NewTricks Posted September 22 ID:1662639 Share Posted September 22 (edited) September 22, 2024 marks the beginning of the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Fun fact: according to some sources there are two different types of twilight: Civil: sun is less than 6 degrees below the horizon Nautical: sun drops down to 12 degrees below the horizon Many people live with Daylight Saving Time. If so, we have a couple months before that happens. In the mean time, weatherizing, home and garden maintenance occupy weekends. Leaf peeping, pie baking, and cider brewing create the mood. Photo credit Trees- NBC Connecticut Edited September 22 by NewTricks clarity 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H. Lipman Posted September 22 ID:1662708 Share Posted September 22 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 23 Author ID:1662823 Share Posted September 23 Thanks Dave, the 2nd image is particularly intriguing. I assume it's a mushroom and you're going to tell me what kind! Looks like a fantastic day for a ride. I've dragged out the Panasonic and am trying to use the Aperture program for depth of field. So far, so good. Good thing too, because periodically the computer burps and gives me a plain purple screen. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H. Lipman Posted September 23 ID:1662829 Share Posted September 23 22 minutes ago, NewTricks said: Thanks Dave, the 2nd image is particularly intriguing. I assume it's a mushroom and you're going to tell me what kind! Looks like a fantastic day for a ride. Old Man of the Woods [ Strobilomyces nigricans ] edible mushroom. Notice how black the tannin swamp water was in Photo #4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukecad Posted September 23 ID:1662875 Share Posted September 23 Anybody else spot the meerkat/poodle cross in Daves last picture? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 23 Author ID:1662933 Share Posted September 23 4 hours ago, nukecad said: meerkat/poodle cross Yup, similar to the face in the decayed wood stump last year. We see what we wanna see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 23 Author ID:1662936 Share Posted September 23 9 hours ago, David H. Lipman said: how black the tannin swamp water was in Photo #4 Yes, I wouldn't want to see what's at the bottom. Thanks for the edible mushroom ID. I learned something. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 23 Author ID:1662937 Share Posted September 23 Gray and rainy, but good light here nevertheless. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 26 Author ID:1663491 Share Posted September 26 Cultivated winter squash in the genus of Cucurbuita~vegetable. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Admin AdvancedSetup Posted September 27 Root Admin ID:1663548 Share Posted September 27 Pumpkin patch time Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 28 Author ID:1663732 Share Posted September 28 On 9/26/2024 at 10:04 PM, AdvancedSetup said: Pumpkin patch time Nothing says autumn and fall like this. Now I'm noticing H-U-G-E gourds all over town. Funny how something can grow so large, given the right opportunity. The pumpkin symbol covers Halloween AND Thanksgiving, that's a lot of mileage. Are pumpkins available/popular on the West Coast? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 28 Author ID:1663733 Share Posted September 28 This week, during physical conditioning class, I fell to the floor. The good news is, it is clean, smooth and highly polished. Much better for skin than concrete or asphalt. Four of my classmates immediately came over to help me up, I only needed one! Falling is a life time consequence of a horse's hoof dancing on my head 48 years ago. The balance mechanism in my right ear was destroyed. Yes, age matters, but so do other things. If you don't already, practice balancing on one leg at home to strengthen your skills and consider taking calcium for bone health. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 28 Author ID:1663734 Share Posted September 28 My curlers were pink. Now.... this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukecad Posted September 28 ID:1663786 Share Posted September 28 4 hours ago, NewTricks said: This week, during physical conditioning class, I fell to the floor. ...... smooth and highly polished. Sounds like a slip/fall hazzard to me. Surely you would expect something non-slip for an exercise class? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 28 Author ID:1663822 Share Posted September 28 Actually, it is not slippery. Polyurethane surface and squeaky. I didn't give this much thought until your comment. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted September 28 Author ID:1663825 Share Posted September 28 Somewhat of a slow slog with the camera, but there's no rush to produce assignments and endure critiques. Right now, I'm out for shallow depth of field and blurred backgrounds with no competition. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukecad Posted Monday at 09:00 AM ID:1664019 Share Posted Monday at 09:00 AM (edited) I'm not sure where to post this, so here is as good as anywhere. This week I have been getting to grips with the CCleaner forum on it's 'new' Discourse platform. The look is different to Invision of course, but not too unusual that you can't find your way around. At least we should get better at finding our way round with time. As usual many things seem to have been broken during the migration. Missing links, missing images, weird things going on with the formatting of some migrated posts, etc. Some threads that had previously been closed/locked are now open again, some popular threads now have no option to reply, they aren't closed/locked there's just no reply buttons. I'll have to check the Discourse documentation but I think that may be because of their many posts length, I think there may be a limit on how many posts each thread can contain. (That's another good thing, there is plenty of clear, easy to navigate, guidance available on the Discourse website for all levels from newbie users to admins). Then there are the usual forum upgrade/migration glitches to be tweaked, eg. text being the same colour as the button that it is on so you just see a blank button, menu fields being wider than the discussions and so going off the edge of the screen. On the moderation side. We seem to have less of a proactive role checking new users and blocking spam ourselves. We see much less information (email addys, etc) for users. Instead we find ourselves mainly responding to check what the automatic filters have already flagged for review, I will admit the filters seem to be very good. There are some things that pop up and give a 'wtf is that about' moment. It isn't always clear just why the system has flagged something for review. As an example - "New member typed their post too fast". Checking into it there is a # second timer on making a first ever post which is meant to catch any paste-it-in spambots. The real test of the automatic filters will come next time we get a large spam attack. Some of the bigger ones we have seen in the past would have been blocked by that new post too fast rule. However while those lower level tasks have been handed off to the system filters we mods have access to higher level tools which I would usually consider to be admin tools not moderator tools. For example we mods can now add new words into the watchlists, with different options on how posts containing that word should be handled. On Invision that is an admin only setting, but it should help us mods act more quickly to block particular spam next time we do get a spam attack that uses consistent wording. New forum platform, different levels of moderator trust. All in all it's different, but not so different that we won't soon get to grips with using it. EDIT I also now see why they have migrated from Invision to Discourse, they have been using it for their marketing and sales support webpages for a while now so I guess it does make sense to get the user forum in there too so that everything is in one place and has the same visual identity. Edited Monday at 09:10 AM by nukecad 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted Monday at 12:03 PM Author ID:1664035 Share Posted Monday at 12:03 PM 2 hours ago, nukecad said: some things that pop up and give a 'wtf is that about' moment. 🤣🤣🤣 This can happen anywhere, anytime! but yeah, within that platform, an extra pause moment to decipher. 2 hours ago, nukecad said: "New member typed their post too fast". Wow! That reminds me of an automated course coming up (every 3 years) that allows a reduction in auto insurance for safe driving practices. How utterly discriminatory towards nimble fingers! But better than facial recognition bias for sure. It seems like for every forum change or upgrade, inevitable havoc follows. I've been on a Simple Machines forum for a decade, where an update caused a massive, random post deletion last week. I'd gotten a taste of that before, so somehow was untouched this time. It's demoralizing not to have control over the process like you once did. All in the name of progress too. I'm glad you found a bright spot with tool access you didn't expect to see. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted Monday at 12:14 PM Author ID:1664037 Share Posted Monday at 12:14 PM I'm trying to form a new habit, walking 2.15 miles daily. I'm experimenting with the timing, so went out today, at 6:15 AM while it was dark and foggy. Not an appreciable difference in experience, but I was able to shave 7 minutes off my time. James Clear's Atomic Habits sets out his theory of habit formation. I'm trying to control my sudden unexpected sticky bun, cinnamon cravings, but I'll be darned if I can figure that one out! The closest I've come is to buy Amish homemade molasses cookies, put each in a separate small zip lock bag and freeze them. When the urge strikes, I break off 1/3 and don't even wait for it to thaw! How is this working?!? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukecad Posted Monday at 05:19 PM ID:1664073 Share Posted Monday at 05:19 PM 5 hours ago, NewTricks said: I'm glad you found a bright spot with tool access you didn't expect to see. I have now had another day and found a lot more admin tools/tasks that we now seem to be expected to do. I have just posted there (in the 'Private' staff room but ### that) that while I'm happy to be a volunteer mod on any forum, being admin on a company forum should be a paid position, with the company supporting your 'official' status - and I'm not an idiot. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H. Lipman Posted Monday at 05:56 PM ID:1664082 Share Posted Monday at 05:56 PM 36 minutes ago, nukecad said: I have now had another day and found a lot more admin tools/tasks that we now seem to be expected to do. I have just posted there (in the 'Private' staff room but ### that) that while I'm happy to be a volunteer mod on any forum, being admin on a company forum should be a paid position, with the company supporting your 'official' status - and I'm not an idiot. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukecad Posted Monday at 06:06 PM ID:1664084 Share Posted Monday at 06:06 PM (edited) It's just got even better - the forum is in what seems to be a large multi-posting, spam attack from an Indian spambot, but it could have been from anywhere. They are getting past the automatic filters. And I'm on my phone not a PC. I might clean it up when I get back home, but there again ...... Edit- I've just loggedd on to bleepingcomputer and they seem to be having a spam attack there as well. Edited Monday at 06:16 PM by nukecad 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Admin AdvancedSetup Posted Monday at 07:51 PM Root Admin ID:1664109 Share Posted Monday at 07:51 PM Clean Talk cannot stop them all either, but it does a much better job than any other products I've seen With help from others we do a pretty good job of keeping on top of the SPAM that does get through but I remember back years ago when we would get a hundred spam post a day and that was annoying trying to keep up. It sucked up all your time just doing that instead of being able to help users with their computer issues 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H. Lipman Posted Monday at 08:08 PM ID:1664115 Share Posted Monday at 08:08 PM 2 hours ago, nukecad said: We have seen that too here but campaigns were neutered rather quickly. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewTricks Posted Monday at 08:14 PM Author ID:1664118 Share Posted Monday at 08:14 PM 2 hours ago, nukecad said: I have just posted there (in the 'Private' staff room but ### that) that while I'm happy to be a volunteer mod on any forum, being admin on a company forum should be a paid position, with the company supporting your 'official' status - and I'm not an idiot. I'm glad to see that you've found and are using your voice. And yeah, I support #### that. Being appreciated, recognized and actually getting money, the trifecta. Over time I've noticed your "attention to detail" and I hope others will too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now