As time goes on I realize, I have less and les to lose. I am dispossessed. We all are. So why not be true, why not be Antigone, why not fearlessly die on the hill.... What other option is there than the pity of generations after?

I paraphrased my title from this exact line: "Because while it may be full of trash and fake news, the Internet is not dead. You just need to know how to search, like in a chaotic flea market." That I read in this Blogpost: https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/12/19/what-if-i-were-twenty-again-thoughts-on-my-46th-birthday/ I like analogy a lot, seems accurate. One can easily spend 1 or even 3 hours wandering around a flea-market, and though you might see a few interesting things, but even those may…

(This post is a part of the 13th Annual Rule, Britannia Blogathon, hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts)The 1940s saw a number of supernatural fantasy films on both sides of the Pond. From Hollywood emerged such movies as Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), I Married a Witch (1942), It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The British film industry produced such films as The Ghost Train (1941), Blithe Spirit (1945), and Miranda (1948). Arguably, the greatest British supernatural fantasy of the 1940s was A Matter of…

Once upon a time in grad school, I met a fellow from Central Asia. He was soon to return home and marry a woman he’d met on three heavily chaperoned occasions. This struck me as odd, so I asked him how that arranged marriage business works. He dealt with my curiosity and ignorance kindly. “My whole family, for years, has been searching for the right wife for me. Her whole family, for years, has been searching for the right husband for her. All of them will help us make a success of our…

I'm gonna get horny on main for second and write this on my non Esperanto account but..... if you speak Esperanto, you're automatically 200% sexier than if you didn't. Confirmed by.... me watching people speak the language of hope

I had to rewrite some large back-ups recently in order for restic to properly de-duplicate them. I checked that the re-written back-ups are identical to the original ones by comparing the entire directory trees of the mounted back-ups. I had some doubts on whether diff -qr or rsync -acni --delete would be the best approach and did some benchmarks and tests using /usr (total: 3.2GB) which has a large mix of files and permissions. I first tried a bind mount, but diff skips comparing anything…

This year’s Worldcon, LACon V in Los Angeles (well, Anaheim), felt small. Andd it wasn’t just comparing to older cons like Chicon 7 (2012) and LACon IV (2006). I don’t know how much of it was that we only went on Sunday (the last Sunday in August), and how much of it was that the section of the convention center they booked was just way too big for the number of attendees, but I gather from what I’ve heard that it was in fact comparatively small for a Worldcon. (It’s also been suggested that…

CLICK HERE TO BOOK Near Battlebridge, Middlesex As the equinox approaches and autumn closes in, I get the urge to go to ground, hiding myself away in some remote cabin and not straying from the fireside until spring shows again. With this in mind, John Thomas Smith’s twenty etchings of extravagantly rustic cottages published as Remarks On Rural Scenery Of Various Features & Specific Beauties In Cottage Scenery in 1797 suit my hibernatory fantasy ideally. Born in the back of a Hackney carriage…

Friday, we found ourselves in Hatanodai at dinner time, so we looked for somewhere to eat...it was our first time at Sakanaya IkiSince we didn't have reservations, we were seated at the counterootoshi (amuse bouche)...daikon oroshi and shirasu (whitebait)...500 yen (plus tax) per personbell pepper and eggplant agebitashi...380 yen (plus tax)so soft! and flavorfultako karaage...780 yen (plus tax)

I realised recently that I’ve spent the majority of my life living and working in places that start with S: Singapore Sydney San Francisco If I had a dollar for every place that began with S, I’d have three dollars. That’s more than two dollars. Makes you think, if you don’t think too hard. I’m now on a mission to collect other places that start with S. Off the top of my head, these are some more places I’d love to visit: Santiago Sapporo Seoul Shenyang Shenzhen Shimane prefecture Sofia Sơn Tây…

The Poet Empressby Shen TaoGenres: Fantasy Pages: 388 Rating: Synopsis: In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land consumed by famine, and poetry magic lost to all except the powerful. Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves. Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel heir of the beautiful and brutal Azalea House. But in a twist of fate, the…

About two months ago I wrote about how after 11 years I switched from wearing my Apple Watch daily to simple analog watches, primarily Timex Weekender and Timex Expedition Scout. Since then I've been reading articles and watching plenty of videos about mechanical watches, building a virtual collection of watches I'd love to buy over time.This week I entered the world of luxury mechanical watches with my first purchase: a Longines Spirit Pilot. I wanted to start with something I can wear every…

From a note about my late friend Steve Isard: his family name before was Issersky or Isserski, altered on immigration [to Isard] But the name Isard was not just picked out of a hat; isard is the name (in several languages) of an actual creature, an alpine goat, fleet of foot: The Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica) is a goat-antelope that lives in the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, France and Andorra, and the Apennine Mountains of central Italy (from Wikipedia) — named isard in…

Scott’s foreword: I’m extremely grateful to my brilliant colleagues, Pravesh Kothari, Raghu Meka, and Prasad Raghavendra, for sharing the guest post below about how theoretical computer science (and in particlar, the STOC/FOCS/SODA conferences) should evolve to deal with the AI asteroid that’s right now slamming into our field, at least as we human theorists have practiced it since its inception. While Pravesh, Raghu, and Prasad speak only for themselves, not for myself and not for the theory…

Last time I bought a new phone a few years ago, UPS lost it. I had to go physically pick one up from the store while Apple and UPS argued about it. This year I bought another new phone. UPS lost it. They’re not saying that yet, but originally it was supposed to come between 9:30 AM and 3:30 PM yesterday. At 3:45 PM they bumped that to 9 PM. At 10 PM they bumped it to between 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM today. At 3:15 PM, that turned into 9 PM tonight. Were I a betting man, I’d stake money that tonight…

The sunset vibe last night, walking home from our local Friday night spot, was pretty good.

A rocky outcropping in the dry desert at California’s Mojave National Preserve. The post Dryness appeared first on 75CentralPhotography.

A few years ago I got a Commodore VC 20, the German release of the VIC 20 computer from 1980. It was called the VC 20, because “VIC” in German alludes to something sexual. It’s also why you’ll never hear an Australian telling you they’re rooting for you. About a year ago (gulp) I got some feedback from a chap called Luke: You mispelled [sic] “VIC-20” on your Ruben Retro Corner ;). Then about a week later: You still haven’t fixed your VIC-20 page…. Then a few days after this: IT still isn’t…

Today included three hours of tai chi, a coffee break, grocery shopping, an hour of yard work, house cleaning, and organizing my digital photos. Time to rest. Selfie a day for a year, day 31: Sep 19, 2026 edition.

Some interesting hardware ideas for the post-agent era

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Off to Rock Ferry on a sunny Saturday afternoon and I started in the Refreshment Rooms:This one is mainly food oriented but I was welcomed as a drinker, and was soon enjoying a tasty Trappers Hat. I suppose I should have had the house ale - HMS Conway, brewed by Lees - to try it out.I wondered if there was a drinkers' room but couldn't see one so I occupied a table for three in the main dining room.About half the tables were occupied at two o'clock on a Saturday, I think everyone else was…

You may have noticed these buildings in your town or during travels throughout the U.S. At one time, they were so common […]

sprig in a box I almost balked at writing a recap of the week. It's something I started about a month ago and even if it goes unread, it helps me be reflective. So, this afternoon I sat with our kitten (Sprig) and pulled together an overview of the past week. Last Saturday, was a challenging day, for no particular reason. I ended up spending more time on my phone than was healthy -- reading news and doom scrolling 😟. On Sunday, I made a more concerted effort to take charge of my time, which…

Mein heutiges Rezept ist so richtig schön passend für die kommende Herbst-Winter-Zeit. Weichgeschmortes Rindfleisch trifft auf deftiges Sauerkraut und kleine Knödelchen und das alles in nur einem Topf und in richtig viel Sauce, so mag ich das. Es spart nicht nur Abwasch, sondern bringt auch am Ende so richtig viel Geschmack zusammen.Wenn ich Sauerkraut als Beilage verwende, schmore ich

Spent pretty much the whole day outside with the little one. 👉 View one more image

I'm a little over 6 months writing on this blog now and I can't say that it's quite comfortable. There's a few things; one is that I've been much busier about work and spending time with my partner, both things that I don't want to share publicly. The other is that I've realized I don't really like writing aimlessly? I think that's why so much of what I've wrote here is very rant-y/scratchpad-y. Building on one of my older posts I also find that the existence of the discover feed has me…

Neat little project that offers 10k pixels in a grid in which people can add their websites to. All of them seem to be personal, indie websites, so it’s a nice way to find something cool! Mine’s in there, somewhere ;)

On-call is a requirement for at least some engineers in all SaaS companies. At least some of your customers will not have identical working hours to you. If your software fails to deliver what it needs to in that non-overlapping time, someone needs to fix it. If you’re on-call for a week: you may be less productive and more of a blocker for feature work. Combine this with a first responder rotation to also focus standard working hours on normally shared team non-roadmap work. 📚 History Before I…