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• Post #4467867

  Esteemed live performers: I run Mac OS, and I wonder if you can recommend me software that can turn my Mac into an effects box, using the VST plugins that are already on it. Switching effects in and out, live, is essential. Routing audio inputs, live, would be great. I don’t think my DAW (Cubase Pro) would do this easily. Edit: this is what a”VST host” is, isn’t it? What’s a VST Host that you like on the Mac?

• Post #4400525

  Songs that are about other, now-lost, songs: - Crocodile Rock [Elton John] - The Monster Mash* [Bobby Pickett] - Tennessee Waltz* [Patti Page] - Best Song Ever [One Direction] - Killing Me Softly With His Song [Roberta Flack] - Jailhouse Rock [Elvis Presley] - Play That Song [Train] - Tribute [Tenacious D] - Sing it Back [Moloko] - Eagle Rock [Daddy Cool] - National Anthem of Nowhere [Apostle of Hustle] - The Late Greats [Wilco] - I Heard Your Song On The Radio [Peccadillo] - The Black Hit Of S...

• Post #4399374

  The fact that the melody of“Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music uses accidentals not enumerated by the song bothers me a lot.

• Post #4369323

  Have you ever turned back the system clock on a piece of hardware so that the software on it will keep running?

• Post #4311319

  Speaking of trackers, it would have been 1988 and I came across a “music editor” for my Amiga through the usual channels (my big brother brought home a disk from school, I ask no questions). It came with some example tracks which I reverse-engineered. I painstakingly transcribed my own songs onto the software. This was long before I knew what a “sequencer” was, and before I had a four-track tape recorder. Eventually I upgraded to a proper, purchased, MIDI sequencer (Music-X). Reader, it was not...

• Post #4258305

  @pyconau@mastodon.pycon.org.au attendees in Brisbane! Please help me gauge how many of the one or more stickers below for me to share at #PyconAU #PyconAU2026 (image in previous post)

• Post #4253794

  What’s the most-n “We and our technology partners” cookie consent dialog you’ve encountered in the wild? Current leader: 1231, futurism.com

• Post #4157402

  Have you ever deliberately introduced a syntax error into a program to check that the code you’re editing is the code you think you’re running?

• Post #4153993

  I've got so many random USB sticks in my office. None of them is labelled. Most don't have a spot on them to write (legibly). But they all have lanyard attachment points. So, hear me out: friendship bracelet letter beads. Oh, this one is W I N D O W S S E R V E R 2 0 1 6, how cute, we'll always be friends.

• Post #4149297

  When I say my company is like a family, I mean it in the sense of no one working there can believe they are related to one other, no one admits to using the last of the toothpaste and/or copy paper, I’m always the one restocking the toilet paper, and they are always squabbling in the back while I’m trying to drive until I threaten that they can both get out and walk.

• Post #4134942

  Which of these songs from the 1970s-80s British comedy group The Goodies do you know?

• Post #4110824

  These silicone trays from the BoardGameGeek store are simply perfect for the 20 different resources used in Ora et Labora. #boardgames

• Post #4108002

  Australians, did you put a reminder into your phone for shortly before the AusAlert test tomorrow, so you won’t be unnecessarily startled?

• Post #4009297

  So at $dayjob I am now looking for Wi-Fi access points with off-the-shelf support for VLANs, WPA-Enterprise using RADIUS, and PoE. Local controller (or no controller at all! that's fine too), no cloud shit. I don't love Unifi, I don't love Mikrotik, but I'm familiar with their offerings. Maloney clause: If you are seeing this post without context, you may think I should look at OpenWrt or other aftermarket free firmwares. That's how I got in this mess in the first place.

• Post #3999569

  I love that taxonomists really do divide carnivores into "basically dogs" and "basically cats". Caniforms: canines, bears, raccoons, mustelids, skunks, pinnipeds. Feliforms: felines, hyenas, mongooses, civets.

• Post #3974473

  This is what irks me about iOS. Let’s hide the most commonly used option for a browser tab under a long press that you have to then *scroll* the popup to find.

• Post #3945315

  Street directory roads

• Post #3944609

  A recent post about the earth’s core shifting https://social.chinwag.org/@bignose/116948594978530613 has ignited an anxiety that if we ever need to do another leap second, we no longer have the skill or the willingness to make it happen. People are seriously happy to let TAI slip because fixing ten years of untested sloppy coding since the last leap second is genuinely beyond the pale.

• Post #3933801

  Free idea: synthesizer wavetables that use magnitude curves of variable stars. #astronomy #music

• Post #3922550

  Tag yourself.

• Post #3871493

  No matter how much musical theory you know, there's still new horizons to be learned. A week or two ago, someone here casually mentioned the augmented sixth chord and its function as a predominant. This is something that I never got up to in my formal music theory education, so off I went to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_sixth_chord). I'm now out of the rabbit hole (hi) and I'm seeing these chords _everywhere_. I'm particularly pleased that I now understand...

• Post #3852518

  FPGA is the professional golfers' association for Furries.

• Post #3844087

  It has been 0️⃣ days since a mailing list notified me of a summer promotion.

• Post #3818711

  Q8 is gonna have a lot of eggs. https://catfishing.net #752 - 4.5/10 🐈🐟🐈🐟🐈 🐟🐟🥚🐟🐈

• Post #3807093

  https://info.census.abs.gov.au/about/about-census-questions/personal-details “What was the person’s sex recorded at birth? […] If needed, a person can fill in a separate Census form to keep their answers private from others in the household. Find more information about [link]completing the Census in your preferred way.” I mean, sure, fuck you, ABS, but let’s play along… At that link: “To ensure your separate form is counted, we ask that you use the same name, date of birth and sex recorded at...

• Post #3801857

  Male colleague: I need to draw factory layouts with dimensions. I was looking at BRICsCAD, we use it elsewhere in the company, but maybe I could use Visio? It's got a free trial. Me: Visio doesn't do dimensions. You'll want BRICsCAD. Colleague: I'll register for the Visio free trial. Colleague, in hallway: Oh, by the way, Visio doesn't do dimensions.

• Post #3771957

  Panicked phone call from a Brisbane colleague: My computer just turned off, and so did two of my neighbours’. I set the onsite electrician on the case. His analysis: all three of them had under-desk heaters turned on full, and it tripped the breaker. He’s from Toowoomba so we had a chuckle about Brisbane people not handling the cold (“cold”) even a little bit.

• Post #3732360

  The sun’s out, and it’s lightly raining. Give me my fucking rainbow, sky.

• Post #3730964

  Bayeux Tapestry will be in the British Museum for a while. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-10/bayeux-tapestry-returns-to-uk-after-transfer-from-france/106904002

• Post #3730680

  Markdown syntax is awful.