@swart@mastodon.cloud
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

swart

@swart@mastodon.cloud

Retired software engineer, formerly enthusiastic about all things computer, but now less so. Climate alarmist. Friend of old dogs, lifelong learner of new tricks.

North Vancouver 🇨🇦

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

philpem, to random
@philpem@digipres.club avatar

Pulled the spectrum analyser apart ... the power supply has some popped electrolytics inside. Sod it, whole thing's getting recapped. New caps ordered, should be here for the end of the week all being well.
The Agilent VSA is going on the bench next, but I'd like to finish getting the Advantest going first, because I need it for the CATV project.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@philpem @brouhaha how effective is recapping? Sounds expensive and time consuming, but what do you do next if it doesn’t work?

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

It still gets me the Bible Jesus is a homeless socialist with brown skin, hangs out with 12 dudes and a Prostitute, tells rich people to pay their taxes and give their wealth to the poor, tells the religious leaders that they need to love everyone equally, gets a whip and goes hog on people using religion to sell stuff, and then straight up gets murdered for these beliefs. Yet somehow churches act like he's some kind of Conservative Haircut in khakis and a button up, who would support cutting welfare programs, and would preach Prosperity Gospel.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@paninid @AlexanderVI I have Umberto Eco to thank for turning me on to Hypatia

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@paninid @AlexanderVI this bit from her Wikipedia page is pretty amazing

ai6yr, to Aviation
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

ABC7: United flight makes emergency landing at LAX after suspected hydraulic failure https://abc7.com/united-flight-makes-emergency-landing-at-los-angeles-international-airport-after-reports-of-suspected-hydraulics-failure/14505488/

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@EugestShirley @ai6yr at least it wasn’t a bird or a ground crew member, this time.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

Why is there a sudden epidemic of planes falling apart in the sky and on the runway?

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@carnage4life Aviation safety is a zero interest rate phenomenon

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Some absolutely staggering numbers in this report on China’s investments in clean energy in 2023:

  • $890bn investment in clean-energy is almost as large as total global investments in fossil fuel supply in 2023 – similar to the GDP of Switzerland or Turkey

  • The manufacturing boom has pushed down the cost of solar panels 42% year-on-year – a dramatic drop even compared to the historical average of around 17% per year, and battery by an even steeper 50%.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-was-top-driver-of-chinas-economic-growth-in-2023/

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

Just letting everyone know that I’ve safely avoided hearing Mariah Carey this Xmas.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@dgar same. I also avoided Wham! and Paul McCartney. It’s a Festivus miracle!

uastronomer, (edited ) to random
@uastronomer@mastodon.monoceros.co.za avatar

Gathered the family around the TV last night to watch Scrooged. I'd never seen it before, my wife had watched it as a kid.

It's not very good. I usually think of Bill Murray as a comedian, but this film didn't make any of us laugh. The kids were bored - they all wandered off one by one to go watch something else on their phones. The main character, whose name I can't remember 24 hours later, was horrible, and unlikable, and his redemption moment at the end was terrible.

I mean, he ends up crashing the set of his channel's annual live performance of "Charles Dickens' Scrooge" (I guess that, back in 1988, A Christmas Carol was still under copyright?) and just... goes off on this weird rambling drunken rant that makes no sense.

It's like Bill Murray ad-libbed the whole scene while massively drunk - stumbling over his words, rambling incoherently, circling around and never seeming to settle on a point...

It was weird and uninspiring and unfunny and the way all these people who he had pissed off (including a shotgun-toting Bobcat Goldthwait who he had fired on Christmas Eve) just suddenly loved him just didn't make sense.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@uastronomer I guess I’m glad I watched the muppets version instead, even though I found Michael Caine underwhelming after everything I’d heard about it

jerry, to random

I’ve temporarily silenced mastodon.world on Infosec.exchange, fedia.social, and infosec.town (still not sure how to do this in akkoma, tbh). They seem to have the same spam actor that Mastodon.social did over the weekend. Guessing most of the larger instances will get a visit from them sooner or later.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@jerry how do I know if my instance has been blocked, or if my admins have blocked instances where there are people I follow? Does everything just go dark?

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@jerry thanks. I guess I can do some digging. I really don’t know anything about the people who run this one.

amoroso, (edited ) to Lisp
@amoroso@fosstodon.org avatar

Did you ever use Medley Interlisp?

https://interlisp.org

#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@amoroso I was lucky enough to use it on a Xerox workstation for a summer project in my first undergraduate year

futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I look at a lot of electronics kits and I have... concerns about this "DIY Bottle Humidifier"

Is this some kind of psyop from IP66-69 fans designed to traumatize young people into making everything waterproof "just in case". ?

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@futurebird is that alcohol? I bet it would make a really cool candle

taylorlorenz, to random
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social avatar

Just dropped a new video on my YouTube!

SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON YOUTUBE for all new tech and online culture stories and commentary
https://youtube.com/@TaylorLorenz

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@taylorlorenz do you have a podcast? I could check but I try to avoid YouTube even though I’m sure it would be fun to watch

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Meta "force feeding" Threads to Facebook users. 🤔 https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-promoting-threads-posts-on-facebook-and-theres-no-way-to-opt-out-202057606.html?guccounter=1

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr I deleted the Instagram app when it kept spamming me that people I knew “wanted” me to create a Threads account. Nothing pisses me off like someone using a computer to lie to me.

ai6yr, to chile
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

BBC: The Guinness World Records has crowned Pepper X as the hottest chili pepper in the world, dethroning the Carolina Reaper chili pepper after 10 years. #chilepepper #chile #hot #spicy https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67136085

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr it’s rituals all the way down

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I lived in NYC on 9/11. It was bad. Scary watching the way the country changed, and was shaped to change. But, in the days after the attack I remember thinking. "Well, at lest the people who did this won't go unpunished. They will be found." I thought it was a silver lining on all the vengeance in the air.

Heh.

Boy was I wrong about that. American pain & anger was shaped to serve all manner of purposes. The one person most people agreed was "responsible" roamed free for years.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@futurebird the Iraq war was the forethought

ai6yr, (edited ) to hamradio
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Just heard VR2XAN in Hong Kong (!) On 10m #hamradio. All the way around the globe! (Sideband!)

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr I’m going to need a bigger radio

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

🤔 "Silent walking"? "walking without headphones or any audio distractions." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-08/silent-walking-taking-off-on-tiktok-boosting-youth-mental-health/102938224

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr in a world of Georges, be a Hazel

ai6yr, (edited ) to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Brains! BrAINZ!!! (ps. they're early by two minutes. I was still googling "brain recipes")

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr all quiet up here in Canada :)

timbray, to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

Upgraded to Sonoma earlier today.
Waiting to notice a difference…

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@timbray did you try screen sharing? I found the mouse tracking and screen resolution chaotic, but that could be my own weird setup.

SwiftOnSecurity, to random

UX designers who eliminated the filesystem from user consciousness in name of simplicity ruined the world and are morally culpable for shriveling minds of children who are unable to tackle the challenges of today thanks to a choice sold as advocacy for the user but was ultimately motivated by control of a disempowered customer.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@SwiftOnSecurity Von Neumann knew what was best for children

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Well if you ask me the entire system of driving is criminal so I'm not phased by this.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@finley Some people are born Null, others have Null thrust upon them.

douglasvb, to california
@douglasvb@mastodon.social avatar

It's a bit smokey in tonight. Looks like it's coming down from northern Cali?

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr @douglasvb drove through Sorrento last week, it was horrible, burned out vehicles and homes alongside the road, despondent hydro crews replacing burned out lines, and hundreds of vehicles speeding through as if nothing mattered, while helicopters continued to pass overhead, dropping tiny buckets of water on smoke plumes above hot spots that seemed endlessly scattered through the hills

brouhaha, to random
@brouhaha@mastodon.social avatar

I formerly only used reading glasses, so I'm accustomed to taking them off when I'm not reading. Now I have prescription bifocals, so I keep taking them off when I should leave them on. I suppose it will take a while to break the habit.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@brouhaha I had progressives for years, finally ditched them in favor of reading glasses for computer work. I would rather choose the right tool for the job (I’m still lucky enough that there are some things I can do without glasses at all)

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Tremendous thread for supply chain data nerding out

From: @badlogic
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@badlogic/111071396799790275

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@badlogic do Canadian grocery stores have APIs like this? The fact that this was possible is astonishing to me

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