Mastodon Feed: Posts

Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):

cstross@wandering.shop ("Charlie Stross") wrote:

Remember folks, ChatGPT lies with total conviction about easily verified facts, like this claim that solar eclipses can't happen anywhere in our solar system.

https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF/112088372260024798

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

People are really bad at purging garbage from their lives.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/03/13/people-are-good-at-producing-vomit-all-on-their-own/

Attachments:

• Andrew Tate (remote)

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Once you start seeing through the AI facade, you can't avoid seeing it everywhere.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/03/13/at-least-you-quickly-know-to-not-bother-reading-the-rest/

Attachments:

• AI garbage in a scientific paper (remote)

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

All of us internet-addicted folk and humans in general ought to be dismayed at seeing how the AI companies are regurgitating our work.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/03/13/the-ai-apocalypse-is-already-here/

Attachments:

• Dog vomit (remote)

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

bstacey@icosahedron.website ("Blake C. Stacey") wrote:

I have deemed the Lulu.com printing of my *Calculus Made Easy* revised edition to be good enough. So, I am making it available to order here at cost:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/silvanus-thompson-and-blake-stacey/calculus-made-easy-third-edition/paperback/product-84zdpvr.html

It is available electronically (PDF and LaTeX) via my blog:

https://www.sunclipse.org/?p=3194

#mathematics #calculus

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

First attempt with two continuous tunsgten lights. I've used the second to accentuate the hair with a pink gel, but in hindsight, maybe should've used it for fill to reduce the contrast on the shadows.

📷 Pentax 6x7
🎞️ Kodak Portra 400
🔭 Takumar 105mm/2.4
💃 Wife

#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #MediumFormat

Attachments:

• A beautiful woman with dark hair, wearing blue lingerie and a beige blazer, sitting cross-legged on a lounge chair while holding a black cat in her arms. The cat is giving you, the viewer, a side eye.

Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):

SmudgeTheInsultCat@mas.to ("Smudge The Insult Cat 🐀") wrote:

Attachments:

• irwin @irwin I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Gopher, Netscape with frames, the first Browser Wars. Searching for pages with AltaVista, pop-up windows self-replicating, trying to uninstall RealPlayer. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. (remote)

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

My post is up and it's doing okay. Can y'all just tag me every once in a while and remind me not to read the comments

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

Remember when it came out that #Meta was planting fake stories about TikTok in the news? Which implied that journalists lied, editors, published the lie, and then nothing at all happened about it?

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

A day late and a dollar short, I wrote about the #cloud.

Silicon Valley enjoys mythologizing its technologies because it creates the illusion that no one's in charge. They breathe sentience into their chatbots, and gift autonomy to their algorithms so that they may toy with our mental health and set fire to the planet without ever having to hold themselves accountable.

#Google #Amazon #Microsoft #Meta

https://fromjason.xyz/p/notebook/any-technology-indistinguishable-from-magic-is-hiding-something/

Reblogged by isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:"):

thegiddystitcher@sunny.garden ("Michelle / The Giddy Stitcher") wrote:

Nine years today, I actually can't believe it's been so long already.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for your solidly, relatably flawed characters.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for making me laugh every single time no matter how many rereads.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for writing strong women.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for my inability to ever pronounce "pun" correctly.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for teaching me what sort of human I wanted to grow up to be.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for The Hedgehog Song.

Thank you Terry Pratchett for everything, you are very much missed.

"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken"

#GNUTerryPratchett #Discworld

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

finished usual local voice net on 50.250MHz USB, then ran Zoom mtg with parallel weekly @ROCDIGI #JS8 group on 14.078MHz

fun to play on radios

#amateurradio

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

Okay, enough of this nonsense. I'm going to run a bath.

Reblogged by mbrubeck@mefi.social:

derwinmcgeary@octodon.social ("серафими многоꙮчитїи") wrote:

Wait... True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994).

Did Quentin Tarantino spend his early career in a bookshop and did we miss out on Science Fiction & Fantasy (1995) and Gardening (1996)?

Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):

Whisperwind@kind.social wrote:

@fromjason wild thought: at least in terms of hardware and usage, BlackBerry (specifically the Bold 9000) had the best mobile keyboard solution and we’ve never truly recovered from that loss.

I love my giant candy bar screen but I want that keyboard back, too. Then maybe I could get some damn work done.

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

How the folks at Apple aren't just completely embarrassed by the state of the iOS keyboard is beyond me.

Hardware start-ups: you want to make a billion dollars? Make a mobile device we can write and edit on.

For the love of God almighty.

Reblogged by mbrubeck@mefi.social:

Devils_Rancher@octodon.social ("Your name no is Blackstone") wrote:

Fuck it, we’re doing five wolves.

mbrubeck@mefi.social wrote:

Oh, the things I have seen! Oh, the stuff I perceive!
I've seen things that you people wouldn't believe.
Some tall and some small, and some medium-size.
Oh, if only you saw what I've seen with your eyes!

I saw attack ships burning, off the shoulder of Orion.
(If you see Orion ships for sale, think twice before you buy 'em.)

Near Tannhauser's gate one night I waited in the dark
and when I squinted carefully I thought I saw a spark.
What made the spark, you ask? A designated spark-emitter?
I think I know what made it: I was watching c-beams glitter!

The off-world colonies are where they say new lives await you:
A chance to have adventures and begin with a clean slate too.
"More life? Yes, please!" said I, though I suspected all along:
The light that's twice as bright can only burn for half as long.

Those moments will be lost in time, like teardrops in the rain.
It's time to say goodbye; I won't be seeing *you* again!

kornel ("Kornel") wrote:

#HTTP content negotiation has some unwritten rules for images. `Accept: image/png, */*` technically allows image/avif, but that’s not a wise interpretation.
Except what a caching proxy is supposed to do when the origin only sends AVIF?

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

owa ("Open Web Advocacy") wrote:

Apple has caved yet again in the EU, this time for direct download. Browsers need both be allowed to offer direct download and control the update mechanism without scare screens.

Another DMA win!

https://9to5mac.com/2024/03/12/iphone-app-store-changes-web-distribution-more/

keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri") wrote:

Probably being (or trying to be) a SciFi author makes me a bit "choosy", but I can justify the creation of something like Rebel Moon on Netflix.
How can somebody generate a so high pile of YouKnowWhat ??

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

well yeah... it ain't how high the elephant flies that is amazing, it is that it flies at all. my first attempt at a GUI app that talks with #OpenAI seems to actually work! color me amaze-balls

#GPT #Rust

Attachments:

• 3105ba3d991a4142.mp4 (remote)

xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:

i wish there were software that could take a series of "slides" and allow you to "present" them as a "deck"

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

bitflipped@mastodon.world ("Cameron") wrote:

Signal this to all towers, not logged.

He’d never have wanted to go home. He was a real linesman. His name is in the code, in the wind in the rigging and the shutters. Haven’t you ever heard the saying “A man’s not dead while his name is still spoken?"

#GNUTerryPratchet #Discworld #SpeakHisName

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

This winter has been a dud in so many ways.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/03/12/yet-another-example-of-our-disappointing-winter/

Attachments:

• Klunker awaiting the spring thaw (remote)

Reblogged by pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑"):

AnarchoCatgirlism@transfem.social ("anarcho-catgirlism") wrote:

Don’t fuck with moon dust. No seriously, do not fuck with moon dust.

Absent any moisture or atmosphere, millennia of asteroid impacts have turned lunar regolith (soil) into a fine powder of razor sharp, glass-like particles. What’s more, the solar wind imparts an electric charge on the dust, causing it to cling to any and every surface it touches through static electricity. On earth, sand tends to get smoother over time as wind and water tumble the grains about, eroding their sharpness. Not so on the moon – lunar dust is sharp and deadly. This is Not A Good Time if you’re an explorer looking to visit our celestial neighbor.

During Apollo, the astronauts faced a plethora of unexpected issues caused by dust. It clung to spacesuits and darkened them enough that exposure to sunlight overheated the life support systems. Dust got in suit joints and on suit visors, damaging them. It ate away layers of boot lining. It covered cameras. Upon returning to the cabin, astronauts attempting to brush it off damaged their suit fabric and sent the dust airborne, where it remained suspended in the air due to low gravity.

Inhaling moon dust causes mucus membranes to swell; every Apollo astronaut who stepped foot on the moon reported symptoms of “Lunar Hay Fever.” Sneezing, congestion, and a “smell of burnt gunpowder” took days to subside. Later Apollo missions even sent a special dust brush with the team to help clean each other and equipment. We don’t know exactly how dangerous the stuff is, but lunar regolith simulants suggest it might destroy lung and brain cells with long-term exposure. 1In fact the dust is so nasty that it destroyed the vacuum seals of sample return containers. We no longer have any accurate samples of lunar dust, “Every sample brought back from the moon has been contaminated by Earth’s air and humidity […] The chemical and electrostatic properties of the soil no longer match what future astronauts will encounter on the moon.” 2Whats worse, the solar-charged dust gets thrown up off the moon’s surface via electrostatic forces. The moon doesn’t technically have an atmosphere, but it does have a thin cloud of sharp dust itching to cling to anything it can find.

And it probably isn’t just the moon. “A 2005 NASA study listed 20 risks that required further study before humans should commit to a human Mars expedition, and ranked "dust" as the number one challenge.” 3The coolest solution I’ve heard about in next-gen spacesuit design is a mesh of woven wires layered into the suit. When activated, the wire mesh would form an anti-static electric field that repels dust. Quite literally a force field. 4 #astronomy #apollo #moon #lunardust

Attachments:

• A photo of the lunar rover vehicle taken from behind, centered on the right rear wheel. A replacement fender is haphazardly attached. A dust-coated originally blue box is mounted above the wheel, and a suited up astronaut is driving the vehicle. The astronauts suit is also covered in lunar dust. https://www.nasa.gov/history/alsj/picture.html (remote)
• An astronaut stands on lunar soil to the right of frame, tending to surface experiments filled with tubing and wires. The boots of their spacesuit are deeply blackened from a coating of lunar dust. https://www.nasa.gov/history/alsj/picture.html (remote)
• Astronaut Gene Cernan sits in his spacesuit, helmet off, inside the Apollo 17 module. Various knobs, tubes, and buttons can be seen behind him. His suit is completely covered in black lunar dust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#cite_note-16 (remote)
• Two microscopic images of lunar dust particles. “Figure 13-1. Examples of lunar dust grains. – LEFT: Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a typical lunar agglutinate. Note the sharp edges, reentrant surfaces, and micro-craters. Smaller grains, which are less than 1 μm in diameter, are attached to this particle, and are also seen as loose grains in the upper portion of the image. RIGHT: SEM image of a lunar agglutinate fragment that was removed from the outer surface of Harrison Schmitt’s EVA suit.” https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/evidence/reports/lunar%20dust.pdf (remote)

xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:

kind of obsessed with the fact that Diane Warren's wikipedia article has chunky blocks of links like this and yet not a WORD about her writing the Enterprise theme song "faith of the heart"

Attachments:

• Long paragraph of a wikipedia article featuring a list of dozens and dozens of wikilinked artist names for whom Diane Warren has written songs (remote)

collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:

I've been using Tailwind for nearly a year and a half, every single day, and I'm still waiting for the productivity to kick in.

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

fossifoundation ("FOSSi Foundation") wrote:

It's the second Tuesday of the month, and we all know what that means. A new action-packed issue of El Correo Libre, the world's best newsletter about Free and Open Source Silicon. This time we have academics from EU and US demanding FOSSi funding, new presentations at Latch-Up, Turing complete origami and much more.

https://fossi-foundation.org/blog/2024-03-12-ecl72

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Adam Lee's Daylight Atheism is now on Freethoughtblogs!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/03/12/everyone-say-hello-to-adam-lee/

Attachments:

• Adam Lee (remote)