@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

leoncowle

@leoncowle@hachyderm.io

Husband. Father. Cowboys fan.
The Ops in DevOps. Weird love of regex!

๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ
SouthAfrican-Brit-American
(My accent is very confused)
BLM & LGBTQIA+ ally!

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

stefan, to random
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online avatar

Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate! And a solemn solidarity with those who no longer can.

A reminder to get the most out of the short time we have with each other.

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@stefan Extra sad, because 5 days ago I could still celebrate it, but not since then. ๐Ÿ˜ข

kellogh, to random
@kellogh@hachyderm.io avatar

thereโ€™s no 3d printing in space

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@kellogh well not until someone invents a centrifugal 3d printer, perhaps?

kellogh, to random
@kellogh@hachyderm.io avatar

the power of wanting to gtfo https://noc.social/@todayilearned/112414756941559961

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@kellogh ๐Ÿ˜‚ LOL

daringfireball, to random
@daringfireball@mastodon.social avatar

โ˜… Making a Mountain Out of Molehill-Sized M4 News
https://daringfireball.net/2024/04/making_a_mountain_out_of_molehill-sized_m4_news

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@daringfireball โ€œNo one is postulating that M4-based Macs will offer AI features that require M4 chips.โ€

Ok, @gruber, Iโ€™ll go out on a limb and predict exactly that.

drdrang, to random
@drdrang@fosstodon.org avatar

โ˜ƒ๏ธ I use a mix of methods.
https://leancrew.com/all-this/2024/04/typing-special-characters/

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@drdrang Great piece and things to consider!

Iโ€™m am curious about one thing though. What do you consider a โ€œlongtimeโ€ Mac user? Genuinely curious, and whether that concept evolves as time passes?

daringfireball, to random
@daringfireball@mastodon.social avatar

โ˜… European Data Protection Board Goes There, Rules Against Metaโ€™s โ€˜Pay or OKโ€™ Model
https://daringfireball.net/2024/04/edpb_meta_pay_or_ok

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@daringfireball My god there are bad takes in these comments. It seems Europeans want:

  1. Free services from for-profit companies
  2. With no ad-tracking
  3. And no fees
  4. And the same level of service

They want EVERYTHING. With no give. No compromise.

Basically: once youโ€™re a big enough company, screw you, you now owe us everything for free for ever.

kellogh, to random
@kellogh@hachyderm.io avatar

been carving an elephant between meetings, out of a chunk of pin oak, and now my desk finally looks like a place where work gets done

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@kellogh carves physical elephants. @mark carves virtual ones. I love both your efforts! ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ˜

leoncowle, to mastodon
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

How is this post in my home timeline?! I donโ€™t follow this account. It seems it wasnโ€™t boosted. It doesnโ€™t contain a hashtag at all (i.e. that I may be following). It wasnโ€™t edited (to remove hashtags, eg). This account has 0 followers and 0 follows. How did they force this post into my TL? This is concerning!

EDIT: as pointed out by @benroyce (thanks Ben!), there ARE hashtags in this post, itโ€™s just my client (Ivory) that for some reason doesnโ€™t show them.

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@benroyce Iโ€™m using Ivory. Thank you. That solved the mystery, Ben!

@ivory Is this a known bug or shortcoming in Ivory โ€” that it doesnโ€™t show hashtags from Peertube posts? Perhaps Peertube stores hashtags differently than Mastodon?

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

The best-selling vehicle in France vs. the US.

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@Nicovel0 I use my (beloved) F-150 to tow a large travel trailer (weโ€™re avid campers). It also seats 6 โ€” weโ€™re a family of 6, hence the large travel trailer (9k lbs loaded, with an extra 1k lbs of camping related gear on the truck bed). So yes, I need it. I also love it. Best vehicle Iโ€™ve ever had. Number of times Iโ€™ve been so happy to be able to haul โ€œstuffโ€. 6 mountain bikes. (Many!) Bags of mulch/gravel/fertilizer for yardwork. Long pieces of lumber. Junk to dump. Love it!

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@twoframesperminute Ignorance is fantastic. There isnโ€™t a non truck that can tow what I need to tow. I did, in fact, look โ€” incredibly extensively, actually. Had spreadsheets & all. Clearly you didnโ€™t (and wonโ€™t). (We also have a minivan, just so you know โ€” it cannot tow half of what I need).

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@samueljohnson @twoframesperminute Instead of a gun rack, Iโ€™ll prefer to put a โ€œyes weโ€™re coming for your 2nd amendment!โ€ sticker with a nice rainbow flag next to it on my truck. (I wonโ€™t, though, because the morons WILL damage my truck!)

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@samueljohnson @twoframesperminute it may be my favorite episode they ever did (a difficult choice to make!)!!

Crazypedia, to Korean
@Crazypedia@pagan.plus avatar

Neat! I love learning about the history and evolution of languages, and how they physically moved around the globe. This is cool!

First languages of North America traced back to two very different #language groups from Siberia
#linguistics
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-languages-north-america-language-groups.html

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@Crazypedia @kellogh Interesting!

(PS Think this might interest you, too, @jkottke & @davemark)

leoncowle, to random
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

Just so you know, John @siracusa, there are those of us who <gasp> like & prefer Teams over Slack. Maybe even dozens of us. ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚ (regarding ep 581 of @atpfm)

uastronomer, (edited ) to random
@uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za avatar

Back when I was still thinking about getting solar power installed, I met a lot of naysayers who had a lot to say about how I'll have no electricity on cloudy days, or how the batteries only last a few months and then you have to repeat your investment, or how "The government makes you register it because they want to charge you a license fee" and how they know a guy who had it installed and he's very disappointed in some non-specific way.

All the same people who complain and gripe the loudest about Eskom and how the government ruined it, all while hinting darkly at the colour of the people responsible but never actually spelling it out... but I digress.

Anyway, it's a rainy, overcast day, which means my batteries will only be fully charged by about 2pm, instead of the usual 10:30am. And my grid consumption is now low enough that I probably won't even notice the next rates increase.

And the naysayers no longer talk about Solar to me, preferring to wait until I, and my inconvenient facts, are out of the room.

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@mvniekerk @uastronomer Nice one, Michael. I'm really jealous. Allen knows this already, but I live in Texas (yay, ridiculous amounts of sun). BUTโ€ฆ. my house uses around 4500kWh (no typo) of electricity per month in the dead of summer (and even more kWh of natural gas per month in the worst of winter). I have a big house, but even with my big roof, I can't come close to affording to cover that demand with solar. Add in the brutal hail storms we can get in Spring, and it becomes a tough sell. ๐Ÿ˜•

uastronomer, to random
@uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za avatar

"The US Government can't just spin up a whitehouse.gov fedi server, how naive, don't you know there's rules and procurement, you think Biden's just gonna run it from a raspberry pi under his desk in the oval office lol"

And yet. The various arms and branches of the US government already maintain a social media presence. They maintain their own websites. Their own mail servers. They are the literal government, they pass laws and set policies all the time, there are literally millions of employed and elected officers whose job is creating, enforcing, and maintaining all sorts of infrastructure and policy and rules and regulations.

I'm pretty sure they can handle one little mastodon instance.

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer Welllllll, itโ€™s now day 5 of the apply-for-citizenship online portal being offline. Just because they released an updated version of the form. So color me skeptical of their IT chops. ๐Ÿ˜‚

(Weโ€™ve waited 10 years to qualify to apply, whatโ€™s a few more days between friends, right?)

kellogh, to random
@kellogh@hachyderm.io avatar

The Attack Turkey

this morning on the run i got to the top of the hill and was resting, bc i'm out of shape, and off in the distance i see a bird trotting my way

as it gets closer i realize it's a turkey. it had a big red gobbler and its neck was iridescent. It was actually really pretty, so i just watched as it approached

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@kellogh TIM!!! ๐Ÿ˜‚

uastronomer, to random
@uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za avatar

Yesterday, I bought a new light fitting for my bathroom. A Light Worx Ceiling Light, made in China and packaged for Builder's Warehouse. I've installed stuff like this before - extremely simply construction, just a bit of stamped steel for a chassis, thin plastic cover to diffuse the light that sort of fits well enough to not fall off, a basic lamp socket, and some sort of terminal block for you to connect the wiring.

Only I'm used to old-fashioned screw-type terminal blocks. This one has nifty spring-loaded ones: Just press down, slip the wire in, release and it's done! You can see in the picture.

Only... this one is crap. I noticed the neutral wire from the connector to the socket, was hanging loose. Fine, this happens with this sort of cheaply-made mass-produced product. Just reconnect it. I'm used to this - with these products you always go through each connection to make sure they're secure, and be ready to find a few that aren't.

It fell out. I tried to put it back in a bit deeper, being more careful with the spring action (ensuring the contacts actually opened, etc). Noticed that the earth wire was partially in the way.

Ended up removing it from the chassis, and yeah. It's a TERRIBLE connector. Even the "secure" wires fell out as soon as the connector shifted position.

So if you're buying one of these, throw the stupid sprung connector in the fire and spend a few extra rand on a proper terminal block. Your insurance company will thank you when your house doesn't burn down.

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer I love the ones that are most commonly used here. SO simple. Slightly twist the 2 wires together and then just twist the cap onto them. The cap has a metal, twisted-thread inside it, so it twists on tight and ensures connectivity. They come in various sizes to accommodate wire thickness or how many wires you're twisting together.

cross section of screw connection cap, to show how 3 wires are twisted on the inside of one of these.
examples of screw connection caps, with one showing 2 wires connected inside it.

uastronomer, to random
@uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za avatar

If you're planning to watch a solar eclipse, soon, learn from somebody who got it wrong.

Don't make my mistake (technically, the mistake of our local guide): When you're looking for a place to watch, anything less than 100% totality is NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Even 99%, which might sound fine, is not good enough.

Anything less than around 95%, it'll feel a bit dim, like you lost track of time and it's now late afternoon. If you're actually looking directly at the Sun with eclipse glasses, you'll see the classic "Sun with a bite taken out of it" view, which is cool, but you're missing the full experience.

At 99% (where I was), it'll suddenly go dark, like just after sunset. The birds freak out because it's suddenly song time, and then woops no it's suddenly bedtime... And that's kinda cool, but you're STILL missing the cool bit.

100%? That's where you'll see the view you see on TV, the black sun with a halo, the stars shining in the middle of the day, all that jazz.

Drive the extra distance. You NEED 100% coverage.

Finally: If you're right on the edge of 100%, it'll last a few seconds. Keep driving, get to the middle of the path, and it'll last a few minutes - long enough to really enjoy it, long enough to talk about it with your friends, long enough that you can afford to blink without missing it!

https://xkcd.com/2914/

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer Getting closer now, and the cloud models are stabilizing..... With predictions that my area and several hours either side of me in the path of totality is going to be predominantly (or fully) cloudy Monday. ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer We're talking 5 hrs one way (from current coverage models) to get to a reasonably clear area. That's just too far. ๐Ÿ˜ญ

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer I can always try finding religion for a couple of days. ๐Ÿ˜‚

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer My atheist-ass realized that religion aint gonna cut it. So weโ€™ve decided to drive 8 hrs to Missouri where the forecast looks clear. Itโ€™s a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer it was FUCKING AMAZING!!!! The eerie light change, happening faster & faster towards totality. Then suddenly a black moon with a white surround. You can see the sunโ€™s corona. The magnetic field. The bright red Bailyโ€™s Beads around the edge of the moon. Stars. A 360ยฐ sunset view toward every horizon. 3m35 of totality. FUCKING SPECTACULAR. WOW! WOW! WOW! You can NOT accurately describe this to anyone who has not experienced it. ๐Ÿคฏ๐Ÿคฏ๐Ÿคฏ

leoncowle,
@leoncowle@hachyderm.io avatar

@uastronomer Given how freaking awesome the experience was yesterday, I can't guarantee to not use 2030โ€™s eclipse as a reason to bring the fam to SA to visit our families there -- and make a pilgrimage to the path of totality with the inlaws (who live in Johies). Last time we've all been was in 2016. My kids will all be adults, some just finished with college, and some just starting, so will have to see whether they can join us. OR maybe a vacation to Aus (where totality also goes)! ๐Ÿค”๐Ÿ˜‚

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • โ€ข
  • provamag3
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • ngwrru68w68
  • mdbf
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • vwfavf
  • slotface
  • modclub
  • khanakhh
  • cubers
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • cisconetworking
  • PowerRangers
  • everett
  • Durango
  • InstantRegret
  • osvaldo12
  • tester
  • normalnudes
  • tacticalgear
  • ethstaker
  • GTA5RPClips
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • megavids
  • All magazines
    •