@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

RL_Dane

@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org

Involuntary time-traveler, recipient of offensive grace. Quasi-technical Linux and FOSS enthusiast. Armchair privacy advocate

Profile pic courtesy NeoFetch.

Header image courtesy of NASA: https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8

My #interests:

#StarWars
#StarTrek
#Linux
#UNIX
#BSD
#OpenBSD
#Bible
#Christianity
#Jesus
#AmateurRadio
#Bash
#Dallas
#Writing
#Poetry
#Space
#KSP
#Tea
#FountainPens
#Journaling
#TabletopRPG
#RetroComputing
#ClassicMac
#uxn

#fedi22

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

RL_Dane, to random
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

Hey @big_diggity,
Is everything ok with theres.life?
Is there a status page I should be checking?
Anything I can do to help?

vwbusguy, to random
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Looks like some #retrogaming stuff I bought on #Ebay is "out for delivery" today 😁.

Hint: "It does what Nintendon't"

RL_Dane,
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@lopta

That slogan would be Genesis-era, methink.

@vwbusguy

RL_Dane, to random
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Aaaaand that .xlsx just ballooned to 220MiB

, what are you doing? XD

RL_Dane,
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@Wyndix

Yeah. I did a Save As... and it scrunched back down to about 300k 😄

RL_Dane,
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

@benjaminhollon

I haven't tried that because I have to collab with an Excel user (OOXML as a "sTaNdArD," lol)

Save As... got it back down to sub-megabyte size.

Probably just a lot of crazy undo history, I dunno

RL_Dane, to random
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

This has been one of the most amazing and informative threads I've ever participated in.

https://disobey.net/@gianni/110184072335118737

teamtuck, to random

Hey @Big_Diggity, @teamtuck and @RL_Dane This is my Akkoma instance. Is it working?

RL_Dane,
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

@teamtuck

Seems so!

@teamtuck @Big_Diggity

RL_Dane, to random
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

I was surprised to find this in my mailbox this morning, as I had forgotten about ordering it.
I was pining for physical keyboards last week, and wishing I had bought a Blackberry when they were cheap AND still usable.

Unfortunately, the experience with this one was just bad. The keys are mushy, and there's no autocorrect when using BT keyboard (or maybe there is and I have to find out where to turn it on)

Maybe I should buy a used Blackberry, just to see what they were like.

RL_Dane,
@RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

@0xBEA

"Mini Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 Keyboard For PC Android TV XBox PS3 Raspberry Phone"

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114750115208

RL_Dane,
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@0xBEA

Any time! ;)

RL_Dane,
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@dheadshot

Can you? Where do they sell 'em, eBay? Are they USB?

NanoRaptor, to random
@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @vwbusguy

    has a GUI builder?!? 🤯

    @nlarson830 @NanoRaptor @qb64

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @vwbusguy @nlarson830 @NanoRaptor @qb64

    Very cool! :D

    RL_Dane, to random
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    🍎 File Edit View Special

    You can have my menubars when you pry them out of my cold, dead hands 😂

    kYou

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @fu @topher

    <pops popcorn> ;)

    Side channel: @benjaminhollon -- this is my version of "It must be DNS"

    RL_Dane,
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    @fu @topher

    Good points, although that only confirms my sad suspicion that smartphones have ruined computing. :'(

    RL_Dane,
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    @topher @fu

    It's so sad.
    I'm imagining what smartphones could be like today if the iToy never happened.
    Physical buttons, extensive and flexible mobile OSes, non-stupefied userbase.
    And most of all, no destruction of desktop UIs to make it look like a 23" iFad.

    .

    RL_Dane, to random
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    Me in 2013: Oooh, that new phone/laptop looks so amazing!!
    Me in 2023: Egad, what abomination will they foist on us this year? :P~

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @teamtuck @teamtuck

    I mean, it's a sliding scale. You have to decide where you want to sit on it. Nobody is totally pragmatic, and nobody is totally idealistic.

    You have to go with your conscience. ✌🏼

    RL_Dane, to linux
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    Hey ,

    Is there a simple way (like an environment variable) to tell // commandline applications that I'm running in light mode, so PLEASE do not give me yellow on white text?

    Or do I just need to modify my terminal colors to be darker? (doesn't help with programs that pick specific colors)

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @pkw

    Right I was just using backticks to quote it on here 😄

    It didn't make monochrome, I'll have to try some others.

    @teamtuck

    gianni, to random
    @gianni@disobey.net avatar

    @wb @RL_Dane Does JXL not have any directional prediction or shared data between blocks? How does it handle generation loss so well?

    I assumed the VarDCT built on every coding technique that previous DCT variants used, although I’m not well versed in what those were & I may be off base

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @gianni @wb

    Yeah, early JPEG was pretty exciting. To my knowledge, it was the first GOOD lossy algorithm of any kind -- QuickTime had lossy video codecs, but they were super simple: selectively updating the screen by rather large blocks, but no complex math or DCT AFAIK.
    There were lossy audio codecs for voice, but they were pretty rudimentary. Nothing good for full-spectrum audio (music) until MP3.

    ...

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @gianni @wb

    ...

    I remember waiting minutes to decode a small JPEG on my 8mhz Mac SE. And of course, trying to compress 1-bit images was a miserable experience, so I didn't use it much until I finally got a color machine in '94 ;)

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @gianni @wb

    Isn't HEIC basically just still-image-h264/5?
    If so, the video encoding hardware could be utilized for sure.

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @wb @gianni

    Ahh, that makes sense. I wouldn't have thought that encoders would be more economical (because of increased complexity of encoding vs decoding), but the point about not having to support such a wide range of possible algorithms makes a lot of sense.

    That also explains why cameras record to relatively high bitrates -- not just for best possible quality, but possibly also so that the encoding can be a bit simpler/"faster."

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @wb @gianni

    Yes, I remember waiting quite a while for GIFs to load -- even progressive (interlaced?? I forget the right term) GIFs weren't that much help.

    I wish I still had it, but someone took a "digital" photo of me way back in 1992 with a Kodak Xapshot camera at a Mac Users' Group meeting in Austin.

    ...

    RL_Dane,
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    @wb @gianni

    ...

    The camera wasn't actually digital, it recorded onto a video disc, but it got digitized when you connected it to your computer for "upload." IIRC, you actually needed a video capture card to digitize the photos, but I can't remember for sure. ^___^

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @gianni @wb

    I have a batch_de-heic script that calls convert to deal with pictures from others' iPhones 😆

    I might see if convert can handle JXL. File size is definitely more important than quality for the purposes of these particular photos.

    RL_Dane,
    @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org avatar

    @gianni @wb

    That definitely explains why a phone can encode h265 in realtime while really aggressive settings on an hour-long video can take a day to transcode on even a fast CPU. :D

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