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• Post #4320791

  Birding lifer. That's a bird you've never seen IN YOUR LIFE. So yes, you see plenty of lifers when you start birding, but after a few years, that jolt of excitement comes more rarely, because you've seen most of the local bird species. Yesterday, and again today, I have seen Sharp-shinned Hawks for the first time IN MY LIFE. But damnit, they have only been active at dusk, and I haven't been able to get even a blurry, badly lit pic of one of the birds. #birding #bi...

• Post #4320790

  The #MLB app shows me rapid game updates- kind of like texts or a telegram. The app also includes the ability to listen to the radio announcers describe the game. I really like this feature. It allowed me to listen to the Nats vs. Braves game while driving in Massachusetts. I can't look at the telegrams while driving but I can listen. When I got to my destination, I realized that the telegrams were minutes ahead of the radio. According to the telegrams, we had a final score, but the ra...

• Post #4320789

  Long story short, I went from Maryland to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, because I wanted to take a cruise out to see puffins in the wild. Weather cancelled the cruise. I spent a great deal of time, drove hundreds of miles, spent hundreds on lodging, and only saw Puffins on tourist knickknacks. The cruise boat gave me my money back, but another day of meals and lodging in Boothbay on the off chance that weather would improve seemed improvident. I DID get to see my first Black-backed Gull, which is not...

• Post #4320788

  If I enter a destination in my nav app and press 'start,' orange barrels and cones spring to life on my route. It's a curse.

• Post #4296272

  #whatsthisbird Seen today (7/31/2026) in Webster, Massachusetts, USA. There were two, and they make a high-pitched, repetitive, almost squeaky call. In flight, the tail looked squared-off, wings were pointy. I think this is a Sharp-shinned Hawk. The Merlin app thinks this bird is not here this time of year. I have been unable to get a sound ID, but I will keep trying. I've been seeing these birds for days now. Please share your opinion as to species. #GIMP was used to make the collage. #bir...

• Post #4266804

  "Claude" is not a crafty ne'er do well that "escaped" a testing environment. It's a computer program that the engineers at Anthropic don't understand, and, rather than seek understanding, are, instead, getting their jollies playing with the program like a dog that's running around with a lit Roman Candle in its jaws. #AI #Anthropic #Claude

• Post #3567455

  What's This Bird? Seen yesterday in Central Maryland. I thought at first it was a kingbird, but it lacks the wihte-tipped tail. Now I'm leaning towards femaie Tree Swallow. I have seen Tree Swallows here in the past, but never just one. #birding #whatsThisBird

• Post #2865748

  #whatsThisBird EDIT: These are Wood Ducks. Thanks to @fitzbew248 for the ID! ___________ What is this duck? She looks kind of like a mallard and kind of like a ring-necked. I say mallard because of the blue feathers on her wing. I say ring-necked because of the white eye-ring. If you share your opinion, can you please help me out by also explaining why you think so? Thank you! #birding

• Post #2865747

  I had a good time birding today, despite the constant threat of rain. The only real rarity I saw was an Anhinga that appears to have taken up residence locally; she has been showing up on the rare bird alerts for 3 weeks now. Still, a good day, at two locations. I saw a Barred Owl and a large Barred Owlet (pic). A Wood Duck with ducklings, dozens of Canada Goslings, My son even agreed to come see the Anhinga, where we met a man who showed us a photo of a Little Blue Heron he said was taken at...

• Post #2865746

  Friggin' Google shoved Gemini "AI" into my Android Auto today, univited, unheralded. As many times before, I hit the mic icon and said my destination - this time, "Carmen's on Nelson Street" and, silly me, expected directions to Carmen's on Nelson Street. Instead of just providing directions, it started explaining to me what kind of place Carmen's was and was this where I wanted directions? Meanwhile the car is moving and I nee...

• Post #2865745

  Just spent an hour trying to get my printer working. This led to the discovery of a home network issue. It's all working now. All those guides online never seem to cover this situation: the expected screen is different from what I am seeing. A real HOWTO would also cover all the many ways things can go sideways and what to do about it.

• Post #2450488

  I'm at work, wearing a polyester t-shirt under a thick cotton rugby jersey and a bulky cotton cardigan with corduroy pants and I'm still cold. Air conditioning is a mixed blessing at times. It was 41 F when I came to work and it'll be 30 degrees warmer at the end of the day, but it will still be too cold in my part of the building. People are walking about inside with blankets around their shoulders. We use water to transmit heat, so once they have switched from heating...

• Post #2450487

  Online subscriptions suck. The need to prove I'm a subscriber every time I visit a publication is a hassle. Yes, I clear my cookies when I log off. Yes, this is a different browser than last time. Yes, this time I'm coming from my RSS feed reader. Yes, I'm using my phone this time, etc. etc. Half the time I can't come up with the password on the first try and have to do the whole "send a reset link to my email" but that only works when I can reme...

• Post #1105689

  My Fandango transaction fell apart at the end, so I went straight to the AMC theater website. Three Sunday morning matinee tickets came to $54 -- two bucks more than Fandango. What a racket!

• Post #1105688

  OK, camera makers. Here's a feature I want that you don't have. When I'm shooting baseball/softball, I want to be able to stand in my vantage point, then quickly pre-set the focus for home, mound, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base. Then when the ball is (or isn't) in play, I can just say "Mound" or "Two" or "Home" to have the focus snap to that pre-set. And I can just say "Auto" to go back to autofocus...

• Post #1105687

  Alt-text. What's useful? The picture shows two girls playing lacrosse. I like the image because it's dramatic, and because the light is sweet, and because I'm friends with the ball-carrier's parents. Providing the right alt-text kind of stresses me. Please look at the alt-text I have added. Is it too much, too little? Does it fail to convey the drama? Should I have brought up race/skin color? Have I missed other important details? Should I say why I posted it,...

• Post #1105686

  I want to go back to Dublin. I was there in 2018 and didn't understand anything about the Grafton Street busking scene. If I were there today, instead of riding a bus to see the foggy cliffs out west, I'd stick around in Dublin and follow the YouTuber of "Dublin City Today" and check out all the buskers on Grafton Street, which is plainly, the busking capital of the English speaking world. #Ireland #busking #graftonStreet #music https://www.youtube.com/@dubl...

• Post #1105685

  "Galway Girl was written in 2000 by American Steve Earle. "Galway Girl" was written in 2017 by Englishman Ed Sheeran. I like both songs, but now that it's 2026, would the REAL Galway Girl please stand up?

• Post #1041488

  When I fill in a form and afterwards there is a pop-up asking me if I'd like my address saved, I never know who's asking. Is my Vivaldi browser asking? Is the website asking? This ought to be made obvious, but it is not. #UX #vivaldi

• Post #1041487

  We somehow had too many eggs to eat before they went bad, so Ms. Killick made a frittata and put the slices in the fridge. Now for my breakfast I just take out a wedge and nuke it for 40 seconds. I may have to make a frittata every week. This must be what life is like for people with foresight.

• Post #1019105

  Amazon just announced they were going to kill my kindle. First, they said (2/2025) that kindles can no longer transfer books via USB. So I resolved to stop buying ebooks on Amazon. BUT, my public library still lends me ebooks, -- I expect that will stop working because they are Amazon ebooks. Now Amazon says that if I want access to the 16+ years of books in my kindle library, I should just buy a new kindle because they are killing all the old ones. HA! I already have all my copies saved to...

• Post #766586

  I'm starting to lose track of all the businesses, industries, programmers, celebrities, countries, platforms, religions, raw materials, etc. that I'm not supposed to support anymore.