@TerryHancock@realsocial.life
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

TerryHancock

@TerryHancock@realsocial.life

Fan of space, film, free/open-source software and free culture. Former pro astronomer. Writer, blogger, editor, visual artist. Occasional free-software developer. (Personal Account)

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urusan, to random
@urusan@fosstodon.org avatar

If the rest of your body were conscious too, would you even notice it or just think it's part of your normal consciousness?

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@urusan

There are some real-world examples of two consciousnesses inhabiting the same physical body: conjoined twins and split-brain patients (people whose corpus callosum has been cut).

I've always found the idea disconcerting. But then, we tend to imagine consciousness as atomic, when it clearly is really distributed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

It's frustrating that it's easy to find listings and even reviews of international films, but I often have no idea how to actually watch them.

I've been curious about the boom in film making in Nigeria, and have come across several references to a dystopian sci-fi film, called "Ratnik", released 2020.

I suspect it will be cliched, but interesting, if for no other reason than its origin.

But I have no idea how I might find a copy to watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratnik_(film)

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

This whole time there was a native Linux desktop GUI Seafile client..?

I guess I never looked for it. Just kept using the web interface. Which was quite tedious because there was no range-select. I had to just sit there and tick each little box or else select all of them.

Of course, now my android Seafile client has stopped working. Some kind of cosmic balance, perhaps?

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

It's very weird when software that has been working without problems for years suddenly fails for no apparent reason.

Other than accessing the server from an extra computer and trying out the native Linux app, I haven't really done anything to the Seafile server.

But suddenly my phone app reports errors and won't connect.

And it's specific to the app -- I can actually log in and upload files using the browser.

🤔

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@hanscees
No. Nor the app, until after the problem arose (I thought perhaps reinstalling would fix it, but no). That's what's so weird. It doesn't seem like I've changed anything, but I suppose I must have.

The only thing I thought is that maybe I exceeded some "maximum number of simultaneous logins/devices", since it happened right after accessing from my laptop but I don't see anything to support that theory.

Well, I can use the browser UI at least. 🤷‍♂️

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This timelapse of a fungus kept by leafcutter ants is remarkable. Thousands of ants monitoring humidity, the nutrition needs of the fungus, removing unwanted growths, keeping their brood and harvesting food. Inside: the queen. Totally inclosed in a living home. The walls are food, a place for her eggs, they slowly renew, tended by her daughters.

As every living organism maintains itself, but on a strange macro-scale. These are your cells shedding and being replaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AZffDtOlw

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@futurebird
🤔
"Fungus farmed by ants farmed by human."

That is fascinating. I suppose there is probably considerable co-evolution between this species of fungus and this species of ant.

evan, (edited ) to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

"ActivityPub servers should use IPFS as storage for public binary files like images, video, and audio."

#EvanPoll #poll

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@evan
Had to look it up. Interesting technology.

But no, I don't think AP servers "should" use it, but maybe "may" use it. AP instances serve a lot of different purposes, and there may be a variety of different concerns about data permanence. The technology itself shouldn't force permanence.

See also: "ephemeral" instances and accounts, which delete posts after a short while.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@evan
OTOH, I am personally intrigued by publishing data into such a system, somewhat like a distributed Internet Archive. To avoid loss by site failure, maintainer death or unavailability, etc.

I can see I should learn more about this.

thomasfuchs, to random
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io avatar

Just sayin’ it’s nice to see one of the big AI players saying out loud what I’ve been saying: generative AI is fundamentally broken and cannot be fixed. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

https://futurism.com/the-byte/ceo-google-ai-hallucinations

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@thomasfuchs

I mean, they have the option of going back to their old system, right..?

That worked famously well. Maybe stop fixing things that aren't broken?

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Yeah. This pretty much sums up the ending of most Urusei Yatsura stories.

Now to see if I can make any decent wallpaper from all these screencaps.

kev, to random
@kev@fosstodon.org avatar

I replaced the blades on the mower. I think its fair to say that the old ones were past their best. 😳

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@kev
Wow. Are those supposed to be the same size blades..? 😅

TerryHancock, to sciencefiction
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Watched "Short Circuit" (1986) today. Possibly for the first time since it was in the theater in 1986.

I remembered it being kind of cringey.

But man, oh, man is it cringey! Ugh. I guess it was pretty much aimed at kids, but even so, there's a lot of tacky writing in there.

Craigp, to random
@Craigp@mastodon.social avatar

I'm really not a fan of how you search for a very specific string of nonsense and instead of returning hits for it, it returns hits for vaguely similar and much more common strings.

This is an AI-driven thing that is just the dumbest shit.

"Clearly they meant to search for this more common thing, and there will be no option to find what they are looking for. In fact, we won't even bring up that we're returning the wrong thing."

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@Craigp

This is extremely frustrating.

It used to be that a good way to search for specifics on a piece of hardware was to type in the model number on the search line. Or a string of text from a circuit board.

It would be very rare to occur on any document unless it applied to what you needed. Almost like a magic invocation.

But with fuzzy search, you just get garbage.

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

The US commercial medical system is absolutely disgusting and borderline criminal. :dumpsterfire:

I mean, it's actually routine for a provider to tell you that a procedure or equipment item will cost $X, but then when you actually see a bill it's 5-10X.

And they just expect you to pay it.

They'll give you the runaround for days. The person who promised you won't remember the promise and insists it's not their department. And billing stonewalls.

It's not medicine.
It's a con game.
:welp:

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Honestly, if there's any system in the world that just needs to be torched and rebuilt from scratch, it's the US health care system.

A lot of these people need to be doing prison time.

But I'll be satisfied if they just get their asses fired and have to find a real job.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Okay. The immediate instigation of the above seems to have been no more than a misunderstanding.

However, having said that, the post is pretty much still true. :welp:

atomicpoet, to random
@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

If you see two people together of different ethnicities or races, don’t assume they’re “just friends” and not a couple. And don’t act surprised if your assumption is wrong.

And yes, I’m saying this because a highly unpleasant conversation just occurred.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@atomicpoet
I've had waiters give us separate checks before... :welp:

TerryHancock, to random
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

My feed has had a lot of commentary on Microsoft's upcoming "Recall" feature, which is apparently an AI-enhanced screenlogging tool.

Some of this is entirely justified distrust of Microsoft (or any proprietary software company), while some is dismissing the value of screenlogging entirely.

I've been screenlogging on Linux with FFMPEG and Kdenlive for over 5 years, so I have some thoughts that might be a little more nuanced.

So I wrote that up for you:

https://lunaticsproject.org/2024/05/22/hows-and-whys-of-screenlogging/

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

Screenlogging pros and cons:

Pros:

Track productivity/morale
Self-management/feedback
Process documentation
Data for planning/time-projections

Cons:

Security – passwords!
Privacy – social media, etc.
Overhead time.
Disk space.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

The problem with Microsoft’s “Recall” software is the problem with ALL of their software: it’s a huge security risk to let a perversely-motivated corporate entity do what it likes with your most sensitive data, particularly when you have no means of oversight or verification of what they tell you they are going to do with it.

[...]

And Microsoft (like Apple and Google and Adobe) has a long history of abusing this kind of user trust.

scottsantens, to random
@scottsantens@hachyderm.io avatar

Universal basic income is society as a whole saying to every individual member of society, "I have faith in you. Show me what you can do."

Anyone who has ever accomplished anything has first had someone in some way demonstrate their faith in them and their potential.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@serge @scottsantens

Yeah. This is basically why I favor both.

If we implement ONLY UBI, then extractive industries could easily suck it all up, eliminating the social benefit (or causing rapid inflation).

I prefer direct payment like UBI, but it would be unwise to only implement our "safety net" this way.

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@serge @scottsantens

Yes. UBI is for all the stuff you have a choice about (want a choice about, have options, competition is effective, ...).

But there are services that we ALL need and it is dangerous for people to go without them. Those are where the free-market is often pathological, and managed socialized services make sense.

An incomplete list: health, education, emergency services, maybe basic housing/shelter, etc.

UBI introduces the possibility of a secular "monk" class/lifestyle.

liztai, to random
@liztai@hachyderm.io avatar

I am a very light sleeper. I wake up at the slightest sound. It is both fortunate and unfortunate.

I once woke up to the soft plop of a cockroach landing on my pillow.

Still not sure if that is classified under "fortunate" or "unfortunate".

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@liztai
"Disconcerting", certainly.

evan, (edited ) to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

When is it OK to change the subject in your reply to a post?

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@evan
Well, in that case, then I think it's fine as long as the new subject is related to the original (e.g. responding only to a part of it),

TerryHancock,
@TerryHancock@realsocial.life avatar

@evan

Yeah, I can see how that might be a little upsetting. It sort of comes off as "How dare you take a vacation when you should be working (uncompensated) for us?"

Even if that wasn't the intent.

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