Nanoraptor

Wanna know something about petrol going off?

It goes “off” as in out of spec. Not unusable. Not even *bad*.

The trout is on the same tank I last filled it with in June 2025. It runs fine.

I had another Falcon that sat from 2001 to 2009. Ran fine.

Maybe less power, or lower mpg. Couldn’t tell.

A really finely tuned engine control computer might complain, might throw codes. It might be really noticeable on a high compression or high performance engine.

But the mad max wasteland will be fine.

The Ides of Mac.

iso paper sizes are delicious: sides are 1:sqrt2 or about 1:1.414

A4 is 210x297mm

A4 folded in half is 148x210 or A5.

A3 is two A4s, or 297x420

go to A0 841x1189 or one square metre.

A-1 (A Minus One) is 2 square metres.

Australia is ~A-43

The visible universe ~A-179

A proton about A139.

A Quark? A151

Presumably A232 is one dimensional though, as it's planck length on the long edge.

Wooo print prepress op eyes - and one's colourblind!

@film_girl@mastodon.social

regarding binary vs decimal prefixes and the former's daft similar naming to the (already well established) latter.

A short story with Demerzel and Empire.

http://www.danamania.com/tmp/BinaryStar.html

Expanding on this post: @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social

I came across a functioning coder today asking if a kilogram was 1000 or 1024 grams.

Yes they did ask, yes they verified, yes they accepted 1000 grams.

I swear ten thousand years in the future some fucker will 'oops, black hole!' 'cos they began in comp sci and learned kilo = 1024 first and NOBODY WILL CATCH IT. Humanity will be WIPED OUT because YOU LOT KEPT THIS SHIT UP.

Pic from last Marchintosh, but here have some of the fun of GlobalTalk.

Appletalk networks, routed across the planet, with zones just about anywhere. And on a PowerBook 500 series, with an AirTalk adaptor for wireless AppleTalk bridged to my router Q605 out others on the GlobalTalk network.

An older render - a Macintosh IIfx2 in its slimmer pizzabox-style case with a set of 2 shaped objects.

Figure it's been long enough for globaltalk folk to have the actual image exclusively. Here, bitmap for joy.

http://www.danamania.com/tmp/Globaltalk-2026.gif

Neat weirdness in the sky - saw two cloud masses move together on the drive into work, touching and distorting. looks like some kind of jet has gone through but it wasn't, just the meeting point of what looks like low layers over about 30 minutes.

While trying to explain a thing to a co-worker yesterday re: tasks done in order, and one task being a pre-requisite for multiple other tasks and how to set up ticket reflecting that she goes:

"for fuck's sake dana your brain's a firecracker factory in a blender slow down!"

Adopting this as identity now.

Folks I did have a little break. HRT fuckery can play hell with moods and I just wanted to crawl in a cave and hibernate until it was over. And I’m doing much better now.

I realised tonight I’ve had more pain-free days than painful in the last week.

And yes sure “the normal amount of pain is zero” means none of them were but if I can forget it for a whole day even though it’s there I’m counting that as pain free.

There’s pain and then there’s suffering I suppose.

4/7 suffering-free days.

In the early '90s I was directly observed and instrumentally documented acting as a biological containment vessel for sustained relativistic matter-antimatter annihilation. During the recording, no containment failure was observed & complete survivability of all macroscopic tissue was demonstrated.

I am a documented survivor of recurrent radiation injury resulting from sustained interaction with an unshielded Class G2V fusion reactor exhibiting high-energy particle emission, extreme luminous flux, aggressive short-wavelength electromagnetic leakage, and episodic plasma bursts attributable to confinement instability - all operating in the complete absence of attenuation systems, emissions baffling, shielding protocols or output modulation controls.

Mac Pro 2008, or Stainless steel kitchen remodel?

The Macintosh Quadra series was named as such because the 68040 CPU used across the range had four sides.

At Aldi I'm browsing near a family with small kids and I hear "Katie get off the floor love"

Katie goes "I'm a penguin mum!", flops down on the floor and just kicks herself along the whole length of the aisle making penguin noises.

Katie, I hope one day you'll know the effort your parents made not to laugh out loud.

I think they're kinda proud.

The 68NC040 was a version of Motorola's 68040 that lacked an FPU, MMU, and CPU - and came in a convenient weight-saving package that also used almost 15% less power.

Vantabeige is the concept of the colour and texture of an inoffensive object in your home that’s unwanted and unseen, but is still just *right there*. If you look around now you’ll see it, and realise you could discard it - but you’ll forget to. It might be in a prominent position but you won’t notice it unless you go specifically looking for it based on a memory, vibe, or exercise in attention.

It’s always been there. That spot. On the bookcase, or drawer, or table…

A little story based on a dream last night.

--

We took the coastal road into town after dark, headlights cutting through the mist and clarifying nothing in the haze but movement. The sea, close and unseen, whispered secrets.

Mia drove. I was still sweating out nicotine when we passed the first hand-painted sign: “NO DRONES. NO CLOUD. NO EXPLAINING.”
We were looking for machines, but not those machines.