@thomasbeagle@mastodon.nz avatar

thomasbeagle

@thomasbeagle@mastodon.nz

Civil liberties, geekery, politics, YA/SF books, tasty vegan food, family life, #NerdCryptic. Yes I do have a beagle, his name's Calcifer, and he'd really like to sniff you while you pat him. #nztwits

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thomasbeagle, to retrocomputing
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The weird nostalgic urge to get an old PC and run it as such.

I think I'd get a dual Celeron 300a overclocked to 450MHz.

Although it would be kind of interesting to play with an old 80286 AT again just to remember both how much and how little we could actually do with them.

annaleen, to random
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

I cannot wait to watch this show! Murderbot, the ultimate TV fan, was always destined for TV. Congrats, @marthawells!!! https://deadline.com/2023/12/alexander-skarsgard-star-murderbot-apple-chris-amp-paul-weitz-1235668011/

thomasbeagle,
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@annaleen @marthawells Oh, I hope they include so many clips from the shows Murderbot watches. 📺 🤖 😍

ianRobinson, to scifi
@ianRobinson@mastodon.social avatar

Well, this is just splendid news. The Murderbot books are fab. And not what you think they'd be about from the Murderbot description ☺️

Apple TV+ lands adaption of Martha Wells’ “Murderbot,” with Emmy Award winner Alexander Skarsgård set to star in and executive produce.

https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2023/12/apple-tv-lands-murderbot-with-emmy-award-winner-alexander-skarsgrd-set-to-star-in-and-executive-produce-new-series-from-academy-award-nominees-chris-and-paul-weitz/

thomasbeagle,
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@ianRobinson But... so much of Murderbot is the internal dialogue? I guess it'll be interesting to see how they do it.

trixter, to retrogaming
@trixter@retro.pizza avatar

Played a little Chrono Trigger on my newly-docked Analogue Pocket last night and I was impressed at how smoothly the 8BitDo 2.4G controller synced up (after the appropriate firmware update), but I'm looking forward to the CRT screen mode for cores because SNES games on a 50" TV at 1080p is a little hard on the eyes. Those pixels are very sharp.

thomasbeagle,
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@trixter While not as a good as a CRT or even a CRT mode, I found playing with my TV's sharpness and other display settings helped a bit when playing PSOne Wipeout.

thomasbeagle, to CrypticCrosswords
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Mars hellmouth ruins the mood. (4)

Edit: Favourite if you get it. You'll know.

thomasbeagle,
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@sarahwedde 30th anniversary of the video game Doom!

thomasbeagle, to random
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Storm hitting Carterton now and wow it really is rather impressive.

And yes, I am counting the seconds between seeing the lightning flash and hearing the thunder. 3 seconds per km is really easy to remember.

intransitivelie, to random
@intransitivelie@c.im avatar

So here's the thing about this: I know from watching Mythbusters that there's a very good chance that, with some capable help from air traffic control, the average person can indeed land a plane in an emergency. I also know that the state of avionics is such that many planes can almost land themselves. You press the "land" button, basically. It's wild.

And with all that said, I'm still supremely unconfident in my own ability to land a plane, let alone any random dude. Some of this is due to my disbelief in the ability of airplanes to fly. I'm pretty sure it's a mass hallucination. If humans had been born to fly, they would have been given wings. But I'm also pretty sure that I would choke under pressure and crash, even with help.

thomasbeagle,
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@passenger @intransitivelie Mans-planing.

jonoabroad, to random
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I don't want to be a negative Nigel, but it's rainy and cold.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR LONG HOT DRY SUMMER?

thomasbeagle,
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@jonoabroad Yeah!

gruber, to random
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My prediction is that Apple will make changes—fixing bugs and/or closing loopholes—that break Beeper Mini. It’s untenable that there’s unsanctioned client software for a messaging platform for which privacy and security are a primary feature.

It’s a very nice app, remarkably clever, and for now works like a charm, but if Apple wanted an iMessage client for Android they’d release an iMessage client for Android. Seems irresponsible for Beeper to charge a subscription for an unsupported service.

thomasbeagle,
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@gruber Technically I bet it's trivial, it's the legal and regulatory teams that are going to be putting in the hard work to avoid accusations of illegal anti-competitive behaviour.

thomasbeagle,
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@jann @gruber I really appreciate the confidence demonstrated in your reply.

thomasbeagle, to random
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Has anyone ever heard of a company that includes "keeping staff wages up with inflation" as one of its goals, alongside the typical profit, market share, share price, and net promoter score metrics?

Because it should be all of them, not none of them.

thomasbeagle, to random
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Warning: the NZTA/Waka Kotahi car registration emails are back.

Unfortunately this one is real and I now have to pay them money.

thomasbeagle, to random
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Gryphon the cat is delighted that I've called in sick today.

thomasbeagle, to random
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A bit disappointed by Bodies in the end. The plot's intricacies got away on the writers, and the motivations and actions of the main characters didn't really stand up to scrutiny. The last two episodes felt strangely lack lustre after the climax in the sixth - I think they were going for contemplative but it was really just a bit boring. It's not a bad watch but not one you'll remember either.

Binder, to random
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Someone appears to be having rough sex w/ a bagpipe across the street.

thomasbeagle,
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@Binder As long as it's quieter than actually playing the bagpipes I don't think you should complain.

thomasbeagle, to random
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I find this unconvincing.

billbennett, to random
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Presumably National turned down Act’s plan to do away with public holidays?

thomasbeagle,
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@bananabob @billbennett I reckon it's much more fun to have different days. Efficiency isn't everything.

thomasbeagle, to random
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Finally cracked and installed the Reddit app and... wow, those are a lot of big ads that they're shoving into my face. The opening page has one article with the other 75% of the screen taken up by a pizza ad.

Reddit made it very clear that they've given up their community roots and gone corporate, and this is the seemingly inevitable result.

thomasbeagle, to random
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Did they get one of them to divide the Deputy PM position and the other one got to choose?

thomasbeagle, to random
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Interested by the logic of the entire retail sector having a sale at the same time. Is it to avoid losing sales to competitors? Would it be more effective to have sales on a different cycle to everyone else?

bananabob, to nz
@bananabob@mastodon.nz avatar

Anyone have any idea what this is hiding in the shrubbery. It looks like a spy microphone. t is connected to the grey box that is beneath the shrub. I spotted this on an old stretch of Highway 1 in Waikanae.

thomasbeagle,
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@bananabob More likely to be for wireless communications.

thomasbeagle, to random
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If a company offered me unlimited leave, I don't see why I'd bother turning up for work. (Well, except that I wouldn't believe them.)

thomasbeagle,
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@robert_p_king Are you saying there'd be some kind of limit imposed? 😂

thomasbeagle, to random
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Looking at the news and wondering if the real growth opportunity is in Artificial Stupidity.

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