Leftovers

• Brandon ☛ Replacing the Resolutions with a Theme

  Instead of blogging, I've been studying Stoicism, writing in a personal journal, and even dabbling in some fiction writing. When I think about things I want to focus on this upcoming year, all three of these activities come to mind. So, it would easy for me to hop on this blog and proclaim to the world that I'm going to spend the next twelve months journaling, furthering my fiction writing, and studying Stoicism. But I know me, I know that the moment I put that into the world, it becomes a shadow. It follows me wherever I go. If I spend a weekend watching TV, I'll feel haunted by the fact that I'm not working towards what I said I would. If I don't feel like writing fiction or I get stuck and give up for the umpteenth time, then the feeling of failure comes rushing in. I don't want that in my life.

• [Repeat] Tedium ☛ The Open Letter Still Works

  Honestly, I gave Substack too much credit. In my nine years of writing Tedium, I do not regret a post more than that one. I wasted time caring about Substack that I should have spent on other things. While I think the platform discussions I raised in that post were important, I quickly realized that Substack’s leadership was problematic in some serious ways. CEO Chris Best flubbing a layup of a question about moderation from Nilay Patel? It was only a hint at what was coming.

• Creative Commons ☛ Thank You Catherine Stihler

  Today Creative Commons CEO Catherine Stihler is announcing the conclusion of her time leading the organization. On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, and global community, we want to offer Catherine our sincere thanks. We are grateful to her for over three years of leadership at CC.

• The Atlantic ☛ Pack Your Memories Into Your Disaster Bag

  But in talking with experts about disaster preparedness, I was surprised to find that recommendations on storing personal possessions in those bags are basically nonexistent. That necessities come first makes sense: These items can make a life-and-death difference in moments of crisis. But ever since members of my immediate family were displaced, I have started thinking about a third way to prepare for the uncertainty of extreme weather and the disasters that follow—what I like to call my “climate carry-on.”

• Science

  • Gizmodo ☛ Physicists Designed an Experiment to Turn Light Into Matter

    It would be a tangible demonstration of Einstein's famous E = mc^2 equation.

• Education

  • The Age AU ☛ I leave our library with a greater burden – and that’s my reward

    A State Library Victoria report in 2018 revealed that “every dollar invested in public libraries generates $4.30 of benefits to the local community”. If I could observe the benefits of libraries even before conducting research, it is clear evidence of their positive impact. Libraries improve community connection. They reduce waste as resources are passed around. They are cost-effective.

    That should be enough to convince higher-ups to continually fund and improve them.

  • Science Alert ☛ This Simple 5-Minute Exercise Can Give Reading Skills a Powerful Boost

    By the end of the school year, the students who tried the mindfulness techniques were reading 4.41 more words correctly during a timed reading exercise, on average.

    Previous studies have shown links between mindfulness-based interventions and improved academic performance, but much of the research looks at grades rather than the skills required to get the grades.

  • Kansas Reflector ☛ The curious joy of being wrong – intellectual humility means being open to new information

    Mark Twain apocryphally said, “I’m in favor of progress; it’s change I don’t like.” This quote pithily underscores the human tendency to desire growth while also harboring strong resistance to the hard work that comes with it. I can certainly resonate with this sentiment.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ SSD prices predicted to skyrocket throughout 2024 — TrendForce market report projects a 50% price hike

    A report from TrendForce predicts NAND flash prices will surge by 50% in the short term, eventually resulting in higher prices for SSDs. NAND chips have already gotten more expensive in the second half of 2023, but they're set to increase even more as flash manufacturers attempt to return to profitability.

    The 50% figure given by TrendForce is the goal of companies like Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron, which produce much of the world's NAND. From today's prices, an increase of 40% will reportedly get these companies back to breaking even, and a rise of 50% will mean profits instead of the losses that threatened bankruptcies earlier this year.

  • Dan Langille ☛ Blatant self interest – monitor light

    I took these photos one evening in my office.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • A quack is launching his own AI chatbot in 2024

    As the misbegotten year that was 2023, which was a horrible year all around for my family, shambles reluctantly to a close, the better to usher in the New Year of 2024 (which, given the possibility of its bringing us Donald Trump as President again, threatens to be even worse than its predecessor), I was wondering what I could write about for one last post. I remember that I said that I would try to reinvigorate the blog next year, and I will. However, I’m unlikely to get to the task before January 2 or 3. In the meantime, though, I realized that I had totally forgotten to address a rather amazing tidbit that I encountered a couple of weeks ago on a quack website that has, alas, provided me with way too much material over the last two decades and has continued to descend ever further from just quackery and antivax misinformation into more generalized antiscience misinformation and conspiracy theories and just plain conspiracy theories, often mixed liberally with a hefty helping of prepper paranoia. I’m referring, of course, to Mike Adams and his misinformation empire Natural News, where three weeks ago I saw an announcement, Mike Adams announces breakthrough AI project that will bypass Big Tech censorship for health, nutrition and natural medicine:

  • Ulrike Uhlig: How do kids conceive the internet? - part 4

    I’ve been wanting to write this post for over a year, but lacked energy and time. Before 2023 is coming to an end, I want to close this series and share some more insights with you and hopefully provide you with a smile here and there.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Unix Men ☛ Advancement of AI: Machine Learning Examples in Real Life

    While ML continues to evolve, businesses take steps further to implement it in their applications. Let’s see how machine learning actually works, which machine learning examples in real life exist, and how they transform our lives.

  • Daniel Miessler ☛ AI's Predictable Path: 7 Things to Expect From AI in 2024+

    My favorite example of something stochastic is a drunk guy stumbling home from the bar. Every step he takes might as well be a pseudo-random generator.

    You could use all the supercomputers on Earth and not be able to predict exactly where he’ll step. But if you zoom out and add time, he’ll probably end up at home.

    I think the future of AI is very similar.

  • India Times ☛ Craze for AI data science in arts, science colleges

    As many as four trusts have applied to the university seeking permission to start new colleges in city outskirts including Mannivakkam, Avadi, New Perungalathur and Maduranthakam.

  • Science Alert ☛ AI Detects Unusual Signal Hidden in a Famous Raphael Masterpiece

    Scholars have in fact long debated whether or not the painting is a Raphael original. While it requires diverse evidence to conclude an artwork's provenance, a new method of analysis based on an AI algorithm has sided with those who think at least some of the strokes were at the hand of another artist.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Navigating the era of innovation: How artificial intelligence and automation are driving a digital-first government

    Each year, approximately 400 million people, including individuals, families, businesses and organizations, benefit from the vast array of information and services offered by the federal government. Moreover, with mobile devices responsible for over half of the 80 billion hours spent interacting with public resources, it’s clear that technology has transformed the way people engage with government services.

  • New York Times ☛ An Artist in Residence on A.I.’s Territory

    In late November, a group of visual artists filed an amended copyright lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney and other makers of A.I. tools after a federal judge dismissed parts of the original complaint, which accused the companies of misusing the artists’ creations to train generative A.I systems. Mr. Reben said he couldn’t speak to the specifics of A.I. and the law, “but like with any new creative technology, the law needs to catch up to the unpredictable future.”

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • NPR ☛ Google settles $5 billion privacy lawsuit over tracking people using 'incognito mode'

      The class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 said Google misled users into believing that it wouldn't track their [Internet] activities while using incognito mode. It argued that Google's advertising technologies and other techniques continued to catalog details of users' site visits and activities despite their use of supposedly "private" browsing.

    • Jamie Zawinski ☛ Google agrees to settle $5bn lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked users

      US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled trial in the proposed class action, which was due to begin in February, on hold on Thursday after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached the preliminary settlement.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Debbie Dingell: How to Stand Up to Trump

    Mr. Trump’s style of politics — the disrespect, prejudice, name-calling and malice that too often get swept aside as his just calling it as he sees it — makes healthy debate and discussion virtually impossible. The word “congress” by definition means coming together. Government shouldn’t be about who can make the most noise; it’s about working together to find solutions. Take it from me: What Mr. Trump is doing isn’t honesty or candor, it’s ruthless and deliberate viciousness.

  • PBS ☛ Full Episode: Washington Week with The Atlantic full episode, 12/29/23

    And so there was a lot of stuff that was happening that was trial and error in that first term where he was testing the limits. A lot of them were the limits of what his fellow Republicans would be willing to tolerate. He didn't know if this type of petty corruption he was engaged in would just get a free pass or if it would be something that would earn the reprimand. And so he tested the limits. And he found out basically that there were no limits.

    And so headed into this second term, you have people who thought much more deliberately about how to structure what they call the administrative state. And one of the things that comes up in a lot of these articles in this issue is that there's this goal of implementing something called Schedule F, which is that you would purge not just -- you're not just talking about the cabinet appointees or the political appointees, but the civil service, the bureaucrats who populate what Trump disparages and referred to as the deep state.

  • The Hill ☛ Who is to blame for our broken Congress

    An overwhelming majority of Americans say they disapprove of the job Congress is doing according to a recent GALLUP poll. This should not be surprising considering that in almost a year the current Congress has passed fewer than three dozen bills, the fewest in decades for one session, and whose accomplishments little resemble those of its immediate predecessor, which was one of the most productive in history.

  • CBC ☛ What will it take to end copper theft — and the havoc it wreaks — in B.C.?

    The rose-coloured hardware is found in electrical wiring, transformers and pipes, and can be sold for anywhere from $2 to $4 per pound — making homes, construction sites and public infrastructure a prime target for thieves.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Is TikTok a National Security Threat?

    TikTok poses a national security threat for the United States based on the app’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the highly advanced AI-based algorithm that conforms and shifts itself based on personal user data information. The China National Intelligence Act is a law that specifically states “every activity of individuals, companies, even organizations, must involve the State Intelligence Agency in carrying out its activities. With this Act, all people who occupy Chinese land, all their activities will be monitored by the State Intelligence Service” (Indrayani, I. et al., 2022). The large reach and hold that the TikTok app has on many Americans coupled with China’s surveillance abilities and wide access to user data poses a national security threat to various sectors of the US. Along with affecting the world’s leading superpower, TikTok also poses a threat to the international world order.

  • NDTV ☛ Chinese Spy Balloon Used US Internet To Communicate: Report

    A US official revealed that the Chinese spy balloon, which traversed the United States in early 2023, used an American internet service provider to transmit periodic data related to navigation and location back to China, CNN reported.

  • El País ☛ Maine joins Colorado in banning Trump from running for office

    And Maine said no. The Northeastern state’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, decided Thursday that Donald Trump cannot run in that state’s primary because she interprets the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which incorporates a now well-known “disqualification” clause for anyone who has participated in a “rebellion or insurrection,” as preventing him from doing so.

  • American Oversight ☛ American Oversight Files Amicus Brief in Trump Election Interference Case

    U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan previously ruled that the former president is not entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution. Stressing the public interest in a prompt resolution of the case, Special Counsel Jack Smith sought immediate Supreme Court review, but the Court denied the request. Trump’s immunity claim is now before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and his trial on the election interference charges — originally set for March — is on hold while his appeal proceeds.

  • Atlantic Council ☛ Five things that did not happen in 2023

    A lot happened in 2023. But for a moment consider everything that could have happened but didn’t. Think of all the outcomes that were considered likely, or even unlikely but possible, yet came to naught. Many firmly held expectations about 2023 simply never materialized. Yet these acts of imagination nonetheless had real-world effects, determining where attention was directed and resources spent. Below, Atlantic Council experts look at five events that notably did not happen in 2023 and what they reveal about the world going into 2024.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Thousands of vendors fail to comply with ban on Chinese telecommunications equipment

    More than 6,000 vendors failed to comply with the requirement not to use telecommunications equipment made by specific Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei. The Federal Acquisition Regulations Council said these companies needed two hours each to answer 16 questions explaining why and how they are mitigating any risks. To that end, the FAR Council wants to renew that information collection requirement. The council is seeking comments on the burden of filling out this questionnaire and wants to extend the information collection through April 2027. Comments are due by February 26.

  • US Federal Register ☛ Information Collection; Implementation of Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act (FASCSA) Orders

    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, DoD, GSA, and NASA invite the public to comment on an extension concerning Implementation of Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act (FASCSA) Orders. DoD, GSA, and NASA invite comments on: whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of Federal Government acquisitions, including whether the information will have practical utility; the accuracy of the estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology. OMB has approved this information collection for use through April 30, 2024. DoD, GSA, and NASA propose that OMB extend its approval for use for three additional years beyond the current expiration date.

  • NPR ☛ Michael Cohen says he unwittingly sent AI-generated fake legal cases to his attorney

    Cohen made the admission in a court filing unsealed Friday in Manhattan federal court after a judge earlier this month asked a lawyer to explain how court rulings that do not exist were cited in a motion submitted on Cohen's behalf. Judge Jesse Furman had also asked what role, if any, Cohen played in drafting the motion.

    The AI-generated cases were cited as part of written arguments attorney David M. Schwartz made to try to bring an early end to Cohen's court supervision after he served more than a year behind bars. Cohen had pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, saying Trump directed him to arrange the payment of hush money to a porn actor and to a former Playboy model to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential bid.

  • Lusaka ZM ☛ Zambia Marks 32nd Anniversary of Christian Nation Declaration

    Zambia commemorated the 32nd anniversary of its declaration as a Christian nation yesterday, with President Hakainde Hichilema emphasizing the pivotal role Christianity has played in shaping the nation’s values and fostering peace.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ Demonization of Rohingya in Indonesia: An Analysis on Social Media Narratives

    Recently, the Rohingya issue in Indonesia resurfaced following their arrival on the coast of Aceh, such as Sabang, Pidie, and Bireuen, in mid-November 2023. The continuous influx of refugees has not been balanced with local resources in Aceh, particularly concerning the overcrowded conditions in the shelters, leading to widespread rejection in the region.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Meduza ☛ Russian civilians in the city of Belgorod describe the first hours of Saturday’s attack A joint report by Meduza and 7x7 — Meduza

    • RFERL ☛ Gay Russian Anchor, Journalist Lobkov Alleges Moscow Beating

      Longtime TV anchorman and journalist Pavel Lobkov says he was attacked in a park in an affluent downtown district in Moscow, posting photos early on December 30 that show bloody injuries to his face and hands.

    • RFERL ☛ About 20 People Detained At Russian Bar Following Drag Performance

      Russian police detained 20 people at a Siberian bar where the evening's entertainment included drag performances, a local Telegram channel reported.

    • France24 ☛ Strike on Belgorod that killed more than a dozen 'will not go unpunished', Russia says

      More than a dozen people were killed by Ukrainian strikes on the Russian provincial capital of Belgorod, Russia's emergencies ministry said Saturday, with the Russian defence ministry vowing the strike "will not go unpunished".

    • France24 ☛ Nearly 40 dead across Ukraine as Russia launches largest aerial assault since war began

      Russia launched 122 missiles and 36 drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing dozens of civilians across the country in what an air force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the 22-month war.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Teenager Sentenced To Four Years In Prison On Treason Charges

      A Russian teenager has been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of treason, the latest victim of the Kremlin's sweeping crackdown on citizens opposed to its invasion of Ukraine.

    • RFERL ☛ Death Toll, Condemnation Mount From Massive Russian Bombardment As Kyiv Declares Day Of Mourning

      Aerial attacks continued overnight between Russia and Ukraine but appeared to have abated early on December 30, one day after Russia carried out its most intense bombardment of Ukrainian military and civilian targets in the 22-month-long war.

    • New York Times ☛ Ukrainian Missile Attack on Belgorod Kills at Least 18, Officials Say

      The bombardment of Belgorod on Saturday, apparently in response to an enormous air assault by Moscow a day earlier, appeared to be the deadliest single attack on Russian soil since the start of the war.

    • New York Times ☛ How a Russian Barrage Evaded Ukraine’s Defenses to Wreak Deadly Chaos

      In one of the war’s largest bombardments, 35 missiles slipped through Ukraine’s air cover on Friday, killing dozens. Ukraine responded with shelling on the Russian region of Belgorod, killing at least 14.

    • Meduza ☛ Ukraine shells Russia’s Belgorod, two children reportedly killed — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia says at least 21 dead after Ukrainian attack on Belgorod — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Russia’s Foreign Ministry says U.K. behind Ukraine’s attack on Belgorod — Meduza

    • Meduza ☛ Over 20 reportedly injured as Russia strikes Ukraine’s Kharkiv — Meduza

• Environment

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ VW's Dieselgate: Ex-CEO market manipulation trial to resume

    Former Volkswagen (VW) chief executive Martin Winterkorn must stand trial again in an emissions cheating scandal, a German court said on Thursday.

• Finance

  • CNBC ☛ Student loan forgiveness, tech layoffs, big money stories from 2023

    There has been no shortage of news that affects your wallet this year. Here are the highlights.

  • The Verge ☛ 2023’s great games were overshadowed by a dark cloud of layoffs

    Over 9,000 people are without jobs in one of the worst years for video game employment.

  • Canada Capitalises on U.S. Tech Layoffs, Attracts H-1B Visa Holders

    The country’s tech market has seen a growth of 15.7% since 2020, surpassing the U.S. growth of 11.4%.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • [Repeat] Silicon Angle ☛ Samsung partners with Red Hat to verify key data center scalability tech

    According to Yongcheol Bae, executive vice president of Memory Product Planning at Samsung, the partnership with Red Hat is an “exemplary case” of collaboration between advanced hardware and software providers. He added that the collaboration will “enrich and accelerate” the CXL ecosystem significantly.

  • Security Week ☛ Pentagon Wants Feedback on Revised Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Program

    The CMMC program is meant to establish an assessment mechanism to verify that defense contractors and subcontractors have implemented the security measures required to protect federal contract information (FCI) and controlled unclassified information (CUI).

    The DoD currently demands that contractors and subcontractors implement the security protections detailed in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800–171 Rev 2.

  • Federal News Network ☛ New direct hire authority aims to assist agencies with AI talent surge

    There is more work ahead for OPM, too, to fulfill the requirements of the AI executive order. OPM is also tasked with giving agencies guidance on how they can use existing pay flexibilities or incentive pay programs to attract AI experts into government service. And OPM will additionally lead a governmentwide pooled hiring action focused on bringing AI experts into agencies.

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • International Business Times ☛ Deepfakes Could Fuel 'Tsunami of Misinformation' In 2024 US Election, AI Expert Predicts

      With deepfakes going mainstream and social media guardrails fading, a top artificial intelligence (AI) expert believes misinformation will be plaguing the upcoming US presidential elections.

      Three years after a mob stormed the US Capitol, the false election conspiracy theory that triggered the unprecedented chaos and violence continues to poison minds and threaten future peace in the form of social media posts and cable news.

      As if that weren't enough, experts are now warning that things are likely to get worse in the impending presidential elections in the United States.

    • New York Times ☛ Michael Cohen Used Artificial Intelligence in Feeding Lawyer Bogus Cases

      The fictitious citations were used by the lawyer in a motion submitted to a federal judge, Jesse M. Furman. Mr. Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and served time in prison, had asked the judge for an early end to the court’s supervision of his case now that he is out of prison and has complied with the conditions of his release.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Criticize This African Country’s Army and You Might Be Drafted

    The military junta in Burkina Faso, a West African nation struggling to defeat extremist groups, has been forcibly conscripting critics, say human rights organizations.

  • New York Times ☛ Hong Kong Activist Flees to Britain, Citing Police Pressure

    The activist, Tony Chung, revealed on Thursday that he had arrived in Britain, and, in several social media posts, said that he had decided to leave Hong Kong after enduring oppressive restrictions, pressure to act as informant and severe stress after his release from prison in June.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • RFA ☛ Relatives say imprisoned Vietnamese journalist’s health declining

    Tuan is a former editor of the Vietnam Times online newspaper and a member of the Vietnam Independent Journalists’ Association, which fought for press freedom in Vietnam but was not recognized by the Communist-led government.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Hindu ☛ Anganwadi workers’ strike enters 18th day

    Leaders of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union and AP Pragathiseela Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union and others participated in the dharna.

  • Off Guardian ☛ Sacrificing for the Greater Good

    I think many people believe that our society has gotten so complex, with so many people, and so much need for consumption of natural resources in order to be comfortable, that what the government is forcing on us now is required to survive.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ DNS Block: Canal+ Sues Cloudflare, Google & Cisco to Fight Piracy

    When broadcaster Canal+ obtained injunctions to block popular sports streaming sites including Footybite and Streamcheck, French ISPs were required to implement DNS blocking. In response, some users switched to third-party DNS providers, a hole that Canal+ now wants to plug. Through a lawsuit filed at a Paris court, the broadcaster hopes to compel Cloudflare, Google, and Cisco to implement similar DNS blocking measures.

  • [Repeat] New York Times ☛ Boom in A.I. Prompts a Test of Copyright Law

    The lawsuit contends that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat can produce content nearly identical to Times articles, allowing the companies to “free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment.”

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Personal/Opinions

    • I've Always Jotted And Hopefully Will Continue To Jot

      I shall jump on a *bandwagon* now. Which *bandwagon* is this, you ask? It is the *prompt* bandwagon. I've noticed that over the last several months, or perhaps over the last several years or even perhaps over the last several epochs, other humans react to series of words called *prompts*. These reactions become creations. For example, on the only social network on which I still participate, *poetry prompts* come up in my "home" timeline frequently. It seems that I follow a good number of other humans who are both fond of poetry and who write poetry. So, the *prompt* is a impetus for the creation - in this case a poem. Being mostly oblivious to all things "pop culture", such regularities in others' habits escape me.

    • Reflections on Energy (part 2)

      It looked like a shell, half buried, but as she dug through the sand around its edges, she found it was something completely different, something she'd never seen before and thought only existed in stories. She had to be imagining—it simply couldn't be a mirror of her life. It was blurry, an old mirror of burnished silver, but there was no mistaking it—every moment of her life was reflected back in that mirror.

      She gazed out at the ebb and flow of the ocean, and felt the residue of her life's experiences in her body. The pain in her side from the accident, the tension in her head and neck that had been there since her 20s, the skip in her heart's beat every minute or two. "Harmless," the doctor had assured her, after her scans checked out. "Just part of growing old." But it had started all at once, almost 6 years ago now, after a straight year of overwork and drinking coffee as a substitute for, well, everything she felt no control over.

    • She's gone to the gemlog now, and she don't need gemget

      Root problem is taking the idea of an individual self seriously - i.e. as though real - which leads to behavior favoring that alleged be-ing over alleged other such be-ings and/or their environment

      Root problem has already been solved many times in many eras for many peoples.

    • No rolling behind a screen

      The reason I wish roll-behind-a-screen games like Sky Team or Roll For the Galaxy had found another solution is because I value the shared experience in a game so highly. The moment where everyone at the table knows you need to roll a 16 or higher, and everyone is on edge as you’re rolling that die, and end up you making it, is so awesome. Even Yahtzee can be a fun and good game if you care enough. Or in The Crew or Sail when you’re like “I sure hope you have a nine right now!” and they do, they have that nine in their hand, or they don’t, and they can show you their nine-deprived hand as you all wail and sob like sea-creatures.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Emulators in Debian Buster and Bullseye

      `fs-uae-launcher` is not available anymore. I create the configuration for fs-uae directly in `~/Documents/FS-UAE/Configurations/Default.fs-uae`: [...]

    • Retiring My Web JSON Feed to Style the Web Atom Feed In-Browser

      I retired my web JSON feed to be able to style the web Atom XML feed with XSLT to educate feed beginner. People, who don’t know what an Atom or RSS feed is, and who might click on the feed links and don’t know what happens.

      It’s no news that people are ignorant about subscribable web feeds. And the experience is not great, either. If users don’t have a feed reader app on their devices installed already, a click on a feed link will either download the file in the background or display the raw feed. Both will confuse users.

    • Teaching Compsci

      Some random commentary on Dijkstra's "On the cruelty of really teaching computing science", an archive of which can be found at [...] Some programmers will read this as an excuse to not write tests at all, instead of moving to formal methods. And it's not like formal methods are problem-free; one might read that they "can provide limited guarantees of correctness too, but, except in safety-critical work, the cost of full verification is prohibitive and early detection of errors is a more realistic goal."

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Digital Tidying: Finding and Fixing Dead Links

        On occasion I'll go back and check on an old post on this site, either to link it to someone or to reference it myself. As time has gone on I've found more and more frequently that older posts contain broken links. Either something the post used to reference has moved, or more frequently it's just gone for good.

        I've had a thought floating around in my head that this site could move away from being just a series of chronological posts to something more like a wiki, where each page is maintained and evolved over time. Maybe I'll dive more into this idea in the future, if I ever care to follow through with it.

      • The year behind and the year ahead

        2023 was the year that I made a conscious effort to return to something resembling "active duty" as leader of the Gemini project.