View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Even cooler, but sunny and calm. I talked myself out of doing a short loop at the lake and doing a full loop instead, though still only 5K for the running part. It was the chilliest run of fall yet, starting at 6°C and rising only one degree by the end. I wore two layers, but swapped out my regular t-shirt for a long-sleeved one. In the end I think I was a bit overdressed–not for the walk to the lake, but for the actual run and then the walk back. Noted for next…

With my summer To Do List checked off and a few days chillin’ at the hotel, I left northern Illinois yesterday, heading south for winter. But there was a teeny-weeny hiccup in my plan. Leaving the hotel… I packed everything up, headed to the van, and turned my Jackery on so I could plug the fridge in and get ‘er running. But the Jackery was deader than a doornail. My Jackery is a solar-powered battery that runs things when I’m off the grid or not hooked up to shore power at a campground. I love…

Ben Thompson, writing at Stratechery: My life is defined by the Internet: I witnessed and participated in its evolution, and maybe in some small way contributed to it; I certainly owe my livelihood and success to it. I bemoan its passing. A thought provoking read. It’s strange to think I may not be doing what I’ve been doing in this space since 1997 for much longer, or what I might be doing going forward will be quite different.

Hello out there, in the darkness! It’s definitely late fall (despite the oddly warm weather) and I’m starting to feel like I should take stock of 2026—its surprises and strange confusions and small victories—and start planning for the new year. Too soon? Anyway: Reading: I just tore through The Plot and The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, two very well-written psychological thrillers with a side of literary-world satire. Art: Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at the Metropolitan Museum of Art…

A fairy and Noah Kahan showed up on Saturday. Fun was had by all. Here they are! At one house, apparently, when they arrived and the door was opened, Noah was playing on their stereo. Trick or TREAT, indeed.

I've finally started watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. What a great show! It talked about the "Old Net". The show takes place in 2077 and they say that "50 years earlier", the internet collapsed. 1 A hacker released a virus that corrupted much of the network. Leaving people scattered, isolated in a bunch of smaller local networks. The old net still contains valuable information and lost knowledge, but rogue AIs inhabit it and attack whoever tries to access it. That felt so real, so close. It…

Just a quick message to say that This Way Up is having a break until the second week of December. However there are 1,754 previous posts to read here if you've not caught up with them all yet and additional content in the Pages (links at the top under the blog title). See you in six weeks! I'm off to the Mystery Planet...

If prose is a cup of coffee, poetry is a shot of espresso. It's all the good stuff in one gulp. Considering our modern attention spans, I'm surprised it isn't more popular. I've recently discovered Georg Trakl. He was a tortured man (no surprise for a poet) whose "vision of existence was marked both by courage and despair." I learned that Wittgenstein was a patron of his, closing a neat little circle around two of my more respectable pastimes. I speak about as much German as JFK did that one…

Spooky season may be over, but you can still be in the spirit with author Nancy Kress’s newest novel, The Queen’s Witch. Take a peek through the veil of magic and into the Big Idea to see some historical truths about these “witches.” NANCY KRESS: Forget Halloween witches, pock-marked and flying on broomsticks. Forget Shakespeare’s weird sisters, boiling and toiling and bubbling. Forget even modern Wicca. Think pagan worshippers who throughout medieval and Renaissance eras performed both healing…

If you like chiptunes and metal, you may dig this album by Master Boot Record: masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/com…

Near-side rear tyre has been losing pressure in the Golf. I thought either a slow puncture or a faulty sensor.212 words · 1 image

A story in three screenshots: What a weird requirement. Of course the two “different” languages were “English (US)” and “English (UK)”, despite me never having explicitly configured the latter – I assume that Apple just presumes this based on geo-location when you set Siri to English while in Europe? Five minutes later, first hurdle overcome: how big is this download? How long will it take? How fast is it downloading? Five and a half hours later, absolutely zero indication if anything is…

To get the obvious out of the way, yes, this guy is obviously doing a "Stepin Fetchitti" routine. I imagine that when the camera stops shooting, he unglues the moustache, removes the peddlar's hat, and puts on a stylish sport jacket, ducking into his tight little Fiat, smoking his tires as he accelerates into a toasty Italian sunset. Anyway, I'm a huge fan of impossibly simple recipes like this, which are devilishly hard to recreate because all the magic is super-subtle and sort of ineffable. I…

[ Continuing the thread from the last day of October... ] This surely isn't an original notion (which of course doesn't prevent it from being likely true): Star Trek's universe of aliens wasn't really about what was 'out there' in the cosmos, it was about what was within us, as humans. Take any major non-human entity depicted in that show, and one can map an aspect of humanity onto it, hence the condition of us wrestling with one of our psycho-social, cultural, or technological constructs. The…

In college, I was still in the early stages of becoming politically aware. I don’t think I would have classified myself as left or right, liberal or conservative by the 1996 presidential election, and indeed ended up opting for an obscure third party in the Natural Law Party and their candidate John Hagelin. His stance on things caught my eye and he seemed like a chill, interesting dude. He stood for “the development of the human element.” He spoke often of how we practice “disease care” rather…

Back home just now. Fall cruise on Chesapeake Bay is done, as is the Sultana Downrigging Festival. Both were very enjoyable experiences.I received the photo at the top from long-time friend and great photographer Jack Carpenter. He shot this as I sailed to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race Parade of Sail. Jack tells me he shot it with roughly an 800 mm lens while crouching low to the water at the dock, which emphasizes the Pathfinder's beautiful lines. Thanks,…

I’ve started dropping the girls off to school every morning rather than having them take the bus. Makes for better mornings! The post Off to School appeared first on @Kevuhnn / 📸 / 📚 / 🇨🇦.

I will try to write for 26 minutes. That will take me to 1pm. Yesterday I cried an ugly cry. It felt good. I cried in front of my friend. I think that was an important thing to let myself do. I went to bed not early but earlier than the day before. I still feel guilty for skipping out on work and working out. But I think what I did last week and today has been what is right for me. A lot of good happened this weekend. A lot of strange. I am having trouble focusing today; I am noticing myself…

One of the most satisfying things about having a flip phone back in the day was being able to snap it shut when you were done with a call. You didn’t even have to be hanging up in anger — it was just a cool move.1 One aspect of the iPhone Duo that I am enjoying is akin to this. If I’m working on the inside screen, I want to shut the phone and have it lock, ready to go back in my pocket. This move says, “I’ve done the thing I needed to do, and now it’s time to move on.” Sadly, the iPhone Duo…

The Long Case Against Chat In January 2023, Austin Z. Henley wrote: Expecting users to primarily interact with software in natural language is lazy. Henley rightly argued that chat puts the onus on the user of figuring what to ask and how to ask it. Good interfaces guide people and help them discover what’s possible. He doubted that natural language should be the primary interface. That same year, Amelia Wattenberger wrote: Good tools make it clear how they should be used. And more importantly,…

Intro Last week was quite hectic because of the previously mentioned military service problems and sadly it’s still not over. Since they need to make a final decision about my situation, they decided to make things even harder and asked for the phone numbers of some of the family and friends to further investigate me. It finally happened earlier today and turns out what they were looking for was a private roasting session about me. I’ll learn if their performance was enough tomorrow and…

Today marks the 90th anniversary of BBC Television, with the service having been officially launched from Alexandra Palace in London on the 2nd of November 1936. It is, of course, an anniversary of which I have been well aware for a while - and has given me the opportunity to tell a story I have been looking forward to having the chance to tell for many months.Early this year I read and very much enjoyed Magic Rays of Light by John Wyver, an excellent new book telling the story of British…

or: how to version and document a project's changelog

We’ve been back to the Metallica Blood Drive venue a couple of times now to volunteer during the blood drive and to donate blood. Each time I visit, I’m thoroughly enamored with the unique and captivating nature of Metallica artwork. Metallica is known for hiring local artists to create original posters and T-shirts for cities on their tour. They not only support local talent, but they personalize their merch for their local audience by incorporating local culture and icons.The posters and…

Isn’t it a weird twist of fate that one of life’s cruelest paradox is that the more you want something, the more you are likely to get in your own way and the likelier outcome is that you are unlikely to satisfy that want? I had a clear example of this recently - out of nowhere - I got a chance to try out for a really interesting gig. I never really wanted this gig until I got the opportunity. And I prepared hard - but as expected - I also wanted it bad. And sure enough, I tripped up at the…

Flight was delayed over 14 hours (!) but it allowed me to have lunch with Silu. No complaints! The post Lunch with Silu appeared first on @Kevuhnn / 📸 / 📚 / 🇨🇦.

🍿 The Royal Tenenbaums could have come out last week and would still be groundbreaking. The Grand Budapest Hotel is my Wes Anderson favorite, but by being a notch or two less Andersonian, Tenenbaums make for a better movie.

I've been wondering whether this is possible because, if it is, then it potentially simplifies the development of new operating systems for PC-type computers. It turns out that it is (kind-of) possible, but practical applications are likely to be limited.

These screenshots come from the Netflix adaptation of the book The Love Hypothesis. And they are the cheesiest way ever to describe Type I and Type II errors. 1. Screenshots courtesy of my pal Dr. Jordan Wagge.2. I dramatically read this interaction to my class and recommend that you do the same.