Birmingham’s biggest restaurant opening this year is in London. Our biggest culinary export, a two Michelin wielding chef by the name of Aktar Islam, has opened a restaurant in the big smoke called Oudh 1722. And before you think about Aktar’s cooking, get this preposition out of your head; it is nothing like Opheem. They might share the same garam masala recipe, they might use the same customer intel, but that is it. Whilst Opheem is very much a two star restaurant that uses flashes of the…
DiskImageMounter.app silently fails to mount Linux ISOs in macOS and hdiutil attach linux.iso returns "attach failed - Resource temporarily unavailable". However, the built-in tar (bsdtar 3.5.3 in Tahoe) command can list contents: tar tf /path/to/linux.iso and extract files: tar xf /path/to/linux.iso -C ~/extracted/ See also anylinuxfs ("mount any linux-supported filesystem read/write using NFS and a microVM") mentioned earlier this year.
During 2020 and 2021, when I spent a LOT of time at home, I got really into making condiments. It's surprisingly easy to make condiments - for some reason, I had the idea that making sauces was harder than making "regular ass food", and I'd been avoiding it for literally decades. But it's not harder! If anything, it's often easier! And if you have an immersion blender, it's sometimes even brainlessly easy! My favorite two condiments to make were ketchup and thai peanut sauce. In particular, I…
While investigating an espionage case, Colin Lamb stumbles upon a murder involving a typist, a blind woman, and a room full of clocks. By getting to the bottom of the murder, Lamb thinks he might just catch an international criminal while simultaneously saving the woman he loves. But to do so, he will need the assistance of old friend and venerable detective, Hercule Poirot. If that plot summary sounds messy, it’s because it is. The Clocks is Agatha Christie’s 34th Hercule Poirot novel, but far…
Deserialization attacks have grown in popularity over the past decade, with major flaws hitting tech giants and modern frameworks— even in 2025. Last July, a question came to mind: "What if we took insecure deserialization and brought it to C++?" I’ve had fond memories using .NET and PHP deserialization attacks to pop shells in CTFs, courses, and engagements, plus I enjoy tinkering with C++, so I decided to spend some personal time investigating this topic. Exploring this simple question…
CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER PIKE STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES (EXO-6) Hey, it’s a Star Trek review, which means it’s time for me to talk about how I’m not *really* into Star Trek. But, honestly, I’m starting to realize I’m perhaps misrepresenting that point a bit. I mean, I’m certainly not *as* into Star Trek as a lot of Star Trek fans I know, but, maybe, just maybe, that’s because I spent the first two and a half decades of my life helping run Star Trek fan conventions, which has a tendency to skew…
by Gwyn Conaway According to designers, it's time for the miniskirt to take a hike. These eleventh graders didn't get the memo. There are few things that bring me more joy than announcing the death of a trend, but this time, I’m titillated by the unexpected. The miniskirt has been dying for several years now. … Continue reading [June 24, 1971] The Hemline Wars: Strident Foes or Unlikely Allies? → The post [June 24, 1971] The Hemline Wars: Strident Foes or Unlikely Allies? appeared first on…
I’m lucky to have a job where I get to visit a lot of different places. The most "exotic" times, even for me as a Swede, are when I get to do house inspections out in the archipelago. I had such a day yesterday. Going from house to house all the while thinking, "is this really work?" It’s like entering a different world, another time of age. Almost like being in a fairytale. No cars, no city noise and people rushing. Just the sound of nature. So relaxing... If you ever visit Sweden, I highly…
Scribed by Sandre the Giant Released: 14th May 1996 Finnish death metallers Amorphis had begun their considerable career a few years before this, with the incredible ‘The Karelian Isthmus’ and of course their iconic ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’, but in 1996 the winds of change were blowing through the death metal scene. Not all was to be well, and almost seeing the writing on the wall early, Amorphis began the metamorphosis into the progressive metal monster we know today. ‘Elegy’ was their…
Market Street This is one of those photos where I wish I could have been close enough to eavesdrop. This discussion was so intense, so perplexing, and completely captivating. I so wanted to be part of it.
Since losing interest in a lot of the things I used to be into, I've not really been posting to social media. The circles I moved in and the people I followed were nearly all tech people, and micro.blog tends to be very nerdy and skewed in that direction, which is mostly down to the way the platform is built.I would check in and often wouldn't find much going on, so over the last couple of weeks I've deleted most of my posts, unfollowed everyone and logged out. There's nothing wrong with the…
I’m aware that I’ve have been writing less lately, partly for work reasons and partly for conference reasons. Speaking of, let’s talk about ACCU on Sea 2026. Bristol upon the Channel It’s been a tough time for conferences and trainers alike lately. Deluded by the sirens of AI, companies have lowered their training budgets, convinced that a chat bot is as good as a teacher (or at least, “good enough”). While the market for C++ conferences (and I’m sure other domains too) had already got some…
More monochrome cosmic horror. Quiet Apocalypse is a short black-and-white film by “Insolitum”, a combination CGI with stock footage that nods to Cloverfield, Ishirō Honda’s monstrous menagerie, and the last few minutes of The Mist, if that particular film had continued beyond its abrupt ending. “Made using Blender, Zbrush, Substance Painter, After Effects and Davinci Resolve. Stock footage provided by Envato, Pexels and Pixabay,” says the YT note. Most of the visuals are self-explanatory and…
Look, white puffy clouds and glimpses of sunshine and blue skies … the Swiss Chalet house We had to take a walk to the pharmacy to go collect the mad potion for my colonoscopy next Friday, Jul 3. We walked passed what I call the Swiss Chalet house. One of my favs in the area. It’s the last distinct house left standing in this area, which is kind of sad. We were also mobbed by a swarm (Plague?) of speckled Grackles, whooping it up. I think it was a large family group as I’m sure there were…
If you like Guy Ritchie TV shows and movies, you are probably going to enjoy this. Gravy Train tells the story of a twenty pound note – or rather the people through whose hands it passes on one day in North London. There’s a diverse cast of characters including the prerequisite number of villains and the obligatory slightly bent copper - it wouldn't be a crime comedy-drama otherwise, now, would it? There’s even a London Geezer voiceover at the beginning and the end to contain the somewhat…
I've spent a fair amount of time on this blog documenting what Bitwarden has been quietly doing to erode the trust that made them the default recommendation after LastPass started falling apart. That's a story about opacity and greed — price hikes buried in feature posts, a new M&A-specialist CEO they didn't announce, values language quietly rewritten in the dark. That's what I document in this series. LastPass is a different category of problem entirely. And it's been on fire longer than they…
Anyone who has worked in publishing for any time has hear the words. Lots know that the First Sale Doctrine has something to do with copyright, but many hear just words. Part of the trouble may be that it seems to me to be misnamed — shouldn’t it be the Second Sale Doctrine since it governs actions taking place after the first sale is done and dusted? The Lawtoknow website gets straight down to it: “The First Sale Doctrine is a cornerstone of American copyright law, enshrined in §109 of the…
Last week we spoke remotely at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. This is the text and slides of our talk.My name is Yancey Strickler. Thank you for having me.Today I'm going to talk about how we and society are changing. In ways that are uncomfortable and ways that are very different from the present.I don't endorse all of these ideas, nor do I think they lead to simplistic or purely positive outcomes. I'm here speaking as a witness, sharing the parts of the picture that I see.There's an unusual…
I may have spoiled myself a bit for this – I saw the 2002 remake from Steven Soderbergh, which starred George Clooney and focused a bit more on a love story hiding within Stanislaw Lem’s original novel. Andrei Tarkovsky’s original adaptation has more of a psychological mind-screw angle. Both are pretty faithful adaptations. Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is a psychologist who’s sent to a space station orbiting Solaris, a strange planet with an all-encompassing ocean. The crew there started…
Here’s the latest edition of my newsletter for early-stage growth leaders, Leading Thinker, which I also shared at LinkedIn: TL;DR: When you start a new blog or publication, your metrics will disappoint you. That disappointment leads to doubt, and often kills a content practice before it has a proper chance to make an impact. A more useful signal in the first few months is author satisfaction, and it’s something you can actually pay attention to. I write about content strategy, and I’ve helped…
For pride month, straight critic Ben Miller takes a look back at a gay film he otherwise would have never seen Watching Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle during pride month, I caught myself being drawn into the idea of what pride means. The outward appearance of the gay community has constantly been perceived as unabashed confidence with "we're here and we're queer!" Living out and proud might be the goal, but it certainly wasn't something that happened for most gay people overnight. Before…
What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this summer? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the April installment of this column. In a conversation on Blueksy (my primary social media after the fall of Twitter/X), someone asked for my history of science fiction recommendations including a few general surveys. I scoured my shelves and came up with an all-too-large pile (with some notable volumes I wanted to include but could not find) of favorite…
A roundup of interesting links I have enjoyed recently. An 8-page, printable zine maker: dirtylittlezine.com A 3D tour of the Criterion Closet: the-criterion-closet.vercel.app Global freedom and democracy indices: amos.design/the-civic-atlas Simple, self-contained wikis: feather.wiki A searchable database of David Attenborough’s work: attenborough-100.vercel.app Actions to combat the empire of AI: airesistlist.org An encyclopedia of women philosophers: ecc.historyofwomenphilosophers.org An…
After seeing this in an email from Meta today:"The setting to disconnect your off-Meta activity is going away."... I was reminded that I should finally delete my Facebook and Instagram accounts, so I guess that setting isn't the only thing going away.I'm posting this because I want a public record of it. I'm sorry if it comes off as performative. I'm also sorry that it took me this long.
People asked how I build projects in Lovable or with any other vibe-coding tools. I share my approach here.Vibe-coding is the build stage in my workflow. More thinking before I open a coding agent helps me reach a minimum lovable product (MLP) faster.I prepare the work in a structured way before I write the first build prompt. The next section explains the three inputs I use.I mention Lovable because it is the most approachable option for non-technical users. I use the same approach with other…
I've been collecting physical media for over 5 years at this point. It started as exclusively games, then became music, and then movies. However, my love of collecting has kinda dwindled or has made me outright anxious, which means I'm doing something wrong. I got to a point where I was kinda collecting whatever, albums that I wanted to listen to, but after listening didn't really care for. Owning games that were hot collector items, but ones I'm not super passionate about. Buying games that…
Who are you?Hello there! I am Shadra Strickland, author/illustrator and Chair of Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art.What do you write?I write picture books and poetry for now.Though I’ve been illustrating books since 2009, my writing didn’t take off until years later. My mother was an English teacher, so reading and writing were a part of my childhood daily life.The stories that I have published are big, loud rallying calls to play and center around joy and community. Most…
A classic full-wall variant appears in Chapter 51 (dir. Tyler Shields, 2025).
There’s a bunch of travel reports from folks visiting favorite shops around the world, mid-year reflections and lots of creative ideas this week. I think my interest in more collage-y, art journaling projects is that these can be created with things I already have — reuse and repurpose — in a time that making something beauitful on a budget is a great way to spend time. Pens: Fill Me In! A Guide To Fountain Pen Filling Mechanisms (Part One) (via Pen Boutique Blog) Jinhao 20 (via Crónicas…
