Tag: TODO: Consolidate
Literally confusing hawks and doves.
Usually #iNaturalist’s AI is pretty good at narrowing down to a genus, but sometimes it can get confused. Like this #pigeon sitting on a silk floss tree branch. It was “pretty sure” it was a *hawk*.
Um, nope!
I can sort of see that with the first image, but the second one makes it blindingly obvious!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30408488
@KelsonV I just realized it’s literally confusing hawks and doves.
Not sure if this sign is in Qbert-ese or represents a store that’s named for a swear word…
Not sure if this #sign is in Qbert-ese or represents a store that’s named for a swear word…
rambling thoughts on self hosting
Thinking about what it means to self-host a service, and that there are degrees even within that.
I have a self-hosted WordPress blog in the sense that I manage an installation of WordPress, but I run it on a VPS at a web host. It’s not as self-hosted as someone running a server on a Lollipop or FreedomBox, but it’s more self-hosted than someone using WordPress.com. It’s also more self-hosted than someone using the managed WordPress hosting at the same web host.
The key advantages of self-hosting are privacy and control. Unless a service uses end-to-end encryption, the admins at each level can probably read your stuff – you have to trust that they won’t do it unless they have to.
And of course when you run your own service, you don’t have to fear losing control when Google Plus shuts down, or Flickr changes their pricing structure, or Tumblr changes their TOS, or MySpace botches a server migration.
The obvious disadvantage of self-hosting, of course, is that you’re on the hook for all the maintenance. Spam filtering, moderation, security updates, server migrations – those are all on you.
And unless you’re using your own software, even on your own box there’s still the risk that a project is going to shut down & leave you without security fixes, or pivot to a new direction that no longer fits what you want. (So glad WP’s block editor is still optional!)
@iona Yeah, that’s sort of the balance I’ve settled on, too. I manage the top-level web apps, but my webhost handles the hardware, the virtualization and the LAMP stack.
(And email. Ugh, I’d forgotten how much of a pain a mailserver can be to handle until I tried to set one up on a Raspberry Pi a couple of months ago.)
I guess I’m kind of splitting the difference.
Just a few Flashes (and a Rainbow Raider) who I saw at WonderCon this year
Just a few Flashes (and a Rainbow Raider) who I saw at WonderCon this year. There were a bunch more, including a TV Barry/Iris couple, a Jedi Flash, and more.
These are just the ones who slowed down long enough for me to take a photo! 🙂 Check out my full cosplay gallery on Flickr:
#Cosplay #WonderCon #WonderCon2019 #TheFlash #KidFlash #RainbowRaider #BlackFlash
Took the new camera to WonderCon for cosplay photography
Took the new camera to #WonderCon for #cosplay #photography.
1. I finally have a camera that can really handle inside lighting at a convention center!
2. I’ve gotten too used to just capturing costumes, instead of composing interesting shots.
2a. My 8YO took 1 photo all weekend (#InsideOut) & it ended up being the best that day. I took the lesson & improved my shots the next day, including the other 3 here.
#HarryPotter #BeautyAndTheBeast #LittleShopOfHorrors
There was a lot of Harry Potter cosplay at WonderCon…
There was a lot of #HarryPotter #cosplay at #WonderCon this past weekend! Here are some of my photos. There are a lot more that I missed – people dressed as the Malfoys, students of course, other professors and so on.
My full gallery for the convention is on Flickr at
#Voldemort #BellatrixLestrange #Hagrid #ProfessorTrelawney #Dumbledore #ArthurWeasley #RitaSkeeter #ProfessorUmbridge #GilderoyLockhart
I find it *fascinating* that the phone’s digital zoom function makes it look like it’s made up of brushstrokes
I took this with my phone to use as a reference for a photo I took with another camera. I wasn’t intending to do anything with it, but I find it *fascinating* that the phone’s digital zoom function makes it look like it’s made up of brushstrokes instead of pixels.
(Though personally, I’ve never understood why digital zoom is implemented as a resize instead of just cropping to a lower resolution.)
Tonight’s waxing crescent moon. It’s passing in front of the Hyades star cluster right now, …
Tonight’s waxing crescent moon. It’s passing in front of the Hyades star cluster right now, which I’d love to get a photo of, but the moon’s just waaay too bright to capture the background stars!
#photography #moon #night #stargazing
Downloaded MCEdit so the 8YO can edit Minecraft world’s. He used it to fill 10 …
Downloaded MCEdit so the 8YO can edit Minecraft world’s. He used it to fill 10 entire chunks with TNT. Then lit one of the edges. The chain reaction has been going for at least 10 minutes, punctuated by periods of major lag.
Flickr Hot Take
When Yahoo realized they’d missed the smartphone shift, they tried to make Flickr something it wasn’t suited for (Instagram! Look, filters!) & couldn’t sustain (cloud storage for ALL your photos, just like FB!) Maybe chasing FB kept them alive for a while, but it put them in a bind down the road.
It sucks that SmugMug is deleting pics, but taking it back to basics might make it more viable long-term.
Maybe they can become a 1st-rate Flickr instead of a 3rd-rate Instagram or FB.
Expanded on my blog:
My rule of thumb for notifications:- Will I need to act on it?- How …
My rule of thumb for notifications:
– Will I need to act on it?
– How time-sensitive is it?
– How important?
– Is it actually for me, or is it an ad for the app service?
I turn off what I don’t need, turn off sound on the less urgent ones, and customize sounds for the most important ones.
So I hear when a text or IM comes in, but not email or social media. When I pick up my phone I see emails, mentions & replies, but not favorites or boosts, etc.
It helps me a lot with alert overload. YMMV.
@sohkamyung WOW!My Pixel 2 already takes better low-light photos than I would have expected, …
@sohkamyung WOW!
My Pixel 2 already takes better low-light photos than I would have expected, and this looks incredible!
It’s not clear from the article, but it looks like the updated Camera app is rolling out to the older Pixel phones starting today. It hasn’t shown up in the Play store yet on my phone, though – I guess I’ll have to keep checking.
In Final Crisis, the Anti-Life Equation is able to compel the surrender of free will. …
In Final Crisis, the Anti-Life Equation is able to compel the surrender of free will. Those who have submitted spout slogans about how it justifies anything, how it’s so much easier than the struggles of life and love.
It’s insidious, because in some ways it *is* easier to offload tough decisions to a schedule, a policy, a leader, etc. The brain likes taking shortcuts around cognitive load. But people want to be *able* to make choices when they want to.
#amreading #comics #psychology
Another interesting thing about Final Crisis is how much damage Darkseid does just by existing. …
Another interesting thing about Final Crisis is how much damage Darkseid does just by existing. He doesn’t do any traditional super villain things in the entire story. No battles, no plotting. He just sits on his throne, yaking advantage of a battle he already won, imposing his will on an entire planet. He spends most of the story sitting on an underground bunker, but his presence presses down on the whole world.
#amreading #comics
Kiddo’s been wanting to learn programming, with the ultimate goal of modding Minecraft. We’ve done …
Kiddo’s been wanting to learn programming, with the ultimate goal of modding Minecraft. We’ve done some Ruby, but he’s impatient, so last night I we started Java with a simple program that repeats a println X times.
He wanted to pass it the integer limit.
After a few minutes, I suggested we watch a movie & check back later.
After dinner, he decided to stop it & we timed some shorter runs.
I think he has a better understanding of scale now!
Total Solar Eclipse 2017 (Gallery)
Down the Narrow Hallway
A few years back I saw a narrow hallway until you reached the right door.
The building dates to the 1920s, when offices had character and weren’t just boxes. The theater seems to be gone now, as it’s since been turned back into offices. Because apparently that’s something Los Angeles doesn’t have enough of?
todo: add more of this description to the live page.
Pausing for a moment at Wondercon
Photo taken at: Wondercon 2015 Anaheim Convention Center
Pausing for a moment at #Wondercon on Saturday amid the chaos of fans, artists, writers, celebrities, vendors, publishers, cosplayers, and people generally having fun with pop culture.
Cool! A photo I took when I was 8 has been featured on the Flickr blog!
Cool! A photo I took when I was 8 has been featured on the @Flickr blog!
https://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/12/04/twittertuesday-the-1980s-2/