@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

drgeraint

@drgeraint@glasgow.social

Veggie #cycling Chartered #Engineer.

Currently head of a couple of university engineering departments.

Past president of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.

Campaigned against ID cards and the database state as coordinator of NO2ID Scotland.

Love #cats.

Photo is me in the Glasgow Botanic Gardens with a squirrel on my shoulder.

(pronouns: dr/legend/he/him/they/them, but she/her OK also)

#searchable

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drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

Good news for Glasgow - almost 4000 roads to have 20 mph speed limits. By making roads safer and reducing speed differentials, this should help to encourage more people to cycle around the city.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3g7x3lnxxo

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

It seems that Anas Sarwar does not really understand the principles of a PR system that is not intended to normally produce majority governments.

“They cannot impose another unelected first minister on Scotland in a backroom deal; the people of Scotland should decide who leads our country."'

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/29/humza-yousaf-steps-down-as-scottish-first-minister-snp

mina, to random
@mina@berlin.social avatar

Don't get blown away, today!

sculpture artist: Penny Hardy

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@mina Last week I learned about trypophobia - fear of patterns with lots of holes. Apparently it is common for people with dementia, and possibly arises from the instinctive reaction to other people's fear and what frightened eyes look like. I suspect this sculpture might be disconcerting for some. It is very good though.

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@mina Interesting!

davemark, to space
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

"the Plutonian year that started on July 4, 1776 will end this year on June 12, 2024"

  1. Pluto has long-ass years!
  2. The entirety of US history occurred during a single year on Pluto

https://kottke.org/24/02/all-of-us-history-has-taken-place-in-one-plutonian-year

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@davemark How is it decided when a year on another planet starts?

dmoser, to random
@dmoser@mastodon.social avatar

Most people have no idea how close the US is to becoming a fascist dictatorship. Here are the very concrete deportation plans outlined: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/02/trumps-immigration-plan-is-even-more-aggressive-now/677385/

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@dmoser I really don't get US politics at the moment. Apparently there is great concern about the president's age, yet the only viable candidates on either side are old. If age matters, why are younger candidates not in the running. If it doesn't, why are the media so focused on it?

fkamiah17, to UKpolitics
@fkamiah17@toot.wales avatar

Didn't she used to be in charge of the police?
I'm sure she's not trying to ride on the coat-tails of a legitimate scandal that destroyed thousands of lives to increase her profile in the run-up to an election. 🤬

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@TCMuffin Depressing, isn't it? Private Eye have been covering this scandal in depth for years, but not a peep in the more mainstream media, despite the abundance of evidence long ago.

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

Asimov's 3 laws of robotics are brilliant - and also don't work. He wrote very many books explaining the ways that these apparently simple laws fail to achieve their objectives. Any "AI" researchers who think that they can rely on inspiration from the three laws to govern ethics has failed at basic comprehension.

_L1vY_, to random
@_L1vY_@mstdn.social avatar

Via Mallory Noe-Payne
9:12 AM · Apr 4, 2023

"Hi, good morning.

Just a reminder that Hitler led a failed coup, went to jail for it, came out to an exhilarated base, consolidated support from right-wing politicians, then walked into power.

All while the media gave him continuous coverage."

https://time.com/4192760/hitler-munich-excerpt/

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@_L1vY_ Lesson there is that Trump needs to be imprisoned for far more than 1 year. 20 years should do it; but 200 years would be fine too,

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I'm an engineer who has designed vehicles (aircraft) and have a good understanding of safety critical systems.

I lived in Texas for several years, have driven American cars and know that in general their build quality is far below that of European and Asian manufacturers.

But no other American car has build quality as bad as Tesla.I really can't understand why anyone would buy one. I'd rather drive a Trabant.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@vfrmedia Given how incompetent the government is in Westminster, insurance companies are a surer guarantor of safety than legislative regulation; but if the failings of Tesla are extrapolated to all EV companies, that is counter-productive.

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid ... unless you live in Eastern Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, Yemen, poverty in the UK or anywhere else... I was more optimistic 10 years ago. Worldwide, we really need to elect better, caring politicians and stop electing the self-serving parasites who currently have too much control.

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

Oh, this isn't good. After rolling out free bus travel for young people, all of a sudden there is a conflict between active travel and public transport?

There's a worrying agenda at play here.

https://road.cc/content/news/scot-gov-told-spend-more-public-transport-less-cycling-305639

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Welp, @Menhit has caught a mouse in my office but we now discover the inconvenient fact that she doesn't know how to kill a mouse, so when I startled her she let it go and it ran behind my bureau desk.

(This is the second confirmed mouse in the house since late 2007. Driven indoors by the weather, I guess, because only a madmouse would court her feline attention.)

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@cstross Living on the top floor of a tenement, my cats have to bring their prey up 5 flights of stairs before releasing them (generally alive and well) to continue the game indoors.

A collander makes a good mouse catching tool, if you wait for the cats to find the mouse again. I pop in a few nuts or cornflakes while carrying the mouse back outside and that normally seems to calm them by the time of release. Had a couple of humane mouse traps around the place, but never caught anything in them.

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@bellinghman @cstross Ah, that would explain how the mice are not regular guests.

Ours pad freely about the close and garden, with cat flaps so can come and go as they please.

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I very much appreciate everyone who is putting their solutions on Github (or siimlar).

After solving the problems, it is interesting to see how other people did it; and some of the interesting languages/features used.

It is also a good reminder of how incomprehensible some uncommented code can be when you didn't write it.

drgeraint, to random
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Trebuchet?!" - Day 1 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/1

I don't think I'll have time to do many of these puzzles this year, but I'll upload any that I do to:
https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Cube Conundrum" - Day 2 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/2

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day02

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Gear Ratios" - Day 3 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/3

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day03

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Scratchcards" - Day 4 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/4

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day04

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "If You Give A Seed A Fertilizer" - Day 5 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/5

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day05

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Wait For It" - Day 6 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/6

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day06

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Camel Cards" - Day 7 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/7

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day07

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

I just completed "Haunted Wasteland" - Day 8 - Advent of Code 2023 https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/8

https://github.com/drgeraint/adventofcode2023/tree/main/day08

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

I have a lot of very serious character flaws, and yet the Mastodon scolds somehow miss all of them when they yell at me.

drgeraint,
@drgeraint@glasgow.social avatar

@mattblaze You have the whole syllabus ready on the first day? Go you!

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