@stib@aus.social cover
@stib@aus.social avatar

stib

@[email protected]

The world's averagest #climber.
I #make stuff out of wood, metal, fabric, flour, polygons, code and wires.
Part human, part #bicycle.
King of the #whippet army.
Learning by doing with #Linux.
I use, and write free scripts for, #Blender, #DaVinciResolve and other stuff.
PfP: Hydrothermal Vent Polychaete Worm by Nicolas Gayet from Paulo Bonifacio lab, that I animated to look like a Muppet monster popping up from a hole and smiling. Banner is a Blender screen shot of a triceratops animation.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@stib@aus.social avatar stib , to random

My son bought a second-hand Windows 11 PC for games, and has been having BSOD issues with the graphics card since he got it. Out of desperation he tried installing Bazzite on it, which I encouraged, but was also trying not to get his hopes up, telling him that the some things might not work. But he reports that "absolutely everything works better than Windows".
I suggested he use KDE for the desktop, and he is blown away about how good everything looks, and how easy the user experience is. He has used Linux for a bit probably 7 or 8 years ago when he used a salvaged laptop at uni that had Ubuntu on it, and he remembers that being a bit janky and frustrating, but now he's decided that he'll wipe the Windows partition and stay with Linux.
So keep it up, clever people that are making Linux distros and software, you're winning.

@stib@aus.social avatar stib , to random

I made a thing!
If you import images with alpha channels into Blender this is a script that will trace the alpha channels of the image and create a polygon to match, and create a UV map and material to display the image.
This is useful if you're doing 2D animation with images.
This is part of my project to de-adobefy myself, by using open-source tools like Blender to replace After Effects.
The second image is a 2D rig I'm using to animate an image, built with bendy bones. Although you could possibly create rigs like this in After Effects with 3rd-party tools like DuIK and RubberHose, Blender's rigging toolset is far superior and a lot easier to set up.
My script seems to only work reliably with png images, I don't have a good enough understanding of OpenCV to deal with funky image formats, though I'd like it to be able to open multi-layer images.
Source is here: https://codeberg.org/stib/stibs_blender_scripts/src/branch/main/import_and_trace_alpha.py

(To install it download the python script and go to blender preferences > addons, then click the little drop-down in the top right and choose install from disk)

A whale imager, rigged with blender Bendy boens and controls, set up for animation

A whale imager, rigged with blender Bendy boens and controls, set up for animation
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@stib@aus.social avatar stib , to random

! Posting unsolicited deck pics !

I love it when everything holds firm without any screws or glue.

the handrail going through the posts on my nearly completed deck

the handrail going through the posts on my nearly completed deck
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@stib@aus.social avatar stib , to random

Pleased* to find that this restaurant has replaced
askWaiter()
with
{ scan a QR code; make an account; log in; give your details to some random 3rd party company; search through multiple different pages of menus that don't actually have the things that you can see right THERE behind the counter; give up and go up to the counter to { askWaiter() }; }
So much easier.

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    @JessTheUnstill
    The good thing is that unless you're cooking meth, the difference won't matter in the slightest. Source: I measure teaspoons and tablespoons by eyeballing it in the palm of my hand.

    @mattdm@hachyderm.io avatar mattdm , (edited ) to random

    Here is a thing I like about the English language (not just in specific but by example):

    "The Beeping": uh ok

    "The Beepening": oh no

    stib ,
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    @mattdm The beepification will continue until morale improves.
    Also check out my new startup beep.ly

    @TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

    Astronauts always be gettin' stranded

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    @TheBreadmonkey
    You bubble headed booby! You clanking collection of condensors! Look what you've done now. We're stranded! Oh the pain, the pain.

    @robpumphrey@mastodonapp.uk avatar robpumphrey , to random

    Been wasting more time.

    A badly edited meme of a ginger cat with various labelled linux commands pointing to parts of the cat's body
    ALT
    stib ,
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    @farlukar
    > whereis cat
    > /bin/cat

    @robpumphrey

    @louie@pdx.social avatar louie , to random

    I don’t care how bad you think you are at HTML (and CSS). A website that you wrote the HTML yourself is infinitely better than any template-based website you pulled from somewhere else.

    If you think it’s going to be too much work, I promise you, fiddling with a template-based solution is going to—somehow—be more work, especially to maintain as the framework, template, or font changes without you knowing.

    Write it yourself. One of my all-time favorite websites is this: https://vitalesbakery.com

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    @vale
    Having the hours and address on the first page puts it waaay ahead of most small business websites, and quite a few big ones too.
    @louie

    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar pluralistic , (edited ) to random

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    @pluralistic
    I went to get a copy of the Jeremy Clarkson "Oh no. Anyway ..." meme, but every single one was being used right now.

    @nordacious@aus.social avatar nordacious , to random

    Hey Albo + Wong – up to 300,000 marched across Australia yesterday. Decent Aussies want urgent diplomatic action, not hollow platitudes. Sanction Israel. Weapons embargo. Accountability for genocide. ACT NOW 🇵🇸

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    @aral @nordacious worth noting for the alt text that the old white man depicted is Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia.

    @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar gerrymcgovern , to random

    Google announced the next step in its nuclear energy plans

    The tech giant inked a deal to support a next-generation nuclear energy reactor being built in the shadow of the Manhattan Project.

    https://www.theverge.com/news/761809/nuclear-energy-google-ai-advanced-reactor-kairos-tva-electricity-utility

    Big Tech in the race to destroy everything.

    stib ,
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    @gerrymcgovern
    Hey, nuclear energy is not like it used to be; now we've got AI to run it so nothing can possibly go wrong.

    @elduvelle@neuromatch.social avatar elduvelle , to random

    With the coming end of support of I would like to hear from people who recently (say < 3 years ago) moved from Windows (or MacOS) to Linux:
    .1. which Linux distribution did you settle on?
    .2. which are the main problems that you had "transitioning"?
    .3. are you planning to keep using Linux for now?
    .4. What are you missing in Linux that you had with your former OS?
    .5. If you tried but did not keep using it - why?

    And here's a related poll:
    Have you recently moved to Linux from a different OS? ⬇️

    stib ,
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    @elduvelle
    I work as a video editor, 3D & 2D animator, and motion graphics designer. I went Linux a couple of years ago, after switching my 3D platform from Lightwave, a proprietary Windows & Mac only app, to Blender, and swapping from Adobe Premiere / After Effects to Davinci Resolve / Fusion. Blender and Resolve run on Linux, and there's a noticeable speed difference. There are some downsides for Resolve: installing it involves a bit of faff; manually moving some library files around, and VST audio plugins and web based accounts don't work. They're serious annoyances, but the gain in speed and the freedom of using Linux makes it worthwhile, and I can use Reaper for audio work.
    I still keep the Windows partition, mostly because I work with people who are still trapped in Adobe Land, and also because I need a better image editor than Linux can provide. The Gnu slur-named image editor is cutting edge if it was 2009 but it is not up to the job today. I use Krita for a lot of things, its a great app, and I prefer Inkscape to Illustrator, but if I'm doing something that needs lots of twiddling with pixels I have to fire up Photoshop. I keep hoping that something like Blender will happen for image editing.

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    SituationCake
    I learned this from a person whose job it was to clean Panavision lenses, which cost astronomical amounts of money: The problem with the cloth is that any dirt it picks up ends up getting rubbed all over the glasses. This is particularly bad when there's dust that might be abrasive, you're basically sandpapering the lens. The way he showed us was: one lens tissue, one wipe, in the bin.
    Unlike a Panavision lens, glasses don't cost as much as reasonable sized inner city apartments, so you can probably get away with using a disposable wipe each session, or if you're worried about the baby seals and shit, a clean cloth each time (I use a clean cotton hanky).
    The more care you take making sure that what you're cleaning them with isn't full of grit, the longer they'll stay clear.
    @YarraByte@aussie.zone avatar YarraByte

    stib ,
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    @DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone avatar DavidDoesLemmy
    But you're only paying that tax on the income above the threshold for that tax bracket. Rich people, and their dupes whinging about Australia's "high taxes" can get in the bin.
    @HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net avatar HalfEarthMedic

    @stib@aus.social avatar stib , to random

    Work needs some -era composed. Anyone out there with expertise about the kind of playlist the Vikings might have been streaming on their holidays in circa 900 CE? DM for more info and a proper brief and budget, but it's for an exhibition of the Galloway Hoard, in Melbourne, Australia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galloway_Hoard

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    @JessTheUnstill
    Exactly. My attitude is: why spend minutes doing a boring repetitive task when in only an hour or two I can script something that will automate it for me?

    @publicdomainrev@mastodon.social avatar publicdomainrev , to random

    The teenage diaries of Queen Victoria — born in 1819. The excerpts included in the 1912 book span from 1832, when Victoria was 13, to 1840, the same year that she married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the age of 20: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/queen-victoria-s-teenage-diaries-1912

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    @publicdomainrev We need to normalise calling facial hair under the nose moustachios again.

    @_elena@mastodon.social avatar _elena , to random

    Dear Fedi friends, I need your help!

    We are working on motion graphics for the Fediverse promotional video... and we would love to do a sequence at the end with a mosaic of people's profile photos. For that, I need your consent.

    If you'd like to have a small cameo in our video, can you let us know if we can use your profile pic?

    Thanks! 🙏

    Can you please boost this?

    stib ,
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    @_elena
    Happy to contribute

    @stux@mstdn.social avatar stux , to random

    This is the first video ever uploaded to , just over 20 years ago:

    “Me at the zoo”

    YouTube's first video just turned the big 2-0. It was on April 23, 2005, that YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded a grainy 19-second video "Me at the zoo"

    YouTube's first video just turned the big 2-0. It was on April 23, 2005, that YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded a grainy 19-second video "Me at the zoo"

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    @stux It's, it's a banger. Kinda amazing that the site took off really.

    @killyourfm@layer8.space avatar killyourfm , (edited ) to random

    Perfectly reasonable reaction 🤣

    A cartoon showing two men talking. One says, "So my daughter says you work at Microsoft," and the other replies, "I am the lead developer behind Microsoft Teams." The first man responds, "You have exactly 10 seconds to get out of my house."
    ALT
    stib ,
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    @killyourfm yeah, but unfortunately once he's in your house you can't actually uninstall him, and on the way in he's overwritten the house's EFI partition so you'll have to rebuild the whole thing from scratch.

    @thelinuxEXP@mastodon.social avatar thelinuxEXP , to random French

    GIMP: makes incredible progress towards being an amazing image editing tool

    People: « the name has a kinky or bad connotation in one language, and there are no screenshots, WTH.»

    Priorities. They’re important.

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    @thelinuxEXP
    You made a typo when you wrote "Makes incredibl[ly slow] progress towards being a [slightly less] amazing[ly bad] image editing tool."
    Seriously; tell us you've never used a professional grade image editor, without telling us etc., etc.

    @kenSwinson@indieweb.social avatar kenSwinson , to random

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    @kenSwinson
    I just made my first ever batch using this recipe: https://thekoreanvegan.com/the-best-easy-vegan-kimchi-recipe/
    Was pretty easy, but only time will tell how good it is.
    I halved the amount, because I don't have room in my fridge for jars and jars of kimchi.
    Also, it looks like your post was made as a reply, but it is not attached to any thread, so I am just seeing it on its own.

    @thelinuxEXP@mastodon.social avatar thelinuxEXP , to random

    Time for this week's and News video, with some weird stuff happening...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZwHpZDm6F4

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    @thelinuxEXP
    Nice, has KDE finally fixed the way it works with graphics tablets and multiple monitors?

    @mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , to random

    I would strongly consider using SourceHut if I could access it from any URL other than "git . sr . ht" and if it didn't look… you know… like this

    "tree". "log". really?

    There's this bifurcation in github-alikes where on the one hand you have the srht/launchpad style which is unusable because it's like a linux manpage andon the other hand you have github, which is unusable because they stuffed it so full of buttons hyping enterprise features [they want to upsell you] important stuff gets hidden

    "scdoc" project on sourcehut. It's a lot of densely packed text and at the top "summary tree log refs"
    ALT
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    @aeva
    I switched to codeberg a while ago, but now I'm trying to move all my stuff out of the US, I might give forgejo a burl.
    @mcc

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    @poetaster
    I did a whois and it said the site was hosted in the USA tho. But that might be wrong.
    @aeva

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    Some unfortunate personal news: after repeatedly failing every Captcha I have attempted in the past 3 days, I can only conclude that I am in fact not a human. This has come as quite a shock.

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    @Daojoan
    I have a lingering suspicion that I am, in fact a dog that thinks he's a human.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    @JessTheUnstill my two slug-a-beds say thanks.
    In Australia if I said I gave my dog a pet it would mean I bought her a goldfish, so I gave them a pat instead.

    @nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

    can we please stop confusing everyone?

    In this screenshot: we see the type command (bash) shows how the shell would interpret a given command and displays the path for external commands like useradd, adduser, deluser, and userdel on Debian and Ubuntu Linux. Those command names can be confusing
    ALT
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    @nixCraft Sure, just use usionconf instead of confusion. Check with your distro to see if it's available.

    @Gargron@mastodon.social avatar Gargron , to random

    The moderation policy changes at Meta are deeply troubling and should be a concern to anyone with a conscience. While the fediverse is a decentralized platform where different service providers have different moderation policies, at mastodon.social, hate speech is prohibited, and we will take action on any Threads account found violating our policies. I would strongly urge anyone with a Threads account to reconsider their alignment with the new direction at Meta and move to Mastodon instead.

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    If you're waiting for @Gargron to do the right thing and defederate from Threads, maybe something that you can do personally is to migrate away from mastodon.social — there are better places to be, and if enough people start leaving maybe it will give Eugen the kick in the pants he seems to need.

    @killyourfm@layer8.space avatar killyourfm , to random

    recently wrote that TPM 2.0 is a "a non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows." This pretty much confirms it won't back down on its hardware requirements for Windows 11, an OS that is seriously struggling to gain new users (~35% of Windows users) after 3 years.

    When October 2025 rolls around and support for Windows 10 ends, this will force tens of millions of people to unnecessarily buy new hardware.

    community: We have work to do.

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    @killyourfm @ernie as someone who has spent a lot of time working with Adobe creative software, I just want to point out that they are not the only game in town. Well regarded, high quality professional alternatives exist for all of their products, and some run on Linux.
    Many professionals are thoroughly sick of the Adobe business model and are increasingly bailing to products like Affinity (which unfortunately does not run on Linux).
    But the point is that change is possible. I've lived through the era when the killer app for video was Avid, then Final Cut Pro, then Premiere. It's never set in stone. Currently there are a lot of people switching to Davinci Resolve, and it can run on Linux.

    @Gargron@mastodon.social avatar Gargron , to random

    @mosseri just announced that users can finally follow fediverse accounts. Which means you can now reach 200M people from your Mastodon account without ever using Threads yourself. True decentralization happens on the fediverse!

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    @Gargron @mosseri thankful that the mods at aus.social seem to have already blocked it. Meta can get in the bin.

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    I feel like I’d use GIMP a lot more if it wasn’t called GIMP

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    @Daojoan
    Also if it wasn't designed by the kind of people who think that using a slur as a name is acceptable, which I'm sure has something to do with why it's a bit, well, shit.
    I wish something as good as existed for the raster image editing space.

    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar arstechnica , to random

    After five demanding days in space, Polaris Dawn splashes down safely

    They flew high, they walked in space, and finally early on Sunday, they landed.

    https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/after-five-demanding-days-in-space-polaris-dawn-splashes-down-safely/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

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    @arstechnica Damn. Was hoping for an orca attack.

    @stib@aus.social avatar stib , to random

    Fun* fact in this video: the 'disposable' vapes thrown away in Britain alone contain enough lithium batteries to make 1.2 Million e-bikes.
    I've been independently powering things with vape batteries that I've rescued before seeing this video. Pull out the cell, add a cheap usb charging module and you have a fully rechargeable 3.7v power source. If you need higher voltage you can put them in series and you can even get multi-cell balancing modules for next to nothing if you want to have a few in parallel for more current.
    I don't trust them for anything critical, but they're great for low-budget projects as the cells are completely free. My bike lights are all powered by them (one can run a flashing bike light for a couple of weeks' use), as well as various other things that had their batteries die, or that didn't come with rechargeable batteries.
    I also only charge them somewhere flameproof, though I haven't had any issues so far.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehp23hrrEHY

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    In this episode, I’m tackling the concept of the Overton Window, a framework that explains how radical and once-unthinkable ideas can shift into mainstream policies over time.

    Listen on Spotify:

    https://open.spotify.com/episode/07qVcyjlKYpTNLvKgL2PZG?si=IjD6W0nDRjufqblzMHFfaA

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    @Daojoan
    Can I get your podcast anywhere else that isn't terrible?

    vkc , to random

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    @vkc
    This, but on your boss's time. Keep the weekend for fun stuff.

    @FediTips@social.growyourown.services avatar FediTips , (edited ) to random

    Wow, apparently there is now a classifieds sales platform for the Fediverse called Flohmarkt ("flea market"). You can find out more at:

    ➡️ https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt

    ...and especially its wiki page at:

    ➡️ https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt/wiki

    The wiki contains a list of existing servers, compatibility with other Fediverse platforms like Mastodon, and instructions for installation.

    No official account yet but you can follow the lead developer at:

    ➡️ @grindhold

    (via @Tealk 🙏 )

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    @FediTips
    Would love to see an Australian flohmarkt sever. I should check to see if tellhimhesdreamin.social is available.
    @grindhold @Tealk

    Clip from The Castle with the caption "tell him he's dreaming"

    @harriorrihar@mas.to avatar harriorrihar , (edited ) to random Spanish

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    @harriorrihar
    post on Cara website with the text "Jon Juarez
    @harriorrihar • ld
    Hi Cara
    Two years ago I decided not to upload more art
    to social networks until I found a welcoming place
    that would protect us from massive A1 theft. Now
    we have Cara, thank you.
    "
    Below are some thumbnails of vividly coloured landscapes that look like sci-fi or fantasy art.
    @nyrath

    @streetartutopia@mastodon.online avatar streetartutopia , to random

    The Incredible Ocean Statue of Neptune (Poseidon) in Gran Canaria, Spain: https://streetartutopia.com/2024/06/01/the-incredible-ocean-statue-of-neptune-poseidon-in-gran-canaria-spain/

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    @streetartutopia
    4 duotone photos of a large bronze statue featuring a male figure holding a trident. The statue is in the sea, so that the water is at the level of the toes. In the first image a large wave breaks over the back of the statue, so that its shoulders and head are sprayed with foam, in another image the sea is at low tide and the waves break around the plinth, then the sea is calm at the statue's feet, and then another image of the waves breaking around its waist.
    @billyjoebowers

    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars

    So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.

    For those who wonder why Aussies think toll roads are a scam (https://aus.social/@[email protected]/112405373613706682), here's a great example of why.

    "Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.

    ...

    "The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.

    "Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.

    "The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/federal-funding-to-boost-victorian-road-link-by-3-25-billion-20240509-p5ii7b.html

    fuck_cars@lemmy.ml icon Fuck Cars

    stib ,
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    @ajsadauskas @AllNewTypeFace Yeah but cars though. Cars!
    Gotta build that freeway that will finally solve all the traffic problems caused by the last freeway we built.