• 15 Posts
  • 592 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 14th, 2023

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  • Not much with the server, as I’m finally finishing my switch to Mint on my main PC, now that I’ve finished the things I was stuck with Windows for.

    I’m debating whether to put Calibre Web on my PC or media server, as the PC is easier to access, but the server is always on.

    I’m also trying to figure out the best way to host a family Minecraft server. I’ve currently got two running at home and one remotely, but have managed to get a decent free tier Oracle server running too.

    One of the Minecraft servers is staying local, as it’s just for the immediate family for our gaming sessions, but the other is for the kid’s cousins to join in too. Typically though, they haven’t wanted to play since I got the servers running, so I can’t tell which is best for them 🙈











  • If we had decent privacy, they could be amazing. Imagine something like Facebook, the way it used to be advertised, that could identity your friends and give you some of the information they’ve chosen to share with you.

    Instead of trying to frantically remember your friend’s new partner’s name, you get a subtle name bar above their head. Maybe you get a reminder about their birthday, or a life event they’ve shared.

    Unfortunately though, we’re currently stuck with the shitty version that going to extract all the data it can, and sell it to whoever can afford it :(


  • It’s not just names in lists though. Using my mother’s grandparents as examples, I know where they were born and grew up, I know who they lived with at multiple points in their lives, and I know a few of the places where they lived.

    I know where and when they got married, and some of the guests, and I know what children they had and when. As they were adults at the time, I know some of what my great grandfather was doing during the first World War and how he died.

    I haven’t done a deep dive into their lives yet as I’ve been working backwards, but I’ve already got a decent idea about who they were and what they were like. I know a fair bit about his parents and family too, as I checked that side first.

    The biggest issues are finding photos, and the cost and availability of records. There are not many photos due to them not being as pervasive at the time, and there are not many records because a lot of things either weren’t recorded or weren’t saved. Both of those can be solved with the technology we have now. Lots of people have their own information saved, separate to the official sources, and it’s easier to have multiple copies of everything, so they won’t get lost or destroyed as easily.

    Hopefully this means that we’ll remember more of the past going forwards :)


  • While that’s true, we have much more extensive record keeping these days. I’ve been researching my family tree, and 100 years ago there were still a decent number of people who were mostly illiterate. Add to that documents like the census being handwritten in cursive on paper, and you get lots of errors being recorded, and the records themselves being damaged by age.

    Unless something drastic happens, a lot of our records will still exist in the centuries to come. It will mostly be our official records, but they should still be there :)


  • I’ve tried ChatGPT a few times to see if it’s useful for me, and it’s worked surprisingly well in most cases.

    I made a website that needed two modal images, one on the top and one on the bottom. I wanted them to be enlarged when they were clicked on. I found a load of guides for getting one to work, but I couldn’t get both to work. A few minutes with a prompt got it working. It didn’t help me to learn JavaScript, but did give me working code that I needed quickly.

    I’ve used it to fluff up some text. I’m not very good at making things sound good in text, so it helped a lot.

    The latest one I’ve tried is getting camera settings for a dark gig setup. I was able to give it an old photo that was under exposed but gave an accurate impression of the room, and ask for recommended settings with the same lens, a new lens, and a flash. It gave me a selection of settings with and without the flash, including settings for rear curtain sync, so when it leaves a ghost trail behind the subject. It’s nothing I couldn’t figure out, but would have taken a bit more trial and error in the room. I probably wouldn’t have thought of the ghost trails.


  • Be careful with Mediamonkey. I’ve got it on my phone and PC, and my music is getting quieter and quieter on the phone. I think it’s something to do with the volume leveling on the Android version, but haven’t had a chance to figure it out yet.

    I can put a song on full volume, and it’s quiet enough that it’s difficult to hear. I’ve tried the same tracks through youtube, and the volume is fine, so it’s not the phone speakers.


  • Sorry for lashing out a little bit.

    No worries, it’s good to know that some people are still passionate :)

    Yeah, I get what you mean though. Some people assume that Linux should be able to do everything that Windows or Mac can do, and assume that if it can’t it must be the developer’s fault. You still see the same old bullshit about ‘Linux won’t run Photoshop / my proprietary software!’ without stopping to think that maybe it’s the developer of that software who’s at fault.

    It’s been going on for years, and is still infuriating…