Zagorath

joined 2 years ago
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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 0 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't this really more of an inaptonym than an antonym?

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 7 hours ago

You jest, but en passant to the king is a thing in many chess variants. Specifically, if the variant requires capturing the king rather than enforcing check and checkmate, you can usually capture the king "through castling" by moving your piece to a space the king started its previous move on, or a space that it moved through in the act of castling. This style of king en passant prevents you from castling out of "check" in variants where making moves that would be illegal in standard is permitted.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 8 hours ago

Definitely seems to be going around. I went out tonight to a big get-together, but half the people who were going to come didn't, due to illness.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 8 hours ago

The argument isn't that they shouldn't vote because they're conservative. It's that they shouldn't vote because they literally won't experience the long term consequences of their decisions.

My personal preference is to allow 16 year olds to vote without creating a maximum voting age, but if in some weird world the only way to allow 16 year olds to vote was to ban those over 80 from voting, I would support that in a heartbeat.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 8 hours ago

Being almost exclusively a bus and ferry user for the last 10+ years, I've just recently moved to where trains are the more optimal option. It feels weird not to be able to thank the driver when I get off.

This doesn't make up for the abysmal 30 minute frequency in peak hour.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Does your area still use cash for bus fares? In 2025? Where I am it feels like we're behind because only this year did they start letting you tap on with your debit card or phone. We've had transit cards since like 2007.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly self checkout is the bare minimum for me these days. One of the two duopoly supermarkets in Australia rolled out "scan and go" where you can scan it with an app on your phone and pay on your phone and just walk out (with the occasional random inspection to deter theft) and it was such a huge improvement over even regular self checkout. I was gutted when they announced that option was being deprecated due to low uptake.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 points 15 hours ago

If we're talking about Canberra, wait 'til you hear about Mike Hall. His killer didn't face any punishment despite driving an unroadworthy vehicle and obviously not paying attention, to be able to not notice a cyclist in reflective clothing on a straight wide road. He was also probably speeding, but police used an outdated method of estimating speed which declared he wasn't speeding.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 points 15 hours ago

I don't know, but I can't imagine it's very large. Only things significant enough to be chains or similar have entries, and it's one per chain not per node. Then each Wikidata entry might have a few to a few dozen akas at most. I'd be surprised if it's more than a few dozen megabytes to download the entire globe's data. Less if you only get your region.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 8 points 15 hours ago

Not sure how they found it. I don't think they polished it up at all. I suspect the different condition is probably because of which side was face up and which was down. Not sure which though.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 15 hours ago

So apparently our trains only run half hourly even in peak hour? I've never been near a train station before but omg this is terrible frequency.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 15 hours ago

Oh, interesting new subdomain. Is that a Friendica instance?

 

They're doing major renovations to their old Queenslander for the first time since they bought it in the '80s, and they found this coin hidden in the skirting board.

A rusted coin showing King George V's profile

6
submitted 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by Zagorath@aussie.zone to c/vampires@lemmy.zip
 

CHAPTER VII

LOG OF THE “DEMETER.”

Varna to Whitby.

Written 18 July, things so strange happening, that I shall keep accurate note henceforth till we land.

On 6 July we finished taking in cargo, silver sand and boxes of earth. At noon set sail. East wind, fresh. Crew, five hands ... two mates, cook, and myself (captain).

On 11 July at dawn entered Bosphorus. Boarded by Turkish Customs officers. Backsheesh. All correct. Under way at 4 p. m.

On 12 July through Dardanelles. More Customs officers and flagboat of guarding squadron. Backsheesh again. Work of officers thorough, but quick. Want us off soon. At dark passed into Archipelago.

On 13 July passed Cape Matapan. Crew dissatisfied about something. Seemed scared, but would not speak out.

On 14 July was somewhat anxious about crew. Men all steady fellows, who sailed with me before. Mate could not make out what was wrong; they only told him there was something, and crossed themselves. Mate lost temper with one of them that day and struck him. Expected fierce quarrel, but all was quiet.

On 16 July mate reported in the morning that one of crew, Petrofsky, was missing. Could not account for it. Took larboard watch eight bells last night; was relieved by Abramoff, but did not go to bunk. Men more downcast than ever. All said they expected something of the kind, but would not say more than there was something aboard. Mate getting very impatient with them; feared some trouble ahead.

On 17 July, yesterday, one of the men, Olgaren, came to my cabin, and in an awestruck way confided to me that he thought there was a strange man aboard the ship. He said that in his watch he had been sheltering behind the deck-house, as there was a rain-storm, when he saw a tall, thin man, who was not like any of the crew, come up the companion-way, and go along the deck forward, and disappear. He followed cautiously, but when he got to bows found no one, and the hatchways were all closed. He was in a panic of superstitious fear, and I am afraid the panic may spread. To allay it, I shall to-day search entire ship carefully from stem to stern.

Later in the day I got together the whole crew, and told them, as they evidently thought there was some one in the ship, we would search from stem to stern. First mate angry; said it was folly, and to yield to such foolish ideas would demoralise the men; said he would engage to keep them out of trouble with a handspike. I let him take the helm, while the rest began thorough search, all keeping abreast, with lanterns: we left no corner unsearched. As there were only the big wooden boxes, there were no odd corners where a man could hide. Men much relieved when search over, and went back to work cheerfully. First mate scowled, but said nothing.

 

When I first became aware of Organic Maps, the very first thing I noticed was that you cannot search for "Maccas" and get a sensible result back. At the time I gave up on it, thinking that although theoretically not complicated, it would be practically too difficult.

But it turns out this is already a solved problem. OSM data for chain businesses has a brand:wikidata field with values like Q38076, which points to that organisation's page in the Wikidata database. And Wikidata has a field called "also known as", which includes a pretty comprehensive list of different names for the chain. If an OSM-based mapping app checked the Wikidata, it could easily resolve a search for "Maccas" as intending to search for McDonald's restaurants, and other similar such cases. OM obviously doesn't do this. Does CoMaps? Is there a way to suggest that it should to the developers?

 

It is quite common for a community centre or school hall to be used for various different purposes, outside of whatever its primary purpose might be. For example it might be used by a dance club on Wednesday nights, a taekwondo class on Thursday, AA on Friday, and by a church group on Sunday. I found thanks to this answer that, unfortunately, OSM explicitly does not encourage representing these activities.

Nevertheless, it is very useful for people to be able to navigate to and search these sorts of activities & groups. For example, if I'm attending a new sports club for the first time, it's much easier to type into my navigation app the name of the sports club, rather than look up the street address or the name of the host venue. In Google Maps this works perfectly for groups established enough to have an entry in their database.

Is there any equivalent of this that relies on OSM for mapping data, with an open/editable database of groups & organisations that do not have a fixed 'address' visible from the outside?

 

TranscriptionThe "Aye, I could do that" meme. The first picture is of Gimli, saying

Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with an Elf

The second superimposes a picture of a fish made from lego over a picture of Legolas, captioned:

What about side by side with a toy plastic fish?

The third returns to Gimli, saying

Aye, Lego-Bass, I could do that.

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