It's anchored on two pieces. I could honestly write 1000+ words about each one. The first one is by @baldurbjarnason.com about the disintegrating hegemony of US technopoly (and the conditions that served as the foundation for the VC-funded SaaS bullshit that funds 6-7 figure programmer salaries)

heard a guy say "you have to access it through the portal" and i was momentarily struck by how sad it is that what he said is so boring :( "accessing it via the portal" should be wonderful. we deserve that at least. it should be cool to access it via the portal and instead it sucks shit

men only want one thing and it's fucking disgustig

Yes, I did the thing

More Sunday VCF PNW insanity.

The sleeper awakens. mastodon.sdf.org/@fvzappa/116...

Some early Intel bipolar ROMs hiding inside an HP 9810A calculator I'm getting ready for VCF Pacific Northwest. The 3301 was introduced in 1969 and holds 1024 bits. Come see the 9810A in action at the beginning of May! vcfpnw.org

the subtitles are off sometimes but she made it in like a day so idk spanakopedia.ordoliberal.com

AOTY until further notice

TransBot(tm) says "Trans Rights." (Also all game box art should just be a picture of a hand holding the game cartridge.)

"We'd really like to, but the mean old regulations won't let us."

in 2016 a group of strangers in Kazakhstan saved a dog from drowning by forming a human chain to reach him. they just unveiled a statue commemorating the event and I'm genuinely about to start sobbing

got early access to DLSS 5 and personally i think it looks incredible, check this out:

Billionaire groupthink is wild; they are now all in a rush to insist they have no inner life. No introspection, soul, interiority, light. They need you to know they are nothing but hungry ghosts, forever consuming, shaping the world to death to rule over a graveyard. They want you just as cynical.

Pretty crazy how important the blockade of a trade route is right now

Our societal systems have elevated to untold power and wealth the most bent and twisted humans among us, people who exploit their fellow humans to such a degree they learn to scorn humanity. Little wonder the tools they build seek to eliminate the problem of humans from the equation of society.

Even if AI could write a novel what problem has been solved? The problem of knowing what you’re reading was written by another person? Who loves reading novels but hates the part where your mind briefly and mysteriously touched another?

I took a trip on my lunch break Friday to check out what may now be my favorite record store: a local dude who just sells records out of his garage. He's done so for decades. Boomer all the way but in the best authentic hippie way and I love it. The world needs more shit like this.

don’t forget to destroy your clocks tonight, walk away from your mortgage, just start driving, you’re free

Went down to ICM today and fixed the PDP-11/70 system I used to help maintain at the Living Computer Museum back in the day. Any instruction that touched memory would wedge the processor (front panel accesses worked OK). Brought along my KM11 diagnostic set (left pic) to help diagnose the issue.

This was the secret behind the Akira project, I am told.

One thing the ongoing LLM vibe-coding discussion seems to assume is that what the world needs is more software, faster. What my post presupposes is: maybe it doesn't?

It should be much more at the forefront of our minds, the extent to which the most politically activated and politically empowered segment of the authoritarian American cult calling itself "Christian" see the apocalypse as something to hasten, not prevent.

Oh hey, this sounds familiar encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/t...

I really value what Mike does in general but his takes here on gen-AI are just incredibly naive; even if "big tech" wasn't involved it's still an incredibly destructive technology based on mass theft. Its only real use is disenfranchisement.

Over the holidays I started work on an emulator of the General Automation SPC-12 minicomputer (a computer I've become lightly obsessed with over the past few months). I transcribed a listing of "BUS-II" (Basic Utility System) from the manuals.

A Canary painted onto a Sunblaze Bitter Lemon drinks mat from the 1950s. Beermat painting. Watercolour. darrenhaymanart.com

Did you know that strawberries are not berries, and are actually mammals?

Not too many albums come with source code these days. For the record, this is the only kind of AI music I'll accept.

the Black Panthers were right

Did *you* know that the song "Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy has a sci-fi backstory? Well, now you do!

I saw Mystery Science 3000: The Movie (1996) at Studio 28 (RIP) in Grand Rapids, MI, in a theater I didn't even know existed in the multiplex; it was about the size of a large closet. (I later learned a friend of mine saw "Brain Candy" in the same place.)

So many great magazine covers. Legend. I have his iconic "Smalltalk" waiting to be framed...

TICK BONESTEEL

Article is paywalled & I'm not finding much posted here so here's a reddit video of cops beating the shit out of minor kids exercising their constitutionally protected rights to assembly and speech to protest state brutality against their friends and neighbors Content warning: Cops beating kids

i am trying not to joke about the Epstein stuff because it's so horrible but there's also this ridiculous element where it's like... discovering Dracula is real, he's taken over human society at the highest levels, he's involved in tons of evil and also he's a huge dipshit

Well, hello ladies... can I interest you in the finest in home video entertainment?

it’s genuinely reassuring to me that this is the most miserable and paranoid person in the entire world

Everything in the news right now is like the Blow Up the Moon sketch from Mr. Show. "The monkey wants to know why. Why did we collect millions of books just to destroy them? Haha..." (Bob Odenkirk looks worried)

Ugh, what if I'm incapable of independent thought or action?

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

Where is our national press? The government has been shooting at and harassing clergy for months. This used to be a red line. The reality is their red line moved, not yours. They’re cowards.

This is a great video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pqF.... The thing that bakes LLM users' brains is the same thing that bakes billionaires brains: the outsourcing of any executive function, paired with constant flattery.

Now more than ever, I'd say!

if you can afford to spend 30 seconds chatting and trying to look nonchalant as you fumble with a gas canister, perhaps you are not in a scenario where chemical weapons are warranted

I’m doing my part!