Pepijn

RE: https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/115021948428162829 It's been a year and even now not a duck goes by without me thinking "huh, you could be in IT mate!" It's nice to connect with nature.

Originally we planned to do this work on Saturday. With that initiating #InfrastructureAwarenessSaturday where every so often we'll fix a minor issue on #infrastructure we use in our daily life. As the weather cooperated, today the path had a nice puddle that would be satisfying to see drain. Naturally our Site Safety Plan was ready & checked by H&S. So we moved the works to today. After we set up perimeter security we dug the trench. It went well (we ignore the sliced worm). #RightToRepair

As there's now a good, almost direct, train connection between Lagos in Portugal and Kemi in Finland I'm wondering about the finances of owning a house in each place and migrating with the seasons. 39k euro in Kemi gets you a lovely well maintained house from the mid 1990s. 120k euro near (!) Lagos gets you a block of half-painted concrete with holes on all six sides (yes, that includes the roof and shared wall with the neighbours). So that's a no. edit: check @jon@gruene.social's feed for the #train info

It's #infrastructure week on #bakeoff! The Hobbit and I are out fixing a bit of #cycling infrastructure that has standing water after even the lightest of rain. It's very annoying when it freezes over in winter.

De hele Nederlandse media schrijft vandaag vrolijk een persbericht van VeiligheidNL over. Het aantal 65 plussers die na een val naar de spoedeisende hulp in het ziekenhuis moeten loopt op! Van 119000 in 2024 naar 124000 in 2025! Als we het afzetten tegen de CBS leeftijdsopbouw cijfers zien we dat het stabiel is (of eigenlijk steeds BETER gaat..). 1-1-2024: 3.693.313 / 119000 is 1 op de 30 1-1-2025: 3.755.379 / 124000 is 1 op de 31 https://nos.nl/artikel/2632831-veel-ouderen-lopen-zwaar-letsel-op-door-val-actieweek-van-start #misinformatie #media #nos

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG DANES! To make the Hobbit a more effective worker I figured their High-Viz vest should not be a dress*... Trying to buy stuff locally I asked our local FB group of locals & foreigners for advice on børne high-viz. Within minutes I received two condescending replies from Danes explaining how "here in Denmark" we "don't just do this" and instead "ask the community to do so or at least get proper permits first." ffs mette *https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/117287271184416919

Offer for people living somewhere in the middle of the Netherlands: At work we have two industrial Adler sewing machines ready to go to scrap. They were near a fire and are heavily corroded. Machines are free for pickup but need complete dismantling and repainting. You'll need to disassemble it, remove & neutralize corrosion, fix and reassemble it. This is days of work. I will also get one and will share restoration tips. The attached stock photo is of a similar one in good state. #sewing

This photo (Holstebro station) shows how complicated real change is. I'll describe the photo:

• That's an electric battery powered train. Charging. It runs on a route where battery power make actual sense.

• That's an ad for Danish domestic flights. The aim is "carbon neutral in 2030" and everyone involved knows that is impossible.

• Both are subsidised.

• I took the photo from an old diesel. On a line that should've been electrified in 2000.

#Infrastructure #ClimateChange #energy #politics

@kineticdiplomacy@infosec.exchange Ik ben bang dat er geen journalist is die überhaupt deze gedachte had. Beetje vergelijkbaar met de continue paniek over brandstofprijzen. Ik hoor al mijn hele leven dat de euro95 nog nooit zoooooo duur is geweest. Afgezet tegen inflatie en koopkracht is het al 50 jaar redelijk stabiel..

Dear Fediverse, you're my only hope. I have five minutes and cannot choose. Can you help further the education of my child? Elephant or Giraffe?

Fffffffff!!!! Followup poll as the #Fediverse is not the best at #parenting today. The previous poll was a tie. Do I now get:

RE: https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/116953202963631002 I'm into model trains. It's a hobby that attracts people who like to explore. If for some individuals tinkering with LLM fits into that I kinda get their interest. Over the last half year small companies and hobbyist alike started blatantly sharing LLM generated images though. And it truly puzzles me: in a hobby based around physically modelling a small version of the real world, what's the point?!? Is your hobby being contaminated by #AI slop as well? #hobby #modelrailroad #LLM

Climate change is increasing both the geographical range & seasonal abundance of ticks. If you enjoy parklands you will encounter ticks and the Borrelia bacteria (Lyme disease) they now often carry. Best way to lower the odds of transferring Borrelia is by removing the tick hours after it attaches. We have a LOT of ticks here and I've tried many tools. This Lifesystems one is the first perfect one: cheap & reliable. 5/5 ⭐ #ClimateChange #nature #TicksAreDicks #review #ReviewAllTheThings

How do you reason it makes sense to promote a real product aimed at people making physical objects.. and then use fake images made by AI? For everyone considering this product: the images shown by AZROCK / https://www.armballast.com are not actual photos of their product. edit: image, note for example the disappearing sleeper below the track, third from bottom @realrrscenery@mastodon.social#ModelRailroad #Ballast #IndustrialTrack #ai

@CiaraNi@mastodon.green I blame it on immigrants really. Like, before I moved to Denmark I never suffered from headwinds while cycling in Denmark. @CarstenBoll@mstdn.dk @zoul@boskovice.social

@CarstenBoll@mstdn.dk He did not deliver on his promise for more tailwinds on cycleways though. Typical politician. @zoul@boskovice.social @CiaraNi@mastodon.green

Anyway. Welcome to Denmark ;-) And I absolutely agree with the above sentiment. It's rotten. By now I have an unfortunate amount of experience with the Danish border guards. They're very different than the Germans in that the Danes actively engage in dialogue: and often with really bad and (borderline-) racist arguments that they don't expect people to disagree with. @jon@gruene.social

Vegetable flowers can be so pretty :-) #gardening #bloomScrolling

Now in #Skive, a town halfway between Viborg and Struer. For people in the know: the centre feels a bit like Grindsted after the shops close. I'm sure it's lovely for the people living there but as a tourist I'm a bit lost (and I'm not saying that's a bad thing). Library is inaccessible. Very un-Danish so probably for a reason. City hall is at first weird but grew on me when looking closer. It's covered in solar panels glued on plexiglass. They appear to be functional. You can be in a tube.

In the #train again. For context: I bought a day-pass allowing travel on all GoCollective trains. Starting in Jelling I first visited Thisted for some hours, then went to Viborg for a bit with a quick stop in Struer. From there to Skive. And now on my way back to Jelling. Photo shows the level of care staff has / had for their rolling stock. The proper coloured seat was probably too far away (plus there's a black one in the lower section of the train, mixed in with the colourful seats..).

One of the nicest things of using a bike as our main mode of transport is how easy it is to get by without much planning. Picking up kid from daycare, passing by a new cafe. Looks nice. Let's have a drink. Rock the bikes up to the outside seating and Go For Drink! Toddler (in good mood today as it's not too warm) is zooming around on their trike.

If you want a real informative map, with all data these satellites provide instead of LLM slop (like currentwildfires.com) there's the excellent NASA website (link to the Wildberries fire https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@30.521,59.873,13.908z) or a variety of ESA Copernicus offers, like this showing genuine informative accurate historical and current burn areas https://forest-fire.emergency.copernicus.eu/apps/effis.csv/?c=1046806.73,5255362.83&z=13.904401072235014&t=sentinel2&tiles=&forecastActive=false&sourceId=ecmwf&indexId=fdf.ecmwf007.fwi&forecastDate=2026-07-27&rdaFrom=2026-07-26&rdaTo=2026-07-27&rdaDateRange=today&fire=572362&layerInfoPoint&fdcPoint&fdcDate But mostly: check actual relevant journalism ;-) #Climatediary #climatechange #wildfires

Something I really don't get about Danish culture is the ability for certain "accepted subgroups" to collectively ignore a societal rule and not be called out. Big one is smoking in no-smoking areas. Like the two persons on the photo. They're standing in just about the only place where the smoke lingers, next to four stickers saying "no smoking" and both moved in while parents with children (kept out of the photo) already stood there. And as usual no-one said anything: other people just moved.

Hurrah! On our way to Sweden from Helsingør to Helsingör (or something like that ;-) 🙂 (video shows the car deck door Herald-of-Free-Enterprise-ing its way close as we depart). It's a full electric ferry. Kinda cool :-)

Holiday tip* for people who enjoy mid-sized cities with large brick buildings, an elegant street pattern and lots of mature trees: Viborg. *best for when you're in the area already.

I'm not always positive about the Danish rail experience. And justifiably so. I think that's in part because it's so obvious that it quite easily *can* be really good. Here's a short timelapse from a Siemens Desiro Classic near Thisted. A world of different with the wobbly smelly experience in yesterday's Alstom Lint. Yet both GoCollective DMUs. *how is #DSB going to brand the #GoCollective trains now they're taking over? Will it be a sub-brand like for example "DSB Go!"?

RE: https://mastodon.social/@larstransportworld/116985085964903563 Apparently some people disagree but this is a DSB thing that I absolutely love. Four train sets combined in one. Years ago I had an absolute blast listening to two retired interrailing Irish women retelling how they first sat in the Struer section, then moved to the Aarhus section "just in time" only to realise later that Aarhus and Aalborg are not the same thing. I got to put the cherry on top for them by explaining that Aalborg airport (their destination) required another carriage move..

OMG. A free concert by Souvenirs. Sofie Bonde genuinely is a joy to listen to. I should've brought my CD https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/112609775585264366 :-)

@juliette@mastodon.green The management summary of it seems to be: Illuminate paths, don't radiate unnecessarily into natural habitats Turn lights off (or dim them!) when they're not needed (our previous home town had those multi use paths illuminated by sensor triggered lights. It was rather magical to cycle in the flow) Use "insect friendly" lights with a directed beam of light and low colour temperature.

Any #EU law experts here?

As today the #USA administration use dishonest claims about forced labour to justify import taxes I wonder how the EU Forced Labour Regulation** will affect imports from the US.

Will we see certain manufacturers or entire produce groups (as produce is pooled from different sources and the US government does not enforce its laws) blocked?

https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/essential-workers-exploited-labor-perspectives-on-farm-work-in-the-us/

**https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/goods/forced-labour-regulation_en

#humanrights #farming

@tml@mementomori.social Ah yeah :-) The only other structure seems this open beam lifting vertically up and down. Probably good enough for the sea type.

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st Just for some context as there's a lot of framing around this: over one-third of Dutch agro-product exports are direct re-export of imported items. And another -very- large percentage is products like decorative flowers (about ten percent of exports alone) that don't require a lot of water.

@tml@mementomori.social I agree with you on them not being realistic. The modelling forums I frequent have members (a minority) who stubbornly claim the opposite :-) I don't strive or care for photo realism. For me the joy is in a combination of having a goal for my wish of tinkering-with-stuff and just liking the feeling of controlling a little world. In that last sense I like it being physical: I never got into computer games, especially not "realistic" simulator style ones, as the realism is so incomplete.

@juliette@mastodon.green The alternative spot is a narrow unmarked sidewalk hugging a car parking exit lane and some garbage cans. Fully in the sun.

I love the practicality of digital tickets. At times it's nice to have a physical thing though:-)

Meta smart glasses are invisible by design (and intent, whatever measly excuses about the tiny LED are used) eye level cameras. The physical object on the face is just a data collector for the "smart" database matching objects, faces (eventually by Meta, for now via third parties), movement and lots of other inputs. A personal panopticon designed to warm society to an acceptance of constant un-consented corporate surveillance in "public" spaces. Data more powerful the more people use it.

There's a AI/LLM generated website and app called Current Wildfires (.com) doing the rounds on #Climatediary / #climatechange Mastodon. Just FYI if you use this: it's just a frontend for public ESA Copernicus Sentinel and NASA VIIRS data. And as so often with this "vibe coded" things it's not entirely what it says it is. Take the current fire in St. Petersburg for example. It's wild indeed, but Wildberries. Not Wildfire ;-)

RE: https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/116958240712308522 I bet the 24% who "never think about cats" think about the Roman Empire all the fricking time.

@juliette@mastodon.green I had this bookmark https://cdn.buglife.org.uk/2023/06/Buglife-Nurture-the-Night-Shift-Bug-friendly-Lighting.pdf It's more aimed at people needing a very basic introduction. But it might be an idea to ask them for expert advice.

The biggest difficulty I find in interacting with other humans about the AI /LLM chatboxes is how so many struggle to accept these things are often confidently wrong. By accident I just pasted the URL of our domain (https://leslunesdejupiter.eu)in the Google search box instead of the address bar and an AI summary appeared. Nothing of this (different in Danish, French and English) is what our website is about: #ai #llm #FrustrationMachines

@plzupgrademe@fedi.txw.ca I travelled on these for a couple of hours and didn't really get the appeal tbh (it was also pulled by a old diesel belching black smoke :-/). What is it that makes you love them?

@asbjornn@expressional.social Fun :) ;-) Is it an old or obscure brand (label..)? If you share it maybe the collective here can help find the exact parts.

@plzupgrademe@fedi.txw.ca Ah, so it's more nostalgia than "cold facts". I get that. My absolute favourite train is the Wadloper, a dorky diesel railbus. It was the only train we had in our area (https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/112915515619185782) and in modern terms objectively not great, even for short journeys. Would love to travel on one again though (just not daily).

@kineticdiplomacy@infosec.exchange >Waar is de nieuwsgierigheid gebleven Zou het kunnen zijn dat de nieuwsgierigheid er bij een grote groep mensen nooit is geweest? En dat het verschil is dat het de laatste jaren (met tijdsdruk op journalistiek, en een continue vloed van nieuws / "nieuws") meer zichtbaar wordt?

@kallekn@mastodonsweden.se I think you can take more but I only have one.and like accuracy..

Henri Cartier-Bresson used a bit of stealth photography to capture daily life but he wasn't trying to create a hidden surveillance device. He stayed within social norms of "visible photography". His talent was in anticipating human moments and choosing when to press the shutter. In that he was not that different from Ed van der Elsken who absolutely engaged with people. But with the same goal: to capture moments of daily life. #smartglasses are the polar opposite of this: always on, mindless.