In part 1 we looked at the new views C++26 adds, and in part 2 we covered the infrastructure improvements. This final part is about the biggest gap in C++20 ranges: you couldn’t run them in parallel. C++17 added execution policies to the classic std:: algorithms, but C++20 ranges never got them. If you wanted parallelism, you had to decompose your ranges pipeline back into iterator pairs. C++26...

Big ideas don’t always have to start out as grand bursts of inspiration. Sometimes a big idea is made up of smaller ideas over a long period of time that all snowball together in perfect harmony. Author Wole Talabi explores this idea as he talks about his newest novel, The Fist of Memory, and cites some other great authors that lent some of those small ideas to him. WOLE TALABI: When I look back at the process of writing The Fist of Memory, I don’t see a single big idea that anchored me through…

there was a storm this weekend and i spent the entire weekend indoors. regrettably i rotted and did not enjoy myself at all. i was on habbo (hotel). you may or may not recognise the name of the game. it’s not exactly a game as such, more of a location and expanded upon chat room from the 00s made with love in finland. i played a lot when i was younger but returned earlier this year after a nine year absence. it killed a lot of time while i was bored in the early stages of debt repayment. i’ve…

Brian Leno lets me know today: “Upgraded my Treasure Island dustjacket. What a difference, huh?” The original wrappers for Leno’s inscribed first edition thus of the Stevenson classic — thus, because this edition featured illos by Mervyn Peake — was kind of rough, especially the chipping at the spine ends. In some strict bookish circles, “wedding” a better dustjacket to a book is frowned upon, but obviously Brian will hang on to this one (and thousands more) until he croaks, and wants it to…

Hunting down the whereabouts of a French Impressionist masterpiece and the little girl frozen in time (Paris, elsewhere in France, Switzerland; Belle Époque era to 2024): A ten-year art detective pursuit, spanning more than a century of history. A painstaking trail pouring through recently released and older documents in numerous archives and libraries. A hunt likened to a “narcotic.” “Writing this book has felt like an act of salvage,” acknowledges Dorothy Carvajal, a seasoned, international…

Very pretty, undoubtedly top tier, very likely to be completely outside the range of anything I can afford, but just as likely to be extremely frustrating to use as a touch screen for the simple reason that macOS isn’t ready for it (I’ve already seen the kludgey semaphore window control interactions in social videos, and it’s as bad as on the iPad). Given that I have been using touchscreen laptops for decades and (like I quipped to Miguel de Icaza the other day) pretty much only use the touch…

It’s not always easy to track down a sandwich’s origin. Some have a known geographic point of origin but are disputed between 2 or more rival restaurants, like the French Dip, which both Philippe the Original and Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet in Los Angeles claimed to have invented (though Cole’s closed earlier this year, sadly). Some are even geographically disputed, like the Reuben which is claimed by both New York City and Omaha (we’re Team Omaha here at the Tribunal–NYC doesn’t need to…

I appreciate films that are loudly, brashly anti-fascist but I also appreciate films where the hated of fascism boils underneath the surface, no less energetic and furious for being cloaked in a layer of metaphor. This is textually a film about vanquishing an old guard built on lies—vanquishing them with violence, explicitly and pointedly with violence. Doctor Klemperer draws the connection most explicitly between the coven as a religion and the Third Reich, but we also see this in the…

I received yet another email for Sean Conner, this time an invoice for several art pieces (for quite a bit of money) from a gallery in Colorado being sent to a house in Dallas, Texas. Given that I only have the address of the recipient in Dallas, I decided I should write this Sean Conner a letter (old school, on paper, with pen, send via snail mail, just a few minutes ago) informing him of the mistake and an offer to forward him the invoice if he so wishes. I do hope he responds and I get to…

Another post on scientific terminology! Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s latest New Yorker piece, “Computer Chips Are the Most Magnificent Things Humanity Has Ever Made” (archived), has a section on the history of the relevant technology that begins: The original computers were essentially thickets of light bulbs. The basic logic of computing is that practically any set of instructions can be executed by an interconnected constellation of switches that can be turned on and off. Those first computers,…

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby Tony Dortie: “Eyes open for a full house. From Elstree it’s Top of the Pops with the biggest and best live. Starting with 2 Unlimited and the busiest dancers around!” [2] 2 UNLIMITED: Get Ready For This. This edition opens with a splendid pan round the side of the Mess stage looking towards the Cyclorama stage. Rod Litherland works his usual magic with lights and smoke and points a bank of white lights at equipment hanging down from the ceiling to once again create a…

The idea of a Linux smartphone has been simmering for several years. There have been a few obstacles along the path, but such a device is somewhat more possible now, than previously. To fly, the l-Phone — could I use that name? — would need to meet the expectations of smartphones users, particularly in regards to apps. But a Linux smartphone might offer enhanced privacy, which would appeal to some people. The article, by Amos B. Batto, is a longer read, but worth the time, if you’ve ever…

Chisom is a Nigerian fiction writer and poet. His short stories have been featured on Omenana, Apex, Clarkesworld, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023, African Ghosts anthology, Isele, Mythaxis, ZamaShorts, and elsewhere. His short story, “Ancestors’s Gift” won the 2024 Tractor Beam short story contest. He was a finalist for the Seattle Worldcon Short Story Contest, longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Awards, and is the winner of the 2025 Nommo Award for Best African…

I've been involved in more incident responses than I care to think about, responding to service outages, compromises and serious vulnerabilities. I've operated in slack channels, on bridge calls and in person. Over the course of my career, I've also trained and mentored others on what good incident response is supposed to look like. Effective incident response is often much less about how the issue gets resolved than it is about the communication and discipline that helps drive to that…

Listen to my new mixtape on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube This mix began as a Halloween party mix (complete with “Monster Mash”) and then morphed into something weirder and scarier, I think: a mix of songs (mostly) about being crazy — maybe even psychotically! — in love. (The more you listen to love songs the more you realize, “Man, this person is not well!”) You can listen to the mix on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. Filed under: mixtapes

The team behind @downread.com have created a new profile browser and @socialspec.org for website profiles! Very cool! 📈

I haven’t seen anyone else mention this so far, but it immediately stuck out to me that the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display lost its square bottom corners, and now has four rounded ones. I loved that the display used to be cohesive with the device’s frame — rounded on top but sharp on the bottom. It looked “right” for the laptop in a way that the all rounded one looks “wrong”, visually smaller, and more iPad-like than ever. It also looks like the corner curve is even more rounded than…

Essential reading in the Berkhamsted Oxfam Books and Music store. As this is a milestone weeknote, I’m going to try and change these a little. For a long time I’ve been following the same pattern, which, while useful as a structure, feels like it has become stale in parts. If those parts aren’t fun to write, they can’t be that fun or useful to read. It’s time for something a tiny bit different. I’m planning to leave out the things that are either routine or don’t matter as much. This might be a…

The April 1927 issue of Weird Tales has a cover which depicts an ogre about to grind an attractive young woman into paste with a tree. Total evil! This bit of devilry illustrates a serialized novella by Ray Cummings, and that work is the topic of our discussion today. We've read things by Mr. Cummings before, as well as Fred Pohl's choice words about the fellow. An actual man of science who worked with Thomas Edison, Cummings penned space adventures and Edgar Rice Burroughs-type planetary…

If a person has a blog and does not write a post about blogging every few months, can that person call themselves a blogger?Yes. Of course. Meta posts are annoying to most people.Anyway, here we go. Meta post begins...now!I changed things... againThe ship was on course. Calm seas and clear skies ahead. Things got a little choppy the other week. It was brought to my attention that the webmention service I used on the site had become slop.I shared the discovery on Mastodon. Claude's co-author…

I haven’t seen anyone else mention this so far, but it immediately stuck out to me that the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display lost its square bottom corners, and now has four rounded ones. I loved that the display used to be cohesive with the device’s frame — rounded on top but sharp on the bottom. It looked “right” for the laptop in a way that the fully rounded one looks “wrong”, visually smaller, and more iPad-like than ever. It also looks like the corner curve is even more rounded than…

The Circle is an idea to bring together writing from other personal bloggers who are closely observing the world we inhabit together. Working at the edge of dream, symbol, the body, and the unseen. This past week I have been practicing being present in the moment. It sounds simple, but rarely is. The practice has taught me much more about myself than I thought possible entering it. I’ve wrestled in the past with letting my mind fixate on a problem or issue. I’ve gotten better…but I didn’t…

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Glassy water, cool air, gray sky. I opted for a short loop at the lake today, figuring I’d start the week (I missed Monday’s run due to flu-like side effects from my vaccinations the day before) with less walking. I ended coming in slightly faster than Friday’s run, with a slightly higher BPM of 149 (but only peaking at 153) and didn’t experience any issues. Unlike Friday’s run, there were few others on the trail and most of the people I saw were fellow joggers.…

I’m not on Firefox (I’m a Vivaldi user), but I like their browser a lot, and their latest video made me smile. Whilst I didn’t recognise all the memes (the shoes one passed me by?), it was fun to see Where the Hell is Matt, as…well…I’m in the 2012 video. I talked about it on my blog at the time where I confidently announced that I would be in the video and would share it when it goes live. So yes, the video went live 15 years ago. It’s below. I get a weird nostalgic pang watching this video…

By Richard McKenna / October 28, 2026 The Intruder Within Directed by Peter Carter ABC (1981) The year is (probably) 1983 and I am an Alien-obsessed 12-year-old who spends a huge amount of his free time producing appalling felt-tip homages to Giger that not even my grandparents can pretend to be impressed by. One evening I see an advert on the telly for a made-for-TV movie and am instantly possessed: no matter that it is clearly a tawdry knock-off of one of my life’s most sacred…

Let’s stop entirely, or at least greatly greatly reduce, the common usage of the phrases “full stop,” and “frankly …”. These phrases have lost nearly all meaning and force after years of misuse and abuse and coercive cooptation. How many of these phrases there are; wielded as a cudgel to get me to “Now Hear This! I am important and what I say is IMPORTANT.” I can’t stand the grating of these phrases upon my soul any longer — so I had to banish them.

A delivery from the Beth Chatto nursery, always known for propagating quality plants in conjunction with the renowned garden she developed.

In my post about Scraper Junkyard results, I hypothesized a single, centrally-controlled web crawler that made requests from Rapid Seedbox Limited IP address ranges. After a closer look at the Apache combined format log files, I can confirm that at least one web crawler works out of Rapid Seedbox IP address space.

onthecareandfeedingofcatgirls: allthingslinguistic: Linguistics takes on the “Is this a pigeon” meme. all these linguist memes and not *one* made this pun?

In this week's big news (though it's only Wednesday), OpenAI announced a proof that the exponential-time hypothesis is false, with a Lean proof. Later Anthropic released their own paper. Ryan O'Donnell and Shiva Kintali posted follow-up proofs, smartly focusing on simplicity rather than getting the best bounds. OpenAI will partner with three of my favorite complexity theorists, Russell Impagliazzo, Mohan Paturi and Ryan Williams to verify and study the proof. I have not verified the proof…