Engineer Brains's avatar

Engineer Brains

@hhackenbecker.bsky.social

235 followers 246 following 1344 posts

Master tinkerer, retired. Loves: old Macs, cats, humour, SF&F, Star Trek Loathes: politics, sport, Facebook, Google, anything POSIX This might be he/it/oi-you.

Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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When Adobe managed to fustercluck their revised T&Cs so badly recently, customers made the jump to the Affinity apps, not helped by a 50%-off sale. Well, they've gone one better - they're now free. No strings, free for six months. gamefromscratch.com/affinity-off...

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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I stopped by my local Dymocks book-store the other day and discovered they'd changed the sign over the "DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE FICTION" shelves to read "CURRENT AFFAIRS".

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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A small study from last year showed that taking 4 grams of creatine monohydrate - body-building supplement - daily for six months significantly reduced the effects of #longcovid including chronic fatigue, breathing issues & even brain fog.
www.menshealth.com/uk/health/a4...

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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As @georgetakei.bsky.social would say, "Oh, myyy ..."

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Visited any WordPress-driven web sites lately? Left a comment? Congratulations, you've just linked another of your interests to your e-mail address that's part of a global database they keep.
macperformanceguide.com/blog/2024/20...

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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When a punch-down run goes awry ...

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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When gazing into your orb doesn't give a satisfactory response, you can always call our support hotline.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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So I got some non-Pro AirPods (because they were on special) but they wouldn't stay in my ears. Melting a couple of tiny holes in a pair of foam in-ear headphones & stretching them over, now they stay put & there's better bass.
youtu.be/MYGgqRAEJmU

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Oh, joy. OpenAI 's #ChatGPT macOS app is a giant security hole.
mastodon.social/@pvieito/112...

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Reposted by Engineer Brains

Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Probably just another bad day at InsureCare.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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At my high school, seven and one third. All three of my shop teachers had lost part of one finger. Damn me, but that was fifty years ago, why do I still remember Mr Fewster, Mr Young & Mr Harris? I *hated* shop.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Flames, flames are very cold, in space ...

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Here on the sensible side of the International Date Line, we've already started the new month. It also marks the beginning of the new Australian financial year. The following joke doesn't really work south of the equator, to be frank.

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Mary Gillis's avatar Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social
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Remember when a group of crypto bros bought a copy of 'Jodorowsky's Dune' for $3 million (around 100x more than it was worth) thinking they could turn it into NFTs and an animated series because they didn't understand what copyright is?

36 replies 284 reposts 1032 likes

Reposted by Engineer Brains

Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Ahh, that wonderfully corrosive hypergolic oxidiser where a concentration of five parts per million would start eating away at your lungs. During Grumman's testing of the LEM's ascent engine in the 60s, this was a familiar sight to the residents of White Sands & Alamagordo.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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I'm not all that hungry, I'll just have two slices thanks.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Grab your towel & your Sub-Ethamatic, it's time to re-visit the text-adventure universe created by Douglas Adams & Steve Meretsky in the 30th anniversary version of the game of that wholly remarkable book, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/a...

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Tom Gauld 's avatar Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social
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SCIENCE CAT (my latest cartoon for New Scientist)

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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"Eight Is Enough" is a line that belongs in the world of 80s sitcoms & should not be used by a tech company as big as @Apple is, especially when the biggest feature of their upcoming Xcode 16 needs sixteen to actually work.
www.xda-developers.com/apple-finall...

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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EPA to prosecute Apple after multiple incidents involving highly toxic chemicals at their Santa Clara facility. This thread is a doozy, the proof is damning - and there's lots of it.
threadreaderapp.com/thread/18050...

1 replies 1 reposts 2 likes

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Reposted by Engineer Brains

Michele Goo's avatar Michele Goo @michelegoo.bsky.social
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This stage of capitalism feels like the end of a monopoly game that’s been going on for hours and you already know you lost but the dick winning won’t let you go to bed until they get all of your money or you die.

17 replies 445 reposts 1390 likes

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Anil Dash's avatar Anil Dash @anildash.com
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Which kind of former coder are you: baking bread, too many synthesizers, or woodworking?

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Dan Davis's avatar Dan Davis @bindlestaff.bsky.social
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The AI facility in Musk’s new Gigafactory in Texas will house 50,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Each one consumes about 3,740 kWh annually. So *just to power the GPUs,* Musk will need 187GWh per year. This is higher annual consumption than some entire countries.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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If I had Elno levels of money (and the same lack of any semblance of sense) I'd buy an island just so I could create an island nation called Tar.

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John Bull's avatar John Bull @garius.bsky.social
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Reminder: Doctor Who canonically exists, as a show, in Star Trek, thanks to Diane Duane. A 'remastered' holo version is playing during a scene in one of her Trek novels. From memory it's a Tom Baker episode.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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I know I need them. I've known for a long time I've needed to be properly diagnosed. Do you think I've been able to? Nup.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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PowerPC is still going - it controls the Curiosity & Perseverance rovers. Supply wasn't a problem; Apple had even bought PA Semi & had IBM contracted to fab their PPC chips until a CoreOS engineer did an x86 build for a lark. It worked, Jobs was told & they went Intel because it was cheaper.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Be careful using Generative content on images in Photoshop - whenever you use the Gen functions, PS permanently tags the image as being AI generated, even if you undo/remove the Gen stuff.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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Wild is knowing the big CES reveal of the Xbox 360 was all done on PowerMac G5's hidden in the plinths. Wild is knowing Microsoft bought Connectix Virtual PC (a Mac-only title) to be the 360's backwards-compatibility system.

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Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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The "Tested" team catch up with model-maker extra-ordinary Bill Krause & chat about how his concept designs became on-screen canon with Star Trek: Picard.
youtube.com/watch?v=fQko...

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Leah Stokes's avatar Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social
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Lately, journalists have asked if scientists didn't warn us enough, or didn't know how bad climate change would be.

Scientists did their jobs. It's fossil fuel companies who lied about climate impacts FOR DECADES. They're to blame for these heat waves.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

26 replies 305 reposts 681 likes

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John Rogers's avatar John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social
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UBI saves boatloads of public money. That should motivate certain types of people. But it’s also kind. Which fills those same people with a straight up berserker rage.

20 replies 521 reposts 1219 likes

Engineer Brains's avatar Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social
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The depths of period authenticity that goes into creating "X-Men 97" knows no bounds. According to Marvel's making-of series “Assembled: The Making of X-Men 97” they use a PowerMac G3 on MacOS 8 running Pro Tools 3.1.3 for audio editing!

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