Charles

I'm a software engineer by trade, an electronics hobbyist and amateur guitarist by night, and a house-rabbit enthusiast and ambassador all the time.

I live in the windswept prairies of Canada.

#RabbitsOfMastodon #rabbit #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #RodentsOfMastodon #electronics #retro #1970s #70s #blinkenlights

Public Key

npub1pdaz4j0ezt8km4e4p0tmt3qx7st49gkw8f9gg6unz47glzd8j4hqr64jrl

NIP-05 Address

cazabon_at_mindly.social@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqk732e8u39nmd6u6sh4a4csr0g96j5t8r5j5ydwf32ly03xne2mspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q8aj2xt

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1pdaz4j0ezt8km4e4p0tmt3qx7st49gkw8f9gg6unz47glzd8j4hqr64jrl

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-05-28 02:49:11

Just another incredible story from here in the Fediverse...
Guy is looking for another guy who wrote some software for a long-extinct platform decades ago. Only leads are email addresses that died 20+ years ago.
Posts to Mastodon, and a dozen replies later, someone is "I found him and let him know you're looking for him", and then the guy himself pops up.
Fantastic.
https://mastodon.social/@splorp/112508778837563687
#HelpingOthers #help #find

2024-04-06 05:47:03

- reply

@npub15ax…lqq5
Let me guess: it's not documented to do that, either 😜
#Google #documentation: 30% vagueness, 40% elision of critical details, and 30% outright fantasy.

2024-04-05 22:46:19

- reply

@npub15ax…lqq5
"UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte" ?
Yes, probably utf-8 that starts with a BOM. Avoid doing that.

2024-03-24 04:29:20

- reply

@npub178r…qekt
Somehow you manage to find about 10x the reply guys that simple statistics say you should.
I'm sorry you have to put up with it. But it's a great source of people to pre-emptively block. 😀

2024-03-12 01:50:49

The #Reddit #IPO is to raise $750M by selling 11% of the company, valuing it at $6.4B (never made a profit).
A not-very-difficult #prediction of how it will go:
The investment #bankers will get virtually all the initial stock at the offering price.
They will quickly sell most of their holdings to the private investors trying to get in because of the hype, making a huge profit.
The stock price will start going down immediately after this hype buy-in.
"Regular" investors will lose their shirts.

2024-03-10 21:34:22

Well, calling for the victim to shut up and let their attacker get away with it in the name of "peace" is at least very on-brand for the Catholic Church.
Screw that pope.
#Catholic #CatholicChurch #Pope #PopeFrancis #victim #ukraine #russia #ChildAbuse #priest #PriestAbuse #war

2024-03-04 01:50:20

- reply

@npub1psd…9sr7
I always figured it was the product of a Four Yorkshiremen-type situation, with each adding nuttier BS than the last guy.

2024-02-25 23:44:31

- reply

@npub1lrv…tth9
When does American Big Journalism cross over from gross dereliction of duty into active collusion with trying to destroy American democracy?
It seems we're past that point, but few notice.
#democracy #threat #journalism #fail

2023-12-23 22:39:16

- reply

@npub1e08…wu3m
I'm also concerned about Santa's collection of peoples' private data - e.g., whether individual children are "naughty" or "nice" - without allowing them to review the data for correctness, dispute the accuracy, request a change, or request deletion.

2023-12-20 01:35:26

- reply

@npub1yrl…8gpm @npub12at…me5y
Ah. I'm interested to hear how it goes. Always room for another bottle of threadlocker on the shelf 😜

2023-12-20 00:20:02

- reply

@npub1yrl…8gpm @npub12at…me5y
Interesting. Reading between the lines, you printed extruder parts from ABS - my extruders have only been #metal and #POM, no other #plastics. I'm curious why the Gorilla stuff would be better suited to ABS than Loctite or others? Gorilla's red still seems to be methacrylate-based, like the others.
And #dammit #Mozilla, yes "extruder" is too a word.
Edit: typo fix.

2023-12-19 23:54:16

- reply

@npub1yrl…8gpm @npub12at…me5y
I'm not familiar with Gorilla's - I use #Permatex, but #Loctite and other brands are all similar, but I don't think that one is what you want. Red #threadlock generally means the permanent stuff, and the fact that the packaging says "heat resistant" points in that direction too.
So if you use that one, it's probably never coming loose. That may not be a good thing :)
Medium-strength is generally blue, but Loctite uses red with a blue stripe on the package...

2023-12-19 21:22:09

- reply

@npub1yrl…8gpm @npub12at…me5y
While you're at it, it's a good idea to put a drop of NON-PERMANENT threadlock in the hole before putting the grub/set screw in. Set screws suck no matter what.
Get "medium" strength #threadlock, or it's not coming back out without the help of a #blowtorch, which tends to affect the life of the plastic components...

2023-12-19 02:27:44

- reply

@npub10fl…2xc7
Let me guess, you live in a large #urban centre? Or perhaps a suburb of such?
When you live somewhere where there are no fast chargers, and possibly no chargers at all, along your 750km drive - and there will still be none there in 12 years - "just go #EV" starts to sound a little like "Hi, I live in Toronto and/or Ottawa and/or Vancouver, and I don't care how it affects you".
Add in drives which require ICE cars to have the heater full blast the whole way... bye, battery range.

2023-12-09 03:32:16

As a #company, if you release a new #version of your #product, and it immediately causes the #price of #used examples of the previous product to jump to 50% more than the #new one, then you know you have #failed the #consumer, utterly.
Yes, #Dymo, I'm looking at you.
#drm #enshittification #e14n #AntiConsumer #hostile #labelwriter #consumables

2023-12-08 03:53:56

- reply

@npub15fe…x47v @npub1tfl…7g3c
Ah - well, "theoretically-best tool loses out as a practical choice because everyone standardized on something else" is a tale as old as the hills, long predating software development (slotted screws, anyone?).
It's hardly Python's fault that stats and ~~AI~~ ML use it. There are Lisp, Haskell, Elixir, Eiffel nerds out there who can prove their language is better-matched to some problems, but that isn't going to make it a viable choice outside of hobby projects.

2023-12-08 03:22:56

- reply

@npub15fe…x47v @npub1tfl…7g3c
That's a rather #pessimistic take, and completely at odds with my experience.
I #program primarily in Python these days - but it's my fourth or fifth #language, not my first. It's well suited to many things - not all - and is easy to use, so I guess you could call it my "favourite".
I've worked with #engineers of every stripe, age, background, education... and I don't think any of them was stuck on whatever their first language was. In fact, I'm sure of it.

2023-11-02 00:27:43

- reply

@npub178r…qekt
You've probably explained this before, but Mastodon search and post distribution...
#Alignment and #composition are critically important to your work. Do you do that visually, or only with measurements etc (like the laser trick you mentioned to get perpendicularity)?
If visually, how? Staring at a 2-inch screen on the digital back, an external monitor/laptop? Lining up the shot old-school with a ground-glass plate before putting the digital back on?

2023-09-04 05:46:31

- reply

@npub1yrl…8gpm @npub12at…me5y
Nylon-based, like Taulman's 910 "alloy", would probably be a pretty good choice. Strong, not brittle, good lubricity, better wear resistance and heat tolerance than PLA or PETG...
#nylon #PA6 #PA6,6 #Taulman

2023-08-30 00:13:27

- reply

@npub1lup…jra8
Hear, hear!
My partner has an aunt who would dip the tip of a knife in her tiny 2-ounce jar of minced garlic and add that to her dishes. Anything more was "too hot" (garlic hot? wat).
I buy the Costco liter-sized minced garlic, and use multiple tablespoons everywhere...
#garlic #GarlicLover #StinkingRose #NeverEnough

2023-08-21 03:42:25

- reply

@npub1a4e…0hum
FeedbacK: could you please stop using your flip.it URL #shortener? #Links on #Mastodon all count as the same number of characters, so there's no point shortening them, and using a shortener just hides the actual destination of the link and reduces the number of people who will visit it because of security concerns etc.

2023-08-17 03:52:44

- reply

@npub1u3l…0c9l
#Clarification: there is no #legal #dispute involved here.
The #Canadian #government passed bill #C18, which says #Facebook, #Google, et al must #pay to #link to Canadian news stories.
It is now the law of the land. So companies have a choice: continue linking to Canadian news sites and pay for the privilege, or stop linking to Canadian news sites.
There is no third option.
A link tax makes zero #economic sense, so they chose option 2. Blame politicians, not the companies.

2023-08-07 03:51:34

- reply

@npub1nlt…t44t
I gotta agree, a #Caesar may be the world's most perfect #cocktail.
Olives are new to me, though. @jwz occasionally posted "What's On My Bloody Mary?" and some of the ones I've run into in pubs/restaurants seemed up that alley. Dill pickle and #pickled #asparagus were some of the least-strange (and most tasty!) ones.
Anyway, enjoy!
#weird #drink #garnish #BloodyMary #DillPickle

2023-08-07 03:40:34

- reply

@npub1nlt…t44t
Superior to a Bloody Mary, you mean?
I have to ask, what was yours #garnished with? #Celery is traditional, but there's about 13 different #vegetables people put in now to be unique 😂

2023-06-09 20:31:47

- reply

@npub1a0z…2uja
This is possible, and with protecting #wilderness as well. It requires agricultural "#intensification"; applying modern techniques, equipment, and biology to farming.
There's a good #discussion of how this can be done, and has been done in various other places, to save wildernesses, improve standards of living, and reduce #hunger, in a very good #book - "Apocalypse Never" (2020), by Michael Shellenberger.
I highly #recommend it.

2023-05-30 22:00:08

- reply

@npub1jjt…3kck I love this film. They're such cute town-destroying, people-eating monsters!
This extract is actually from the #RiffTrax version of the film, which explains the wisecracking commentary a la #MST3K or #CinematicTitanic.
#cute #FuzzyDeath
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/110/459/871/582/347/528/original/0f0e88b8d5a76224.mp4

2023-05-20 15:16:34

- reply

@npub1094…2wum Right - thank you. I get the visibility effects.
To confirm, regarding the people who saw the original message (because they followed the author or group or whatever) -- they won't see my reply unless they follow me, they're @-mentioned, or browse the local/federated timelines on an instance that received it because of @-mentions or follows. Correct?
I hoped the in_reply_to_id and in_reply_to_account_id would share it with readers of the original message, but figured not.

2023-05-20 03:39:56

@npub1094…2wum Again, thanks for the posts and the writeups on your website...
I have a question about replies and who sees them. I didn't find anything directly related in your FAQs/FGAs.
If I reply to a random message - not someone I follow - where is my reply distributed to? I'm guessing it's not "my followers plus whoever the original message was distributed to", which would be useful and obvious 😀
Is it just my followers plus whoever's @-mentioned in my post? Thanks!
#FediTips #fediverse

2023-05-12 22:22:08

- reply

@npub178r…qekt I've heard a classic example of shift making something possible is the shot that appears to be taken straight into a mirror - i.e. perpendicular to its face - but which does not show the camera/photographer.
Is that true?
#interesting #photography #ViewCamera

2023-05-04 23:31:28

- reply

@npub1ygr…cg6z It is funny, no doubt about that. Luckily it's something that most newcomers won't run into by accident, and therefore won't be confused by.
Python's been around for >30 years now. It has its share of historical baggage, and some of it trips up newcomers. Some of those could be fixed, but would break backwards compatibility. It's a tradeoff.
My favourite tripping hazard for the new:
>>> a = (6)
>>> a
6
>>> b = (6, )
>>> b
(6,)
>>> a == b
False

2023-05-04 23:25:26

- reply

@npub1ygr…cg6z
Because, for historical reasons:
>>> issubclass(bool, int)
True

2023-02-17 22:34:34

1/49 People have, on occasion, asked my partner and I about what it's like to have a house rabbit.
Is it like having a dog? Or more like having a cat?
It's not really like either one of those. There are similarities - they're cute, sometimes they'll come to you for attention, or for a snack, and they're good at cheering you up.
#rabbit #HouseRabbit