K‮ly‬e @khird@qoto.org

@freemo

You can see a the shadows of various buildings at different points, moving *counterclockwise* across the screen. Shadows move in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere.

This, by the way, is how we came up with "clockwise" - shadows moving in that direction meant that sundials have to be laid out in that direction, and the design of clocks derived from that of sundials.

@datatitian

@FailForward The guy said they can go over a million cycles before failing. That’s kind of surprising and I wish he’d explained more - both about how they achieve that, knowing how many plastic tabs on things I’ve broken, and how they measure it (what’s the probability that any individual specimen fails at half a million? a thousand?). Knowing more about the failure modes is essential to being able to use these things safely.

@valleyforge Yep, that looks a lot nicer than my Printrbot Simple V1. I'd still want to do a lot of test prints to gain confidence in the print quality though.

@valleyforge I don't doubt that they *can* work if printed on a sufficiently reliable and precise machine! But my printer is neither of those, so I'd be buying the finished print from someone else - which kind of defeats the purpose.

@valleyforge as someone who's spent the last couple days dealing with my 3D prints delaminating, collapsing, and warping, the idea of firing a 3D printed gun is terrifying. I would be amazed if it didn't come apart and at least break a finger or embed a bunch of plastic fragments into my hand.

@clickwithtina

In case you misunderstood:

If the whole point of your posts is to advertise, though, you’ll likely fall under our rule

Your posts here and here are exactly what I described. The only reason you’re not banned is that you’ve previously been responsive to the moderators, so you’re getting a second chance in hopes that you’ll amend your behaviour and be part of QOTO.

I have, however, silenced your account to prevent you from causing further annoyance to users on QOTO and the wider Fediverse, who have complained of your conduct. This means that none of your posts will be published on the main timeline, although they’ll remain visible if anyone clicks through to your profile. If you persist in trying to advertise, I or another mod will remove your account entirely. If you want your account unsilenced, we’ll need your word that you’ll abide by QOTO’s rules.

@freemo @arteteco @Sphinx

@clickwithtina We're a STEM instance. If you're writing up a project you're doing, and want to link the parts used, affiliate links are not markedly worse than plain links. If the whole point of your posts is to advertise, though, you'll likely fall under our rule about "Any account setup solely to advertise a product or service" and catch a ban. You can see our full rules at https://qoto.org/about/more .

@freemo is the guy to talk to if you have more specific questions about what's allowed.

@Diptchip I’m using a Bluetooth headset, which has controls for the sink audio (played through earpieces) but not the source (recorded from mic). I could maybe crack it open and solder a switch in series with the mic; but, no, that wouldn’t be easier.

Yes I run Zoom on Linux - Linux has been my daily driver for about ten years, and I don’t get to dictate what communications tool we use.

Is there a trick to code blocks (the ``` ... ``` environment) in the flavour of #Markdown we use here on #QOTO? Line breaks keep disappearing in mine.

Here’s a tool I put together this evening.

The Problem
Sometimes I’m on a #Zoom call and need to unmute my mic quickly. There’s a keystroke for this (by default Alt-A), but this only works if Zoom has focus. It’s not uncommon for me to have switched to the PDF or email we’re discussing, so I have to dig up Zoom before I can unmute and chime in, often missing the conversational opportunity.

The Solution
I wrote a script that:

1. checks if any audio streams are going into Zoom, otherwise quits
2. finds the numerical ID of the audio stream going into Zoom
3. toggles the mute flag on said audio stream

I bound it to the keystroke Control-Alt-A in my desktop environment, so I can easily toggle the mute no matter what application has focus.

The Dependencies
This is written in #Bash for #Linux systems using #PulseAudio and depends on its control tool pactl being installed.

The Code

#!/bin/bash

PASOPS=$(pactl list source-outputs)

if echo "$PASOPS" | grep -q 'ZOOM VoiceEngine' ; then

	SOPID=$(echo "$PASOPS" | head -n $(($(echo "$PASOPS" | grep -n -e 'application.name = "ZOOM VoiceEngine"' | cut -f1 -d:) - 1)) - | grep -o -e 'Source Output #[0-9]\+' | grep -o -e '[0-9]\+' | tail -n 1);

	pactl set-source-output-mute $SOPID toggle; fi

@mur2501 Norway is mountainous. Mountainous countries tend to be better at snow sports like skiing, but flat countries are better at ice sports like hockey. Large countries with varied terrain are competitive at both.

@Zoohouse

You can add it to your "Getting Started" page by making it a "Favourite domain" at https://qoto.org/settings/favourite_domains or import it into your home timeline by making it a "Domain Subscribe" at https://qoto.org/settings/domain_subscribes - just a matter of your preference how you want to consume it.

@Zoohouse

You could see the one you mentioned at https://qoto.org/web/timelines/public/domain/linuxrocks.online for example.

@Zoohouse yes! I think you have to use the web interface, and set up a domain subscription.

Tip for anyone composing in #Frescobaldi:

If you want to use MIDI input but get errors about an "invalid running status" when you attach a physical MIDI instrument, your instrument or interface may be generating SysEx messages that Frescobaldi can't understand. To work around this, you can use an app like #VMPK - in VMPK's "Connections" menu, set the input to your MIDI hardware; and in Frescobaldi's "Preferences" dialogue, set the input to VMPK. This makes your instrument change the internal state of VMPK's keyboard, and VMPK then generates appropriate MIDI events reflecting those changes. Since it's tolerant of SysEx messages in its input but won't generate them in its output, this effectively filters the stream to make it safe for Frescobaldi to consume.

As a bonus, you can see the keys light up on the VMPK interface to reflect the notes currently sounding, which may be more intuitive than reading the #Lilypond source Frescobaldi generates. If you also set something like #FluidSynth as the output in the "Connections" menu, you'll be able to hear what you're playing, too.

@timorl Instances that block us often brag about it. If it's a Mastodon instance, check their /about/more page near the bottom. If Pleroma, it's sometimes on the /about page.

@freemo

Here's a much cheaper one with greens:

https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=4295​

@unnnmslymchlmps

You might be thinking of natural units. If you based your system on G and c, where G is the gravitational constant and c is the speed of light, to convert time to distance, you multiply by c; to convert energy to distance, you multiply by (G/c^4).

It’s more usual to do the reverse; that is, to express everything in terms of energy rather than distance. This is why particle physicists express almost everything in terms of the electron volt, which is really a unit of energy.

@mur2501

Probably, but that doesn't stop it from being funny.

@tombies@social.tchncs.de @dv8