@johnl@mastodon.social
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

johnl

@johnl@mastodon.social

Programmer, sysadmin, guitarist, singer, climber, cyclist. haproxy fan boy. Co-founder Brightbox.

Currently faffing with #homeautomation, baking #sourdough and restoring an antique #pianola

#cats #dogs #yorkshire #guitar #singer #ruby #devops #diy #boardgames #cooking #curry #bouldering #climbing #cycling #kubernetes

#socialism #feminist #antiracist #lgbtqrights #transrights

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johnl, to random
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

Submitted my first Debian bug report in almost 15 years! It's a seemingly awkward process so I've been a bit deterred, but persevered and got there in the end. Worth the effort as every little contribution helps!

johnl, to random
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

How come it's taken me until 45 years of age to properly appreciate the genius of the band "The Presidents of the United States of America". I mean, their name alone, by basically all measures, is just a terrible name for a band. And that's what makes it a genius name for a band.

I just didn't understand them when I was younger and lacked the wisdom I have now.

johnl,
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@Tijn no, though I did notice something was off about one of the guitars but didn't think too much about it!

johnl, to random
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Coincidentally got lots planned over the long weekend. Today we helped a friend move house, so already pretty knackered. Going to be a long long weekend!

rahoulb, to random
@rahoulb@ruby.social avatar

I bought an Android phone, cos Apple’s been pissing me off for a while.

So what’s the best mastodon client and RSS reader?

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@rahoulb I was getting so annoyed with android auto the other day that it crossed my mind to consider an apple phone! Everything is upside down.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@rahoulb tbf it works pretty well most of the time but the inconsistency drives me mad, especially voice commands:

me: send sms
aa: I don't know what that means
me: send message
aa: ok. by sms or whatsapp?
me: sms
aa: I know what that means now ok.

or recent one:

me: send message
aa: who to?
me: rob smith
aa (in a new voice): who to?
me: rob smith
aa (back to original voice): who to?
me: rob smith
aa: ok
aa: <does nothing>

johnl, to random
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

Occam's razor is attributed to 14th century English philosopher William of Ockham and I was really hoping he would have a beard but here he is, with the cleanest of shaves. Disappointing.

johnl, to random
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A guy who applied for a job that we haven't listed is arguing with me about it. I told him we've never advertised for any kind of business analyst in our 15+ year history, and he's sent me a link to our jobs page saying he found it there (unsurprisingly it is not there now, and never was).

I'm assuming the ad is by another company with a similar name.

Now he's telling me we should take the job ad down so people don't get confused.

Maybe he thinks this is some kind of assertiveness test.

pete, to random
@pete@social.coop avatar

I’m trying out Trello for our coop, on a recommendation. We need something for tracking rolling todo lists that repeat weekly / monthly / other-timscalely for jobs that are distributed across the coop to avoid silo-ing.

I’m veering between thinking Trello isn’t built for this, that’s it’s overkill for our needs, and that it’s a half-baked pile of shite.

Any tips? (I value stuff that actually works over stuff that is FOSS.)

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@pete I use trello and some other tools with a small team but for the rolling stuff, I just made a Google Doc spreadsheet with a list of the jobs, how often they repeat, when they were last done and it works out the next todo date.

This kinda falls foul of "not hacking something" though. But it's pretty simple and has worked really well for us (though with tech literates). Worst case, a history of all changes is recorded so if someone screws it up, you can figure out what happened and undo it.

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

Found these old church organ pipes in an antiques shop in Hebden Bridge today. There was only a small selection so I was stood there a while blowing down them trying to decide which I liked most. They do sound lovely but I don't have a useful enough selection to be worth building something to play them, so will be mostly ornamental.

johnl,
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@gnaddrig oh my goodness that would be amazing yes!

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@tamonten

that's quite a niche collecting project that: just the pipes of a specific church organ

caius, to random
@caius@ruby.social avatar

Occasionally my brain remembers a recommendation @johnl 's wrote of @rahoulb and it never fails to amuse me. (It's also completely true.)

> "Rahoul is an outstanding developer. He easily sussed out a complex Rails application of ours and the code he wrote was superb with awesome test coverage. He's also a great communicator, keeping us in the loop - critical when working remotely. He couldn't be better if he was made out of pizza and pooped diamonds."

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@rahoulb @caius second only to my honest review of your long luscious hair no doubt (though I see it is now shorter and curlier!)

ripienaar, to random
@ripienaar@devco.social avatar

I learned yesterday that Go sets TCP Keepalive to 15 seconds (down from usual 2 hours) on all sockets and wtf?

That’s just crazyness. I like Go but stuff like this and their cowboy handling of things like json and TLS is quite annoying.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@ripienaar but that's the time a connection has to be idle before keepalives start getting sent, right? 2 hours is very long! 15 seconds, maybe too short as a default? depends on the interval and probes settings, right?

I'd generally prefer a lower keepalive time, higher probes and lower interval. Are there any downsides to that?

johnl,
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@ripienaar @ripienaar ah right, I hadn't considered battery drain! I can see how 15 seconds causes problems there.

johnl, to random
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Pretty much every time I disable my browser cache using the network inspector, I forget to re-enable it for days or even weeks. I need a "disable for 15 minutes" button!

On the other hand, when I finally do notice and re-enable caching, it's like getting an internet speed upgrade!

johnl, to random
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

I admin an old community FB page for a place we used to live. We've got a few clear and simple rules but nobody likes it when they get applied to them personally, despite agreeing to them when they sign up. One rule is: no for sale ads.

This week someone is angry that we've removed their £435k house for sale advert because they think it's more interesting to the community than other posts we've allowed, and an example he gives is: somebody DONATING BABY FORMULA TO ANYONE IN NEED!

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

I've been kind and polite up to this point but this is daft, so my reply:

The guy giving away free infant formula is local and a regular contributor to the group and you know, he's donating food for babies. If you're concerned that the post about the free food for babies breaks the rules then feel free to report it and we'll consider removing it so the babies don't get the free food.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@johnmclear Two of us moderating 11k members! A good opportunity to practice patience and kindness. It might be that not living there any more helps - a bit more detached. It's mostly fine tbh, though on occasion can get a lot worse than this house seller.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@johnmclear argh yeah, the articles are bad, but the comments are even worse. The Huddersfield equivalent is the same.

We did notice that it's the same few characters commenting all the time, so really it's just a vocal minority

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Welp, woke up this morning, went downstairs, and suddenly my lower back is in agony! Guess I shouldn't have gone foodshopping and filled a backpack on two consecutive days.

Welcome to my sixties, arriving six months early.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@threedaymonk in the real world there is loads of other context and cues though, so it's definitely different. But anyway, now we know that some people are sensitive about unsolicited advice on social media we could think how we might be able to change our behaviour if we care about them.

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@wj @threedaymonk rarely a need to be a dick about anything.

But since you know some people don't like unsolicited advice, have you changed your online behaviour in any way?

If not, under what circumstances would you change your unsolicited advice giving behaviour?

johnl,
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@wj so there are really no circumstances in which you'd not offer unsolicited advice to strangers on the internet? Say, what if it turned out >50% of people didn't want to receive such comments without them explicitly asking a question? Would that change your behaviour?

johnl, (edited )
@johnl@mastodon.social avatar

@wj I see people objecting, particularly regarding medical issues or things considered somewhat obvious. I assume that is just the tip of the iceberg so I'm careful offering that kind of advice.

But I don't really know how much of a problem it is so I don't know how much effort to make. But it seems easy enough offer advice mostly when it is asked for in the form of a question, at least with randos!

johnl,
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@wj this is uncharitable but it's funny to see this as you saying your advice is of such immense value that you couldn't possibly risk not giving it hehe

johnl,
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@semanticist yeah agree. I happened to have picked up from somewhere this kind of advice isn't always welcome (not particularly on mastodon, but particularly from strangers), especially if it could be construed as patronising. I wouldn't like for someone to be a dick to me if I replied when it was unwanted, though I'd understand if someone is told the same thing 10 times a week by strangers that their patience would be thin.

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