tantramar

tantramar, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to accessibility

Those of you using cutesy font/display settings in your usernames — cursive, flipped, reversed order, or rotated/upside-down letters — please understand that this is aggressively hostile to users of screen reader software, which will announce each character in exhaustive, technical detail. Please don’t do this. It becomes a massive speed-bump in their timelines. If failing to use alt tags on images is passively bad, this is actively bad. #accessibility #Mastodon

tantramar, 4 months ago to random

people airing their cynical takes on the Apple Vision Pro know they can just keep that shit to themselves, right? literally nobody needs to hear it.

tantramar, 9 months ago to random

if I were THEORETICALLY to get a cat/kitten (it’s been 4 1/2 years), what STAR WARS-themed names might you good people suggest?

tantramar, 20 days ago (edited 20 days ago) to animals

The cat, at the back door, demanding to be let inside first thing in the morning.

I don’t have a cat. #caturday #earlyCaturday #CatsOfMastodon #ToeBeans #BeanShow #NotMyCat

tantramar, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to animals

so if one were contemplating acquiring a feline, should it be… #CatsOfMastodon

tantramar, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Weather isn’t climate, yada-yada, but it’s 15° C (59° F) at mid-day on December 11 in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. What little snow we had has been rained away.

tantramar, 3 months ago to random

CBC remains addicted to both-sidesing everything. See the last 2 paragraphs. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/manulife-loblaw-deal-reversal-1.7105150

tantramar, 1 year ago to random

of all the things YouTube has “contributed” to society, the need for YouTubers to game the algorithm by giving their videos click-baitey thumbnail photos of them reacting with mouth-gaping astonishment has gotta be the cringiest.

tantramar, 1 month ago to Starwars

Ah, May, 1999. While people waited in line — some overnight or even for days — a small group of us popped across the Nova Scotia border half an hour before showtime, and saw STAR WARS: Episode I, The Phantom Menace a time zone ahead of most of North America.

And were disappointed before everyone else. #STARWARS #ThePhantomMenace

tantramar, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

a friend — whom I’ve known 30 years — recently pulled me (back) into WhatsApp. She has a Mac & an iPad, but video chat with her granddaughter happens on WhatsApp; there are no Meta-is-evil arguments more powerful than that.

It immediately requested full access to my contacts, which I denied, explicitly to be uploaded to Meta’s servers.

Apple should disallow this. People have the right to share their own info with Meta (et al) — they do NOT have the right to share other people’s.

tantramar, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

Holy crap — I have one of these… 😳 https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175730067714?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20221018081743%26meid%3D0cb644b3751f4ad5b0bd039b9300ae2d%26pid%3D101430%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D304763723012%26itm%3D175730067714%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DSimplAMLv10PairwiseUnbiasedWebCpr08MlcUltbGreedyV3&_trksid=p2332490.c101430.m2460&amdata=cksum%3A1757300677140cb644b3751f4ad5b0bd039b9300ae2d%7Cenc%3AAQAIAAABELpJ4ez%252BtqiAJv6Qzv%252BoGBRAgcMEpq5QM0xRkPqRWs20R9cxqAKhT6SbfbgnhOT6WwA9H%252F4MHmkz6R2Q8rKv8QLgMtCzD48wiH2O2nP%252FZjmHQIK%252BzTc3OX6JXtAIE4MurJY03C3ti4hXgLmtfm5LIKEEZcKgRGfhekEuK7%252F3v3QFvF6XGMeK3abq0NBn1r4Bw%252F1ws6ZNJ90pI2p1AChPTLn6%252FUdCcXPxK%252FYzL3La%252FTYTst7AaLQ1pVTbeUWPySmxTFJCNNjZKoSvS0HeSkwncBfXx3GIye0ABodB%252Fvjtayn2Ob7ekPVgqpv6yqW88OcAHJL%252FZipm%252FrlQ5iCfMOPLCyOQlYsR4qNgqLlGpeme1YmO%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490&epid=3255540 #STARWARS #JohnWilliams #DarthVader

tantramar, 3 months ago to random

Accidentally saw some actual content between/around/under all the ads on a website just now. AMA 🤦‍♂️🙄

tantramar, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to TheExpanse

I dunno who needs to know this, but in Canada, at least, AppleTV is selling the entires series of both The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica for $25 each. Last week #TheExpanse box set was $60. This may mean I never subscribe to Prime Video again. #RememberTheCant

tantramar, 8 months ago to random

woken by thunder claps directly overhead this morning. or so it seemed.

still, I sleep deeply and it takes something serious to wake me like that.

also, spent the day so far writing dad’s obituary, double-checking details with a cousin vacationing on another continent, and looking for his will.

0 stars; do not recommend.

tantramar, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

It’s the Friday before Christmas. It’s been maybe 40 years since I cared about Christmas; doesn’t bother me, I just don’t participate. Any of you in the same boat?

tantramar, 10 months ago to random

This version of Satellite of Love is so good. #U2 #LouReed https://music.apple.com/ca/album/satellite-of-love/1593009205?i=1593009992

tantramar, 4 months ago to random

Why do people add an s to unit abbreviations? 1 km, 2 km, 1000 km. No such thing as “2 kms”.

Scolding by Chris has been brought to you by the letters k and m. (Not s.)

tantramar, 8 months ago to random

Both gone now.

Pencil sketch of my parents, reunited in the nursing home. Dad is holding mom’s hand in his. Mom had Alzheimer’s, Dad had had a stroke. 2018.

Dad died this morning.

tantramar, 6 months ago to random

Pfizer XBB + annual flu shots yesterday are kicking my ass today.

Not having had so much as a mild cold in 4 years or so has lowered my tolerance to “man cold” levels. :P

#ThereMayBeWhining

tantramar, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to art

More artwork from my archives. More of a drawing this time, from 2018, in a small Stillman & Birn mixed-media sketchbook. Pencil, fountain pen, Copic markers. People waiting at a bus stop in downtown Montréal, dans le quartier latin, dressed for a mild, Canadian winter day. The woman in the centre of the composition was watching me, unconcerned but mildly curious, as I took their photo. #art #drawing #canadianLandscape #groupPortrait #Montreal #quartierLatin #QC

tantramar, 1 month ago to random

What’s a show you used to love but when you came back to it after a break it didn’t land the same any more?

For me it was Firefly.

tantramar, 9 months ago to random

Which co-conspirator will be the first to flip? #Flipper

tantramar, 10 months ago to microsoft

got to admit #Microsoft has impressed me, not just by how easy it is to cancel a Microsoft365 subcription, but that immediate cancellation WITH A PRO-RATED REFUND is now an option.

this makes me much less hesitant to activate (pay for) Word on those rare occasions when I need it.

tantramar, 7 months ago to random

Can anyone explain to me why anyone uses Slack?*

*Please don’t.

tantramar, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as one does of a Sunday afternoon, and come to the scene in Venice where a ship named JOHN W MACKAY appears. For obvious reasons, I have to look it up, and it was built for a Halifax, NS, cable-laying company in 1922. Filmed on the Thames in 1988; sold for scrap in 1994.

https://atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/JohnWMackay/index.htm