neil @neil@social.coop
Pinned toot
Spread good vibes and good info.
Just finished The Player of Games (Iain M Banks) - also really enjoyable. Less cinematic than Consider Phlebas (though still nicely paced), and a bit more to chew on philosophically. The contrast of the hierarchical Azadian empire and the egalitarian Culture is interesting. Gurgeh, the main character, from the Culture, finds some appeal in the way things work in Azad. Azad feels like a caricature of Western society as it is today - superficially advanced and urbane, but with some re
Did a djembe drumming class yesterday - holy moly it was fun. We did five songs. Such rhythm. So drum. I used to play a kit and this is a lot simpler, but it's way more fun when there's twenty of you doing it together.
Really enjoyed Consider Phlebas (Iain M. Banks). It was a rip-roaring read. Very visual and cinematic, I can still conjure up a picture of a lot of the scenes in my head. Enjoyed the brief intro it gives to the Culture, too - the post-scarcity socialist society that are featured in a lot more books in the Culture series. Interested to see how that's explored further. I've just started reading the next in the series, The Player of Games.
After this I think I'll try some Kim Stan
BBC had loads of coverage on the right to repair and the Ecodesign Directive today. We were busy!
HWC London tomorrow - first one of 2019!
Join us and spend a bit of time creating, updating or experimenting on your personal website - or maybe get started on one for the New Year!
neil
boosted
What is your favourite Documentary? What is about?
Also with Brutaldon I like the fact you can't see how many favourites or boosts a toot has gotten.
I feel like, I don't really want to know how popular something is, I just want to read it.
I've been using it a couple of weeks and I'm liking the Brutaldon interface for Mastodon a lot.
The slower pace works much better for me. I recommend trying it if you're like me and your attention and time is easily stolen by automatic updates and infinite scrolls. I feel like my toot perusing is a lot more chilled out and intentional now.
I'm very happy to have discovered org-super-agenda, lets you group things in logical ways in your agenda.
Definitely recommend checking it out if you use org-mode.
* 1980
- 42% of the population live in council housing
- Right to buy scheme introduced
* 2017
- Less than 8% of the population live in council housing
- 40% of ex-council flats sold via Right to Buy are now rented out more expensively by private landlords
Bret 'the Hitman' Hart knows why your program doesn't work
neil
boosted
I want to do a project in my city where people photograph a street and do a digital makeover regarding their dreams and visions (full artistic freedom). I hope to start a constructive discussion about citizen-based city planning.
I did not find any examples of what I imagine, so I made one ( #mastoart #solarpunk ). If you know of anything similar, please let me know. Some more examples would be helpful for initiating the project.
st george, 15th century gore Show more
There's a nice mini-exhibition on some social housing projects in the UK at the V&A Museum at the moment.
This fact is pretty amazing: "In the mid-1970s nearly half the population of England and Wales lived in council houses"
But as we know... "with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 the housing sector underwent rapid privitisation. Local authority architects' departments were disbanded, public land was sold off, and millions of council homes were bought[...]"
neil
boosted
If we don't support our comrades, no one will.
#RiseUp4Rojava – Defending the revolution together!
Call for Global Days of Action on 27 and 28 January 2019
https://de.indymedia.org/node/27632
(there're so many ways to participate in that it will be in the scope of anyones capabilities)
#rojava #syria #turkey
This also looks nice.
“Walden, a game is an exploratory narrative and open world simulation of the life of American philosopher Henry David Thoreau during his experiment in self-reliant living at Walden Pond. […] players are surrounded by the beauty of the woods and the Pond, which hold a promise of a sublime life beyond these basic needs.”
neil
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"Block’hood is a neighborhood-building simulator that celebrates the diversity and experimentation of cities and the unique ecosystems within them. Budding city planners will have access to 90+ building blocks to arrange and combine and to create unique neighborhoods and discover the implications of their designs. The game will embark on a story of ecology and understanding as additional resources are always needed to unlock new blocks, configurations, and combinations to create more prosperous neighborhoods. Throughout the design process, players will need to avoid the decay of their city blocks by making sure each unit doesn’t run out of resources and become a strain on the complimentary units around them."
https://www.gog.com/game/blockhood
neil
boosted
neil
boosted
Ordered a nice portable soldering iron online the other day, just got it in the mails. Looks really neat, powers off a laptop psu (18-24v) . Has a usb connector, turns out, it's a mass storage device, you can change the settings with a text file, you can upgrade the firmware, firmware is opensource, people have made alternative firmware for it, schematics are available and you can change the bootup logo...
I am like 'wat?'.
TS-100, now my favourite soldering tool...
