Book Corners has grown quite a lot since I introduced it earlier this year. Today it has 37,238 approved public bookcases, and the map is the page people use the most. A few days ago I looked at how much data the map endpoint was sending and I didn’t like what I found. The problem The map page loads its markers from a GeoJSON endpoint: /map/libraries.geojson. The page always sends the current zoom level and the visible area (the “bounds”), and at low zoom levels the server already groups…

— What are the conditions for creativity, for blooming? Is the library a bloom space? — I wrote about the bloom space in this post. — We are living in a moment in history. We live in possibility. We dwell in possibility. We are in something. The future threats act upon the dreamer ongoingly, though. It affects our thinking, our dreaming, our creativity. As I quote in the bloom space post, we are dreamers experiencing the sound of a prolonged fire alarm, which impedes, negates, our REM sleep. —…

Updated October 2026 Back to Basics was the first Ina cookbook I ever bought, so it will always have a special place in my heart. More than that, it’s the book that taught me how to cook. So many things that feel second nature to me now, or would seem obvious to a more experienced cook, I learned directly from this book. That’s why it’s still one of the first Ina books I recommend to anyone just getting started in the kitchen and looking to build confidence quickly. I decided to buy Back to…

Venues where you may encounter loose animals on the course or in the meeting area. For example, some people may not want to visit places where they could be in a field with loose cows (scary / potentially dangerous / many other reasons). At the opposite end of the scale I'm sure there are also people that would actively seek out these interactions. Hopefully the list below will be of use.My idea is to cover venues with cattle, sheep, deer or any other animal you would not usually encounter…

Truman has been hanging out in my office a lot this week. I’ll be working away and he’ll tap my leg to get my attention for some attention. If he taps harder and slams his paw on my leg., he wants treats.

A session of fairly unremarkable dungeon delving as the group map out the south-western quadrant of Floor 3, searching for were-rats. Party Members Tina the Titanic - Level 8 Fighter Vaco Adjacent - Level 6 Paladin Tobias Little, a.k.a. Lil Toby - Level 7 Cleric FollowersTiny Tina (Cleric 7), Princess Pizzabones (Thief 5) and Rutger (Robot 6) Session RecapWith a smaller group and missing their Lich, the party decide to stay away from the Weird Magic Wizard Bullshit going on in the eastern part…

A world that doesn’t need new software is a world without ideas.

I renewed my Supporter membership for Record Club. Easily one of the best investments I’ve made in years.

I'm not sophisticated enough to have noticed improvements in the main phone camera in the past 5-10 years, but distance shots are still not very good. The next generation Pixel Pro was supposed to have an improved "telephoto" camera, and when Google Fi offered me a sufficiently good deal [1] I decided to upgrade. Going from the 10 Pro to the 11 Pro the telephoto camera goes from a 1/2.51" sensor to 1/1.95", and since this is a diagonal measurement this means bringing in ~65% more light. But…

A lightweight dashboard for OpenSpec projects, shipped as an Agent Skill.

2026-10-10Hello!I looked at a pumpkin design online that was way too complicated. It's also a bit too early to cut through pumpkins for Halloween, but I went to try this anyway.I adjusted the focus of my camera lens to make the pricks of light that shine through the dots look out of focus. They look blurry, but also increase in size. Dots become orbs of light.The dotted patterns seem to be a recurring theme with my photography. I just like the idea of polka dots.In post processing, I adjusted…

Checked in at Vicarage Road Stadium (Stadium) — Watford, EnglandVicarage Rd, ahead of Watford v Burnley this afternoon.

Olive warbler at Cofre de Perote (photo from Wikimedia) 10 October 2026 On the WINGS birding trip to Veracruz, Mexico I was happy to see this colorful Life Bird, the olive warbler (Peucedramus taeniatus). I had missed seeing him while birding in southeastern Arizona, so I studied his description and habitat preferences before leaving for Mexico. I learned that his common English name is totally misleading. He’s not olive and he’s not a warbler. Not Olive Neither male nor female is olive…

The one thing I know above all else is that no matter what happens, no matter how tired you might be, no matter how hard the world hits you or how hard you fall down, you have to get back up and keep swinging. You always have to fight back as hard as you can.You have to swing that axe and let the chips fall where they may.I know thisAnd you do too. I have seen great things. I have been to great places.I have had good times and I have had bad times.I have seen great things and sad things.I have…

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement. Is Cockney Rhyming Slang Really Dying or Is Someone Telling Porkies? (06.09.13) A recent survey by the Museum of London suggests that the use of Cockney rhyming slang, a tradition which originated with the market traders and street…

Here are a few things I've bought, picked up, been sent, gifted, or rediscovered lately. In no particular order. Akai MPC Sample I saw this in a YouTube video, did some research, ended up watching four hours' worth of videos, and copped one the same day. This will send me down so many rabbit holes. I can hear my wallet crying in a corner. I'd like for this to turn into a hobby that needs no computer screen, so I'm looking into more standalone stuff to combine with the Sample. I'm not planning…

I did not sleep well at all last night and certainly didn’t sleep well enough on Thursday night. I am feeling rundown. Last night I fell asleep early but got a phone called pretty late. At some point my settings must have changed, so I get a notification on my watch at night whereas I didn’t tin the past. That got me in panic but it’s all good. I was glad to catch up with an old friend! It has been a long time since we chatted. He actually told me something I needed to hear. It was nice to…

118: BRENDA WEISCHER – by Christina Holevas – Habiter “this quote by Helmut Lang always stuck with me: “You cannot put a personality together with clothes. It only reaches up to the neck. And then it ends.”” October 10, 2026 at 01:33PM

There’s something mystical in the communion of a large crowd experiencing something together. Concerts and sports games are some of my favourite things for this exact reason. You suddenly have thousands of people in one place, who all want the same thing – and, in general, will get that thing. Of course, sometimes your team loses a home game. But it’s still rare to not have a single moment of celebration, and even if you do, the disappointment and frustration is shared. You’re not seething…

Enrico RavaFearless Fivewith Joe LovanoCorners Enrico Rava trumpet, flugelhornJoe Lovano tenor saxophone, tarogatoMatteo Paggi tromboneFrancesco Diodati guitarFrancesco Ponticelli double bassEvita Polidoro drums, vocalsRecorded July 2025Auditorium Parco della MusicaEnnio Morricone, RomeRecording engineers: Angelo Mincuzzi, Massimiliano Cervini,and Roberto Catucci (supervision)Mixing engineer: Stefano AmerioOctober 2025, UdineCover photo: Max FranoschAlbum produced by Manfred EicherRelease date:…

https://bircon.berlin/ I am running a 3.5 hour Shadowdark game at Bircon. Been looking forward to it. It is a a mid-sized convention with ca. 100 games happening, mostly OSR and really varied in tone, setting and game-system. As DM you €10 voucher and automatically put into a raffle. I spend quite a bit of time preparing, totally modifying a one page dungeon, watching about 50 minutes of tips on how to DM at a Con etc. Found a bunch of nice art online which I printed and my gf made some custom…

Despite supermarkets foisting Christmas on us, we’re well and truly into spooky season now – and the latest theatrical horror is the stage adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. It has previously been adapted for the big screen in 1963 & 1999 (under the title The Haunting), and more recently inspired a mini-series for Netflix; Stef Smith is responsible for bringing the novel to the stage, and this production is directed by Martin Constantine. This week it is haunting…

oblique nevertheless she went about her business as if unseen and in a maze, in amazement that anyone could possible read what she wrote, what she skinned, what she thought orthogonal enough to hide the pensive gnome. eons passed, until one fine dark day the wine-dark see and the golem’ sea approached each other swords drawn then sheathed in parlay, their elemental particulars given to each other and riven in rivulets of atoms and fleet mucosal streams, thirteen thousand of which made musical…

Every week, I share something I learned in the previous seven days. I usually find these while I'm putting my weekly newsletter together but somehow, they don't quite fit! This week I learned that Anthropic are banning people from being rude to their AI tools - I guess thats why I always say please and thank you when I use Claude.Anthropic bans ‘cruel’ behavior against its Claude AIAnthropic on Thursday moved to bar users from treating its Claude AI system with needless cruelty, amid a growing…

Today started a whole lot better than yesterday. No coughing fits going on continuously for a bazillion hours. The shortness of breath is still kicking my arse but the coughing has toned down a ton. That was a welcomed relief. I didn't do anything in the AM but sit and veg out. I wanted to make sure that it would keep going on as is.I went to Gregg's for fish 'n chips and I when I got back home I started working on getting the boards planed to final thickness. It took me a long time and I spent…

It's been 40 years since Double Dare came to Nickelodeon—and since I fell in love with reality TV challenges. Plus: read my profile of Marc Summers.

I can ask an agent to do something, watch it produce good work, and still spend the next hour telling it what to do next. The agent is busy. So am I. Somehow, I’m still deciding every next step, with another conversation to attend to.Moving into factory mode changes that relationship. I give the agent an outcome, the context it needs, and a way to check its work. It carries the task through, including dealing with problems along the way, and comes back with a result I can inspect.I gave a…

30-09-26 This was clearly an early birthday (third October) present from wildlife jesus. It didn't start out particularly impressively but things built nicely and by Aberlady the treats were arriving thick and fast. I can't remember the last time I've had such an unexpected number of animals and birds cross my path. Especially this late in the year. I think everything was out celebrating the last of the sunshine before cold damp Winter squats on the face of Scotland.Since the forecast was…

Visiting Hackfest in Enschede, listening to talks, giving a talk, and looking at the stands.

Saw the exhibitions 'Ballroom of Eros' and 'Image of Imagination'.