#mastoHelp

Can somebody with an account on discord or something contact the people of freesewing.org/community/where… to let them know that on the Fediverse there is a community of a) people who sew and b) people who care about free culture c) an hashtag ( #FreeSoftWear ) where they have been mentioned a few times and it would be great if they wanted to join us?

Thanks!

English in a comment.

Di solito, quando devo chiedere a chi è accanto a me, ma è in confcall, se va bene l'ora di pranzo prendo un foglietto usato poche volte di carta, una stilografica e scrivo la domanda in buon #corsivo.

Oggi mia madre, al telefono, mi ha passato un pezzo di carta e una penna a sfera per capire cosa stessi cercando di chiederle (era “devo andare avanti a mescolare il pranzo mentre tu sei al telefono?”), e mi sono accorta che mi son messa a scrivere in stampatello, facendo molta più fatica.

La soluzione: abolite le penne a sfera. :D

Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

Tiny rant: US-/North America-centrism is so pervasive on the English-language Internet. People are quick to describe a plant or animal in a post as "invasive" without knowing where the photo was taken. I'm like, *where do you think it is native to?* Mars? ⁦ಠ⁠_⁠__ಠ⁩

I just saw a user assuming a planarian they found was invasive because that's what North Americans automatically parrot. They were in its native range. :blobfacepalm:

Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

The non-free-firmware repository
----------------------------------------------

PinePhonePro users might get nagging messages about packages being held back right now…

TL;DR: Please add the non-free-firmware section to the Debian repository line in /etc/apt/sources.list (recommended, even if you are not on PinePhonePros).

Details are in our blog post blog.mobian.org/posts/2023/03/…

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 anni fa)

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Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

It is spring, which means it's a good time to update emergency supplies before summer rolls in.

I consider myself a small-scale prepper. By which I mean that I am not interested in preparing for 'the end of the world as we know it' (TEOTWAWKI) or stocking up on weapons for the 'inevitable civil war.'

But I absolutely am interested in having enough emergency supplies laid in for actual emergencies.

My baseline is off of the 2003 Northeast blackout and several years of emergency relocations

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Unknown parent

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale

Ether

something that I want to do and isn't doing, on top of that, is keeping a digital copy of all important records, both on an HDD in the emergency bag AND a cloud solutions. Things like old payslips, blood test results, etc.

This is a great plan and mine is stuck at "I have a vague idea what bag I'd use" because anything more makes my head spin :(

Unknown parent

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale

Ether

*pinches bridge of nose* none of the ones that come to mind feels any good, and I haven't had capacity to research it, to be honest. I'd have to check where it's hosted, and their interest in privacy, and also if it's kinda obscure it has more chances of flying under the radar of hackers.

Not that I have any sensitive documents besides my personal stuff, but might as well go with people I trust!

Forgotten Yeast Bread


Posted on March 7, 2023
Yesterday around 13:00 I started my usual ”I’m being lazy” bread recipe:

  • 400 g flour
  • 250 g water
  • 6 g salt

worked for 8 minutes (by machine), left to rise until about 18:00.

For the record, it was a strong flour (310 W), type 1, so white, but somewhat coarsely ground.

And then, when it was time to cook bread for dinner I realized that something was missing. Something critical. See if you can spot it in the list above.

The yeast.

Some bread was taken out of the freezer and defrosted in the oven, but I didn’t want to throw away the flour, so I mixed 2-3 g dried yeast, 10 g flour and 10 g water, and left it to rise until after dinner.

Then I added it to the dought, added some more water (I know. I should have measured it. I didn’t expect having to repeat the thing. It was probably about 20 g), mixed for 5 minutes, covered it to rise.

This afternoon, around 15:30, I took the dought, folded it 5-6 times, formed a round loaf on the lined baking tray and left it in the cold oven until 17:45. Then I removed it from the oven, turned it on at 240°C, scored the top of the loaf and sprinkled it with water.

When the oven was hot I baked the loaf for 10 minutes at 240°C, then turned it down to 160°C for 20 additional minutes.

And then I realized I need to repeat this.

No, there are no pictures (there is some left, but it’s too dark to take pictures).


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

Uh! the 2023 edition of #ColorOurCollections is out (has been out for a while, now :D ): free (as in price, but often also as in freedom) #colouringBooks based on the images found in the collections of museums around the world.

BRB will be downloading stuff :D

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Bookbinding: photo album


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Posted on March 6, 2023
an open book with a watercolour of a costume pasted from two corners on one page; near the spine there is a sliver of paper as a spacer.

When I paint postcards I tend to start with a draft (usually on lightweight (250 g/m²) watercolour paper, then trace1 the drawing on blank postcards and paint it again.

I keep the drafts for a number of reasons; for the views / architectural ones I’m using a landscape photo album that I bought many years ago, but lately I’ve also sent a few cards with my historical outfits to people who like to be kept updated on that, and I wanted a different book for those, both for better organization and to be able to keep them in the portrait direction.

If you know me, you can easily guess that buying one wasn’t considered as an option.

A closed hardcover book in uniform dark grey.

Since I’m not going to be writing on the pages, I decided to use a relatively cheap 200 g / m² linoprint paper with a nice feel, and I’ve settled on a B6 size (before trimming) to hold A6 postcard drafts.

For the binding I’ve decided to use a technique I’ve learned from a craft book ages ago that doesn’t use tapes, and added a full hard cover in dark grey linen-feel2 paper. For the end-papers I’ve used some random sheets of light blue paper (probably around 100-something g / m²), and that’s the thing where I could have done better, but they work.

Up to now there isn’t anything I hadn’t done before, what was new was the fact that this book was meant to hold things between the pages, and I needed to provide space for them.

a book seen from the top: near the spine all signatures are made of 4 sheets, but two of them for each signature are just stubs, and leave open spaces between the pages.

After looking on the internet for solutions, I settled on adding spacers by making a signature composed of paper - spacer - paper - spacer, with the spacers being 2 cm wide, folded in half.

And then, between finishing binding the book and making the cover I utterly forgot to add the head bands. Argh. It’s not the first time I make this error.

The same book, open on an empty page.

I’m happy enough with the result. There are things that are easy to improve on in the next iteration (endpapers and head bands), and something in me is not 100% happy with the fact that the spacers aren’t placed between every sheet, but there are places with no spacer and places with two of them, but I can’t think of (and couldn’t find) a way to make them otherwise with a sewn book, unless I sew each individual sheet, which sounds way too bulky (the album I’m using for the landscapes was glued, but I didn’t really want to go that way).

The size is smaller than the other one I was using and doesn’t leave a lot of room around the paintings, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it also means less wasted space.

I believe that one of my next project will be another similar book in a landscape format, for those postcard drafts that aren’t landscapes nor clothing related.

And then maybe another? or two? or…

Traceback (most recent call last):

TooManyProjectsError: project queue is full

  • yes, trace. I can’t draw. I have too many hobbies to spend the required amount of time every day to practice it. I’m going to fake it. 85% of the time I’m tracing from a photo I took myself, so I’m not even going to consider it cheating.↩︎
  • the description of which, on the online shop, made it look like fabric, even if the price was suspiciously low, so I bought a sheet to see what it was. It wasn’t fabric. It feels and looks nice, but I’m not sure how sturdy it’s going to be.↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

Nel 2023 ho deciso di dedicare meno tempo al "lavoro che porta a casa la pagnotta" e più tempo alla mia vita creativa (leggasi: suonare in giro come Kenobit, partecipare a eventi, etc.).

Per farlo funzionare, con sommo sforzo, sto impostando in maniera più ordinata tutte le faccende collaterali, dalle fatture al merch.

Per questo, in ottica di vendere le magliette, vi chiedo: qual è il modo migliore per spedire una maglietta in Italia?

Elena ``of Valhalla'' reshared this.

It's the end of February, and my “score” is: 27 pieces of mail (mostly postcards, some letters) have been written and sent / delivered, one is on my desktop because I've decided at the last minute to paint a postcard and I'm a bit late with it, and will be sent maybe thursday or so.

I'd call it a success, anyway!

#InCoWriMo #MonthOfMail or whatever you want to call this thing :D

my plan to let my mother use #fountainPens so that I can buy more ink is both working and not working: I've just refilled the one pen she's been using and I've seen on my ink diary that the last time it had been refilled was on 2021-04-13 with a platinum cartridge (which takes more ink than a converter, but still…).
Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

Meta: Thoughts on Usage

I don't really want to be prescriptive about how people communicate with each other over the Fediverse.

That said, I do think that using euphemisms is inferior to directly naming things. Naming things outright means people can avoid them more easily, by making filters that remove those topics.

Also, while I think the lack of search is a flaw, it also means that people won't find and harass you because you mention something, obviating another reason for euphemisms.

Elena ``of Valhalla'' reshared this.

Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

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the most important part of #Unicode history is when a mouse fell out of a light fixture and got added to the count of members present at a Technical Committee meeting (9 Nov 2016)

unicode.org/L2/L2016/16325.htm…

Questa voce è stata modificata (2 anni fa)
Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

Do not seize the day. This will startle the day and may cause it to become aggressive and give you a nasty bite.

Instead approach the day calmly without making eye contact, pet it gently, and slowly enfold it in a careful embrace

If the day shows any signs of resistance to being engaged with, it is likely to turn on you. Back off and return to bed.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 anni fa)

I feel lucky: the laundry is currently outside to hopefully dry and not be drenched by rain. I repeat, the clean laundry is currently at risk of being drenched by rain. :D

Mi sento fortunata: ho steso fuori sperando che asciughi e non ci piova sopra. Ripeto, la biancheria pulita è stesa fuori nonostante un leggero rischio di pioggia. :D

Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

DOMANDA COMPLETAMENTE RANDOM MA PER LA QUALE CHIEDEREVVI (per favore grazie)MASSIMA DISTRIBUZIONE:
Qualcuno di voi utilizza ancora i Centri per l'Impiego? Anche non solo per la ricerca del lavoro, credo offrano altri servizi (forse, ho smesso di andarci quando, nella minuscola tessitura in cui ho fatto la prova le finestre erano tenute su con lo scotch da pacchi, il riscaldamento era con stufette a kerosene del 1800 e la prova alla fine non me l'hanno pagata, e rivolgendomi al CPI di Varese mi hanno detto che, fondamentalmente, erano cazzi miei nonostante il lavoro me l'avessero procurato loro con conseguente denuncia mia *privata* all'ispettorato perchè lo stesso CPI non voleva essere coinvolto mortacciloro)...

Grazie!!

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Elena ``of Valhalla'' ha ricondiviso questo.

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We are hiring a Senior Python dev to build our next scrapers.
👇
kiwix.org/en/were-hiring-senio…

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Unknown parent

mastodon - Collegamento all'originale

Kiwix

We pay market prices based on where people are located so it really can vary a lot tbh.

We are looking for a developer, selection will be based on their code, not on how much of a cut they want to take compared to others.

We trust applicants to make an offer that's fair to themselves and we'll go along with it. Might be worth mentioning somewhere though, you are right.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 anni fa)

aaaaaaaah, the home server with the list of video channels I'm not-following-because-i-don't-have-a-youtube-account is down and I'm not sure whether it's a problem or it's because my SO is working on it, so I can't relax for the next half-hour or so sewing and watching videos while I wait for him.

wait, that list of video channels is saved in a git repo, I can get the next video I want to see from the local copy, even if I can't use the fancy web interface :D

The idea is fascinating: a pattern that is sold not on paper, but as drawings on a (substantial and fitted) lining, the idea being that the outer fabric will probably be draped on top of it.

I wonder how widespread they were.

“The same difficulty appears when marked waist linings are used. These linings may be purchased by the yard,on which is traced the entire waist and it can soon be cut out and basted together and alterations made in it.”

From Annie E Myers. Home dressmaking; a complete guide to household sewing. Chicago, C.H. Sergel & company, 1892. pag 48

archive.org/details/homedressm…

#sewing #HistoricalSewing

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in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

It sounds almost like a pre-printed version of Trace N Toile (which I'm always tempted by, but I'm not a huge fan of - it's expensive compared to paper, and almost every version I've found is non recyclable). Or if anyone was printing patterns directly on Swedish tracing paper (which you can apparently sew like fabric and is recyclable, but I've struggled to find anyone selling it in a decent width or length for a price I can afford who'll ship it here.)

From skimming a fairly closely dated Sears catalogue (1897) it looks like sellers did differentiate between paper patterns and these, but I can't find if Sears was selling the printed linings to see what they were listed as or the price difference.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 anni fa)
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

campanilismo, contenuti stupidi, ma non del tutto

@Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

ci sono extracomunitari di serie A ed extracomunitari di serie B. Il mio impegno morale è prendere per il culo quelli di serie A, che se lo meritano.

(la prima parte della frase mi era stata detta da uno svizzero che era andato a rinnovare il permesso di soggiorno italiano scaduto, e ovviamente ha avuto molti meno problemi a farlo di quanti ne avrebbero avuti extracomunitari di altre nazioni, anche se era prima che la svizzera entrasse in Schengen, la seconda parte è stata la mia risposta)

git status Side Effects


Posted on February 17, 2023
TIL, from a conversation with friends1, that git status can indeed have side effects, of some sort.

By default, running git status causes a background refresh of the index to happen, which holds the write lock on the repository.

In theory, if somebody is really unlucky, this could break some script / process that is also trying to work on the repo at the same time, especially on a huge repository where git status takes a significant time, rather than the usual fraction of a second2.

There is a way to prevent this, by running git status --no-optional-locks (git-scm.com/docs/git#Documenta…) or by setting GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS to 0, as writing the updated index is just an optimization and git knows it can be avoided.

I don’t think there are many chances to actually stumble on this in the real life, but I’m writing this down so that if I ever do I have an easy way to remember what happened and find the solution.


  • I won’t name name or provide details to protect the innocents (and the guilty), but thanks to all of the people involved in the conversations who helped find the answer.↩︎
  • Related, but unrelated TIL: there is a place called Secondo (second), near Venice, but it’s already a frazione (fraction / subdivision of municipality).↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

My experience with a PinePhone


Posted on February 15, 2023
I’ve had and used1 a PinePhone for quite some time now, and a shiny new blog sounds like a good time to do a review of my experience.

TL;DL: I love it, but my use cases may not be very typical.

While I’ve had a mobile phone since an early time (my parents made me carry one for emergencies before it was usual for my peers) I’ve never used a typical smartphone (android / iPhone / those other proprietary things) because I can’t trust them not to be designed to work against me (data collection, ads, tricking users into micro payments, and other antipatterns of proprietary software design), and bringing them to sanity as most of the people I know do is too much effort for my tastes.

Instead, as a phone I keep using an old nokia featurephone2 which is reliable, only requires charging once a week, and can easily survive falling from hand height to the ground, even if thrown 3.

And then I’ve been carrying a variety of other devices to do other computer-like tasks; earlier it was just a laptop, or a netbook, a Pandora (all of which used a dongle to connect to mobile network internet) then I tried a phone with FirefoxOS (it could have been better) and now the PinePhone has taken their place, at least when I’m not carrying a laptop anyway.

So, the tasks I use the PinePhone for are mostly:

  • sending and receiving xmpp messages, with no need for notifications (when somebody needs to tell me something where urgency is required, they know to use the other phone, either with a call or an sms);
  • tethering an internet connection to the laptop;
  • reading djvu scans of old books while standing in a queue or something;
  • checking something on the internet when I’m not close to a real computer (i.e. one with a keyboard and a big screen);
  • running a timer while heat-setting fabric paint with an iron (and reading a djvu book at the same time — yes, this is a very specific task, but it has happened multiple times already :D );
  • running a calculator with unit conversions;
  • running the odd command line program;
  • taking pictures, especially those that I want to send soon (I often also carry a DSLR camera, but I tend to wait a few days before I download them from the card);
  • map related things.

3 and 5 work perfectly well, no issues there. 1, 2 and 4 usually work just fine, except for the fact that sometimes while the phone is suspended it forgets about being a phone, and needs to be restarted to turn the modem back on. It’s not a big deal while using the phone, I just need to check before I try to use it after a few hours.

For 1, I also had to take care to install dino-im from experimental, as up to now the features required to fit the interface in a mobile screen aren’t available in the official release, but I believe that this has just been fixed.

Somewhat related to 4, I’ve also installed kiwix and the dumps of wiktionary and wikivoyage, but I haven’t had a chance to travel much, so I’m not really using it.

For 6 I’m quite happy with qalculate, the GUI version of qalc (which is what I use on my laptop), even if it has a few minor interface issues, and 7 of course works as well as it can, given the limitations of a small screen and virtual keyboard.

8 is, let us say, problematic. The camera on the PinePhone is peculiar, only works with a specific software, and even there the quality of the pictures is, well, low-fi, vintagey pictures are a look and that’s a specific artistic choice, right? Thanks to the hard work of the megapixels maintainer the quality has improved a lot, and these days it is usable, but there are still limits (no webcam in the browser, no recording of videos).

9 is really bad. A few times I can remember getting a GPS fix. A few times in many months, and now and then I keep trying, to see if a miracle has happened, but usually I only get a vague position from wifi data (which isn’t great, when walking through less densely populated areas).

I’ve seen another PinePhone running gpsd and getting data from an external GPS receiver via bluetooth, and if I really needed it I may seriously consider that solution.

Also, the apps available in mobian aren’t great either, even when compared to running tangogps on an OpenMoko with pre-downloaded maps (I mean! I don’t think my expectations are too high!).

I’ve heard that PureMaps is quite good as a software, but a bit of a PITA to package for Debian, and I really hope that one day there will be a linux-first mobile device with good GPS hardware, so that people will be encouraged to fix the software side.

Thankfully, I don’t usually need GPS and navigation software; when I’m driving into places I don’t know I usually have a human navigator, and when walking into places I can do with just a static map (either printed on paper or on the PinePhone), maybe some pre-calculated route from the OSM website and looking at street names to find out where I am.

Overall, for my use cases the PinePhone works just fine and is an useful addition to the things I always carry with me, and I don’t feel the pressing need to get an android phone. I don’t think it’s ready as a daily driver for everybody, but I think that depending on one’s needs it’s worth asking around (I’d recommend doing so on the fediverse with a #PinePhone and #mobian hashtag), as there is a non-zero chance that it may be a good fit for you.


  • which, if I’m not mistaken, is often not implied by the fact of owning it :D↩︎
  • for very low values of feature: it doesn’t have any kind of internet access, and there are only 3 games, one of which is snake.↩︎
  • don’t ask.↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

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