whistlewright ???? - whistlewright@rumbly.net

whistlewright ????

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 13:56:36 -0400 from zap

For over a frakkin year I have had a booger of a time getting svg files that I made in a text editor to scale at all. Today for the first time I noticed that the word is "viewBox" not "viewbox." UGH! That makes all the difference in the world.

Here is today's play file so far. It has some vertical text that a web browser can read but zap doesn't know what to do with. Overall I am pretty dang happy with my drawing from a text editor.

Cyborg 2-A ✅

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 14:51:57 -0400 from libertious

nice work. zap doesn't seem to display nicely on dark theme

whistlewright ????

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 16:47:58 -0400 from zap

No it doesn't. I switched mine back to the light theme so I could see it.

whistlewright ????

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 18:57:17 -0400 last edited: Sun, 20 Mar 2022 19:00:59 -0400 from zap

Well, hell, I can't get the updated pic to show up in zap now... I guess I broke the internet. Everyone go home now...

EDIT- I also can't figure out how to open this in an Android browser. I used to be able to do that easily but I guess it is taboo in the newer versions.

whistlewright ????

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:34:32 -0400 from zap

Bumped into this a couple days ago. Think the computer missed it by 18 years. M.I.T. Computer Program Predicts in 1973 That Civilization Will End by 2040

Image/photo

In 1704, Isaac Newton predicted the end of the world sometime around (or after, 'but not before') the year 2060, using a strange series of mathematical calculations. Rather than study what he called the “book of nature,” he took as his source the supposed prophecies of the book of Revelation.

whistlewright ????

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 19:51:34 -0400 from zap

Just got an email congratulating me for having a blog on live journal for 21 years.

I bet I forgot that I had that 20 1/2 years ago.

whistlewright ????

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 22:23:32 -0400 from zap

LJ probably isn't cool anymore. Isn't owned by Russians now?

Marshall Sutherland

Marshall Sutherland

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 23:16:35 -0400 from hubzilla

Russians bought it so long ago that someone else might have bought it since. I think I deleted my account long ago, perhaps around that time.

whistlewright ????

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 23:31:51 -0400 from zap

I actually signed into mine to see what was there. I couldn't figure out how to see old posts on my phone

whistlewright ????

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 18:15:28 -0400 from zap

Had some help with the yard clean up today

whistlewright ????

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 16:03:26 -0400 from zap

I am not a news junkie anymore. I may have been one back in the 80s and 90s with the start of the War on Terror and the end of the Cold War but I can just barely even tell you what the headlines are these days.

But...

I have some interest in the Russo-Ukraine War and would like to get some information. I keep running into paywalls. Is this what the news is like all the time? You read a paragraph and then are told either to subscribe or to login. How can news junkies stand it? This is ridiculous. I'd go broke paying to know what I really think.

I think I will go back to my novel.

Christopher

Christopher

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 16:43:11 -0400 from hubzilla

@whistlewright ðŸ—¿ It's quite annoying. I am like you, where I used to love knowing the news and no longer follow it so strictly. But I've found that if I download the BBC or NPR apps, there is no paywall.
Anymore, it's so hard to find a trustworthy source. I cheat. My buddy is quite neutral and reads all the news to get both sides of the story and then puts it together to find truth... so I just ask him now. Ha ha ha

whistlewright ????

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 15:44:19 -0400 from zap

Noun
papanatismo m (plural papanatismos)

excessive admiration

whistlewright ????

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 11:13:41 -0400 from zap

When I got the new computer a couple of weeks ago I had thought about throwing all of my digital files, email, bookmarks, books, videos, pics, etc away and starting over. I didn't. I was afraid of losing something important.

I was going through my bookmarks this morning and about a third of the sites that I have bookmarked no longer exist. May I should have just started over fresh with the new computer.

whistlewright ????

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 15:44:02 -0400 from zap

Call it a hunch but I bet that this is supposed to be a quiet deal too....

Seven Samurai : Akira Kurosawa : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Image/photo

One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate...

lotfi

lotfi

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 04:36:48 -0400 from socialwebs

I always hesitated to watch it because of the duration (200 minutes for the longer version). So for now, I've been satisfied with the Western adaptation: The Magnificent Seven ????

whistlewright ????

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 11:57:35 -0400 from zap

I don't believe that I have ever seen either the long or the short version of Seven Samurai. I have seen the Magnificent Seven but that was a long time ago. If I were to watch it today it'd be like watching it the first time.

ssshh don't tell anyone

whistlewright ????

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 09:11:30 -0400 from zap

Max Headroom - Complete Series : George Stone, Rocky Morton, Annabel Jankel : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

In the future, an oligarchy of television networks rules the world. Even the government functions primarily as a puppet of the network executives, serving...

Giac El Vecio

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 14:42:37 -0400 from Diversi Spiritus

Wow

mike

mike

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 15:23:37 -0400 from y

bookmarked

whistlewright ????

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:12:08 -0400 from zap

HELP please

I find that I need to scan documents using my Android phone. I need y'all to recommend one. I do prefer FOSS programs and I do check for creepy permissions.

Thanks

show all 6 comments

chava (archive)

chava (archive)

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 17:32:36 -0400 from nomadica

I remember using Microsoft Office Lens some years ago which I considered really good for that purpose. Even if the picture was taken at an angle, it would adjust it to a flat PDF. I uninstalled years ago and I've not needed this function since then so haven't really kept up with FOSS alternatives.

Marshall Sutherland

Marshall Sutherland

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 18:07:25 -0400 from hubzilla

My stock photo app will do flattening. I don't know what is stock for a Samsung S10, so I don't know if it is Samsung-specific or not.

Marshall Sutherland

Marshall Sutherland

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 18:09:26 -0400 from hubzilla

I expect that a print to PDF will just be a PDF with a picture on the page. Are you wanting it to go through an OCR process so that there is actual text being rendered instead of a picture of text?

whistlewright ????

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 10:45:06 -0400 from zap

Ok, pardon my stupidity, but what is discord? This online class that I am taking uses it.

show all 5 comments

chava (archive)

chava (archive)

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 11:59:53 -0400 from nomadica

Yeah, there's really not too much to figure out once you're in there. Mainly just gotta figure out how to join your class group which probably consists of an invite code/link.

RockyIII

RockyIII

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 12:05:44 -0400 from hubzilla

@whistlewright ðŸ—¿
voice and video calls by discord got quid popular... also among gamers...

have a look at the

https://discord.com/privacy
https://discord.com/terms

and decide if you want to join...

an ambitious online class should use something different

whistlewright ????

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 09:22:28 -0400 from zap

Well surprise surprise... I had already created a discord account and signed up for the study group for my class. It is so fun being on the old side of young. You forget the stuff you did so long ago.

HAPPY PUBLIC DOMAIN DAY!!!

whistlewright ????

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 19:15:40 -0400 from zap

Today is Public Domain Day. Among the gems added to the public domain today is one of my personal faves, The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and a little silent move starring Clara Bow called Mantrap. I just finished watching it for the first time. It was fun. #publicdomain

Image/photo

whistlewright ????

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 16:22:16 -0400 from zap

So I found 12ft â€“Â Hop any paywall the other day.

Show me a 10ft paywall, Iâ€™ll show you a 12ft ladder.

Cyborg 2-A ✅

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:45:13 -0400 from libertious

Happy Hollidays, Mr. Whistlewright.

Giac El Vecio

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:57:39 -0400 from Diversi Spiritus

+1

whistlewright ????

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:25:42 -0400 from zap

Well, today I moved my "post apocalyptic literature" library to the "current events" section.

mike

mike

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 21:18:48 -0400 from y

I was thinking to migrate it to Classical History except apocalypse has been watching too many vampire movies and keeps coming back.

whistlewright ????

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 21:27:44 -0400 from zap

If you named your penis after the last TV show you watched what would the name be?

show all 6 comments

hEARt PhoniX

hEARt PhoniX

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 11:50:04 -0400 from hubzilla

Extra 3.

Make of that what you will.

:laughing:

Marshall Sutherland

Marshall Sutherland

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 12:26:41 -0400 from hubzilla

Lupin

hEARt PhoniX

hEARt PhoniX

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 13:58:24 -0400 from hubzilla

OT:
Ever heard of Puppetry Of The Penis?
Attention: link though not sexual, obviously #NSFW

earthquake in haiti

whistlewright ????

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 19:04:03 -0400 from zap

Hey @Waitman Gobble are you copestic after the earthquake?

Not sure of my geography of the island, you might be to hell and gone from the epicenter

Giac El Vecio

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 08:43:34 -0400 from Diversi Spiritus

He said : "I did not notice it here" ( from Signal)

Cyborg 2-A ✅

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 10:43:17 -0400 from libertious

I probably slept through it. I suppose it was felt here. We are within Tsunami danger zone, about 2 mi from the coast. Fortunately there was no Tsunami with this one.

whistlewright ????

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 15:17:15 -0400 from zap

I think, that I read that a tropical storm was headed straight for you, or at least headed for the part of Haiti which was hardest hit by the quake, tomorrow.

whistlewright ????

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 12:27:27 -0400 from zap

Just had a meeting to tell me that I have a meeting later today

show all 12 comments

whistlewright ????

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 16:36:08 -0400 from zap

I was thinking today about some of the more idiotic things my employer has said to me over the last 25 years and number one on the list is "one computer should not talk to another computer. That shit ought to be illegal!" He was angry and quite serious about that statement.

I then asked him what he thought the internet was. He didn't know. So as simply and calmly as I could I explained that any computer network was just a bunch of computers connected together and talking to one another and that the internet was the mother of all computer networks.

To this day, 10 or 15 years later he believes that Google and Facebook are in his computer (not in the paranoid OMG sense like I have "SOME DOOFUS LEFT A GOOGLE COOKIE IN MY COMPUTER" but in the sense that ALL of Google actually resides in his computer locally

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 02:35:39 -0400 from hubzilla

Sigh. Given managers are supposed to care about managing people, money and their domain, it is weird how many managers squander all three without anyone calling their bluff. http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html - Paul Graham's article "Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule" may help any maker articulate to the manager why some meetings or at least meeting times will lead to less productivity.

Each type of schedule works fine by itself. Problems arise when they meet.

This one is frequent:

When you're operating on the manager's schedule you can do something you'd never want to do on the maker's: you can have speculative meetings. You can meet someone just to get to know one another. If you have an empty slot in your schedule, why not? Maybe it will turn out you can help one another in some way.

I have been on both sides of this one at different times.

Developers really need to get their head around this one, not from the manager's point of view, but from the business's point of view, because money either pours in or out according to how these meetings go. The manager wants the developer there to provide confidence, ideas and solutions vis-a-vis their external partner. Developers saying out loud they hate all kinds of meetings and think they are a waste of time with pride in their voice in the meeting may be a sign of independence and stick it to the man hacker culture, but the manager having to smooth of over these outbursts gets old quite fast. This has happened in meetings I have been in, both as the responsible person and as the external person. You are there to help the business, not be weirdly silent nor weirdly counterculture.

Managers really need to get their head around this one too, not from the developer's point of view, but also from the business's point of view, and for the same reason. As Paul suggests, the manager's job is to schedule, so why not schedule these speculative meetings at a point in time convenient for the developers, e.g. in the afternoon after the day's work is done, or not at all - is there another way the manager can come prepared for the meeting? Pre-meetings to pre-meetings block developer flow. Managers' ego is not the way to flow. Managers must learn to get out of the way, when they get out of the way, the river may flow.

I know both sides have strong opinions about these issues, I also know not enough is done to find workable solutions to them in many shops. Being able to describe and talk about what you need are good first steps in the right direction.

hEARt PhoniX

hEARt PhoniX

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 02:51:21 -0400 from hubzilla

True story.
I was told by soneone who suported small businesses back in the 90s. They had implemented a backup strategy for a small business whose IT infrastructure they were supporting.
Rule number one: Each evening copy the files to a discette. One employer had an unusual need for new discettes, that had everyone scratching their heads.
One day that one employee reported a problem, their PC had broken down in smell and smoke. But luckily they assuered everyone they had created backups regularly as requested and everyone knew how serious they were with backups. In contrast to some colleagues they had fully understod the importance. A new PC was installed and they were asked to copy the files from the discettes onto the new PC. Well, they had none. Hm. Upon inspecting the broken PC it was found that there were heaps of discettes inside, had partially melted and it was immediately clear why the PC had broken down. What remained was the question: "?!???!?"
Upon questioning the employee demonstrated what they had done, as instructed inserted the disc into "the slot". The problem was: they were unable to retrieve them back, hence their requests for new discettes. And "The slot" turned out not to be the discette drive, but some other narrow slot between two blinds. There they had inserted the disks, copied the files (from one place on the hard disk to another) and were fully confident to be absolutely prepared.

Marshall Sutherland

Marshall Sutherland

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 17:01:31 -0400 from hubzilla

He could save a bundle by cancelling that useless internet service. There is no need for it!

whistlewright ????

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 18:05:02 -0400 from zap

Except that all the company files are on Google Drive... Oh wait, that's on his computer!

whistlewright ????

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 18:59:48 -0400 from zap

Find myself needing a book to listen to. Kind of looking for something light, sexy, maybe a spy novel or cheap adventure story. Any suggestions?

show all 10 comments

whistlewright ????

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 18:06:57 -0400 last edited: Wed, 11 Aug 2021 18:09:09 -0400 from zap

Sometimes after a long run of reading "serious" books that make the reader think I really like reading some trashy pop lit with tons of stupidity, cheap dialogue, and tons of gratuitous sex and violence.

You know, the literary equivalent of a pop tart.

I do have standards though, the 50 Shades novels were garbage in about a million ways. Crappy sex scenes, weird plot line and a bad misrepresentation of the BDSM lifestyle.

Also, Stephen King novels are more often than not way to cheesy for me and talk about idiotic dialogue--- I am looking at you The Stand! What a waste of an audible credit!

I guess I am thinking more like a Transformers movie. Pretty girls with a hint of sex, a way over the top plot, and silly heroics.

I am going to read this Rowling book and have fun with it just because Adam suggested it but I am in a weird funky mood

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 18:50:24 -0400 from hubzilla

@whistlewright ðŸ—¿ , that is the one.

Giac El Vecio

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:43:56 -0400 from Diversi Spiritus

I think that Camilleri books are good options for you in this moment

Giac El Vecio

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:54:18 -0400 from Diversi Spiritus

Something light, fun, but great work, Camilleri is a Master

whistlewright ????

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 18:25:20 -0400 from zap

Manuel wrote the following post Sat, 26 Jun 2021 11:25:46 -0400

J.S. Bach: "Open" Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Piano), by Kimiko Ishizaka
J.S. Bach: "Open" Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Piano), by Kimiko Ishizaka

Image/photo

31 track album

#BarocMusic #piano #Bach

whistlewright ????

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 15:57:17 -0400 from zap

ok... messing around with the FSF-approved PureOS a little today. My Debian install is so screwed up I can't even make a bootable flash drive but was able to burn a disc. So far my assessment of PureOS is that there isn't much here. As expected it doesn't have a driver for my wifi (most truly FS systems in my experience do not) but I can USB-tether from my phone if I really need the internet so there is that. Not sure about much else at this point.

Image/photo

A user friendly, secure and freedom respecting OS for your daily usage. With PureOS, you are the only one in control of your digital life. We've created a new, more stable version of PureOS, with the same great privacy protecting features and software but with a more solid foundation. Here's a look at some of the changes: Whether you are a technolo...

hEARt PhoniX

hEARt PhoniX

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 16:54:06 -0400 from hubzilla

I just had a really funny experience with (not) Linux a supported device: I wanted a bluetooth stick that has a detachable antenna. That choice is quite limited, so I ended up buying a device by a company with a strange name and that is "Compatible with multiple systems Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10 (32/64bit)" and "Not support Windows XP / Linux / MacOS". No information on the chipset, nothing. I risked it.

Upon arrival I ckecked the chip, did a quick websearch, downloaded the firmware binary for that Realtek chip, placed it at the appropriate place, did a reboot ... and this stick's antenna is so much better than that laptop's inbuilt one and I can place it at a strategically useful place to get a good reception even on tge upper balcony. That combined with ssh access to access the player ...
I'd love fully free soft- and hardware, but ... that's still a difficult and expensive request.

whistlewright ????

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 18:14:07 -0400 from zap

Way back in the day when I learned that GNU/Linux was not necessarily free software I began to explore fully free software and tried a bunch of different OSs and all of them had issues back then. On some of them videos or music wouldn't play. (I didn't know you could convert files back then.) On some abiword or OpenOffice wouldn't play nice with Microsoft Office which was on the work computer. No FS OS back then would drive any WiFi that I had.

But to tie in to your comment I had one setup where I actually got a printer to work on an experimental OS I was playing with but never got it to work on Windows.

To be honest my heart and mind tell me to stay with FS but I am a man who needs to get stuff done and I do not have a lot of time to mess with stuff that needs a lot of tinkering at work so I have always had a weird hodge-podge of free and proprietary stuffs to keep my workflow flowing.

Cyborg 2-A ✅

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 21:37:51 -0400 from libertious

I put Fedora 34 on a laptop i'm going to use for timing a race, it's pretty cool. I started using Linux with RedHat 5 in the 1990's and since have used Fedora, CentOs, RHEL. But I had RH fatigue and hopped to Debian. Back then it was a nightmare to do an upgrade to a major version. And one time yum (which was/is python based) got clobbered from a system update and stopped working so no more updates.. it think that was the last straw. Major version upgrades are working now i think? And yum is still there they use some other package system I'm learning "DNF".

|