I'm gonna be in #denver in mid-November. Never been before. What's good? I already know about the weird airport stuff, and intend to investigate it. Would like to know about weird non-airport stuff too.

Sometimes you work on the same problem all day only to have the outcome of your efforts be nothing more than a hopefully well-written bug report. #sysadmin

[linux neepery] Over the last two weeks, I upgraded seven #debian desktops and laptops to Trixie, the new Stable. They all went fairly smoothly, which is what I expect. This afternoon I tackled the main server. Pain. Somewhere in the perfectly ordinary and by-the-book upgrade sequence, apt […]

The average American votes as though they are about to be a millionaire, any day now. The average HackerNewsian talks as though they are about to be a billionaire, any day now.

Yes, that's a hockey-stick curve with the inflection point (and the majority of data points) in the future. https://www.wheresyoured.at/oracle-openai/ #ai #oracle #openai #bullshit

Skeuomorphic #lego is weird.

[uspol] #uspol We are all committed pacifists! insists man who advocated murder for litterling while the wrong color. https://www.mediamatters.org/rumble/rumble-nick-fuentes-fantasizes-about-teaming-hitler-kill-black-man-he-claims-was-littering (July 31, 2023)

[how to write an abstract] I really am pleased to see an abstract like this, which gives you pretty much everything you were going to remember about the paper. * what's the question? * what was the method used to find the answer? * what is the answer? * recommended action It's […]

[ice cream] Currently making peach ice cream with rum and cayenne. #food #ice cream

An article I read years ago about the "gig economy" lives rent free in my head. Its core thesis amounted to - in many companies particularly through the 20th century, it was at least possible for someone to come in at even a low entry level job and through hard work and effort and excellence […]

Ok I managed to sell one Josh Johnson ticket for tonight at 10 at the Wilbur in #boston - I'd rather the other not go to waste so let me know if you want it!

[stereo panning] On an old recording, if I hear an instrument in just one channel, I assume that the recording engineer just assigned that mic to that channel and will leave it there for the whole song. On a modern recording, if I hear an instrument in just one channel, I assume that it's […]

Looking at the smoking boots, and then up at the dark and inscrutable visage of the crystalline lion-woman, I can’t help but conclude she judged your vow…inadequate. #tootfic #microfiction #poweronstorytoot #bonusedition

My wife and I have empirically determined that she generally doesn't like any music with BPM > 110. This also got me thinking that most of my music listening of late has been while working, where I DEFINITELY gravitate to music with no lyrics that's MUCH higher than 110BPM, often 140-160. I'm […]

[Not tax advice] Any time you hear a Republican whining about how unfair the estate tax is -- they like to call it a "death tax" because that sounds scary -- point out that in 2025, an estate doesn't pay tax on the first $14 million... If the widows and orphans are left penniless, it was not […]

Hive mind: what is a good place to pitch a ~1500 word article that's incredibly sarcastic but factually accurate about all the ways space mirrors are an incredibly bad idea? I'd normally go for The Conversation, but I'm guessing they won't like the tone of this one.

Last night, I went to a party that was entirely outdoors. I got to have beer with some neighbors, talk, laugh, and tell stories. There were 2 friendly dogs, but after I arrived, the host said if anyone felt uncomfortable around dogs, they could be put inside. I was the only person who arrived […]

[Cat for purposes of taxation] 🖼

planned new IKEA desk: * 72" Saljan counter, $110 * 5 x Akils legs. $40 * 2 pairs of yoga blocks, $24 actual new IKEA desk: * 72" Uppspel desk, as-is with cosmetic damage on the wall side, $50 * Narspel trestle legs, as-is no damage, $20 * 2x Akils legs, $16 * 1 quad set of 4" […]

[Looking forwards to this book] https://qntm.org/antimemetics even if I have read at least two versions of it before. To pique your interest: The Anti-Memetics Division is an organization that investigates things -- usually beings -- that cannot be remembered. No, that's not the first time […]

[USA taxpayers only] https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-asks-for-public-input-on-free-tax-filing-options-to-inform-congressional-report

[we love marketing projections] In this slide, we see a classic hockey stick curve with the following characteristics: * unlabeled Y axis * time on the X axis * the major inflection of the curve is 6-18 months in the future * there are two data points * there are unexplained wobbles […]

I just got back from an incredible social evening meet up with #bostonpython at the Kendall rooftop garden park. It was a large and diverse crowd full of fascinating people! I enjoyed myself immensely and I’m only sad that my old man feet gave out after an hour and a half and I felt like I had […]

https://opensourcesecurity.io/2025/08-oss-one-person/ My recommendation: skip reading until you see the first graph. Start there. Go back to the top if you want context, but you probably don't need to. Super tl;dr: around half of open source projects have a bus factor of one. That includes […]

USAA (insurance, banking, etc) has recently increased their login security in a way that really screws older users. Attached is the error message you get if you try to login to USAA and do not have a cell phone on file. First of all, this message is […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

[X11 geekery] If you're playing around with keyboard and mouse customization on Linux X11 systems, you should know about: xev: tells you X events as they happen. Can be limited to keyboard and/or mouse events. Excellent for finding out "what is this button called?" xvkbd: the X virtual […]

[technical controversy] wired/wireless desk peripherals: I really like wires on my keyboards, no wires on moving mice, and am indifferent to them on non-moving mice (trackballs, touchpads, etc.) De gustibus non disputandum; your preference is right for you.

[microrant about web catalogs] You know what I do not love? When there's a selector for "sort these in order of base price" and it doesn't do that. Class I violation: "we put the most popular one at the top, even though it's not the cheapest" Class II violation: "we put the one we want you to […]

please upvote this if you don't mind https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/169148

As someone not from New Zealand and who doesn't live in New Zealand, does anyone know of any written resources for learning te reo Māori? For a very beginning beginner! I can find plenty of courses for residents. I just want a book that explains the basics but isn't written by AI. #tereomaori […]

#finance #us #stockmarket #capitalism #ethics and let's throw in #ai It has become painfully clear that the standard of value -- "a thing is worth what someone will pay for it" -- has reached the idiotic extreme due to the meaninglessness of extrapolated large numbers. Everyone is aware, I […]

#psa #it #healthcare folks: Someone from Beth Israel Deaconess just left a 45 second voicemail reminding Aaron that they need to have a full bladder for their ultrasound tomorrow at 3:45pm. That's great, but they got the wrong number and dialled me instead. I'm not Aaron. Or Erin. The […]

if the second line of your email is unsubscribe instructions, you may wish to reconsider your life choices. Do your parents know that you're a spammer?

I have never seen a PDF embedded in a website in a way that I liked more than just downloading the PDF. subtooting you, internet archive.

Is it #caturday ? Yes. As you can see, Rico is very stressed. I hope he can relax soon.

[Two personal anecdotes about LLMs] Recently I had two people demonstrate things that they were doing with LLMs. The first was an impromptu attempt to explain a difference between two financial products. (I will spare you the details; let's just say it's analogous to asking why the Cortland […]

Once more for those in the back: The fact that LLMs can "solve" most common interview questions is damning of our interview processes, but not a sign that it can take our jobs.

Just finished The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh. It's in our library. It's a tale of a British school for magic, but inverted: you can see the arc of the kids who would conventionally be the main characters, but they are off to the side, mostly. This is the story of the most powerful magic […]

A great read for everyone reading "social media" https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/13/are-a-few-people-ruining-the-internet-for-the-rest-of-us "We paid people a few dollars to unfollow the most divisive political accounts on X. After a month, they reported feeling 23% less animosity […]

[Fashion opinion] Humans should give up on tuxedos. Cats wear them much more elegantly.

I miss the days where every decent device had a dumb as dirt, reliable SPST power switch. When you turned off a computer it stayed off. The crap devices just had a power cord you could pull out of the device to power it down. The really crap devices had a static unremovable cord that could only […]

Ever since the Matrix was released in 1999, cell phones have been steadily replacing landlines - which were shown to be the only way to escape.

[Hiring, US-based client services.] The company I've worked for (for 21 years or so...) has three openings in the client services department. Two junior-ish positions, and one senior. That's going to nearly double the size of the group. I #work with them several times a week; they are all […]

BREAKING NEWS: Superman is “poisoning the minds of our children” say irate American Nazis.