@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

mdc

@mdc@mstdn.ca

Software Dev #PsychXR & #PsychoPy | fmr Vision Scientist (Depth Perception & #VR) | #OpenScience | he/him | #YorkU Alumni | Ancient History Enjoyer

I usually post about #VR, #AR, #Psychology, #Neuroscience, #Perception, #History, #Electronics, #Computers, #Graphics, #Art and #Illustration

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

mdc, to GTA
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

If they ever make a GTA game that takes place in the Greater Toronto Area: What songs are on the soundtrack?

#gta #gaming #toronto #ontario

greg, to Electronics
@greg@clar.ke avatar

I appreciate how easy my dryer was to fix after a burnt solder joint caused an "F01" error. It's one of the few electronics that have easily accessible and removable boards. And the boards are simple enough for a noob like myself to understand and fix. It probably helps that the round peg (the drum) in a square hole (the outer case) means the manufacturers aren't optimizing for space savings.

Kenmore Smartheat Quiet Pak 4 controller board with burnt solder joint replaced with wire. Sorry for the poor soldering job

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@greg We had a KitchenAid dishwasher a few years ago catch fire from over-current on PCB traces. The fact that it gets to this point in the first place is concerning

MattCrumpLab, to random
@MattCrumpLab@fosstodon.org avatar

Coco getting in some action

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@MattCrumpLab What a setup, wow

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Tell me something I don't know

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@pluralistic Wow, haven't seen that poorly illustrated warning in years. I think the seagull also had a red hat. Reminds me when I was a kid and we used to just sit on top of the 'green box', it was like our street's home base

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

Got an email earlier today from an 83-year-old local farmer who wants me to take a look at a rock that might be a meteorite that his family dug out of a hole in the ground in Manitoba in the 1880s.

Kind of tempted to just send him this helpful xkcd meteorite identification flowchart: https://xkcd.com/1723/

But I want conservative farmers to have a favourable opinion of scientists, so I'll send him info on how to get it identified instead :)

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@sundogplanets when my wife and I ran the astro club at York (wanna guess how we met?) we found a collection of some absolutely wild letters people send into the astro department there looking to validate their 'theories'

Private
mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@davidrfeinberg I started going to a few tech specific conferences after moving to industry, mostly virtually though

@psychology

North, to random
@North@chaos.social avatar

Facebook just reminded me of this Jamie Hyneman Halloween costume from 11 years ago.

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@North You were at SparkFun back then? Wow, that must have been fun

kevinmgill, to space

Jupiter as seen by the approaching Juno spacecraft a few days ago on Perijove 55. While keeping its antenna oriented on Earth, the night side of Jupiter ended up not in the JunoCam field of view.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

image/png

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@kevinmgill I wonder if we can make a stereo pair?

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

I talked about the solar eclipse on 2 different radio stations, the local CBC TV station, on my big university email list, and now....

...it's completely cloudy.

screams in ground-based astronomer

(I'm still going to the library to hopefully have an eclipse-watching party, but it's sure not looking promising right now)

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@sundogplanets It seems cloudy everywhere today

seeingwithsound, to random
@seeingwithsound@mas.to avatar

Someday, people will realize that all those electrode-based approaches towards restoring vision to the with implants are interesting but have way too many issues; sensory substitution has only one major issue: your brain's ability to learn (and your willingness to learn)

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@seeingwithsound I don't trust implants. Also what if you want an upgrade or if there's a recall? Do you need to get surgery every time? Maybe we'll just build access hatches into ourselves

machias, to random
@machias@hachyderm.io avatar

Back in the very early 2000s I was given a t-shirt for the work I had done on Ximian Gnome. It had the Helix Code symbol on the front and it was my favorite shirt and worn everywhere. I lost it in my travels in 2008 or so. Last week I found the identical shirt up for sale and immediately snagged it up. It arrived today.

Me in 2006, hands behind my head with my blue Helix Code shirt

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@machias For a split second I was hoping that was a new desktop manager I haven't seen

jace, to random
@jace@mstdn.ca avatar

YouTube and Google's algorithm is effed.
Think about this: once in a while it tries to suggest and push to me, a mixed-ethnic, ultra-progressive, gay icon(jk), classic Andrew Tate content! Unbelievable.
Now consider: If I’m getting these wild algorithm pushes, imagine what’s landing in the laps of unsuspecting kids and men who might not know any better!

There's no wonder that so many are getting red-pilled.

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@jace I gave up on Youtube. I access it only if someone provides a link to some video

mdc, to random
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

"Is Consciousness Part of the Fabric of the Universe?" - Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-consciousness-part-of-the-fabric-of-the-universe/

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

AI-generated books force Amazon to cap ebook publications to 3 per day

"In order to help protect against abuse, we are lowering the volume limits we have in place."

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/ai-generated-books-force-amazon-to-cap-ebook-publications-to-3-per-day/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@arstechnica People are cranking out more than three books a day?

MattCrumpLab, to random
@MattCrumpLab@fosstodon.org avatar

Some notes on getting stable diffusion running on a mac laptop and a few examples of feeding my drawings through it.

https://www.crumplab.com/blog/661_stable_diffusion/

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@MattCrumpLab Try using a Canny ControlNet when running this on your own art. It will ensure that the morphology and personal style of your line art is preserved

tinker, to infosec

So some of you might remember this post (and the subsequent demonstration on national news) of using a voice cloning tool (AI, Audio Deep Fake) by @racheltobac

Link to post: https://infosec.exchange/@racheltobac/110963070495263373

(If you haven't seen it, go watch it. Rachel is amazing.)

I'd never needed to do a similar attack before, but! I was just tasked yesterday with researching it.

Asked some friends for a turn-key solution to clone voices. Got pointed to a website. Signed up for $1 a month (first month... then it goes to $5 a month thereafter).

Pulled some audio of my mark down from a youtube interview (a podcast works great too).

Only needed a minute's worth of audio.

Uploaded it to the website for cloning.

Typed out a quick script for the voice to read.

30 seconds later, I had my cloned audio.

It was so good, that it even included natural voice inflections AND!!! verbal pauses like umm's and uhh's that matched the mark's original presentation. I can't tell the difference between the cloned voice and the original person.

Y'all... voice cloning and audio deep fakes are well past the ease of "script-kiddy" level. Anyone can do it.

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@tinker I recommend having code words/phrases only known between you and another person. If you're getting a suspicious call by someone claiming to be that person, have them recite the code to confirm their identity

@racheltobac

rebeccawatson, to random
@rebeccawatson@mstdn.social avatar

can't I get Linux?

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@rebeccawatson The human body needs more access panels. Just pop the hood at the clinic and give everything a tuneup

mdc, to thinkpad
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

How many fedi points do I get for having a ThinkPad running QNX?

dataandpolitics, to tech Spanish
@dataandpolitics@mastodon.me.uk avatar

In which a co-founder of OpenAI reveals he knows nothing about machine learning.

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@dataandpolitics I'd like to get rich off things I don't understand and unleashed upon the world, too

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Buying laundry detergent is so frustrating. It keeps moving around the store based on where the moon is.

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@TechConnectify

Store: moves a display

Me: "I have no memory of this place"

machias, to random
@machias@hachyderm.io avatar

On an early morning call where we explain why we had a trouble ticket for one of our servers. The phrase, "once they punched a hole through the firewall everything was as fine as frog fur" is completely in my lexicon. It's too exhausting to use corporate babble.

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@machias was there any synergy between the attacker and database?

dataandpolitics, to random Spanish
@dataandpolitics@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Track Trump’s plane on its way to Atlanta.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=aa3410

mdc,
@mdc@mstdn.ca avatar

@dataandpolitics we'll finally know how tall he is

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