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scene: inside valhalla's brain.

home economy manager> I know that #InCoWriMo is near, but you can't buy new stationery until you've used up the one you have. Not even if it's cheap, you no longer have space to keep it
some other less wholesome part of me> making doesn't count as buying, right?
home economy manager> well, since you're using things you already had in the stationery bag…

(I had a 2015 sponsored calendar together with stationery and other paper “in case I ever decide to do something with it”)




Thunderbird calendar addon Year View is now in "(very) low maintenance mode".

It will not be updated to support TB68 or TB70.
As the readme says, I don't have time, resources and motivation to keep work on this.

I'm not really using this plugin anymore from a while now.
I'm using TB only on my office Mac, where I'm still on TB60 because 90% of the addons I need still doesn't work in a way or another on TB68.

Writing "Year View" was a quite painful experience: overall documentation was too old ad outdated or non existent. And that's only on Thunderbird/XUL side: I had to read and understand Lightning code because I couldn't find any other docs. Most of the code in "Year View" is an edited copy of Lightning code. There are also a number of ugly hacks.

From what I read in Thunderbird docs, if I manage to make this thing run on TB68 I will need to rewrite it anyway to make it run on TB70 (where my needed addons will not run anyway). I'm very sorry, but It's not worth the pain.

If you want a proper year view in calendar in the future, please bugs Lightning devs.





I'm tired of these dishonest diatribes trying to argue that Social Media provides no value to the world.

Tell that to the grandparents who have been able to keep in touch with their grandkids on a daily basis instead of the way it used to be: whenever they could manage to get on the telephone or visit.

Tell that to the marriages that happened because people were able to connect.

Tell that to the businesses that started because people were able to easily network.

Tell that to the families split across the world who can keep in touch (like my wife's uncle and his family in Germany, who she would only ever see for a week every 5 years when they came back to the USA to visit)

We wouldn't be here if Social Media sucked. No, we just don't like the corporations extracting their own value from our lives. We're here because we want the power back, and we finally have the tools to do it.



finishes writing a letter.

looks at the calendar.

I guess it's time to start to work on the list of people I want to write to for #InCoWriMo (and to see if I have enough stationery, but I probably do :D )



About one year ago, my father gave me and @Diego Roversi a cheap laptop he had bought at a supermarket and found out it wasn't suited to his needs (plus it didn't have enough disk space to install the latest windows upgrades, or something like that, I don't remember the exact details).

We didn't really have a need for it, the only part that was potentially interesting (touchscreen and tablet mode) didn't work with linux, nor did the sound card, and overall the process to install linux on it made us discover how low quality the thing was, but we ended up using it to watch movies with an usb sound card.

Then the last time we tried to turn it on (to show a countdown for the new year) it didn't. Opening it revealed a dead battery. Glued down to everything else. And it didn't start without a battery connected. And when trying to unglue the battery it started to break, so my SO stopped before burning down the house.
At this step, #repair mode ended and scavenging for parts started, but most components were covered by the glued-down battery, trying to dismantle the screen resulted in cracked glass and the only thing we could save are two magnets and a handful of screws.

We didn't buy the thing. We didn't need the thing. We knew it was bad, but still this is irritating. Extremely irritating.

in reply to Your friendly 'net denizen

it did.

except for the fact that we aren't going to buy a new one to replace it (but I suspect my father did).



Still today, when I want to impress someone showing what free software can do, I spin up Ardour 👍



research.swtch.com/deps

OTOH, reading point 3 of the proposed solutions and comparing it with the place I'm getting my dependencies from (distributions):

For example, package discovery sites might work to find more ways to allow developers to share their findings.

check, there is room for improvement, but the principle is there and is being used

Build tools should, at the least, make it easy to run a package’s own tests.

check

More aggressively, build tools and package management systems could also work together to allow package authors to test new changes against all public clients of their APIs.

check, as long as those clients are also available from the same source

Languages should also provide easy ways to isolate a suspect package.


this one isn't done, but the idea is that suspect packages don't get there in the first place. YMMV on what counts as suspect, however.



Buon anno!
Questo nodo Friendica è stato aggiornato all'ultima versione develop!


now I have questions...







Dear fediverse,

does anybody know of instructions on how to light an oil lamp (the kind with vegetable oil) with flint and steel, and no matches (not even the old, non self-igniting, type with sulfur)?

I've found how to light fires (lots of resources), a couple of instructions on how to light candles that aren't going to work with a lamp, articles and videos about oil lamps in general, but nothing on the combination.

I can't believe that before the invention of sulfur matches people had to light a full fire (or ask some fire to the neighbors) in order to be able to light a simple lamp…

reshared this

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Fire is the shared blood of community. You generally would ask some lit coals of a neighbor and carry them home in a jar ("to heap coals on their head") and light your fire from that. Lanterns etc were lit from a spill, straw, or noodle (spills preferred) because bootstrapping fire suucks. But if you must:

Charcloth or char moss on top of flint, striking w/ sparks that catch and glow, place lit cloth into tinder and blow into a flame, light the lantern from that.

in reply to Tarbuck Transom 🌹

This is a spill plane and the spills it produces btw. You can make them by heavily skewing a regular plane (and I have) but a dedicated tool is far easier in the long run despite the complicated angles and precise chisel work required to make one.

Tarbuck Transom 🌹 reshared this.






the popular code transforming tool is called "babel" because modern web dev is a shameful monument to humanity's hubris and God will one day scatter its practitioners to the corners of the earth, each using a slightly different but totally incompatible module import syntax


These days I'm re-reading a book on the history of math I had read ages ago.

The aim of the book is to present an overview of current (at the time it was written, in the 1970s, plus an appendix from the 1990s) modern math and it's pretty good at it (that's the reason why it was recommended to me when I was in high school and my math teacher found out I had plans to study math at the university).

Because of this, it is reasonable that it's skipping all math development from cultures that didn't have a direct influence on modern math: it claims so in the introduction, apparently recognizing that those developments were significant, just outside the scope.

But then, every. single. time. the author gives a judgement on something, it's cringeworthy. When the europeans in 1600 and 1700 developed calculus with no formal basis and without even recognizing the need for one it was liberating; when arabs did the same with algebra it was a lack of formal capabilities. No. just no. did you even *read* what you're writing???

Luckily, most of the book is maths and that part is enjoyable, I should just skip the end of most chapters…

in reply to Your friendly 'net denizen

@Charles Stanhope it's “Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times” by Morris Kline

(in an italian translation, and I've just realized that the original book only reaches the 1930s and the appendix written in the 90s that brings it a bit more up-to-date is from the italian editor. It was ages since I read it, and right now I'm still at the 1700s :) )

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Thank you! I see archive.org has a copy (without the appendix), and it looks like I have some used book options too. I may dip into this over time. I will keep your warning about the author's biases in mind as I do.


I have a nextcloud instance with a custom svg logo wich lately is rendered all black (on firefox), despite when is loaded directly it show all it's two colors...

Now I found this via lobste.rs. I'll try and I will report back..



Bad picture is bad, but...

I didn't exactly lit a #fire, but at least I got some embers from #FlintAndSteel (I was indoors, so I couldn't light kindling)

I watched the following two videos to get from "one spark every 100 strikes" to "one spark every 5-10 strikes, and sometimes they even get on the char cloth" (sorry for the youtube links)

youtube.com/watch?v=CRR8fQbVYT…
youtube.com/watch?v=3pzGMQkdeF…

The big hints from those videos were:

* keep the flint at 45° to the striker
* if you're missing the flint often, you are using the right movement :)



I'd recommend following the link to read the full thread


Developer-driven software distribution is a bad idea, which is why I dislike things like Flatpak.

Having distro maintainers involved in the process and installing your software from a free software distribution like Debian or FreeBSD is a much better distribution of power. The packages can be tuned to suit their environment without the developer having to repackage it for every distro, and the distro maintainers can keep out anti-features like telemetry and advertising.

The middleman may seem annoying to developers, but embrace the model and it'll work for you. Landing packages in your favorite distro isn't actually that hard, and the rest of the distros will follow. If you're an end-user who wants to see some software available for your distro, look into packaging and volunteer - it's easy.


in reply to ∿ und̷e̷l̷ě̷t̷e̷d̷

Well, the original post recommended getting software *into* (from, for the user) the distributions, with the distribution maintainer as middleman, not just packaged as .deb (or .rpm, etc.) from a third party repository; those skip the middleman are just as bad as flatpak (and even worse, as you have to install them as root).
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Having thought about it more generally, I think there are two dimensions - technical and social. IMO, a major part of the value behind trustworthy distributions like debian is that they have proven to maintain certain curatorial standards with software they include. I don't see why something like this (i.e. the middle(wo)men) might not happen with Flatpaks too. One could be using Flatpaks coming from a trustworthy curated pool with PGP signatures and hashes on everything.
in reply to ∿ und̷e̷l̷ě̷t̷e̷d̷

Having that said, I certainly wouldn't want to have distributions replaced with Flatpaks. For now I consider Flatpaks just a little better alternative to "curl ... | sudo bash" if there is no proper package available. (And I wouldn't want to be installing `git` or `curl` with Flatpak for sure).
in reply to ∿ und̷e̷l̷ě̷t̷e̷d̷

I don't see any technical reason why there couldn't be a trustworthy source of curated flatpacks, but wouldn't that be basically a distribution repository?

Yes, programs wouldn't have to be patched to work with different versions of their dependencies, but flatpacks would have to be regenerated every time a dependency has a security issue, so I'm not convinced it would be easier for the maintainers.




Vertical Stand. Art Attack version.


Vediamo se ci riesce di pubblicarlo un po' più a lungo. magari quasi regolarmente


Unknown parent

Fabio
I'm quite sure it was [censored], but then it was censored.




We’ve been challenged by a group of amazing individuals and Private Internet Access to raise a total of $113,093 during this fundraising season -- renew or begin your Conservancy support today! sfconservancy.org/news/2019/no…



Opening raw images with feh


Up to debian buster, feh was able to open the thumbnails inside my .cr2 files using Imlib2 directly; this has stopped working in debian bullseye, but I've found that there is a way to open them properly using dcraw: it only requires adding --conversion-timeout 5 (or any other suitable positive number) to the command line to enable the use of external programs.

so

feh 141140-img_5195.cr2

results into various errors including feh WARNING: 141140-img_5195.cr2 - No Imlib2 loader for that file format

while

feh9 --conversion-timeout 5 141140-img_5195.cr2

prints 141140-img_5195.cr2 is a Canon EOS 1100D image. and shows you the preview you wanted :)

And this shaves the neck of the yak, now I can proceed with the original task...





In the last few years I've been adding little boy blue and similar shades to my clothing (beside black, which remains the main me-colour).

Last week I suddenly realized that I “needed” a #fountainPen ink in a similar shade., asked for recommendations on a forum and ended up buying two (online, looking at pictures, because I don't have a shop that keeps a variety of inks nearby :( ): Noodler's Polar Blue and Herbin Bleu Myostosis.

The Herbin is more periwinkle, which is not really me, but I love it and it's very me-playing-old-lady (only missing some lavender scent…), and the bottle with a pen holder is very nice.

The Noodler's is a problematic ink, but the shade is just as I wanted (and I've managed to make it behave with #dipPens by adding some gum arabic: that's the sample in the middle of the picture).

Also, I've managed to open a Noodler's bottle without spilling ink everywhere, and I consider this a personal achievement :) (there is a reason why other producers leave some air in their bottles…)

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

There are any number number of evil ink pushers out there "the first colour is free".
in reply to Stephen Gunnell

And I would never give ink samples to friends with the subtle aim of starting an ink sample exchange and end up with even MOAR inks to try.

NEVER!

(sometime I just give ink samples with no other reasons :D )






I'm releasing the sources of the Pepper&Carrot eShop's product for #ThankYouPatrons day! Prepare your printer, transfer paper, sticker paper to hack, tweak and derivate your own DIY creation 🙂 E-shop sources link: peppercarrot.com/en/static6/so…
12




I'm hearing more people at coffee shops ask "Do you take cash?"

Every time I hear it, I scream into my head, "What kind of world are were creating FFS where only people with access to the right technology can buy shit!!!"

I know of one restaurant in town that is cashless. They're completely fucking proud of it, how futuristic it is. And, honestly proud of how it keeps certain people out.

Know what's super futuristic? Technology that doesn't enable discrimination.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Of course, part of the reason for that is that people are terrible.
Holding cash on site opens you up to the possibility of being robbed, sometimes violently.
If people weren't terrible, that wouldn't be a concern.

It isn't all that though, there is, at least in Australia, laws stating you MUST be paid into a bank account (not cash) for your labour. That is the Tax Dept making sure they keep their fingers in your pie.

in reply to David de Groot 𓆉

I live in a place where luckily armed robberies are rare (although extortion isn't, but that doesn't depend on the amount of cash kept on-site).

OTOH, places with a lot of cash flow do have ways not to keep too much inside the premises, at least not in a way where it can be accessed on demand (time-based deposit safes, people regularly moving cash away to a bank, etc.). Maybe it's helped by the fact that those who have that need really have a lot of money around (and thus can afford paying to keep it safe).

OTOH, since recently we also have laws that state that payments above a certain amount can't use cash, but at least that's quite above a typical restaurant bill, even for large groups.



in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Elena ``of Valhalla''

> Bits were stored as sound pulses sent into a nickel wire, about 50 feet long. The pulses traveled through the wire and came out the other end exactly 5.5545 milliseconds later. By sending a pulse (or not sending a pulse for a 0) every 500 nanoseconds, the wire held 11,008 bits. A pair of wires created a buffer that held the pixels for 480 characters

That is so punk.



Watts also suggested that the police should wear baby blue uniforms because, he asserted, this would make them less likely to commit acts of police brutality than if they were wearing the usual dark blue uniforms. This proposal was never implemented.

from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_blu…

I guess it can't hurt?

reshared this



Una voce nella mia mente ha appena esclamato “strega comanda color… pervinca!”

devo preoccuparmi?

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

la voce nella mia mente è stata fatta uscire dal parco giochi fino a che non smette di trollare, meglio?

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