Remote
Adam
@pseudomonas@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Geek of the computational, linguistic, creative, and heraldic persuasions.
Based in Belgium; formerly in UK until shortly before Brexit kicked in.
He/Him
107 Followers
100 Following
16 Posts
Joined December 19, 2017
Replying to
@Nickiquote@mstdn.social Brussels-Capital Region is ahead of the game on anarchy. We've had no government for 18 months or so, and no obvious prospect of one this side of the next elections in er 2028 I think.
Replying to
@mjg59@nondeterministic.computer How much scope is there for evil if the control domain lapses and is bought by someone malicious?
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@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange @chiffchaff@tech.lgbt @gbargoud@masto.nyc @davidgerard@circumstances.run but in such places you ALWAYS have to touch the door-handle on the way out (because it invariably opens inwards)
Replying to
@kwaktrap@mastodon.social I've had, elsenet, discussions on "what is a book" and come very firmly to the conclusion that it's one of those situations where there are a large number of factors none of which individually are necessary or sufficient* (format, content, permanence, authorship, marketing…)
- though the closest is that it's hard to come up with a paper codex that I wouldn't think is a book, given that I would regard a blank paper codex as a book (but a blank PDF or a bundle of unfolded paper, not.)
Replying to
@marnanel@anticapitalist.party still, it's very cool! the Musical Instrument Museum doesn't seem to have one, but they do have https://www.mim.be/en/collection-piece/travelling-harpsichord
Replying to
@stancarey I love it when metaphors go somewhere new (really, anything that makes you picture the evoked situation rather than just take the phrase as a block that one already knows the implication of). But super-colourful ones like this are extra.
Dinant 🇧🇪: "We'd like a lion, like everyone else."
— "Nope, not happening."
"Come on, can't we at least compromise?"
Replying to
@marnanel@anticapitalist.party I'm amazed it took that long given the hurdy-gurdy had a keyboard and could be slung round the neck, and had been going for centuries by that point.
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@gbargoud@masto.nyc @david_chisnall@infosec.exchange @chiffchaff@tech.lgbt @davidgerard@circumstances.run I'll have to look out for those!
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@kwaktrap@mastodon.social My intuition is that if it's a PDF and formatted like a "choose your own adventure" book then it's packaged as a book; if it were an executable and packaged as a game it would be a game even if the content were isomorphic.
(It is of course possible to create edge cases, wherever my boundary between the two lies, and I can readily come up with examples that I can't easily classify.)
Replying to
@mjg59@nondeterministic.computer phew. I mean, having the devices themselves messed up is bad enough but better than having them eg wreck people's houses. (well, inasmuch as that's possible for a small cylindrical robot. maliciously put dings into furniture legs i guess.)