Emily_S

https://mastodon.me.uk/@emily_s

Parent, Wife, Trans, software engineer, repairer, space nerd, accidental geospatial geek. 40 odd orbits of the sun.

Pronouns: She/Her
Blog: https://parsecsreach.org
Timezone: Europe/London

Public Key

npub18demsckay0nwdd9a833stykrn0rlv298dmckc950z6p0sullt29sk5u079

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrkuacvtwj8ehxkj7nccc9jtpeh3lk9znkautvz683dqhcw0l44zcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntxydusw

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub18demsckay0nwdd9a833stykrn0rlv298dmckc950z6p0sullt29sk5u079

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Last Notes

2026-10-26 15:31:48 GMT

at the `git commit -am "warggle bargle" ` stage of fucking with github actions.

2026-09-28 07:12:53 GMT

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well ... TIL :D
When I created it several years ago I googled the name but didn't find anything related so figured it was ok ...
I got here first damn it :P

2026-09-27 19:50:29 GMT

New release of esvg, now with:
* the ability to remove attributes and styles from elements.
* lengths can be parsed from fractional inches e.g "1 2/8in"
* Paper sizes now cover A0 to A7
https://github.com/emilyselwood/esvg

2026-09-19 16:29:22 GMT

Good #RepairCafe today.
* A sds drill that just worked.
* A moisture sensor that was corroded
* A kenwood mixer from the 70s, identified the parts needed and they are still available. And a rev 2 of the repair manual on the IA. With exploded diagrams and numbered parts. 😍🥰
* A kids mp3 player which just didn't work, couldn't figure that one out
* A casio panio that we took apart and put back together and it worked. Not sure, gunk in a switch maybe?
* An electric bbq grill. Blown bulb

2026-08-23 07:23:22 GMT

The sheer disappointment of getting a fun teapot and discovering that it doesn't pour cleanly.
Teapot shaped decorative object.
*shakes angry fist at useless crockery *

2026-07-28 18:38:40 GMT

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you have to be careful though the pipeline takes 7 days to work through

2026-07-28 18:19:37 GMT

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soul rebase
Soul merge conflict

2026-07-19 22:49:43 GMT

Back in my tent slightly earlier than planned but I was actually starting to shiver. Which you'd think would be nice after the last week but surprisingly no.
Thank you every one. Tomorrow we have to clear out and let the amazing org team sort out all the things.
This event is the kind of thing that honestly changes lives and the world.
Thank you every one. It's been beautiful.
#EMFCamp

2026-07-16 18:55:20 GMT

Telescopes are being set up, it's way way to light still but if you want to have a look at the telescopes before you can't really see them. Swing by the Astro observability village behind stage A
Not planning full star party tonight but making sure everything works.
#EMFCamp

2026-07-05 13:54:08 GMT

One ridiculous EMF project down...
Colours aren't quite right but finding high vis vests that come in blue, pink, and white was hard enough, so I've got what I've got.
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/867/697/143/004/091/original/1bd40f724c7a67b5.jpg

2026-05-28 15:10:53 GMT

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figure I could probably do something with bash string eval and trivial "encryption" of the string but it hasn't percolated to the top of my project list yet.

2026-05-28 15:07:52 GMT

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I tested something similar using my self deleting repo the other day on my work machine. Claude is unfortunately able to tell and not do it. Also through at least one level of redirection to a script that runs rm

2026-05-05 07:22:23 GMT

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literally all the problems that happened with "off shoring"

2026-04-18 08:21:44 GMT

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I think this points at one of the things I find more offensive about these LLMs. The first machine I wrote code on had kilobytes of ram. Long term storage was a tape drive.
I grew up watching people pull off amazing feats of computation with less resources than my current watch.
Now everything is getting brute forced by datacenters that use more power than the town I live in.
We're losing the subtlety, the beauty, the cleverness, to a sea of average slop.

2026-04-18 06:27:54 GMT

damn these ai bots are bloody mad...
This github repo only contains the static files from my blog. There is zero reason for any one else to clone it.
I published a blog post on thursday night.
That apparently triggered 19 unique entities to clone it 42 times???
I've got an rss feed ffs. there are so much less computationally expensive ways to get the same text.
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/424/267/875/080/220/original/ef114359d59ce0ea.png

2026-04-12 14:44:56 GMT

Been going through the tool boxes we collected from my wife's dads place. I've been able to figure out most of the tools (with a little help from my dad for the bike specific bits)
But the purpose of these three baffles us. Made of what feels like streel, they look like they were machined.
Any one got a clue what they are for?
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/392/261/695/564/956/original/7e0e085b2a9df5db.jpg
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/392/261/698/881/668/original/2b58fab0bf105e3b.jpg

2026-03-27 09:43:38 GMT

Fun view up an electricity pilon yesterday with the clouds in the background. Feels a bit like a quilt pattern.
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/116/300/468/726/315/089/original/35d78418aa787e50.jpg

2026-03-04 17:14:31 GMT

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how many actual people are there on LinkedIn? Feels like it's 99% AI generated slop

2026-03-03 07:45:55 GMT

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also I love how china went from "there's no point in us doing anything because china burns all the coal" to "well china managed to do it, why aren't we?"

2026-02-21 18:03:09 GMT

Think half term won over the rugby today. Very busy at the repair cafe.
* A cricut that seemed to just work.
* A toster that they'd brought a new element for.
* A TV that they'd brought a replacement cap for but unfortunately it still didn't work.
* A set of fairy lights needed the wires splicing back in.
* another set of fairy lights that snapped right at the plug not leaving enough to solder to.
* a hoover with broken Cable Retractor, spring had snapped.
#RepairCafe

2026-02-01 18:06:42 GMT

You know all that water use that mentioned when talking about AI datacenters? That's used for cooling.
You know what you don't have in space? A plentiful external supply of water to cool stuff down with.
You know the other name for a thermos flask? A vacuum flask. We use a vacuum to make it harder for heat to escape. You know what space is?
A datacenter in space is a thermal management nightmare.

2026-01-21 21:56:15 GMT

As stupid shit posts of a repo goes this might be the best I've made in a long time.
Presenting the Self Deleting Repo.
When opened in vs code or zed it immediately deletes its self. (at least if you have the rust plug in installed)
I've also added agent instructions that might make the agent delete it but I don't have any of the ai tools installed to see if that part actually works.
https://github.com/emilyselwood/self_deleting_repo

2026-01-21 08:01:49 GMT

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wonder how much validation they put on that... if that tasks.json includes a command to delete the current directory?

2026-01-18 12:26:46 GMT

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every gay transphobe thinks they aren't in the line behind us.

2025-11-26 20:16:14 GMT

She feels relaxed but she really doesn't look it.
#cat
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/115/617/817/955/103/001/original/972fafa0de0fe0dc.jpg

2025-08-17 07:26:04 GMT

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Re wired the switch and connected the ground wire around the side to make the lamp safe.
If you work for a charity shop and someone wants to buy something you've found unsafe or not tested, please for the love of the goddess don't sell it to them. We were lucky this one got brought to us for a check before it killed the new owner.
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/115/042/899/987/670/160/original/1fb35b1da57cc178.jpg

2025-08-17 07:18:40 GMT

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I opened it up to find this horror show.
The wire to the plug is at the bottom. The wire to the lamp body is at the top.
The ground and neutral joined together on the plug side, and the ground and miss coloured live on the other.
The case of the lamp is metal. The ground wire is bolted to the case at the top. Yes the case is live mains when this lamp is turned on.
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/115/042/855/028/006/137/original/69785da39cf0a322.jpg

2025-08-17 07:10:29 GMT

Yesterday at the repair cafe someone brought in a lamp. They'd acquire it from a charity shop, that apperently didn't want to sell it because it was unsafe, they seemed pleased that they'd managed to persuade the charity shop to part with it.
The pat tester reported a problem, but couldn't do the full test, they'd not brought the bulb of course.
So I took a look. A multimeter along the flex pointed to weirdness in the switch.

2025-08-05 19:49:49 GMT

Damn people. If your making a website for an event there are two things that need to be front and centre on your landing page (Preferably every page)
* WHEN the event is
* WHERE the event is
99% of the time I'm arriving on your page to either decide if I can go or to add it to the makers calendar. Both of which require that information.

2025-07-26 08:14:43 GMT

They've installed copilot on our machines at work. My biggest annoyance is that the fucking tab key accepts it's suggestions. Have you tried to write python with out pressing tab? Like you start a new line and it suggests a vomit of clearly wrong and useless bollox but to start typing what you actually need you need to indent for the block...

2025-06-23 20:47:07 GMT

To answer my earlier post in case the thread gets mangled at some point here is my new process.
1: Go to the circle shape thing (I really need a good name for this thing) http://parsecsreach.org/circle_shapes/?shapes=W3siYyI6MjAsInIiOjY1LCJvIjowLCJhIjo2NSwidSI6MjAsImUiOjAsImwiOiIjMDAwMDAwIn1d
2: Setup your pattern however you want.
3: Hit the download button
4: open the resulting file in inkscape ( version greater than 1.3, tested on 1.4.2
5: Select the object, hit ctrl + shift + g a couple of times to undo the grouping, you'll see loads of blue bounding boxes when its right.
...

2025-06-12 09:28:39 GMT

Any of you wonderful folk happen to be looking for a head of engineering role?
Work is looking at the moment. You'll need to be in the office in London (UK) 5 minutes from Farringdon tube station, 3 days a week. Wonderfully diverse team of excellent engineers (if I do say so myself) and a company mission that can make a difference.
You'd get to work with me, which I'll leave up to you if it's a pro or con 😂
https://careers.natcapresearch.com/jobs/6026575-head-of-engineering

2024-11-27 06:33:37 GMT

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I did but it was over 15 years ago, things have changed a lot. (And I was young, stupider, and a different gender)
The biggest mistake I made was not having enough of a plan for what I wanted to see in each place. Spending a couple of days in Rome, two nights in Venice, a day in Prague, etc doesn't leave much time to randomly explore, you need a list of things to see and then probably half it.

2024-10-30 15:54:44 GMT

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Illuminated biblically accurate pumpkin!
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/113/397/180/955/972/634/original/ec8d30c7de85287f.jpg

2024-10-30 15:36:32 GMT

Biblically accurate pumpkin!
#pumpkin
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/113/397/105/137/731/828/original/b95a769a63586c56.jpg
https://mastodon.me.uk/system/media_attachments/files/113/397/105/380/209/833/original/06261f61527ea1c0.jpg

2024-09-02 05:47:46 GMT

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oooh! But also fancy cookie cutters! That has to have been done before! To the search engines

2024-08-12 06:26:47 GMT

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Goddess this. Also given that apperently at the activity pub level it's a "move" activity it should be possible.