@zenlan@mstdn.social
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

zenlan

@zenlan@mstdn.social

Steam-powered tech lady cleaning the data of the dead and the broken things

https://mstdn.social/@zenlan on that there Twatter

Data wrangler. Freelancer. Mostly working for The Restart Project, The Open Repair Alliance and various cultural orgs.

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

zenlan, to repair
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

"Any Repair Café located within a 30-mile radius of one of enfinium’s facilities 1 across Kent, North Wales, West Yorkshire or the West Midlands can apply for funding of up to £1,500 per annum. The deadline for entries is 31 May 2024."

https://enfinium.co.uk/communities/repair-cafe/

zenlan, to random
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Tuned into NASA livestream to watch what I thought would be sane coverage of the eclipse but no, a plethora of over-excited talking heads blathering on in various locations. Is there somewhere to, you know, just watch 👀 the eclipse without any "presentation"?

zenlan, to repair
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

From Repair Cafe Lambeth's epic event yesterday... ❤️ 🛠️ 📻
Item: Cassette radio
Age: 20+ years
Problem: Not powering on
Fixed? Yes
Solution: "We pushed buttons at random and it came back to life"

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Another great fix from our Repair Cafe yesterday:
Item: Laptop
Age: 15-20 years
Problem: Ransomware?
Fixed: Yes
Solution: "No sign of ransomware came up. Computer is incredibly slow. Disabled Norton antivirus and it was much faster so we uninstalled it."

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Yet another fabulous fix from Repair Cafe Lambeth:
Item: Toaster
Age: 20 years
Problem: Sparked and motor failed.
FIxed? Yes
Solution: "PAT test failed and tripped mains. Earth leakage due to raisin bridging element and earth. Removed raisin and now PAT passes and toaster working OK."

zenlan, to uk
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

DWP wants access to everyone's bank accounts..."The net would also trawl the private banking data of people related to welfare claimants including partners, parents and landlords." As if things aren't Orwellian enough.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/04/ministers-urged-to-scrap-plans-for-surveillance-of-benefit-claimants-bank-accounts

zenlan, to repair
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Only 7 events so far at Repair Café Lambeth and yet...

danjac, to random
@danjac@masto.ai avatar

What I'd like to see is a TV show like Grand Designs, but posh people who decide to build their own web app.

Kevin McCloud appears halfway through the show in his hard hat, shaking his head sadly.

"Unfortunately their decision to use Kubernetes has led to a very problematic deployment. Meanwhile, their offshore React contractor has left for another job, leaving Jocasta and Tarquin trying to write the JSX themselves..."

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

@danjac With a sibling-show like The Repair Shop where people take their broken web apps in to be fixed by professionals

zenlan, to london
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Some good free exhibs on in London in January, will try to get to most of them but this one is a Must See 👁️ 🤖 Did I mention ? (Never been to Gunnersbury either woohoo) https://www.visitgunnersbury.org/whats-on/exhibitions/set-to-stun-designing-filming-sci-fi-in-west-london/

zenlan, to random
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

"We can all be refugees
Nobody is safe,
All it takes is a mad leader
Or no rain to bring forth food,
We can all be refugees
We can all be told to go,
We can be hated by someone
For being someone."

  • from "We Refugees" by Benjamin Zephaniah English poet 1958-2023 💗
zenlan, to uk
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Tories who have never set foot in the British Museum don't realise that the image they posted is of the Natural History Museum 🤦‍♀️

zenlan, to london
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Live in London and have some broken fairy lights? :lights: Donate them to a women/non-binary group that is learning to fix stuff. You can drop them off at the next Lambeth Repair Cafe event, Sat 2nd Dec 10am-1pm, or message me and we'll see if we can make another arrangement. Thanks! https://www.repaircafe-lambeth.org/

zenlan, to repair
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Moments that brighten my day while compiling

zenlan, to uk
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

I've not seen any commentators mention that King "environmentalist" Charles today delivered a speech promoting fossil fuels and other anti-green policies favoured by the desperate Tories.

zenlan, to london
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Interesting opportunity for technicians based in
https://www.instituteofmaking.org.uk/blog/2023/10/were-hiring-experienced-technicians

zenlan, to linux
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

I knew it! Ghost in the machine! After 3 weeks of a new (spare) Win10 box switching itself on (from Off not Hib/Sleep! wtf!) same time every 24 hours, having combed the BIOS and the event logs for wake timers, making sure that absolutely nought set to wake it, no ethernet, no wi-fi, no hardware or config changes - nada. It has now gone an entire 48 hours without switching on! If it switches on again tomorrow I'm taking a wooden stake to it. Back on the main box, ftw. :linuxmint:

Binder, to random
@Binder@petrous.vislae.town avatar

This is some superb victim-blaming from 23&me. Well done, you shitheads.

> We recently learned that certain profile information – which a customer creates and chooses to share with their genetic relatives in the DNA Relatives feature – was accessed from individual 23andMe.com accounts.

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

@Binder From start to finish, the most weasely, victim-blaming statement ever composed

zenlan, to random
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Speaking at a conference at Cardiff Uni yesterday, a session about data. Broke out into groups to discuss data collection at community events when a chap insisted that an online interface was essential. They scoffed at paper forms. I pointed out that WiFi is not always available. They assured me - at length - that these days of course it is. While we were sitting in a University postgraduate hub where the WiFi was not working.

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

Which reminds me of the conf I attended at Imperial College some years back. Subject AI, presenters being top scientists and engineers from Google and Imperial. 40 mins later most of us left the auditorium after watching at least 4 cream-of-the-crop digital boffins trying to connect a laptop to the projector. :blobcatblessup:

zenlan, to marketing
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

A short, sad tale of , , and
"Expecting a small organisation to sign consent forms and the like for every single event listing, often where the marketing is done by a part-time person working a couple of days a week… is just not viable."

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/a-couple-of-messages-about-changes-to-ianvisits-66081/

zenlan, to random
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

About 80% through my transition from Win10 to Mint Linux on desktop. It's like the first night in a new home. After the storm, the calm. Boxes everywhere and the services aren't all on yet but you've got a sofa and some takeout food and feel good.

zenlan, to repair
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

One of those serendipitous moments at today's Lambeth Repair Café. I was explaining to a lady that we had no-one on hand to fix her 100 year old violin when a chap walked in behind her to volunteer as a fixer of musical instruments, specialising in guitars. His brother fixes violins. 💫

b0rk, (edited ) to random
@b0rk@jvns.ca avatar

some people who make programming easier

(who am I missing?)

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

@b0rk
A: How does this work?
B: I don't know, let's find out together!

histoftech, to dadjokes
@histoftech@mastodon.social avatar

I hate it when people say age is only a number.

Age is clearly a word.

zenlan,
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

@histoftech age DECIMAL(3,2) NOT NULL

zenlan, to ai
@zenlan@mstdn.social avatar

The Guardian declares their own intentions with regards to AI and content.

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