A null symbol (a circle with a line through it) prefixed with an exclamation mark which would mean "not"

!Null :: Space

Profile for paul

Header for paul: A view from, we assume, the space station of a rocket launching from the planet earth, through the clouds, and into space.
Avatar for paul: A black dog holding a tennis ball in his mouth.
Display name
^. .^ Paul Wilde :alpine: :freebsd: :archlinux:
Username
@paul@notnull.space
Role
admin

About paul

Bio

Husband
Dog owner
Cat owner (multiple)
FOSS Enthusiast
IT Professional
Coffee, no milk, no sugar

I use #Alpine, by the way...
(I did use #Arch, but I changed. I just still wanted the "by the way" but

I make no apologies for using H2G2 puns. We apologise for the inconvenience.

#StopGenAI

Stats

Joined
Posts
5630
Followed by
228
Following
433

Pinned public posts

jump to recent

Can we just, for once, have a CEO of a business we came to trust donate millions to, like, a local cat rescue centre, homeless shelter, drug rehabilitation centre or something instead of fascism?!

This post may or may be about #Mullvad, #Framework, #Proton and....well, I could go on

I'm just gonna claim to be the west bank of the #RiverExe 's leading expert in #Linux #BSD and, for the sake of it, #Mikrotik

(This may look like a brag, but it's not, it's a clever ploy to encourage other Linux and BSD folk in my local area to speak up so we can all go out for a beer or something
(But if nobody speaks up I'm still claiming that title))

Well there.
I've done it.
I've released the first version of my Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mod for @Luanti

https://codeberg.org/pswilde/h2g2_luanti

or, a pending review link on ContentDB
https://content.luanti.org/packages/paulwilde/h2g2/

The nodes and tools are waaaaaaaay overpowered, but that's all part of the fun!

#H2G2 #HHGTTG #Luanti

(whispers: @rl_dane ... of course it's live on the server already :dontpanic_nobg: )

Recent public posts

Saw the "hashtag" #USEconomy flash by but it wasn't capitalised (probably the server "fixed" it)
Anyway, it made me notice it could be read as
"US E-Con, O My!"
Or
"Use Con, O My!"

Whichever you feel works best.

Just thought that may be worth sharing.

I am a very uncomfortable and frustrated person in busy and crowded places.
I know this.
People who know me know this.
Yet still I am encouraged to enter busy and crowded places so the people I am with can sit and enjoy those busy and crowded places even though I'm happy sat outside on my own eating my ice cream.
I like ice cream.

AI, Nazi reference
Toggle visibility

Let's not forget Adolf Hitler said "Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state."

Just though that's something we should all keep in mind.

#AI #anthropic

More adventures with #MeshCore :

I am now running a repeater for my local area and went for a walk around with village (with the dog, obviously). I was pleasantly surprised that even though the positioning of the repeater isn't great (inside behind a window) I was able to adequately ping it from at least as far I walked too. There were no signal issues, so I suspect I'll be able to ping it from even further, as I can also ping another repeater from across the river easily.

No signs anyone in my side of the river is using MeshCore yet, but the infrastructure is ready for when they do 😅

I'm fed up of seeing things like this go by...

"I'm using AI to do [task that's stupidly simple I just can't be bothered to do myself]”

and

"Europe is literally on fire right now"

Make the links however you wish, but you cannot ignore AI datacentres have an impact here

#Environment #StopGenAI

My journey with #MeshCore so far has been:

  1. Flash firmware
  2. Pair to mobile
  3. Mobile goes crazy alerting to all the repeaters it can see and public messages
  4. Silence most notifications
  5. "Oh wow, I can reach France!"
  6. Plug device into too-higher-powered power supply
  7. Blow device
  8. Think "Lucky I bought two"
  9. Repeat steps 1-5.

Well, I've having to write and email to explain why the photo I've been sent is a poor choice for the website (due to differing screen sizes, you know the drill) and ask for a new one to be taken. Their argument is the room is too narrow - which it is, but they can also take the photo from a more appropriate angle.

Couldn't explain it, so I drew a diagram. My email content ends as the attached.

I think I'm going to start doing this more and more.

#NoAI

 a hand drawn pencil image of two people behind a desk who we can see face on, talking to another person who we see the back of. The email text below the image says "No AI was used in the generation of this image"

OK, I hate to admit it, but I think it's here to stay. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

This post is about microwave ovens.

Sure, they heat food up quicker than a traditional oven.
Sure, they can be seen as a convenience.
Sure, they can heat more things up than a traditional oven can.

But, I like cooking food in my traditional oven or on the hobs and other utensils. I enjoy the process. I find the resulting food is richer in flavour, has a much more dynamic texture, and I get a sense of satisfaction by having done it.
And above all else, if I invite a bunch of people around to cook for them I don't say things like "Great, you're all here, I'll pop the food in the microwave and we can eat!"

I generally only use a microwave oven to heat up porridge in the winter.

This post is not about microwave ovens.

#AI #LLMGenAI #LLMs

Me to [very friendly] marketing person: "Very sorry I missed the last podcast publish by half and hour. To stop this happening again I have written a script that {bascially checks a podcast feed and uploads the contained notes and a link to podcast to their website}, then notifies me of it being done... This isn't AI by the way, in case you were wondering."

I feel disgusting I felt the need to have to say that.

For interested parties: it's bash, curl and ntfy.sh
#AI #bash #curl #ntfy

Yo #Database nerds!
Quick question - would approx 8 seconds be a reasonable transaction time when returning 5 million rows of a single column over a VPN connection ?
Standalone Windows Server VM (ew), spinning rust SAS drives , generally well performing all round. Loads of ram and cores, but guess what... it's SQLExpress so no matter what I give it it won't be used.
I think 8 seconds is OK.... I'm right, right?

Please note I am not asking for ways to improve this, I am asking if this would be considered acceptable given the constraints.

Basically, I need to tell some software developers to make their database calls more efficient and not blame the servers.

(If your application needs to make loads of database calls returning every result in the table so the client application can do some work, maybe investigate ways to improve this!!! (Oh, and don't use MSSQL (and definitely not SQLExpress)))

Edit: people seem to be misunderstanding where the VPN comes in here. I'm not talking about using a VPN and then accessing a web service over it, I'm talking about a client-server application where the database queries are made over the VPN connection directly.
Also, I am under no illusion this is good. It's terrible. But I'm just looking for a general consensus that given the constraints, 8 seconds it's actually decent.

#SysAdmin #MSSQL #SQLExpress

If you follow me and I look at your profile image where you look perfect I am just going to assume you're an AI account and ignore you.

Humans have imperfections and this is beautiful. Don't hide them.

I don't think I've ever told anyone this but I really bloody love the colour #Purple.

Sorry for those who feel this is inappropriate, or for strong feelings towards other colours. Your opinions are valid, but purple is cool.

Can't believe I have to say this for the i-don't-know-how-many-times timeth in the last couple of years but the only sane response to "Oh, we have Nazis in our bar" is "Nazis are not welcome in our bar"

It's not ____ing hard

Can we just, for once, have a CEO of a business we came to trust donate millions to, like, a local cat rescue centre, homeless shelter, drug rehabilitation centre or something instead of fascism?!

This post may or may be about #Mullvad, #Framework, #Proton and....well, I could go on

It's absolutely mad that I'm sat here, windows wide open and curtains drawn to block the light, just to get the tiniest respite from the heat while people are using AI to write a thank you email.