Boosted by @trending@homestead.social
Boosted! - Pro tip for the Aussies – if you are due for a Covid booster get it before the end of the month, as from October it won’t be free anymore!
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/94991
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Kris Howard
@web_goddess@aus.social
mastodon 4.7.2Blogger, knitter, crafter, social media addict. Formerly at Canva & AWS. Recovering from 20 years in the tech industry. | 🇦🇺🇺🇸 she/her
1465 Followers
738 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 05, 2022
AI and datacentres - Guy Who Sucks At Being A Person Sees Huge Potential In AI - https://theonion.com/guy-who-sucks-at-being-a-person-sees-huge-potential-in-1850488022/ – HA! Love this. 👿🔥
There are some local datacentres we should absolutely support - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/sep/25/some-datacentres-we-should-support – Of course the library is #1. 👼🩷
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/95155
This is a post about AI. - I’m on a re-read of Pride and Prejudice and had to stop for a second at this little bon mot of Darcy’s:
“The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.”
Quite.
YAY IT’S HERE - My only regret is I won’t be able to wear it to the next Sydney Tech Leaders meetup…
Replying to
@decryption@aus.social That's where I ordered my Keychron from! The guys at the counter didn't even realise they sold them until I turned up to pick it up. My first time ever going in there, though Rodd's a frequent customer 😂
Cassandra as a Service - I’m sure there are those who think I do nothing but trawl LinkedIn* looking for bad AI takes to comment on, but honestly, I have better things to do with my day. Instead, other people send them to me. It’s really ramped up over the past couple of months. The links come from people that want to express their disagreement with the post but have to worry about their future employment prospects. I get it. These folks know that I don’t care about that anymore. So if I come in and point out what a bad post you’ve made, just know that there are actually way more people in your network who disagree with you than just That AI Crank.
*I block and remove connection with people who post AI slop regularly. I honestly just don’t want to see that stuff, ever. But if calling out your crappy take is the best service I can provide for my friends still stuck in the industry, then that’s what I’ll do.
Relatedly, Google Exec Recruiting actually reached out to me a couple months back and we had a great interview. They asked what it would take to lure me back to the tech industry. I told them that I was open to it, but I would only take a job where I felt like I could make a difference and that the work we were doing was making the world a better place. “If you just need someone to flog the latest LLM for every use case, I’m not the right person for it.”
Haven’t heard a peep from them since. I do respect the honesty though.
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/94444
Snap Send Solve needs a category for, like, SOCIETAL VIOLATIONS. And then I would have used it to report the old guy who spent 15 minutes flossing his teeth just now on the 370 bus. 🤮
Replying to
@codinghorror I took umbrage right from the start: "We’ve all tried having an LLM draft an article or two by now." Uh, no we haven't! Pretty fast survey, clicking "Not applicable" for everything. :)
Etsy delivery! - I ordered the “dog family stitch markers” (*wink wink*) and the rest of this was included by the seller. She really knows her audience!
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/94235
This is the worst timeline. - Netflix is using an AI-generated Gene Wilder voice in its Willy Wonka reality show. (https://www.theverge.com/streaming/959684/netflix-wonka-golden-ticket-gene-wilder) As a Roald Dahl expert (https://www.roalddahlfans.com)—and living human being with eyes and ears and a brain—I hate every single thing about this. Also, it doesn’t even sound like him. Wilder’s and Dahl’s heirs should be ashamed.
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/94165
Congressional Quilt Show Resolution of 2026 - A couple US representatives have introduced a resolution to establish an annual Congressional Quilt Show (https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/1161/text), to foster cultural pride and “a deeper appreciation for quilting,” as well as “affirm the value of craftsmanship as a national asset.” That’s pretty cool. Winning a ribbon from a county fair would make you eligible to have your work displayed. I know it’s hardly the burning issue of our times, but Leslie Knope would tell you that this small stuff is important too.
I would never have guessed how much freight still rolls across the country on trains until I spent a month sleeping in a house half a mile from a level crossing in northern Indiana. 😐
TIL that when the tornado sirens go off, they move hospital patients’ beds into the hallways to keep them away from the windows. NOT KNOWLEDGE I EVER WANTED TO HAVE FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE OF. (We’re fine.) 🌪️ 🌩️
Thankfully, I have auto-updates on and both my sites were patched by the time I learned about this one.
From: @corq@infosec.exchangehttps://infosec.exchange/@corq/116938767979195456
Another non-scale victory 👖 - I know clothing sizes are bullshit and they get bigger every year, but my Mom set aside a pile of size 12 jeans that were too big for her in January, and they didn’t quite fit me then, but today every single pair does.
I haven’t worn a size 12 since high school.
Replying to
@trib@aus.social I knew about Calibre, but Libation is new to me. This is very useful information. Thank you!
The /r/AgingParents subreddit is a really depressing read. But I can tell you that it's even more depressing to actually, you know, live it.
Sydney city model - Look at this adorable geek.
Last week Rodd went to a special talk at Sydney Town Hall (https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/city-model-talks-with-model-maker-richard-braddish?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Theres%20a%20little%20something%20for%20everyone%20at%20our%20libraries%20in%20May&utm_content=Theres%20a%20little%20something%20for%20everyone%20at%20our%20libraries%20in%20May+CID_18cd2cba9d734bd0f81a6563d1ebc7e4&utm_source=Email%20marketing&utm_term=City%20model%20talk%20with%20maker%20Richard%20Braddish) to learn about the scale city model of Sydney. This is a real tool used in urban planning, and the colours of the buildings have special significance. (I think he said the red ones have been approved but aren’t built yet?) It’s got around 4000 buildings, and the most recent ones are actually 3D-printed from the plans that developers have to submit to the city. Pretty neat. Apparently most of the other attendees were also middle-aged dudes, which is somehow not surprising.
Coincidentally, I read a post this week about a vast balsa wood model of New York City (https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/04/joe-macken-model-new-york-city/) built by a man over two decades. That one’s now on display in a museum.
Of course of them are but pale shadows next to the insanity that is Miniatur Wunderland (https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com). We visited back in 2021 (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/22608), and it’s still one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in person.
NSV - Another non-scale victory — I definitely need to remove at least one link from my watch band when I get home!
Voted! - Just voted in my first ever Indiana Democratic Party primary election (https://www.in.gov/sos/elections/). I did my research on the two candidates for Representative, and honestly I liked them both. I chose the one that I felt would better represent me. Then I discovered a second page on the ballot with 60+ names for State Convention Delegate at Large, with instructions to vote for no more than 41. Whaaaaaat. So I spent some time googling. For most of them, I couldn’t find anything at all about who they were or why they were running. People, how are we supposed to know who the hell you are?! In the end I found info on about six of them, and I decided to reward their basic digital literacy with my votes.
As always, thank you to the Elkhart County Voter Registration board and election officials for providing me with a way to participate in the democratic process. (And SUCK IT to the Republicans pushing the SAVE Act (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2026/04/25/did-the-save-act-pass-what-is-save-america-act-status-senate-vote-results-voter-id-bill-update/89792575007/), which they know will disenfranchise millions of women and overseas voters like me.)
Which way to the gun show? - I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about neglecting my health and fitness since I’ve been focused on being a primary carer for the past month. But today I just noticed that there have been some unintended positive consequences of our daily activities!
Read the room, idiots - I continue to be astounded by companies that are ostensibly aimed at crafters and creative types who obliviously trumpet their use of the plagiarism engine, aka Generative AI. First of course there was Liberty of London (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/71859); and now today we have Hobbii and Moleskine. I’ve actually bought quite a bit of Hobbii yarn over the years, and three (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/33480) of my favourite (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/29416) projects (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/82656) are knitted out of their Twister yarn. I was already disappointed that they stopped shipping to Australia, but this (https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/comments/1sv5wzq/hobbii_and_ai/?solution=0116a6c53bb33c810116a6c53bb33c81&js_challenge=1&token=bbbe4bf1c9a2b5160829c4be34da58610dbfa562bd87fe84de6078136f6829f1&jsc_orig_r=&share_id=6JoCqA1TznzHlPerE2q5i&utm_content=2&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1) is the final nail in the coffin. They actually seem proud of AI-generated photos of their products?! Yeah, no more of my hard earned dollars. I’ll spend it on manufacturers that value creative effort. And Moleskine (https://cjleo.com/blog/moleskine-ai-lord-of-the-rings-collection-can-only-mock/) seems not to have read The Lord of the Rings very closely. As Tolkien wrote: “The Shadow that bred [the orcs] can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own.” Very pithy summation of how LLMs work, quite frankly.
Is that… Debi Mazar in Madonna’s “True Blue” video?! According to Wikipedia, it is! Well spotted, self.
In related news, it’s a relaxed Sunday morning.
I love a good heist. - Annabel Crabb’s “History Or Hoarding?” (https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/history-or-hoarding-with-annabel-crabb) podcast about the State Library has turned up a fascinating tale of a larger than life Kings Cross restauranteur and numismatist who pulled off an ambitious coin heist (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/david-gee-most-ambitious-coin-heists-australian-history/106639898) right under librarians’ noses. I wonder how many of them they managed to recover?
WKRP - Finally Livin’ On The Air In Cincinnati (https://www.metafilter.com/213084/Finally-Livin-On-The-Air-In-Cincinnati) – The Oasis, a Cincinnati-based radio network (94.5 FM, 97.7 FM, and 106.7 FM) recently learned that a much-smaller North Carolina station was selling its own call letters as a fundraising move. When they learned those call letters were “WKRP”, Oasis instantly bought them – and thus WKRP is really now on the air in Cincinnati (https://www.wherethemusicwent.com/).
I absolutely love this. WKRP was a big part of my childhood.
I’m rather proud to have contributed my first bench to @openbenches ! https://openbenches.org/bench/42939
Replying to
@cynthiadunlop Thanks for changing the wording. The assumption in the original intro just rubbed me the wrong way.
A noble food quest - Two guys are on a quest to try the cuisine of every country in the world (https://www.neatorama.com/2026/04/23/A-Quest-to-Try-Every-Cuisine-in-the-World-All-in-One-City/), without leaving New York City! That’s pretty cool. I wonder how many we could tick off the list without leaving Sydney? I’ll add that one to the Retirement Projects list for when I get home…
Spaghetti carbonara - By special request. Unfortunately the Snook, acknowledged King of Carbonara in our household, is in another hemisphere, so I had to give it a go. Not bad! (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/the-best-carbonara-7260325) I scrambled the egg a tiny bit, but not unforgivably so given that I had neither my fancy induction stove nor a double boiler.
I’ve been using @ecosia@mastodon.social for search on my iPhone for some time now. I noticed today that they have some stupid AI chat feature bolted on that you can’t turn off… in an “environmentally friendly” search engine. Wtf. 👋 Goodbye! Back to DuckDuckGo, who at least give me the option.
Patrick O’Brian books - I figured since I’m eight books into the Aubrey-Maturin series now and I’m really enjoying them, I might as well commit to the whole series. I had a look at Ebay and found someone selling the complete* paperback series at a price that’s less than $10 AUD per book. Score! I know the real fanatics obsess over particular editions with nice cover art, but these will do fine for me.
* Purists will note that my lot did not include the unfinished 21st novel. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that one!
Of course, I will have to lug them back to Australia but I only brought one checked bag with me on this trip so I’ll find a cheap suitcase somewhere and divide my stuff up amongst both.
🚴♀️ Ride: Lunch Ride - I hated this bike when I rode it 5 years ago. Time has not improved my opinion.
Distance: 7.84km
Time: 37min
Time capsule - I found a blast from the past when cleaning out my Dad’s cupboards today – a popcorn tin from AWS Kick-off 2020. That’s the one in Chicago during the first week of January. AWS flew thousands of employees from around the world there. I met up with Dean Samuels to talk about joining him for a keynote a few months later. I think Corey Quinn may have even given a talk/roast?! And then of course a major snowstorm hit on the day everyone was meant to fly home. My domestic flight to Dad’s house was delayed and eventually cancelled, and I was literally sitting in O’Hare when I idly started browsing jobs in the Munich office. I ended up taking the South Shore train back to Indiana the next day, and I guess I must’ve gifted Dad the popcorn when I got here. A week later I was having a call with Enrique Duvos about joining his EMEA DevRel team. When I finally flew home to Sydney later that month, my Mom told me I should wear a mask because people were starting to talk about a new virus going around.
It’s like an artifact from another universe.
Jeopardy 🧡 - How good was Jamie Ding (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2026-04-28/jeopardy-jamie-ding-winning-streak-ends)? Rodd and I actually managed to watch most of his record-breaking run over the past month. (In my case, I just watched it locally; in Rodd’s he had to resort to VPNs and other means.) We were blown away by his speed on the buzzer, and his really wide range of general knowledge. I can only remember maybe one or two games where he was in danger or Final Jeopardy wasn’t a done deal. I also appreciated his commitment to the bit of wearing something orange every day, and how he’s using his platform to help advocate for more affordable housing (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/new-jersey/governor/2026/04/27/jamie-ding-mikie-sherrill-housing/89820406007/). And while I’m mostly trying not to be mean and snarky on the Internet these days, I am… not a fan of the guy that defeated him. (What’s with the squinting? Get a new prescription!)
Replying to
@stilgherrian Pre-2022 I would've said was vaguely positive, in that it was something I aspired to be as part of my job. Someone who inspired others, who shared lessons learned in the trenches. In the ChatGPT era, it is now entirely negative. I associate it with bullshit LinkedIn drivel that means absolutely nothing.
RE: @democratsabroad@mastodon.social
Happy to report that I've already got my ballot! ❤️
Your what now? - My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative (https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/910008/fawn-friends-ai-companion) – This article wins the award for the weirdest headline and weirdest consumer product I’ve ever seen. It’s like something from a surreal modern novel. (AI Burt Reynolds?!?!)
🚶♀️ Walk: Lunch Walk - Whoops. Forgot to stop it when I got back!
Distance: 5.26km
Time: 54min
New Palia outfit - I’ve been playing Palia (https://www.palia.com) for the better part of two years now, and I’ve ever spent a cent on any of the premium content. They just hit 10M users though, and as a special treat they’ve given everyone a free mystery outfit when they next log in. I just went in to claim mine. I got the “Star Chart” outfit, a kind of frilly, steampunk space pirate outfit with glowing constellations that swirl around me. How cool is that? Goes really nicely with my moustache too.
🚶♀️ Walk: Afternoon Walk - Distance: 5.14km
Time: 50min
Library stuff 📚 - - History Or Hoarding? With Annabel Crabb (https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/history-or-hoarding-with-annabel-crabb) – Oh cool! This is a new podcast “dives into the secret stacks and collections” of the State Library of NSW. I’ve visited the stacks (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/86154) myself and there’s So. Much. Stuff. down there! (Thanks to my friend Fiona for telling me about this.)
- A Short Post In Defense of Libraries (https://dansinker.com/posts/2026-04-24-library/) – A lovely little blog post about the value of public libraries. I suspect most people think the main thing you do at libraries is borrow books. I love pointing out though that they’re also one of the few remaining “third spaces (https://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/third-places-true-citizen-spaces)” where you aren’t expected to spend money.
Incidentally, there are a couple cool tours coming up at the State Library in May: one focused on the Conservation Laboratory (https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/preservation-and-conservation-33) and another Backstage Pass (https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/backstage-pass-21) that takes you down into the stacks.
GLP-1s - GLP-1 Experimentation Is Everywhere, and Science Can’t Keep Up – The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/15/opinion/glp1-health-effects.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bFA.yxUR.M1YD90YY6QYf) – Fascinating stuff. I don’t think I’ve had any miraculous unexpected results from Mounjaro, other than slow and steady weight loss. My knees hurt less than they used to, which may be due to some reduced inflammation but could also just be from carrying less weight in general.
Random links - Clearing the browser tabs…
- A Well-Aimed Potato: The Klan, Notre Dame, and Today (https://dansinker.com/posts/2026-04-17-notre-dame/) – How have I never heard this story before? Makes me proud to be an ND alum.
- Experience: I won the world’s deepest underground marathon (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/apr/17/experience-i-won-the-worlds-deepest-underground-marathon) – Wow. Underground, humid, dark, and no music allowed? This is my nightmare.
- Massive Australian dinosaur is described by scientists as a ‘picky eater with a nose for good food’ (https://www.earth.com/news/australias-dinosaur-muttaburrasaurus-langdoni-was-picky-eater-great-nose/) – Rodd sent me that one as he knows that Muttaburrasaurus is one of my favourite dinosaurs. It’s just so fun to say!
- Do I belong in tech anymore? (https://ky.fyi/posts/ai-burnout) – I felt this one in my bones.
> “I don’t blame people for opting to use tools that promise quick, convenient solutions to problems. We all operate under capitalism. Many of us have bullshit jobs where the goal is not, in fact, to make something good, or even to learn, but to simply make money to pay rent and medical expenses. To hopefully find a little joy on the side. The whole system is broken; AI alone didn’t break it, but it is widening the cracks.”
German stuff - - Is this Germany’s most beautiful bus stop? (https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1sxteyi/is_this_germanys_most_beautiful_bus_stop/) – I knew instantly that it was in Munich. The cherry blossoms (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/31987) were one of my favourite parts of Spring.
- UK schoolboys’ fatal hike remembered in Black Forest 90 years on (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/25/uk-schoolboys-fatal-hike-black-forest-germany-anniversary) – Oh wow. We visited that place back in 2021 (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/22561) and hiked up to the memorial. Neither of us had heard about the tragedy before.
🚶♀️ Walk: Lunch Walk - Distance: 5.92km
Time: 62min
🚶♀️ Walk: Afternoon Walk - Distance: 4.93km
Time: 53min
Another Palia outfit - I finally unlocked all of the Palia 10M user celebration rewards (https://palia.com/news/10-million), including my second random free outfit. And just like with my first one (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/93792), I have gotten one that’s perhaps a bit more “male-coded” than my traditional gender presentation. Behold Lieutenant (https://palia.wiki.gg/wiki/Cadet_Outfit) Kris! (I decided to lose the moustache for a while.)
Handy friends: Our Corten steel fire pit collects water when it rains, so we need to drill or cut a hole in it somehow. Our normal drill was not up to the task. What do we need? Relatedly - anyone in Sydney want to lend us an angle grinder? 😂