Random thoughts and finds...

Lounge
904
3 Likes
905
906

So, at 4x “zoom” it will be using a 200/16=12.5Mp, on a 1/4.48" sensor area. Fascinating. :sunglasses:

I wonder when they will catch up to the specs of, say, a Canon Powershot A budget compact from around 2010. :rofl:

(I have no doubt it will sell well though. Most phone users use wide angles, and consider a ff 50mm FOV a superzoom.)

907

I believe a comparison has been posted in the forum of a compact powershot style camera vs a Pixel when it came to crop/long range and the pixel destroyed the compact camera due to all the computational stuff it does. I wouldn’t underestimate that

Edit: The phones are catching up

908

Yes, but that photo with a “5x” optical zoom. My remark was about the questionable tendency of making denser sensors for “digital zoom”.

1 Like
909

FWIW, I guess this might have some relevance to other forms of media:

“Results are consistent with a model where the relative value of trustworthy news sources increases with the prevalence of misinformation, which may thus boost engagement with those sources even while lowering trust in news content.”

2 Likes
910

Random gripe: it seems that Bluetooth devices don’t come with a PIN any more.

I was looking for noise-cancelling headphones that support a Bluetooth PIN (that I can customize), and apparently that thing does not exist. So random people try (and succeed) to connect to my headphones when I am on a train/airplane and I get to listen to their music, while they think they don’t.

Same with Bluetooth amplifiers, neighbors think it’s their TV or whatever, so I have to turn it off when I am not using it to prevent random pairings.

2 Likes
911

Wow. I haven’t had that yet. Seems insecure

912

Strange, the qudelix 5k and momentum 3 both need to be put in pairing mode for it to happen. It seems so lazy from the manufacturer’s part that something like that is not even implemented.

1 Like
913

How? I don’t see this to be likely unless you set your device to pairing mode.

914

Yes, but that is very easy to do, just holding the on button for a few extra seconds. At least that’s what I think happened. I just noticed it when I heard someone else’s music, who I guess was trying to connect to his/her own headset.

I just find it strange that an existing, easy to operate security feature (the 4-digit PIN) that was totally adequate is not being used. Maybe it was too much effort for people…

915

So somehow you got your headset to go into pairing mode. At the exact time, someone opened the Bluetooth settings wanting to pair their phone to their bluetooth. They are successful in pairing without getting a notification (Pairing successful). But you think all of those coincidences will be solved by a pIn that is transmitted by the device and all it ask is for you to confirm it is the correct pin (most of the time 1234).

1 Like
916

And once the device is paired, you probably don’t need to pair it again too often. I just got some cheap $40 Jlab over the ear phones and the nosie canceling is pretty good. They sound decent enough to me too.

917

Now it all makes sense…

(Open access)

918

Now it happened again. This time, I posted a single comment. Someone, in the ‘darktable (unofficial)’ group, asked about banding in the sky, and I advised them to turn on the dither or posterize module, and described how I have a style with only that module enabled, and applied in the export module in append mode. I also posted a link to the documentation. A few minutes later, our AI overlords decided this was a security risk, and my account has been suspended again.

5 Likes
919

So, eh, great moment to just ditch that cesspit? :wink:

5 Likes
920

It happened to me with Amazon reviews: an innocuous, fair, and actually positive review would be flagged for inappropriate content. After the third one I stopped giving any reviews.

I agree with @dnzm. Export/recover your contacts (I am assuming that you did it after last time), tell them you have been banned from Facebook, explain that it can happen to them too, suggest an alterantive (Mastodon?) and never go back.

1 Like
921

I had the same with Amazon. Not a positive review but not a screeching one star. I gave three, I think. It was rejected along with my request for a refund. Forgot about it. Then randomly six months later I got an email from Amazon saying they’d reviewed my claim and decided to refund me.

2 Likes
922

Interesting post on Tumblr (remember that?) by a linguist on the European family of words Swart (Black) & White. This follows posts on Green & Blue and Red & Yellow:

2 Likes
923

In case someone else is also doing advent of code 2025. This is my solution to problem 1:

code 
(defparameter *list*
 (loop for str in (uiop:read-file-lines "input.txt")
    collect (coerce str 'list)))

(defparameter *current* 50)
(defparameter *prev* 50)
(defparameter *count* 0)
(defparameter *count2* 0)

(time (loop for x in *list*
           for n = (parse-integer (coerce (rest x) 'string))
           for func = (case (char-upcase (first x))(#\R #'+)(T   #'-))
           for args = (list *current* n)
           do 
         (setf *prev* *current*)
         (setf *current* (apply func args))
             (when (= (mod *current* 100) 0) (incf *count*))
         (incf *count2* (- 
   		(floor (max *prev* *current*) 100) 
   		(floor (min *prev* *current*) 100)))))
         
(print *count*)
(print *count2*)

First time writing in common lisp, or any lisp for that matter. It is an interesting experience… the compactness of it is alluring, but I struggle to read it.

1 Like