Up into the frozen north (Scotland) today. 18deg cooler than Wednesday for me here (18 deg max)

I have coats, jumpers and de icer

Built one of the Luminiferous Theremins from @ExtKits - just starting to catch up on my EMF haul!

Tough of fire, tough on the sources of fire*

* except for global warming

Sonnenfinsternis -
aber von der ISS
aus gesehen:

Emergency Alerts User Feedback
https://surveys.publishing.service.gov.uk/s/5m75hq

It came to my attention that my 'favourite' issue with government emergency alerts doesn't just apply to the Netherlands, but elsewhere as well. (This makes sense, I just hadn't thought of it yet.)

The issue is that when you receive such an alert on your phone, with a presumably important message, there is no way to make it stop making NOISE without also dismissing the message, while a lot of us need to get rid of the noise in order to have enough brain cycles free to read and understand the message and, if necessary, act on it appropriately. This is clearly a serious usability problem.

I've encountered it several times. Fortunately not, so far, anything really urgent (though that is a different issue with the system, that the people who decide to send these alerts do not seem to know what an emergency is). But it is really annoying and in an actual emergency, it could be dangerous, especially for people who do not have internet access at the time and don't know how to find the message again.

So, at least for some phones (mine is a Motorola running Android), this is how you can find the message again:

- Go to Settings
- Type 'alert' in the search bar
- A list should appear, one item should be 'Emergency alert history'. Choose that.
- You now get a page that, again, has an 'Emergency alert history' option. Choose it again.
- Choose the most recent (top, on my phone) message.
- Read the message. Without noise.

This is, obviously, far too convoluted a process, but at least it works...

Just because @jonty wanted asteroid spin to transfer to the ship on collisions there is now a new version of my Asteroids with Physics game on the #tildagon app store. This version adds thruster style rotation with angular momentum. It makes it much more space like to play. I also changed the controls to work much better with the Spaceagon joystick. Enjoy, #EMFCamp people!

Interesting they appear to be coming out in batches. Might be provider or network grouped.

Hey did anyone else get the National alert on wild fires ?

Help Wanted!

It’s a long shot & very niche

But hoping someone out there in Old Gits Vintage Tech Land, can help

I have a restored & we think working, NTSC EIAJ 1/2” Open Reel Video Tape Recorder

Sony AV 3600, early 70s

I need a known, good, working, NTSC Tape

Can anyone out there help?

Plays and Records. But we can’t be sure it’s perfectly aligned etc

This hotel really needs a Pat Tester

Firstly, I feel it's important to explain for people who haven't previously followed British politics but have been intrigued by the Binface story: last night's result wasn't actually a disappointment. Last night's result was a huge success.

Much as it might've been fun to fantasise, Count Binface was never actually going to win. He is, after all, a man with a bin on his head. But for him to get almost ten thousand votes - more than a quarter of the vote! - is spectacular. It massively exceeds any previous result for such a candidate.

And make no mistake, that is absolutely humiliating for Farage. Local polling had him winning with 73%, and that alone would have been deeply embarrassing. To only get 63% when no other serious party stood is much worse than was predicted anywhere.

On top of this, the investigation into his dodgy finances will restart when the parliamentary recess ends. But it will now have the added consideration of Farage having disrespected the Standards Committee, and there's precedent for that being treated as a serious offence. So it's highly likely there'll be a proper recall election in Clacton a few months from now.

Finally, this ridiculous debacle has ensured that his dodgy finances have received much greater national publicity than was previously the case, in a particularly superb example of the Streisand Effect.

All in all, it's gone very well.

The Cloud is just someone else's computer.

The Cloud is JUST someone else's computer.

THE CLOUD IS JUST SOMEONE ELSE'S COMPUTER.

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/cloud-storage/nine-pbs-loses-access-to-70-years-of-data-after-contracted-cloud-storage-vendor-goes-defunct-public-tv-channel-sues-iron-mountain-data-center-which-hosts-archival-materials-to-ensure-preservation

Help me out here please, #Amstrad #retrocomputer folks.

I have this slightly rubbish photocopy of what seems like an essential document for Amstrad fans, "Amstrad BASIC: The Complete Technical Specification".

I expected his to be well treasured and multiple copies to be available on the web. But apparently not. Can someone confirm or refute this?

Thank you!

I’ve been writing bare metal code for the #esp32c3 (no #Espressif IDF). The USB UART and GPIO work, but I’m having a lot of trouble getting the ADC to return something other than 0xFFF. All the clocks are enabled, the ADC returns a DONE flag, but the data is always 0xFFF. The sampled GPIO0 is floating around 300mV and grounding it doesn’t change the ADC value. Does anybody know a solution? #embedded

The Discrete-4017 kit, is a complete replica a of the CD4017 as used in many projects.

All of the internal logic has been broken down to logic gates and then realised with only N & P type transistors (FETs)

It is electrically a "drop in replacement" for the 4017 (although you may find the socket a tight fit)

It can also run as a demo from a usb supply. Standing on its acrylic legs.

Ideal for teaching logic, electronics, history and for retro enthusiasts.

Https://extkits.uk/4017

NEW!

Discrete CD4017 now available.

A complete recreation of the popular CD4017 IC with 208 discrete MOSFET transistors.

With a few additions (included) it will run as a display piece, from a USB C PSU.

https://extkits.co.uk/product/discrete-4017/

British Telecom Nice and Easy, #HospitalRadio show.

Episode 3 (I don't have the first two... yet)

https://downloads.paulseward.com/hospital-radio-tapes/nice-and-easy-E003.mp3

Don't listen to this while driving or operating heavy machinery

I hope today we will get a host of "dogs at polling bins" posts.

Anyone else hacked off that 50% of all solar eclipses must happen at night.