Notices by Ben Zanin (gnomon@mastodon.social), page 5

Our hero protagonist tonight is a reporter!

*yelling at the screen* STATE YOUR POSITION ON THE OXFORD COMMA

#monsterdon

It begins!

"The Man From Planet X" (1951) is a short one tonight: you'll only need a ~75 minute timed mute. Or you can join in!

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(reporter protagonist and doctor look over the moors at the alien landing craft)

"You know what that looks like to me? A diving bell."

"Well, the only difference between water and space is a matter of density."

Yep, that's dead accurate, literally the only difference

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That is an awfully small craft for interplanetary travel.

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MONSTER uhhh loom? Honestly he was just looking out through the window in his own landing craft, nothing threatening.

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@cks https://www.sram.com/en/quarq/models/pm-dz-spdr-d1

@jacqueline yesssssssssssss excellent choice

*crosses fingers, stares straight at the Nvidia GPU drivers* don't you DARE fuck this up

For pete's sake, @mozilla : if you want to measure whether the AI/ML features are worth a damn, put a big green "disable all AI in my browser" button on the version update screen and put some telemetry around how many people instantly click it.

Just about everyone I know who has taken the 142 update is working through about:config menus to toggle off everything under browser.ml.* and grumbling about it, or just straight-up abandoning Firefox in exasperation.

Turn the ship around. *Please*.

I think I convinced a coworker to start with a Pinecil instead of splurging on a Hakko station for some beginner Arduino work. aww yiss

Folks, while we're all considering what to do about GitHub's recent public signal that it's past time to trust them with anything other than a corporate support contract¹: if Google stands up another code hosting service?

THAT IS BAIT.

If Oracle stands up a code hosting service?

THAT IS BAIT.

&c. &c.

Don't let your frustration and grief about another previously good thing sinking beneath brown waves lead you into forgetting who is worthy of trust.

¹: https://www.theverge.com/news/757461/microsoft-github-thomas-dohmke-resignation-coreai-team-transition

Hell of a thing to hear "buy into our tool fad or get of this industry" from the CEO of a company built on the halo of goodwill surrounding a movement literally built on & from determination to write software that cannot be taken away from anyone again.

Hell of a thing.

I don't think it's dunderheaded point-missing of cataclysmic proportion. I think it's a calculated risk to mortgage social credibility with developers against social credibility with investors.

I think it's a losing bet.

@mhoye @djsundog distrust the SanDisk consumer grade external/USB SSDs until mid 2026. (SD/MicroSD/CF have top tier reliability.)

SanDisk Pro gear is trustworthy.

SanDisk enterprise grade hardware, previously marketed under the Western Digital brand, has some of the best quality control, objective failure rates, and specific pre-failure warning modes in the industry.

cf. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-2025/ for WDC/HGST failure rates of mechanical drives produced under comparable QC discipline

Every summer some creature escapes from a local zoo and wanders the city. Past years have brought us peacocks, and of course the infamous capybaras Bonnie & Clyde; never yet my pick, the yaks; this year, bison!

https://archive.is/V4e63 ← https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/escaped-bison-in-york-region-returned-home-safely-police-say/article_92cb220e-5164-4392-bed7-719a4be8bc01.html

#dlws #TorontoAnimalRampage

(Serious worry for just a second: Peter Lorre's face is awfully close to that spinning sparkler contraption with no eye protection. Those magnesium sparks are no laughing matter.)

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Any wizarding duel that features a slide whistle is all right in my books.

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(Interesting that the place settings at Scarabus's table feature the same dark red glass goblets as held Erasmus's warm milk in the opening scene. Guess all the sorcerers in this neighbourhood shop at the same IKEA.)

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Great Scott! Lenore lives, and befuddled Erasmus two years prior into believing her dead so she could dally with the rich and powerful Scarabus instead!

Betrayal! Conspiracy!

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Egads! Was Dr. Bedlo just jellied!?

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Betrayal within betrayal: Scarabus bought Bedlo's cooperation with an offer of power to help deceive Erasmus and lure him to the castle so that Scarabus could... siphon out Erasmus's magic like a Skexi shoving gelflings into a Juicero..? I think?

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Dr. Bedlo lives! A cunning concealment to make Scarabus think him dead so Bedlo could... can... act without endangering others..? Truthfully they kind of glossed over the "why" of the matter just then to give Bedlo several more chances to halfheartedly berate his son Rexford.

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