MarkusL

Wizened software engineer in the UK. Married to Mrs Wife since Moses was a pup.

For: science, reason, medicine, vaccines, masks, Free software, tolerance, goodwill, honesty, respect.

Against: partisanship, contempt, closed-mindedness, Brexit.

I always approve follow requests if there's enough in your profile to show that you're friendly and not a bot. If I follow you, you needn't follow me back if you don't want to.

I won't boost messages that lack CWs or pictures without captions.

Public Key

npub1sr6s68jtz4hvk6stgnnvue0sq8m8qn8edhy3dtlmm2lgsx5unlzs8zc03z

NIP-05 Address

markusl_at_fosstodon.org@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsgpagdre932mktdg95fekwvhcqransfnukmjgk4laa405gr2wfl3g7uw592

Author Public Key

npub1sr6s68jtz4hvk6stgnnvue0sq8m8qn8edhy3dtlmm2lgsx5unlzs8zc03z

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Last Notes

2023-10-15 12:59:20

Question to people on small or single-user instances:
How do you cope with the reduced #federation? Looking to split my #Fedi presence in two, I've set up a couple of alts on smaller instances, but most #toots in most conversations don't show up on my instances. I understand how to view the thread in a browser, get the URL of a message, go back to my instance, search for the message and reply to it, but... isn't there anything smoother than that?

2023-10-02 11:44:15

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@npub1xr8…3q0g I've got my eye on the #shingles vaccine, because I know three people who've had the disease recently and it's been hateful. I'm not quite old enough to get the jab on the NHS, but I'll be taking it as soon as I can.

2023-10-02 11:21:39

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@npub1xr8…3q0g
I didn't know until I looked it up just now that (a) I'm far too old to have had the #MMR vaccine as a child, and (b) adults in the UK can have it on request:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mmr-for-all-general-leaflet/mmr-for-all-general-guide
I'm already autistic. What harm can it do? 😏
@npub1g57…jar5

2023-09-29 22:06:17

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@npub189n…satx
Good on you for staying strong. 🙂
@npub1w8s…hlh6 @npub18lj…80hq

2023-09-26 17:16:46

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@npub189n…satx Eighteen months from now, the Tories will be gone. We just need to hold on till then.

2023-09-20 23:13:36

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@npub19fc…ay3c I'm not sure which country you're writing from, Adam, but here in the UK, the government seems not to acknowledge that long Covid exists. So, as well as hammering the economy through Brexit and damaging our digital capabilities through the Online Safety Bill, they're storing up long-term disability for millions of working-age people. Even if all they cared about was the economy, it still wouldn't make any sense. They're either incompetent or evil.

2023-09-18 07:48:30

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@npub1xj8…egqe Who's to say we won't end up with an even worse deal than we have now? And why would the EU come back to the negotiating table in the first place? Brexit is an existential threat to the Union; they're not motivated to make it advantageous for us.

2023-09-17 18:02:42

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@npub1yvr…mjkg "Fixed". "Productive." 🤬
I've said it before, but I think the hyper-focus I get from autism has made me a better software engineer than I'd otherwise have been. I don't want (as your parents would see it) fixing.
Given the strong hereditary component of autism, it's at least possible that one of your parents is autistic without knowing it:
https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/autism.htm

2023-09-10 17:41:03

I need a #FaceMask recommendation, please.
Mrs Wife finds that face masks make her feel dizzy and claustrophobic but, with autumn on the way and Covid cases rising, she's agreed to mask up routinely. I'm looking for a #mask that provides #FFP2 protection but feels as comfortable as possible. It has to be sensibly priced and it must be available in the UK.
I already have a recommendation for 3M Aura. Are there other brands I should consider?
#AskFedi

2023-08-29 17:06:16

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@npub1jw5…9fry Est-ce qu'on peut obtenir une liste d'instances qui silencent ou bloquent sa propre instance? Je me sers d'une grosse instance, Fosstodon; je n'ai pas une instance perso. Depuis le brouhaha récent, Fosstodon n'est pas bien aimée parmi certain·e·s.

2023-08-24 20:55:10

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@npub1qra…kfgn That's not a tunnel: that's an endoscopy.

2023-08-21 10:11:56

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@npub19lt…qfjk
You make it sound like a pigeonhole sort:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_sort
@npub1e8h…ee2h

2023-08-19 08:47:31

I can't believe I have to say this, but:
Don't send unsolicited dick pics. What are you, twelve years old? Don't do it.

2023-08-14 23:12:41

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@npub1wx0…ce0l @npub1ztx…t572 Star Trek Lower Decks? Sorry, never heard of it. (Really! 🙂)

2023-08-11 23:52:50

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@npub1kpw…xzz4
Agreed, Covid is here to stay.
I believe mask-wearing is still advisable because Covid causes long-term disability, and because patients are infectious before they have symptoms (if, indeed, they ever get them).
I'm not arguing against open-plan offices: I'm asking against dragging everyone into offices when there's no point. (I'm a software developer, and so I'm more productive at home than when distracted by office chatter.)
@npub1a0m…ljpw

2023-08-11 23:40:59

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@npub1kpw…xzz4
I'm not Nili and I'm not even in the same country, but here's my answer from the UK:
* They could vaccinate ~everyone this autumn, rather than just over-65s and a few special groups. I very much want a booster, and I can't get one.
* They could encourage mask-wearing.
* They could improve ventilation standards.
* They could discourage businesses from pointlessly hauling everyone back into open-plan offices.
#CovidIsNotOver
@npub1a0m…ljpw

2023-07-29 17:41:32

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@npub10c6…x2jy @npub1l3g…vu48 If you have write-back cacheing enabled on the destination partition (which you probably do) then your proposed command won't do what you want, because the OS won't wait until it's written the first 2GiB before starting to read the second.

2023-07-28 17:30:31

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@npub1ksl…rezd It'll be interesting to see whether this feature requires you to leave Bluetooth enabled all the time. Isn't that meant to be bad for privacy? I certainly turn mine off when I'm not using it.

2023-07-22 08:53:57

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@npub1j5h…q4a8 Right. TL;DR: when it gets hacked, you can't get a new palm. Biometrics are the measure of last resort; they're not a convenient way to buy a tin of tomatoes when you've forgotten your wallet.

2023-07-18 17:44:03

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@npub15zu…s7lx That's survivorship bias, that is. Insurers that don't believe in global warming will go out of business.

2023-07-16 16:21:00

I bought Mrs Wife a #Fairphone4 this weekend after she broke her Pixel for the third time. We both agreed she needed something more repairable.
Quick tip: if you're in the UK and you want an FP4, it may not be cheapest to buy it from the #Fairphone Web site. I bought from a UK-based store, and I got £30 off and a free pair of Fairbuds.

2023-07-15 17:59:13

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@npub10xg…h39u
"An tower" and "harms way"? No, it surely can't be real.
@npub1cne…muve @npub1dqe…ehzp

2023-07-14 17:44:13

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@npub1nlc…rv60 Just for the benefit of anyone who's never reported another person:
1. During the reporting process, you get the chance to report multiple posts, not just the last one. As Dana says, there's rarely a need to get people to incriminate themselves further.
2. The other person is not copied into your report and doesn't know who sent it (or even, necessarily, that a report was sent). This won't open you up to abuse.

2023-07-10 07:22:59

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@npub1kja…e5gq So #Zuck is being open about his strategy: lock people in using network effects and then enshittify #MetaThreads using adverts. Well, people can't say they haven't been warned.

2023-07-04 18:24:36

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@npub1e2d…c6dt The wonderful @npub1uxz…5ma4 has provided a gift link to this story:
https://law-and-politics.online/@Teri_Kanefield/110656499856807855

2023-07-02 14:18:17

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 It's weird, isn't it? You can even see some characteristics of the font that these non-letters are set in. For example, there are no serifs, and round letters are very round and wide.

2023-07-02 13:52:21

This is your reminder that some companies left Russia after #Putin's #invasion of #Ukraine, whilst others kept right on trading. This excellent site has lists of who stayed and who left:
https://leave-russia.org/
Let's boycott companies that prop up Putin and fund his sadistic invasion.

2023-07-01 15:48:14

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@npub1ex3…c58j @npub1hpc…hjn3 I've wondered for a while why we have families called Monk. Aren't monks supposed to be celibate?

2023-07-01 15:46:41

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 @npub15u4…agqd I was going to go with "Sandwrangler". 😄

2023-07-01 15:40:56

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@npub15ef…n95r The article won't load for me, so I don't know whether it says this:
If you have allergies, you'll want to wash bedclothes at 60⁰C to kill house dust mites. If you wash at 40⁰C, all you get are clean mites.

2023-06-30 17:02:01

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@npub19lt…qfjk
Ooh, if only I had the eyesight for that! 😄
I'm surprised to see a TOTP code on there. Is it so cheap to compute that it doesn't hurt battery life?

2023-06-26 17:04:49

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 I recently changed pharmacies because of bad service and lack of Covid precautions. You're more patient than I am.
I've noticed something odd: the longer people have waited to be served, the longer they spend giving their entire medical history and life story to the sales assistant. They seem to feel they've earned it, or they just want their fair share. And so the queue gets longer and longer, and nothing the staff do can shorten it.

2023-06-04 18:48:08

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@npub1r47…wytr It's also useful to distinguish between intelligence and consciousness. I think people often confuse the two, but in fact an intelligent machine needn't be conscious, and many animals that appear conscious aren't particularly intelligent in human terms.

2023-05-22 17:55:37

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@npub1qmf…unzr
Oh my goodness! Has he recovered from it now?
@npub198t…hasj

2023-05-22 17:48:15

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@npub198t…hasj What's the ventilation like? I ask because my concentration starts to falter at about 1000ppm CO2. I think that's fairly common.

2023-05-21 20:06:51

If you've ever used Duolingo, how did you find it? Did you find you could use your language skills with real people in real conversations?
Boosts welcome.

2023-05-15 18:42:45

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@npub1r47…wytr You're right, there's a lot wrong with the system, but it would have to be at Zimbabwean levels of corruption before I didn't bother turning up. And you're right, Starmer has no intention of asking to rejoin the EU.
In case it cheers you up a little:
https://fosstodon.org/@markusl/110374103488877064

2023-05-15 18:30:30

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@npub1r47…wytr If you want the present government out of power, isn't it better to motivate as many people as possible to vote against them? If enough people do that, there's no such thing as a safe seat.
In any case, I honestly don't believe they can win the next election, now that people have seen the real consequences of Brexit. They'll stay unelectable as long as Brexit remains their defining policy and they keep trying to persuade us how wonderful it is.

2023-05-15 11:41:43

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@npub1r47…wytr I disagree. Even with first-past-the-post, if enough people vote against any government, it falls. Discouraging people from voting plays into the hands of extremists.
Anyone who has a vote and doesn't use it forfeits the right to complain.

2023-05-01 19:03:32

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@npub1jk6…8esd
Along similar lines, it's sometimes said that, if you make your program idiot-proof, someone will invent a better idiot.
@PawelK@noagendasocial.com @npub1xym…nz48

2023-05-01 10:21:22

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@npub1xym…nz48
The Independent is one of our more reliable papers. Unlike the Daily Mail, they have a good reputation.
@npub1jk6…8esd

2023-05-01 10:19:52

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@npub1jk6…8esd
That's a lot of RF energy to go spraying around a civilian area. Quite apart from RFI, I wonder what the health effects might be.
@npub1xym…nz48

2023-04-30 23:19:49

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@npub1jk6…8esd
Let's remember that Russian soldiers have been raised from birth on propaganda. Who knows what (if anything) they were told about radiation risks and the current state of the Chernobyl power plant?
The Russian authorities don't always try too hard to protect the people from radiation:
https://www.jakepoz.com/debugging-behind-the-iron-curtain/
@npub1xym…nz48

2023-04-30 22:42:52

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@npub1jk6…8esd
Thanks. I came here to post the same link.
Note that the Independent talks about the cooling channel (not the cooling chamber) and says that Russian soldiers camped six miles from the power plant. I find this more believable than — well, than anything the Daily Mail says on any subject, ever.
@npub1xym…nz48