Firehose

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It’s really hard to comprehend how much damage the mongrel Rupert Murdoch has done unless you sit down and look at his publications.

Endless far right slop riddled with engagement bait. The so called ‘news’ sells anger, not information.

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It’s amazing how quickly Bluesky is evolving. It’s lovely to see a platform come together like this.

I wonder how long it’ll be until they start shoehorning in features in the pursuit of profit that damages the user experience.

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Ahhh, yes. Neo-Twitter. Risen from the ashes of the internet’s previous tabloid crap peddler.

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New post published:
I Hate My Nokia

Nokia is, quite literally, not the company they used to be.

My review of my Nokia G22. A phone touted as being easily repairable that doesn't quite live up to the standards it sets for itself.

https://vale.rocks/posts/i-hate-my-nokia

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I’ve been playing Mario Kart Wii half the day. I got rather violently Mario Karted by the bots on Koopa Cape a minute ago. From 1st to 12th in the blink of an eye. Oh well.

I’m playing with no bloom or background blurring in HD on my rather large TV with an Xbox controller. Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without the excellent Dolphin emulator. A huge thanks to all who have contributed to emulation.

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Started my Diploma of Information Technology (Frontend Development) at North Metropolitan TAFE today!

Eager to absorb new knowledge, enhance my skills, and embrace the endless possibilities that lie ahead.

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I just remembered the time I had to wipe a PlayStation 2 with tens of game saves dating back to 2000 and one of the save icons was on it’s knees begging me not to delete them.

I still feel like a monster.

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Sorry for that outage folks. The router had a blockage. Called out the plumber who cleared the debris from my Ethernet cable though. All good now.

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Etched into the depths of my brain:

One-one was one race horse. Two-two was one too. One-one won one race, and Two-two won one to.

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The passion with which I hate dealing with Windows cannot be described.

I’ve had more fun grazing my knee.

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I must say, I’m absolutely loving NixOS. Having everything declared and configured in this way is excellent.

I love being able to test packages and set everything so easily. It’s a breeze!

And it’s all too easy to move machines or reinstall should I need to.

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My New Year’s resolution is 720p.

I considered 4K UHD, but I think it’s important to set achievable goals.

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And another passes. As I write this it’s 2024 in the UTC +8 time zone.

Expect a blog post on my site tomorrow, I’ve got some exciting plans to share.

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Configurations have been tested, USBs are writing, ISOs are burning, sanity is waning, snacks are on hand.

I’m set to make the move to NixOS on my Framework Laptop. Wish me luck!

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Whenever I think of installing or reinstalling my OS, I tend to go a bit crazy installing apps and testing potentially breaking changes so I can decide how to setup the new install.

It’s all well and good until I start doing that pre-backup…

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I figured I’d throw my hat into the tabs vs spaces ring. In the context of code, tabs are naturally superior to spaces.

Tabs semantically indicate indentation, which allows for individuals to customise their editor to display them as they choose. A semantic option is also better for accessibility. Further, tabs lead to smaller file sizes.

Spaces should be used for alignment.

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Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it!

Here’s a picture of my pet chicken, Garbin, in a Christmas hat. If it seems a little off, it’s because she really wasn’t cooperative…

A chicken in a Christmas hat on a green background, alongside the text 'Merry Christmas'

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This holiday season I’ve been enjoying the collection of Kmart in-store cassette tapes stored by the Internet Archive.

You should be able to find them simply by searching “Kmart December” on archive.org.

Might play them on Christmas day for the family. Assuming they don’t pin me down and turn it off…

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I’ve just discovered the super handy hue-rotate CSS filter.

I’m using it as such: filter: invert(95%) hue-rotate(180deg);

It lets me invert an item, but keeps the colours as they should be by flipping the hue back. I’m finding use implementing it on iframe embeds to force darkmode.

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I was scrolling through Fedi and saw the account @tpope@hachyderm.io. I wondered if it was the Vim guy so I clicked on his account to check. His bio didn’t disappoint.

If you read this Tim, thanks for your work.

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New post published:
Prematurely Pulling The Plug On 3G

Better hope you don't need to call emergency services.

Critical thoughts on the intention of Australian telcos to sunset the 3G network and the major repurcussions on coverage, safety, and much more that will come with it.

https://vale.rocks/posts/prematurely-pulling-the-plug-on-3g

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This isn’t quite high resolution enough for Unsplash, but here’s a picture of a bee I took.

He was a very good subject and sat on my finger for a good 15 minutes before I set him down.

Close up shot of a bee sitting on a finger.

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Oh my, I love this new CSS lh unit. It’s equal to the computed line-height. This is gonna make inline SVGs and icons so much easier! I’m in ecstasy.

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I must say, these OpenAI and Sam Altman shenanigans have been better drama than anything I think I’ve seen on television. The plot twists are out of this world and I genuinely have no idea what will happen next.

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I’ve spent far longer than I wish to admit getting the Domino’s App feat Hatsune Miku working on my iPad 4, but I finally managed it today.

I initially went about it a stupidly complex way but ended up learning quite a bit along the way, so it wasn’t a total waste of time.

It seems some people have looked into decompiling it to fix the frequent crashes and broken features. Hopefully, this becomes a reality.

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Considering buying a Flipper Zero. Anyone got any first hand experience? Is it worth the $322 AUD price tag?