evilstevie @evilstevie@mastod1.ddns.net

One of the best things about Mastodon is that it gives me an excuse to stop when something catches my eye.
Because we don't get mail delivery to our house I have to drive to the post office a couple of times a week. Today's drive was accented by blooming trees. I know it is only February, but today feels kinda springy.
So if your corner of the world isn't quite springy yet, you can share mine.
Anything for our friends.
#BloomScrolling

Good grief. Not only did I NOT realise it's Shrove Tuesday, I didn't realise it was Tuesday. Impressive levels of not-on-the-ballness.

I couldn’t afford the Apple Vision Pro, so I got the Apple Vision Junior instead.

@stavvers

Borb

The *only* Superb Owl.

I figured out a public viewer for my resume (canva).

I have a wide breadth of skill and experience (really though). I am mainly a technical Project Manager. I need a healthy-ish, chill environment. Remote or at least flexible.

I'm experienced and able, I'm just also going through a real hard time fighting burnout and am struggling with personal loss and grief while job hunting in *gestures at tech* this.

I need to be believed in.

Thank you.

#GetFediHired #fedihire

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF8gevtGEo/kGFkxSz3RoXsKFkybpRlqQ/view

Briefly puzzled by my timeline having an unexpected burst of owls, then spotted the #superbowl hashtag.

Don't have a lot of owl pics, but quite pleased with this one. The owl itself is, of course, superb.

I *think* it's a tawny owl.

#photography #bird #owl #Scotland

#silentSunday #photography #Scotland #beach #dogsOfMastodon

This is taken on Scarista beach on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Harris is the southern part of the largest of the islands; the north of it is Lewis (home of the Callanish standing stones).

It is very lovely.

#silentSunday #photography #panorama #beach #Scotland

Just in case anyone is interested, and for the archives/searches, I recently asked if anyone had managed to use #LLM models to access #UEFI interfaces, or other interfaces without #A11Y, as a #blind user. The idea was to use a capture card to bring in the video information from the inaccessible machine, send pictures from that video stream to the LLM, and get descriptions/ask questions. This is how I did it. It's not pretty, but it's another helpful tool for the toolbox. It requires a video capture card, HDMI or display port to USB, the OpenAI #NVDA add-on, and a method of displaying the video from the capture card on screen. I tried four HDMI capture cards and all of them worked, I think the point is that the capture device should show up to Windows as a webcam. I haven't found a cheap capture device which didn't, the only reason I had to try four was that I was using audio input from the HDMI for another project and it's surprising how many devices will not receive the sound even in simple stereo. Anyhow, just searching for HDMI capture on google/amazon will probably get something to use. The Open AI NVDA Add-on is at https://github.com/aaclause/nvda-OpenAI/ The method I used to display the received video is at https://superuser.com/questions/1744688/how-can-i-view-the-video-coming-in-from-a-capture-card-on-windows-in-full-screen The steps are basically to put the puzzle pieces together. Set up the add-on with its instructions, copy and paste the HTML in the superuser link to a new HTML file, and open that HTML file in the browser. Having the file run from file explorer works fine, and firefox, at least, will ask for permission so make sure to allow it. Now, move the NVDA navigator cursor/focus to the video. Here, the object is called "document", the point is to avoid sending the entire screen, or even the firefox window. Having pressed the add-on command to capture the object, you will be placed in the prompt field and can ask any questions you like or rely on the default "describe this image" prompt. Generally, I will use the describe the image first and then ask follow-up questions or modify the image as best I can. Just a few tips. Maximizing the window and pressing the "full screen" button in firefox on the video appears to be helpful. The GPT 4 vision model does confabulate/hallucinate, and what it makes up is plausible. This is just another tool, not something to rely on exclusively. It is in addition to, rather than instead of, OCR, one's own knowledge, etc. The image is sometimes cut off, I'm not sure why this is but suspect at least some of it comes from its being displayed on the screen in the browser. I would welcome better ways to do this, as I said, it's not pretty and just what I could come up with in a few minutes of searching and with some trial/error. Having said that, it is a small step forward. Note that, as one would expect, the method also works to bring in pictures from a standard webcam. #nvdasr#ScreenReader

They did WHAT
https://retractionwatch.com/2024/02/05/no-data-no-problem-undisclosed-tinkering-in-excel-behind-economics-paper/

Yay, so pleased it's not just me that this has entertained. Someone walked by as I was taking the photo and it was *really* challenging to try and make it look like I was photographing some wildlife, or a plant, rather than a cork in a helmet 😆

CHAAAAAAAAARGE!!!!

(yes, I did have a drop of fizz last night, what makes you ask?)

#sillyScribbles #photography #warrior #silly #drawing

Huzzah! It's Friday! Happy weekend everyone!

I was going to try and work out what the Baboon Boop looked like for dancer number 36, but it's been a bit busy & didn't happen so I've gone with something resembling* the Funky Gibbon instead (love a 1970s classic).

🎶 Do-do-do the funky gibbon 🎶

* "something resembling" is doing a LOT of work here

#FridaySparklyDancers #sillyScribbles #animation #dance #silly #drawing

Look, it's been a long week, OK.

It could be worse, I could have posted it as a really, really, tall still image.

#sillyScribbles #animation #boop #silly #giraffe

Why I am not ordering anything from the UK any more:

Sticker: GBP 2,50
Shipping to NL: GBP 3,00

Eh fine, I am happy to support an artist. So the sticker was sent to NL.

Then customs decided to take their share of 21%. So Converted back to euro this is 21% of € 5,43 which is € 1,14.

Are we there yet? Nooo, the postal agency wants their share too for handling all this terrible paperwork and is charging me another € 6 for it.

So, i got me a sticker for € 12,57. Super. So yeah, Thank #brexit for this and everyone who voted for it. I'm not ordering anything any more from the UK. :(