Elfi, known bug enjoyer @elfi@pixie.town

the UNIX v4 tape reminded me of this story by Ali Akurgal about Turkish bureaucracy:

Do you know what the unit of software is? A meter! Do you know why? In 1992, we did our first software export at Netaş. We wrote the software, pressed a button, and via the satellite dish on the roof, at the incredible speed of 128 kb/s, we sent it to England. We sent the invoice by postal mail. $2M arrived at the bank. 3-4 months passed, and tax inspectors came. They said, “You sent an invoice for $2M?” “Yes,” we said. “This money has been paid?” they asked. “Yes,” we said. “But there is no goods export; this is fictitious export,” they said! So we took the tax inspectors to R&D and sat them in front of a computer. “Would you press this ‘Enter’ key?” we asked. One of them pressed it, then asked, “What happened?” “You just made a $300k export, and we’ll send its invoice too, and that will be paid as well,” we said. The man felt terrible because he had become an accomplice! Then we explained how software is written, what a satellite connection is, and how much this is worth. They said, “We understand, but there has to be a physical goods export; that’s what the regulations require.” So we said: “Let’s record this software onto tape (there were no CDs back then—nor cassettes; we used ½-inch tapes) and send that.” Happy to have found a solution, they said, “Okay, record it and send it.” The software filled two reels, which were handed to a customs broker, who took them to customs and started the export procedure. The customs officer processed things and at one point asked, “Where are the trucks?” The broker said, “There are no trucks—this is all there is,” and pointed to the tape reels on the desk. The customs officer said, “These two envelopes can’t be worth $2M; I can’t process this.” We went to court, an expert committee examined whether the two reels were worth $2M. Fortunately, they ruled that they were, and we were saved from the charge of fictitious export. The same broker took the same two reels to the same customs officer, with the court ruling, and restarted the procedure. However, during the process, the unit price, quantity, and total price of the exported goods had to be entered—as per the regulations. To avoid dragging things out further, they looked at the envelope, saw that it contained tape, estimated how many meters of tape there are on one reel, and concluded that we had exported 1k to 2k meters of software. So the unit of software became the meter.

@joomy

I once read a story about the people writing the software for the NASA Apollo missions. There was a functionary in charge of weight accounting, who came to them and asked how much the software would weigh.

They told him it weighted nothing, but the functionary had heard *that* one before and insisted—everything had to be accounted down to the last ounce. He demanded to see it.

They showed him a stack of punched cards, and he was triumphant. “You see,” he said smugly, “it doesn't weigh only ‘nothing’!”

“No, you misunderstand,” they replied. “The cards aren't going on the spacecraft. Only the holes.”

This is your reminder to cancel all those subscriptions you signed up for on sale at the end of 2024 that are about to renew at full price next week.

#adhd

First comm down :D - it's @ECMSquared 's Noctiliae, Valentine Butterloaf!

Want something similar? Just pop over here->
https://vgen.co/feff

#commissions #vgen #fediart

would anyone like some DDR3 RAM? yours for $5 & I'll post it for free - I have no use for it but it's too good to go into e-waste!

I made ice cream float-themed cat toys and earrings this past June, but then never put them on my Etsy or Ko-Fi store (I had a v bad summer and fall, ngl)
I finally put them up on Etsy yesterday/today. Woohoo!

I made a smol sketch of the MC for @elfi 's game, inspired by one of her smol sketch's. I coloured it in then decided I hated it and erased half of it. So enjoy the shadows of colours that once were instead!
#MastoArt #art #elves #fairies

Heads up, visual artists!

Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University are doing a survey among artists working professionally about how they have or haven't been impacted by generative AI, and they are looking for participants.

Register here for the survey: https://cmu.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2fVHytrlM2HC47k

I don't know them but artist Karla Ortiz vouches for them on Bluesky, this is a legit thing.

You don't have to be a US citizen to take part.

#NoAI #GenerativeAI #HumanArt #ArtistsOnMastodon

I'm struggling to make ends meet right now. I lost my job in July. My bills are terrifying me. I've been looking for work, but also am being told by my doctor+ that I maybe shouldn't be looking for work because my mental health and physical health are still so bad, and I have a brain injury.

I need to raise $800+ so if you could help with anything at all, I'd appreciate it so so much.

https://ko-fi.com/pineconeparty
PayPal is @ pineconeparty

Gabby for content
#mutualaid

I just bought another one, Squeakross by @LukaTheMouse, and this is why I still haven't finished Princess Farmer, Kitsune Tails, Quantum Witch, Blobun, any of the cool games made by Fedi people, I haven't even finished Improbable Island yet and I'm probably not gonna because the creator is a dick but anyway back to Squeakross, it's a nonogram game (like Mario's Picross) paired with a house-decorating doofer and first of all the game itself is a joy to play but secondly holy shit the coats of lacquer this guy's brushed onto this, like whoa, you can see your face in it. Polish upon polish upon polish.

It's a Windows game but the itch.io version runs fine on Steam at least on my computer, what you do is get the game as a zip file on itch, uncompress it somewhere so you get a .exe and some other stuff, you open Steam up, you go to Games at the top -> add a non-Steam game, hit Browse, point it at the .exe, then you gotta right-click on squeakross.exe in your games list, go to Properties, then Compatibility, tick "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" and tell it use Proton 9.0-4, and then you're done and it'll load and run just fine. It probably runs with other Proton version too, I didn't check.

Kiddo: 🐀 I've been playing a lot of Kitsune Tails lately
Me: 🦝 Oh aye? What do you think of it, I'll tell the developer
🐀 ...😯 you KNOW the developer?
🦝 We're mutuals on Mastodon
🐀 *jumping in her seat* OH MY GOD
🦝 😏 heheh yeah your dad's kind of a big deal 😏
🐀 OH MY GODDD

This is why you need to buy indie games

I just created an Etsy and Ko-Fi listing for my CUSTOM crochet Animal Crossing Character commissions! Only three will be available because these take a while to make. You just send me images of your character, and I'll crochet it!
(My favourite detail: I made the backpacks functional!)
You can find the listings below! (Psst it's cheaper for you and better for me if you purchase from my Ko-Fi!)
https://happypartyca.etsy.com/listing/4427213583
https://ko-fi.com/s/241dee1343

#etsy #animalcrossing #crochet #amigurumi

head to local second hand stores and computer repair shops. they most likely WILL NOT have any crts in stock as they generally don't accept them. BUT they do turn away people literally all the time trying to get rid of them. head up to the desk, ask them if they can call you if someone's looking to get rid of one.

Mozilla right now.

#firefox #mozilla

Winter sale is up on itchio, and guess what? You can get my game for 20% off!!

🏠🐁 https://alblune.itch.io/squeakross-home-squeak-home 🏠🐁

Use your brain to solve cool puzzles and get furniture!

Incredible game to offer to friends and family, certified rat, you even get a house for free??? Unlock pride stickers and furniture??

Sign me up

Mozilla leadership
(edit: it was in ref to https://web.archive.org/web/20240917173016/https://mozilla.social/@mozilla/113153943609185249 , but still works in 2025)

#comic #firefox #mozilla

Here's how to support human artists! 🎨

Joh often picks up Wren and kisses her, which Wren returns by licking his face.

Joh always tilts Wren toward me, so that I can kiss her. Wren always refuses this, turning away from me. Until this weekend!

Joh picked her up, kissed her. Wren licked his face. He tilted her toward me, and...she allowed me to kiss her head! I was elated.

But as I pulled away, she stretched her paws toward me. I stopped. Wren climbed out of Joh's arms and into mine.

And started licking my face!