Notices by Ross of Ottawa (ottaross@mastodon.social)

With the latest exodus from the #birdshite, I'm hearing lots of tech/social-media "experts" doing interviews, talking about the social media landscape and #Bluesky versus #Threads.

Somehow they never – or barely – mention the issue of centralized corporate ownership and Mastodon/Fedi and the federation concept get no mention at all.

Besides being shoddy journalism, it makes them look quite ill-informed on their supposed core expertise.

Oh stop letting him talk constantly. Moderators need to shut him down.

Will be interested to see the total speaking times tally for each candidate.

#debate #uspol

@Gargron "These are not the droids you are looking for."

@verbeeld interesting solution, though when you think of it, it's male-experience-centric. Half the population may not know what the symbol on the right side is, having (theoretically) never seen one before.

My older #photoGallery and #emailApp are not very good in their modern form.

Reading a bit I'm thinking either "F-Stop Gallery" or "Gallery Go" will be new choices.

And on email it sounds like K-9 is FOSS, popular and stable… though somewhat low on updates. Could be that it's just finished. I mean at some point, an app just does email properly and doesn't need much more than bug fixes. (I'm hoping).

Any users of these apps with opinions?

3/n

Yesterday I powered up the phone and spent a solid hour just disabling, de-installing goog apps and 'features.' First to kill was the Chrome browser, all the gaming things (no interest) and some junk from the manufacturer (Motorola).

Then upgraded from Android 13 to 14. Yay - I've jumped ahead from Android9 - and am back in to current features and security.

Started reading to find new versions of old apps that have become ad-laden or orphaned.

2/n

Starting on a #newPhone migration, but doing it the hard way, hoping to drop a bit of cruft and clutter in the process.

The messy bits are the thousands of photos on the old phone, the contacts (keep them all or weed out the long-lost contacts?), and bookmarks (sort or just copy?).

Then the apps - I have many I don't use, but they still sound appealing.

Live tooting the process just for kicks.

#Android #smartphone

1/n

@MylesRyden @KevinMarks Creepy and weirdo work well where "deplorables" didn't.

It was a "big word" which – while accurate and precise – allowed their cadre to immediately dismiss it with their inherent anti-intellectualism.

Interesting to think what other accurate, but common, words are suitable here - choices must focus on behaviour rather than identity though

@evan oh no! Didn't see this earlier. Sounds like off the rails Montreal drivers!? Hope you're on the mend and comfortable. :(

You ever try to get an autopsy on Canada's Via Rail? The paperwork is a mess.

And Amtrak? Don't make me laugh.

#monsterdon

@clacke it was an old 70s movie called "Horror Express" being simultaneously watched by many people under the monsterdon hashtag. :)

Now there's why I love European trains - you can get an autopsy at a moment's notice. Very convenient.

#monsterdon

@br00t4c @LillyHerself I used to live right next door to the federal public workers union HQ, and remember their admin staff going on strike, picketing the building.

The staff's grievances were contracting out of work, and poor treatment, ironically the very things the union had been striking against the fed gov for doing.

My contribution to the old ladies (and old ladies at heart) of the world is my cup-and-saucer display stand which you can download and #3Dprint at your leisure for free.

Just saw a post come through from user #brownsworld1 on #thingiverse who has printed that handy display stand which I designed several years ago.

Sounds like they must be having some issues with a few of the positioning thrusters on the #Starliner

They're doing test firings and it sounds like sometimes they don't get what they expect.

I hope they have a hammer on board. They might need a whack or two.

Aha - sounds like the #Starliner is about 260m away from the ISS.

Looks closer than that, but it's hard to judge distances without familiar objects for scale.

Rule one of space travel – there are no bananas in space.

#bananaForScale

Just realized the #Starliner should be getting close to docking at the ISS.

Checked in and indeed it's approaching now.

Sounds like success for the #StarLiner docking so far.

I just tuned in again to the NASA feed while I do some benchtop work. Some nice background chatter about the progress.

(Plus the NASA team doesn't find it necessary to whoop and cheer every two minutes).

Seems they've confirmed 'soft' capture and are moving toward the hard lock, where everything is latched and bolted down for the docking procedure.

Wondering if, given the reaction control thruster probs, they may abort the ISS docking, to minimize risks to the space station and decide to return early.

Not sure if the #Starliner has a 'grapple' point on it to allow the Canadarm manipulator to grab it and ram it into a docking port. (or something more subtle).

Maybe they should take a chance and 'stir the oxygen tanks.' #Gulp