Mine is mapping. I am a big OpenStreetMap contributor and I have mapped many towns near me that were previously completely unmapped.
Retro gaming, data preservation, and open-source software. I’m a maintainer of several open-source retro gaming data preservation projects so go figure lol
What is involved with town mapping - do you have some kind of Google type camera rig on your car or a GPS device that automates the process and just drive through street, or what?
You use aerial imagery and trace the buildings, roads, and other features using points on a grid.
Is that your own imagery, from drone footage for example, or are you basically copying Google Earth?
It’s from Bing and Esri. It’s not copying anything, as aerial imagery is a different thing than a map. Also Bing and Esri imagery is specifically allowed to be used for OpenStreetMap purposes, likely because companies benefit from OSM data.
I watched the video you linked. So it’s enhancing existing maps - I was thinking it was building the maps themselves from scratch. A long time ago I worked with a small company that created digital street maps for cities to use for utility work etc.
It can be making maps from scratch. There are a lot of places where the map has no features, mostly rural areas.
Trying to learn languages, Linux, gaming, and music.
Hobbies, I have many interests each more important than the last.
Puzzles.
And everything is a puzzle to a degree. I love to collect information in my head and use it to solve other things. I used to try to solve them for the cosmos or for the world but I didn’t get paid very well to do that and I’d rather just solve little ones.Be it literal puzzles, trivia, cooking is often a puzzle of balancing flavors and combining them in unique ways. Software and computers are just puzzles on finding how the functions work and solving through it until you find that part that doesn’t solve right.
I make my own furniture pieces occasionally or garden. All of it is just puzzle solving for what my soil can grow, what do I need for the household or what can be done with the odds and end items I have left.
It’s fun to repurpose items, fix broken things and build new stuff and I bet it’s how lots of other people who can’t focus on things feel as well. It’s just another puzzle.
Urban planning and old architecture. I could spend an entire evening just walking around older neighbourhoods looking at the level of detail put into the buildings
Gotten real good st troubleshooting fuel injection systems on vintage Italian cars (not the expensive kind)
I just become “good” compared to someone who never tried and then lose interest and try something else.
I too am a master of none.
Same here
Low level C programming.
And also I know a lot about breaking video DRM.
And also I know a lot about breaking video DRM
Teach me :P
For those who jump around too much like I do, remember:
“Jack of all trades, Master of none, But still better than A master of one.”
That has some truth for career/professional skills, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a lot of hobbies. Most people won’t achieve “true greatness” (whatever that means) in their hobbies whether they have one or hundreds, so why not just focus on doing what you enjoy?
Philosophy and some sciences, but I’m not very knowledgeable. I know people say you don’t need to be an expert in order to enjoy things, and I agree, but then those aren’t special interests either, right? I love my music, but I know few bands. I love singing, but I lack technique. I like horror stuff, but I’m pretty picky. I’d like to be fit and practice sports, but my health is an issue. I like some beauty topics, but I’m not interested in applying them. I enjoy eating, simple food though. Some games are fun, but I mostly repeat the same ones. I like mountains and forests, but just for a day or two. I’d like to read more…
I’m really a master of none.
Yeah, I truly cannot understand how people really get into things. I don’t play poker with my friends because after an hour I’d rather do something else. I have never finished a video game. My interest in things always just seems to fizzle out. I do a bunch of stuff well enough, but I’m not even sure I want to do them.
I grow bonsai trees.
Show some of your best favorites!
Wild! This is cool. 8 years for a tree. That’s patience and dedication.
For awhile there it was light sport aviation. I’m a CFI-SP and an LSRM-A. I’m a walking flight school, just add airplane. Been out of the game awhile but that was my specialty for much of my 20’s.
3d design & printing, electronics, cooking, in-person RPGs, woodworking, old time radio, sci fi, bookbinding, comedy… I got a million of 'em.
I also woodwork. Hand tools in the japanese style (im part Japanese). Are you a powertool user, hybrid or also hand tool?
Mostly power tools, but I’m decent with a few hand tools when necessary. Recently I mortised some door hinges with a chisel. But for the vast majority of my projects, renovating our house over 35 years, I wouldn’t have had the patience without power tools - I can barely hit a nail with a real hammer anymore lol. What kinds of projects do you do?
Tool making, and eventually furniture. Recently built a very large toolbox, chisel tray, lay out tools, marking gauges, couple plane bodies, saw vice, planing board (atedai) and saw horses.
Those sound like cool projects. Make any xmas gifts?
Some chopsticks, potentially a knife block and maybe some other utensils.
I am a spring of knowledge about all of the domestic Real Housewives franchises (though I did just pick up Dubai recently).
I know all the lore behind all their relationships/alliances/enemies and off season shenanigans.
Its legitimately stupid how much I can talk about rich women who flaunt their wealth and then do trashy shit like throw wine in one another’s faces or flip tables (or scam the elderly out of their retirement funds to fund their own lifestyle).
So you’re like a modern TV sociologist.
