Yesterday I popped to the allotment with my sister for a bit. Had fun getting the scooter to go up the muddy hill — it’s really not an off-road vehicle, but it made it. Was a nice sunny afternoon after the morning rain. We talked about her plans for it now it’s all set up to her liking (due in part to my condition she’s pretty much taken it all on from Fi and myself) it’s probably time to let it mature and see what works and doesn’t work. That said, I’m wondering about a geodesic dome fruit cage and better water harvesting. Of course.
The weather app reported 8mm of rain that morning and which increased the level in the water butts by 11.4cm. This means I can do some fun maths using the surface area of the roof and/or the butts and see, well, something I guess. I should probably get my own water gauge to get an accurate reading for the garden rather than rely on the apps. Oh hell, I’m going to have a weather station at this rate, aren’t I…
Today was a relatively lazy day. I did have a very pleasant visit from an old internet friend I hadn’t see since being homebound. She’s one of those people who happily talks about random shit with no prompting, like being in a pub, something I don’t get to do any more. Tinnitus levels were within reasonable limits although I did need to rest afterwards, as expected, and decided to watch a movie to stop my brain racing.
Linky links:
- The people holding up the internet — You know that XKCD cartoon about all modern digital infrastructure being supported by a hobby project some random nerd has been updating in their spare time since forever? This is a deep-dive into what those projects are, who’s running them and what they support. And it’s both awesome that people do this and terrifying how dependent we are on them. (Caution - annoying ‘animated essay’ nonsense, but worth it.)
- The wildlife set to appear on UK banknotes revealed — Hooray for the hedgehog that will be on the money I’ll keep in my wallet for an emergency, except I never take my wallet anywhere anymore!
- Firefox Proton theme — Firefox has updated, as it is won’t to do, but this time with a snazzy new look. I don’t hate it but others who do have suggested this back-to-basics theme which I really like. Get out of the way, browser.
- ChatGPT was asked 101 times to recreate the image exactly with zero changes — Nice to see the spirit of Alvin Lucier is still alive.
- Mamdani’s “Richard Scarry Socialism” can make city life simple again — “There are no memecoins in Busytown. [..] The people of Busytown are not followed by an all-seeing Palantir eye that compiles a data profile on them. Private equity has not bought their apartment buildings. There is no slopaganda in Busytown. In Busytown, life is straightforward and things are what they seem to be."
- See also Welcome to Business Town, the New York the tech oligarchs want to see.
- Also see also I added Karl Marx quotes to Richard Scarry illustrations and they kinda fit
- Intergalactic Pam & Terry — Pam & Terry Intergalactic.