@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

kitten_tech

@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org

The technical ramblings of Alaric Snell-Pym - https://snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/

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

danhon, to random
@danhon@dan.mastohon.com avatar

Feels shitty to say this but the weather is gorgeous here, I have some things to work on, and I kind of want outside whiteboards so I can recreationally whiteboard with friends ?

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@danhon I once worked in a team that had a years-long debate about the feasibility / merits of "whiteboards on wheels"; we considered how to make them, how large they should be, whether they should be double sided, what sort of wheels, how we might integrate them into our processes. The ability to drag them out onto the lawn was discussed, I recall. Never got around to actually getting any of them. To be honest, that might have spoilt the fun.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Trad Wife memes are always like a traditionally attractive skinny blonde woman in a white dress, in a field of flowers, holding hands with their immaculate children. The text always says something like, Why are you working a job, instead of doing your true calling? This is Godly Motherhood!

This how I know these are made by people who have never been around children, or possibly even women, and also never had to worry about money.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@RickiTarr I mean, I've met people (of various genders) who would actuqlly love to be parents and home-makers as their main occupation, and they are nothing like that...

Edent, to fediverse
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “Rebuilding FourSquare for ActivityPub using OpenStreetMap”

I used to like the original FourSquare. The "mayor" stuff was a bit silly, and my friends never left that many reviews, but I loved being able to signal to my friends "I am at this cool museum" or "We're at this pub if you want to meet" or "Spendi…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/rebuilding-foursquare-for-activitypub-using-openstreetmap/
⸻
#ActivityPub #fediverse #FOURSQUARE #geolocation #OpenStreetMap

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Edent is this best done as a whole new server - creating a separate account to your "main" one for others to follow? I mean, I am sure it has to be because you can't just ask your existing account to publish arbitrary post metadata your client generates, or can't extend your existing client, but should clients/servers be more extensible to allow such experiments? I mean, it's not too hard to extend email like that.

philpem, (edited ) to Electronics
@philpem@digipres.club avatar

Wow, the Xilinx/AMD CPLD discontinuation is an absolute bloodbath. Does that leave us with the Microchip ATF1500 series being the only 5V-tolerant FPGA/CPLD on the market? That's not great for retrocomputing, I've found the tools for that chip to be pretty awful (WinCUPL, seemingly no higher-level HDL support).

https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus/5783/XCN23009.pdf

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@philpem do we need to shake up the programmable device industry with some generic open designs that any fav can make and users can plug into open source toolchains? Please? Pretty please?

ifixcoinops, to random
@ifixcoinops@retro.social avatar

Wanna repaint upstairs, dunno what colour, typing "What colour should I paint my walls" into DDG like a total chump, if that question had an answer then paint shops wouldn't exist, yet there's a million linkspam websites and a thousand youtube videos that'll all waste your time taking ten minutes each to say "IDK LOL"

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Workshopshed @ifixcoinops my workshop is painted dark grey, to reduce UV reflections from arc welding, and to hide the horrifying buildup of grime...

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

Is there really any good reason why the UK legislation government web site (https://www.legislation.gov.uk) asks if I want to consent to cookies?

Why would the web site need cookies at all?

It provides a useful service to allow access to UK legislation.

Does it really need to track who I am? What laws are most popular with my demographic? Which SIs I like to read regularly?

What laws it can try and sell me?

FFS this is mad!

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@revk having worked on some gov.uk things, I can say that the people there are downright obsessed with user metrics - to learn how users navigate around so they can improve the site, and to see what bits get used so they can verify their prediction that it was worth building those bits. So a tracking cookie for that is quite believable. @Edent may have more specific insights!

philpem, to retrocomputing
@philpem@digipres.club avatar

Tonight's repair project - the power supply for an Acorn R260 (same as the A540 and A400 series power supply). Old style switcher with NPN chopper and a jumper wire to switch between 240 and 120 volt input.
Both the phase and neutral fuses have blown. The diode bridge is fine, as is the chopper. No evidence of burning... Very strange. I don't want to replace the fuses until I find cause of failure, but there doesn't seem to be one?

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@philpem can you replace the fuses, but power it up with a soft current limit? I've heard an incandescent bulb in series suggested for this.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@philpem @Laberpferd that transistor is having a bad day

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Grrr. After much cajoling, a client has finally paid my invoice.

But they've neglected to pay the VAT portion!

Despite a very clear invoice.

Oh well, guess they're not getting any more work out of me for a while.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Edent i had one once who did a lot of "I just need my partner to auth the transaction and she's away until Tuesday and..." dragging on for weeks; but their registered office (actually just where their accountant was or similar) was quite near to my home in Gloucester so I printed the standard paperwork for a claim of debt before court proceedings start and told them I was about to go post it right through the door - they paid up right away... Never be shy about demanding what you're due!

gregeganSF, to random
@gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz avatar

TIL that “spinor” is pronounced “spin”+“or”, which makes perfect sense ... but either none of my physics lecturers used the word, or I forgot how they said it. When reading it in text for the last 4 decades, I’ve been mentally pronouncing it “spine”+“or”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fw0p

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@gregeganSF right from my earliest memories of learning to read, there was a book called "An introduction to spinors, tensors, and relativistic wave equations" in my bedroom. Never understood a word of it, alas.

Edent, to CSS
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “Using date-based CSS to make old web pages look old”

How do you know you're looking at an old website? You may have found a page which has lots of interesting information, but how can you tell it's a modern and relevant result? Some websites don't contain dates in their URls. There may not be a © date or publication date shown on the page. […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/using-date-based-css-to-make-old-web-pages-look-old/
⸻
#css #design #history #HTML

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Edent that's a fun idea, but I cannot condone that CSS hackery 🤣Much nicer to make the server put out differing CSS based on antiquity, if it can put today's date in it should be able to do that! Plenty of software is unable, though, I'm sure...

simon, to random
@simon@simonwillison.net avatar

I'm in the latest episode of the Newsroom Robots podcast, talking about the OpenAI drama from last weekend, applications of LLMs to data journalism, prompt injection and LLM security, new OpenAI features from their DevDay event and more https://www.newsroomrobots.com/p/breaking-down-openais-new-features

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@simon ugh. They really failed in hiring and building a culture that actually met their mission.

And, apparently, in not putting non-complete clauses in their contracts so anybody who went to MS would be bankrupted...

kitten_tech, to random
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

I found a snapshot of my old 1990s-era web page! A nostalgic blast from the past - but it also contained a mirror of a friend's web site, taken as her hosting was going to expire because she'd died 😢

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Hey friends!

Can you see the symbols between the arrows?

→ 𓇳𓏤𓁛 ←

If not, could you please let me know what device, OS, browser, etc you're using?

THANKS!

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Edent sure. Cheap ancient android 13 phone (can't remember the model name), running current Tusky.

simon, to random
@simon@simonwillison.net avatar

The US Copyright Office asked for public comments on the issue of generative AI training data and got ~9700 comments: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/COLC-2023-0006/comments

Most of them are seeverwl paragraphs long. Anyone with government experience know what the process looks like for analyzing them?

Assuming you get staffers to read all 9,700, what do they do next? Do they prepare some kind of summary document for decision makers to read?

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@simon I've seen user research summaries in the UK gov; they tend to have a bunch of statistics ("56% of responses expressed support for the proposed change", "22% cited fear of giant spiders as a concern", etc) and pulling out a few representative quotes ("I can see that replacing teachers with giant spiders would free up school budgets to spend on equipment and could help with classroom discipline, but...")

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

I've got a referral link for £25 cashback when you get accepted for an Amex UK credit card.
Let me know if you'd like the link.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Edent are they useful for anything? I've often wondered how they hang on against Visa and Mastercard, despite being accepted in fewer places!

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

just checked a major review site and not a single smart TV was released in the past two years without integrated ads that you can't opt out from or disable. that's depressing.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@gsuberland I'm worried if they'll even work if not networked; I wouldn't put it past them to say "huh, I've had no security updates in a month, I'm shutting down for your safety until I get online"... When my ancient TV dies, I'm hoping I can get a non-smart TV to replace it and, as you say, have to attach another computer to it to make the pictures. Sucks, amirite?

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar 
for (const wrapper of Object.keys(windowTweets)) {  
 for (const data of windowTweets[wrapper]) {  
 console.log("DATA", data);

Okay, try and guess: What is the most batshit, horrible thing that the value of "data" could possibly be at this exact point in time? You don't even need to know JavaScript to know what "data" turned out to be in this case. Just think of the worst thing you possibly can.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@loke @federicomena @mcc some Lisps even have argument type declarations for functions, but they're usually optional

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Got my updated COVID (Pfizer) + flu + RSV jabs about 28 hours ago.

Side effects have been noticeably more mild than my previous jabs, which generally left me useless for about 12-18 hours the next day. This time I just had a very mildly elevated temp (max 99.1 or so) and felt a little out of it. It's mostly passed by now.

I've heard reports from others that the new vaccine hit them pretty hard, but not me.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@mattblaze same here, I expected to be floppy and useless for a day after, but apart from the sore arm I was completely fine.

Jedigirl, to random
kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@Jedigirl "my sex robot got pregnant and a new sex robot came out but I didn't want to sex this one, so I was wondering what else it could be useful for and looked closer and found it had thoughts, feelings, even a form of sentience!"

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Republicans giving chaos a bad name.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@JamesGleick https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Citadel_of_Chaos

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Been hearing whispers all weekend, some from people who I'd definitely listen to, of a remote execution 0day in the Signal desktop and possibly also mobile app. Mitigation is supposedly to disable link previews (under settings->chats).

I have no more details. What I've heard doesn't completely make sense, but disabling link previews should be at worst harmless and seems prudent until this is clarified.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@mattblaze but pppllleeeassseee! I'll tell you some of MY secrets!

timbray, to photography
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

Say hello to the nice tree.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@timbray hello

Daojoan, to random
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

I miss the internet

I know this is going to make me sound old – but I miss the internet.

The real internet. The one we used to have. Before it all got so much less – and somehow so much more – complicated.

I went online for the first time around 2001. The 90s had ended, and the world was coming online while I was coming out of my shell and becoming more self-aware.

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@ArneBab @Daojoan from observing my children, the current home foe that sort of banter is Discord channels.

Discord will eventually enshittify and it'll move elsewhere... I think people want to connect and share, so they find a way, but they're constantly having to move as the social media corps come and try to commodotise them. Sometimes they'll find a home that works well, sometimes not so well.

Edent, to religion
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “So, this is Christmas?”

The Church of England publishes statistics about the numbers of its faithful. These are particularly interesting in light of the recent news that the UK no-longer has a Christian majority. The CofE's statistics are for 2019 - before COVID messed up everything - and I think offer a fascinating glimpse into its future. The two […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/12/so-this-is-christmas/
⸻

kitten_tech,
@kitten_tech@fosstodon.org avatar

@woo @Edent they have some lovely buildings. I'm an ideal world they would become community centres with social / performance spaces and libraries, but I very much doubt that will happen in anything like the current political climate.

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