The following is a paid review of a generative AI service aggregator, called Syntx AI. I was paid to write the review, and given free credits to try out their systems, but I was not directed as to what to write, and the opinions expressed are my authentic opinions just the same. To be honest, I was prepared to not like this service. I am a picky and opinionated internet user, and even more-so when it comes to tools that I use regularly for creative production purposes. Whether I’m working on my…

Our occasional series about history’s most interesting people and events that have been overlooked by

Hey there. Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week: #1. Bugs and incidents happen when there’s a flaw in the software development process. To make sure they don’t occur again, don’t share the details (5min). #2. “Not all hobbies have to be productive,” a friend told me last week. We were talking about how AI has changed expectations at the workplace. F*ck it, and do it anyway (5min): the old way, the hard way, the slow way. #3. I don’t use AI for my writing. It’s too personal to…

25th September 2026 The dislocation between political discourse and reality Both law and history are often about the relationship between words and what we can call reality. They are about other things too – physical evidence and artefacts and so on – but usually words are the thing. One feature of modern politics is what seems to be a disconnect between words and reality. That the words used – phrases, texts – do not correspond with the world around us. They are merely tools of conveniemce.…

I’m available as a consultant on the things I do: helping developers understand AI; interpreting software engineering knowledge in depth; and writing precise documentation that’s easy to understand. Head over to the agency page to discover how to hire Software Craftsmanship’s consulting detective.

It was Silver Week (Wikipedia): a five-day weekend where Monday was Respect for the Aged Day, Wednesday was Autumnal Equinox Day and so under Japanese law, Tuesday was an ‘extra’ holiday. I was thinking that I didn’t remember a five-day weekend last year and it turns out it’s only in years where you have Respect for the Aged Day be Monday and Autumnal Equinox Day be the Wednesday. This triggers the application of the rule under Section 3(3) of the Act on National Holidays (国民の祝日に関する法律) (a copy…

You can make your cover shiny by printing a glossy varnish onto it, or, for a superior result, by bonding a kitchen-cling-film-like plastic-y sheet to it. Film lamination has the added advantage that you can use matte or gloss lamination. You can, if you really want to spend money, also print a spot gloss varnish on certain parts of a matte laminated cover. Watch lamination happening: If you don’t see a video here, please click on the title of this post in order to view it in your browser.

Court orders Reddit moderator who widely pirated Switch games to pay Nintendo $4.5 million in damages by Chris Scullion Last year Nintendo filed a document with the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, asking for a default judgement on James Williams, known online as Archbox, after he failed to respond to a lawsuit filed in 2024. As reported by TorrentFreak, the court has now granted Nintendo‘s motion in full, awarding Nintendo the full $4.5 million. I wonder if Nintendo…

Originally Published in Games Unplugged Webzine – May 1st, 2001 Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Into the Dragon’s Lair. Players who may end up playing in this module are encouraged to stop reading now. Proceed at your own risk. Into the Dragon’s Lair is a 96-page module, written by Sean K. Reynolds and Steve Miller, inspired by and designed around the events detailed in the Forgotten Realms novel Death of the Dragon by Ed Greenwood and Troy Denning. The plot goes something like…

Kate Macdonald Under Review:The Meteorites: Encounters with Outer Space and Deep Time. Helen Gordon. Profile Books, February 2025. The Meteorites enthused me so much that I made my scientist father read it. Science journalist Helen Gordon’s non-fiction account begins with a meteoroid’s birth, somewhere between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt, then its approach to a blue planet inconveniently in the way of its orbital path (a meteoroid is the rock in flight, called a meteorite once it has…

As i indicated before i want to write a bit about the situation of the OpenStreetMap Foundation before this year’s board election, which is going to happen from October 10 to October 17. This is not going to be substantially about OSMF policy and operational decisions but about the overall situation of the organization and the long term trends. The background What we have seen over the course of approximately the past 10 years as a long term trend is a roll-back of transparency and public…

Today’s TDC says We love this Air Theremin a lot. Do something, play with it, record yourself making sounds and share it with us. Have fun! Here’s mine

Bungie feels like it is coming out of an intervention, except instead of being prompted by loving friends and family, the studio was cornered by accountants and angry gamer bros. Last week, Bungie posted a blog post and video about the "next chapter for Bungie." Turns out it's not just Marathon that is getting a new roadmap. Poria Torkan, Bungie Studio Head, addresses lost trust and the consequences of weak focus: "For more than 30 years, Bungie has built these amazing worlds and communities…

Superman: Father of Tomorrow #5A Danny Earls Regular Release: Sep 23, 2026Cover: Nov 2026 Creators WriterKenny PorterArtistDanny EarlsCover ArtistDanny EarlsCover ColoristNick FilardiColoristNick Filardi A while back, I wrote a Short Box about the first issue of an Elseworlds tale focusing on an alternate version of Superman’s cousin, but around the same time, another mini-series featuring another relative of the Man of Steel launched. At the time, I picked the Supergirl story to write about…

Hello from out here in sandland where it's Autumn (they say). It's going to get colder (it isn't), can get my jeans out (I won't), and dust off my Dr Martens (no chance). Hopefully I won't find any surprises in those boots, for if our felines have thrown up, I bloody guarantee it will be on something of mine.

Aldo Ray in Nighfall (1956) Vitals Aldo Ray as Art Rayburn, aka Jim Vanning, commercial artist and war veteran Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Winter 1956 Film: Nightfall Release Date: December 5, 1956 Director: Jacques Tourneur Costume Designer: Jean Louis (credited for gowns) WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background Today would have been the 100th birthday of Aldo Ray, born September 25, 1926. A tough and resilient U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, the raspy-voiced Ray often incorporated these traits into…

Here is another family history I have been commissioned to compile. There is additional information on this family, including charts and various lists — all of which the family is happy to share should anyone inquire. Meanwhile, here is a bit of their story to enjoy as it was presented to the family in Ontario, Canada, who have authorized this publication.Ancestors of John Noel BellingtonEvery family tree eventually runs out of ink and into weather — a name with no birthdate, a place with no…

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)I had heard of Apica notebooks before, but hadn’t really given them much thought since we all know I already have way too many notebooks in the paper fort, but I have some friends who really enjoy using Apica so I thought I’d give them a try.The Apica C.D. line of notebooks comes in…

Michael L. Rosin You need to know only one number from the 1860 census in order to understand why Northern Republicans in the Thirty-Ninth Congress so expansively embraced aliens in the basis of representation they were reshaping for the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives. The 1860 census counted only 6% of the foreign born residing in the eleven states that would rise in rebellion. The remaining 94% of the foreign born resided in the states that did not. (See p. xxix. For…

Attention minions raising smaller minions:Have you ever noticed something... off... about Peppa Pig's nose? I only ask because I keep getting Peppa Pig cakes over here, and they're surprisingly, er, adult for a kids' cake, if you know what I mean. Admit it: if you'd never seen Peppa Pig before this would make you spit out your Diet Coke. I mean, what is that lizard doing? Granted, if you do know what Peppa looks like, that's not too bad.[sing-song] BUT THISSSS IS! Flashing Flops Of Fleshy…

2026-09-25Hello!Ahead of the Vox Populi exhibition titled "An Endless Meeting: Collective Process, Artistic Labor, and the Politics of Working Together", I took the portrait of one of the artists through almost pure coincidence.I figured I might as well upload this portrait to Wikimedia Commons now that I have the technical know-how to use their systems thanks to asynchronous work with WikiPortraits. This image is put under a permissive Creative Commons license with permission.In short, without…

So I heard about this NY Times best 100 TV shows of the 21st Century, and I wanted to see if Battlestar Galactica made the cut. It did. In the top 50 even! So say we all! ✍️ Reply by email Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:57 Friday, 25 September 2026

What Agent Experience engineering means in practice: discoverable code paths, scoped agent instructions, useful feedback, and human ownership of risky decisions. Read more

📌 Summary 84% of Rails developers use PostgreSQL in production While PostgreSQL is less popular than Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server relational SQL databases today, the gap is narrowing Win a signed copy of High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails, see below for details and limitations The 2026 version of the Ruby on Rails Community Survey results are now live. Two things caught my eye, the use of PostgreSQL within the community and the associated learning resources, and the trends around the…

Mat Duggan: So every few years I buy the identical slab of metal and glass. I admire the color for a moment, because color is the only decision left to make. The last honest pleasure in a new phone is peeling the plastic film off the screen after which the box contains nothing of interest. I put the slab in a case so durable I never see the color again, restore from backup, and everything the old slab knew migrates, whole and continuous, into the new one. A soul transfer, over Wi-Fi, in ninety…

Sebastian Thrun, a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and adjunct professor at Stanford University (whose projects have included Waymo, Google X, Google Street View, and more) has launched a study to evaluate “the capabilities and limitations of AI systems for writing English-language philosophy.” Called PhilosophyBench, the study is focused on “whether AI can generate novel philosophical ideas and develop them clearly with depth and sophistication, not merely summarize existing views or apply…

It’s a fall Friday which means a chance of rain, cooling temperatures, and a tree full of apples (at least in our yard). I’m ready to enjoy some fall foliage and to lean fully into my fall routine. This weekend marks the start of the Big 10 season for my Ohio State Buckeyes with their noon tilt against Illinois. I’ll probably flip between that the Texas-Tennessee game to be honest. My mighty Spiders take on Furman and the UND team takes on Indiana State. I’m looking forward to the Eagles-Bears…

Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I was tempted to make “Fiction without Friction” the tag line for NEO, but it’s only (kinda) clever the first time you hear it. I’ll (probably) never say it again. I’ve been blogging about NEO for over ten years now. I’ve been writing exclusively inside NEO for most of this year. Quite a few authors I know have adopted NEO as their go-to for getting that rough draft written. With more users and more time, the program has been smoothed over and most of the pesky bugs…

quick note: I wrote this blog post before Meta’s Connect 2026 event. I’ll most likely make a short followup regarding that soon! Man, oh man. Sigh. Well, I’ve done two previous versions of this post, talking in 2024 and 2025 about the state of VR as a gamer. So I figured I would continue the now annual tradition. Will this be the last one? Only time will tell! TMNT: Empire City So I went back and read my 2025 post to see how I was feeling about things back then. I used the word stagnant to…

In the Newsletter this weekMore about the Longest Journey in the EUAnalysis: In this Innotrans world all seems fine. The rail world outside, not so much.Good week: Leo and Magyar Vagon conclude an agreement for a fleet of 200 passenger carriages for leaseAlso a good week: SBB to buy 21 high speed trains, with an option for 20 morePeople want trains this week: Nancy - Lyon a surprising successPolitical sop of the week: Republika Srpska gets a cross border train from SerbiaBad week: Rail Baltica…