So, it's one of those mornings where I've been outsmarted by a band-aid. Twice.

I swear those things are about 20x more difficult to open than they used to be.

@eyesquash
I've kind of developed this trick where I set the mic at about "vocal" height, set a loop recording, then record several passes of clapping. (This varies from DAW to DAW: sometimes there are built-in tools to do this, sometimes they get saved as separate takes, etc.)

Anyway: the key things are a) you're always at least a few feet away from the mic, and b) leave yourself a few measures at the start of the loop so you can reposition yourself relative to the mic. During those measures at the top of the loop you step back, step to the right, step to the left, clap above your head, clap down low. It helps if you can do different intensities of claps: some ticky, some thuddy, some full on claps. I usually roll through five or six loops and keep about four.

If you keep your timing tight, it sounds like one or two people. Loosen it up, it sounds like a group.

@Badscrew
There do seem to be some unexplained extra parts…

@Badscrew
That's quite a repair.

One wonders what profession the repairer practices. Firefighting, perhaps?

@rmondello
There's an old book called "How to Lie with Statistics" that remains remarkably useful; one suspects there's quite a lot behind that 32% number that Microsoft isn't disclosing. Perhaps the majority of brute force attacks against Microsoft accounts are currently conducted against password-protected accounts, and the low "success" percentage may reflect a high number of failures from efforts like that.

Passwords, of course, are fraught with security, accessibility, and management nightmares, and passkeys are a good option for many people. They don't work for everyone, and I do appreciate that you have mentioned that from time to time.

@VoiceofDuum
This is a shame. I met her many years ago on the sidelines of an outdoor, multi-stage event: she was wicked smart and delivered a strong set.

Just saw a guy come out of the apartments across the street, spend five minutes standing next to his RAV4 trying to unlock it with his phone, go back in the apartment building, come out a minute later, and unlock the car with a key.

@dmoren
Congratulations!

@ambergrey
This really is the way it’s done. I know everyone always wants to hear about the successes and happy accidents and amazing results, but the bottom line is that we learn more from the terrible sessions than the effortless ones.

@juliewebgirl
Ha! I was confused about "Lemon update"! I thought that was some non-GenZ codeword I missed!

"Stay tuned" is so familiar I didn't even think twice about it. ;)

@juliewebgirl
Yeah, no clue. But I also never saw E.T. or The Breakfast Club.

@juliewebgirl
Confuses GenX too but we’re basically OK with that.

@harriolkn
I mostly refer to instruments by make, model, or defining characteristic (“the nylon-string”), but there are a couple exceptions.

One bass is “the road bass” because, well, it’s the road bass. And there’s a an oddball guitar that got rescued from an abandoned wood shop that I call “The Old Man.” Not sure why that one got a name.

I guess we all know the main reason Trump wants to attend the funeral of #PopeFrancis is to get some decorating inspo for Mar-a-Lago.

@woolie
Similar situation here, although there are a few alternative providers who only offer services inappropriate for my use.

@woolie
I certainly have opinions about CenturyLink.

Is there any more quintessentially #Seattle springtime experience than entering a building through a side door at 2:15PM, then coming out the same door at 4:45PM to an involuntary facehug from a 40-foot blackberry vine?

I think not.

@mewbassprr @mishamouse
On macOS you have a DAW for free—Apple GarageBand is available for every Mac. (If it's no longer on your machine, it's a free download.) It's kind of a small sibling of Logic Pro, but it's surprisingly capable.

So, it looks like this failure is because OmniBallot relies on fonts, captcha, and polyfill services from Google.

So, you know: verifying your ballot sends telemetry to the world's largest digital advertising platform. I'm sure nothing could go wrong.

@_thegeoff
Yeah: high pitched sounds can be hard to locate: I’ve always had a high hearing ceiling so I kind of have to do it by “pressure” rather than a directional sense.

I hope you were able to manage to car! I had a car go dead on a tall bridge in the middle of Seattle once, which is a bad place to break down. Fortunately I was able to dead-stick coast it off the bridge and (just barely) onto a side street.