julian_t (u/julian_t)

julian_t commented on Dulce et Decorum Est (1921) poetryfoundation.org/poem... · Posted by u/bikeshaving

While we're sharing anti-war songs/poetry, I like And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (originally written by Eric Bogle, but I personally like the Pogues' version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKURhqmSLmM

julian_t · 10 days ago

I've often played this after Ralph McTell's "Maginot Waltz", which really contrasts the optimism and patriotism with the reality.

julian_t commented on Maine’s ‘Lobster Lady’ who fished for nearly a century dies aged 105 theguardian.com/us-news/2... · Posted by u/NaOH

Ronsenshi · a month ago

She must have had so many interesting stories to tell. Such an amazing experiences - born in the early 1920s, being a young adult at the beginning of the Second World War, seeing mass commercialization of air travel, flight to space, miniaturization and age of information. And she even caught beginnings of AI (or pseudo-AI).

She "picked" a good place to live and observe the flow of time and events where she directly wouldn't be affected by various negative events throughout the century of her life.

julian_t · a month ago

Some people lived through amazing change. My grandmother was born in the late 1890s in rural Wales, and died at 95. She remembered electricity coming to her village and the visit of the first motor car, the arrival of radio and telephones. She saw men land on the moon and towards the end of her life went to the USA on a 747. Yet when she was a girl she lived with older farm workers who had never been more than ten miles from where they were born.

julian_t commented on Bugs Apple loves bugsappleloves.com... · Posted by u/nhod

julian_t · 2 months ago

I have a lot of undeletable old photos on my iPhone. The photos are there, but no photo app shows the trash can icon. They aren't on iCloud or any other current device, so I'm thinking that at some time I must have done something like sync an iPhone I no longer have with a Mac I no longer have. I've usually just cloned one phone to the next, but I reckon that next time I may be in for a manual copying job.

julian_t commented on Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain repebble.com/blog/meet-pe... · Posted by u/freshrap6

pedalpete · 3 months ago

We regularly get contacted by people in Europe who want to buy our product, but we haven't been providing support due to the cost of certs, and other regulatory needs (medical/wellness device).

We want to help people in the EU, but with laws like replaceable batteries, it's going to push us further and further away from being able to do that.

Our product is designed to be refurbished, but not user-replaceable.

At the same time, how many products do people give up on because of battery life, and is this a non-issue with future battery chemistries?

Do people replace their phones because the battery isn't good anymore, or is it more likely they've broken the screen, cameras, etc to the point where it doesn't make sense to replace those anymore? Or they just want the newest thing?

julian_t · 3 months ago

> Do people replace their phones because the battery isn't good anymore

Yes. I'm not bothered about the latest thing, and every phone I've replaced has been because of two things: the battery has degraded until it's unacceptable, or it no longer gets OS updates.

julian_t commented on Post office in France rolls out croissant-scented stamp ctvnews.ca/world/article/... · Posted by u/ohjeez

cultofmetatron · 5 months ago

I wish we had croussants here in teh states (tiny speciality shops not withstanding). They are a rare. instead we get a weird butter flavored croissant shaped bread with nothing of the texture or aroma of the real thing.

julian_t · 5 months ago

Same with bagels here in the UK. Round bread with a hole in it, for the most part.

julian_t commented on Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows? alexmolas.com/2025/07/28/... · Posted by u/alexmolas

compiler-guy · 5 months ago

Most of Google's internal development happens on a filesystem that saves absolutely everything in perpetuity. If you save it, the snapshot lives on forever--deleting stuff requires filing a ticket with justification. It is amazingly useful and has saved me many times. Version control is separate, but built on it.

When I eventually move on, I will likely find or implement something similar. It is just so useful.

julian_t · 5 months ago

I used to rely on this on the old DEC systems, when editing and saving foo.dat;3 gave you foo.dat;4. It didn't save everything forever - and you could PURGE older versions - but it saved enough to get me out of trouble many times.

julian_t commented on I spent the day teaching seniors how to use an iPhone forums.macrumors.com/thre... · Posted by u/dabinat

wickedsight · 5 months ago

> why not have a 65+ or something for a senior mode?

Damn... I'm guessing OP is pretty young or something. I know people 80+ who have hardly any problems with regular iOS. I also know people under 60 who do. Age isn't a great thing to assume ability from.

julian_t · 5 months ago

Dam' right (he says, still developing at 70). Getting older may be compulsory, but I regularly have to help the youngsters out with tech-related matters.

julian_t commented on The Synology End Game lowendbox.com/blog/they-u... · Posted by u/amacbride

julian_t · 6 months ago

I got given a small Synology box by a brother-in-law, and have not been impressed by their OS or apps, so I just use rsync. It's OK, but as my needs are simple I'm thinking of using an RPi solution instead.

(What was amusing was that I kept finding it powered off, and spent quite a while trying to find why it could be shutting down. It turned out that, because I kept it on the floor under my desk, the Roomba would occasionally bump into it and hit the power button on the front)

julian_t commented on Strange CW Keys sites.google.com/site/oh6... · Posted by u/austinallegro

motorest · 6 months ago

Here we are railing against $500 mechanical keyboards, and some dude whips out $500 CW keys. The ultimate one-up.

julian_t · 6 months ago

The comparison with mechanical keyboards is spot on! Despite having nothing to do with radio or morse in any way, I was given a Vibroplex and it is quite a piece of kit - solid as a rock and obviously a tool well suited to its one task. It reminds me of some of the old tonearms used on turntables, with many springs, counterweights and possible adjustments.

julian_t commented on I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file al3rez.com/todo-txt-journ... · Posted by u/al3rez

julian_t · 7 months ago

I currently have three editors open: nvim (because I've been using it since it was vi), VS Code (because that's what work mandates) and Emacs (for org mode only). Horses for courses, and all that.