Today’s odd behaviour...

...has been young children spontaneously deciding that I’m marvellous, & wanting a cuddle.

This started with a 3yob “going to see grampa” with his grandmother at Cottesloe Train Station.

This kid had a very solid build (solid, not fat) for a 3yo, in fact looked about 5yo, & was running around prodding buttons & the like — had to be grabbed by grandmother before hitting the Emeregency call button — so you could put it down to sheer exuberance, but the others were a complete non-plus, e.g. walking through a Subiaco shopping centre & get spotted by (guessing) 4yog.

I feel impelled to point out that I really don’t know these kids (or caretakers), am wearing black jeans, boots & a black LCA2006 shirt (so not especially colourful or attractive in any way), no not meet eyes or do anything to “buy” attention, do not frequent the areas concerned, <shrug> really don’t understand.

<shrug mode="again"> seems to have simply stopped at about lunch time.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

Search This Blog