floof.org

Re: last boost:
The raspi boots faster if you overclock the GPU, because the GPU is used TO LOAD THE KERNEL?!
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Pippin friendica
Another reminder that it's very hard to fully own your own computer these days. Always some proprietary doodad seems to control things behind the scenes. :(
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I saw someone on Tumblr make this onto booty shorts

Bad idea: a website that tracks how long it's been since U2 played "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" in concert.

That way we'll know if they ever find it, since we can assume they'll stop playing the song.

It's like a musical warrant canary: as long as they keep playing it, we know they've not found it

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mauvedeity mastodon (AP)
this is why the U2/TomTom crossover satnav device never happened.
@mauvedeity it didn't help that the streets have no names

My reference sheet
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sirlan <( rawrr ) sharkey (AP)
cool dino, good dino ​:dragnpats:

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One of the weirdest things I learned working in the music industry is that if you have a gold or platinum record, like the physical framed album, it’s not actually your album. The presses just use whatever happened to be going through at the moment and put your sticker on it.
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"Thank you for calling. Self destruct has been initiated will occur in thirty seconds. If you believe you have reached this destination in error please enter the twelve digit abort code now or hang up and seek shelter immediately."

*️⃣ Asterisk sound 'countdown.wav'
📦 From package 'asterisk-extra-sounds'
🇺🇸 Spoken in US English

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I recently saw an amazing Navajo rug at the National Gallery of Art. It looks abstract at first, but it is a detailed representation of the Intel Pentium processor. Called "Replica of a Chip", it was created in 1994 by Marilou Schultz, a Navajo/Diné weaver and math teacher. Intel commissioned the weaving as a gift to the American Indian Science & Engineering Society. 1/6
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Ken Shirriff mastodon (AP)
Marilou Schultz also created a weaving "Untitled (Unknown Chip)", 2008. Antoine Bercovici identified it for me as the AMD K6 III processor. These weavings are part of an exhibition "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction". The exhibition is no longer at the National Gallery of Art but will be at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) in November and the Museum of Modern Art (New York) next April. 5/6
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Ken Shirriff mastodon (AP)
For more information on the Pentium weaving, see my latest post: https://www.righto.com/2024/08/pentium-navajo-fairchild-shiprock.html 6/6
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What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers $15 an hour.”

What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”

Funny how that works, huh?

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don’t call me a gentleman

i’m not a man
and i’m not gentle

call me “excluded statistical anomaly” and “a threat to regional public security”

or you can call me kuriko as well, hi.

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
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Peter Matejic on Joseph Rowntree Foundation's research into attitudes to health care in Britain:

'This research shows that the public feel they can no longer count on the NHS to provide a universal service that’s free at the point of delivery because some NHS services are now so difficult to access' - from dentistry to counselling; we all now expect to pay to get health care.

So, the Tories engineered NHS crisis has had exactly the intended effect!

#health #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/31/nhs-queues-mean-most-britons-expect-to-pay-for-healthcare-says-report

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Well, it finally happened. One of the kid’s friends sent her a link to a YouTube video featuring this tweet and asked “Is that you??”
https://mastodon.social/@mcnees/110334058263166569


This is probably the best thing I ever posted on Twitter. The memory is pretty dear to me; I'm sharing it here so it still exists somewhere if that place collapses.
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Welcome to Skunktember 🦨
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This reminds me of those old science videos we watched in middle. School when the teacher was hung over. #cybertruck
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When UX designers design their user interfaces, they should always include "vomiting child" in their user flows.

That is, they should take all their well designed and thoughtful user flows and insert "and suddenly the user's child vomits".

If the UX isn't robust enough to handle the user running off to deal with a vomiting child for twenty minutes, it is a bad user flow.

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Simon Tatham mastodon (AP)

immediately makes me think of Windows Update.

Windows nags me about some OS patch. I authorise it to start downloading. Then I go away and leave it to get on with it.

I come back half an hour later and find that it auto-suspended the machine after 10 minutes because it believed it was just idle. So that's as far as the download got.

I can only get it to finish an update if I nudge the mouse every 9 minutes – even though _it_ wanted the update even more than I did!

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The 2024 FAAFO (F*ck Around And Find Out) Award goes to Elon Musk for daring the Brazilian Government to ban X (formerly Twitter) and then whining about "free speech" when they actually did ban it. I should point out that X was in breach of Brazilian law for allowing hate speech, but you know, Elon never met a Nazi he didn't like.

Please join me in saying a big - Congratulations Elon!

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/30/elon-musk-x-could-face-ban-in-brazil-after-failure-to-appoint-legal-representative

#elonmusk #brazil #twitterban #socialmedia #nazis #twitter

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
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When he’s not busy being one of our best fiction writers, Ted Chiang has become our best critic of generative AI:

“The programmer Simon Willison has described the training for large language models as ‘money laundering for copyrighted data,’ which I find a useful way to think about the appeal of generative-A.I. programs: they let you engage in something like plagiarism, but there’s no guilt associated with it because it’s not clear even to you that you’re copying.”

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/why-ai-isnt-going-to-make-art

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James Gleick mastodon (AP)
“It is very easy to get ChatGPT to emit a series of words such as ‘I am happy to see you.’ There are many things we don’t understand about how large language models work, but one thing we can be sure of is that ChatGPT is not happy to see you. A dog can communicate that it is happy to see you, and so can a prelinguistic child, even though both lack the capability to use words. ChatGPT feels nothing and desires nothing, and this lack of intention is why ChatGPT is not actually using language.”
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#fursuit #furry a photo I toke of Lucky
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Pippin friendica

Our new house has what appears to be only a pair of satellite signal cables coming to the area where the TV bracket is installed, and it would be a pain to install terrestrial cables instead (probably ripping up the whole concrete floor!) so, despite never having used satellite before I'm now looking for a freesat box.

Looking around Ebay, the Humax Foxsat-HDR is what I notice the most. It appears to be quite an old product, but is only about 50 quid and presumably should view, record and play freesat channels. My question is, is there any reason it wouldn't work? Have satellite broadcast standards changed in the last 10 or so years? Different codecs, or anything like that that would obsolete older boxes? Presumably the EPG and programme recording would work the same as it did back then?

Also am I right in thinking that the satellite dish receivers (LNBs) don't need power, or get it from the box they are connected to? (I.e. they don't need separate power supplies.)

I'm hoping things haven't changed too much and I should just be able to grab one of these older boxes relatively cheaply, plug it into the satellite cables and the TV/amp, and not have to spend more time thinking about how to get basic TV channels and recording/playback working for my parents.

Pippin friendica
I've just been reading up on UK TV distribution systems and have come across Freely, which is supposedly going to replace Freeview. All I can think, when reading up on it, is "ew". Works only on specific smart TV models, no set top boxes, no upgrades for older TVs, nothing for other devices - phones, tablets or computers. Just directly built into specifically "blessed" TVs. No thanks.
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One of the things you learn in #ArtSchool, at least when you're studying #Sculpture, is that a gentle rounded chamfer on the edge of a planar surface gives it a greater visual sense of mass - as little as 1mm on a 25mm thick plate of steel, will make that steel appear more solid.

This is why a #Tesla #Cybertruck looks like it's make of tinfoil - all the edges are too sharp. It gives away how tissue-thin the panels are, and makes it look cheap & insubstantial.

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Juggling With Eggs mastodon (AP)
Love coming across new reasons to champion art school graduates. Some of the wisest people I’ve met worked in art schools.

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Saw this satire article elsewhere. Made me laugh lol.

Edit: I have learned it’s from The Daily Tism:
https://thedailytism.com/autistic-man-stranded-on-desert-island-asks-rescue-team-for-a-couple-more-weeks/

#ActuallyAutistic

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
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"to infuriate our tech staff with your obvious questions, press [X]"

*️⃣ Asterisk sound 'infuriate-tech-staff.wav'
📦 From package 'asterisk-extra-sounds'
🇺🇸 Spoken in US English

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There's a special place in hell for websites that don't let you paste into a confirm password field. #ux
#ux
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GrumpSec Spottycat mastodon (AP)
“Password1!” It is then
Pippin friendica
Yep, it's right beside the place for web sites that don't let you paste into the confirm email address field!
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moreutils is a package worth checking out.

I'm a big fan of:
ts - Adds or converts timestamps for stdin
sponge - prevents file clobbering
vipe - edit stdin before it goes back out

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Ret the Folf mastodon (AP)
vipe is feckin' genius!

It's very funny how ebay shippers run the gamut between "throw it in a box with two scraps of bubble wrap" and "more securely packed than a nuclear warhead"
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It’s not
MTU

There’s
no way i
t’s MTU

It was M
TU

#SysAdmin

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Pippin friendica
Unless it was DNS. Or maybe it was MTU *and* DNS.

This gorgeous fursuit is available until tomorrow night! Will Pride be coming home with you?? 👀🏳️‍🌈🐺

https://www.thedealersden.com/listing/pride-coyote/291238

#fursuit #fullsuit #forsale #auction #coyote

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
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Build new things.

Change the world.

Be slow, fix things.

Deliberate action toward improvement.

Let others claw at the dirt… keep your eyes ever starward.

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If you say you don't want kids three times in a row a middle aged soccer mom will appear out of nowhere to explain how some day you might change your mind.
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Pippin friendica

I love being a faceless biker/mook/robot/thing.

(Edit: I should point out there are 6 pics attached to this post; see post on original instance if you don't see them all!)

This entry was edited (6 days ago)
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Looking really good - thank you for sharing!

Now I know to check the original post when you've got four pix to see if there's more :)

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Pippin friendica
@Ysengrin Blackpaw 🔜 WPAFW Yes, I must remember to mention when I add more than 4 pics. Interestingly, Tusky doesn't give me any indication that there are more than 4 pictures, but once I've tapped to expand one to fill screen it will then let me scroll through all 6.

Pippin friendica

I find it very hard to understand how anyone gets away with this in America. The way it *should* work is surely how it worked for me here in the UK: I registered to vote when I was about 16 or 17 (it then activates on your 18th birthday), and I don't think I even had to remember, I think the local council sent an automatic letter (presumably due to birth records from 16/17 years prior) and we probably just had to confirm my details were correct and I was registered.

And that's it. That one registration lasts for life.

I did have to re-register once, a week or two ago, due to moving house. This automatically cancels my registration in my old area and lets me vote in my new home constituency.

The only other thing I've done is, back at the start of the pandemic, changed from voting in person to postal voting. This also lasts until you cancel it, or until you re-register in a new area.

This is how it should work. America, stop tolerating whoever the hell is periodically taking away your right to vote and forcing you to do pointless work to get it back. For a purported democracy, that is unacceptable.

Also, why in heck are political parties involved in voter registration over there!? They should be kept at a *very* great distance from that. Voter registration must be done by an organisation with no vested interest, as should everything to do with holding elections.


Just saw an Ohio voter comment elsewhere that they'd been purged and had to get that fixed. So if you haven't voted in like the last six weeks for a primary?

Maybe check to make sure you are on your state's rolls as a voter.

And battleground folks--we'd better keep checking.


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Kat Kimbriel mastodon (AP)

Agreed. But the problem here is, there are the people who never get over their griefs, and people who are willing to work for our government neutrally, for the benefit of all.

It only takes a few--generally very rich people--to mess with this. It's actually one of the gifts of computers/the Internet. It's possible to keep voting info & votes off in a secure place, tabulate them, & announce them.

This is unfettered Capitalism. It's not pretty. We claw more back each time. But. :(

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RevK :verified_r: mastodon (AP)
wow, false origin is really bad on that.

#adhd
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Makes me laugh whenever I see this 😂
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I get excited whenever the carbon intensity of the UK electricity grid is below ~100g of CO2 per kilowatt hour of electricity.

The 2023 average was 162g gCO2/kWh

But just look at this figure - in 2009 it was regularly ~600. We ARE making big changes. Hooray!

Source: https://tinyurl.com/48dwzz33

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A map of Every European City

➡️ credit: Malachi Ray Rempen

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
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Rawr. At reading pride. This time, fully shiny! :3
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Jencen mastodon (AP)
Who's a good Drgn... YOU! You are! ❤
Saki mastodon (AP)
@Jencen mrawwrrr, gosh! 💙

thinkin about this
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