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Also Available on PatreonThe RCA Studio 2 was a system I knew mostly because it would turn up in discussions of failed video game consoles. It came from RCA in 1977, played games in black and white, and used a pair of number pads built directly into the machine instead of separate controllers. That makes it easy to look at now and wonder what RCA was thinking. Once I started le… Read more
A leisurely autumn afternoon in the Hudson Valley turned into a medical panic for local tourist Orin Chard, who became convinced he had accidentally ingested a produce sticker after eating an apple directly off a tree.Chard was enjoying a “u-pick” excursion when the incident occurred. According to witnesses, Chard consumed three large bites of a fresh Jonagold, only to freeze in horror upon examining the rest of the apple and realizing the standard PLU label was missing.“I...
In July 2026, Linus Torvalds told the Linux kernel mailing list that Linux is not an anti-AI project and that anyone who objected could fork the code or walk away. The trigger was Sashiko, an automated review system whose published numbers claim it finds 53.6 percent of the bugs that later required human fixes — bugs that had already cleared ordinary human review. Torvalds framed the ruling as unremarkable: AI is a tool, judged on technical merit like any other. The press...
Most teenagers are excited to get their driver’s license. I wasn’t. As far as I could tell, a license was simply the first step in an elaborate trap. A license meant driving, driving meant gas and insurance, and gas and insurance meant getting a job. I was perfectly content staying home, watching old horror movies, and spending my free time online. Then Microsoft introduced the Xbox. The presentation featured The Rock standing beside Bill Gates, looking as if he might give...
This is pretty far afield for me, but it concerns the built environment, so close enough. Another old photo, from a snowy, icy day in 2019: That’s the side of the front facade of Albany City Hall (the front facade is on the left), with a pair of plaques from 1897 and 1930 (the building is from 1883). Note that the upper 1897 plaque was “Erected in the mayoralty of John Boyd Thatcher” and the lower 1930 plaque was “Erected in the mayoralty of John Boyd Thatcher 2nd”, JBT’s...
The history of science — and of progress — is a series of benefits that are direct results of new tools. A large part of our current longevity is due to the invention of the microscope. This new way of seeing opened up the microscopic world, a teeming universe we had no idea about, and from that view quickly came germ theory, and soon after, new ways to avoid many common fatal diseases. Hundreds of other advances were also birthed by the microscope, including our...
It doesn't look like much, but that's actually an extremely rare station sign. The Milan Metro has two types of entrance; in the main, they're voids in the street, stairs and escalators and lifts disappearing beneath the pavement. In some cases, such as at Pero, there's a small pavilion covering the entrance, to make it more noticeable. Only at Lanza is there an entrance actually constructed inside a non-Metro building, as you'd find in many other cities round the world....
During the month of August I will be participating in Blaugust, a month long blogging challenge. Today’s TDC asks us Our Daily Creator Kevin aka @dogtrax has been an award worthy participant and contributor (hundreds of ’em) to the Daily Create. We received word that he would be travelling and away from the TDC for a few weeks, let’s treat him to some wildly creating art about where he is now. Create a story describing what adventures @dogtrax is up to or speculate which...
cultivating these three distinct aspects of life can bring you happiness hedonism — enjoy life without guilt. allow pleasure and satisfaction self-realization — develop talents and abilities. focus on what you can service — contribute to the bigger picture. engage with larger causes all matter. none alone seems enough
Catch and Kill is Craig Schaefer's new book. It's a cyberpunk and magic heist story, which will be familiar to fans of Shadowrun. Set in the future of the author's First Story universe (the home of the Daniel Faust and Harmony Black books), magic has been revealed openly to the world. Now people can study magic at university, enhance operas with magic or use magic for special security. But it's still a gritty, noir world. Large corporations rule everything and people still...
Have you ever looked at someone and thought, “They figured it out”? Maybe they have a good career, a nice house, a happy family, or a large group of friends. They always seem to be traveling, eating at nice restaurants, and doing interesting things. You see a small part of their life. And your mind fills in the rest. You assume they wake up happy and never ever have any problems. In the meantime, you see everything about your own life. You feel all the ups and downs. If...
Plataformas sencillas y animales lindos serán los responsables de que no paremos de jugar hasta cumplir misión, rescatar gallinas La entrada Análisis de Dodo Duckie se publicó primero en CozyKis.Fuente: CozyKis
Naples, and the Void (Part IV)Somewhere along the coast, I lost the void.Could be she recognized itself from one of the cliffs that opened toward the glittering sea and leapt to embrace it.Only this time, she didn’t sink.She hovered in the cold wet December air, weaving through the curves and splitting into photons through the dirty window.I could still see it all from above 350 meters above the sea. And for the first time, I realized how the void was filling up the...
I’ve remarked on this for years (and more systematically), and although Habermas has a lot of groupies and loyalists, occasionally others do remark on this as well. This rather uneven piece by the philosopher Lorna Finlayson is the latest example. (You have to skip the first part of the essay to get to the interesting stuff; I’ll return to the strange beginning at the end.) She writes, for example: A characteristic feature of contemporary critical theory is a fixation on...
For whatever reason, I’ve been in a hard bop mood lately. Last week, while driving, I very much enjoyed Johnny Coles’s trumpet. This week, I’ve been enjoying some Tina Brooks, a relatively obscure and tragic sax player. In general, Brooks’s outputs as leader are of high quality which makes it curious that only one of his albums as leader appeared during his lifetime, True Blue (1960). True Blue features Brooks on tenor, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Sam...
mortise layoutGoing with 5 vertical slats, one inch wide by 1/2 inch thick. The slats need to be installed before I can glue up the sides.big brain fartI thought I was done with the dowel jig but I wasn't. I had broke it down and stowed in when I realized that I still had four more to do. I couldn't remember what shims I had used so I had to by trial and error find the right one again. I missed the first one even though it was awfully close. The 3rd one was the charm. The...
Tom sat huddled in his chair, wrapped in his favorite blanket, and held the open book tightly. Behind him, the floor lamp, which had been exclusively chosen as a reading lamp, cast its gentle beam of light on every word. It was autumn, and outside, it was already pitch-dark, damp, and cool. The rain pounded heavily against the window in a steady rhythm, evoking the familiar feel of autumn weather. But Tom didn’t mind; he loved these moments when it was damp and cold...
San Francisco’s Washington Street leads past the TransAmerica Pyramid to San Francisco Bay. The post Washington Street appeared first on 75CentralPhotography.
I regularly get marketing emails off the back of this site. "Here's a free license for our tool" or "can we put a link to our service in a post?" At least back then they were slightly human. Now all I get are AI generated shitty emails with no personality whatsoever. Not bashing AI, I'm bashing the lazy marketeers. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email, or leave a comment.
It was a good week-end, full of bread baking and writing (sermon and a poem), a good Sunday at church, and some piece work (by which I mean sewing together small scraps). We watched a lot of Hot Bench, a court TV show that is slightly smarter than all the rest, but only slightly, with the cases which are more small claims court, not life threatening types of situations.Saturday was an easier day than some Saturdays, because I already had a satisfying sermon draft by...
August 2026. Frome. A long, long, day in Frome moves towards its conclusion with an actual NEW Beer Guide pub west of town, away from the cutting-edge art and scary shops, and neatly kept courtyards. The Royal Oak is your roadside pub on the way to (checks map) to Vobster and Mells, the pub with bowls of peanuts on the bar and beers you’ve heard of, the sort of pub folk don’t think CAMRA put in the GBG these days. By virtue of a short cut and long legs I beat the official...
Born 100 years ago today was Valerie Eliot (née Fletcher), the second wife of the poet, and apparently the one who made him happy. The couple lived in Kensington, just around the corner from Ivy Compton-Burnett, and their paths crossed from time to time. On one occasion, the three of them shared a taxi back from a party in Knightsbridge, and in the course of the journey Ivy talked of nothing but the forthcoming Rent Act, cake shops, fishmongers, greengrocers on the...
I saw Spider-Man: Far From Necessary over the weekend and, like everyone else in the cinema, I sat through the entire end crawl to watch the ‘post-credits scene’ that has become so ubiquitous among superhero movies.On the one hand, it’s great to see so many people get the recognition they deserve for working on such a big endeavour. On the other hand, I just wanted to get home.But it reminded me of some research I conducted earlier in the year that I haven’t yet published....
Angkor Thom announces itself before you even get inside. You pass through one of its massive gates, a stone face gazing down from the tower above while two rows of figures line the causeway, devas on one side and asuras on the other, each gripping the body of a serpent. Together they are churning the Ocean of Milk, the Hindu creation myth in which gods and demons set aside their rivalry and pull in opposite directions to churn out the elixir of immortality.