Nick
@nick@shore.me.uk
181 following, 258 followers
After driving around for a month in "light" one pedal mode I've started to dislike it more and more and turned it off. There are times it's great, like if you are enjoying a few bends in a curvy road. However, it's just too much effort to drive smoothly at low speeds and it's really annoying at parking lot speeds. Sometimes I just want to coast.
Paddles to activate seem the way to go here.
@dan the auto regen on max is ace in the #e_niro like strong engine braking when “making progress”, but lightens up at lower speed or traffic. Won’t bring you to a stop so not one peddling but I like that it creeps like old autos when you lift off brakes. It has taken 10 months leaving it in that one setting so I acclimatise to it… But now I hate all the other modes. 🤷♂️
@nick @mikrotik what a coincidence that they just popped up here because of some not so great "mac telnet" (i have otherwise no criticism and love to hear about it industries flourishing in .eu) https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/ixp-bad-broadcast-packets-interesting @benjojo
@damien haha if only. When we replace the consumer unit, we will unite both original house circuits AND extension circuits into one panel. But kinda bodgy extension of a decade ago installed a decent consumer unit for extension circuits. My office is part old house and part extension.
@nick @damien That's a good idea. But in the medium term (next year) I'm going to do something a big bigger I think. My plan currently involves 25mm2 SWA from my utility head/henley blocks (via an isolator) to my garage, where it will feed the grid input of a Victron Quattro 15K. Then the inverter output of the Quattro will come back to the consumer unit in the house via another 25mm SWA. Garage CU fed direct from the Quattro too. The Quattro will have a Fogstar 32kWh 48V LifePo pack on it.
@nick @damien == 15kW "whole house UPS", ability to buy power and charge up on cheap rates. And use from the battery. And then finally, I think I can squeeze 16-20kWp of solar on my roof, to hopefully make it so I pretty much hardly have to buy power off the grid. At least, I think this will be doable about 3/4 of the year, ish.
No export. No hassle with G99/G98 etc.
The Quattro has a 2nd power input, and I'll attach that to the V2L of my car, for extra offgrid capacity.
I think using generative LLMs is a souless thing to do. Even with coding, especially with coding.
Soulless folks love to kill art. Don't let them kill your spark.
"Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow."
Kurt Vonnegut
Letter to Xavier High School
https://www.projectvanity.com/projectvanity/kurt-vonneguts-simple-exercise-on-becoming
I have a fervent belief that coding is art.
How you choose to solve a problem in a language that you choose to write in is art.
But there's also something artistic in maths , how we express a math problem, the proofs.
There's a reason why we look in awe at math majors who work on difficult advanced math problems.
There's beauty in any way we exercise our minds, how we discover knowledge and create with it.
LLMs rob us of that beauty. They rob us of a healthy environment as well.
boosted@colinstu @onepict @emilvolk in the same way that e.g. automotive CEOs view metalworking, as a cost to be minimised.
Yet there are still manufacturers who have panels made/beaten/shaped/polished by hand, which is an art form.
Mass production enables mobility. Hand production creates art.
And that's why really really beautiful cars are so ludicrously expensive... And why CEOs sell "exclusive" yet still mass produced cars at massive profit margins.
Capitalism, honestly 😞
@nick I've always been confused by that attitude. Especially with the developers I've known over the years.
They think differently and see the world in different ways so of course how they choose to find a solution is different.
How they feel about a problem matters as well, much like any piece of art.
boosted@onepict I've always said programming is a highly creative activity. A lot of people have looked at me sideways for that, but it's true. There are a million ways to write code to do the same basic task, and the options grow with the complexity of the task. Maybe it's not full of color and sound that appeal directly to the senses, but that doesn't make it any less of a creative art.
@hosford42 one of the main proofs for me is watching someone having writer's block or feeling writer's block hit when you're trying to code.
Burnout is a creative symptom. Same with inspiration when you code. It's that creative impulse that must be nurtured.
@onepict @hosford42 as an erstwhile mathematician now herding bugs for a living I wholeheartedly agree that mathematics (my 1st career) and coding (my predominant and current career) are artistic endeavours.
You don't just look for the solution.. you strive to find the ELEGANT solution. The equation/code that not only succinctly solves the problem at hand but does so in a precise and agreeable manner that borders on beauty.
It's a hard task to explain beauty in the context of math/code to a layman (and heaven knows I've tried) .. I usually direct them to Eulers identity e^ipi + 1 = 0. Precious few get it.
boosted@onepict
Definitely, but some programmers create beautiful masterpieces where you can easily understand the message the artist wanted to share, while others ... :D are like abstract art (you don't know where it begins, where it ends, and what in the world they were wanting to achieve!
On top of that if you stare long enough you start discovering lots of little bugs in the canvas :D :D :D
@hadon In the art world we have critics who are meant to critique and analyse to help us understand.
In programming the comments vary 🤣
But at least with floss there is an option to collaborate on the canvas 😏 or the documentation 😊
@onepict
Comments are fun to read, yes, like another piece of art, this time literature.. you either get a nice Novel, a short poem or a piece of comedy :D :D :D
Oh, and don't forget variable names...; sometimes they give you an insight into the creator's hobbies, fears, hopes :D :D :D
“OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws – Computerworld”
> OpenAI’s own advanced reasoning models actually hallucinated more frequently than simpler systems.
An observation I made in my book, even in the first edition two years ago, was that research gave us reason to believe that hallucinations got worse with increasing model size
So, y'know... I literally told you so
thinking about plumbing the coffee machine again
@0x47df it needs plumbing?!
@bloor it doesn’t, it’s a £50 delonghi. maybe this is the coffee machine equivalent of fitting a ferrari air filter to a corsa
I just have had enough of the water being so horrible, and ended up with a small filter. And some hoses. And fittings. And a tee to borrow the washing machine’s connection point so the while setup is a bit more landlord friendly
to do this on my current coffee machine i think i will be needing a pressure reducer to not hurt the pump, and also a solenoid valve so i can turn the water on and off at the same time as the pump.
additional fun will be required to replace the drip tray, because the overpressure valve from the pump dumps to the tank. i need it to dump to a drip tray if the tank is going.
i don't feel like opening this machine up again though. it was horrible last time i tried to replace the steam valve.
but i also don't want to buy a nicer machine, because the ones ready for plumbing are too big, too expensive, and take too long to warm up. i am not a commercial operation. i just need coffy sometimes.
so i ponder smaller machines, and voiding their warranty to fit a solenoid valve and pressure reducer to these. some of them might have space to work with.
for now? maybe i will just place a filtered water tap somewhere.
it doesn't solve my machine dumping dirty water back into the tank, but it at least tackles the scale.
Another old friend let me know he and his partner are expecting a kid soon.
Meanwhile I'm figuring out what coating to apply to the sticks of the geodesic dome that I'll be installing over my hot tub.
To each their own, I suppose.
But the notion that I thought my life was "maximally different" to that of others when I was young is still being challenged. The gap probably actually gets wider and wider as we all get older.
I don't feel sad or happy about it. Just interested. It's notable.
As Modest Mouse once said, "We all float on."
@bloor I'm convinced some of us are more use to society as crazy uncles/aunts :) In all seriousness, someone your siblings'/friends' kids can get a different perspective from, etc.
I never thought I would ever have children. I have a son who has just started University this week. Yep, empty next syndrome is here in force.
I was late starting, and there is a very good reason why parenting is best done while you are young, and not getting older.
I would suggest to anyone that if you have any intentions of being a parent that earlier in life is better than later 😉
@simonzerafa I never really have had intentions of being a parent and still don't.
@bloor @simonzerafa Neither did I, and somehow I suddenly found myself with two. Skipping the gruelling baby/toddler years was probably a good thing.
@bloor It's interesting, isn't it, when events or news or even just idle thoughts make you stop to consider the series of coincidences and decisions that's got you to where you are right now.
Sometimes I wonder how many "Sliding Doors" moments I've had. Impossible to know for sure. But kinda fun to mull over every now and then.
@gilester45 I am not sure there really are sliding door moments, per se. Either there are none, or they are continual; never ending life as continual sliding doors moments.
Seems a bit simplistic. What if they lose the whip, or resign and become an independent?
Or what if an independent joins a party? Or starts their own party?
Well done Channel 4. Now do Farage..
"More than 100 of Donald Trump’s inaccurate statements are to be dissected by Channel 4 to coincide with his state visit, in what it described as “the longest uninterrupted reel of untruths, falsehoods and distortions ever broadcast on television”.
Just seen the news and am holding my head in my hands. Who'd have known this country had 100,000 people willing to stand up and boast about how pig thick and cretinous they are.
Protesters have attacked police officers, says The Met
Police officers have been attacked by protesters at anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ event in central London. Scotland Yard said on X: “Officers were attacked with projectiles and have had to use force to avoid their cordon being breached.”
Is this two-tier policing?
The Metropolitan Police have decided not to use real-time facial recognition technology on today's 'Unite The Kingdom' Rightest march in London....
So, the Q.s here are: will they be using the tech retrospectively on the marchers?
Are they concerned the live-tech will be swamped by the number it would pick up?
Do they regard a march organised by Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon_ as less dangerous than other marches?
Am I being thick? #uspol
So Trump deported a few hundred South Koreans that were there to train US workers in a new factory set up.
Surely that means they were not even immigrants - let alone illegal immigrants? I assume they were only there on a contract to train people - not planning to more to US. And surely they would not be in any way illegal in doing so?
Or did the company not have the appropriate paperwork for them working in the US?
Maybe I am missing something.
Being cynical, I assume that (a) they were the wrong colour and/or (b) the company did not pay protection money to Trump.
@revk that, and i think a lot of americans can't even fathom that people might not want to move to the US at all (legally or illegally), which makes every visitor a potential illegal immigrant. I speak from experience.
@jelte I never understood, when in long queues in to US, how it is one process - queuing up at a passport check desk - for someone going on holiday and someone trying to immigrate. There were people with all their immigration papers at the desks taking forever, obviously.
Surely someone going on holiday, with booked accommodation, and booked return flights, etc, should have a fast track!
boosted@revk According to South Korean news media there's a loophole in temporary Visa documents for South Korea citizens in the USA.
There's no Visa allowing people to enter the USA with a temporary work permit.
Skilled professionals training local employees so far have entered with a travel Visa and this practice has been tolerated for years. Until now, apparently.
We are getting a heat pump later this month, replacing an old dying, leaking gas boiler.
Hivemind! Predict the outcome :
| Literally fine, works amazing: | 26 |
| Minor issues that get resolved: | 52 |
| Catastrophic, end up returning to gas boiler: | 0 |
Closed
@bloor upgrading rads and piping too?
@ret one needed replacement, two were marginal, we will see and replace later if needed. Not replacing pipework.
@bloor I'd take a fair bet on the installers looking at the plan, looking at your floor and doing it differently 8)
And the weather compensation curve will be wrong, because it's 99% magic.
@nick our most expensive day of gas cost us almost £17 in one day earlier this year. My hope is that it is not /too much/ worse than that.
@nick so that represented 270 ish kWh of gas. Factoring in a pessimistic cop of 3, and factoring in the higher unit cost of electricity, I’m slightly worse off but only slightly.
@penguin42 @bloor @nick move some of the green/social tariffs from elec to gas, tax gas a bit and use it to subsidise elec. With prices as they are, a heat pump does not feel like a clear financial win, given the upfront cost.
@steve @penguin42 @nick I am under no illusions that it won’t save me very much money right now ongoing, if any at all. However: once I get solar and batteries, then it really@really makes sense.
@bloor @penguin42 @nick yes, that makes sense. But from a policy point of getting the country off gas, I think the financials need to be much clearer.
@nick @bloor
And balance all rads/towel rails to hit suitable return water temperature. The biggest waste of energy on wet systems is returning hot water back to the boiler/heat pump because ofvexcessive flow rates. Decorators, diy and builders always mess it up. Plumbers sometimes aren't much better.
@bloor Voted option 1 as I will be getting one too and hope your good luck will rub off on me. Not sure what kind of mysticism this is 😂
@bloor Awesome! Would love to have done that when we moved. Annoyingly 10yo boiler completely died weeks after moving in, so had to replace the boiler in anger in mid December rather than researching ASHP. Got another 4 years or so before justifying boiler retirement.
Would like to get rid of gas piping buried in floor/walls as there were 2 gas fires (decommissioned) and the massive meter unit which takes out almost a full kitchen cupboard.
Looking forward to your updates (and metrics) 😁
Today's trip was to Hurst Castle - a 19th Century fort built around a 16th Century fort.
Well worth visiting and if Mother Nature has her way (having been given a helping hand by us), it won't be around for much longer.
Replacing Sky / Virgin media with a Freeview recorder. Looking good so far, it integrates well with all the catch-up setvices, and a software update just added YouTube. #manhattant4r #cordcutting #freeview
Hmmm, I wonder, I wonder, why my Wireguard tunnel suddenly stopped working (on UDP/51820) after I redirected all packets coming in via UDP between 10000 and 65535 to my VoIP server at the firewall. A true mystery I totally haven't spent 15 minutes figuring out... 
@snep I did that once, but for Nintendo Switch. Lots of thinking ensued
(also their port usage policy is utter garbage, "just give us everything")
@forst Ohh yeahhh, they _do_ do that, don't they? "Oh, just port-forward any UDP port to your Switch, what could go wrong?"
I wonder what their recommended solution would be for households with two Switches 🤔
@snep Portforward to both, duuuh /j
@forst "Mom said it's *my* turn on the entire UDP port range today!!"
"Ivan replied that code is either correct or incorrect; there’s no subjective determination of whether it’s high or low… if a coder writes code poorly, the program simply won’t run"
If an engineer ever says that to you, run the fuck away.
The fact it runs doesn't mean it's:
- right
- secure
- maintainable
- efficient
or can handle anything except the single case you've tried.
Every time you scratch the surface of a vibe coder, you'll find delusionally low standards.
Our nice IT admins have fixed the Mastodon instance, thanks guys!
Mic check one two, is this thing on now?
Cool cool. A load of 50 because Facebook/Meta thinks it needs to hammer the server like crazy.
2a03:2880::/29 blocked.
so far so good...
Guess who's back? Back again... 🎶
Yes, it's Facebook. This time via IPv4.
Blocked.
Running a single user (or small) instance in the Fediverse? Relay instances acting as a spreading proxy can help you to find your content and also to make your posts visible to others - and you can easily join with #Mastodon, #snac and many other ones!
The https://fedi-relay.gyptazy.com relay is mostly for tech related content and just got updates to the manpageblog design.
#mastodon #snac #relay #activitypub #fediverse #federated #bsd #devops #proxmox #ipv6 #opensource #community #debian #python
See also https://delightful.coding.social/delightful-fediverse-experience/#activitypub-relay-servers
If you are not on the list, there is a repo to PR to, linked from the top.
Thanks for this!
Some unsollicited UX feedback:
- "contribution" link leads to a broken page
- List of connected instances: linked text being either the domain name or the instance title is somehow hard to process, is that sorted by chronological order? That list could be tabulated and sortable (a common practice for any list bigger than the screen)
@tobozo thanks, I’m currently still in transition where I’m moving back to my self-written manpageblog. Things may take some time ;)
Wow. Not sure what this is from, but QR codes are “fun”.
1. QR is URL that is an IP not a domain. Wow!
2. QR is not as compact as could be.
3, QR may not have required white space.
4. This is the biggie… How the fuck does anyone pick which QR they are scanning?! Most devices make that really hard.
Well done stating the crazy URLs in text though, even if text too small to read!
Have one (sane) URL and a select language option on that page.
This is special!
@revk reminds me of barcode scanner programming books that were just page after page of barcodes you had to scan in order to configure the scanner lol.
@revk I have seen a lot of QR codes (and other 2d bar codes expected to be scanned with a phone) that are unnecessarily small, and have left wondering if anyone actually tested them with a variety of devices. To pair my phone with my car, I ended up using an SLR and macro lens to scan the code and then zoomed in so I could scan it with my phone!
@revk And for some reason, they have a Belgian version that looks identical to the Dutch one. What are the French-speaking Belgians supposed to do?
“We will always work to facilitate peaceful protest and protect the democratic right to assembly, however the actions of this group were unlawful.
“Our officers’ role is to prevent disorder, damage and disruption in the local community and they will use their powers to do this. Any breaches of the law will be dealt with.”
What damage, disorder and disruption? All I witnessed was a peaceful protest
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/16/police-arrest-protesters-palestine-action-norwich
‘Police arrested 13 people at a protest in #Norfolk on Saturday on suspicion of showing support for the proscribed group Palestine Action.
A group assembled outside City Hall in St Peters Street, #Norwich, holding placards referencing the organisation, Norfolk police said. The force said they were arrested on suspicion of displaying an item in support of a proscribed organisation, contrary to section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.’
Where will this end?
I was curious to see what #BBC Look East had reported on the protest…as their studios are literally within spitting distance of City Hall and the last arrest which I must have witnessed was outside the Forum where they are based.
They have literally just cobbled together press releases from Norfolk police the Met.
They felt no need to view this peaceful protest happening on their own doorstep with their own eyes…
History