Indulging myself in a coffee and a toastie for brekkie after a long time! (my usual go-to is a smoothie). I don't really need the coffee, but I feel like today is going to be one of those days.

In other news, yesterday I managed to call out the lies of Microsoft (and another big vendor) - basically they said something like you can't/can do this, and I proved them wrong (I set up an entire test infrastructure in the cloud just to get to the bottom of it), so feeling chuffed I finally did something cool at my new job. :)

[–] Dave 4 points 11 months ago

Oh it's always satisfying proving someone wrong! Not so fun being the one proved wrong though 😆

[–] AnimalSalad 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Dont forget to watch the stars tonight :)

[–] d3Xt3r 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not in this weather! (well, in Welly anyways)

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago

Oh boy did that weather come on in a hurry!

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Meteor shower? Which direction are we supposed to look?

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I tried that way but it's cloudy. Any other suggestions?

Apparently you're supposed to look to the left of Jupiter, which I guess is north-ish? I'm no good at direction.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 11 months ago

Just get above the clouds. Simple as.

Nah I don’t know, just a dumb joke!

[–] absGeekNZ 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Thought for the day

Do you maintain a reading list?

I have a whole bunch of book on my to-read list. I add and subtract as I hear about things; and I make a notes about what I am reading, unless I'm reading fiction.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Not really. I still use goodreads to track what I've read (I know I know Amazon bad, I'm lazy to change)

Since I'm a dirty pirate I just grab the ebook when I see something that I might be interested in and throw it into Calibre for me to look through when I'm deciding on my next book to read. Ebooks take up so little space I have no issue hoarding them even if I don't end up reading them.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 11 months ago

I also know how to sail. Calibre is wonderful software.

[–] d3Xt3r 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but the problem is I have way too many lists that just keep growing and growing, and I wonder if I'll ever get to complete them.

Like some of these from the top of my head:

Movies to watch
TV shows to watch
Documentaries to watch
Bands to check out
Foreign songs to learn (don't ask)
Food / recipes to try

... and so on.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only one on your list I want to ask about now is the one you said not to ask about.....reverse psychology?

[–] d3Xt3r 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Haha, it's not a big secret or anything, it's just my "thing". I love karaoke, and I also have a bit of a fascination with foreign music - French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian etc. From pop and opera, to heavy metal throat singing. Whatever catches my fancy basically. And unlike "normal" people who may just listen to some J-pop or something, I actually like learning all the lyrics, practicing until I memorize everything, all so that I can sing along and perform confidently... in the shower.

Perhaps some day I might come across a karaoke place with a good foreign song collection, and that will be the day I finally get to show off, but until then, I will continue to keep learning and singing in the shower lol.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 11 months ago

Nice, I like philosophy and complex topics..... I'll be happy to discuss anything with anyone. My go to when meeting new people is "what do you do for fun?"

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use bookworm.nz to track the books I've read, am currently reading, and want to read. I also have a spread sheet with the same data (though it goes back further, because that's how I started).

I'm not big on note taking, but when I do I normally create a page in my personal wiki.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I use Obsidian to track my list and make notes where I feel notes are a good idea.

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I've heard good things about Obsidian, but while I've opened and played with it there hasn't really been much to pull me into it.

Other than the wiki, I use Joplin for day to day notes, which serves it's purpose and syncs easily with Nextcloud.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I like that Obsidian has lots of interesting addons but all the files are just markdown at the end of the day. You can view them in a standard text editor.

My vault syncs via Syncthing - which is just awesome.

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Joplin is all markdown too. I guess I'd need to play with Obsidian's addons to see what might make the killer feature for me, but it just seems easier to stick with Joplin. I don't even use it all that much.

[–] absGeekNZ 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There are a bunch of cool features, but the killer feature is the tasks addon, so useful

[–] Dave 1 points 11 months ago

I use the tasks.org app for tasks, so I probably wouldn't find it as useful!

I also try to use open source software where possible, and Joplin and Tasks.org do the job so have won out for now.

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Some things I've been doing recently - watching season 1 of Star Trek Picard, playing Ryse: Son of Rome, and reading The Explosive Child (who's name the author's dislike, as it mentioned in the re-released 2021 version I'm reading, as it's about a parenting aproach not exclusive to "explosive" children).

[–] Axisential 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How are you finding Picard? I'm a fan of the OG show, but in my time-poor world am always hesitant to pick up a new show! I blame Lost and GoT for that! Once bitten and all that...

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it probably wasn't this. It's a story that goes across the season (or longer?) rather than the individual episodes like TNG was.

One surprise was that I assumed it was a series about Picard in his youth played by another actor, like these sorts of things often are. When it turned out to star Sir Patrick Stewart that was a pleasant surprise (I read nothing going into it). The other surprise is how old he is. He's a frail old man (I guess the dude is in his 80s now).

He also does things that aren't characteristic of Jean-Luc Picard, though this is explained in the show.

I think after the initial surprises I'm starting to accept it as it's own thing, and so am enjoying it more. I'm only about half way through the first season, but I think I'll probably keep watching the next seasons. It sounds like it was written with 3 seasons in mind (which have all been released) and won't be getting a 4th season so you'll know what you're in for if you start. There are only 30 episodes of about 45 mins each.

[–] shartedchocolate@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think the craziest thing for me was that Picard walks into a romulan bar to start a fight. He was killed in a bar fight by a nossican and had to relive it via Q over and over so I feel like, this is something he would specifically avoid. What a weird show

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago

I guess this may be explained by his condition explained near the start of the season. But in general I've felt like he's a different person, though I also get the sense that's what they want to convey. I was hoping as the season went on he'd get back into his groove and be more Picardy (no spoilers, I haven't watched much past half of the first season).

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I watched the first season of Picard, it was OK I guess. I kind of lost interest after that though. The second season seems to be regarded as very average to bad, but then the third season is supposed to be very good..

I don't know if I can bring myself to get through the second season to watch the third.

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's only 10 episodes a season, so I think I'll try to push through. You could just put it on in the background while you do something else, so you've seen them and get the gist but aren't bored by the second season.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I can't do the background TV watching myself, rather have quiet if I'm doing something else. I'll wait for you to watch it and let us know if it's as bad as they say :)

[–] Dave 2 points 11 months ago

I don't do the background TV watching either, but I thought other people commonly did. It takes me a while to get through stuff but will try to remember to report back!