but with up to date content). But better, because No ads, no sponsored results, and the results provided seem to be actual websites relevant to the search.

Dunno how long this state of affairs will last, but use while you can :)

If you happen to be using Vivaldi, you can add a new search engine in settings -> search. Give it a name and use the url: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14

(the %s is a placeholder for the search string you type in the search box).

david, 29 days ago to random

Munching on toast covered in Speculaas spread, “I’ve had this for a while, I wonder how old it is”

“Exp: 2nd July 2021”

Goes back to munching.

Expiry date in very poor contrast on the lid, reading Exp: 02-07-2021

david, 22 days ago to random

#duolingo showing its dark side again.

david, 23 days ago to baking

29 choc chip & peanut biscuits fresh from the oven.

#baking #biscuit

david, 20 days ago to random

Well I have a #fedivision shortlist.

First up, I think everyone did a bang up job, much better than I could have at any rate. However, we somehow have to whittle down the entries to just three to vote on, and as part of that process, I needed to shortlist a selection.

So without further ado, my shortlist is (in no particular order):

NRCI, KAST, TAUS, MIRR, ELAN, DEEP, RAIL, EATW & EMPW

Now to have a short break before re-listening to these to try to narrow it down further.

david, 17 days ago to random

Six fairly similar coat rack hooks fresh from the forge. The two on the left had a wee mishap whereby the knobs on one end broke off, so they became curls.

#blacksmith #metalwork #wip

david, 8 days ago to random

Today's interesting work problem (solved) was, given a photoshop file containing an arbitrary collection of layers, export pngs of each layer composited on the background layer (i.e. for each layer, composite it with the background (or last layer) and export just those two layers as a merged png)

Had to be cross platform (Windows and Mac), so I used extendscript (javascript with bits for photoshop). I am not a javascript coder, but it’s similar enough to C syntax, and there’s lots of doco online, so I got there in the end.

I used Layer Comps to composite the layers, and then the use can File -> Export -> Layer Comps to Files.

Next step is to make that bit a little less onerous / error prone.

(If anyone has this weird requirement and would like the script, I’m happy to post, but it’s pretty niche).

david, 7 days ago to random

Dang that old IBM Model M is huge on my desk.

david, 13 days ago to random

A pox on the entire advertising "industry”. May their armpits be infested with the fleas of 1,000 camels.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/28/paypal_ad_network/

I’ve run a business, I know how important advertising is, but dammit, agencies whose entire existence is based on selling advertising space, can get in the sea.