![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
How big can a horse get?
May. 9th, 2025 04:06 pmA work colleague asked a question about SQL queries, so I dug out an old post here about that. Problem solved.
But as one problem goes away, another pops up. I used some made up data in that post about animals, and asked:
But as one problem goes away, another pops up. I used some made up data in that post about animals, and asked:
Can a horse weigh a tonne? No idea.As Me-From-Years-Ago had been so helpful, I thought Me-from-Today should return the favour. It seems the answer is yes, a horse can indeed weigh that much, and the largest on record is a tonne and a half. At least, according to Wikipedia.
Two men came to decorate the bedroom that was (not very much) affected by the leak. I stuck a finger in a colour chart semi-randomly and picked a colour for the walls. It's a sort of red-brown, terracotta, but the name on the colour chart is "Roe Deer". They went and got some of that, and when they came back I overheard some of their conversation.
| Bloke 1 | Roe Deer |
|---|---|
| Bloke 2 | What's the matter? |
| Bloke 1 | Nothing. Why? |
| Bloke 2 | You said "Oh dear". |
| Bloke 1 | No, I said "Roe Deer". |
House update
Jan. 18th, 2025 10:37 pmWe had a water leak. The pipe, which supplied the tank in the loft, was embedded in a wall. Stupid place for a pipe! Luckily there wasn't too much damage. We've had dehumidifers in, and we get some restoration work covered by insurance. First they're coming to decorate one room upstairs, so today I've been emptying everything out of there. I'm writing this sitting on the floor of an (almost) empty room. It seemed quite a small room with furniture in it. Not now.
Hello, Dreamwidth!
Dec. 7th, 2024 12:40 pmI haven't posted here for ages. And I don't really have anything to say now. Let's brain-dump some Thumby stuff.
Thumby is a ridiculously small game console and it's not too hard to make a homebrew game. So I made six. I recently finished an escape room game which needed a bunch of artwork. That's not my natural thing, but it's easier because it's tiny and it's monochrome. Here's a couple that I thought came out OK.
Piggy bank - rattles when shaken
Stopped clock
The code wasn't hard, except it got so big it wouldn't load. I had to move the images to a separate file and only load one at a time.
Thumby dev is nice because it's do-able by one person in a reasonable time. You submit it and it goes on the Thumby arcade. The escape room game is still waiting approval.
Thumby is a ridiculously small game console and it's not too hard to make a homebrew game. So I made six. I recently finished an escape room game which needed a bunch of artwork. That's not my natural thing, but it's easier because it's tiny and it's monochrome. Here's a couple that I thought came out OK.
Piggy bank - rattles when shaken
Stopped clock
The code wasn't hard, except it got so big it wouldn't load. I had to move the images to a separate file and only load one at a time.
Thumby dev is nice because it's do-able by one person in a reasonable time. You submit it and it goes on the Thumby arcade. The escape room game is still waiting approval.
Mastodon without a particular glyph
Oct. 5th, 2023 12:02 amI don't want a Mastodon account at oulipo.social for it would occupy too much of my day to avoid what is not said on that www host. Brain gymnastics ahoy! Discussion of things past is particularly tricky.
Decorating
Jun. 27th, 2023 03:21 pmWe got a new carpet downstairs, so we had to decorate first. It took nearly five days to take everything upstairs and paint. Then there was one day back at work. Oh no - those two walls need another coat, and the carpet fitter's coming tomorrow, so there goes another evening. Elliot the carpet fitter was a nice bloke. The carpet is laid, and there's a big empty clean-looking space. Nothing in there but a sofa that's to big to remove.
Maybe some of the things we took upstairs can be got rid of instead of taking them back down? And now the rest of the house is looking tatty. We've started, so we'll have to finish. Gradually.
Maybe some of the things we took upstairs can be got rid of instead of taking them back down? And now the rest of the house is looking tatty. We've started, so we'll have to finish. Gradually.
Quote of the day - privacy edition
Dec. 8th, 2022 06:12 pmSome people say that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. I saw the best response: "I need privacy, not because my actions are questionable, but because your judgement and intentions are questionable."
Footnote: I made a "politics" tag because I couldn't find another suitable tag. I promise not to write about politics, except where it's actually interesting.
Footnote: I made a "politics" tag because I couldn't find another suitable tag. I promise not to write about politics, except where it's actually interesting.
Where's J?
Nov. 29th, 2022 04:04 pmI haven't been posting on here much lately. That's mostly because I was writing in my Gemini capsule, although looking at the feed from there (![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
jbanana_gemlog_feed) I haven't been posting much there either. I have been trying out Mastodon (because Vivaldi made that easy for me). No idea if that will be a thing for me. My posts from there are also available here: jbanana_mastodon_feed. I notice the feed doesn't include photos (sad face because I just posted some).
I regularly read on DW (but I don't see private posts because I'm not logged in). Thank you to everyone who posts.
So what's happened to me lately? Nothing much. Life continues. So there's not much to post about. Ho hum.
jbanana_gemlog_feed) I haven't been posting much there either. I have been trying out Mastodon (because Vivaldi made that easy for me). No idea if that will be a thing for me. My posts from there are also available here: jbanana_mastodon_feed. I notice the feed doesn't include photos (sad face because I just posted some).I regularly read on DW (but I don't see private posts because I'm not logged in). Thank you to everyone who posts.
So what's happened to me lately? Nothing much. Life continues. So there's not much to post about. Ho hum.
New Year resolutions
Jan. 1st, 2022 05:54 pmHappy new year!
Some people make resolutions for the new year. But they often fail to keep them, for a variety of reasons. If you're going to have resolutions that you probably won't keep, why not have randomly generated ones? Fortunately, I've fixed that for you:
Randomly generated resolutions for 2022
Some people make resolutions for the new year. But they often fail to keep them, for a variety of reasons. If you're going to have resolutions that you probably won't keep, why not have randomly generated ones? Fortunately, I've fixed that for you:
Randomly generated resolutions for 2022
Java's no-frills debugger, jdb, takes debugging input from stdin. But if you're debugging something that gets user input from stdin, it won't ever get any input. So you start the thing you're debugging in another window, telling it to wait for the debugger, then attach the debugger. The incantation for this is verbose and I always have to look it up, so here it is to help me next time.
cmd /c start java -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=5005,server=y,suspend=y SomeJavaClass jdb -connect com.sun.jdi.SocketAttach:hostname=localhost,port=5005I also have a regular set of stuff to put in
jdb.ini to make jdb less painful. stop at SomeJavaClass:57 exclude java.*,javax.*,sun.*,com.sun.*,junit.*,jdk.* run monitor locals monitor list
Setting an alias with BusyBox ash
Sep. 22nd, 2021 09:10 pmI installed a VM with Alpine Linux. It uses BusyBox, including for the default shell,
I tried startup scripts of various names. No joy. They were ignored. The internet suggested that if I put the name of the script in an environment variable called
After poking around, all scripts in
Now I can set an alias in
Anyway, this post is mostly in case I ever need to do this again.
ash. How do I set an alias?I tried startup scripts of various names. No joy. They were ignored. The internet suggested that if I put the name of the script in an environment variable called
ENV, the named script would be run at shell startup. But where do I set *that*?After poking around, all scripts in
/etc/profile.d get run, so I added /etc/profile.d/setashrc.sh which just containsexport ENV=$HOME/.ashrcNow I can set an alias in
~/.ashrc but I'm wondering why there isn't some sort of default?Anyway, this post is mostly in case I ever need to do this again.
Gemlog feed
May. 14th, 2021 08:46 amI've blathered about Gemini. I started gemlog and set up a feed so it's available here: jbanana_gemlog_feed
jbanana_gemlog_feedBaby birds have appeared on the lakes where we go lockdown walking. There seem to be lots more ducklings this year. The mothers are very hungry, probably because they at the top, and fewer people go up there. One duck had 11 ducklings, as far as I could count (they wouldn't keep still). Most of them have three or four but another had just one.
We didn't see the coot babies when they were tiny. I suppose we're not going as often as last year. So we missed the "tiny ball of fluff with a red face" stage. The Egyptian geese had one gosling but it was gone next time we saw them. A swan's been sitting on a nest for ages. The swan population is ridiculous. I lost count at 40. A Canada goose also sat on a nest for a long time, but apparently without result. First for this year: great crested grebe nest. I mean, first time for us. The grebes presumably did this before.
The herons have disappeared. The cormorants only turn up very occasionally. The gulls come and go, but it's strangely like being at the seaside when they're there. And the moorhens are always there but very scared of humans.
Other common birds are often hanging around: crows, robins, pigeons, wagtails, sparrows, blackbirds. The crows often stand on the edge of the lake. It's like they want to get in the water but don't dare. One time we saw a dead crow in the water. Perhaps its curiosity was too much and it tried a swim.
We didn't see the coot babies when they were tiny. I suppose we're not going as often as last year. So we missed the "tiny ball of fluff with a red face" stage. The Egyptian geese had one gosling but it was gone next time we saw them. A swan's been sitting on a nest for ages. The swan population is ridiculous. I lost count at 40. A Canada goose also sat on a nest for a long time, but apparently without result. First for this year: great crested grebe nest. I mean, first time for us. The grebes presumably did this before.
The herons have disappeared. The cormorants only turn up very occasionally. The gulls come and go, but it's strangely like being at the seaside when they're there. And the moorhens are always there but very scared of humans.
Other common birds are often hanging around: crows, robins, pigeons, wagtails, sparrows, blackbirds. The crows often stand on the edge of the lake. It's like they want to get in the water but don't dare. One time we saw a dead crow in the water. Perhaps its curiosity was too much and it tried a swim.
Fixing email?
May. 4th, 2021 11:21 amI just had an idea. When you get unsolicited email then it might get spam filtered, or you might delete it without even reading. But what if you could request that the email bounces? It should work exactly as if the sender go the address wrong, so it would appear that you don't exist.
No idea if that would be hard to implement, or break email in some unexpected way. And the down side is that a lot of the dross won't have a sensible return address, but the marketing drones who send me stuff at work do have a return address. And I hate them.
No idea if that would be hard to implement, or break email in some unexpected way. And the down side is that a lot of the dross won't have a sensible return address, but the marketing drones who send me stuff at work do have a return address. And I hate them.
Jemi progress, part 11
May. 3rd, 2021 11:35 pmI added drag/drop to open a local file; fixed gopher search; added copying a link URL; allowed user to accept expired/changed certificates; fixed a bunch of little bugs.
I find that I'm reading the news more because I can get it without all the bloat of the web.
I've also found that web browsers now have "reader view" that gets you a Gemini aesthetic: clear fonts, plain text, and no distractions. I recommend that if you haven't tried it. Firefox, Safari and Vivaldi have it built in. Chrome and Edge have extensions that will do it.
Feature possibilities: visited link colour; tabs; feed subscription; persistent history; public release (!)
I find that I'm reading the news more because I can get it without all the bloat of the web.
I've also found that web browsers now have "reader view" that gets you a Gemini aesthetic: clear fonts, plain text, and no distractions. I recommend that if you haven't tried it. Firefox, Safari and Vivaldi have it built in. Chrome and Edge have extensions that will do it.
Feature possibilities: visited link colour; tabs; feed subscription; persistent history; public release (!)
