skyfaller

skyfaller, 9 hours ago to random

We've finally cleared our main garden of all our inherited plants, except for the yucca. Assuming this is common yucca / Yucca filamentosa, it is native to just south of here, like Virginia, so I think of it as helping the plant move north ahead of global heating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_filamentosa

Also, I'm told that previous owners have tried to kill this plant multiple times and failed dramatically (it looks very healthy). I try not to pick fights I expect to lose.

skyfaller, 2 days ago to random

Cricket fields should be legally required to provide habitats for crickets

skyfaller, 5 days ago to random

What is the best / most ethical #mp3player still in production?

What is the best mp3 player of all time, including models no longer produced? If you allow for modifications / upgrades, like replacing the hard drive with a flash drive, does that change the answer? To be clear, I care most about the user experience today, not how much fun it was like 20 years ago.

I already ordered a Tangara, but they aren't shipping yet, and @Maggie's Sansa Clip died so she's looking for an mp3 player now.

skyfaller, 5 days ago to random

For #ThrowbackThursday, on this day in 2019 I was at The Bourse, which was a bustling "food hall," with multiple vendors I loved. There was a bar that served excellent non-alcoholic shrubs, and a great fresh pasta stall. Has it recovered at all yet? Last time I stopped by it was dead and the stalls were empty.

COVID-19 hadn't happened yet, and normal people didn't know it was going to happen (despite Cassandras who knew we were not prepared for the next pandemic).

There was karaoke and Mario.

skyfaller, 15 days ago to MountainBiking

Why were most of the cyclists in this photo wearing masks in November 1977? Was it to avoid breathing polluted air?

If so, thank goodness we have the EPA now; I hope we can address modern threats to air quality, like climate change related wildfires, rather than giving up and letting the air become difficult to breathe again.

#masks #Philly #BikeAdvocacy #biking

skyfaller, 16 days ago to random

#SilentSunday

skyfaller, 19 days ago (edited 19 days ago) to random

We're back to my recurring nightmare of making it easy for a non-technical client to edit a static website generated using #Hugo.

Are there any good solutions? Or am I going to end up writing my own solution after many painful hours with other people's janky solutions?

If you know of a non-technical user successfully editing a static website, how are they doing it?

EDIT: I'll only use open source solutions I can self-host, but happy to hear about proprietary options.

#SSGs #StaticWebsites

skyfaller, 20 days ago to random

I seem to have adopted an intern at my dysfunctional web business.

The intern is in high school, knows basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and has a little experience using Ruby and other programming languages. However they have never used git, for example, and presumably lack experience with similar essential tools.

How would you help a beginner programmer get started, with a focus on technologies relevant to the web and web infrastructure?

I already recommended they play https://ohmygit.org/

skyfaller, 21 days ago (edited 21 days ago) to random

I asked protestors at the UPenn camp how non-Penn people can best help, and they said their top need right now is more people attending rallies.

They said the best way to stay up to date on when rallies are occurring is to follow relevant accounts on Instagram, or to check this whiteboard at the camp.

A rally is happening tonight at 7:30pm. (Edit: that was Monday, May 6)

skyfaller, 23 days ago (edited 23 days ago) to random

I hired a landscape designer and he delivered this #LandscapeDesign. It looks good, but somehow communication broke down and they included a lot of non-native plants when I thought I was clear I wanted native plants. If they include obvious introduced plants, how can I trust they'll source plants that meet my less visible criteria, like straight species / open pollinated & local ecotype? So I guess I have to modify and implement it myself, based on what native plants I can source.

Any feedback?

skyfaller, 25 days ago to random

Learning that many common introduced weeds are edible (and indeed many were intentionally imported by our ancestors as food) has been fatal to my ability to weed. Now I want to eat all the weeds, but I don't know how, but it feels wasteful to just throw them away, so I want to leave them alone until I can figure out how to eat them...

I'm just glaring at this mugwort, thinking about how I've never eaten mugwort, and I don't know of any friends or family who eat mugwort.

skyfaller, 27 days ago to random

Ok #foragers, I tried collecting #invasive garlic mustard / Alliaria petiolata on my walk thru the woods yesterday. (Next time I need to bring a bag to make sure no seeds fall off the plants I picked.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliaria_petiolata

But apparently the leaves contain hydrogen #cyanide gas?! Wikipedia cites a source that says "the cyanide is easily sidestepped by chopping up the plant, which releases most of the gas in a few minutes. Soaking and cooking it also reduces the cyanide to negligible levels".

skyfaller, 28 days ago to spiders

I believe this bold jumping spider made a hideout in my portable solar panel while it was folded up. Is this just their bed where they were sleeping, or did they put eggs here that will hatch? In other words, can I safely clean this construction off now that the spider is out and about, or does my solar panel need to live outside now so baby #spiders won't take over my house?

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212325023

A webby pouch attached to the cloth of my little Anker solar panel. It looks like it opened one side so it could leave.
The spider from above as it climbs a white painted surface

skyfaller, 29 days ago to random

Suppose you had to produce a local computer from scratch, completely independent from existing manufacturers like Intel. (If you need a specific location for this hypothetical, let's say Greater Philadelphia.) No chip fabs in China, Taiwan etc. The tech level and computing power doesn't matter, you can tailor the application to the power of the computer; indie local production is top priority.

What is the best approach? A simple conventional silicon chip? Vacuum tubes? Analog? Mechanical?

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

I hate killing plants, even when I know it's necessary. I had a maple sapling growing in my yard too close to my little rowhome; wrong tree, wrong location. I dug it up.

I put it in a pot. Help. What do I do now? Anyone want a baby maple?

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

We just biked on a very nice "trolley trail" around Princeton. I assume that means historically there was a trolley line there. Today, it's empty space under high tension wires. It was a very nice trail, we saw lots of birds, bugs, flowers, bunny rabbits... But there was plenty of space left to put a trolley there, and still have a pedestrian path and wildflowers!

What if we put trolley lines under all high tension wires? There's electricity, there's space not being used for much else...

skyfaller, 1 month ago to webdev

Since the mobile web era began, web pages have included this #HTML boilerplate to indicate they've accounted for smartphone screens, so phones shouldn't zoom the #viewport weirdly:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

Is this whole incantation still necessary on every web page? MDN says the initial-scale attribute has "Default: 1": https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Viewport_meta_tag#initial-scale

Does that mean we can skip that attribute? Paging @j9t

Stackoverflow fail: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74384622/is-initial-scale-1-necessary-to-be-included-in-meta-viewport-tag

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

My Zowie FK1 mouse seems to be dying, after >9 years of service (including years of hardcore "competitive" gaming). It no longer seems to detect movement reliably, maybe the optical sensor is giving out. I guess I'll let Rabbit Recycling process it as e-waste?

Fortunately I already have a backup ready, the open hardware Ploopy Mouse: https://ploopy.co/mouse/

The biggest issue is all the USB-C cables I have are stiff, and interfere with mouse movement. Ordering a hobbyist paracord cable to try.

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

Just discovered the CMOS reset button on my System76 Thelio computer case by bumping it accidentally while trying to plug in a USB mouse. I didn't know such a thing existed until it suddenly turned off my computer! You learn something every day.

I'm just glad I wasn't working on anything important that might have been lost by an unexpected poweroff. I really think that button should be better protected and harder to hit by accident while your computer is running.

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

Watching the eclipse at Morris Arboretum

Shadow of the colander. All the holes that would normally be circles are crescents instead

skyfaller, 1 month ago to random

#SilentSunday

skyfaller, 1 month ago to earthquake

Another #Philly #earthquake?! I guess that's the aftershocks people warned us might happen.

skyfaller, 1 month ago to earthquake

Was there an #earthquake just now in #Philly?

skyfaller, 2 months ago to random

Has anyone on here written any software using #LiterateProgramming? If yes, what tools did you use? Did they work well, and would you recommend them?

I've been fascinated by the concept ever since Inform 7 was released as open source, with its own literate programming toolset. @zarfeblong quotes, "...no one has yet volunteered to write a program using another's system for literate programming." https://blog.zarfhome.com/2022/04/inform-7-open-source-release.html

Did you write your own literate programming software?

skyfaller, 2 months ago to random

How can I, as an adult American, get better at geography?

Today @berz schooled me when I wanted to discuss genocide in Tigray, but I guessed incorrectly the country it took place in (Ethiopia). Yes, I have difficulty distinguishing countries in Africa, and no, I'm not proud of it.

I've tried playing geography games like Globle: https://globle-game.com/

That helps me recognize countries on the map, but no details about them stick in my head as a result (such as where war crimes took place).