Posts by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AqUB8MTArfgUHvkRCi by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-01-26T18:38:45Z
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@th A year or two ago Scott Manley passed his private pilots licence using a cardboard "pilot's computer", essentially a circular slide rule.
(DIR) Post #ArxaQu17TLp7fYxP4y by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-03-11T23:09:08Z
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Just imagine having to hit "send" on a press release about exactly 128 new moons...the amount of work you'd have to do to check you hadn't found 1 moon with an off-by- 8-binary-powers glitch...https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/11/astronomers-discover-128-new-moons-orbiting-saturn
(DIR) Post #ArxcMrnpxkjDYHwp1s by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-03-11T23:41:47Z
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@drgeraint "That's no 128 moons..."
(DIR) Post #Asey5jT6sdDwmO6ToW by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-04-01T20:04:36Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Today's April Fool gag, courtesy of an excellent school technician forum:I stick a small test tube in a large beaker of glycerol. The borosilicate glass and glycerol have the same refractive index, so the test tube is basically invisible.I explain that I've invented a perfect glue that even puts things back in place, smash a test tube, pour the broken glass in to the beaker (it disappears), stir, and pull out a complete test tube.
(DIR) Post #Asey5nwKFwyEe9nruK by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-04-01T20:09:39Z
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To their credit, whilst generally being amazed, several students (maybe 12 years old) voiced concerns. Maybe it wasn't actually magic? Maybe the unbroken test tube was there all along? But why didn't they see it, etc?They've been studying refraction recently, so bonus. Plus I get to quote "any sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic:.
(DIR) Post #Asey5s7SiUFtbr2ooy by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-04-01T20:13:33Z
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Yup, I explained what was happening. The nice thing with this trick is that even when you know how it works, and I dip a test tube back into the glycerol, it *still* looks like magic as it disappears as it fills up. Hell,*I* think it's cool, and I'm the one doing the demo.
(DIR) Post #Asey5wTEXU2z6XGGJM by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-04-01T21:30:33Z
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Nicest thing though, was the students "Sherlocking the heck out of it" with what they knew. They didn't nail it, but they went through the process of eliminating the impossible, in the five minutes we had, whilst bouncing off the walls. The latter is a given as 12yr olds, the former is our aim as a science dept.
(DIR) Post #AtSjEgaC3QmxzdkUE4 by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2024-08-30T22:39:24Z
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Just another quiet night over the bay (about 20 minutes real-time) 😎 #Aurora #Scotland #Highlands
(DIR) Post #AtSjEmcXbcEQietRia by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2024-08-30T22:47:27Z
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I love the reflections 😍
(DIR) Post #Au6Dx8dEDtYPjfuTjs by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-05-14T22:16:23Z
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Kudos to the lass in Tesco who ID'd me for beer today. She regularly just hits the button without a second thought, and last week I said I kind of missed being ID'd (last time was my 40th birthday, nearly a decade ago), so today she very formally and officiously asked if I could prove I was of legal age to buy alcohol 😂 😎 (And yes, I had ID, but if I didn't and she refused to serve me I'd have had the utmost respect.)
(DIR) Post #Av9jap4u4HIF5A1YRs by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-06-15T12:33:21Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Absolute unit.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin
(DIR) Post #AvYxvV1aiO7QeV36rw by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-06-27T16:51:03Z
4 likes, 5 repeats
I can't believe we're still having to say this in 2025, but would people *please* scroll back to the top of a website when they're finished reading, so it's ready for the next person. We've even got buttons at the bottom to do it all in one go, it's not 1994 any more.
(DIR) Post #AvYyawI4FKkl5XW2iW by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-06-27T17:48:17Z
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@foone Nice 😂 👍 My reflex is to do it with no logins/cookies/session control, just a website that only maintains one connection at a time and preserves state. Is a bit of jS to ping back with "user still reading line x" cheating?
(DIR) Post #AvYzC7zLiRxu5GUeh6 by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-06-27T17:57:57Z
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@foone *gasp* The One True User?
(DIR) Post #Ax4hMlGQxuEqB0v1sG by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-08-11T23:00:58Z
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@foone Cosmic ray detection?
(DIR) Post #Axlmt0YsTm0sSJ1CVc by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-09-01T17:55:20Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
I regularly bemoan current school students' knowledge of classic SF, but I take that all back today.Me: "So the RasPi controlling the camera is on the network, but there's no GUI. We can access it in text mode though. Ever done anything like this?"Student: "Nope."M: "I'll give you a quick run through, loads of internet systems and specialist physics computers etc use this. This is SSH, "ls", "cd", editing a text file and rebooting."S: "Is this what Dennis Nedry does in Jurassic Park?"
(DIR) Post #AzgF0zZ8ptfzpSdwg4 by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-10-27T17:17:06Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Just realised that Thing from The Addams Family is a right hand, can't help but think there was a more sinister option?
(DIR) Post #Azoz13fXjLW5i9HpIG by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-04-12T11:25:32Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@nixCraft So it's sequel injection?
(DIR) Post #B1CtCX0LBVXMVFGjeC by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-12-13T13:15:05Z
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A finite number of apes, on the other hand, will write Hamlet *before* inventing the typewriter.
(DIR) Post #B1SGyLKxLZhl0AphT6 by _thegeoff@mastodon.social
2025-12-20T23:24:10Z
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Microsoft email asking me to verify my age on an account I registered 20 years ago to prove I'm over 18.You know what? I don't actually need Xvox Live. Certainly don't need to have my driving licence on the internet.