Skip to main content

On the tube. “Can you let the lady off?” Might get old some day, but not yet.

London Overground class 710, quiet. 781ppm CO2

Pretty empty Greater Anglia class 720. 1043ppm CO2. Higher than I’m used to seeing on modern trains.
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Mike
Mike
• •
I really can't get used to those trains. I'm torn between love and hate.
in reply to Mike

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Mike Nice aircon in summer, usually not too crowded. On the other hand 3+2 seating which isn’t the most yielding, and no tables.
@Mike

Italian national anthem is still one of the best. #f1 #monza
#f1 #monza

I know it's only a date and in fact it's quite a nice warm day out there, but I'm kind of sad that it's the first day of meterological Autumn. It feels as if I've lost the summer somehow amidst tiredness and sadness, and not been able to make the most of it for all sorts of random reasons. Worldcon was a massive highlight and perhaps I've got a bit of comedown from that and am feeling sad because I'm still fighting post-Covid tiredness. I dunno. Maybe it's just depression or hormones.

Grima Wormtongue! Only you could be so bold.
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

I wrote about "Past Tense, parts 1 & 2", aka the Bell Riots episodes, from Star Trek Deep Space 9, and how their version of San Francisco in late August 2024 compares to the one we're living through today: cohost.org/vectorpoem/post/711…

the Bell Riots happen in a few days

Rewatched these two episodes and gosh, I simultaneously think the writers deserve a lot of credit for the swings they took, and that they're a great example of the limits inherent in Trek as an ongoing examination of the liberal political imagination…
JP on cohost

reshared this

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Me in the 1990s: This Star Trek TNG episode "Darmok" is ridiculous. These aliens could never travel the galaxy on metaphors.

Me in a 1:1 with my manager just now: Pam, at Dunder Mifflin, her pictures identical.

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

in reply to SaraMG

Claudio Zizza 🦜
Claudio Zizza 🦜
• •
A lot of accidents happen to the Children of Tama because the translation for "watch out!" is "Herett, his attention was low and the threat was very high."

Well, this is a thing. Brazil has banned Twitter, imposing a fine of R$50000 per day for accessing it. noticias.stf.jus.br/postsnotic…

STF determina suspensão do X, antigo Twitter, em todo o território nacional

Medida adotada pelo ministro Alexandre de Moares vale até a empresa cumprir decisões judiciais e pagar as multas fixadas.
noticias.stf.jus.br
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

The ruination of Twitter is hitting crowdfunding projects hard. Which is lousy because that's where so much innovative and interesting writing can be found these days. Do take a look, support if you choose to, and boost the signal, please and thank you.

Over on my blog, details of the latest ZNBLLC Kickstarter
to give you 3 new great anthologies AMPYRIUM: MERCHANT WAR, SKULL X BONES and WERE-2

julietemckenna.com/its-znb-kic…

#writing

It’s ZNB Kickstarter time! Support great stories and an open call for submissions

I mentioned my Ampyrium short story a while ago. I’m thrilled to say I’ll be returning to this fascinating shared world with one of this year’s ZNB anthology projects. As regular readers will know,…
Juliet E. McKenna
#writing

reshared this

I appear to have a file in my downloads folder on how to operate a Solent Fort. (For the purposes of living there or running a hotel or something, rather than defending against Napoleon, which is probably now frowned upon.)
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Adam
Adam
• •
I think if you are attacked by Napoleon even in these times, self-defence is indicated.
in reply to Adam

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Adam They might prosecute you for unlawful possession of heavy artillery afterwards
@Adam
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

TIL that sharks (a group of fish) are an order of magnitude older than Polaris (literally a star)

Sharks: 419 - 359 million years

Polaris (α UMi Aa): 45 - 67 million years

I’ll need to sit down, stare at a wall for a bit, and process this.

in reply to Esther is moving

Tofu Musubi
Tofu Musubi
• •
Just throwing in here that Earth is in space. Your car is a spaceship. Walking from the couch to the refrigerator is a space walk. Go slow to avoid confusing viewers 😀
in reply to Esther is moving

Claudius
Claudius
• •
@piko I come across this piece of information every now and then, and it *keeps* blowing my mind 🤯
@​Piko

This is great and actually explains a few things that I sort of knew but often figured out by trial and error.

I especially like "[USB] has the huge upside that you can generally plug a USB device into your computer without having to spend a lot of time thinking about the details of the interconnect.

Fortunately, USB-C, Thunderbolt, and Lightning have come along to fix that."

Tony Finch

2024-08-29 08:42:02


2021 retro-link! computer.rip/2021-01-12-taking… - Taking this serially.

2021-01-12 taking this serially

computer.rip

reshared this

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

In May this year, Peter Hendy pressured my now-former employer Systra to sack me by threatening them.

Why did he do this? Because I'd highlighted safety and accessibility issues at Euston station. He is unfit for office and should resign.
politico.eu/article/uk-rail-mi…


UK rail minister got engineer sacked for raising safety concerns

Peter Hendy threatened to withhold public contracts while seeking disciplinary action.
Jon Stone (POLITICO)
in reply to Gareth Dennis

Sam Easterby-Smith
Sam Easterby-Smith
• •
I’m kinda astounded at how mild your original comment in the Indy was. Much solidarity, and I’m glad Hendy is reaching the find-out stage.
Unknown parent

NatalyaD
NatalyaD
• •
is there anything else we can do to support you. Atrocious treatment by Hendy and your employer too.

Whenever Government says it’s doing something for hard working people I want to scream “what are you doing for idle layabouts?”

reshared this

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Adam Dalliance
Adam Dalliance
• •
Almost everything they do is for the benefit of idle layabouts like landlords or other owners of capital.
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

I became a councillor to change people’s lives. It left me drained, bewildered and burned out | Kimberly McIntosh

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…


I became a councillor to change people’s lives. It left me drained, bewildered and burned out

A career in politics was my dream, but the pressures were too great. Quitting was best for me and for those I was there to serve, says author Kimberly McIntosh
Kimberly McIntosh (The Guardian)

reshared this

in reply to Zoë O'Connell Zoë O'Connell reshared this.

James Baker
James Baker
• •
What a good article I did 10 years of public service as a Councillor while trying to work and be a good dad and husband and it took its toil on me. We need to make the role into something working people can afford to do.
in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Zoë O'Connell In an ideal world the party would be a valuable resource and support mechanism for helping campaigners and councillors deal with the load. In practice it can be the source of a lot of the pressure. Perhaps unthinkingly, perhaps because the sort of people drawn to public service are the sort of people who find it hard to say no to just one more thing.
@Zoë O'Connell
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

you may not like it but this is what peak language model performance looks like aiweirdness.com/new-paint-colo…

New paint colors invented by neural network - AI WeirdnessCommentShareCommentShare

So if you’ve ever picked out paint, you know that every infinitesimally different shade of blue, beige, and gray has its own descriptive, attractive name.
Janelle Shane (AI Weirdness)

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

in reply to Janelle Shane

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Janelle Shane I don't know what it is about this sort of model's output that cracks me up every time.
@Janelle Shane
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

I just asked a chatbot to provide a third-person narrative of a chef making a specific sauce, to see how it would gender the chef. The chef was male.

You got that right... even ChatGPT fails the Béchamel test.

reshared this

in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Zoë O'Connell
Zoë O'Connell
• •

I did actually ask ChatGPT this and it did indeed do this. Here's the prompt: "Provide a third-person narrative of someone watching a chef making a Béchamel sauce."

What I got back indicates ChatGPT has been reading too many Mills & Boon novels.

in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Zoë O'Connell
Zoë O'Connell
• •

The last two paragraphs contain this:

A soft sigh escaped Evelyn’s lips as she inhaled the subtle, comforting aroma of butter and flour blending with the richness of the milk....

Evelyn’s gaze lingered on the chef’s hands as they worked with practiced ease, never hurried, always deliberate. He tasted the sauce, nodded in quiet satisfaction, and Evelyn knew—without a word being spoken—that the Béchamel had been brought to perfection.

in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Rachel Evans
Rachel Evans
• •
Oh blimey. Excuse me I’m going to have to go for a lie down.
in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Katrien M Michiels
Katrien M Michiels
• •
ah, but you asked for a male sauce there. Its namesake Louis de Béchameil would also have been male (though not a chef...)?

Oof, might be getting toasty up there cupoftea.social/@Dodo_sipping/…

Dodo III.

2024-08-24 07:44:41


I don't want... 🥵😭 (Portugal Northeast)

Unknown parent

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Dodo III. I expect the north to be cooler than the south but it looks like you’re going to be ten degrees hotter!
@Dodo III.
Unknown parent

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Dodo III. The Algarve definitely has those!
@Dodo III.
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Ya know what? I'm gonna toot my own horn today On Here Specifically.

I have already received at least a dozen thankful comments/replies for letting people know they can slow down door closers. A lot of people have been living with irritating bangs in apartment buildings and whatnot.

And thanks to watching a YouTube video, their life is now better. I didn't sell anything to them, I just decided to share some knowledge in my own (hopefully entertaining) way.

reshared this

in reply to Technology Connections

Kate
Kate
• •
This is one of those things that annoys me about the world. Things could be a lot better if someone had just put in a little thought and effort, rather than just slapping the closer on and knocking off for lunch.
Unknown parent

The Turtle of Destiny
The Turtle of Destiny
• •
is there a way to lock those door closers in position?
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Via @ottocr.at on Bluesky:

Putin, after 10 days of Kursk catastrophe, summons Stalin’s ghost:
Stalin: “What’s happened?”
Putin: “Nazis are at Kursk! My army is beaten! What should I do?”
Stalin: “Do like me 1943. Send best Ukrainian troops to the front, and ask the US for arms!”

reshared this

in reply to Charlie Stross

Weekend Editor
Weekend Editor
• •

So in a root cause analysis sense, I'm having trouble deciding if the root cause is (a) invading Ukraine or (b) consulting Necromantic Stalin for advice.

Both pretty bad moves, honestly.

This entry was edited (3 months ago)
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

On my quasi-blog: "Code review antipatterns".

chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtath…

Code review antipatterns

www.chiark.greenend.org.uk

reshared this

in reply to Simon Tatham

Wolf480pl
Wolf480pl
• •

Great article, thanks for writing it!

Though I'd like to ask about an edge case: what do you do if it's a senior dev reviewing a junior dev's patch?

Does that count as permanent or temporary authority?

Is "I want you to learn" a legitimate purpose of it, or an "other goal" ?

Is that an okay situation to criticize based on design principles, or what features should go in the code at all?

in reply to Wolf480pl

Simon Tatham
Simon Tatham
• •
@wolf480pl I think in that situation the senior dev's responsibility is to use a light touch. Certainly teaching is one of the purposes of a code review in that case, but don't try to teach too much in one go, and don't insist on iterating until the patch is every bit as good as your own would be - only good *enough*. The junior dev will reach your skill level when they have all your experience; trying to rush it won't improve things.
@Wolf480pl
in reply to Simon Tatham

congusbongusgames
congusbongusgames
• •

this is a great list of anti patterns, fortunately we have tools and processes to help with many of them!

Like: make it clear which changes are deal breakers and which aren’t - some projects use the “nit” word.

Batch up the review comments and submit in one go when all the changes have been reviewed.

Use code suggestions so the submitter can easily apply small changes.

Normalise putting non breaking changes in a follow up PR.

Does it cause a problem if your surname is Sands and you rise to the rank of Inspector?

Ozzy reshared this.

Air handling on trains, 1 in a series until I get bored or forget. Full but not rammed Great Northern class 387: 920ppm CO2
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Sion [main]
Sion [main]
• •
Honestly just the eInk display is enough, but having a temperature/humidity log through the night is appealing.
in reply to Sion [main]

WOMUMP
WOMUMP
• •
@sparrowsion I think any NDIR CO₂ meter inherently has to measure temperature/humidity/pressure as part of making sense of the IR measurement; but yes I've found the Aranet4's logging of non-CO₂ handy. (Without the phone app; there's good-enough open source code to get at the log.)
@Sion [main]

To make a fair decision about whether to eat the rich, they should send out tasting menus.
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

My books Dreadnought (amazon.com/Dreadnought-Nemesis…) and Sovereign (amazon.com/gp/product/B087YR8X…) are both $1.99 on Amazon today. If you've been waiting to see what the fuss is about, now is a great time to pick them both up. The third book is coming soon!

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

reshared this

Named winds, like the Mistral, or the Nortada, or the Sirocco... We don't really have them in the UK, do we? Although according to the Met Office we have one, the Helm Wind. metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn…

The Helm Wind

The Helm Wind is a strong north-easterly wind hitting the southwest slopes of Cross Fell in Cumbria.
Met Office
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

New cool brand ideas for bathtub brewers:

  • ESTRADIOL…. FOR MEN – MILITARY GRADE – XTREME PURITY (Picture of Usain Bolt operating a rotary saw)
  • My Happy Little Testosterone 💮 For Women 🤗 (vial is soft wrapped in hand-knit pastel satchel)
This entry was edited (3 months ago)

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Final* update on my Visualising the #Hugos thing: now has a proper web page at zoeimogen.github.io/hugo-sanke… which includes all the nomination graphs as well as final round voting.

Camestros Felapton has some more statistics covering the awards too, over at camestrosfelapton.wordpress.co…

*I may add second/third place runoffs at some point as well as previous years but all the copy-pasting has become a bit tedious for now.


Camestros Felapton

bath time imaginings were to no avail
Camestros Felapton
#hugos
in reply to prograft

Zoë O'Connell
Zoë O'Connell
• •
@prograft Yes, I've already done the pre-passdown data for 2nd through 4th place (See github.com/zoeimogen/hugo-sank… for example) but the resulting graph (github.com/zoeimogen/hugo-sank…) is (in my opinion) misleading without the first round transfers so didn't put it on the main web page.

hugo-sankey/2024/best-novel-2.txt at develop · zoeimogen/hugo-sankey

Convert Hugo voting data into sankey graphs. Contribute to zoeimogen/hugo-sankey development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
@prograft
in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Zoë O'Connell
Zoë O'Connell
• •
@prograft Here's where I got to - 2nd place for Best Novel. Round numbers are wrong because this was just a manual edit to see how it looked.
@prograft

The opposite of "trickle down" is "piss up".

Reading the Hugo-Winning "A City on Mars", which refers to a provision in the Colombian constitution declaring Colombian sovereignty over a piece of geostationary orbit. Here's that provision. constituteproject.org/constitu…

Colombia 1991 (rev. 2015) Constitution - Constitute

Colombia's Constitution of 1991 with Amendments through 2015
www.constituteproject.org

Not only do I have Covid, but an insect has bitten me on the nipple. Most rude.
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

In meeting reviewing bugs from our backend testing system.

<Me> This is the class of bugs I was talking about last week. This whole codepath is dead and not used by anyone. We're testing functionality we don't care about. NUKE THE SITE FROM ORBIT.

<coworkers> So.... that's you volunteering to delete this?

<me> (Realizing my hype level) Yeah! Got that Red Diff Energy, baby!

I need that on a Tee shirt.

Red Diff Energy
Let's delete some code

reshared this

in reply to SaraMG

Dan Sugalski
Dan Sugalski
• •

Absolutely, delete the things! Then delete the !@$$@ codegen for some extra meta-deletion energy.

My one last work goal is that my total LOC contributed to the repository is negative.

in reply to SaraMG

Mike J👹🐀 🤘🏻
Mike J👹🐀 🤘🏻
• •
One of my favorite release notes was from Open TTD 14.0: "It took us 2,000 commits to get from 13.4 to 14.0, we touched 140,000 lines of code and removed 74,000 of them. This was all done by over 60 contributors." openttd.org/news/2024/04/13/op…

OpenTTD | News | OpenTTD 14.0

An open source simulator based on the classic game Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features.
www.openttd.org
This entry was edited (3 months ago)

Faintly nonplussed by my inbox shouting "Femmes on tour!" until I noticed it was Strava.
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Blatant nerdsniping bid. Given any two railway stations, you can compute p, the cheapest price of a return ticket between the two, and d, the Levenshtein edit distance between the names of the stations. Find two stations which maximise p/d. And no, "Queen's Park" and "Charing Cross" do not get to omit their "(Glasgow)" and "(London)" disambiguators.

A super off-peak return between Nottingham and Mottingham is ninety quid, but we can surely do better than that?

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

in reply to Conor Mc Bride

tef
tef
• •
i know this is a fun little math puzzle but it did not occur to me that it optimizes for phrases like "perth to porth" which for some reason i find quite funny

These are good for showing what’s going on with Hugo voting. (And why ranking things matters) zoeoconnell.co.uk/@zoe/1129500…

Zoë O'Connell

2024-08-12 16:37:40


OK, here we go: Visualising the #Worldcon #Hugo2024 voting results.

Alternative Title: Why ranked voting matters.

As a quick explanation, the last placed candidate in each round is eliminated and their votes transferred to the next candidate on each ballot.

This is the first place ballot only, the second place is calculated by treating the winner as eliminated and rerunning the election. I have not included the final round runoff against "No Award" as this year that's all uninteresting.


Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Visualising the #Worldcon #Hugo voting - still working on this, but first pass for the Best Fancast voting.

Coode Street Podcast transfers won it for Octothorpe, after a late surge for Worldbuilding for Maschocists fuelled by Publishing Rodeo transfers #Glasgow2024

Original data at glasgow2024.org/wp-content/upl…

Sankey visualisation of the Best Fancast Hugo awards transfers
#hugo #worldcon #Glasgow2024

reshared this

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Zoë O'Connell
Zoë O'Connell
• •
@ajlanes On what grounds, as long as this year's administrator doesn't sit on next year's awards panel?
@Alexandra Lanes
in reply to Zoë O'Connell

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@Zoë O'Connell Good point: it is next year’s committee or subcommittee that’s relevant (WSFS constitution rule 3.13).
@Zoë O'Connell
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Hello, we won a Hugo Award, thank you all for nominating, voting, and most importantly listening. We are so glad to be part of this community and we love you all! #HugoAwards #Worldcon #Glasgow2024
#hugoawards #worldcon #Glasgow2024

reshared this

I realise this is just the difference output looking silly but I am easily amused by Harris’s burst of groceries bsky.app/profile/nytdiff.bsky.…

Editing the Blue-Gray Lady

2024-08-08 15:10:18


Change in Abstract
Before: Donald J. Trump has attacked Kamala Harris with racially loaded insults and a new, confusing nickname. “I would stick to the price of groceries,” one Republican said. After: Donald J. Trump’s allies want him to talk about the issues, but he seems distracted by Kamala Harris’s burst of momentum.

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.

Can we talk about baby Moorhens? 🐥

#BabyBirdGlowUps

A baby Moorhen chick looks adorably tiny sitting atop a body of water, it's dark fluffy feathers stick out haphazardly, catching droplets of water.
An adorable, small fluffy Moorhen chick sat on the water reaches up to its parents beak, tiny wings outstretched in a gesture of "feed me, please!".
An adorable, small, fluffy Moorhen chick sat on the water. It's tiny wings are outstretched in a gesture of "feed me, please!" as it looks up to its parent, who is looking away.
A baby Moorhen, with too-large feet, bald spots and adorable fluffy plumage, walks atop algae covered water.
#babybirdglowups
in reply to RSPB

James Baillie
James Baillie
• •
I wrote a song about them one time 😀 youtube.com/watch?v=on8M4xqK1R…

Little Moorhen (Song for Beatrice)

A song by James Baillie, about small creatures growing up. Dedicated to Beatrice Catchpole-Simmons.Chords and lyrics: https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?t...
YouTube
in reply to RSPB

Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes
•
@RSPB Met this fluff ball while kayaking on the Cam a couple of days ago.
Amidst lots of reeds and leaves stands a small fluffy black blob with a small fluffy black head and a red beak with a yellow end.
@RSPB
⇧