Remote

Yvan

@yvan@toot.ale.gd

mastodon 4.8.0-alpha.3+glitch

Allotmenter, cooker, fermenter, tinkerer ("maker"?), hacker of things and code. Posts ebb and flow between all these, and more.

Generalist sorta Computer Scientist / "Software Engineer" to pay rent (spanning from C/C++ systems/networking to Python/PHP web malarkey.) Linux user since ~1998. GenAI/LLM critical, yet admit I use it in both work and non-work contexts (esp now web search is 🪦) — conflicted.

Grew up in South West Australia, on Wadandi Noongar land, but currently lives in England's West Norfolk fens… due to the oddness of life 🤷🏻‍♂️ … now somewhat anchored by an #allotment 🌱🍅🍆🌽🥔🥕🧄🫑

This is /var/log/yvan — here mainly for myself, for my own record.

CW: Yvan tends to be sweary (speaks En.Au), is haphazard with CWs, does his best with ALTs as time & energy permit, & can be bad at recognising sarcasm & rhetorical Qs. He has a tendancy towards pessimistic nihilism.

Ally 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇺🇦

FOLLOWS: please have an avatar, bio text, and… y'know… maybe some actual posts.

#noindex #nobot

570 Followers

409 Following

50 Posts

Joined February 02, 2023

Geolocation:

Norfolk Fens, England — vaguely like USDA 8b

Website:

https://yvan.seth.id.au

Allotment:

https://www.youtube.com/@AllotmentPostcards

Pronouns:

he/him they/them whatever, don't mind

Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 1w ago

Replying to

#MakersHour Q5: I tend not to make many kits because I have a habit of ‘short cutting’ instructions. Do you always follow instructions, or are you a basher/hacker-about-er? Instructions? LOL... I do the odd electronics kit and generally do follow the intended plan for those, but often hack/mod on top of that. Mostly I don't do kits. If you’re teaching someone, would you expect them to always follow the instructions? I would be disappointed if they did and would consider myself a failure as a teacher. @MakersHour@cupoftea.social

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2w ago

Replying to

Q3: #MakersHour is go for staging. I miss Maplin, particularly not being able to go and browse for parts and inspiration. How do you plan your makes, do you let available parts dictate your method? Nah, the idea dictates the parts. I get excited. I buy the parts. Then I don't complete the project. #MakersHour @MakersHour@cupoftea.social

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

First homegrown eggplants of the year!! 😍

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 1mo ago

Today's #allotment harvest. Under the tomatoes are gherkins, tomatillo and achocha too.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

It is a whole week since the last day of #EMFCamp and I finally have my #spaceagon actually talking to wifi again (since 2024 lol), updated, keyboard enabled, and otherwise #hexpansion populated. A couple of nice simple blingy new ones added this year, plus a couple of these "bender hats" from 2024 (one modified with a broken rainbow hat I found on the ground and repaired to wire in — just had to resolder this one and get it working again!) I do wish I had had time to hunt down some more hexpansions. (I had a vague plan to actually make my own LoRa one for 2026, but that met up against reality and is still some parts sat on my desk lol.) I wish I had sought out a few more hexpansions, especially some of the more functional ones. Maybe 2028!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

Annoyingly there isn't enough UV around #EMFCamp to show off the UV luminescent part of my nail varnish stack. But at least the glow in the dark layers do a thing. Unfortunately my hands and nails are in a bit of a rough state after several days of event build and cellar work! 😅

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

At #EMFCamp still? Look out for our "puzzle" cards, be amused by Python being silly, find the URL, enter your details to be in the draw for a #Pimoroni Tufty badge with STEM kit. Looking for work? Dev, test, QARA, data, physiotherapy... Check us out: https://flok.health/careers — we're Cambridge (UK) based, with 4 days on-site — we're a small mob, recently series A funded, and have our tech deployed with NHS trusts right now, really helping people, and improving waiting lists. It's nice to do something that has a meaningful measurable impact. My travels today have taken me through the lounge, the bars, and #nullsector. Flok Health, NOT a subsidiary of @polybio@social.emfcamp.org #FediHire #GetFediHired

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

So cute!

This is 48x lavender plugs from Sutton's (a UK online plant/seed retailer) — 24x Munstead, 24x Hidcote.

Cost £8.99 inc delivery, that was mostly delivery.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 3mo ago

Replying to

Beef, lots of veg, basic soy/shaoxing/oyster sauce, good old garlic & ginger, and mainly celebrating the wonderful seasonal crops of Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, and some coriander. It is my one "cheat meal" of the week so a bit of a luxury not having to weigh it all and keep it very simple, plus a pile of rice!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

We took a bag and a bucket home, too much... will do what we can with it. Tonight's dinner will involved trying it out cooked as a spinach alternative for the first time. Plus also a pot of it dug out of the bed. I am hoping that this one survives through to seeding. I have popped it onto the jerusalem artichoke bed at home where it is welcome to seed as much as it likes. Plus then hopefully we can collect a bunch of our own seed for next season.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Finally managed another "vlog" — aka "allotment postcard" — a bit of an April plot tour, and also a tour of the state of our home seedling growing.

https://youtu.be/sS1gmYJtgS4

It's a bit windy I'm afraid!

#allotment #gyo

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mhoye@cosocial.ca wait... what... I had assumed that was just some kinda dumb joke. 😐 reaches for the FreeBSD ISO he downloaded last month Not entirely joking, "modern Linux " things like systemd is one reason I'm already looking at shifting some things to a BSD. (Debian user since 1997, me...)

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@cstross it looks like it eats children! Eat your veg, or your veg will eat you!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Q1 Tell us who you are and what you’ve been doing these last couple of weeks. #MakersHour Mainly I have been preparing for #EMFCamp. Having been here since Sunday to help with setup in the bar team, so I have been reliving my old beer dispense technician & cellarperson life. But its kinda nice to do it "just for fun". Not so much "making" maybe, though I dod modify my #tildagon bumper design to hopefully fit this years new badge face (TBC). That said, EMF facilitates the "making" of many people, and I get to enjoy their many fruits of their labours. @MakersHour@cupoftea.social

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Q2 When do you know you are finished with a make? #MakersHour Finished? LOL @MakersHour@cupoftea.social

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

I do not have a "radio valves" problem.

And I do not need one...

But just over the way in Peterborough: "Large amount of radio valves stored in containers in shed moving and don't want to go in skip"

https://freecycle.org/posts/101911394

I'm not sure what hashtags to put on #radio #valves lol... but yeah, if anyone wants a "large amount of rdio valves", there ya go. The post lacks... detail.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Uploaded a 4.5GB video file to utoob before I left the house this morning.

Four minutes. Done.

This used to take well over an hour on the BT connection.

(This is a horribly unfair comparison, it isn't shade on BT really, we had an OK connection for what was damp rotten old copper... but the FTTP is like a whole other world by comparison.)

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Busy WfH day, didn't do a load more than just work really... python yak flaying for an internal product release, and rust bug fixing to break up the monotony.

We did pop down the allotment, to experience sun, downpour, and wind. Watered the usual bits. Felt joy at the beginning of the quince blossom. Sowed some mizuna and tatsoi seeds (for the slugs and pigeons?) Did some video, may actual publish a vlog, maybe, maybe not. Never time for it. Priorities!

Also squeezed in a little prickin'oot ... breadseed poppy, celeriac, catmint, and russian (boo, hiss) tarragon.

Dinner was mapo doufu with stir fried allotment kale sprouts.

Bushed. Bed. Usual five AM alarm. Calves still slaughtered, but it's just upper body stuff in the morning, calf raises are off the menu. 😅

Pfffft...

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@helenclayton I poked one hole into the centre of the bottom with a hot 0.65mm needle and another bottle with a 0.9mm needle. But I left the lid loose assuming air would probably need to get in for water to get out. I'll refill them today and try with the lid screwed tight. We are similarly heading away, for a week mid-may, and trying to work out how we can ensure plants survive in the polytunnel/greenhouse if the weather is hot that week.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Well, the last episode Dead Loch season two is pretty fucking intense.

That aside, its a good bit of Aussie comedy, if that's yer thing.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@clew @Cetraria haha, nah... all these green "weeds" grow like crazy in the polytunnel at this time of year here. But I need this bed for tomatoes soon.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social lol, yeah, I'm not sure there are any tips that would have helped me today 😂

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Maker_of_Things yeah, I looked into this myself and decided that because I don't like poking my own eyes out with sticks the only realistic non-masochistic way with a hope in hell of working to get off of Google on the phone is to actually buy a phone matched to the purpose, either one already very well supported by PostmarketOS (my current default choice) or perhaps something that's Graphene "out of the box". (And I say all that as a someone 30* years into life as a OS/software/hardware hacking, alternative-tech, nerd who's run Linux since the bad old days... I don't hate myself that much any more lol.) [* I mean, not to be misleading, I'm past 46 years into life... it's about 30 years since I first stuck something where it shouldn't go in a computer and made it explode in funny ways, thus commencing the specific life of being someone who inappropriately touches computers and tech in general.]

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Nickiquote answered no/UK as I've lived in the UK for 20 years... but now wonder if that should have been no/RoW as maybe this is a thing people do as children rather than adults. Do you eat such a thing as an adult? I've heard of the concept of course, not sure if I have ever seen anyone do it.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@thisismyglasgow I love it when I have a robin following me in the garden! Today I had a bold little blackbird, which I do also love... though a little less so, especially when after the path is swept and the work is finished for the day... the little bugger gets in under the hedge and flicks leaves and dirt all over the path. 😂 Blackbirds are rascals.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@feinschmeckergarten that's why it got moved from the allotment to the grounds where we live ;) [shared grounds of a multi-house rental property... may as well encourage weeds we can eat!]

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@geoffl yeah, I've seen the stuff growing in pavements in Cambridge. It's actually from the US, but is pretty well established here. Good for Vitamin C, and thus eaten by miners to avoid scurvey apparently! (Yes, I have recently read the Wikipedia page lol.) I have been relatively amazed how fast this stuff has grown and think that with a well managed succession (which I am crap at) it could be good right across winter.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@edebill yeah, I have no idea. It was a 24h window special offer which I couldn't resist. Clearance of over-stock maybe, maybe marginally cheaper to flog off at that price than to pay for disposal? They're very tiny plants mind.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nina_kali_nina I have no idea wrt an answer to this, but will watch with curiosity.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Listened to both of these whilst gymming today... I'm on the fence with Nine Inch Noize, it's fine, I like NIN in general and it's basically NIN, I need to listen to it a couple more times on something bretter than the gym blutooth speaker. The Sophia Isella album delivers for me though. And there's some killer lyrics in there. This album in my headphones as I start the working day. They say I'm the shit and I am I am the shit, sir, and I hit the fan https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=W3pt6bTQ-VA&si=-pym3nHnNjl56Db8

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@deepmud I've lived with a big wisteria before and know how thuggish their growing habits can be! This came with the plot and I couldn't just turf it, it's a skinny little thing but I'm giving it a chance to live. And by a decade from now it'd likely be someone else's problem 😅 though a decade can pass all too quickly, and who really knows. I am certainly not where I would have expected to be at if asked a decade ago. Our double plot is about a normal UK full allotment plot size. But yeah, that is a decent size!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jon @russss @jarkman @gsuberland I mean... the badges alone have at least a dozen on them?

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@gsuberland @russss thanks! Ballpark is good enough, I was suggesting 4k pax to someone... so we'll call that rounding up 😂

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Cetraria oh, I definitely like the claytonia as a salad leaf (this is my first time growing it), I also like the wild rocket. IMO basically any leaf is better than lettuce 😅 But I don't need a billion of them growing in one of my tomato beds!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I mean, if you "train" your "AI" on the content of the Internet it's bound to end up perverted isn't it. Have you seen the Internet? So your GenAI coding tool poops out big stinkers just so it can go back and sniff 'em later.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@helenclayton haha, we tried an experiment much like this just yesterday... 1x 0.65mm hole drains too fast. Thinking of trying again but with the lid closed tight (we put the hole in the base of the bottle). About to read the replies to your post hoping for enlightenment!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 3mo ago

Have been wishing I had time for #EMFCamp projects, I'm not short of ideas... just short of time, as ever. But it's fun to vicariously enjoy the projects, exasperations, and hints from others here... and I'll get to enjoy the fruits of these labours next week. So soon. Argh.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@concretedog@mastodon.social I have both, but for unrelated reasons. (I have never actually used a tap in relation to 3D printing.)

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Q3 What is the most drastic mistake you’ve learned from as part of a making project? #MakersHour Mistake? Never. There are no mistakes, only opportunities. (In many cases the biggest mistake is starting in the first place 😂) I have no exciting examples coming to mind for this alas. @MakersHour@cupoftea.social

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 3mo ago

Right, what DECT phones should we get for #EMFCamp... the Gigaset A170H seems to be the most obvious low-hanging-fruit option. I'd kinda like something more slimline, but I am unsure of the options and don't want to spend >£100 on a pair (I mean, lower the better and and, and I was considering some 2nd hand options from eBay but I just want cheap/quick/reliable do getting a new A170 Duo set seems the obvious call.)

I am assuming getting the two handsets from a "duo" set would be able to connect to the network as independent handsets/endpoints?

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@geoffl good! It did shrink down to about a nothingth of its original size, but isn't really any different to spinach on that front. It is likely to be a little dividing of opinon as it tends a little to the "slimy" (mucilaginous) side, more like Malabar Spinach than spinach on that front, but not as slimy as that. Flavour level was surprising, even with a lot of garlic and chilli in it.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

A bunch of it went into the compost.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@an0key irrefutable!

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Q4 How do you like to promote, or just show off your makes? #MakersHour As much as I "show off" anything it's right here on this here Fediverse. I don't have IRL friends. 😅 I wish I had time to do more to have anything much to "show off" TBH. @MakersHour@cupoftea.social

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 3mo ago

Eurgh, James Watt in the inbox offering "free equity" in his new beer business to former-BrewDog-equity-schmucks*

How/why does he still have access to email the "shareholders" of his prepack-admined failed business... pffftttt...

Fucking gall of the guy.

I don't drink beer any more anyway lol. (I barely drink full-stop now, only for the sake of trying to optimise my productivity really, and to save the cost, booze is expensive.)

* of which I am one, 0th round, 2009, and regretted it from at least 2011 I think lol... though I never put real money into it, was just a couple of shares to "join the club" and well and truly got that money's worth out of it in discounts and freebies before I stopped buying their stuff entirely.

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Yvan @yvan@toot.ale.gd

· 5mo ago

Hm... anyone have to hand the approx number of people at #EMFCamp?

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