James 🌈💜

Author | Aussie | Written all kinds of tales over the years - romance, murder mystery, science fiction and fantasy and more.
Warning: Short term memory loss.

Pronouns: he/him
Website: https://jamesmilne.org
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/jimilne
Indie Books: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/shakna

Public Key

npub1wz5ypmmujdrpj7wy2x4zzkmq5nh77atcruk2p9nk3346k8n7l9ksu9y34p

NIP-05 Address

shaknais_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8p2zqaa7fx3se08z9r23ptds2fml0w4up7t9qjemgc6atrel0jmgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dse9ktzc

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1wz5ypmmujdrpj7wy2x4zzkmq5nh77atcruk2p9nk3346k8n7l9ksu9y34p

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Last Notes

2026-04-23 07:14:06 UTC

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If you really want conspiracy, he's the ex-commander of Wright-Patterson.

2026-04-22 23:13:48 UTC

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From the Fortune article at the top of this thread:
"McCasland, 68, disappeared from his Albuquerque home on Feb. 27 of this year, leaving on foot with only a .38 caliber revolver."
Widely reported at the time.

2026-04-22 21:18:36 UTC

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One of them disappeared after being filmed walking down a street with a drawn handgun.

2026-03-21 13:32:20 UTC

How coming out for me went, a few years back.
Me: So... I'm, uh... Bi...
Everyone else: We know. Did you see the cricket last night?

2026-02-28 09:34:37 UTC

Anger, pain, grief, hatred. These are things I feel when he speaks.
That I don't need to write his name, for most to guess, speaks volumes about the bastard.

2026-02-17 22:44:50 UTC

Work has officially upgraded from 1ply to 2ply.

2026-01-21 20:11:50 UTC

State of Accessibility on Linux, 2026:
Users: Wayland broke accessibility.
Wayland: Not our problem, talk to the compositor.
KDE & Gnome: Expose what we need for accessibility, plz?
Wayland: Security risk. No.
Factorio dev: This compromise?
Wayland: Ok, fine...
Also Wayland: Actually, no.
User: *researches how to grow new eyeballs* It'll be solved faster.
#linux #accessibility #wayland

2026-01-03 09:20:57 UTC

Someone I know was killed in the strikes on Venezuela. I was on call with them, and others have just confirmed they're dead.
I think I'm going to check out for a while.
If the US could deal with its own problems, that would be fucking awesome.

2025-12-23 10:50:22 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 23: What's a facet of the modern era of writing for which you're thankful?
Lemme just gush about a hero. Donald Knuth. In 1978, this computer scientist decided he wanted to write a series of books and that wordprocessors sucked.
So he invented: TeX, the type-setting engine. Then DVI as a better print format, for the engine. And also better line wrapping with the Knuth-Plass line-breaking algorithm. And then Metafont for better font definitions and rendering.

2025-12-05 04:08:31 UTC

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You've got let, so lambda should be a breeze. Nicely done!

2025-11-09 09:03:47 UTC

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/518/927/753/850/455/original/fabe33a613df171f.jpeg

2025-09-06 22:59:36 UTC

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I don't have a very outside lifestyle. Nerd. Programmer. Disabled.
Two years ago melanoma nearly killed me. Growth on my forehead burrowed into my skull.
Australia's skies are violent.

2025-09-06 06:13:20 UTC

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Yeah... Where are the controls and actual science in something that stops people from dying...?

2025-09-06 02:33:59 UTC

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"The Cancer Council’s Everyday Value Sunscreen SPF 50 and Ultra Sunscreen SPF 50+ tested at 27 and 24 respectively"

2025-09-06 02:32:24 UTC

Whelp. That's horrifying.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/12/several-leading-australian-sunscreens-dont-provide-sun-protection-they-say-according-to-choice-ntwnfb
#Australia
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/155/003/452/650/493/original/92225462f6b29b57.jpeg

2025-07-13 01:03:11 UTC

Kinda feels like all someone needs to do now is teach Donald to fiddle.

2025-06-18 11:41:56 UTC

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They're back up.

2025-06-09 05:28:52 UTC

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Bernardaud began manufacturing them in 1863. You're just seeing the fourth generation set dates. (The history will get confusing - businesses in the Depression, in France, did not last long. They rebranded multiple times.)
Like this reproduction of Catherine II's set: https://api.bernardaud.com/fr/collections/dinnerware/historical-dinnerware/catherine-ii
To get a more definitive picture, you'll probably be looking at getting this: https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/2858890250

2025-06-09 03:26:46 UTC

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"Artois Bleu" is a well recognised colour in crockery and ceramics. A popular blue that came with some of the art movement in Artois, France.
Like the blue lining on these plates: https://www.replacements.com/china-bernardaud-artois-bleu/c/4858

2025-05-23 11:00:57 UTC

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†Feel the need to kill a heretic in the new typing game

2025-05-06 22:45:09 UTC

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KOReader. On both Play and Fdroid. Openly developed. Can read pretty much any format. The interface isnt the cleanest, but the font rendering is pretty great.

2025-04-08 05:52:55 UTC

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a) A grid built for nuclear (centralised) is not a self-balancing grid (distributed) built for renewables. They require opposite needs.
b) That's not the plan. Everyone who has put forward nuclear, has required gas in the meantime, because they don't want to rework the grid twice.

2025-04-08 01:11:16 UTC

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Nuclear, which takes more than a decade to set up, and requires far more gas to be used in the meantime? That nuclear?
https://reneweconomy.com.au/global-report-shows-up-coalition-gas-and-nuclear-folly-underlines-why-labor-should-do-better/

2025-04-07 08:46:15 UTC

Algol68 has started merging into GCC. *squee*
https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Algol68FrontEnd
#RetroComputing

2025-03-13 12:47:15 UTC

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NameCheck will let you search, with the name at the bottom of their results.
https://www.namecheck.com/en/searchresult/?domain=darkness+within
But Google have rather frustratingly said, "Just search the Store" every time it comes up with frustrated devs.

2025-03-02 02:24:38 UTC

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I have seen a few. Mostly from people who voted for Trump (didn't abstain). They do still agree with the man on a number of things, but two things have caused regret:
- Ukraine. How they didn't see it coming, I dunno.
- Musk. They agree with the purpose, but not the man or process.

2025-02-21 06:07:49 UTC

Ahem.
I have a puppy.
That is all.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/040/374/976/790/618/original/24a91608f90105d0.jpg

2025-01-18 01:20:17 UTC

If you don't shout "I have the power!" every time you pick up a charging cable, are you even living?

2025-01-14 13:19:08 UTC

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Ooh, ooh! I get to explain this one!
To cancel a death certificate that has been wrongly filed, you are required to have an authorised original of it.
So, if someone screwed up and you got listed as dead (it happens, especially if you go off grid), you may need to request a certificate. Especially as you probably weren't around when it was originally issued.

2025-01-10 09:35:12 UTC

If you're an Aussie, and you get hit by Meta allowing women to be called objects and queer to be mentally ill (Or inspired by those actions)... Remember, over here, that's a crime. You can report it.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-10/meta-hateful-conduct-policy-changes-alarm-lgbtqia-advocates/104800042
#Australia

2024-12-28 10:50:17 UTC

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Ha. Australia gave 12 hours for comments from the public, and received a record number. And still passed it. And then refused to take questions on it during Question Time, in the first round.
There doesn't seem to be a want to have those particular laws grounded in reality.

2024-12-23 22:35:22 UTC

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Sure. That means the two projects are comparable.
So why is one frustrated that they shouldn't blow up uninitialised memory?

2024-12-23 11:18:14 UTC

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Is this just NetBSD curses being annoyed that ncurses actually does NULL checks before segfaulting? Instead of relying on the programmer to never make a mistake?
'Cos ncurses does the checks.
https://github.com/mirror/ncurses/blob/master/ncurses/base/lib_mouse.c#L1964

2024-12-22 10:51:57 UTC

World's Scariest Police Chases is just as ridiculous as it was in 2001. But more, 'cos handheld.
#retrogaming
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/696/089/296/910/846/original/bb1a22f58937a753.jpg

2024-12-16 07:42:02 UTC

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They're quoting the same study. The UK is among the highest - they're number two. Same numbers in both articles (albeit with rounding).
The UK is three times the average at 17.2%.
Australia is a frontrunner to hell with 20%.

2024-12-13 03:56:30 UTC

Google Pay and Wallet are so complicated, that Wikipedia has a template to explain it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Google_payment_apps
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/643/495/236/575/550/original/9348f496e6d49059.png

2024-12-12 13:09:21 UTC

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I do not understand how I fixed this.
But murdering `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla` worked...

2024-12-12 12:50:57 UTC

I give up...
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1478597
#Firefox #TechSupport

2024-12-09 04:00:17 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

2024-12-05 08:32:10 UTC

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I was not afraid of death, the first few times I brushed with it. However, faced last year with a long drawn out battle with cancer, I knew fear. The suffering, and inevitability, was worse than any accident.
(Cancer free now. Fuck cancer.)

2024-12-01 04:33:23 UTC

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I miss Turbo TUIs... Why does everything have to use emoji now?

2024-11-29 11:14:35 UTC

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The history of punch cards can be found a bit in this rather long scan of nothing but pages. No text, not accessible.
IBM tied the new 80-column format into the voting machines they were selling in the US, too. Until the Supreme Court ruled that it was an abuse, and that they could only set the spec, not also sell the cards.
https://textfiles.meulie.net/bitsaved/Books/Mackenzie_CodedCharSets.pdf

2024-11-29 11:12:13 UTC

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IBM's 80-column format happened in 1928? The US had already adopted it by the time Germany started discussing things in the 30s.

2024-11-29 10:51:22 UTC

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Germany adopting the equivalent of larger hard drives, that the US and UK were already using, doesn't really seem like a story...

2024-11-29 10:09:16 UTC

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Over in Australia: Government forces upload of ID for every social media site.

2024-11-26 13:04:47 UTC

MS Office has switched from opt-in, to opt-out, for scraping your documents for their AI. (Except in the EU)
So, if you care, or if *you do anything business related* using Office, you can now find the opt out...
File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Optional Connected Experiences
#MSOffice #AI #DataPrivacy

2024-11-21 16:44:24 UTC

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Yeah, I've got no real answers. Just an over abundance of caution, having seen so many people go down in flames in recent years. The world ain't a kind place.

2024-11-21 16:34:39 UTC

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Unfortunately, rightly or wrongly, a lot of those businesses are being canabalised by AI right now. It'll be a hard spot to try and compete against Grammarly.
That being said... A business is always about who you know. Have an audience, who trust you, and you'll always go far.

2024-11-21 16:18:55 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub Do you have a day job? What is it? Do you wish you could write full-time?
I spend most of my time dealing around this issue. I'm disabled. Some parts of the government acknowledge it. Some reject it. Some do both simultaneously.
I *want* to work. But doing so would likely cause enough damage it'd end me. I can't write full time, either. Even though I could. Pen, keyboard, etc. are right there.
On the other hand, I'd love to have just one night where I don't puke blood.

2024-11-20 08:52:25 UTC

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It's the land of politics. Infuriating, but inevitable. The Google team tends to push a JS-first landscape, and others push back, and the rest of us just end up with an inconsistent pile of crap that *could* have been better.

2024-11-20 08:40:52 UTC

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It was a deliberate choice, unfortunately. The spec writers tried to limit the use of the element on purpose:
"As with all HTML elements, it is not conforming to use the dialog element when attempting to represent another type of control. For example, context menus, tooltips, and popup listboxes are not dialog boxes, so abusing the dialog element to implement these patterns is incorrect."
https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/interactive-elements.html#htmldialogelement

2024-11-17 23:15:03 UTC

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I'd dance too, if I won the war that easily.

2024-11-17 13:08:13 UTC

Astro Fang Super Machine is surprisingly fun.
#RetroGaming
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/498/445/221/100/957/original/165a49e6511cf3df.jpg

2024-11-16 02:15:30 UTC

For the coffee we write,
for the tales we breathe,
this is the life of the author incarnate!
Let no writer be left alone,
for the club sits round 'n round,
bringing in the dust and ink,
until the piece lies
abandoned in the dark...
Yet for the coffee we write,
for the tales we breathe,
this is the life of the author incarnate.
#SongsAboutHashtags
#HashTagGames
#WritersCoffeeClub

2024-10-26 03:17:30 UTC

*ahem*
My superhero story has begun to appear! Releasing on 1st of November.
(With artwork that needed tweaks 20min before going live, this morning... That was tense.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DL1MTQGZ
#Ashstorm

2024-10-25 01:06:00 UTC

Open the doors, we're finally here,
a place of freedom,
for us the Demise!
DemiHausen is here to stay,
home for the homeless,
life for the troubled,
freedom to be your name!
#SongsAboutFictionalWorkPlaces
#HashTagGames
#Ashstorm

2024-10-13 01:34:30 UTC

The Imitation Machine
#MakeAMovieUseful
#HashTagGames

2024-10-09 08:43:14 UTC

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Well, there's no milk in ANZACs...

2024-10-09 03:50:49 UTC

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He's running voting websites that don't actually register you to vote. Isn't that also election interference...?

2024-10-05 11:25:55 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub October 5. You're the Ruler of the Writing Universe for the day. What petty rule do you decree?
I command that the sun shall be kept risen, she shall not set, whilst words lie left to be penned by those that labour beneath her gaze. Sorry, Sunni.

2024-10-05 03:54:09 UTC

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Wordpress allows you to use Markdown (Commonmark), for posts.
So I'm guessing you're not asking for something to convert, but to automatically upload?

2024-09-08 04:19:26 UTC

Wait, I can go back to WordPerfect!?
Sweeeet.
https://github.com/taviso/wpunix
#retrocomputing

2024-09-08 04:13:18 UTC

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Having actually sent a patch for one of their decoders... ffmpeg is a hellhole that will eat the developer.

2024-09-06 04:21:28 UTC

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My first intentional rm -rf / was a complete disaster.
I set up a VM, just to see the chaos first hand. Various things breaking. See how long Linux could just keep running.
... I did not realise that the particular VM had automounted my root drive.

2024-08-27 15:25:51 UTC

Phoebe's got a point.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DF67S8SJ/
#PhoebesDestiny
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/034/672/456/447/601/original/41c5f5047716abc1.png

2024-08-27 04:28:39 UTC

It's started going up for sale! Paperback is still in the pipeline, as is library availability.
Phoebe never thought she had a destiny. However, it didn't much care, and came for her anyway. Swept her up from the world of coffee and legal papers she knew, and dumped her in a forest of myth and magic.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DF67S8SJ/
#PhoebesDestiny #writing

2024-08-26 17:03:30 UTC

Police are appealing for public assistance to help locate missing boy Riley. The 14 year old Alfredton boy was last seen at an address on Windsor Avenue about 11am on Saturday 24 August.
Riley is described as being Caucasian in appearance, approximately 170cm tall with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a red jumper with a picture of a mushroom on it, shorts, black runners and carrying a small black bag.
#Australia #Ballarat
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/029/388/327/410/599/original/63210ba8472fe8a9.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/029/388/644/402/369/original/f3c94e0b4cd45bb8.jpg

2024-08-22 23:25:39 UTC

Most signs in Auslan require both hands, so I rather appreciate that this one doesn't.
https://auslan.org.au/dictionary/gloss/fuck-off1d.html
#Australia #Auslan
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/008/250/891/356/396/original/0a7fa0ea573a4652.mp4

2024-08-01 22:26:28 UTC

"However, many early users were convinced of ELIZA's intelligence and understanding, despite Weizenbaum's insistence to the contrary."
#AI was amazing and going to change the world in the 60s, too.
In fact, ELIZA beat GPT-3.5 in a Turing Test.
Still never actually *achieved* much, though.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/real-humans-appeared-human-63-of-the-time-in-recent-turing-test-ai-study/