@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

simon_brooke

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot

Anarcho-syndicalist, autistic, crofter, cyclist, depressive, entrepreneur, geek, searchable, Zapatista. Politics & environment, especially #LandReform. he/him.

Twitter: https://mastodon.scot/@simon_brooke
GitHub: simon-brooke
FetLife: Simon_Brooke

Credo: Life is harsh. What we can do - and what we should do - is strive to make it less harsh for the people around us.

Addendum: you would not deliberately block a wheelchair ramp. Do not post images to social media without alt text.

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

amberfirefly, to random
@amberfirefly@mastodon.green avatar

Signed up for canvassing training - branching out after avoiding it before in favour of doing election telling and count agent stuff which is less terrifying to me (tho the first gets you yelled at by people who don't understand how elections work, and the second means one very long/exhausting night). Can recommend getting involved as it slightly reduces the feeling of 'could I have done more'.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@amberfirefly seriously thinking of canvassing for @ScottishGreens after literally thirty five years of canvassing for (and last five years of not canvassing at all).

I'm not saying the Greens are wonderful, they're not. I'm not saying I think they can win. However!

We do need to get rid of the , we do need , but we also need to reverse the SNP's steady drift to the right, or we won't get either.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@amberfirefly @ScottishGreens it's complicated. Essentially, the have far and away the best chance of evicting the here. The @ScottishGreens are likely to come fourth. But, in the midst of a , the SNP have just announced that their primary policy objective is economic growth, and additionally, they've just elected a very socially conservative deputy leader, whom I cannot support.

She's competent, but that only makes her more dangerous.

pezmico, to NewZealand
@pezmico@mastodon.nz avatar

The First Home grant was what allowed my whānau to finally be able to afford a modest townhouse in South Akl.

We love our little home. 🏘️
It is infuriating that a similar opportunity won't be available anymore to people like us.

(And I get that it was an inefficient subsidy on demand, but in a market as cooked as NZ's it was a helpful tool. One that should not be removed until the supply variables in the equation are solved. And currently they are only getting worse, thanks CoC)

#NZPol

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@pezmico Is the solution not to tax the absolute fuck out of speculative profits in , and spend the proceeds on building a shit-ton of new rented at such low rates that it forces rental prices down in the private rental sector?

Subsidies just drive the speculative bubble higher. What we need to do -- everywhere in the world -- is destroy it.

simon_brooke, to Scotland
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

Candidates so far selected in (which is most of them).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election_in_Scotland#Candidates


simon_brooke, (edited ) to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

I'm really proud of Standingstone today. A baby was born here this morning, in the yurt we erected for his parents a fortnight ago. I'm proud that we have been able to give them a place to be, relatively protected from the stresses of the world, at this important moment.

But I'm a bit ashamed for Scotland that the best place we can offer to a pair of strangers in our midst, only one of whom speaks English well, to bring a child into the world, is a tent in a field.


>>>

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

This is Scotland after 14 years of rule; this is Scotland after two so-called acts and with another, even more derisory, on the table.

are right to say that Scotland has a , but who really thinks they would do better? were right to accept that we do have one, but what do they propose to do about it?

>>>

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

We need to break the capitalist market in . We need a highly progressive tax on property in housing and in land. We need to prevent the use of dwelling houses as holiday homes or as short term lets. We need to allow people to live in structures they can afford, and to help them afford structures fit to live in.

None of our political parties -- with the dubious exception of @ScottishGreens -- are even trying to address the problems Scotland faces.

This wullnae dae.


>>>

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

We also need to build more high quality social , and we need to empower community councils to plan, finance, build, and manage social housing.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

Two more babies will be born in the parish this summer, both of them here at Standingstone, one to parents living in a wheeled shepherd's hut, one to parents living in an old caravan. Both those couples have one member who grew up here, who went to primary and secondary school here. Both couples are in employment.

But in modern Scotland, rural people earning rural incomes can no longer afford rural .

>>>

simon_brooke, to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

In honour of Rish! calling the election today, I've made a rather shitty update to my blog post 'More maps of Scotland'.

https://www.journeyman.cc/blog/posts-output/2016-07-26-more-maps-of-scotland/

TechDesk, (edited ) to ai
@TechDesk@flipboard.social avatar

A female computational neuroscience and machine learning expert took to X at the weekend to describe a “dark side” of the startup culture in Silicon Valley.

Sonia Joseph alleged that a culture of sexual coercion has taken hold of San Francisco’s community housing tech scene, with “heavy LSD use” and “sex parties held by mainly male tech and entrepreneurial elites that involve mock-violent role playing with female participants.”

In particular, “early OpenAI employees” were referenced by Joseph, as well as their friends and “adjacent entrepreneurs.” Salon has more.

https://flip.it/t5RReK

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@TechDesk why does this not surprise me in the least?

patrickhadfield, to atheism
@patrickhadfield@mastodon.scot avatar

Hallelujah! No no, I mean For God's Sake! No no, I mean Jesus! Damn!

"Majority of people in Scotland have no religion, census shows"
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/21/majority-of-people-in-scotland-do-not-believe-in-any-religion-census-shows?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@patrickhadfield There's nae gods, an precious few heroes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ykRw6akAs

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@patrickhadfield Thon fair gars me greet, so it does; an he's in the richt o it.

jackdaniel, to Lisp
@jackdaniel@functional.cafe avatar
  • [x] REPL line editing

illustration of line editor

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@jackdaniel it's pretty, but I've been doing that in for more than forty years, and I don't think it was state of the art when I first learned.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@jackdaniel BBC Micro back in 1982 (on a 6502), followed by Cambridge Lisp from about 1984, followed by Interlisp-D from 1986. I did use Harlequin's LispWorks about 1989, but not extensively. Can't remember whether Franz had REPL editing in those days, and there was an early PC Common Lisp called Golden something, but I can't remember whether it had REPL editing either.

It strikes me as really embarrassing that so many modern Common Lisp REPLs don't.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@lispm @jackdaniel I think two features are important: to be able to move the cursor within the input expression and to make changes to it, and the ability to scroll back through previous input expressions, to edit and redo.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@lispm @jackdaniel So you have to surround the REPL with extra tooling because it doesn't provide basic facilities natively.

Which, as I say, considering that we could do in in 1982 on an 8 bit, 2 MHz, 9Kb (depending on screen mode) memory machine, is a little embarrassing. The BBC Micro Lisp interpreter also included a structure editor, another thing most Common Lisp systems can't do.

Richard_Littler, to sport
@Richard_Littler@mastodon.social avatar

I still find it utterly absurd that is a mandatory part of all news broadcasts. For someone with zero interest in sport, it has sounded like this to me for 50+ years: "Those were the main news headlines... Now, rodent news: Manchester Zoo has loaned Señor Fluffi, a Spanish gerbil, from Zoo Aquarium de Madrid for £20 million. They have also expressed interest in acquiring a squirrel..."

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@Richard_Littler a favourite political podcast of mine invariably ends with some random irrelevant football (or golf, or hockey(!)) guff. I find it hard to believe that even 10% of the audience appreciates it.

petelittle1970, to windows
@petelittle1970@masto.alittleofnothing.co.uk avatar

ok #Windows #FOSS #Security people. Lend me your brains!

My 2TB HDD died. I didn't lose anything too precious but I did lose some stuff I'm annoyed about.

I'm buying myself another HDD (not an SSD) and Ive considered RAID (5 or 10?) but I doubt I'll go with that as I'll need to buy several HDD's

However I'm looking at backup options. I've looked at Macrium but don't know what/where to back up to.

Another HDD? DVD? Blu-Ray? External SSD? Cloud? Hand inscribed binary in Tungsten sheets? XD

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@petelittle1970 I use external SSDs plus cloud. But SSDs are said to be not as good for long term storage as actual rotating rust, especially if left unpowered for extended periods.

One advantage of an external SSD (or hard drive, for the matter of that) is it's a small enough package to conveniently rotate off site, if you don't have a cloud option you trust.

Snoro, to Scotland
@Snoro@mastodon.social avatar

How do Scottish People Feel About Current Climate Policy?

Only 12% of Scots reported feeling satisfied with the current pace of climate action. Meanwhile, 45% of Scots expressed dissatisfaction with the current climate policies, with 24% being very unsatisfied and 21% unsatisfied

https://www.digit.fyi/how-do-scottish-people-feel-about-current-climate-policy/

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@Snoro it's certainly why I shall not be voting again. You cannot have growth on a finite planet, and on a dead planet would be a very hollow victory.

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@muminitaly @Snoro #Green for me. Which is pretty much the same as spoiling my ballot paper, unless a lot of other folk do the same. Which I guess means I ought to start campaigning for that to happen.

It would be kind of nice if @ScottishGreens had more seats at Westminster than the English – but even nicer if the English Greens overtake the LibDems.

simon_brooke, to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

Yesterday I put the new oil seal into the transmission input shaft of the tractor. Pushing the seal and bearing back into place beyond me, so once again I took it to my friendly local blacksmith, who interrupted work on a customer job, made up a special adapter, and pressed the bearing into place with his hydraulic press – and would accept no payment. I'm fortunate to live in a place where this is normal.

Finn cutting a 90mm steel pipe to make an adapter to press the bearing home. He is kneeling on a concrete floor and using a cut-off grinder.
Finn grinding the adapter to size on a linisher. Behind him is the job – a chassis for a mobile cabin – he was working on when I interrupted him.
Pressing the bearing into its seat with the hydraulic press.

fedops, to random
@fedops@fosstodon.org avatar

@fitheach @simon_brooke @giantspacesquid do any of you sell your trees?

Thinking of getting a piece of land cleared to convert into a pasture with fruit trees. That means removing 300 dense-stand silver firs; 40 years old, average 40 cm breast height diameter and 15m high.

The offer I've gotten is 5 Eur/tree, for thermal use. This is ~8% of what firewood goes for, or 10% of the equivalent cost in heating oil. But it saves me min. 5 years of work and still leaves me with 700 trees.

Thoughts?

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@fedops @fitheach @giantspacesquid I've not even thought of selling my wood. The labour of hauling it out wouldn't be worth it for the profit you'd make. So I'm mostly giving it away, because when you give stuff away you somehow don't count the labour cost!

simon_brooke,
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

@fedops @fitheach @giantspacesquid I bought a bandsaw sawmill to cope with the wind-blown timber, and so far we've built one house for a friend with the timber and have enough already cut to build a substantial hut for another friend. The sawmill was a good buy.

simon_brooke, to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

I've been listening to the second half of The Rest Is Politics interview with , and my take away is what TRIVIAL people everyone involved is. Kwarteng is supposed to be one of the intellects of the party, but they can none of them – not Kwarteng, not Campbell, not even Stewart – string two concepts together.

Leading: 74. Kwasi Kwarteng: Liz Truss, becoming Chancellor, and Britain on the brink (Part 2)

Episode webpage: http://therestispolitics.com/

Media file: https://pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/A27C8C/traffic.megaphone.fm/GLT7979855855.mp3?updated=1715358972

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