Chris D.
@chrisd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Always in search of a microcontent happy place.
(In memory of https://toot.cat/@toby - one of the best cats.)
🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mastodon.social/@chrisd, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
(In memory of https://toot.cat/@toby - one of the best cats.)
🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mastodon.social/@chrisd, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
In vaguely "blimey, that's clever" news, it's known a rando with a good autopilot and a great ATC can land a plane. (*) However, apparently the pilot is actually now no longer needed in practice in planes with autoland: see eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XawXSLRCM3o & […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
December 26, 2025 at 5:27 PM
In vaguely "blimey, that's clever" news, it's known a rando with a good autopilot and a great ATC can land a plane. (*) However, apparently the pilot is actually now no longer needed in practice in planes with autoland: see eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XawXSLRCM3o & […]
That lovely Mr. Bother reminded me of something I've idly looked for every couple of years for decades; the world has now got closer to serving it to me than ever before.
It's a (late '80s?) version of the Gillette March used on clips compilation TV show "World Sports Special" with vocals - […]
It's a (late '80s?) version of the Gillette March used on clips compilation TV show "World Sports Special" with vocals - […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
December 22, 2025 at 1:25 AM
That lovely Mr. Bother reminded me of something I've idly looked for every couple of years for decades; the world has now got closer to serving it to me than ever before.
It's a (late '80s?) version of the Gillette March used on clips compilation TV show "World Sports Special" with vocals - […]
It's a (late '80s?) version of the Gillette March used on clips compilation TV show "World Sports Special" with vocals - […]
Noting that I've been a secular heathen basically all my adult life, I was in a choir at school, and I have some contemporary up-tempo '80s arrangements of _All people that on Earth do dwell_ and _For the beauty of the Earth_ as my current earworms. Can I find them online? I cannot. Musipedia's […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
December 4, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Noting that I've been a secular heathen basically all my adult life, I was in a choir at school, and I have some contemporary up-tempo '80s arrangements of _All people that on Earth do dwell_ and _For the beauty of the Earth_ as my current earworms. Can I find them online? I cannot. Musipedia's […]
The "now you're an adult nobody can stop you" department reports the unlocking of a very minor ambition: I have bought and enjoyed a big bottle of gold top milk over the course of a few days. (It's very much the opposite of skimmed milk; the bottle should be marked Jersey's Best Drinking Fat.) […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 28, 2025 at 8:31 AM
The "now you're an adult nobody can stop you" department reports the unlocking of a very minor ambition: I have bought and enjoyed a big bottle of gold top milk over the course of a few days. (It's very much the opposite of skimmed milk; the bottle should be marked Jersey's Best Drinking Fat.) […]
Couple o' fun things coming up in London:
1) I'm famously not festive *but* last year I loved going to Sunday Assembly's singalong of festive secular Christmas pop. Fri 12th December, Shoreditch. https://sundayassembly.com/whats-on/not-just-sunday-activities/yule-rock-2025/
2) there's a […]
1) I'm famously not festive *but* last year I loved going to Sunday Assembly's singalong of festive secular Christmas pop. Fri 12th December, Shoreditch. https://sundayassembly.com/whats-on/not-just-sunday-activities/yule-rock-2025/
2) there's a […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 26, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Couple o' fun things coming up in London:
1) I'm famously not festive *but* last year I loved going to Sunday Assembly's singalong of festive secular Christmas pop. Fri 12th December, Shoreditch. https://sundayassembly.com/whats-on/not-just-sunday-activities/yule-rock-2025/
2) there's a […]
1) I'm famously not festive *but* last year I loved going to Sunday Assembly's singalong of festive secular Christmas pop. Fri 12th December, Shoreditch. https://sundayassembly.com/whats-on/not-just-sunday-activities/yule-rock-2025/
2) there's a […]
Whether you use Google or not, you probably know about udm14 for cutting through to a simplified output. Thank you to @pureinfotech.bsky.social and keep up the good work as the tips at https://pureinfotech.com/disable-ai-mode-address-bar-new-tab-chrome/ seem to work for me (at least for now) for […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 25, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Whether you use Google or not, you probably know about udm14 for cutting through to a simplified output. Thank you to @pureinfotech.bsky.social and keep up the good work as the tips at https://pureinfotech.com/disable-ai-mode-address-bar-new-tab-chrome/ seem to work for me (at least for now) for […]
It's the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and the depressing headline of the day is that, putting it as generously as I can, the state is set to tragically (but unsurprisingly) singularly fail to take a decisive stand against transphobic discrimination […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 20, 2025 at 10:13 PM
It's the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and the depressing headline of the day is that, putting it as generously as I can, the state is set to tragically (but unsurprisingly) singularly fail to take a decisive stand against transphobic discrimination […]
TIL that a 50p (i.e. GBP £0.50) note was designed, but never actually issued, to replace the similarly-valued half-pound note when the UK decimalised its currency in 1971: https://hammersfan01.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/50p-note.png
I find a £0.50 note delightful. £5 coins have […]
I find a £0.50 note delightful. £5 coins have […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 16, 2025 at 1:04 AM
TIL that a 50p (i.e. GBP £0.50) note was designed, but never actually issued, to replace the similarly-valued half-pound note when the UK decimalised its currency in 1971: https://hammersfan01.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/50p-note.png
I find a £0.50 note delightful. £5 coins have […]
I find a £0.50 note delightful. £5 coins have […]
A delightful video walking through the Game Changer ARG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxWzGcISB0I
I'm glad ARGs exist in the world but I've never properly "got into" them and this does not incline me towards starting. I'm happy to be a viewer rather than a doer on this front, and happy that […]
I'm glad ARGs exist in the world but I've never properly "got into" them and this does not incline me towards starting. I'm happy to be a viewer rather than a doer on this front, and happy that […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 15, 2025 at 10:28 AM
A delightful video walking through the Game Changer ARG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxWzGcISB0I
I'm glad ARGs exist in the world but I've never properly "got into" them and this does not incline me towards starting. I'm happy to be a viewer rather than a doer on this front, and happy that […]
I'm glad ARGs exist in the world but I've never properly "got into" them and this does not incline me towards starting. I'm happy to be a viewer rather than a doer on this front, and happy that […]
It was a close decision whether to go straight from London Bridge to KX for a time bonus or via the closed Aldwych tube station and London Transport Museum for bigger bonuses but we played it safe in the end - the riskier route would have left barely 2-3 minutes' slack from a catastrophic loss […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 8, 2025 at 8:13 PM
It was a close decision whether to go straight from London Bridge to KX for a time bonus or via the closed Aldwych tube station and London Transport Museum for bigger bonuses but we played it safe in the end - the riskier route would have left barely 2-3 minutes' slack from a catastrophic loss […]
Our route was KX -> South Ealing -> Acton depot -> Sudbury Hill, Harrow (should've been Sudbury & Harrow Road, whoops) -> Ruislip War Memorial -> Crouch Hill (overground) -> Chadwell Heath (Elizabeth line) -> Island Gardens (DLR) -> London Bridge -> KX in a shade under 6 hours. Most of it was […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Our route was KX -> South Ealing -> Acton depot -> Sudbury Hill, Harrow (should've been Sudbury & Harrow Road, whoops) -> Ruislip War Memorial -> Crouch Hill (overground) -> Chadwell Heath (Elizabeth line) -> Island Gardens (DLR) -> London Bridge -> KX in a shade under 6 hours. Most of it was […]
Today @daweaver, @radinden.bsky.social and I took part in the 11th London Public Transport race; 6.5 hours to use transit to go from King's X to six locations, each in a different zone, plus a landmark, and return back. Bonus points aplenty for visiting certain other locations, spotting station […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 8, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Today @daweaver, @radinden.bsky.social and I took part in the 11th London Public Transport race; 6.5 hours to use transit to go from King's X to six locations, each in a different zone, plus a landmark, and return back. Bonus points aplenty for visiting certain other locations, spotting station […]
Probably Rick Edwards' best episode of Fighting Talk yet, over his several seasons as host, on Saturday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002lp7p
Fighting Talk - Gbemi Oladipo, Guvna B, Jess Thirlby, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake - BBC Sounds
Gbemi Oladipo, Guvna B, Jess Thirlby and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake join Rick Edwards
www.bbc.co.uk
November 2, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Probably Rick Edwards' best episode of Fighting Talk yet, over his several seasons as host, on Saturday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002lp7p
COME ON BORO, COME ON BORO, WE! ARE!TOPOTHELEAGUE! I SAY WE ARE TOPOTHELEAGUE (etc.) #diasboro #youcantakethemanoutofMiddlesbroughbutyoucan’ttaketheMiddlesbroughoutoftheman
October 30, 2025 at 5:41 PM
COME ON BORO, COME ON BORO, WE! ARE!TOPOTHELEAGUE! I SAY WE ARE TOPOTHELEAGUE (etc.) #diasboro #youcantakethemanoutofMiddlesbroughbutyoucan’ttaketheMiddlesbroughoutoftheman
The World Puzzle Championships start on Thursday in Eger, Hungary, the first 3-time host of the event. (The World Sudoku Champs are already under way there.) - https://www.wspc2025.hu/
I'm fascinated by the team puzzle rankings. For 12 of the last 14 contests, the top three nations have been […]
I'm fascinated by the team puzzle rankings. For 12 of the last 14 contests, the top three nations have been […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
September 23, 2025 at 9:42 PM
The World Puzzle Championships start on Thursday in Eger, Hungary, the first 3-time host of the event. (The World Sudoku Champs are already under way there.) - https://www.wspc2025.hu/
I'm fascinated by the team puzzle rankings. For 12 of the last 14 contests, the top three nations have been […]
I'm fascinated by the team puzzle rankings. For 12 of the last 14 contests, the top three nations have been […]
I'm not nearly as excited by new phone developments as I used to be and had totally missed Apple's announcements on Tuesday, but the forthcoming live translation feature if you have a sufficiently modern pairing of phone and earbuds is the first thing I've been really impressed by for a few […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
September 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
I'm not nearly as excited by new phone developments as I used to be and had totally missed Apple's announcements on Tuesday, but the forthcoming live translation feature if you have a sufficiently modern pairing of phone and earbuds is the first thing I've been really impressed by for a few […]
https://www.wizardtag.com/ purports to be laser tag minus guns minus sensors plus wands plus gestures plus complexity and thus is conceptually rather interesting, being simultaneously timeless and decades too late.
I'm not 100% sure how real it is. It's a bad sign that the web site and its blog […]
I'm not 100% sure how real it is. It's a bad sign that the web site and its blog […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
September 10, 2025 at 11:10 PM
https://www.wizardtag.com/ purports to be laser tag minus guns minus sensors plus wands plus gestures plus complexity and thus is conceptually rather interesting, being simultaneously timeless and decades too late.
I'm not 100% sure how real it is. It's a bad sign that the web site and its blog […]
I'm not 100% sure how real it is. It's a bad sign that the web site and its blog […]
With regards to the last post I just boosted, and specifically its upper right image, normally I prefer my mild Chuckle Brothers incest slash to be written by a benign sicko rather than by AI, but in this day and age we will have to take what we can get.
September 8, 2025 at 11:24 AM
With regards to the last post I just boosted, and specifically its upper right image, normally I prefer my mild Chuckle Brothers incest slash to be written by a benign sicko rather than by AI, but in this day and age we will have to take what we can get.
Reposted by Chris D.
When people talk about embedding alt text into images, I remember that lots of gif search services already try to do that.
Here's BlueSky's gif service. I searched for some popular memes. Each had alt-text baked in.
f you couldn't see the image, would you get what was happening from the alt?
Here's BlueSky's gif service. I searched for some popular memes. Each had alt-text baked in.
f you couldn't see the image, would you get what was happening from the alt?
September 7, 2025 at 9:11 PM
When people talk about embedding alt text into images, I remember that lots of gif search services already try to do that.
Here's BlueSky's gif service. I searched for some popular memes. Each had alt-text baked in.
f you couldn't see the image, would you get what was happening from the alt?
Here's BlueSky's gif service. I searched for some popular memes. Each had alt-text baked in.
f you couldn't see the image, would you get what was happening from the alt?
#closeallthetabs - as ever, I actively invite you, please mute the hashtag unless you'd like to be an accountability buddy.
Nominal start-of-2025 total: 665.
End of Monday 31/8/25: 497.
Right now on Sunday 7/9/25 (observed): 493.
Target for end of Sunday 7/8/25: 489.
More videos to watch […]
Nominal start-of-2025 total: 665.
End of Monday 31/8/25: 497.
Right now on Sunday 7/9/25 (observed): 493.
Target for end of Sunday 7/8/25: 489.
More videos to watch […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
September 8, 2025 at 12:26 AM
#closeallthetabs - as ever, I actively invite you, please mute the hashtag unless you'd like to be an accountability buddy.
Nominal start-of-2025 total: 665.
End of Monday 31/8/25: 497.
Right now on Sunday 7/9/25 (observed): 493.
Target for end of Sunday 7/8/25: 489.
More videos to watch […]
Nominal start-of-2025 total: 665.
End of Monday 31/8/25: 497.
Right now on Sunday 7/9/25 (observed): 493.
Target for end of Sunday 7/8/25: 489.
More videos to watch […]
Today I learned that Bolton is further north than Doncaster. Not much in it - maybe four miles, and it's not as if they're atomic - but I was surprised.
September 5, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Today I learned that Bolton is further north than Doncaster. Not much in it - maybe four miles, and it's not as if they're atomic - but I was surprised.
Anyway, I've mentioned that at the weekend I went to the Strange Games Festival and really, really liked it. You can find out why at https://chris.dreamwidth.org/39366.html (~3,500 words).
Captcha Check
www.dreamwidth.org
August 28, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Anyway, I've mentioned that at the weekend I went to the Strange Games Festival and really, really liked it. You can find out why at https://chris.dreamwidth.org/39366.html (~3,500 words).
Out of curiosity, I have just tried a free trial of a famous grammar app on an article I'm writing for fun. I don't claim to be a particularly good writer, but I know what I like.
My overall gut reaction to its suggestions surprised me with its strength: it produced point-missingly, stylelessly […]
My overall gut reaction to its suggestions surprised me with its strength: it produced point-missingly, stylelessly […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 28, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Out of curiosity, I have just tried a free trial of a famous grammar app on an article I'm writing for fun. I don't claim to be a particularly good writer, but I know what I like.
My overall gut reaction to its suggestions surprised me with its strength: it produced point-missingly, stylelessly […]
My overall gut reaction to its suggestions surprised me with its strength: it produced point-missingly, stylelessly […]
Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, have drawn home matches against Man City, Juventus, Spurs and Monaco in the Champions League.
I was kind of hoping they would draw Newcastle United at home, because the degree of strictly recreational hypothermia would have been […]
I was kind of hoping they would draw Newcastle United at home, because the degree of strictly recreational hypothermia would have been […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 28, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, have drawn home matches against Man City, Juventus, Spurs and Monaco in the Champions League.
I was kind of hoping they would draw Newcastle United at home, because the degree of strictly recreational hypothermia would have been […]
I was kind of hoping they would draw Newcastle United at home, because the degree of strictly recreational hypothermia would have been […]
You might remember that I wrote in detail about how the Electromagnetic Field camping festival turned out to be the highlight of my summer 2024.
I went to the Strange Games Festival this weekend and be sure that I mean it as a _high_ compliment when I describe it as "Electromagnetic Field x […]
I went to the Strange Games Festival this weekend and be sure that I mean it as a _high_ compliment when I describe it as "Electromagnetic Field x […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
You might remember that I wrote in detail about how the Electromagnetic Field camping festival turned out to be the highlight of my summer 2024.
I went to the Strange Games Festival this weekend and be sure that I mean it as a _high_ compliment when I describe it as "Electromagnetic Field x […]
I went to the Strange Games Festival this weekend and be sure that I mean it as a _high_ compliment when I describe it as "Electromagnetic Field x […]