Julius Caesar stood on the bank of a shallow river called the Rubicon. It was 49 BC, and he was out of options. The Senate, marshalled by his rival Pompey, had ordered him to surrender his command in Gaul and return to Rome as a private citizen, which in practice meant prosecution, ruin, and probably either exile or death. The river was the legal edge of Italy, and Roman law forbade any general from leading an army across it. To cross with his legion was treason - an open declaration of civil…
Raymond Chen writes about a man whose work affected us all: I recently learned of the passing of someone whose work nearly everybody knows, but nobody knows his name. Tony Krueger is remembered in Wikipedia as the person who ported the game Chip’s Challenge to Windows for the Windows Entertainment Pack.¹ But that’s probably not the code he wrote that touched the most people. Tony worked on Word 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, then on Word for OS/2 and Word for Mac, then returned to Word 6.0 and several versions…
I always meant to have some major epic planned for today’s post, but alas. What I have instead are some shorter, compartmentalised thoughts on the whole debacle. Why Brexit? There’s a fair bit I could talk about: The evolution of the European Communities to the European Union, worries of the EU overruling domestic decisions, immigration concerns, or decades of weird fearmongering and lies from the press. I could talk about our role in Europe, centuries of foreign policy spent interested in…
Humans suffer two big but under-discussed biases, which together make us overly favor people we see as prestigious and sincere. First, humanity’s superpower is cultural evolution, wherein we copy each others’ behaviors, and this wouldn’t work if we copied from random others. So it couldn’t get going without our first big clue on who to copy: prestige. Which has become so entrenched that we greatly over-emphasize prestige even when better alternatives are now available.Second, selection to win…
Punk songs tend to be very, very short and fast. But, one day, the NOFX guys said "fuck that" and decided to make something a bit longer, and here we are, with an 18-minute punk song written in '99. To be honest, it feels more like multiple songs glued together than a "whole" song with changing theme/style. I never listened that much to NOFX or bands like them, they were not "culturally relevant" for me growing up, but they (and bands like that) did influence some of my musical tastes (I also…
Spaceports always have bars where you can blow off steam after a passage and meet potential patrons. They usually suck. In cases where it's helpful to flesh out a spaceport bar with an evocative detail, throw two dice and consult the table below. If the threshold for "Bougie Bar" is met, roll on that table, otherwise roll a "Dire Dive". Spaceport Type Throw for Bougie Bar A 7+ B 8+ C 9+ D 10+ E 11+ . d20 Dire Dives 1 Poor sound insulation and too close to the launch pad -- arrivals and…
6"x8", oil on board
I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy a YouTube channel called VampireRobot. This channel features what appears to be “B roll” from news footage taken back in the day. Most of the shared footage focuses on retail establishments. Today we have a visit to a McDonald’s back in 1988. It’s the closest thing we have to a time machine at this point. I enjoy seeing life as I remember it as a young adult; things were so much different when technology didn’t overtake every aspect of our society. I have to…
You fly into New Orleans, pick up your rental car and drive to the hotel down near Bourbon Street, check in and crash from a long travel day! Then before your head hits the pillow you call and leave a wake up call! Wait……. that’s not the kind of wake-up call I was talking about! My four favorite movies are; The 1951 Version of a Christmas Carol. Ground Hog Day. Disney’s The Kid with Bruce Willis & the entire 9 Seasons of the TV Series Suits What do all four of these movies have in common? They…
I was thinking of writing another blog post. I was thinking about changing careers. I was thinking about starting a family. I was thinking about buying a new car. I was thinking... It can be so comfortable to think about things, about actions, and about the future. It can quietly become a habit we are not even aware of. It feels like you are being slowly cooked in warm water. You think and think, and plan and think... And then one day, you look back and wonder, “Where am I? Is this really my…
Read the full post at - The Wealth Ladder by Nick Magiulli The Wealth Ladder is a book I picked up from the library on the strength of one thing: I’ve followed Nick Maggiulli for years. He writes at Of Dollars and Data, and he’s one of the most nuanced, clear-headed thinkers in the personal finance space. No hype, no hustle-culture nonsense — just careful analysis and genuinely useful ideas. When he puts out a book, it’s worth reading. The Core Idea The premise is deceptively simple: the rules…
Spreading joy and reinventing yourself while turning a house into a home (Woodstock, Illinois; 2004 to present day): Joy is the reading mood I’m searching for these days. Maida Korte walks the talk, “showcasing joy” by writing lovingly and exuberantly about a major life change in her memoir Gutted: How an Old House Remodeled Me.” A cup-running-over mental attitude and conviction that “words matter” shines through. The award-winning interior designer combines her love of designing uplifting…
I’ve been seeing articles, videos and ads for a certain pocket-sized e-reader for the past few days all over my feeds that have got me wanting one more than anything. I like the idea of reducing my phone screen time and reading more, and this device looks like the perfect solution to that problem. I even have it in my cart in Amazon. But as much as I want it, I am resisting the urge to buy it, because I don’t need it. While I want to reduce my screen time, I think a more practical approach is…
A-ha, all the things I could do if I had a little money...
The history of transit ridership in the US is what it is: But it matters enormously how we talk about it. Many US transit agencies will be facing the voters in the next two years, seeking new funding to plug their structural deficits and forestall destructive service cuts. Many agencies are already involved in fights for more funding in their state legislatures, sometimes winning, as in Illinois, but often losing, as in Pennsylvania and Oregon. Most of the voters or legislators in these debates…
Newport Street Newport Street Oxford Street Market Street Victoria Square Summer in Bolton seems so foreign that I think I prefer rainy days in the town centre. Most people have decided the sunshine will last all day and have dressed accordingly.
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGSOur June bookclub selection is John of John by Douglas Stuart. We will be in conversation with Douglas on June 24th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is open. For newcomers, there is a bookclub FAQ if you have questions about how it all works. And this is what we will be reading for the rest of the year. We’re partnering with the lovely people at Allstora for the Audacious Book Club. Now, you can sign up to have the monthly selections delivered to your doorstep…
Paresh Dave and Lauren Goode, Wired: Meta left potentially sensitive information collected from employee laptops accessible to anyone inside the company, according to an internal security notice seen by WIRED and three current employees familiar with the issue. The data, which was collected as part of a divisive initiative to train artificial intelligence models, is believed to include keystrokes, mouseclicks, and content displayed on the computer screens of Meta’s US employees. Katie Paul and…
Britain’s capital is often the location of the UK’s hottest weather but a look back to 1911 shows it is often elsewhere the mercury is highest. The highest temperature record has been broken three times in my lifetime. Before the first occasion in August 1990 you’d often see press articles speculating: “Will the UK ever break 100 Fahrenheit? Polo advert for the heatwave that coincided with the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday in 1990 Though 100F was recorded at Greenwich in August 1911 the…
I'm BackA former colleague once told me, "When you see a swimming pool, you don't dip your toe in. You do a cannonball." When I rediscovered blogging a few years ago, I started accumulating domains like bad habits. I went five hundred straight days writing three blog posts every 24 hours, and a good chunk of that was before I finally retired from my job at the university where I worked. Every day was a blank sheet of paper, and I always figured out a way to fill it. The secret to maintaining…
She may well be correct, but let's have some context. I live on the outskirts of a small village, which has one road in. There's no out unless you want to drive into the sea, so you turn around and come back the way you came to leave the village. My house is off this road, and my driveway is just over 500 feet (155 metres) long. At the end of this are two houses -- my own and an elderly couple. Bin day is a Tuesday morning. I trundle the wheelie-bins down on a Monday evening; they are emptied…
Employers will often choose to provide paid sick leave to some of their employees. About 15 years ago, neither the US federal government nor state governments required paid sick leave, but about 63% of US employees worked in jobs that had at least paid short-term sick leave. Since then, 18 US states and lots of cities and counties have started requiring paid sick leave, and by 2023, about 77% of US employees had jobs with at least short-term paid sick leave. Stefan, Pichler Christopher Prinz,…
The Knicks won! It’s old news by now, but I’m still riding the high of the Knicks winning the NBA Championship. The last time they won, I wasn’t alive, and the last time they even came close was twenty-seven years ago. This is truly a historic and exciting win. We moved to New York when I was really young, but those early years were formative in my sports fandom. The Mets (who won the Series when we were there in 1986) were my first love; my love of the Knicks came soon after. Even after we had…
Hey look! I thought I’d do this up again as it’s truly wonderful stuff. I think it’s a wee bit different this time around but we shall see. Shall we? Vecorn Singapore Laksa Soup Noodles – Singapore Detail of the packaging (click to enlarge). Contains achovy and shrimp. To prepare, boil 360-400ml water and add in soup base sachets. Once at a boil, add in noodle block and cook 3 minutes. Finally, stir and enjoy! A single pack from the multipack. Detail of the packaging (click to enlarge). An…
Hyde and Kev wrote about their dislike for summarize-option provided by LLM agents in almost all popular software and search engines. I completely agree with them. Although, their focus is on online writing and privacy, I see the same problem when reading a scientific article. This morning, I was attending a scientific talk where the presenter was showing his article in Adobe Reader, and Adobe, annoyingly, kept showing a pop-up at bottom to summarize the article. What the heck. I don't…
Link: Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison, by Sam Levine in The GuardianThis is an outrageous litmus test for the freedom to protest in America:“A group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received unusually harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prison on Tuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.”Let’s be clear: a few of the…
I fear that I might like being a mentor a bit too much. Can I make this a full time job? Being a coach for young professionals in tech?
Let me explain — and to start with, no, I'm not thrilled it's starting at $1,049. But I'm also not surprised, and the discourse around it is missing the actual story so badly it's almost impressive.When Valve announced the Steam Machine back in November 2025, the internal target was reportedly around $749. That was the goal. Then RAMageddon happened.DDR5 that was sitting at $80-120 for a 32GB kit at mid-2025 lows is now $300-500. DDR4 — the supposed "cheaper" fallback — went from $55-70 to…
