@jonfairbairn@hostux.social
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

jonfairbairn

@jonfairbairn@hostux.social

Former theoretical computer scientist.
Reprophotographer.
Woodworker
Minor sysadmin
Bass player

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jonfairbairn, to photography
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

Killesburgturm July 2016
@photography

fanf, to random
@fanf@mendeddrum.org avatar

vague memory of someone else’s debugging story from i can’t remember where … :

they are called to an office which is complaining that the wifi stops working for two hours twice a day

this office is in portsmouth so it’s fairly obvious that the timing is related to the tides

but what on earth? how can the wifi be sensitive to the tides?!

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@fanf Years ago I was working at Marconi Research in Great Baddow running a thermal test on a piece of electronics. The temperature measurement was by thermocouple connected to an analogue meter. I noticed that the needle blipped quite dramatically every five(?) seconds or so. Everyone in the lab gathered round and tried to come up with an explanation, but one of the older guys looked out of the window and pointed to the radar dish rotating at the far end of the grounds.

jonfairbairn, to photography
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

Concrete corner.
Antony Gormley exhibition at Houghton Hall, Norfolk May 2024.
@photography #Photography #Minimalism

digitalraven, to random
@digitalraven@retro.pizza avatar

I hate to have to link to the x-birdsite, but https://twitter.com/ToughSf/status/1769958999279927787

Rocket propellants are often fun. This one is designed to fuck things up on a magnitude that's up there with Project PLUTO, by using elemental fluorine reacting with liquid lithium heated by cesium-137.

For when you absolutely positively have to fuck literally everything that so much as looks at your exhaust funny.

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@NormanDunbar @HairyChris @digitalraven rather, it likes everything rather too much!

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@NormanDunbar @pkraus @HairyChris @digitalraven It seems like they get along quite well in some interesting relationships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fluoride

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Dinner:

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@cstross I tend to have Maltesers when in Stuttgart

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

The danger off drawing conclusions from polling;

the example of the debate.

A simple Q. produces one sort of response, a more nuanced Q. something a little different;

it comes down to whether the Q. is framed as a general issue of being able to pass on wealth to the following generation tax-free, or accepting that it will be taxed & asking by how much;

the former makes it seem people do not want , but the latter reveals a desire for fairness & taxation of inheritance.

jonfairbairn,
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@TerryHancock @ChrisMayLA6 The usual expectation would be tax bands, but this produces perverse cut-off points.
Tax should be a continuous function, zero at zero and tending toward 100% as the amount exceeds n*median wage.
But I suspect most politicians don't even know what a continuous function is!

jonfairbairn, to photography
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

Around 1986 I started to think that I was taking photographs that hardly anyone would want to see and mostly stopped photography for a while.
Lately I've seen some shots on here that have made me think that there might be an audience here, so here's one I took on a trip to NYC in August that year. I had been at a conference, so the film I had in the camera was higher ISO than ideal, but so it goes.
@photography
Nikon EM, scanned film, colours adjusted in Photoshop

antinomy, to random

OK so - first photo with the 720nm IR filter (on the Lumix DMC-FX10). Handheld and it's a damp wet day today so circumstances less than ideal.
But - why is it red? Help Please?
@keithdevereux

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@antinomy @keithdevereux
I'm not sure I understand, but isn't red what you would expect? If the filter cuts everything bluer than 720nm, the red sensors are the only ones that will get excited.

ChrisMayLA6, to sciencefiction
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Idle curiosity:

In my recent reading of the series (ongoing) & other in my (relatively recent) return to the genre, I have noticed a general use of the term the 'gravity well' as a way of describing mostly (but occasionally other planets/objects with strong gravity)... anyone any idea who first used this term?

@bookstodon

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon The earliest use of the phrase mentioned in the OED is 1966 R. S. Heinlein Moon is Harsh Mistress (1967), but I suspect that the OED doesn't trawl scientific literature, where Heinlein may have encountered it.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Hello? Prank Police? I would like to report a murder. https://a.co/d/d6zFqNs

jonfairbairn,
@jonfairbairn@hostux.social avatar

@bencurthoys @neurobashing @cstross
Back in 1977 I made a thing we called a glurk box. It was a metal box about 400 by 200 by 100mm with a mains cable out of it. When plugged in it waited for a set time, then beeped (well, went peeew on a falling note) quietly. Later it would beep louder. And so on in crescendo. If unplugged it fired a flashbulb on a balloon causing flash and bang.
Typical usage in the Marconi Hostel was to plug it in under someone's bed.
I rather disapprove of the idea now!

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