Alan Levine

Veteran of the open web since 1993, still does HTML/coding by hand. Day job at Open Education Global plus crafter of SPLOTs, WordPress jamming, javascript web toys, silly mashups, long winded blog posts, and 70k flickr photos licensed CC0 . Typos are a trademark, a sure fire measure of assurance that AI did not write my stuff.

Public Key

npub1ctjy2x4f83gnva7kn53snzm7m46m46azpf6q9cth3gdj9wap7zuqvsdzdx

NIP-05 Address

cogdog_at_cosocial.ca@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv9ez9r25nc5fkwltf6gcf3dld6ad6aw3q5aqzu9mc5xezhwslpwq7zgfcj

Author Public Key

npub1ctjy2x4f83gnva7kn53snzm7m46m46azpf6q9cth3gdj9wap7zuqvsdzdx

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Last Notes

2024-10-13 01:17:34

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@npub1ahr…m294 That’s slick. In use how would you pass the text to translate? Also who won the game?

2024-10-11 07:08:55

This show won’t stop, view outside our window
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/113/287/522/768/367/236/original/d12cfefb47fc9d4b.jpeg

2024-10-11 05:14:24

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@npub1vfq…57sa right on! Build to last, I have one done in 1994 that is still standing https://mcli.cogdogblog.com/tut/

2024-10-10 14:28:24

Unlocking the Mastodon search gizmos takes your fediverse to next level. Favorites are using "from:me" prefix on search to find stuff you posted and forgot. I was looking for a t-shirt image I was fairly sure I posted. Bingo!
Unlock more search powers https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-search-for-stuff-on-mastodon/
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/113/283/591/153/023/496/original/ca755fde6f6c1bbe.jpg

2024-10-08 21:04:28

@npub10jx…kxg2 says, “What lights? What’s the big deal about lights in the sky? Where?
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/113/273/823/540/528/976/original/f806cb9070194dc4.jpeg

2024-10-07 20:01:34

Just to demonstrate how slow on the uptake I am, just spent way too long trying to figure out how to subscribed to a "podcast" (quotes deliberate) hosted on Spotify. It has no RSS feed nor, as far as I can tell is there any way to listen on another podcatcher.
What the *&*^ kind of podcast has no feed?

2024-09-25 18:35:23

Hey, this tech is cool! BBC Sound Effects https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/ #cogdogcooltech
From my stuff tagged "cooltech" bookmarked in pinboard https://pinboard.in/u:cogdog/t:cooltech/

2024-09-17 18:27:52

Weirdly, both share to mastodon services I use https://shareopenly.org/ and http://mastodonshare.com/ are both belly up. Just me? Is it Mastodon? Is it the end of the world?

2024-09-13 15:58:36

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@npub16u7…uend you just have to be taller now. I heard same in 2008 from some folks north of Selfoss who asked me to watch their house for a month.

2024-09-12 15:29:54

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@npub16u7…uend It’s a beast to administer if you are not an expert in the underlying platform.

2024-09-09 19:51:20

Marvelling at Happy Whale, citizen science for identifying whales by uploading photos, some 900k plus shared.
https://happywhale.com/
Just one of a huge set of out of the main stream curiosities to click from @npub1typ…c8hh Linkfest https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-23-zero-dimensional-pong-null-island-and/

2024-09-04 17:39:59

Fake is the new real, alas the photograph
https://larsmensel.com/2024/free-for-all-fakery
Wither Errol Morris the idea of "Believing is Seeing" -- seeing what?

2024-08-20 01:00:31

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@npub1uw8…88kr we got a big unforcasted dump of rain west of Moose Jaw. Water from the sky!

2024-08-20 00:19:37

It’s #WorldPhotographyDay and Flickr has a contest. But I just want to get back on track with my daily habit (been taking not posting). Make every day a time to observe light, patterns, and something real. #DailyPhoto starting now
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/991/474/745/619/041/original/249d3b68b46a037b.jpeg

2024-08-07 15:53:42

Gmail is getting pretty useless, getting flagged for spam almost every day. A message sent to another gmail user was flagged. The reply to me was also flagged.
Suggestions? Protonmail?

2024-08-07 02:42:22

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@npub16uk…pv7k it gives me giggles, so that’s good.

2024-08-07 01:02:41

LinkedIn email: "Alan, you’re on a roll on LinkedIn!"
Alan: I have not logged in to LinkedIn in 2 months.
LinkedIn: "Alan, you’re on a roll on LinkedIn!"

2024-08-04 18:11:00

Just because you can generate something does not mean you should
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/905/093/128/162/815/original/c0e6507b9a5dbeb4.jpeg

2024-08-01 22:33:00

This is the best kind of internet rabbit hole digging. And it goes and goes and goes.
If anyone knows the origin of today being World Wide Web Day, chime in.
https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon/112887537705995720

2024-08-01 17:31:56

Who the BLEEP (REDACTED) (PUT BACK) (REDACTED AGAIN) added the feature to react to an email with an emoji?
And yes, someone here, likely one with an apostrophe in their first name, will do the same.

2024-07-29 03:15:49

Every time I see the MGM lion I think back to the story in the late 1920s when a small plane carrying Leo the lion crashed on the Mogollon Rim near Payson AZ, the pilot walked out, and ranchers went in to rescue the big cat. Places I used to hike.
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/867/596/411/692/796/original/98850c63773584c4.jpeg

2024-07-11 02:16:08

It’s going to take me a year to read this delightful book. Ekelund writes of his mission to spend one night a month in the same part of a Norwegian forest, each a chapter. I’ve decided to read a chapter a month, so must wait a few weeks for the next.
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/765/441/632/395/034/original/b429919bca64edd8.jpeg

2024-07-08 03:44:07

#SilentSunday
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/748/799/398/468/484/original/85c32733af4f36b9.jpeg

2024-07-04 01:13:19

Okay, this wins the internet for me.
https://tylervigen.com/spurious-scholar
You gotta dig a research paper published by "Elserver" on "Got Milk? The Dairy Do-s and Don't-s of Divorce: A Statistical Analysis of Milk Consumption and the Divorce Rate in Colorado" published in the
International Journal of Dairy Demographics

2024-06-28 14:28:56

The last gasp of feed2js. I actually let the domain go last year, but some error on Hovers side gave it a free renewal. Some 20 years old and not even functioning, taking its last packet breath https://cogdogblog.com/2023/09/domains-come-go/ So long and thanks for all the fish
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/694/715/181/857/233/original/ca7c5bfa9c951f6f.jpeg

2024-06-22 17:21:42

LinkedIn: Alan, you’re on a roll on LinkedIn!
Alan: That's interesting. I have an empty profile and login about once every other full moon to look at a link.
LinkedIn: Alan, you’re on a roll on LinkedIn!

2024-06-21 02:05:27

So someone I follow boosts a solstice post with an image of a vintage 1970s movie I don't recognize.
The alt text actually does not describe the image but references the film title.
I'm curious.
I look it up on wikipedia and revel in a plot summary communally written by humans.
Now I am off looking where to watch it.
Please explain to me how AI makes my world better.

2024-06-18 19:59:01

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@npub17rx…7334 Shrug. It does not live, it exists entirely in a statistical 150 dimensional vector space driven only by probabilistic relationships of word association. No dreaming, no robotic sheep. Do not collect $200 ;-)

2024-06-18 15:51:12

I hallucinated I read MIT Tech Review in an incognito browser https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/06/18/1093440/what-causes-ai-hallucinate-chatbots/
Not emphasized enough, we paint GenAI as "hallucinating" when it spits out something we call wrong.
But even when it's "right" it's *still* hallucinating, because it's operating the same exact way. What is the difference?
Thus there's no need for the H word.

2024-06-13 17:14:06

Does anyone have a contact for the Openeducation Conference? I have emailed three times to two different accounts about needing a change to accept session 361 and heard nada.

2024-06-12 03:51:06

Among ridiculous unnecessary tech features are getting an emoji reaction to an email. FFS is it that hard to write 5 words?

2024-05-08 21:33:50

Grumbling as I read email newsletters that outward links are all obfuscated through tracking URLs.
Thinking of attributes of the #smallweb I like to see
* link destinations on hover
* no ads
* no popups
* clearly indicated as a person's work and pride
?? What else ??

2024-04-30 17:11:58

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@npub1ahr…m294 better than me, I’m humbly about 30 days back https://youtu.be/sdXjm8pZMws?si=HFB9c2MJVTaAt0vH

2024-04-12 21:53:15

Just yesterday I stumbled into the concept of /now pages to show current interests
https://nownownow.com/
And today I bumbled into /uses pages where people share the tools they use
https://uses.tech/
Expected tomorrow to find one for all the /pets pages in the world

2024-02-14 03:05:39

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@npub16uk…pv7k Yikes, hope you stay safe.

2024-01-27 05:27:41

Just CogDogBlogged: Send in (and play with) the AI Voice Clones
https://cogdogblog.com/2024/01/ai-voice-clones/
#cogdogblog

2024-01-23 17:45:35

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@npub1ahr…m294 @npub15cz…28tu @npub196g…tc4w
I wanted to be part of the co-op concept and connect regionally here.
Could not be easier. Signup for cosocial with review was like 90 minutes, and not too shabby to get welcome from @npub1uf7…8p8l
Mastodon redirect easy, peasy, all problems were my keyboard funbles.