Veronica Olsen 🕷️

System Architect ★ Software Developer ★ High Energy Physics PhD at Uni Oslo & CERN ★ Linux ★ Python ★ Open Source ★ Unicode Unicorn ★ ISO 8601 Enthusiast ★ Consumer of Sci-Fi ★ Hobby Writer ★ Born at 336 ppm CO₂ ★ She/They

Open Source: https://novelwriter.io & https://fosstodon.org/@novelwriter

Banner image from Wallpaper Access.

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npub1peq7grt9fjgcuww77afksu9h46w96n8rrah7shu8nkmh3tysqlrsr244us

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nprofile1qqsqus0yp4j5eyvw8800w5mgwzm6a8zafn337mlgt7remdmc4jgq03cpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qe2gc6r

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Last Notes

2026-04-30 20:58:10 GMT

Copy Fail (CVE-2026-31431) has just been patched on Debian 13, with kernel version 6.12.85-1 from trixie (security).
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-31431
#CopyFail #Debian #Linux #InfoSec #CVE

2026-04-17 16:10:46 GMT

I dropped my entire dinner on the kitchen floor as I was about to eat. I had to start all over again.
I kind of hate today now.
At least I got an additional reason to clean the floor and take out some trash.

2026-04-17 15:30:32 GMT

I think Hegseth quoting fake bible passages from Pulp Fiction, presumably because he doesn't know they're made up, perfectly illustrates the role of religion in right wing extremist politics. It's a tool to control the masses. Nothing more.
In that respect, I am in 100% agreement with the pope.
I'm an atheist, but I grew up in a Christian community. US and Israeli violence is not in line with the core message. (Although there are people in my old community who supports them.)
#USPol #Fascism

2026-04-05 09:53:51 GMT

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@nprofile…vdqp It's not over yet. The worst will hit this afternoon. It was windy during the night, and it's quieter now. The wind has also turned westerly, so my building is shielded behind a larger one.

2026-03-22 15:21:24 GMT

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@nprofile…vdqp I'm guessing that's the old default light theme?
If you are aware of any good colour blind themes out there, I'm happy to add some. Assuming we're talking red/green colour blindness? We have added high contrast themes at least.
I can also look around for some. But it's better to have a suggestion from someone who needs the feature.

2026-03-22 15:10:09 GMT

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@nprofile…rmyp @nprofile…vdqp Really?
Every text document in a novelWriter project is a text file on disk, and it checks the checksum of the saved one before overwriting in case something else has changed it. It also saves to a temp file first, then replace the old with the new, just to be 100% sure the file was completely saved before the old version is removed. I mean, as far as the app is able to control. The file system can also have issues.

2026-03-22 15:04:06 GMT

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@nprofile…vdqp If you think 30 seconds is too long, you can reduce it in Preferences. The project structure itself is saved every 60 seconds by default.
If you add a new document just before a crash or shutdown, the document will be added back into the project automatically, so project auto-save is less critical.
As for Word crash, I once saved someone's master's thesis from a crash (with no recent backup) because I knew Word kept hidden files around. She was able to restore it. 😅

2026-03-22 14:34:29 GMT

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@nprofile…vdqp Hehe, great. 😄
I guess you were also lucky with the autosave which by default runs every 30 seconds.

2026-03-20 16:28:40 GMT

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@nprofile…hq04 @nprofile…cy5p I have the extended version of that in my "pictures from the internet" folder. 😁
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/116/262/421/700/280/669/original/d25bb354f63f272b.jpg

2026-01-23 15:23:50 GMT

I have tendinopathy in my left shoulder, so I filed a claim with my work's medical insurance (it's faster than the public system).
I got the approval for treatment today, and it's depressing to see that two of the five treatment options were chiropractors. It's alternative medicine, and based on pseudoscience. It should not be an approved form of treatment for coverage at all.
The other three options were physiotherapists, which are at least medical practitioners.
#Medicine #PseudoScience

2026-01-08 06:55:07 GMT

Meanwhile in Norway ...
(Photo by the insurance company If)
#Meanwhile #Norway #Cold #Winter
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/858/152/161/413/226/original/d898a2b9ab6d3124.png

2026-01-06 15:58:30 GMT

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@nprofile…t05x Yeah, looks like ... 😬
The Germans, 100 years ago, called it Lebensraum. It gave us WW2.

2026-01-06 15:56:41 GMT

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@nprofile…t05x Yeah, looks like ... 😬

2025-12-27 14:59:14 GMT

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@nprofile…j4xh My first steps into programming was with AMOS on the Amiga, and on the graphics level you had to deal with at least some of this stuff.
But yeah, I love this too. I studied electronics in the 90s, when all this was still in use. I find it interesting that the way we encode colour in video is still based on the way they handled the transition from black and white to colour broadcast TV.

2025-12-27 14:14:50 GMT

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@nprofile…j4xh This part reminded me of the work I've done with upscaling old PAL DVD video to HD. PAL DVD has a 16:15 pixel ratio in 4:3 screen format, which has to be corrected for before upscale. So first the DVD has to be stretched from 720x576 to 768x576 before upscale to 1440x1080, otherwise the image looks squeezed. 😊
CRT TVs and formats are quirky. Even before we get to colour encoding!

2025-12-21 10:57:45 GMT

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@nprofile…crvw @nprofile…hk8t The default themes have been updated to be more consistent with eachother so they work better when alternating between them.
There are several high contrast themes, but maybe we need more colour blindness friendly themes.

2025-12-21 09:30:37 GMT

Winter Solstice is only a little more than 5 hours away here,at 16:03 local time. I'm looking forward to longer days! 🌞
Today is 6 hours 12 minutes and 36 seconds long. That's not nearly enough. Tomorrow we will have 3 seconds more though. 😴
In any case ...
Happy Winter Solstice!
And Happy Summer Solstice to our friends in the Southern Hemisphere.
#WinterSolstice #Solstice #SummerSolstice #Sun

2025-12-19 14:52:47 GMT

A good piece on how GenAI is flooding the field. I too have worked with ML for a while and feel similarly.
"Having done my PhD on AI language generation (long considered niche), I was thrilled we had come this far. But the awe I felt was rivaled by my growing rage at the flood of media takes and self-appointed experts insisting that generative AI could do things it simply can’t, and warning that anyone who didn’t adopt it would be left behind."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1129179/generative-ai-hype-distracts-us-from-ais-more-important-breakthroughs/
#AI #GenAI #ML #CompSci

2025-12-11 21:48:18 GMT

I'm currently rewatching Designated Survivor. I saw it around when it came out, so it's not new to me. It's a political thriller/drama, and the bulk of it aired in 2017-18. It's very progressive in its politics – so much so that it is a little cringe at times – and it stands in very sharp contrast to the the political reality of the time. It feels completely detached from US political reality in fact, which also undermines it.
Still, it's an interesting show and concept.
#TV #Politics #Drama

2025-12-11 17:29:17 GMT

At a local council meeting. After 1.5 hours, we're still on item 1 of 10 on the agenda. 😅

2025-12-06 13:44:01 GMT

I think I may have slightly ruined my experience of playing Lady Gaga's recent album Mayhem. I played the World of Warcraft remix season a lot in November, and most of it while listening to this album.
Now I cannot play any of the songs without picturing the game. 😅
#Music #Gaming #WoW #LadyGaga

2025-11-30 13:03:43 GMT

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@nprofile…crvw @nprofile…hk8t It's still experimental, but as far as I can tell, it seems to work. I don't use Vim, so this was added by a contributor, but it seems to integrate fairly well with the rest of the app. 😊

2025-11-20 08:27:14 GMT

Excellent news! Stargate is returning.
https://www.gateworld.net/news/2025/11/amazon-greenlights-new-stargate-series/
#Stargate #SciFi #TV

2025-11-05 18:45:48 GMT

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@nprofile…4phl Yeah, I attend security meetings at work. There has been a sharp uptick in targeted/tailored phishing scams thanks to AI. They combine public information about their targets with compromised data from businesses you deal with, so they may even impersonate actual business contacts as well. So a good idea to be skeptical.
AI really has been a game changer for criminals. 😒

2025-11-02 21:18:19 GMT

Tonight's film, and a rewatch, was Inglourious Basterds. It's my second favourite Tarantino film.
I like that it has 4 spoken languages in. I can follow almost all of the German dialogue and a bit of the French. The Italian not so much, but there's just a bit of it at the end. There are whole segments where German is translated to French, and the French bit subtitled in English. It's a little confusing. 😅

2025-10-25 18:44:01 GMT

These are great!
Nominations for the funniest (wildlife?) animal photos of the year.
It's from Norwegian media, but there's almost no text, and it's the photos that matter. The alt text on them is also in Norwegian, but almost entirely useless and little more than a title. They really need to do better.
https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/xl/arets-morsomte-dyrebilder-2025_-her-er-finalistene-1.17625376
#Photos #Animals

2025-10-22 10:45:28 GMT

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@nprofile…crvw I could turn it on and off, but the thermostat defaulted to 28 degrees, so I ended up just turning it on and off manually until I replaced it.
(The brand was Duux by the way.)

2025-10-22 10:36:28 GMT

Re the whole AWS debacle and IoT stories like the one about the beds ...
I once bought an electric heater where the thermostat could only be controlled through an app. The heater lost wifi between every use, so I had to run setup every time.
It didn't take long before I replaced it. I'm now much more careful about the things I buy. Anything that requires internet and isn't a computer is a no go for me.
#Enshittification #IoT #AWS #Cloud

2025-10-21 11:02:06 GMT

"You can hire a bunch of very smart people who will explain how DNS works at a deep technical level [...], but the one thing you can't hire for is the person who remembers that when DNS starts getting wonky, check that seemingly unrelated system in the corner, because it has historically played a contributing role to some outages of yesteryear."
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/20/aws_outage_amazon_brain_drain_corey_quinn/
#AWS #DNS #TheRegister #IT #Tech

2025-10-17 20:56:38 GMT

Oh my gods is it difficult to delete an HBO Max account. I ended up having to email support through an AI bot. A bot that was utterly useless by the way, and kept trying to dodge my request for deletion.
This will be a consumer complaint when I'm done.
#Enshittification #HBOMax #Privacy #GDPR

2025-10-16 12:18:48 GMT

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"Even though he's the darkest of clouds, Trump has some deeply weird silver linings, formed out of a combination of his self-owning isolationism and blunt aggression."
Well put, @nprofile…998y, well put!
@nprofile…9cw2

2025-10-05 18:06:23 GMT

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@nprofile…j8k7 The opening theme was never the intention of the creators. But aside from that, the studio wanted another cookie cuter TNG era show, which they thought had been done enough, so they decided to go for a prequel instead. It is very much designed for Star Trek fans because they do a lot of filling in the gaps of the lore, and take some liberties they've been criticised for.
I mainly like the mood and pace of the show and that it's less "glossy" than its predecessors.

2025-10-05 16:25:58 GMT

I know it's a controversial opinion, but I like the Star Trek Enterprise opening theme. I know the series creators (at least Braga) did not.
Anyway, I'm half way through my rewatch since I bought the Blurays (only had the DVDs before). Aside from a handful of awful episodes, the series holds up well and I still enjoy it. 😊
#StarTrek #StarTrekENT #TV #SciFi

2025-10-05 10:16:41 GMT

I'm not very good with the coffee machine milk steamer, and rarely bother, but at least today I managed!
#Sunday
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/321/031/053/770/853/original/1c13d61ae9710445.png

2025-09-12 06:47:28 GMT

I'm grateful there's a Friday every week, but Monday only once a week.
#Friday

2025-08-21 12:32:46 GMT

The amount of AI slop returned when searching for developer topics has gotten so bad that I've started limiting my searches to results from before 2024. It helps a lot, but RIP Internet ... 😒
#AI #Slop #Coding #Dev

2025-08-16 19:11:26 GMT

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@nprofile…h94j It always bothered me because I always imagined Rincewind as much younger. 😁

2025-08-13 20:21:24 GMT

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@nprofile…a0z2 @nprofile…0qap When I reach 4.5 billion years I expect I'll be spinning on my side too. 😁

2025-08-13 20:07:36 GMT

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@nprofile…a0z2 @nprofile…0qap My mom claimed to be 25 long after I reached that age myself; at which time I was forced to point out the inconsistency it caused in the cosmic timeline!

2025-08-13 19:58:44 GMT

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@nprofile…a0z2 @nprofile…0qap I have no idea what this "50" is. I'm currently thirty-eighteen. 😊

2025-08-02 11:49:28 GMT

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@nprofile…lvhv Actually, I bought white paint. 😆

2025-08-02 11:23:07 GMT

The most boring and generic car you could possibly own around where I live is a white Tesla. I've noticed lately just how many of them there are. I sometimes see several of them in a row.
I just went to the paint store, a 13 km round trip, and I counted 10 of them. Including 3 in the parking lot by the store which had 20-25 cars in it. 😁
#EV #Cars #Tesla

2025-08-01 15:30:23 GMT

Today was my first day at the new job as a systems architect. Not many people there because many are still on vacation and Friday is anyway most people's preferred work-from-home day.
Of course, my new laptop was Windows 11, and that took a lot of the day because Windows is getting so far from a smooth process that I don't know why people put up with it. I was told there is a growing dissatisfaction with Windows, and many there want to switch to Linux, so this is already promising!

2025-07-28 11:00:52 GMT

Debian Trixie release date is set to 9 August. Thankfully that's a Saturday, because I will probably need a fair bit of tinkering on my desktop since I use it for coding, video encoding and sometimes games, so there are many things that can be affected.
I've been running it on my laptop for a while, which is less demanding, so it looks fine. I'm going to miss the detailed System Monitor addon though. I don't like what they've done with it.
#Debian #Linux #Trixie

2025-07-20 14:26:28 GMT

Seeing a thunderstorm video on here, I made a quick clip of one of the storms I recorded when I lived outside Geneva some years ago. This one is from 25 July 2019 around 21:45 in the evening. There were many spectacular lightening events, but I caught very few of them.
The video is slowed down by a factor of 4.
#Thunder #Lightning #Storm
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/886/010/177/462/994/original/d7e91f5ad3a2b456.mp4

2025-07-20 13:17:33 GMT

Never mind the 30 °C heat, what's with all the pollen! 🤧

2025-07-16 10:20:48 GMT

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@nprofile…avnq I block everything I can via Privacy Badger extension, including Google Analytics, but they do infest everything, like a virus.
I hope EU can take some more legal action.

2025-07-14 18:01:28 GMT

Trump is declaring all his predecessors were fooled by Putin, but not him! He's the only one who were not fooled!
The reality is that when it comes to dealing with Putin, few if any have been as gullible as Trump. As always, the spin could make a merry-go-round dizzy.
Source for the claim: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/14/politics/us-ukraine-weapons-trump
#USPol #Trump #Russia
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/852/870/368/772/098/original/4dfd094ded788bc2.png

2025-07-11 16:30:59 GMT

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@nprofile…s85r Unless you're getting ready for Towel Day? 😁

2025-07-10 12:51:21 GMT

"Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist."
– Sir David Attenborough
#Quotes #Nature #Economy #Capitalism

2025-07-09 16:22:11 GMT

I decided to finish watching Person of Interest. I was only half way through the series.
The show builds on mass surveillance post 911, and a bunch of ridiculous conspiracy theories. But I have to say it's still a little weird watching the now ±10 years old show in the context of current AI tech, which isn't particularly intelligent and therefore very different, but also in the context of the big tech surveillance industry. Sometimes the stories are a little on the nose. 😅
#TV #SciFi #AI #Tech

2025-07-07 22:15:53 GMT

I'm looking at some of the extras on my Star Trek Discovery Blurays, and there there is a series of videos about the set design on the show.
In one segment, one of the art designers is explaining some design details in a corridor, where some tubes and pipes can be seen.
The marking GNDN stands for "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing" 😁
#StarTrek #STDIS #SciFi
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/814/241/270/881/678/original/5ed25697821f9782.png

2025-07-07 14:17:03 GMT

More Blurays arrived today! 😁
I've only watched up to season 3 of Star Trek Discovery, so I'll do a full rewatch of the whole series I think.
#Blurays #Movies #StarTrek #LotR #4K
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/812/363/844/480/736/original/356fa99c1ac1c902.png

2025-07-03 10:34:26 GMT

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@nprofile…fa3q @nprofile…q4ju On my phone, Samsung S21 with Android 15, I was allowed to disable the Gemini app in Settings > Apps.
Later, I uninstalled it using the dev tools, but that's less straightforward.
Edit: Since this is being boosted, if you want to uninstall it with dev tools, the app ID to do so is com.google.android.apps.bard

2025-07-02 19:26:40 GMT

I'm rewatching the Frozen Planet documentary series, and this clip from the crew filming the penguins in Antarctica for the second episode really cracked me up. 😁
Windy indeed!
#Nature #Documentary #Antarctica #Wind
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/785/269/613/714/226/original/1a439d260123227a.mp4

2025-06-30 13:51:07 GMT

One downside of moving to Western Norway is the sheer number of knuckleheads here that keep signalling left in roundabouts and never signal to exit. If you don't know where in the roundabout they entered, you have no idea where they intend to exit. I had to step on it to get out of the way of one of those just now because I guessed wrong about where they were going. I also frequently have to just stop and wait them out just in case.

2025-06-24 07:51:54 GMT

I wish my oven and microwave didn't have clocks, because then I didn't have to set them on DST changes and every time there is a power interruption.

2025-06-18 17:45:10 GMT

Uhm, ok?
Since I have requested exactly 0 such reviews, this makes no sense. It's also 0 loss and 0 reasons to upgrade anything, so I guess we're good then, GitHub.
#GitHub #AI #Copilot #WTF #Coding
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/705/563/809/251/896/original/1cf49d775ddeb720.png

2025-06-18 14:58:49 GMT

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@nprofile…s85r Last time I checked, one in four cars on the road were electric. Where I live it must be more. I think most cars around here are electric.
Too many are Teslas though. 🤢

2025-06-18 14:23:10 GMT

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Oh, and the transfer of the insurance too. All of it. Done in a few clicks. Granted, I had to log into multiple systems since these are different agencies and companies, but it was pretty easy.
It was far from as straightforward to sort these things out in France when I bought a car there in 2016. 😅

2025-06-18 14:21:30 GMT

I finally got the electric car I ordered back in February. Yay!
While it isn't my first time driving an EV, this one is a direct comparison to the one I had, and EVs really are much smoother and faster!
It has also become surprisingly smooth in this country to transfer ownership of my old car, get the new registration, sign my downpayments, and transfer the toll chip. Everything is signed by the digital ID we use in Norway, and took no time at all, and no paper!
#Norway #EV #Digitalisation

2025-06-08 08:49:28 GMT

Oh boy ...
I switched @nprofile…haa6 to Qt6 on the recent 2.7 release, and that has caused sooo many problems with the AppImage.
I spent 7-8 hours yesterday trying to fix things, but AppImages are horrible to work with when you can't just use one of the standard tools that does everything for you.
... and now I hate AppImages.
#Coding #Python #Qt #AppImage

2025-06-08 08:16:53 GMT

I see in the news this morning that Orange Palpatine has deployed the Stormtroopers.
#Trump #Regime #USPol #StarWars

2025-06-01 07:32:01 GMT

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@nprofile…fa4k @nprofile…dr5j Having a CERN email address was a magnet for crackpot emails. I did keep some of them though. I too found them fascinating to a point. I had a folder called "Mixed Nuts" where I saved some of them.
Pretty much everyone ignored them, so one guy started to send emails impersonating famous scientists recommending his work.

2025-05-28 14:50:38 GMT

It's official. I have a new jobb from 1st August!
It's sad to leave @nprofile…wtxl and @nprofile…jx7y (best boss ever). We're a consulting firm, so I've been at the client's office for the past nearly 4 years.
I will also miss working with @nprofile…fxmd, who I've worked with in two jobs now.
I'm staying in the renewable energy sector though, and moving to a smaller company closer to where I live. It means I can go to an office again. 100% remote work isn't for me. Hybrid suits me better.

2025-05-28 07:55:05 GMT

Any database wizards out there?
I have a table with an ID column. The ID column is unique together with a valid date, so the ID itself is not unique.
However, I also need a name column that is unique under the condition that any given name can only correspond to one specific ID (but not necessarily the other way around).
The database is PostgreSQL. Is it possible to formulate, for instance, a UNIQUE INDEX to achieve this?
#Programming #Development #Help #Database #PostgreSQL

2025-05-24 19:13:38 GMT

Phew. 7 hours on a Saturday updating and restructuring @nprofile…haa6 documentation. I think that's enough. Also, I'm getting quite hungry. 😅

2025-05-24 12:26:29 GMT

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@nprofile…s85r Could you please post it to the 2.7 RC1 discussion thread? https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions/2348
It makes it easier to follow up and get feedback from others as well.

2025-05-23 21:41:46 GMT

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So far I've managed to get hold of 6 of these collector's steel book versions on 4K Bluray. Some of them were really tricky to find since they are limited editions and sold out.
I'm not sure if one exists for The Book of Boba Fett, and I'll definitely look out for Andor Season 2 when it arrives.
#StarWars #4K #Andor #Mandalorian #Ahsoka
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/559/306/889/555/463/original/1bdf36ec1bccf014.png

2025-05-23 21:31:29 GMT

I'm on a serious Star Wars binge right now.
So far, I've (re)watched:
* The Mandalorian S1 and S2
* Episodes I, II and III
* Andor S1
* Solo
* Andor S2
* Rogue One
* Episodes IV, V and VI
In between I've also been watching:
* The Clone Wars S4-S7, almost done.
I'm continuing:
* The Book of Boba Fett
* The Mandalorian S3
* Ahsoka
* Episodes VII, VIII and IX
* Obi-Wan Kenobi
I'm also considering watching Andor S1 and S2 one more time, because it's just that good.
#StarWars #SciFi

2025-05-22 06:04:17 GMT

Aww, they cancelled FBI: Most Wanted. I liked the characters. Also, their last episode was about cyber criminals infiltrating DOGE (they called it BOGO instead, but the reference was impossible to miss) and stole data from NCA (mock of NSA I guess).
*Very* on topic. 😅
They also cancelled FBI: International, which is fine. A show about FBI agents making a mess of things in Europe, and that gets about 50% of stuff wrong about every European country they depict, wasn't worth keeping.
#TV #FBI

2025-05-20 20:01:22 GMT

Great exchange 😁
McKay: Okay, you want me to harvest parts from both Jumpers, cobble together a fix so one of them will work?
Sheppard: Is it possible?
McKay: Doubtful.
Sheppard: But maybe?
McKay: It's a long shot at best.
Sheppard: Perfect. Get to it. What do you need, 15 minutes?
#Stargate #Atlantis #SciFi #TV
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/541/924/743/797/927/original/99949fc2c33355c2.jpg

2025-05-20 16:07:53 GMT

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@nprofile…s85r I always do my writing on the main branch of the source code, but I can fix issues when they arise. I don't recommend others do that. 😅
That said, the test coverage is at 100%, and is very good on the core critical parts, so I don't think I have ever lost any data from running merged code. I have truncated the project file when developing though, but I always do that on the sample project in the source, so I can just reset it.

2025-05-20 16:00:17 GMT

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@nprofile…s85r @nprofile…haa6 Glad they're all working then. 😄

2025-05-19 20:00:17 GMT

Please do not share your password with alternate versions of yourself from parallel universes.
You never know which one is evil and which one is not.
(A beard is not a reliable indicator.)
#Security #Tips #Multiverse #SciFi

2025-05-17 19:45:30 GMT

Non-political my ass. Eurovision is making a political choice either way, and they chose evil. I will never forget it. Seeing it unfold makes me sick. I'm logging off until this is over.

2025-05-17 12:54:18 GMT

I'm trying to decide where to put Andor on my favourites list. From before I hade Babylon 5, Star Trek DS9, and Firefly at the top of that list.
It's hard to beat B5 and DS9 because of the grand scope of those shows. Firefly and Andor are in a different category. But I think Andor will dethrone Firefly from my top 3 and slot in between it and DS9.
#Andor #StarWars #TV #SciFi

2025-05-15 22:01:47 GMT

Just finished the 4th chapter of Andor Season 2. This is SciFi at its absolute best. I want to hack IMDB so I can rate it 11 out of 10 stars.
I rewatched Season 1 before starting Season 2, and I've also watched the prequel movies and Solo. Next up is Rogue One, merging the two perfectly before continuing to the original trilogy.
#StarWars #Andor #SciFi #TV

2025-05-08 15:56:35 GMT

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@nprofile…cl5w Yeah, I've been building my own desktop PCs since the mid 90s, and it most definitely has changed the last 10-15 years. The only reason I upgraded my current desktop 2 years ago from hardware from 2017 was because I needed more cores to run specific computationally heavy tasks I rarely ran before, not because I needed it for other everyday use. The 2017 hardware is still perfectly fine.

2025-05-07 19:45:08 GMT

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@nprofile…ccu8 Admit it, you found a way to not choose between "Yes" and "Maybe Later", and the computer caught in fire!

2025-05-07 13:51:45 GMT

What is even the point of education if you don't actually intend to learn anything? I always hated oral exams, but at this point they seem like a very good idea.
“A philosophy professor across the country at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock caught students in her Ethics and Technology class using AI to respond to the prompt “Briefly introduce yourself and say what you’re hoping to get out of this class.””
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/openai-chatgpt-ai-cheating-education-college-students-school.html
#AI #Education #Cheating #AcademicIntegrity

2025-05-07 12:27:59 GMT

So, I'm currently interviewing for a job at a company that also sends me a lot of my monthly bills. I get emails from them frequently, but right now it's a little confusing since I'm also waiting for that job thing. 😅

2025-05-04 14:25:02 GMT

Norway too has an election for parliament this year. In four months. As a small country, it may not matter that much to the rest of the world, but there are a couple of things that do.
1. We are an oil economy, and stopping the search for new exploitable oil resources is a continuous political struggle.
2. We have mineral resources, including on the ocean floor. Stopping ocean floor mineral extraction is even harder.
#Norway #Politics #Election

2025-04-27 19:36:19 GMT

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@nprofile…sqcg @nprofile…q54u I bought a new desktop in 2023. Mostly because I needed more CPU power (and wanted DDR5) for video encoding, so I got a 16 core i9.
My old i7-based desktop from 2017 was still working just fine for every other use, and with Linux, plenty fast enough. I still have it, and if I can find a use for it, I'll spin it up again. Computers these days can easily last a decade. Especially when there's no battery to wear out.

2025-04-25 15:24:52 GMT

Everyone is replacing their support departments with AI these days. I just tried twice to deal with the immensely dim bot on the phone with the public postal service in Norway.
It kept rambling on for ages with no way to interrupt to clarify. Such an incredible waste of time for a very simple request.
I hate this stuff so, so much. 😠
#AI #Support #Bots

2025-04-23 21:14:57 GMT

This is a detailed review and summary by @nprofile…qz4x of "Careless People". I finished the book myself a few days ago. It's well worth the read!
"Wynn-Williams makes a very good case that Facebook is run by awful people who are also very careless – in the sense of being reckless, incurious, indifferent."
https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/23/zuckerstreisand/
#CarelessPeople #Facebook #Meta #StreisandEffect

2025-04-19 16:26:20 GMT

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@nprofile…qz4x I feel it's missing something like:
"The agreement to arbitrate requires you to submit disputes to binding arbitration with our designated arbitration provider, our mother."

2025-04-19 13:14:45 GMT

I finally finished reading Careless People. I read about 2/3 of it right after it came out, and then set it aside for a bit.
It's an interesting read. I already knew that Facebook is a despicable company which has done a lot of harm in the world, so a lot of the content itself isn't new. But the book does provide the inside view of the people behind it all. Let's just say "careless" is a very diplomatic term. "Reckless" and "dangerous" would be more accurate.
#Facebook #Meta #CarelessPeople

2025-04-14 19:13:41 GMT

I went back to my home town yesterday for an overnight trip, and this moring I drove to the small town my dad grew up in, which sits in a narrow Norwegian fjorth surrounded by steep mountains.
These images are from the innermost part of the fjorth where the two oldest remaining houses stand. My great great grandfather was born there in 1840.
The rock overhang is below a large cliff face, and there are traces of habitants dating back about 6000 years. The site is now a historical site.
#Norway
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/337/860/107/790/457/original/80c5f791148baf9c.jpg
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/337/860/110/445/119/original/67a8921858440388.jpg
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/337/883/797/317/378/original/e04becdfffb078a6.jpg

2025-04-12 16:40:42 GMT

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@nprofile…5k3r As few as possible. I'm visiting my parents for a couple of days, but that's about it.

2025-04-12 11:05:31 GMT

I spent half of yesterday trying to solve a very strange bug in some Python code at work, where adding a breakpoint in the code would *sometimes* make the bug go away, which made debugging using the debugger extremely tricky. 😅
I expect the behaviour of the bug is related to lazy loading in SQLAlchemy. I'm really starting to hate that library.
I've spent the morning thinking about this, so it's also interfering with my weekend. I got 10 days off now, so hopefully, I can stop thinking about it!

2025-04-11 15:20:02 GMT

Yay, no more work for another 254 hours. Looking forward to having a few days off. 😁

2025-04-10 07:53:12 GMT

Excellent!
A Norwegian court has determined that crypto mining is not "industry", and therefore can be excluded in local zoning plans for industry.
Municipalities in Norway want to exclude them because of the huge energy demands and very few jobs created.
This is a good decision. These data centres are a massive waste of energy and resources.
#Crypto #Miming #Energy #Law #Norway
https://rett24.no/articles/staten-vant-ankesak-om-reguleringsplan--kryptoutvinning-er-ikke-industri

2025-04-09 19:21:20 GMT

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@nprofile…ccu8 Yes, that bit is really tricky. Maybe they had help from the Kaminoans over in the other galaxy, much farther away?

2025-04-09 19:20:12 GMT

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@nprofile…ccu8 Yes, that bit is really tricky. Maybe they had help from the Kaminoans over in the other galaxy, much further away?

2025-04-09 19:14:38 GMT

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@nprofile…ccu8 I assure you, it has been genetically engineered at a local costume shop!

2025-04-09 16:30:49 GMT

Ooooh, a trailer for the Murderbot series!
I love those books, and I've read them all. 😁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEioDeOiqEs
#SciFi #Murderbot #Trailer

2025-04-07 14:12:40 GMT

Note to self: Do not check balance on pension account. 😬
#Market #TrumpCrash

2025-04-05 18:26:44 GMT

I've spent the afternoon writing an EPUB format writer for @nprofile…haa6. It now has all the meta data XML files and can dump raw text of the novel without text formatting, so that's very good progress.
Next is of course to make it also format the text itself for the pages.
It's an interesting format to work with, and like ODT and DOCX is rather messy. Like DOCX, I get the feeling it's been modified a lot too.
#Epub #Ebook #Writing #Code #Python

2025-04-04 15:00:41 GMT

Cartoon: The New Yorker / Vi-An Nguyen
#Tariff #USPol #TradeWar #Politics
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/280/279/775/028/258/original/576429fe78f3509a.png