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raymccarthy

@raymccarthy@historians.social

Former Electronics, Software & Communications Engineer now a full time writer.
Living in the Mid-West of Ireland.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ajsadauskas , to fediverse
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

With BlueSky moving towards finally opening up federation, I'm interested in how people feel about it?

Would you be open to the idea of Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and other Fediverse platforms adopting the AT protocol in order to federate with it?

If those technical hurdles could be overcome, would you support your instance federating with BlueSky?

Does the same go for other commercially-owned platforms, such as Threads and Tumblr?

@fediverse

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@aidasb @gytis @ajsadauskas @fediverse
https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html
Though smart phone is since 1998, not 2005. ARM based from about 2002.
See also SMS vs Google vs Apple iMessage.
Also Mail on Android isn't. It's using Google servers with your settings. You can install real email clients on Android. Also Google has "taken over" SMS & MMS on Android phones.
Don't adopt AT or negotiate with any platform. Let them adopt AP and don't give them a seat on development. Google is wrecking Web Browsers.

franciscawrites , to bookstodon
@franciscawrites@mastodon.scot avatar

As if children's books aren't already losing visibility due to censorship now this...

This year Goodreads has removed all children's books categories from their Goodreads Choice Awards, meaning no more or categories. Worse, Graphic Novel & Poetry, have also been eliminated.

Here you can vote to ask them to bring those categories back:

https://help.goodreads.com/s/suggestions/a0G8V00001thIKIUA2/choice-awards-middle-grade-picture-book-novelinverse-each-a-category

@bookstodon

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@franciscawrites @bookstodon
Perhaps Amazon should be forced to resell it and IMDB. They've wrecked both and those just gather info for Amazon.
I've stopped using them because they are now useless.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@beecycling @franciscawrites @bookstodon
Also obsessed with DRM, which affects consumers, not pirates. Trying to out-Apple Apple on Walled Gardens (Kindle Scribe PDF Annotation).

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@beecycling @franciscawrites @bookstodon
Flaw in tax system that they could build dominance in Datacentres by tax exemption on Amazon profits and take over all of these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon
Regulators are asleep.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@franciscawrites @bookstodon
reviews of unpublished books, that sometimes have not even been started.
Reviews by sockpuppets.
It's as useless as Amazon branded pages for reviews now.
Also nearly impossible to get false info taken down.

SimonRoyHughes , to bookstodon
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

The first addition to my Ko-fi shop for a while.

Five Norwegian White Bear Tales is an anthology of five Norwegian folktales that follow the story of Cupid and Psyche, but instead of the god of love, in all of these we meet an enchanted white bear.

A brief introduction puts the tales into a more international context.

And the illustrations are gorgeous.

.epub format that may be read on nearly any digital device.

Minimum price: €2.50.

https://ko-fi.com/s/a2dedb9f85

@folklore @folklorethursday @bookstodon

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @folklore @folklorethursday @bookstodon
Actually epub can read on ANY ereader if DRM free,
Calibre or "Send to Kindle" for all Kindle models.
Calibre can also convert to pdb (old Palm & Win CE), LRF (ancient Sony before they adopted epub).
Calibre conversion to Plain text for some devices that claim ebook support (watches & mp3 players) but only take text.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @folklore @folklorethursday @bookstodon
Though all the best ereaders are mono eink. :D

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @folklore @folklorethursday @bookstodon
iOS and Android have free epub apps better than Apple Books or Google Playbooks such as
Bluefire, Lithium, Pocketbook (best text to speech on Android).

herhandsmyhands , to romancelandia
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

@romancelandia

Can we help fund this event for Indigenous children in the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska?

Monies go to buying pumpkins and other supplies for a fun day at a safe space.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/pumpkins-for-native-kids

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia
weird as pumpkins is European settler corruption of Halloween and little to do with real Halloween (uses swedes/turnips) and nothing to do with native people. It's cultural imperialism, as is the ghastly plastic commercialised Halloween exported by USA to Ireland & UK (though objects made in China).

ajsadauskas , to tech
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Another day, another product joining the Google graveyard. On the upside, this time it's not a messaging app.

From The Verge:

"You might remember Google had a $5,000 Jamboard whiteboarding meeting room display — well, that’s also discontinued. The Jamboard hardware will no longer receive software updates on September 30th, 2024, and its license subscriptions will expire the same day.

"Then users will have until December 31st, 2024, to back up Jam their files, and on that date, Google will cut off access and begin permanently deleting files."

Pity the schools, universities, and businesses that paid Google $5000 for a "smart" whiteboard, only to now be told their files will be deleted.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/28/23894509/google-jamboard-whiteboarding-app-graveyard

@technology

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@ajsadauskas @technology
Unsurprising.
Someone was unkind to cats and ADHD sufferers by suggesting Google was like a kitten with ADHD in attention span to projects & products.

Also Betas?

Moral: Don't depend on Google/Alphabet for ANYTHING. Only use Google docs to collaborate information stored outside of Google.

dbellingradt , to histodons German
@dbellingradt@mastodon.social avatar

Spot the difference: on the left, the copperplate print is hand-coloured after the print run, and on the right no extra work is done. Colouring prints was a thing in Europe. Guess which version was more expensive - and sold better?

You see the frontispieces with a star map from the 1742 "Atlas Novus Coelestis", Nuremberg, from J.G. Doppelmayr (1677-1750). Bonus details: , , and discussing things.
@histodons

frontispiecve from Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel: Atlas Novus Coelestis: In Quo Mundus Spectabilis Et In Eodem Tam Errantium Quam Inerrantium Stellarvm Phoenomena Notabilia… Nürnberg, Homannsche Erben, 1742 . Source: https://pic.sub.uni-hamburg.de/kitodo/PPN822197634/00000001.tif

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@dbellingradt @histodons
Even some early movie films were hand coloured. All those tiny frames!
Though there was RGB colour film at the end of the Victorian age an exposure was 20 minutes. It wasn't till there was CYM layered film that colour movies were possible.
I think before 1742 China was doing coloured prints using multiple wood blocks.
Nitric acid was 14th C, or maybe 10th C. But using it for silver nitrate photos was 19th C.

hgott , to academicchatter
@hgott@mas.to avatar

Look what was just published:

The Early Modern Dutch Press in an Age of Religious Persecution: The Making of Humanitarianism. by Dr David de Boer (Oxford University Press; Sept. 28, 2023)

The book is available as Open Access:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-early-modern-dutch-press-in-an-age-of-religious-persecution-9780198876809?cc=nl&lang=en&#

@academicchatter

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@hgott @academicchatter
What does Open Access mean in this context?
£70 for HB, £50 for Kindle eBook and €88.40 for epub eBook!
I've never paid even 1/2 that for a niche text book or a sumptuous illustrated Art hardback.

It sounds very interesting.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@_bydbach_ @hgott @academicchatter
Thanks!

PDFs are a print/publish/preview format, not ebooks. Practically unusable except on a large screen. A reflowable epub 2 is an open standard and open access as it can convert to Kindle or PDF and be read on anything.

At least search works well.
I have a 23.5″ 4K screen, like paper in quality, so I can read it on the desktop. I'll see what it's like on a 10" eink, but those are not common. Reading on a tablet is ghastly.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@_bydbach_ @hgott @academicchatter
Just about readable on a 10.3″ Kobo Elipsa eink when top & bottom margin cropped.

ajsadauskas , (edited ) to music
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

The issue with Jann Wenner goes far deeper than a sexist, racist old fossil thinking women and black people aren't articulate enough to be considered masters of rock in his new book.

Long before this book, and this latest scandal, Wenner was a co-founder of both Rolling Stone magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

For the Boomer generation, Wenner and critics like him — straight, white men — set the criteria for what constitutes good music, and whose music was worthy of being celebrated as the greatest in Western music.

And, almost inevitably, they chose the artists they related to most closely — straight white men.

What were the criteria they set for what makes music great? The things that their favourite straight white male rock stars were particularly good at.

Such as playing drums, bass, and guitar in a rock style.

The greatest lyrics were those depicting the thoughts and feelings of straight white men.

Lyrics dealing with topics of interest to women or black people — including police brutality — were deemed shallow and vacuous.

Elements that were typically outside the realm of the music their favourite straight white men performed — funky bass lines, sampling, keyboards, soulful ballads, rapping, dance — were deemed frivolous and unimportant.

They created whole hierarchies of the greatest musicians of all time, consisting entirely of straight white men, based on their criteria.

The music made by queer, female, and non-white artists was deemed by them, through their arbitrary criteria, to be frivolous and unimportant.

The music enjoyed by queer, female, and non-white communities was deemed by them, through their arbitrary criteria, to be frivolous and unimportant

Oh, and they seemed to have a bad habit of "accidentally" leaving out the black artists that their favourite straight white men copied from — Chuck Berry and Big Mama Thornton didn't make the cut for greatest rock stars, but Elvis did.

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/23/1201121174/jann-wenner-rock-hall-crumbling

@popheads @music

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@ajsadauskas @popheads @music
I thought black people were very instrumental in the development of Jazz, Rock, and Pop and originating a lot of it.
Like who was Al Jolson, Elvis Presley and Eric Clapton copying?

It wasn't white men.

Then there were women of all origins too numerous to list here.
I won't buy his book.
I bought & buy music but never wasted money on Rolling Stone either.
(Reminds me of Dr Hook!)

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@ajsadauskas @popheads @music
Exactly!
I do have both.

ajsadauskas , to technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.

"They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that's why you should invest," Ryan Merkley at the Physicians Committee, told Wired. "And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies."

Really heartbreaking reading what happened to the monkeys.

People quite rightly think of Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud for making false medical claims about what the Theranos machines could do. So why aren't Elon's claims at Neuralink being held to the same level of scrutiny?

https://futurism.com/neoscope/terrible-things-monkeys-neuralink-implants

@technology

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@ajsadauskas @technology
I was astounded to read Neuralink is to be permitted to experiment on humans. Instead they should have any animal experiment licences revoked.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@Lmaydev @ajsadauskas
Peter Thiel sacked him as a PayPal boss?
He didn't "invent" Paypal.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@trelord75 @ajsadauskas @technology
Thai caves sub proposal was crazy.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@freemo @ajsadauskas @technology
If there are already such implants why licence a company that seems less than, um, straight.

SimonRoyHughes , to histodon
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

There are, apparently, 338 Sagas of the Norwegian Kings, a number greatly in excess of the number of Norwegian kings. Thought you’d like to know.

@histodons @histodon

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @histodons @histodon
So like Marvel Comic alternate universes and character reboots?

mythologymonday , to mythology
@mythologymonday@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Hello, myth lovers! Join us for Monday's theme: Time Travel. Which myths feature time traveling? Write out a story and use the hashtag . See you soon! ⏱️⏱️⏱️

📷anncapictures

@mythology @folklore

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@juergen_hubert @mythologymonday @mythology @folklore
Thermodynamics.
Travelling forward is easy:
Sleep, Enchanted sleep, time slip (never goes backwards).
Magic only seems to break other physical laws.

Private
raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @writingcommunity
Staring at the screen deciding what to leave out.
More time outlining than writing.

SimonRoyHughes , to writingcommunity
@SimonRoyHughes@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Dear paperback writers,

Please don't do this; you'll make me hate you FOREVER.

(And then I'll have to buy your bloody ebook edition.)

@bookstodon @writingcommunity

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @bookstodon @writingcommunity
one occasion when stupid QR codes make more sense. Point phone/tablet.
We put a text link (without the underline on paper) and a QR code in ebooks and paper.
Not all ereaders support links at all and most are rubbish for web pages.
My Barscan App ALWAYS previews!

curiousordinary , to mythology
@curiousordinary@mas.to avatar

The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese folktale and the tragic love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Zhu disguised herself as a boy so she could study and fell in love with Liang. By the time he realised she was a girl, it was too late. You can read the full tale here: https://www.curiousordinary.com/2023/06/butterfly-lovers.html?m=1
@folklore @mythology

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@JamesPadraicR @curiousordinary @folklore @mythology
it's a common trope in societies that had less freedom for women.
Mulan, Sailors in Scotland, England, Ireland, Soldiers.
Isaac Bashevis Singer might never have known the Japanese & Chinese tales.

Private
raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @writingcommunity @writers
"The lifecycle of the cuckoo"
Or do you mean
"The Lifecycle of the Cuckoo Clock"?

There are "One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (not seen it) and "The Midwich Cuckoos" (I read that very long ago).

Hmm. I'll think about "The Owl and the Pussycat"!

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @writingcommunity @writers
Cuckoo: A changling from a rogue Fay.
Edit: I've realised that a character in my "Tom Óg and the Firebirds" that reappears some books later (Elaine and Luke) is that definition of a Cuckoo.
Though claims to be an adopted foundling, she's not at all human.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@SimonRoyHughes @writingcommunity @writers
The Duracell bunny:
Chucky is portrayed as a vicious serial killer who, as he bleeds out from a gunshot wound, transfers his soul into a "Good Guy" doll.
(Never seen it)

I never trusted the Duracell Bunny. Or the Energizer one.

ajsadauskas , to updates
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Called it. Elon's doing exactly what I thought he would do: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/109979152813584947

Twitter is dead.

There is no point in trying to hold on to what Twitter used to be. What Twitter used to be no longer exists.

It died the moment Elon walked in the building.

Anything posted there since then has been free content on his everything app and potential crypto scam, X: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/23/twitter-elon-musk-says-he-wants-to-change-companys-bird-logo

@technology

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@ajsadauskas @technology Since recently you can't report evil adverts on Twitter/X
He's about to shoot the bird. Egotism.
Same scammy product / service appears with different name when muted/blocked.

raymccarthy ,
@raymccarthy@historians.social avatar

@Arotrios
it's the nuclear waste that propelled Moon Base Alpha into space in 1999
cooling down a bit in 24 years.

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