Where you can find me most often online

Where you can find me most often online:
Blogging at hyperborea.org/journal
Flickr at flickr.com/kelsonv
Pixelfed at pixelfed dot social / KelsonV
Mastodon at wandering dot shop / @KelsonV

Or my #indieweb profile at kvibber.com

On Twitter

And it’s true, I can’t link directly to my Mastodon or Pixelfed profiles anymore. Twitter won’t allow it citing “safety,” which is of course total bull. Strange that so many Fediverse sites are blocked while Mastodon experiences a huge influx of people… 🙄

Older tweets where I cross-posted my Pixelfed photos still have their links, and my Mastodon profile has been linked in my bio for years…but if you click on them, Twitter opens a warning page falsely claiming the links are malicious/spammy/violent or otherwise dangerous.

[Note: Twitter retroactively banned linking to “competitors” a day or so later, then rescinded the ban within a week or so.]

Moving Windows

I remember easily moving a Windows 10 system to an SSD using Acronis. Not this time. The clone tool isn’t willing to clone *some* partitions instead of a whole disk, so I can’t use that, and the bootable restore tool can’t see the external drive where I put the backup file.

Looking into alternatives. For tomorrow. Or maybe Saturday.

On Wandering.shop

Next morning:

It’s my dual-boot system, so I’ve got a full Linux installation on there anyway. Last night I created an image of the Windows partition, saved it to the external drive (which Linux can see just fine, unlike the so-called universal restore image) and now I’m trying to restore it to the new drive.

Beginning to wonder if it *would* be easier to install Windows fresh and then figure out how to transfer all my saved games. All the other data is easy.

That evening:

I did a clean install, copied my AppData folders, got everything working…then discovered I couldn’t boot it without going through the BIOS screen. I’d accidentally booted the install image without UEFI, so it installed MBR. I couldn’t get GRUB2 to chain load it & the Windows UEFI boot loader could only see the old installation I wanted to remove.

So I did ANOTHER clean install, in UEFI mode, but this time set aside just the save files I wanted.

Bleah.

But it’s working now!

I’ve got UEFI loading GRUB2, which can boot Fedora or chain to the Windows UEFI menu, which will load the shiny new installation of Windows.

Now I just need to figure out how to tell the Windows boot menu that the alternate Windows installation isn’t there anymore & remove it from the list!

Remarks Translated (uspol)

“I can’t vote to convict without more evidence.”

“I have more evidence right here.”

“LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!”

“OK, he might be guilty, but what happens if we actually convict him? That would make some people mad! So let’s just let him off the hook. It’s not like that would encourage him to keep doing bad stuff, right?”

“The process was rigged from the start, so instead of trying to make it a little more fair by calling witnesses, I’m going to help rig it further.”

“I’m totally OK with the President doing whatever the hell he wants and walking all over laws and structures intended to prevent government abuse, as long as he’s in my party.”

“Pressuring foreign governments for personal gain is totally ok because we pressure foreign governments for other stuff too!”

This is what happens when you elect someone who has no impulse control, doesn’t think ahead to potential consequences, has a hair-trigger temper and is focused more on power than responsibility.

This is what happens when you elect someone who has no impulse control, doesn’t think ahead to potential consequences, has a hair-trigger temper and is focused more on power than responsibility.

Who knew international relations could be so complicated?

LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE.

Either he has no idea what he’s doing as Commander in Chief, or he’s deliberately trying to provoke a war (or both) after being formally impeached for abusing his power. Either way he has no business being in the job.

Remove him before he does any more damage.

Yeah, it’s been obvious for years, but it’s just gotten a lot more urgent.

whining about SDKs

OK, bad enough that they have separate SDKs for the separate APIs for the two different steps in this process that are almost always going to be run in sequence.

But why, WHY, when the APIs both include certain common features that should be the same in both steps, would the two SDKs use completely different terminology in the methods used to build that feature? I can’t just build it once? I can’t even copy-and-paste it?

I suspect the teams who built these SDKs – which are, again, for two steps of a two-step process – went off and did their own thing without any sort of coordination – no plan, no discussion, maybe they didn’t even say hi to each other in the hallway.

TBH, I half-suspect the same of the teams who built the APIs they connect to.

It’s like…if in order to post a photo with a caption, you had to post the photo to Instagram and the caption to Twitter and make sure the tags and usernames and timestamps matched properly to get them to show up together.

And yeah, you used to have to do that – when Twitter and image hosts were entirely different services. Even then, all you really needed to do was link from one to the other. You didn’t have to repeat half the information in a new structure (but get it exactly the same) – and you could justify it because they really were two different services, not two steps of the same process.

Going to miss Vertigo

Going to miss #Vertigo, but IMO it’s less the name than the editorial independence that matters. Not sure if DC Black Label will have that. #DCComics

https://www.comicsbeat.com/dc-consolidates-publishing/ @comicsbeat

As for consolidating DC Ink and Zoom into DC Kids…I’ve got to agree with the commenter who points out that it’s likely to turn kids in the 8-12 target audience away from it. Kids that age don’t like feeling talked down to.

Nothing like coming back from a 3-day weekend to 2066 new emails.😱

Nothing like coming back from a 3-day weekend to 2066 new emails.

😱

On Wandering.shop

…make that 2575…

On Wandering.shop

Oh FFS it’s still downloading?!?! 3087…

On Wandering.shop

I think it’s done at 7679 messages…

On Wandering.shop

*whew* Most of them turned out to be alerts from a staging test server.

On Wandering.shop

I really don’t want to go to the ER the day before Food Allergy Awareness …

I really don’t want to go to the ER the day before Food Allergy Awareness Week starts.

Hoping I won’t have to.

Though I suppose if I do it’ll make a good awareness story.

On Wandering.shop

The last time I went to the ER with anaphylaxis, I took an ambulance from San Diego Comic-Con. A few month later I got a $1500 ambulance bill. And that was with insurance. The next time I needed to go to the ER for something, I took a taxi. Maybe not the best idea, but it was a hell of a lot cheaper.

On Wandering.shop

So I’m sitting here in a room with everyone else, waiting to see if the reaction stays it the current plateau or gets worse, with the epipen next to me in case i need it. Going through photos I took today because I need something to do. Charging my phone just in case. While my kid nervously shreds junk mail.

On Wandering.shop

So far, so good. Hasn’t gotten any worse. Kid’s gone to bed. I ate some rice (a safe bet!) without difficulty.

On Wandering.shop

Reaction seems to have subsided! Still not sure what it was… Best guess is a garbanzo bean fell into the wrap by accident.

But I feel safe going to sleep now, which is good because I’m totally exhausted.

On Wandering.shop

Balooon-based floating telecom relays always make me think of an element in Robert Charles Wilson’s “Spin”

Balooon-based floating telecom relays always make me think of an element in Robert Charles Wilson’s sci-fi novel, “Spin,” in which a mysterious membrane appears around earth that drastically slows down time inside. (A simulated sun maintains the day/night cycle) This effectively cuts the world off from outer space, including orbiting satellites. The world settles on high-altitude balloons as a replacement.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/internet-balloons-and-drones-look-to-rise-in-the-5g-era

#telecom #books #scifi

On Wandering.shop

It’s a really interesting book, especially once people realize that they can still launch probes or spacecraft out, just can’t receive any transmissions back. And when they realize that they can take advantage of the different rates of time on Earth vs. outside.

There are two sequels, Axis and Vortex, which are very different. Worth a read, but I think Spin was the best of the three.

On Wandering.shop

@hafnia Yeah, they had some interesting ideas – the chain of worlds, the floating civilizations, the different ways of linking people together cybernetically – but IMO the stories weren’t anywhere near as good.

On Wandering.shop

The headlines keep getting better: “Alleged Russian spy whale is refusing to leave and is seeking attention…”

The headlines keep getting better:

“Alleged Russian spy whale is refusing to leave and is seeking attention, authorities say”

#wtf #SpyWhale

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/02/authorities-alleged-russian-spy-whale-is-refusing-leave-seeking-norwegians-devotion/

On Wandering.shop

Re: “at least it’s not a sea lion” – @BrionV

Now that you mention it….

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-baby-sea-lion-on-busy-san-francisco-highway-20190501-story.html

8YO just finished the main story of LEGO Incredibles and discovered the bonus level where …

8YO just finished the main story of LEGO Incredibles and discovered the bonus level where you play as the Omnidroid and destroy the city.

On Wandering.shop

He’s gleefully smashing everything while saying “It’s just wrong to save the city and then destroy it” *smash* *smash*

On Wandering.shop

“Saving the city then destroying it? Not cool! :-)” *smash* “But, if it’s a game, it’s fine!” *smash* *smash* *smash*

On Wandering.shop

MISSION COMPLETE!

I don’t think there’s anything left above the base plates…

On Wandering.shop

I feel like I ought to write something for Speed Force about what’s going on with Heroes in Crisis and The Flash…

I feel like I ought to write something for @SpeedForce
about what’s going on with Heroes in Crisis and The Flash, but unlike anger, severe disappointment just isn’t motivating.

On Wandering.shop

Fortunately, Ed wrote something better than I could have, and broadened it to the way Heroes in Crisis is handling mental illness as compared to The Unstoppable Wasp.

“Heroes In Crisis” vs “Unstoppable Wasp” and a Look at Mental Illness

#comics #TheFlash #HeroesInCrisis #TheWasp #WallyWest

On Wandering.shop

Scenario: Building inspector looks for pests & structural problems. Finds whole family of raccoons but can’t prove they’re living IN the house. Lots of structural defects that don’t QUITE violate code individually, but present danger. Real estate dev claims full exoneration.

Scenario: Building inspector looks for pests & structural problems. Finds whole family of raccoons but can’t prove they’re living IN the house. Lots of structural defects that don’t QUITE violate code individually, but present danger.

Real estate dev claims full exoneration.

(Yes, it’s a metaphor.)

Seriously, though, check out this thread by @AstroKatie on how the image was produced and why the ring looks the way it does, plus simulations of different viewing angles.

Seriously, though, check out this thread by @AstroKatie on how the image was produced and why the ring looks the way it does, plus simulations of different viewing angles.

On Twitter

And this article by @BadAstronomer on the science behind the image.

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-first-image-of-the-event-horizon-of-a-black-hole

On Twitter

NASA cancelling a 2-woman spacewalk because they don’t have enough space suits in the right size is a perfect example…

NASA cancelling a 2-woman spacewalk because they don’t have enough space suits in the right size is a perfect example of the problems with building the world to the spec of “Reference Man” as described in this week’s Cracked Podcast.

(I still find it weird that Cracked mixes insightful social commentary in with the humor, but there we are.)

I’d rather have a clear 640×480 image than a blurry 1280×960

@david I suppose, but even back then, I’d rather have a clear 640×480 image than a blurry 1280×960. The only reason I even enabled digital zoom on a compact camera was because it made a difference to the auto-focus, exposure, etc. choices the camera would make (vs taking a wider image and manually cropping it on my computer).

On Photog.Social

@david Oh wait…it’s a marketing thing, isn’t it? Enough people in the target audience *would* be disappointed in not getting that full 1280×960 even if the 640×480 is clearer, because they’re not getting the megapixels they were promised. 🤦‍♂️

On Photog.Social
Expanded on K2R

I find it interesting that YouTube backyard/garage science videos span the full range of- here’s …

I find it interesting that YouTube backyard/garage science videos span the full range of

– here’s a cool experiment you wish you could do if you had the equipment/resources/training
– here’s a cool experiment you CAN do
– here’s an experiment you REALLY shouldn’t do, let me show you exactly why we have this safety rule/warning label (ex. here’s what happens if you unwrap a lithium battery!)

…often within the same channel.

On Wandering.shop

And I really want a specific term for that last subcategory.

On Wandering.shop

Who decided so many restaurants have to be as echo-y as possible?I don’t need …

Who decided so many restaurants have to be as echo-y as possible?

I don’t need it to be quiet, but it would be nice to actually be able to hold a conversation with the to-go cashier about how they lost my order.

On Wandering.shop

Yeah, it’s been a fun evening…

On Wandering.shop

At least losing the order wasn’t their fault. It’s a chain restaurant & the central order line didn’t submit the order to them. But just trying to establish that, and re-order, with a restaurant full of families here for an elementary school fundraiser, and everything echoing off the smooth walls, floor and ceiling to the point where I could barely make out my own words, never mind the cashier’s…

On Wandering.shop

@dantebrevity links to Why Restaurants Are So Loud Now (Boing Boing), which quotes How Restaurants Got So Loud (The Atlantic).

Thanks…I’d suspected a lot of that (cheaper construction, and encouraging people to finish up sooner and leave), but hadn’t really thought about the impact of open kitchens or the noise encouraging people to drink more.

But the part that comes down to visual aesthetics makes me think of the plants in Jurassic Park, chosen for appearance regardless of whether they’re good for the actual dinosaurs.

I may want to check out that search-by-noise-level app…

On Wandering.shop