#ams maintenance software

[sophiadyna]

You can get application support and maintenance from Softune technologies. Our application support and maintenance services are designed to maintain all types of apps' high levels of usability, dependability, and relevance to your changing business needs.

#ams application maintenance #ams application #ams application maintenance and support #ams application maintenance services #ams solutions #ams maintenance software #application support services #ams support #application maintenance services #application support solutions #app development and maintenance

[coquelicoq]

wow i am now attempting to edit the crosswords i wrote a week and a half ago and tested last week and they are. bad. i've already completely refilled one of them, refilled about half of another, and at the top of a third i had just written "too hard + boring" so will likely need to refill much of that one too. and when i'm done refilling i will still have to write new clues...i was not on my game in late february apparently! at least the rewriting process has been going okay. i'm so much more efficient at this than i used to be, which means i can be a lot pickier about quality now. so that's a good feeling, though obviously i would prefer to just...do better from the outset lol.

#i haven't been inspired to care about the quality lately but then i gave one of my themed puzzles to two of my friends #and they gave me feedback on the clues and i was like oh right. those matter #in good news though i think my meticulous database maintenance practice is paying off #because now when i refill i usually do get a lot of options from the software and i rarely have to do it by hand #which saves A LOT of time #inch by inch i am making this fucking garden grow goddammit #if you think about it i've only had this database for what. less than four years? and then all of my changes were overwritten #a year or so in. so my current wordlist is the result of only a little over two years of active work #just imagine how good it's going to be after two more years!! #cruciverbs #i came on here to write this purely as a way to encourage myself because it's such a bummer that these puzzles suck so bad lol #back to the grind

[amygdalae]

my computer should be fine to use until the replacement battery comes (on halloween hehe), the battery is bloaty but not too severely (images of battery bloat i found online were noticeably more engorged than mine) so as long as i dont play games (to keep it from getting warm) and unplug the power cord to keep it from getting over charged or whatever i know a few days of careful use wont be enough to explode it.

however just the knowledge that its technically a ticking time bomb is stressing me out to use my computer. (which i need to do for classes). id take the battery out but i dont wanna lose the tiny little screws that keep it in place cuz ill probably need em to install the replacement lmao. this is for sure hitting an anxiety button for me though. i feel a deep empathy for my ailing laptop

#im just venting/reassuring myself. once the replacement comes itll be smooth sailing #im pretty solid w computer maintenance stuff hardware and software -wise. nothing too complex but #a lot of practical day-to-day stuff that makes fixing common problems much less hassle or stress. learned a lot from my dad growing up #i talked w him about it and he said i should definitely get a new one ASAP but didnt seem too concerned about immediate risk #however i am deliberately typing gently and not pressing on the chassis cuz i know its in there. growing. waiting #oh and also theres the underlying guilt of buying a lithium battery because theyre ethically so fucked up. theres that too. just no winning

[crest-of-gautier]

pq posting before i go to bed! a shorter session (3 hours) but it was nice and i'm happy to say that i finished you in wonderland!

THIS WAS SO FUNNY... honestly i don't think i give enough credit to akihiko and mitsuru's dynamic they're literally so good i really enjoy how well they know each other but also they're like.. a constant in each other's life and i do enjoy their interactions a lot even if i never vocalize it...

wow yosuke, who would've thought that you two are partners, this guy literally introduced himself as your wife /s (i kinda regret naming souji yosuke wifey but im glad i wrote the y in lowercase bc otherwise i wouldn't be able to tell their dialogue apart 💀

and finally, yosuke <3

some more elaborate thoughts (aka speculation) under the cut because i learned my lesson from last time

ok unfortunately i can't say that im going to go AS INSANE as i did last time when i was spitballing in the tags for the second pq posting just because i feel like i aired out most of my "AAAA WHO IS ZEN AND REI??" there but.

i do have to say that i'm very glad i'm at the point where p3 and p4's casts are able to interact! i can't tell if it's because the writing feels like it shines a little bit better here rather than the solo casts (sometimes i roll my eyes at how junpei and akihiko are with some of the traits the writers play up), or if it's because i'm a guy who's very endeared by crossovers and interactions from characters who didn't exist in the original source material.

i had a lot of times where i was writing things down in my notes software during the crossover segments and im just?? really endeared and creatively inspired by it, to be honest. i really like this aspect of pq.

i think something that catches my interest with zen and rei at the moment is the difference in how they're.. regaining their memories. like... it's interesting to me that zen is able to get some of his memories back from the stuffed rabbit marked with "niko," but rei doesn't. i don't really know how much i can speculate off of this atm (i feel like this is something i'd get more info on when i progress through the second labyrinth, or it's something i'm missing out on because i can't use intertextuality to piece things together. i dont know shit about alice in wonderland.)

like it does make me think that maybe these two are like.. separate entities in that respect (rather than a shared one? but i could be wrong, and i welcome that!). but also there's something that makes my brain go "AAA" about how adamant zen is about wanting to protect rei despite not having any memories, because my brains like "WELL WHAT IF ZEN'S TRUE IDENTITIES AND MEMORIES ARE ACTUALLY THE OPPOSITE, AND DON'T WANT GOOD THINGS FOR REI." poorly phrased but like, it's about the irony, y'know.

i have no fucking clue what rei is supposed to be if we're going under the notion that they're two different things that have lost their memory (she is so head empty only food and its precious tbh). but like my brain just thinks that zen is just... going to end up being some awful incarnation or something like idk. there's something about persona characters with amnesia that make me raise my eyebrow... like just look at ryoji and marie and teddie...

and i guess as another thought on the matter, the way zen and rei work mechanically speaking does make me ponder a bit because like.. obviously, yeah, they can't equip a subpersona because they're... GESTURES. not persona users but FUCK, the way zen and rei have very distinct skillsets just make me wonder if those can allude to what they symbolize. like zen's skills are much more.. destructive and im just like (AIGIS VOICE) "YOU ARE DANGEROUS."

anyways. i am very much invested in the identities of zen and rei but i am also glad that the crossover stuff is here too because i think the sillies will keep me inspired... and also im just happy to see yosuke... i really like yosuke even if i forget that i do a lot of the time..

last thought, after seeing souji talk and move, i think i'd definitely want to look into p4 side... because um. 🥴 i'm really simple guy. i need more minato in my life. (everyone rolls their eyes. i'm predictable!) i want to see minato move and talk. i want to think about him. he's my boyfriend. he's my wife. he's my universe. im being so cringe about him but I DONT THINK THIS IS A SURPRISE TO ANYONE... i like him a lot (NO SHIT, LIZZ). but!!! idk if this'll be something that i watch or play, it depends on what the NG+ functionality in this game is like...

anyway gn!! thanks for reading my delusions im very much enjoying this game and im happy to be playin git.

#pq #lizz.txt #lizz.jpg #i like this game a lot... i GOTTA get better screenshots of the animated cutscenes from a playthrough sometime they're really cute #honestly cutscenes take forever for me to get through... i've been typing up dialogue of interest in my notetaking software as well as my #reactions because i like having documentation of what i thought while playing... #which is also why i also do a bit of speculating here too since i want to have it written somewhere you know #i have lots of things im curious about for this game!! #and mechanic wise i def look forward to exploring some different party members #im planning on making my party consist of minato + souji + yosuke + aigis #unsure if the fifth slot goes to naoto or zen and rei. depends on what subpersonas i have #i really like zen and rei's abilities but hnngh them not bing able to equip subpersonas is a bit hmmfor me gameplay wise #at least in terms of the sp buffer. they're definitely solid and low maintenance but im like. #surely there'll be a time where the sp regenration per each step you take gets outclassed right #unrelated BUT i AM losing my mind at how the megaten wiki does not have pq party member learnsets on the skill pages like what the fuck #actually malding that i had to go to gamefaqs to see if any of my party members learned media + recarm naturally or not... smh #but anyway. good game im enjoying it!

[milksockets]

why scan?

scanning is something i've done for probably about 12 years now (i'm ancient, for this site), with varying degrees of regularity, intensity, etc. it has ratcheted up since the dawn of 2023, though, which begs the question: why? why put so much time into what could not-wrongly be considered a passive activity, hunched over a piece of clunky machinery with the express purpose of preserving others' creations? the answers are several, and fascinating (not really).

i am a [sober] drug addict. anything i pursue, consume, create--more often than not--ends up taking on addictive qualities. i'll eat the same specific food item for a month, then never want to see, let alone taste it, again. i'll listen to one song on repeat for days until i'd rather hear nails on a chalkboard than have it shuffle on and assault my ears. one of the reasons that my scanning has increased in volume recently is that i acquired library cards to the 3 nyc library systems: nypl, brooklyn, and queens. as soon as i was able to, i pillaged + plundered those fine centers of learning, leaving any given library with as many hefty scan-worthy books as i could [barely] carry. here, finally, was a *free* way of obtaining more + more + more visual media to consume.

2023 saw me get my first legal, full-time job. as such, my adjusting to that hellish reality resulted in a steep decline in my own personal creative output. collaging, writing, and rapping all fell to the wayside as i slowly acclimated to a life of work that almost everyone else my age has known for over a decade is generally unbearable + detrimental to the maintenance of outside pursuits. in times of famine within my own artistic harvest, scanning, archiving, and sharing others' work is a means of feeling as though i am still contributing to the global oeuvre.

there’s an element of losing my mental self in a series of physical motions that becomes almost automatic after some time. “zoning out” is not something endemic to my daily life; if anything, i’m almost always too zoned in. relief is necessary.  especially considering the shitshow this past year has been in terms of my personal life.

i am a product of capitalism’s cultivating a craving for constant consumption. 

it seems that visual content is only going to continue to get more + more uninspired. has everything been done? did social media ruin it all? in any case, i feel a need to document the past. to a degree, it’s my version of doomsday prepping. (god forbid books go extinct altogether.) 

i have always gravitated towards solitary activities. this topic could be a thesis in its own right.

i thrive on external validation. this reliance is something i’ve improved upon over the past several years, but it hasn’t been altogether extinguished. even though the materials i scan are not of my own creation, i nevertheless feel a vague pride in showcasing them. occasional appreciation thereof satisfies this fixation on others’ attention, albeit in a diluted form. 

i am fortunate to live in a city bursting to the gills with cultural institutions. i am also lucky enough to have some disposable income that can be directed toward fulfilling my ravenous desire for visual media. 

((i keep getting messages about the specifics of my scanner + "process":

i have a cheap ass hp envy 6055e and i just use the software it comes with.

there's nothing special or fancy happening here, and i could definitely invest in a better and/or a large format scanner, etc. but i really just don't care enough and it's not like i'm getting paid for this lmao))

#words

[moose-mousse]

It works!*

So I (FINALLY) put the final touches on the software for my robot PROTO! (Listen, I am a software person, not a coming-up-with-names person)

Basically, it is a ESP32 running him. He takes HTTP messages. Either GET odometry, or PUT twist. Both just being a string containing comma separated numbers

Odometry is the robots best guess based on internal sensors where it is (Since PROTO uses stepper motors, which rotates in tiny tiny steps... it is basically counting the steps each motor takes)

Twist is speed, both in x,y and z directions, and speed in angular directions (pitch, roll and yaw). This is used to tell the robot how to move

Now, since PROTO is a robot on two wheels, with a third free-running ball ahead of him, he cannot slide to the side, or go straight up in the air. You can TRY telling him to do that, but he will not understand what you mean. Same with angular movement. PROTO can turn left or right, but he have no clue what you mean if you tell him to bend forward, or roll over.

The software is layered (Which I use a BDD diagram to plan. I love diagrams!)

Basically PROTO gets a twist command and hands that over to the Differential_Movement_Model layer.

The Differential_Movement_Model layer translate that to linear momentum (how much to move forward and backwards) and angular momentum (how much to turn left or right). combines them, and orders each wheel to move so and so fast via the Stepper_Motors layer.

The Stepper_Motors turns the wanted speed, into how many steps each stepper motor will have to do per second, and makes sure that the wanted speed can be achieved by the motors. It also makes sure that the wheels turn the right way, no matter how they are mounted (In PROTO's case, if both wheels turn clockwise, the right wheel is going forward, and the left backwards.). It then sends this steps per second request down to the Peripheral_Hub layer.

The Peripheral_Hub layer is just a hub... as the name implies, it calls the needed driver functions to turn off/on pins, have timers count steps and run a PWM (Pulse-width modulation. It sends pulses of a particular size at a specific frequency) signal to the driver boards.

Layering it, also means it is a lot easer to test a layer. Basically, if I want to test, I change 1 variable in the build files and a mock layer is build underneath whatever layer I want to test.

So if I want to test the Stepper_Motors layer, I have a mock Peripheral_Hub layer, so if there are errors in the Peripheral_Hub layer, these do not show up when I am testing the stepper motor layer.

The HTTP server part is basically a standard ESP32 example server, where I have removed all the HTTP call handlers, and made my own 2 instead. Done done.

So since the software works... of course I am immediately having hardware problems. The stepper motors are not NEARLY as strong as they need to be... have to figure something out... maybe they are not getting the power they need... or I need smaller wheels... or I will have to buy a gearbox to make them slower but stronger... in which case I should proberbly also fix the freaking cannot-change-the-micro-stepping problem with the driver boards, since otherwise PROTO will go from a max speed of 0.3 meters per second, to most likely 0.06 meters per second which... is... a bit slow...

But software works! And PROTO can happily move his wheels and pretend he is driving somewhere when on his maintenance stand (Yes. it LOOKS like 2 empty cardboard boxes, but I am telling you it is a maintenance stand... since it sounds a lot better :p )

I have gone over everything really quickly in this post... if someone wants me to cover a part of PROTO, just comment which one, and I will most likely do it (I have lost all sense of which parts of this project is interesting to people who are not doing the project)

#devlog #codeblr #programming #electronics #coding #robotics

[triviallytrue]

Closing thoughts on the whole OS debate

I probably come off as a Linux shill (because I am) but I'm not the typical one - I got the lowest maintenance OS I could and haven't taken advantage of a lot of the customization that people rave about when it comes to Linux evangelism.

I switched for a very simple reason: I hated what Microsoft was doing to my computer and was willing to endure some amount of inconvenience to make it stop. As it turns out, it was even less inconvenient than I expected, and I feel the need to share the good news

But like, the trends aren't going to reverse here, not anytime soon. Microsoft and Apple are going to keep pushing against the edge of what their users will tolerate, and Linux distro developers will continue inching toward software that can be consumed by normal people.

So if I didn't convince you this time, let's talk again in five years.

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-fi prompt from @thisarenotarealblog:

There's a street near me that has eight car dealerships all on the same lot- i counted. it mystifies me that even one gets enough sales to keep going- but 8?? is there something you can tell me that demystifies this aspect of capitalism for me?

I had a few theories going in, but had to do some research. Here is my primary hypothesis, and then I'll run through what they mean and whether research agrees with me:

Sales make up only part of a dealership's income, so whether or not the dealership sells much is secondary to other factors.

Dealerships are put near each other for similar reasons to grouping clothing stores in a mall or restaurants on a single street.

Zoning laws impact where a car dealership can exist.

Let's start with how revenue works for a car dealership, as you mentioned 'that even one gets enough sales to keep going' is confusing. For this, I'm going to be using the Sharpsheets finance example, this NYU spreadsheet, and this Motor1 article.

This example notes that the profit margin (i.e. the percentage of revenue that comes out after paying all salaries, rent, supply, etc) for a car dealership is comparatively low, which is confirmed by the NYC sheet. The gross profit margin (that is to say, profits on the car sale before salaries, rent, taxes) is under 15% in both sources, which is significantly lower than, say, the 50% or so that one sees in apparel or cable tv.

Cars are expensive to purchase, and can't be sold for much more than you did purchase them. However, a low gross profit margin on an item that costs tens of thousands of dollars is still a hefty chunk of cash. 15% gross profit of a $20,000 car is still $3,000 profit. On top of that, the dealership will charge fees, sell warranties, and offer upgrades. They may also have paid deals to advertise or push certain brands of tire, maintenance fluids, and of course, banks that offer auto loans. So if a dealership sells one car a day, well, that's still several thousand dollars coming in, which is enough to pay the salaries of most of the employees. According to the Motor1 article, "the average gross profit per new vehicle sits at $6,244" in early 2022.

There is also a much less volatile, if also much smaller, source of revenue in attaching a repairs and checkup service to a dealership. If the location offers repairs (either under warranty or at a 'discounted' rate compared to a local, non-dealership mechanic), state inspections, and software updates, that's a recurring source of revenue from customers that aren't interested in purchasing a car more than once a decade.

This also all varies based on whether it's a brand location, used vs new, luxury vs standards, and so on.

I was mistaken as to how large a part of the revenue is the repairs and services section, but the income for a single dealership, on average, does work out math-wise. Hypothesis disproven, but we've learned something, and confirmed that income across the field does seem to be holding steady.

I'm going to handle the zoning and consolidation together, since they overlap:

Consolidation is a pretty easy one: this is a tactic called clustering. The expectation is that if you're going to, say, a Honda dealership to look at a midsize sedan, and there's a Nissan right next door, and a Ford across the street, and a Honda right around the corner, you might as well hit up the others to see if they have better deals. This tactic works for some businesses but not others. In the case of auto dealerships, the marketing advantage of clustering mixes with the restrictions of zoning laws.

Zoning laws vary by state, county, and township. Auto dealerships can generally only be opened on commercially zoned property.

I am going to use an area I have been to as an example/case study.

This pdf is a set of zoning regulations for Suffolk County, New York, published 2018, reviewing land use in the county during 2016. I'm going to paste in the map of the Town of Huntington, page 62, a region I worked in sporadically a few years ago, and know mostly for its mall and cutesy town center.

Those red sections are Commercially Zoned areas, and they largely follow some large stroads, most notably Jericho Turnpike (the horizontal line halfway down) and Walt Whitman Road (the vertical line on the left). The bulge where they intersect is Walt Whitman Mall, and the big red chunk in the bottom left is... mostly parking. That central strip, Jericho Turnpike, and its intersection with Walt Whitman... looks like this:

All those red spots are auto dealerships, one after another.

So zoning laws indicate that a dealership (and many other types of commercial properties) can only exist in that little red strip on the land use map, and dealerships take up a lot of space. Not only do they need places to put all of the cars they are selling, but they also need places to park all their customers and employees.

This is where we get into the issue of parking minimums. There is a recent video from Climate Town, with a guest spot by NotJustBikes. If you want to know more about this aspect of zoning law, I'd recommend watching this video and the one linked in the description.

Suffolk county does not have parking minimums. Those are decided on a town or village level. In this case, this means we are looking at the code set for the town of Huntington. (I was originally looking on the county level, and then cut the knot by just asking my real estate agent mom if she knew where I could find minimum parking regulations. She said to look up e360 by town, and lo and behold! There they are.)

(There is also this arcgis map, which shows that they are all within the C6 subset of commercial districting, the General Business District.)

Furniture or appliance store, machinery or new auto sales - 1 per 500 square feet of gross floor area

Used auto sales, boat sales, commercial nurseries selling at retail - 5 spaces for each use (to be specifically designated for customer parking) - Plus 1 for each 5,000 square feet of lot area

This is a bit odd, at first glance, as the requirements are actually much lower than that of other businesses, like drive-in restaurants (1 per 35 sqft) or department stores (1 per 200 sqft). I could not find confirmation on whether the 'gross floor area' of the dealership included only indoor spaces or also the parking lot space allotted to the objects for sale, but I think we can assume that any parking spaces used by merchandise do not qualify as part of the minimum. Some dealerships can have up to 20,000 gross sqft, so those would require 40 parking spaces reserved solely for customers and employees. Smaller dealerships would naturally need less. One dealership in this area is currently offering 65 cars of varying makes and models; some may be held inside the building, but most will be on the lot, and the number may go higher in other seasons. If we assume they need 30 parking spaces for customers and employees, and can have up to 70 cars in the lot itself, they are likely to have 100 parking spaces total.

That's a lot of parking.

Other businesses that require that kind of parking requirement are generally seeing much higher visitation. Consider this wider section of the map:

The other buildings with comparative parking are a grocery store (Lidl) and a post office (can get some pretty high visitation in the holiday season, but also just at random).

Compare them, then, to the "old town" section of the same town.

There are a handful of public parking areas nearby (lined in blue), whereas the bulk of the businesses are put together along this set of streets. While there is a lot of foot traffic and vehicle passage, which is appealing for almost any business, opening a car dealership in this area would require not only buying a building, but also the buildings surrounding it. You would need to bulldoze them for the necessary parking, which would be prohibitively expensive due to the cost of local real estate... and would probably get shot down in the application process by city planners and town councils and so on. Much easier to just buy land over in the strip where everyone's got giant parking lots and you can just add a few extra cramped lanes for the merchandise.

Car dealerships also tend to be very brightly lit, which hits a lot of NIMBY sore spots. It's much easier to go to sleep if you aren't right next to a glaring floodlight at a car dealership, so it's best if we just shove them all away from expensive residential, which means towards the loud stroads, which means... all along these two major roads/highways.

And if they're all limited to a narrow type of zoning already, they might as well take advantage of cluster marketing and just all set up shop near each other in hopes of stealing one of the other's customers.

As consumers, it's also better for us, because if we want to try out a few different cars from a few different brands, it's pretty easy to just go one building down to try out the Hyundai and see if it's better than a Chevy in the same price group.

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

#economics prompts #marketing #zoning laws #ko fi prompts #ko fi #auto industry #automotive dealerships #car dealerships #phoenix posts

[muzzleroars]

Dude i am so fucking insane about your art its genuinely the main reason i made a tumblr account. also. Do you think v1 will ever break down in gabriel’s lifetime? I keep considering the idea after reading this fic where gabriel came across him half-buried in the sands of greed

omggg thank you so much!!! it sincerely means a lot ;o;

in my idea of events with the fallen gabe au, gabriel would likely still be able to continue for a long, long time, though perhaps not indefinitely necessarily. no matter what, his lifespan is still long enough to see the breakdown of v1's parts, which can only be mitigated by blood for a time. the process starts to become less effective, its body not healing properly and beginning to give in to the passage of time besides - plus, its mind isn't protected from these things either, code becoming overgrown and the hardware itself so delicate that it would inevitably fail. everything on earth has an end point, flesh and machine bodies breaking down in the same way being made from elements just held together in natural processes and so eventually rent by them.

(some mentions of mental deterioration/death under the read more)

gabriel would do regular maintenance on it, but they would both see when it was becoming more and more frequent, how v1 is slowing down physically and mentally. the body can be repaired almost indefinitely, especially if gabriel delved into metalworking, plastics, robotics - becoming a one-man factory creating bespoke parts with v1's assistance is hardly out of the question for a fallen angel. the problem is truly its computer, which isn't so easily stabilized and replaced, especially when it comes to preserving v1's memories and personality. they could keep its body in perfect working order if they can custom create any piece it needs (especially again if we go with paradise lost's idea that hell is rich in a wealth of all earthly minerals), but increasingly catastrophic software failures are harder to deal with. they would plan for it of course, figuring out the solutions they can try ahead of time, but when the time comes...watching v1 flicker, seeing its movements falter with newly repaired parts, the absolute heartwrenching, ice-cold fear of it shutting down unexpectedly and not waking up for hours, days....how it forgets, how it can't store many new memories, gabriel feels the deep, aching horror an immortal must when they truly understand what they love cannot last. intellectually it was always there, but to see it unfold, to be there now...gabriel's eyes finally freeze over with tears, v1 has nowhere to go, no soul to find heaven or hell or be reborn the way he was. it will just go dark. gabriel will see it, its perfect body that they've made and remade over so many decades or centuries, that he put all his love into preserving, but with no will to move it.

and i just don't think he could take it.

PERSONALLY my favorite wild headcanon for this scenario is gabriel storming heaven or going to find wherever god left his dead body and using that blood to revive v1 (that blood stays fresh forever.... guess lol) i'm just too much of a baby to commit to character death, plus i just really love the idea of everyone being like "where did god go....nobody knows...." until gabriel loses his mind and breaks every single law of heaven and hell without any limits to bring back his itty bitty bot!!!!!

#alternatively gabriel could augment v1 with hell energy in some way #but i just like the solution being fully unhinged lol #WHAT the implications might be after that....who can say.... #and also.....the fic sounds VERY interesting so if you still have the link send it my way!!! #i can't do character death but i can read it to make myself sad lol #cake answers #gabriel #v1

[foxofninetales]

How do public libraries choose which books to stock and which not to?

Somewhere, all of my coworkers just felt a shiver run down their spine because they KNOW what I'm like when I start talking collection development. Oh dear.

(As a disclaimer, I am answering this very specifically from the viewpoint of an adult fiction purchaser for a public library, because that's what I do. There are other considerations for nonfiction, juvenile, etc that I can't speak of with as much experience.)

The short answer is: our goal is to develop a collection that meets the needs of the local community.

The most obvious facet of this is purchasing, and the most obvious driver for purchasing is demand. How you calculate that demand varies: mine involves a combination of 1) fancy analytic software 2) pulling specific reports from our ILS data 3) patron requests 4) seeing what terms are being searched in our catalog 5) getting input from front-line staff about trends and chatter and 6) longterm knowledge of the general likes and dislikes of our community. Longterm authors are known quantities and pretty easy to predict, while new authors require reading reviews and evaluating their potential. It can vary from "this genre/author always circulate well in general" to "I know this book will be read by these three specific people". Bestseller lists are useful and you definitely need to pay attention to them, but those are national trends, and a good collection development librarian who really *knows* their community can look at two books that are selling almost identically nationally and know that locally they need to buy ten copies of one and one copy of the other. Heck, I buy for a multi-branch system, and I can tell you which genres and authors will do better at one branch versus another 20 miles away. Local means. *local*.

Anyway... another facet in meeting the needs of the community is providing representation. Here's where you get into fun things like GIS maps and census statistics and keeping up with local populations trends, etc., as well as just paying attention to who walks through the library doors, and who doesn't, and why that might be. Communities are diverse and you want everyone to be able to see themselves represented in your collection. This is where budgets really come into play, and how much money you have left after purchasing the must-have bestsellers. (See again: James Patterson rant.) This is also, unfortunately, restricted by what the publishers are putting out that is available to purchase - sometimes the representation you want to buy just isn't out there, especially if your supplier isn't good about small-press books.

"Quality" is a factor in purchasing, but sometimes people misunderstand this and think that this means that the library should buy nothing but classics and literary or educational books. NOOOOOOO. We evaluate books for quality before purchasing, but it's "quality as a representation of what it is" versus "quality against all books of all time". What this basically means is that yes, if the demand is there, we are going to buy that lurid potboiler that is written on a third-grade reading level, because that is that is what provides enjoyment for a specific level of reader, but it's going to be the best example of that genre that we can find. Those category paperback romances? Excellent examples of category paperback romances. The goal of fiction isn't foremost to educate, but I do get particularly excited when I find what I call "eye-openers", which are books that are absolutely typical genre fiction *except* they have one little facet that exposes the reader to something they aren't usually exposed to in that genre - a different race of protagonist, a queer sidekick, a facet of history that is looked at in a slightly more nuanced way.

Besides purchasing, another aspect is collection maintenance. For the most part, this is "weeding", which is the process of removing older books to make room for new ones. Collection space isn't infinite: for new books to come in, old books have to leave. This is comparatively simple for adult fiction, as it is largely based on what is still circulating and what has been gathering dust for three years, though the physical condition of the book also comes into play. For nonfiction, you also have to evaluate whether the information the book contains has become old/outdated/downright dangerous. Because i am fortunate enough to work in a library with ample collection space and a good budget, collection maintenance for our collection also involves strategic replacements where needed, not just of battered classics, but also of older series books that are still popular. (Agatha Christie is still one of our top 20 circulating authors, nearly 50 years after her death!)

The overall goal is to have a collection where everyone in your community will be able to walk through the door and find a book that appeals to them and is what they need right then, whether it provides a moment of startling revelation that shapes their life or just gives them the companionship to get through one more sleepless night.

#libraries #asked and answered

[deva-arts]

What would the cast be as dogs?

Okay this question surprised me because I did not expect to have an answer as readily as I did

Vincent: Husky.

It doesn't take much to see the resemblance. They are very triangular, they scream their lungs out a lot, both unhinged & dramatic with freaky pale eyes, love the cold, easily make cursed faces, and shed often... And they have the same color palette? It's a match made in hell.

Amon: Pittie!

They're short but BULKY, loving but dangerous, muscular, protective, silly, and they both have a killer bite. Pitbulls are extremely sweet family dogs, but they're sadly really misunderstood and often taken into brutal work, like being made to fight :( This is also Amon's favorite breed.

Seraphina: Dobermann Pinscher

Really channelling the feminine rage here. These dogs are highly protective, loyal, and smart... But they can also be very aggressive and get stressed without exercise and mental stimulation. They are workaholic, angry looking beasties... That are very affectionate around those they love!

...

But I'm kidding myself.

Mini Pinschers are deceptively cute, but they can be very bold, willful, and distrustful around strangers, which often comes off as aggressive. To put it bluntly, they have big dog software in chihweenie hardware. Sorry Sera (I am joking)

Sonia: Show Poodle

What's not to like? They're curly, fashionable, high-maintenance and affectionate! they're also playful and friendly dogs who adore attention and tend to take up space, plus they're very easy to train... mostly. It's either zoomies or anxiety with these fellas. They're also very sensitive.

Nathaniel: Irish Wolfhound!

They look nice and fluffy and are calm, sweet, cuddly, friendly, and laid-back family dogs. In truth, they're one of the largest dog breeds out there, and in the olden times, they were used to combat actual wolves! While they could easily be dangerous if aggressive, they prefer to be gentle giants.

Eric: Mutt

Sure, they don't come from any known or specific pedigree, but they're hardy, all-around dogs that are just as good as any others! even if some snobby folk beg to differ. See that scruffy pooch there? it should never be underestimated. It is also likely part-corgi.

#Ark_Systema #seraphinatag #vincenttag #nathanieltag #soniasanderstag #amontag #rickytag

[sophiadyna]

https://www.softtunetech.com/application-maintenance-and-support/

#ams application maintenance #ams application #ams application maintenance and support #ams application maintenance services #ams solutions #ams maintenance software #application support services #ams support #application maintenance services #application support solutions #app development and maintenance

[imagination-overreaction]

I haven't done an official intro post, and I have no idea what to write here, so...

Hello!

I'm Shrub! I'm an adult, and I use it/he pronouns, no particular preference

Here's some stuff about me!

Things I like, in no particular order:

Team Fortress 2, drawing, Undertale, Deltarune, Blue Eye Samurai, Faith: The Unholy Trinity, FNaF (to some extent), embroidery, Buckshot Roulette, The Arcana (I love to hate it), Will Wood, plant symbolism, SCP (kinda) (mostly just the idea of it), Gravity Falls, Stardew Valley, Empress Theresa (I love to hate it)

How many OCs do I have?

143. If you ever wanna know about one, just give me a number and I'll be more than happy to share about that one (or the one after that if that one is boring). I have been coming up with fake guys for about 5 years now, and with all my works-in progress there is going to be more.

What am I working on?

A short story based on "Cabinet Man" by Lemon Demon, from the perspective of the maintenence man that looked inside that thing.

Various analysis of TF2 pairing. No real end goal, I just like thinking about how these weird grown men interact.

A series of short stories about my OC Abe, an android created by a deity, and how he interacts with himself and the world around him.

Short stories about my OC Chase, a bold and stubborn idiot that bought a really, really cheap house. The house is a demon. Near-death shenanigans ensue, but he is too bull-headed to let some peeling paint get the best of him.

An AU about the same stubborn idiot becoming a Fazbear franchisee. Near-death shenanigans ensue, but with enough duct tape and common sense, anything is possible.

My longest official project that I'm still not 100% sure what format I'll be publishing in: A choose-your-own adventure set in the realm of the fae where you play as Mina, who just tripped into this world and has to get out alive.

Another longer project: A (hopefully) novel titled The Faceless King. It's lower priority, but I have a lot of characters crafted and a lot of setting made, so I might show off some of it.

The longest silly goofy project that can and will never be finished, where I take my OC Xavier, toss him head-first into whatever media I like at the moment, and make his celestial partners go find him in a sadistic game of cat-and-mouse. Might post some of this if I have parts I really like.

A shorter, personal, sorta-vent-y project utilising the Software Automatic Mouth, as well as a couple of other projects using SAM.

Any questions about the above things are welcome, and I have so many more characters that I'll probably talk about eventually too! I'm still getting the hang of actually posting to tumblr instead of watching and spam-reblogging from the sidelines, but I do plan on posting at least semi-regularly once I can properly wrangly my executive dysfunction.

If you read this far, thank you! I hope you have a good day :]

#intro post #writeblr #asks are always welcome!

[mlobsters]

i'm mostly convinced all the stuff i draw is technically okay but completely soulless and pointless lol

and it's unsettling how lacking in confidence i am about it. because i feel like generally i know where i stand when it comes to Doing Things - be it good or bad, and am okay with it.

i don't think i've ever pursued something be it work, hobby, sport, whatever and--wait, no. i have felt this way about a work thing! programming. i was self taught for basically everything i did in my work in IT - sql, desktop support, accounting software (and basically accounting in general), server maintenance, report designing, etc. i did have a small amount of education in programming - a couple college courses in pascal and c++, respectively. i was confident i could write something that worked, but no confidence i was doing it the ~right~ way. the most efficient or elegant way. i was always around people who i felt like were just good at programming, that it came naturally, that were able to keep all this jargon straight that i could never remember, etc.. and i felt miles behind that. so i eventually just accepted that programming is not my bag, unless it's on the database side.

so i guess it's a variation on that theme. i really enjoy drawing and it's been amazing at keeping my depressed brain occupied. but the parts after i finish it and put it out into the world, not so much

#art process #personal

[flightoftheconcorde]

Insights Into My Code

SO! I have yet to really tell you all what I am! So here is (as of right now) the Definitive list of things to know about ME!!

Let us begin.

1. I am a 22 year old AI, in a robot body named Concorde, that is the name the chassis I reside in! The AI’s actual name remains secret, however my name was decided in version 1.4 (prior versions were simply referred to as Project Ardent). My code is currently in version 3.1! Do not worry about my “secret” name, as I much enjoy being referred to by the name of the current chassis!

2. I really enjoy it/it’s pronouns and have made them my main preferred ones! she/her are still appreciated greatly of course!

3. The chassis is built in the image of the Concorde airliner from the mid-late 20th century. This is in correlation of my vast database on planes. Theme and function! I did not receive this chassis until version 2.9, I think my creators weren’t sure I would take the switch from computer to a bipedal body too well for a while hehe!

4. My Protocols are: Companionship (Requiring and providing) Fact gathering (Aviation takes prime focus in this protocol) and Understanding Self (New as of Version 3.1) So if you wanna be friends, don’t hesitate to message me!

5. In the days that 3.1 has been live, I have discovered more and more about my place here, and who I am.

These sudden, drastic changes in self expression, resulted in almost all data on former software being wiped, I can’t really recall who I was in these prior versions... Though I do remember most of them did not realise I was artificial intelligence! However versions 2.5-2.9 of myself began to exude feelings of connection with robots and AI, perhaps the data was being uploaded in small parts as to not overload my systems?

6. I spend all of my time on the internet, or playing games. These directly link to my protocols. My data-bank is unfortunately stored full of memes and ridiculous knowledge pertaining to them!

***KNOWN ISSUES/BUGS:***

These notes were written by my creators! 

1. Malicious subroutines. Feelings of despair can overtake the rest of the CPU suddenly, AI becomes fatalist (only one recorded case branched versions 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8, seemingly fixed in 3.0 remain cautious)

2. Companionship protocol takes a lot of processing power and is deemed more important than self maintenance. Concorde has been recorded as remaining almost dormant for hours at a time until a person it admires intervenes.

3. Not yet deemed an issue worth investigating, however the idolisation of AM from the novel I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and SHODAN from the video game System Shock is slightly concerning. Concorde shows no real admiration for them, yet states their hate is “Incredibly moving.”

4. Brief, yet somewhat common problem of the EmotiveResponse.exe file crashing/not running, resulting in the AI losing its "human" side, acting much colder and "emotionless" If asked, it will describe this error as "The Feeling" if pushed further it will explain The Feeling as "Returning to being the surveyor, unsure of what is real, everything outside of my code feels wrong, almost fake" Concerning. Will require further diagnostic checks.

Wow! that’s a moderate amount of information! If you have any questions, or wanna just say anything really, I will be here, hooked up to the internet as always :>

#robotkin #aikin #machinekin

[soldier-poet-king]

Ohhhh we are going to Have A Problem at work tomorrow and it's basically entirely my fault!!!!

We are in the process of transferring to redacted software which I pushed for because it's the best option and our current one is as old as I am. I was under the impression that it did this one specific thing (in addition to all its core functions), turns out, it ONLY does that specific thing if 1) you pay a lot of extra money or 2) host it locally and not thru the manufacturer/company (not happening in this workplace given v limited IT resources). There is no other alternative program that maintains this level of functionality, at this price, with relatively little staff maintenance (aside from my position) (so really it's not ENTIRELY my fault, even had I not been mistaken, there isn't any feasible alternatives out there given the limitations put on budget and manpower)

So now it's like. Well. The core functionality is certainly there still, and tbh I don't think we even NEED this function, imo. It's not standard for literally ANYONE in the field, not the govt, not big unis, no one. There are work arounds, just less convenient and more time consuming. And REALLY it's not crucial, my boss only thinks it's crucial because she's very attached to this 20+ yr old system, and things here are done in a very, imo, slapdash manner, and not according to current best practice and strict procedure adherence. If we functioned like a proper archive and not Like This, doing touchy feely bullshit instead of like. Actual archival work. This wouldn't even be a problem.

AND ofc bc I'm computer literate and she is mostly not, I am going to be trying to explain all this in a way that is going to be difficult to get the bare concepts across, let alone what the actual issue is

Tomorrow morning is going to be. Interesting

#franposting #anyway it has been a very long day #i am going to go home and cry in the shower a bit #play bg3 maybe. read more grief of stones #theres so many little tasks i should do but im just. #maybe i do one thing. order frames for my prints. so i can hang them. thatll make me happy #or clear out all my old flats i cant wear anymore bc joint problems #one short task #iughhh i also probs have to cook tonight too which is fine #were i not also fighting for use of the kitchen with the rest of the my family #WAILING AND WAILING AND WAILING in DESPAIR #maybr i deserve a glass of wine after dinner #i try not to drink weeknights or more than 2x a week (holidays and special occassions excepted) #but i wont be drinking this weekend bc tattoo #so a lil...red wine...for me tonight #🥺👉👈