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fskornia

@[email protected]

Public Digital Librarian. Don't join dangerous cults. Practice safe sects.
Other interests include SF/F/H, gaming, quilting, and astronomy
He/Him/His

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@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

I'm so used to helping people with ebooks and audiobooks on their phones and tablets, it is rather delightful when they say they're on their computer. It's is frankly a lot easier to walk them through stuff on the web interface than on the mobile apps.

@danielleganza@glammr.us avatar danielleganza , to random

Does anyone know how something like this is calculated and/or generated? As much as I hate justifying a public good, we're in an unending timeline where $$$, or the lack thereof, rules all and this is an interesting nugget in the "well, actually..." battle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/OVbbBs5wqm

fskornia ,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@adr @danielleganza The dollar value is almost assuredly either the cover price of the book or the discounted price paid by the library (ie the cost you would pay to buy the book from a bookstore).
The running tally can easily be done with no privacy violations by just having it be several counters that are incremented by the book prices every time you check something out. In this case 3 counters: current checkout, year, and overall.

@SymTrkl@anarres.family avatar SymTrkl , to random

Okay now hear me out. Why don't we replace Discord with... a MUD.

Answer me honestly, would we be any worse off if we just telnet'd in to multiplayer Zork for our online socialization? Second Life meets Nethack?

There is no reason why we could not do this.
Just several reasons why we should not do this.

fskornia ,
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@SymTrkl I think I still have the email printout with the activation key I paid to unlock the full version my MUD client nearly 30 years ago... I wonder if that client still exists and whether my activation key still works.

@spagotto@glammr.us avatar spagotto , to random

RE: https://glammr.us/@spagotto/116007363754847009

This was an exaggeration, but seriously. It eats up like 10-15 minutes of every single meeting. And I'm in a lot of meetings.

fskornia ,
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@spagotto In the end, the 55 year-old protocol of email is still probably the most efficient way of doing it.

fskornia ,
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@spagotto One of the Discord servers I'm on has started talking about self hosting forums and possibly IRC to replace it.
All those protocols got tested and built when computers were a lot less reliable and powerful and have proven the test of time. I still regularly use FTP when I need a solid way to transfer large files.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

I'm enjoying the use of small video quadcopters at the Olympics. I've seen them used for both the luge and snowboarding and it is giving them some really neat perspectives of the athletes.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Not that I'm really interested in getting it for the library since most of the other books have thankfully been weeded out, but Orson Scott Card has finally finished the Alvin Maker series?
23 years since the last book...

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Yoko Kanno and SEATBELTS are going to have their first ever US concert in Brooklyn in April.

That show is going to sell out incredibly fast that I'm not even going to attempt to see if I can get tickets.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

sounds fun. I guess today's theme is , songs with or about a/the cross.

While it doesn't explicitly mention the cross, Natalie Merchant's 'Thick as Thieves' calls upon a lot of Christian imagery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfk__iQsZQA

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

I'm really proud of my usually over-cautious players actually drinking from the magic fountains last night. It would have been a shame for them to ignore them.
Of course now the dragonborn fighter has huge bull horns (think Tim Curry's character from the film 'Legend'), and there is a dire wolf-shaped Druid floating against the ceiling of the room. But at least they took a risk.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

After years of using a PS4 and PS5 as my DVD player, today I learned that I can use my TV's remote to navigate the PS5 and the DVD/BluRay menus.
This is a game changer.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Alright. Time to finally finish season 4 of .
I watched S4E21 last night, which I understand was originally meant to be the series finale. So I'm guessing this episode is going to start setting up whatever extra arc JMS had to develop for season 5.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Blerg. We had plans today to do the Steel Magnolias Movie Party at the Alamo Drafthouse.
The theater is an hour or so drive away and with the constant snowfall happening today we've decided to bail. Fortunately I can get a refund on the tickets, but we've been looking forward to this for about a month.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

RLB:
Disney's Best Little Horse Thieves: Winnie the Pooh

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

One of my current projects is cleaning up the metadata in our digital collections from before my time here (yes, I've been here more than 11 years and I'm finally doing this).
I'm working on a collection of postcards and I'm loving how many of them have written messages. Often from people traveling or staying overnight in Stamford and just sending a postcard to friends back home.
There were some sisters (I think?) in a nearby town that seemed to just collect postcards from people.

fskornia OP ,
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Actually, part of the incentive for the clean up is that the metadata wasn't great, but it was okay for the casual browsers of our digital collection. But I'm also working on adding stuff to the CT Digital Archive system and it's an opportunity to improve the metadata to my standards

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

There is definitely a weird Vitamix evangelism in the kitchen blender review world. I'm sorry that I don't think spending $600-$900 is worth it for an appliance that gets pulled out a handful times a year.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Oh wow! New Dresden Files book out next month!

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

"Giving Tuesday" should be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

People are getting into the mood of being thankful and haven't just spent several days with their annoying Uncle Bob (apologies to any Uncle Bobs who are not annoying). Also they still have all their money they haven't spent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

(All of these are nonsense days that just reinforce the powers that are destroying our society)

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

I have finished the project I've been working on the past couple of days, or at least reached the point where there isn't anything more to do unless someone wants changes.
So now I need to figure out what to fill the rest of my day as a Saturday Librarian with. Adding to the challenge is that I'm on vacation for a week after today, so motivation is REALLY LOW.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Some people are going to be pwned so hard, and all because MS was "Ooh! AI shiny!"

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/new-windows-11-ai-agents-can-work-in-the-background-but-create-new-security-risks/

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

Puzzling my head around Ingram's search displays.
They have a filter to exclude previously ordered items. Good. But the search total still remains the same? It just hides the results that have been ordered before.
Search has 28 pages. After filter, still has 28 pages, but the last 2 are just empty. What kind of UX is this crap?

fskornia OP ,
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The only way to undo a filter in Ingram's search is to use the back button, and hope your browser allows the previous results to load. There is no indication of what filters you have turned on.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

This week I am fully off Spooky Reads. I am currently reading 'The Bright Sword' by Lev Grossman

I came into this book mainly knowing that I've enjoyed the author in the past and I liked his Magicians series and that it was based on the Arthurian saga.

I wasn't expecting the brilliant deconstruction of King Arthur and his Round Table that it is. The further I read, the more I'm in love with what this book is doing.
This book is remarkable.

@bookstodon

fskornia OP ,
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I am also listening to 'City of Miracles' by Robert Jackson Bennett on audio.

As much as I enjoy horror, it has been really nice settling back into the comfort of fantasy and Bennett continues to be a joy to read. Another big perspective change in this book, but less shocking than the transition from 'Stairs' to 'Blades'. Big shock in the opening of the book.

I will probably be picking up his recent 'A Drop of Corruption' before the end of the year.

@bookstodon

fskornia OP ,
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@AuthorJMac @bookstodon It's the third of his Divine Cities trilogy and it's a great look at divinity, miracles, colonization, and a changing world all wrapped up in very good action adventure stories.

@amcooper@toot.cat avatar amcooper , to random

Pronouncing "Irondequoit" as though it's French.

fskornia ,
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@dillyd @amcooper Cairo in Illinois is pronounced differently than Cairo in Egypt.
Worcester in Massachusetts is slightly different than Worcester in England 🙂
Connecticut has a Thames River that is pronounced differently than London's Thames River.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

The delivery driver got this rather fantastic epic looking shot of our rather mundane front door. I particularly like the fisheye distortion at the bottom.

Photo of the front door of a yellow house. The sky and clouds above the house are marbled in white, blue, and purple. A large box sits on the stoop. There are also 3 small pumpkins arranged on the stoop
ALT
fskornia OP ,
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And yes, I totally get my completely weird order: Mop and Pinesol make sense, but I'm also getting new boxes of masks and a book on the history of apples.
The latter is because I became curious after reading 2 different spooky books featuring heritage apples and the people documenting them.

@fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

We'll be talking about Jaws during my film discussion later this week (I hope people show up...) and one of the questions I have to ask is, "Are you afraid to go into the water?" because it must be asked

@carnage4life@mas.to avatar carnage4life , to random

Zohran Mamdani is so scary because he is planting the idea that you can tax billionaires and use the money to help people instead of debating what services to cut to pay for tax cuts. Which is literally why the US government is currently shut down.

He is destroying decades of messaging by billionaire sponsored think tanks and politicians.

fskornia ,
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@carnage4life Massachusetts has implemented a tax on millionaires and so far they have collected $2 billion (with a B!) more revenue than expected from it and they haven't seen the flight of taxpayers that everyone warns would happen.
They also have a tax on capital gains that has collected $2.5 billion (again with a B!)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/massachusetts-collected-2-billion-more-153147561.html

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    fskornia ,
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    @JessTheUnstill I remember when we talked about a terabyte in hushed tones promising a future age. And now I have 12 TB of storage capacity in my home PC just because.

    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

    This is the same Hulu that Disney is sunsetting in less than 2.5 months?

    https://www.theverge.com/tech/802562/hulu-live-tv-subscription-disney-espn-deal-sale

    @Star12Mt@masto.nyc avatar Star12Mt , to random


    I'm on the third book of the Indian Lake trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones. The horror genre is a new thing for me this year, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Jade Daniels is a complicated character and I will miss her.
    Also, perhaps because I'm listening and it's in his own voice, but I find his acknowledgments sections to be so interesting, personal and kind, really worth reading

    Photo of three book covers. The left is white and called My Heart is a Chainsaw. The middle is red/orange and called Don't Fear the Reaper. The one on the right is black and called The Angel of Indian Lake
    ALT
    fskornia ,
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    @Star12Mt When you get the chance, read his 'Buffalo Hunter Hunter'.
    I've read a bunch of stuff by SGJ now, and I enjoyed the Indian Lake Trilogy, but I really loved 'Buffalo Hunter Hunter' when I read it last month. It's the best thing I've read by him.

    Since I just finished it, I also recommend 'White Horse' by Erika T. Wurth. More indigenous-origin horror.

    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

    In a venue that maybe has an aspiration of being a theater 20 years ago, but has seen some things in that time.
    But the reviews of the shows are really good. We're seeing an Elton John tribute tonight.

    @Binder@petrous.vislae.town avatar Binder , to random

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    fskornia ,
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    @Binder Pumpkin Spice Quantum Latte?

    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

    Just waiting for the future story where a company is bankrupted due to an "agentic llm" being used in Excel
    https://www.theverge.com/news/787076/microsoft-office-agent-mode-office-agent-anthropic-models

    fskornia OP ,
    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar

    "Microsoft says its Agent Mode in Excel has an accuracy rate of 57.2 percent in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for evaluating an AI model’s ability to edit real world spreadsheets."

    I work in a library, so hardly work that will injure or kill someone and even here if I was constantly handing in stuff that was 57.2 percent accurate they would question my suitability for the job.

    @axbom@axbom.me avatar axbom , to random

    Happy Petrov Day to those who celebrate. On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov made the correct decision to not trust a computer.

    The early warning system at command center Serpukhov-15, loudly alerting of a nuclear attack from the United States, was of course modern and up-to-date. Stanislav Petrov was in charge, working his second shift in place of a colleague who was ill.

    Many officers facing the same situation would have called their superiors to alert them of the need for a counter-attack. Especially as fellow officers were shouting at him to retaliate quickly before it was too late. Petrov did not succumb.

    I've attached a short clip from a reenactment of the situation in the documentary The Man Who Saved the World.

    The computer was indeed wrong about the imminent attack and Petrov likely saved the world from nuclear disaster in those impossibly stressful minutes, by daring to wait for ground confirmation. For context one must also be aware that this was at a time when US-Soviet relations were extremely tense.

    I've previously written about three lessons to take away from Petrov's actions:

    1. Embrace multiple perspectives

    The fact that it was not Stanislov Petrov's own choice to pursue an army career speaks to me of how important it is to welcome a broad range of experiences and perspectives. Petrov received an education as an engineer rather than a military man. He knew the unpredictability of machine behavior.

    1. Look for multiple confirmation points

    Stanislav Petrov understood what he was looking for. While he has admitted he could not be 100% sure the attack wasn't real, there were several factors he has mentioned that played into his decision:

    • He had been told a US attack would be all-out. An attack with only 5 missiles did not make sense to him.
    • Ground radar failed to pick up supporting evidence of an attack, even after minutes of waiting.
    • The message passed too quickly through the 30 layers of verification he himself had devised.

    On top of this: The launch detection system was new (and hence he did not fully trust it).

    1. Reward exposure of faulty systems

    If we keep praising our tools for their excellence and efficiency it's hard to later accept their defects. When shortcomings are found, this needs to be communicated just as clearly and widely as successes. Maintaining an illusion of perfect, neutral and flawless systems will keep people from questioning the systems when the systems need to be questioned.

    We need to stop punishing when failure helps us understand something that can be improved.

    Video of panicked officers in a military bunker with lots of beeping and blinking machines and busy screens. Speaking Russian. Dialogue: "We can't wait any more." "7 minutes until the first warhead is in the observation zone." "We won't have time to retaliate. You have to make a decision!" "You see it?" "Could be." "No. That's not heat from a missile." "Damn!" "Let's keep looking." "The computer can't be wrong!" "I don't understand it." "Damn it! They have to confirm this damn attack." "All thirty levels of security checks confirms the attack!" "Infrared devices verify heat from all five launched missiles!" "What are we going to do?" The camera zooms in on who we understand to be Petrov. "Nothing. I don't trust the computer. We'll wait."

    fskornia ,
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    @axbom @the5thColumnist I remember the WOPR incident, although the US government keeps insisting that was all fiction. But they would say that as part of the cover up, wouldn't they?

    fskornia ,
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    @wesdym I love that movie so much and for a technology focused movie that is 40 years old, it holds up incredibly well - thanks to the technical experts they had on the set.
    After I posted that yesterday, I got to thinking about Joshua/WOPR and how it predicted today's LLM's tendency to "hallucinate"

    @publicdomainrev@mastodon.social avatar publicdomainrev , to random

    From 1969 to 2008 John Margolies photographed the eccentric roadside architecture and ephemera of the US. @librarycongress bought the lot, a total of 11,710 colour slides, and lifted all copyright restrictions on them. Here's our highlights: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-margolies-photographs-of-roadside-america

    image/jpeg
    image/jpeg
    image/jpeg

    fskornia ,
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    @publicdomainrev Love this collection to bits!
    And if folk want regular doses of it, there is a Mastodon bot that posts images from it
    @roadside

    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

    Fat Bear Week 2025 starts tomorrow!!

    Remember to vote for the most rotund bears!

    https://explore.org/fat-bear-week

    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

    So the 'Anaconda' reboot is actually going to be a metanarrative about a pair of guys that want to remake the original 'Anaconda' film, but encounter a real giant snake.

    Weird. It feels like the gag from Spaceballs where they put in the video of the movie to fast forward has become reality in a way.

    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar fskornia , to random

    Now I'm watching The Corpse Vanishes (1942) with Bela Lugosi.

    Poor guy seems stuck in roles where he plays creepy little guys.

    fskornia OP ,
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    Start watching 'The Corpse Vanishes' for Bela Lugosi, stay for Luana Walters as the feisty reporter Patricia Hunter. She's been the highlight so far.

    fskornia OP ,
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    Oh wow! Angelo Rositto, who later plays The Master (of Master Blaster) in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, is in this.
    He was also in 1933's 'Freaks' and in 'The Wizard of Oz' and a ton of other roles.

    fskornia OP ,
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    Okay, this movie is fun. There is a whole bit where the feisty reporter stealths around like a video game.
    And then she faints.

    @kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar kimlockhartga , to bookstodon group

    Read any good fiction lately?

    bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group

    fskornia ,
    @fskornia@glammr.us avatar

    @kimlockhartga bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group Just finished 'Silk & Sinew' which is an anthology of folk horror short stories written by Asian diaspora writers. Some ups and downs, but mostly very very good.
    Also finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's 'Children of Ruin' which was a sequel to 'Children of Time' and continues the far future space terraforming/colonization/making odd decisions to uplift animals stories.