Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · 16h

I have sold one of my motorcycles!
It seems like I spend my spare time climbing now, or travelling, and I have barely ridden this bike. It's just depreciating and costing rego and insurance, so I thought it was time to go.

I still have a 1984 Honda Goldwing - I'm not giving up riding entirely.

1 5

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · 8d

I wondered if the local HFC in the street is already at maximum capacity in the evenings? Or if there's something wrong with Superloop's speed boost?

And yes, I'm on a wired ethernet connection to the router, which is itself capable of high speeds, and my PC has a good SSD.

2/2

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · 8d

My ISP, Superloop, has an option to take a 24 hour "speed boost", which is claimed to upgrade my 100/40mbps link to 750/250.
I tried it on the weekend, excited to download a new 120gb game quickly. However.. it made no noticeable difference at all.

1/3

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Sep 12

This is my first time as the site manager, and I'm a bit stressed, but tbh I think everything will work out. I am optimistically packing my climbing gear too, just in case I get a day off, as we're quite close to the Grampians.

3/3

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Sep 12

If small arts and music festivals are your thing, please consider buying a ticket and coming along! It'll be running from 25-29 September. If you're already planning to come, then I look forward to seeing you there!

2/3

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Sep 12

My van is more packed than ever, along with a trailer -- I'm off to Paradise* to start setting up for Underland.

* Postcode 3477, an actual place in Victoria, Australia.

1/3

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Aug 28

With iHerb suddenly stopping shipping melatonin to Australia - does anyone have a recommendation of another online store that ships here?

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Aug 24

My frustrations with Google's RMA process continues: I shipped them the useless locked replacement phone, via a courier they arranged, and the tracking shows it was delivered.
However their RMA status page says it hasn't been delivered, and the tracking there says `UNKNOWN_CARRIER`. 🤦

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Aug 19

Australian house quality:
My room is quite small. The a/c has been set to 25° for four or five hours now, but the actual temp is merely 18.5°.
Just impossible to warm this room up. Heat escapes everywhere.

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Aug 14

So my Pixel 8 went bad while at Nowhere, and I returned it under warranty when back in Australia. Google sent me a replacement phone.. but it's locked to some organisation so I can't even sign into set it up. FFS.
So frustrating!

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Aug 11

What's up with the capitalisation in Chrome's File menu on MacOS?

Screenshot of Chrome's File menu, showing "New tab / New window" and "New Tab / New Window", with inconsistent capitalisation of Tab and Window.

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Aug 8

Oh FFS.. Microsoft forced my hand into upgrading to Windows 11 on my gaming PC.. and now it's busted. (Screen flashing to black at like 1 Hz)

Luckily it's just a gaming PC; daily life occurs on a Mac.

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 30

While there were some big theme camps, I'd say the average size was smaller than those at Nowhere - but there were more in total, and more varied in what they brought.

4/4

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 30

It was so full of creativity, and the location was lovely.
At dawn & dusk the camps were wreathed in mist. The sun sets over the forested lake, while you swim after taking a cave sauna. Wandering at night you can find a hundred art pieces scattered either side of the forest paths.

3/n

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 30

I went in initially feeling quite down on Borderland, as it appeared very disorganised. But it won me over. Somehow the chaos works.

2/n

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 30

I'm on the way home! It's been quite the holiday.
After doing 12 days at Nowhere, I wasn't sure I needed or wanted to do another week-long event, and felt like I could have happily stayed in the Spanish mountains for longer. But I'm glad I made it to The Borderland in Sweden - it was awesome!

1/n

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 17

It's a big multi-room tent, so I'm really hoping it turns up before we need to leave for the event, as it wasn't cheap and won't be cheap to replace. 😡

2/2

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 17

After a brief stop in Tarragona to check out some 2000+ year old architecture dating back to the Romans, we flew to Sweden to prepare for The Borderland.

Unfortunately the airline has lost the bag with the shared tent and my friend's mattress.

1/2

1

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 16

Last via ferrata post, I promise. This one was a grade higher in difficulty (K4), and longer and harder. I did get quite nervous at a couple of points! Highly recommend it too, though.
Shown below is a 28m wire bridge, with the handhold wires directly overhead rather than either side.

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 15

Went to do another via ferrata, but it was closed!
I looked at the start of an underground via ferrata too. I decided it wasn't sensible to do that one solo. If I slipped I might lose my head torch, and it'd be impossible to find my way out in the dark, and would have no way to message for help.

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 14

Hiking near La Morera de Montsant, and climbing the 250m high via ferrata. I was the only person on the mountain!
The views are amazing and the climb somewhat technical and very fun, including two wire bridges.
Every hour I could hear a bell ring from the tiny medieval town in the valley.

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 13

Kinda wishing I had come on a motorbike, as there's essentially zero car parking apart from one small lot on the outskirts of town.

There are some alley cats and an alley kitten.

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 13

Arrived in Cornudella de Montsant, near the famous crag Siurana. The main road through this medieval village is closed for repairs, forcing all traffic through the extremely narrow streets.

1 1

Reposted by Toby Wint_rmute

Camp @campfireharve.st · Jul 11

I saw an infographic a couple years ago about how to remove source identifiers from links and why it's important, but I can't find it again and too many people I know are sending me links with them so here's an infographic straight from the oven

Header text: "HEY YOU! YES YOU! TAKE THIS SHIT OUT OF LINKS!"

This is followed by a couple example urls, with a red square highlighting the sections with source identifiers. The rest of the text is as follows:

Source identifiers are used to track your activity on a site. Where you came from, what device you use, and even who you talk to. Whether it's written clearly in the url or tied to a random string of characters, it's assigned to your activity.

When you send a link containing a source identifier to somebody and they click it, it signals to the website that you two are connected. And that data goes right back to the website operators, and thus their advertisers.

Whenever you select "share" or "copy link" on a social app or website, it creates a link like this. If you give even the smallest shit about online privacy, it's important to remove them. Everything after the "?" symbol can be removed without issue, especially sections starting with "si=" or "utm_source="

210 8.6K 15K

Toby Wint_rmute @wintrmute.net · Jul 10

This is the Barrio at Nowhere which I was part of this year. Quite a big build!

Photo credit: Stephane Lanoux