Notices by Stevan (withaveeay@mastodon.scot)

At the weird half underground Rheged Centre near Penrith, where there are EV chargers. We're only heading to Gretna for today's run, so not far to go until we're over the border. The weather has been lovely today, a far cry from the constant poor visibility from the motorway spray on the way south last week.

Let me tell you a story.
We've got the telly on, and there's just been a staggeringly unlikely ad for Microsoft copilot slop generator.
But my story is about the 1990s and the 2000s. Do you remember how MS Access was punted as an easy database application (it was), but it had so many come-ons that encouraged users to over-extend themselves. Rather than depend on reliable corporate systems, just bung the data into this application to solve all known problems.
2/...

4. And now we have adverts for systems infinitely more opaque than was possibly with Access which, according to the adverts, one need only trust. The copilot slop will surely always be accurate and show correct data.
I wonder how many companies are going to go to the wall blinking in the light of reality before this nonsense goes full circle.

3. Some years later, I worked at a different company. An accounting wunderkind was brought in who promptly wanted to work around the accounting systems by building his own Access database. I warned the CFO about the dangers of this, and was told I should control ,y obvious jealousy of the wunderkind.
Then the auditors came in.
And once again, we came within days of closing down, being declared insolvent, saved only by the accountants working round the clock.
4/...

2. Well, someone wrote an Access application that soon was so "useful", it became indispensable. And when it inevitably started spitting out nonsense, it started impacting on a company in a regulated industry for whom I worked. We came within 24 hours of being closed down, and only because several people worked pretty much round the clock to resolve the problems of this poorly understood and undocumented application.
3/...

Caught in a traffic jam two cars away from the lorry that's been putting diesel into the A9 at Killikrankie. Coppers not letting southbound pass at all. And yes, my bladder says this is sub optimal

@gemlog I tend really to enjoy their photo essays. Some superb photography, and reminds me of various African magazines from way back when.

@gemlog Yes, there is a lot of doom and gloom, but it's not all doom and gloom. This week, eg, has positive news about a foot & mouth vaccine, a thought-provoking article about the West-washing of ancient Egypt, and an excellent photo essay on sheep shearing.

Earlier this week, @thecontinent put out a call for more folk to receive their weekly publication. Their journalism is pan-African and, for once, written from an African perspective. Also, for once, not all is doom and gloom; some of the cultural aspects are worth the read in themselves. Even if it's only to widen one's sights, or not only for those with African connections, it's often a good read.
The weekly pdf is emailed, though I think other ways of getting it are available. It's free, too.

Had to set up herself's new-to-her* Samsung phone yesterday. I ended up with a list of crud to disable over 400 entries long by the end.
This was using the adb command line utility.
Of that 400+ list, it looked like the majority successfully disabled the bloat.
So much mega-corp nonsense, and they're in it together.
It also took most of the day

* - still not sure of the value, but not-this-year's phones in apparently unused condition can be got for a fraction of the cost when new.

At the ballet tonight.
It's Scottish Ballet's "The Snow Queen" at Eden Court.
We so look forward to these winter treats.

#TechiePost
I've written a blog post about the Frankenbash script I've been talking about the last few days. It's about using the changes forced by Debian Trixie's dovecot version to alter our server-based anti-spam defences.
This provides a very light, quick anti-spam layer that accounts for each user's email niceties.
https://blog.vasten.co.uk/index.php?post/2026/01/25/Debian-Trixie-means-changes-to-email-configs%2C-so-let-s-embrace-the-change
I'm aware how useful I have found others' blog posts on this subject, so thought I should add to that for future searches, if that's not too puffed-up.

There's just been a power outage in the area. This doesn't affect us directly (off grid) but does affect our LTE internet connection. I've been wanting to test a fallback for when the main connection goes down, which it does, believe it or not, when the power goes. And we find a small £20 router somehow picks up some other mast & holds its connection, so tonight was an opportunity to test the auto failover.
Hopefully we can get rid of the wretched & expensive ADSL at some point.

Guilty secret 1: I miss windows cardfile.
It was so useful not in spite of its limitations, but because of its limitations. Having said that, it was easy to get to the point where you couldn't add any more cards. Imagine it, say, sqlite-backed.
I wish I was a programmer. The functionality needed is pretty basic.
Guilty secret 2: I also miss those simple, cut-down office suites, like MS Works, Clarisworks etc. It's all most of us need.

Probably not the best day for sunbathing down at the beach

#Assynt

It's not the Startled Chicken. It's the Pullet Surprise.

(I wish that was mine, but it's recycled from a very old comic)

#FakeAwardsAndPrizes
#HashTagGames

@gemlog Glad you're unharmed, if shaken by the experience.

Others out for their midwinter walk today. Hardly worth going to the beach if it's as packed with folk as this.

#Assynt

Midwinter walk, Meall Dearg soaking the fleeting warmth of the weak sun

#Assynt

Herself and S-I-L, on different continents at different ends of the planet, video-chatting happily on their phones, using Conversations, with our own xmpp server (prosody) as intermediary, without any megacorps involvement, dodgy encryption, ay eye or exterior permissions, other than their megalomaniac sysadmin, who hasn't bothered to do anything on prosody for years, 'cos it Just Works.
Let's hear it for Free Software.