Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Engineer Brains

@hhackenbecker.bsky.social

860 followers 490 following 3.4K posts

Master tinkerer, retired. Loves: old Macs, cats, humour, SF&F, Star Trek Loathes: politics, sport, Facebook, Google, anything POSIX This might be he/it/oi-you.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 5h

Nice day, eating a sandwich in a city park.
"Struth, they can't be real," says a bloke on the next bench, look up & see a lass with an enormous bust walking by. "I'd hate to see how those hold up in ten years."
"Hold up?" says bloke #2, "She'll need buttressing & an overpass!"
Stay classy, Adelaide.

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 8h

Humans to the left, Baymaxes to the right.

1 8

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 8h

The time when Moebius did the cover for a computer manual.

This is the cover of the BASIC manual for the Alice microcomputer, a French licenced clone of the Tandy MC-10 launched in 1983. Hugely popular in schools across France for most of the 80s & early 90s because of its price, it had one rather novel feature for its time, a composite video input and video-mixer circuit, allowing it to be used to superimpose text and graphics over an external video signal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matra_Alice
http://www.ordinosaures.fr/page14.html

3 1 7

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

Logically useful.
#StarTrek #Spocktober

Star Trek TOS's Mister Spock, but drawn as Linus from 'Peanuts' complete with blue blanket.

1 3

Reposted by Engineer Brains

techknight @thetechknight.bsky.social · 1d

100% restored Macintosh Portable. that basically took my entire weekend to complete, but I am happy. Another one saved from the brink of death!

3 6 78

Reposted by Engineer Brains

Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 12d

What an unsurprising decision by corporations that desperately need to make money with AI. If every other company with a chatbot isn't already doing this, then expect them to be following Meta's lead soon. The chatbot is not your friend; it's a corporate listening device. www.ft.com/content/22f7...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/22f7afc3-8ac0-4ca1-9877-fd3f8ddcc986?desktop=true&segmentId=7c8f09b9-9b61-4fbb-9430-9208a9e233c8#myft:notification:daily-email:content

Meta will use conversations people have with its chatbots to personalise advertising and content across its platforms, in a sign of how tech companies plan to make money from artificial intelligence.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on Wednesday said it would use the content of chats with its Meta AI to create advertising recommendations across its suite of apps.

“People will already expect that their Meta AI interactions are being used for these personalisation purposes,” said Christy Harris, privacy and data policy manager at Meta.

9 150 360

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

Depends on who with, in either case.

1 1

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

Mirror Mirror ...

Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien in DS9 uniform (left) and as Kellicams O'Brien in full Klingon make-up (right).

There truly is a Star Trek meme for every occasion, isn't there.

1 4

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

Today's catty truthiness:

A veterinary clinic's letter-sign reads "IF THE EARTH WAS FLAT CATS WOULD PUSH EVERYTHING OFF IT".
I like this vet.

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

Not. This one pre-dates generative image tools by at least a decade, and the clumsy kitten is now an elderly lady-cat.

Reposted by Engineer Brains

Alex Strook 🐭⚡️SQUEAKROSS @alexstrook.bsky.social · 3d

im so glad real websites still exist, the internet is not dead yet

screenshot of the website https://downloads.khinsider.com/

screenshot from the website https://www.palaiszelda.com/

13 45 240

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

If Abe could see what's happened to his America ...

1 2

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

At least there's plenty of room for the litter box.

1 6

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

In a better alternate reality ...

I.C.E. rounds up the business executives who illegally exploited undocumented workers.

3 8

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

You know America is screwed when The Onion's articles are factually more accurate than the nation's mainstream news services.

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 2d

theonion.com/ice-raids-my...

MYTH: ICE agents lack proper training.

FACT: Most have been racists their entire lives.

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

"What are you smoking?"
"Essence of Man."

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 1d

I recognise My Little Corona on the right, but who's the one with the beard?

1 1

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 2d

Saint Mycelia of the Headlands.

Dark and Wondrous - it's in the trees! it's coming! @darkandwondrous.bsky.social · 13d

As October begins, we contemplate how the sea wind had its way with this now-fungal saint.

scary sea-weathered saint on the church near Hartlepool headland (body of saint is heavily eroded down to a veined or boxwork-like underlying structure of the stone, which looks like weird branching fungus).

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 2d

A tip for AppleTV 4K owners! Is yours stuck in some kind of reboot loop? The box isn't broken, its the remote causing it. Plug the remote into a charge source, then press-n-hold the TV & Volume Down buttons for two seconds to restart the remote. discussions.apple.com/thread/25532...

Apple TV 4K 3rd Gen — Boot Loop (SOLVED: … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Reposted by Engineer Brains

Foone @foone.bsky.social · 2d

an important part of remembering the past is so we know exactly why we shouldn't do that shit ever again

6 22

Reposted by Engineer Brains

Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 2d

The Macintosh PowerBook BLIT was definitely safe for looking at all possible images.

For a little while, anyway.

$A photo of a Macintosh PowerBook BLIT, with eight separate small and chaotically sized screens on its display where there would normally be one. Designed not to show all of an image at one time, it's showing some probably completely innocuous fractal-like design in part across the screens.$

16 25 200

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 2d

Hey Apple! Whatever happened to "We sweat the small stuff so you don't have to"? iOS 26 requires lots of unnecessary fiddling with things, the much-vaunted intuitive UX is broken. It should be called "Stained Glass" not "Liquid Glass".
www.nngroup.com/articles/liq...

Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

iOS 26’s visual language obscures content instead of letting it take the spotlight. New (but not always better) design patterns replace established conventions.

www.nngroup.com

1 6

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 2d

˙sʇᴉs I 'sʇᴉɟ I ɟI

1 8

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 3d

You just never know where Ted Cruz is going to be spotted next, do you.

Engineer Brains @hhackenbecker.bsky.social · 4d

Grandpa after an afternoon's minding the grand-kits.