@owenblacker@dataare.cool
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

owenblacker

@owenblacker@dataare.cool

🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿♿⧖ Mainly-gay, mainly-Welsh political geek; proud social justice warrior and trans ally. Queering Wikipedia, Open Rights Group, ex-mySociety. he/him, cis.

English, français, Cymraeg. (Español, Deutsch; sometimes learning: العربية, Gàidhlig, ייִדיש)

My toots without boosts: https://justmytoots.com/@owenblacker@dataare.cool

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

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Just got home from shopping/coffee with a friend. Very sweaty outside! Indoors, the temperature in the shady hallway is 21 ℃; in the kitchen window (open for airflow) it's 23.4 ℃. And the kitchen felt cooler than outdoors.

The daystar, it burns!

(About to go upstairs to turn on the fan and air the bedroom so it's cool enough to sleep after dark.)

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@cstross we are very much having the same problem in Cardiff today and yesterday.

Ours should break with a storm soon enough; do you at least have that respite to look forward to?

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Welp, looks like the next global pandemic just dropped: https://www.etvbharat.com/en/!state/jharkhand-two-doctors-six-others-quarantined-amid-bird-flu-outbreak-in-ranchi-enn24042801155

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@cstross Zeynep Tüfekçi has been tweeting about it on birdsite. She published this piece a few days ago, which looks interesting https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/opinion/bird-flu-cow-outbreak.html

Edent, (edited ) to webdev
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

A poll for all my
friends!

Suppose you have comments on your website. They all have a valid <time> element in them.

Comments are displayed in a nested list, with the oldest first.

Should you use:

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent I think ULs make more sense to me. I'm conscious that Wikimedia talk pages are a DIVtastic mess of nested DLs (!!), though

clarkesworld, to random
@clarkesworld@mastodon.online avatar

I wonder if this will work.

Dear Government,
Later today, the people of Clarkesworld are going to use magic (or science) as a demonstration of power. Your sun is ours. We suggest you take action against "AI" companies and their theft of copyrighted works. You have been warned.

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@clarkesworld Also, some of the money currently spent on weaponry should be spent on subsidising small-press genre fiction outlets.

owenblacker, to random
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

The Incognito Mode Myth Has Fully Unraveled

To settle a years-long lawsuit, Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” collected from users of “Incognito mode,” illuminating the pitfalls of relying on Chrome to protect your privacy.

https://www.wired.com/story/google-chrome-incognito-mode-data-deletion-settlement/

owenblacker, to random
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

Scotland is to become the first part of the UK to make it mandatory to register any use of AI in the public sector.The Scottish Government has an... https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/scottish-government-mandates-registration-of-public-sector-ai-projects/

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

For some reason, Google have given me £3 in Play Store credit.

What's a paid-for app / game that you love which is ≤£5?

(Yes, I mostly use open source. No I don't mind paying for a developer's time. Yes, I know your iPhone is better. No, I'm not interested in your rant about fees or monopolies. Yes, I mean GBP5. No, I don't think these disclaimers get read.)

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent (I read them)

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Have a strong password is great.

Until a website says "Please enter the 3rd, 9th, and 17th character from your password."

And then you go blind trying to find them in
gD@YGXa6k*^EB&I5@b$0

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent If you make sure a specific character type appears every 5th char, that might help?

(Just occurred to me as a way of solving my brain of this problem, which is long-term passwords with slight variations.)

Edent, to Health
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth”

You know that ice-breaker game "Two Truths And A Lie"? When I'm forced into some mandatory office fun, I always say... I've sat in the seat of a space shuttle. I still have two of my baby teeth. I used to be a voice-over artist. Well, one of those truths is about to come crashing […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/the-tooth-the-whole-tooth-and-nothing-but-the-tooth/
⸻

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent Ouch!

(All three of those seem incredibly plausible; I only lost my last deciduous tooth in my 30s)

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Idle thought. What's the maximum number of ligatures you can have in a font?

ASCII is 128 characters. 33 of them are for control, 1 for space.
That leaves 95 printable characters.
95^2 = 9,025 combinations of pairs of characters.

Most pixel fonts seem to use a fixed width per character.

Is there a which could use ligatures to make an even smaller display area?

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent I don'think there is a maximum. Certainly you can specify a shitload of variants for each character and some fonts have some pretty esoteric ligatures built in.

But the main thing that just sprung to mind is the "texture healing" feature of Monaspace, which uses glyph variants and rolled about adjacency to optimise wide and narrow fluid in a monospaced font to improve design and legibility. Something like that might be really helpful for a pixel font maybe? https://monaspace.githubnext.com/

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Don't forget, April 9th is
https://css-naked-day.github.io/

Strip off your website and let us see what the world is like without style.

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent So, erm, when are you gonna appear on that list, dude? https://github.com/css-naked-day/css-naked-day.github.io/pull/112

😛

joelanman, to random
@joelanman@hachyderm.io avatar

The New York Times has filed a series of copyright takedown requests against Wordle clones and variations in which it asserts not just ownership over the Wordle name but over the broad concepts and mechanics of the word game, which includes its “5x6 grid” and “green tiles to indicate correct guesses.”

https://www.404media.co/nytimes-files-copyright-takedowns-against-hundreds-of-wordle-clones/

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@joelanman If they want to keep their copyright, they have to be seen to defend it, even if they don't actually make any effort to win those cases.

Shitty, but partly an aspect of the copyright system.

Of course, aiui, they could have patented the gameplay (that they bought) and offered free licences, but capitalism gonna capitalism

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Watched last night. What an absolutely stunning movie.

Gorgeous and deeply unsettliy. Every single frame - even the closing credits - was perfectly designed.

An utterly disturbing premise executed with supreme skill.

Easy to see why it is winning all the awards - and rightly so.

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent I've not seen it yet, but I probably should get to it.

How uncomfortable is Mark Ruffalo's character likely to make me?

joelanman, to random
@joelanman@hachyderm.io avatar

person who invented touch control hobs:
"hey lets make hobs worse"

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@joelanman I do like that it being entirely flat means we can put a cover over it and almost double the amount of work surface in the kitchen but dear gods yes, what you said

owenblacker, to random
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

“Essentially this is a death blow to Gaelic as a living language as spoken in the communities.” https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/death-blow-to-gaelics-survival-as-scottish-government-cuts-funding-4535673

joelanman, to random
@joelanman@hachyderm.io avatar

Never forget Jean Charles de Menezes and the cover up
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@joelanman oh gods, what has she done now?

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Erk! 20 minute notice of a 2 hour power cut. That'll make WFH fun. Better hope all my batteries are charged.

(Sadly, the solar battery doesn't allow isolation - it is grid tied and we can't risk discharging into the mains and shocking someone.)

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent @rbairwell Huh. Makes sense, but how frustrating.

(Also, I know zero about electrical engineering, but it seems odd, to my ignorance, that it doesn't have a switch or config setting of "120Hz / 220Hz / grid-input")

joelanman, to webdev
@joelanman@hachyderm.io avatar

How would you do this css layout?

2 columns, headings, body text etc uses 1 column. Images and code snippets use both

Using markdown, so I'm sort of looking for a solution which is '1 column by default, but these elements break out and use 2'

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@joelanman negative margin-left ?

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@joelanman oh of course 🤦🏼‍♂️

Sorry, I should know better than to try to be helpful with only half my brain paying attention 😣

owenblacker, to random
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

The “gender critical” bigots are making it unsafe to be a trans person in public life >>

UK’s only trans judge quits over risk of ‘politicising the judiciary’

Victoria McCloud said she had become a target and was forced to be political every time she chose ‘where to pee’

https://web.archive.org/web/20240222154831/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8b18277a-fe28-4484-892a-a7358a660295?shareToken=c356e24987d91adde44b9a4282dba519

owenblacker, to cymru
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

Why is it "Gwnaiff Celyn a Sioned rhywbeth" not "Gwnân Celyn a Sioned rhywbeth"?

It seems odd that we're using the singular form for two named people

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@nic Huh, how curious.
Diolch!

Edent, to politics
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “Minority Governments and the Boundary Commission”

The UK is almost certain to have a General Election this year1. The Boundary Commission for England2 has reworked the existing Parliamentary constituencies to make them more fair3. As such, constituencies are generally more equal in terms of electorate. But, of course, geography trumps g…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/minority-governments-and-the-boundary-commission/
⸻

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@simonwood @Edent Thank you for saving me the effort of looking those up. I was certain there was at least one 😅

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Blokes in the UK - where do you buy your shirts?

I basically haven't purchased any shirts since pre-pandamic and have discovered most of my vaguely smart clothes are falling to pieces.

What's your go-to shop for quality schmutter?

(No, I can't repair them. Yes I know how to use a search engine. No, I don't want to learn how to make my own. Yes, I do wear something other than t-shirts. No, I don't want a jokey answer. Yes, I am grumpy this morning.)

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent Steady on there old chap

Edent, to bitwarden
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “HOWTO: Sort BitWarden Passwords by Date”

I highly recommend BitWarden as a password manager. It is free, open source, and has a great range of apps and APIs. The one thing it doesn't have is a way to sort your accounts by creation date. I now have over a thousand accounts that I've added - so I wanted to prune away […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/howto-sort-bitwarden-passwords-by-date/
⸻

owenblacker,
@owenblacker@dataare.cool avatar

@Edent Did I break my comment? I meant to add:

&lt;blockquote&gt;Delete the file as soon as you are done with it.&lt;/blockquote&gt;

I would suggest using &lt;code&gt;&lt;a href="[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/shred_(Unix)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/shred_(Unix))"&gt;shred&lt;/a&gt; -un 9 filename.json&lt;/code&gt; if you're on a Mac or another Unix-like system. &lt;a href="<https://gitforwindows.org/>"&gt;Git Bash&lt;/a&gt; also comes with &lt;code&gt;shred&lt;/code&gt; for Windows users.

but I think I screwed it up…

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