John M. Gamble
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jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
John M. Gamble
@jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
22 followers 44 following 300 posts
Lives in Chicago.
Former #USENET denizen.
Programs obscure algorithms.
Blocks threads dot net.

https://github.com/jgamble

[bridged from https://fosstodon.org/@jgamble on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
But I also picked two more, because I was in a store and browsing is hazardous.

Thanks to @alicemcalicepants for the Things in Rings recommendation.

I picked up Loop because it looks like Mille Bourne on the L.

#boardgames #boardgame
Picture of two games. One is the size of a deck of cards and has emblazoned on it "LOOP. THE ELEVATED CARD GAME" It is the "Renovated Edition" and boasts "All New Event Cards." The other is about twice the size of Loop, and is called Things In Rings. It has the basic three-ring representation of a Venn Diagram, colored red, green, blue, yellow, purple and orange. Outside the boundaries of the circles are things meant to represent types of things: ambulance, rocket, pretzel, yoyo, crab, all sorts of things.
December 24, 2025 at 10:27 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions, or who seconded other posters suggestions. I've got games to check out still.

The game I landed on was...

#boardgame #boardgames
Picture of the boardgame Dorf Romantik. Its cover has a stylized landscape separated into hex tiles. Prominently, a windmill occupies a hex that has nearly landed on the white hexagonal space in that landscape. Nearby is a winding river that runs by the tile edges. Looking at the windmill are a childlike figure and what may be a turkey.
December 24, 2025 at 10:05 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Well, just cancelled my Patreon subscription to Calibre.

#ai #calibre #patreon
Partial screenshot of the Calibre What's New page, taken 2025 December 8. Under the "Release: 8.16.2 [04 Dec, 2024]" banner are two bullet points that read: • Allow asking AI questions about any book in your calibre library. Right click the "View" button and choose "Discuss selected book(s) with AI" [8.16.2] • E-book viewer: Add an "Ask AI" tab to the dictionary lookup panel. Allows you to query AI about the currently selected text. [8.11.1] This is followed by a paragraph that states: "Supports hundreds of AI models via Providers such as Google, OpenRouter, GitHub and locally running models via Ollama. Many of them can be used free of charge. Note that this feature is completely optional and no AI related code is even loaded until you configure an AI provider."
December 8, 2025 at 11:23 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
The multicolored Ball of Whacks toy is made up of six colors, and the color combination is kind of ugly.

But if you buy three of them, you can make three bicolored solids.
Advertising picture for the Ball of Whacks, a toy rhombic triacontahedron made up of thirty pyramids with a diamond base. There are six distinct colors, red, green, yellow, white, blue, and black. Three rhombic triacontahedron, one with red and green faces, one with blue and white faces, and one with black and yellow faces.
December 5, 2025 at 8:34 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Time to bring out the Christmas
Rhombic Triacontahedron!

#christmasdecorations #math #maths
A rhombic triacontahedron, a Catalan solid with thirty diamond-shaped faces. This one is made up of green and red faces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombic_triacontahedron
December 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Huh, I didn't notice I'd gotten a Bingo. Probably because I wasn't expecting Ceremony to get filled.

#monsterdon
A 5x5 Bingo card with Movie Tropes instead of numbers. The center column, from top to bottom, reads "A Plan to Defeat the Monster", "Ceremony", the free cell with a Godzilla picture, "Actor Hamming It Up", and "Irony".
December 1, 2025 at 3:49 AM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
I just went to Project Gutenberg and saw this:

#projectgutenberg #gregnewby
Screenshot of part of Project Gutenberg's page. It has the usual text about the books on Project Gutenberg, but it is followed by this message: The Project Gutenberg community mourns the passing of our CEO, Dr. Greg Newby. Without his years of leadership, Project Gutenberg wouldn't be what it is today.
October 22, 2025 at 4:14 AM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
It turns out that this is a common oversight. Allegedly it doesn't affect the copyright status, since the words "copyright by" appears in the book itself, but as we've discovered here in the U.S. recently, a lot of settled law isn't settled anymore.

#anthropiclawsuit #copyright
Screenshot of a post by "Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins" @ajcousins.bsky.social August 27 2025 7:45 PM. It is quote-posting the post that was pictured in the previous message. "Today is the day authors are learning how many of their publishers straight up blew off registering copyright and I feel like that deserves a class action suit of its own if it costs everyone their settlement money from the Anthropic suit... 😒🤬
August 28, 2025 at 3:56 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Well *here's* a plot twist I'm disappointed to see happened.

#anthropiclawsuit #copyright
Screenshot of a post by "Cranky Bitch Sedai" @totallydonna.kitrocha.com on Bluesky August 27th 2025 5:11 PM. It is quote-posting a post by author Courtney Milan asking authors to remember to file a claim in the Anthropic plagiarism case. "Tor just straight up didn't register the copyright for two of our books, even though they were contractually obligated to do so. One day I will FULLY describe that shit show. But not today."
August 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Really, Jewel grocery store? You had the correct name last year.

#produce #pluots
Shot of the produce section of a Jewel grocery store in Chicago. Amidst the piles of peaches, plums, starfruit, and nectarines, are a pile of yummy mottled pluots. The sign above them says "California Red Or Mottled Plumcots", possibly the dumbest marketing strategy to sell pluots ever. Seriously, who thought that was a name that would draw customers in? Okay, it worked with Kiwi fruit, but that's because "Chinese gooseberry" was so spectacularly stupid that a whole new circle of Hell was built just for the person who came up with that name. But we're not talking about then, we're talking about now. C'mon, why would anyone do that?
August 20, 2025 at 2:13 AM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
I had my combination ceiling fan and lights replaced a while back. One feature that I never knew it had was a string of four candelabra or Christmas lights, I guess for mood lighting.

Can it be repurposed? I don't recognize the plug, and I'm wondering if it […]

[Original post on fosstodon.org]
The plug at the end of the light string. It is white plastic, divided into two squares, with a thin metal spike recessed in each. The width of the interior of each square is approximately 5mm. The unit itself is about 12mm by 7mm. The short string of lights, about 66cm in length. It's ends terminate with a white plug on one end, and the fourth socket on the other. A close-up of a label on the fan housing that reads "Relamp with 15 Watts max." Presumably this is for the string of lights.
July 31, 2025 at 5:32 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
A personal detail: I am very fond of Winslow Homer.

#art #winslowhomer

https://toot.community/@openculture/114870980468958707
Northeaster, by Winslow Homer. A rocky outcrop in the left foreground is pounded by immense waves of the ocean. The water is very blue, lightened by the white foam of the crest of the waves. The sky is almost uniformly grey. From the Mey website: "Later in life, Homer increasingly edited his paintings, clarifying his compositions and their meanings. In 1895, when he first exhibited this epic scene of a winter storm at Prouts Neck, it included two figures crouching on the rocks in the lower left corner. Between 1896 and 1900, the artist eliminated the human presence and intensified the spray from the crashing waves."
July 18, 2025 at 4:18 AM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
[The Bad Car Guy, and the Bad President Guy.]

Well, this screenshot just scrolled in front of my eye.

Elsewhere, some months ago, I had joked about this administration's eventual Night of 2 3/4 inch Long Knives*, and here it comes.

_____
* The knives was the […]

[Original post on fosstodon.org]
A screenshot of Truth Social posting by the guy who knocked George W. Bush to second place in the Worst 21st Century President listings. It reads: "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it!" It is dated 6/5/25 at 2:37 PM, presumably EDT as it's not yet 2:20 PM here in Chicago.
June 5, 2025 at 7:21 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
So... Tillandsia Tuesday?

(Neofinetia Falcata orchid in the background.)

#terrariums #airplants #orchids
An Arepk Plant Bottle (a version that's like a truncated tear drop) that has a Neofinetia Falcata orchid planted. In the foreground of the bottle is a Headsville Roll ceramic container (shot glass size). Slightly inserted into it is an air plant, Tillandsia Ionantha Rubra, a small plant that's shaped like a bristle of small, pointed leaves.
May 27, 2025 at 4:45 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
@christianp

Were the two versions both in three dot js?

I'm curious if there had also been a coordinate or rotation mismatch due to different tools.

Grid by Freya Holmër, @acegikmo
A four by four grid of software (rendering programs, graphics libraries, CAD programs). The top row's label is "Y up", the bottom row's label is "Z up". The left column's label is "Left Handed", the right column's label is "Right Handed". All the labels have illustrations demonstrating the difference. The labels and text are in a hand-drawn style making it look like drawing in fluorescent marker on black glass. Starting with Left/Y Up in the upper left corner (we'll be going clockwise) we have Unity, Lightwave, ZBrush, and Cinema 4D. The upper right corner contains Maya, Modo, Substance Painter, Houdini, Godot, and Minecraft. Lower right contains 3DS Max, Blender, Sketchup, Source, and AutoCAD, while the lower left contains only Unreal. The drawing is by Freya Holmër. Under her signature is a comment "poor ltl unreal :-:"
May 20, 2025 at 2:23 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
"You're NOT HELPING!"

#canada
Screenshot of the CBC news app. The article is headlined "Trump implies Canadians vote for him on election day, Poilievre tells president to butt out." Under that is the subject Canada Votes 2025, and the time of "2 hours ago" (it is 2:10 pm Chicago time).
April 28, 2025 at 7:29 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
File under life's little victories: I found some barley to purchase.

December or January, barley vanished from grocery store shelves. Nothing to do with bad administration policies as far as I could tell. Just a lower demand for it due to beer's recent decline […]

[Original post on fosstodon.org]
A resealable bag of Bob's Red Mill barley. It's fairly large at 850 grams. The bag is mostly yellow with a small picture of Bob next to the words "Red Mill" in a stylized red font. There is advertising text and a square for "NON GMO VERIFIED" logo.
March 30, 2025 at 8:55 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
It looks like the "Nicole" bot is still active, but not using the well-known instances like mastodon dot social.

Reported, but if this is their own instance it won't matter.

#nicolebot
Text of a "please join me" message from a well-known bot. I'm not going into the details of the text, except to write that in this case "Nicole's" account is nicole72@formu1a.social.
March 15, 2025 at 5:02 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
Instead, it's this.

I don't mean to be a critic, but that's two uses of Beware and Counterfeit in two sentences. I get that they feel strongly about this, but that level of dramatic urgency is usually reserved for when one enters the Mines of Moira.
Screenshot of what look like very durable bottles, possibly made for liquids that aren't suitable for standard twist-on lids. The caps smoothly come to a point, where liquid will apparently flow from. But at the top of the screen is a big, very yellow pop-up with the message: "Beware of counterfeits & infringing Chubby Gorilla (r) products! Beware of unauthorized distributors look-alike, counterfeit, and or non-compliant Chubby Gorilla (r) products." There's a "Learn More" button below that.
December 19, 2024 at 3:34 PM
jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
I didn't follow the It's The Weekend account. I didn't need to; someone always reposted it into my timeline.

But with this change, it deserved at least one more follower. Thanks for the message.
Screenshot of the lone post in the "It's The Weekend" account. Above a GIF thumbnail of Daniel Craig before he announces "It's the weekend" from the stage of Saturday Night Live, is the text "Ladies and gentlemen... the weekend." That is the usual text. But added to that this time are the words "also: you are important and not alone" followed by a red heart emoji.
November 9, 2024 at 2:29 AM