> Notes...

The epic saga that started over a month ago has finally concluded, and Martin is now in possession of his The New York Times’ “The Deluxe Birthday Edition” book. That post has seeing more of the world than all of us combined. 😅

Two, or three days ago Blizzard announced Diablo 4 next expansion, and with it the so much expected, and desired, paladin class—there will be another, but they have not disclosed it yet. The kick, and trick, is that the class is playable now, as long as one pre-orders the expansion. Needless is to say that Gawain, which is my paladin’s name, is level 55 now.

I have been playing it with abandon, simply having fun and experimenting with the class. And lots of fun it is!

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We ended up buying another Google Nest video doorbell (3rd generation) because a) was the cheapest (with holidays discounts), and b) we do not have to pay anything extra per month to keep 30 days worth of video events. Our old one was HD, the new one is 2K. The difference is night and day.

Betània Patmos is a cute font. It reminds me my elementary school classmate’s handwriting. It can be found at Huerta Tipográfica.

You can find Betània Patmos, and other very good fonts, at Huerta Tipográfica. All free of charge, but you can always help the project, and donate.

On what good leadership looks like, or the things I want to say to my boss.

“If you want loyalty, creativity, honesty, energy, you must earn them. You earn them by being the kind of leader whose actions make it obvious that people matter. Not because it’s good PR. Because it’s your job. And because people matter, and they deserve it.”

“In the end, good leadership is never proven by what you say about yourself. It’s proven by what people say when you’re not in the room.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

After only, and almost exactly, five years, our Google Nest Hello—a video doorbell—ceased to work. It’s pretty much a paper weight. I am leaning towards getting a Ring to replace it, but their 4K version is quite pricey. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

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“Following a thorough and rigorous evaluation of all candidates, we regret to inform you that we have chosen to move forward with another candidate for this specific role. Please know that this decision was not made lightly, and we genuinely appreciate the effort and time you dedicated to our process.”

My aim wasn’t money driven. If a good manager was hired (we don’t know who it is yet), that’s all it matters.

I have set my out-of-office reply, as I was afraid I would forget. It will trigger end of working day this Friday, and it will expire next year. End of year holidays make me kind of anxious. I wait all year for them, and they come and go almost as fast as blinking an eye.

The saga that we started remains ongoing—as in, not finished yet—as you can see below (last status at the top). First, and last time, we send a post to the Netherlands. If this happens with every international post, I truly pity the Dutch.

Halloy has come a long way since I first saw it posted on Hacker News. It does looks really good, and it is quite customisable. Hard to beat a web based one, but still.

I feel I need to fully get out of social media—and I only lurk on ActivityPub (commonly known as “Mastodon”) these days. The things I see make me go research to check if they are real, then that deep shame sinks in.

Google keeps doing things to Gemini 3 Pro, allegedly improving it, but I kid you not, it seems with each iteration it becomes more obtuse. Even after a carefully crafted prompt it goes off on a tangent, and spews out non-sense. I was going to try Gemini CLI, but the little trust I had has diminished. Hey, at least it is free, and I sure am getting what I paid for!

“MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (December 4, 1995) – Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW), today announced JavaScript, an open, cross-platform object scripting language for the creation and customization of applications on enterprise networks and the Internet. The JavaScript language complements Java, Sun’s industry-leading object-oriented, cross-platform programming language. The initial version of JavaScript is available now as part of the beta version of Netscape Navigator 2.0, which is currently available for downloading from Netscape’s web site. "

➝ Via Hacker News.

This is the most visible—and perhaps only—reason why I dislike Cloudflare. From all angles, how does this helps someone trying to access the site? Oh, “Cloudflare is doing great, the server hosting the site I want to reach isn’t. I feel much better now”, said no one.

It was in the news yesterday that India had ordered all smartphones makers to ensure all new devices came preloaded with an app called Sanchar Saathi, allegedly to “bolster telecom cybersecurity”. Apple, non-publicly, stated that they would not comply. Today India is scrapping their mandatory order. Much planning, such wow!

These two photos were taken by Horsie somewhere in Rome, NY, in December, 2019. That’s the kind of winter I wish we’d have. Instead all we have is 24°C, with 58% of humidity.

“你连死都想了那还怕什么，敢死不敢活啊？你就活下去看看明天是怎么样.”

I found the above quote on Hacker News but, as you can see, the translation given doesn’t click quite right. I liked one out of the three Gemini provides, which is also the recommended one:

“You’ve contemplated death, so what’s left to be scared of? Are you only brave enough to die, but afraid to live? Just keep living and find out what tomorrow will be like.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

AT&T is offering us, for a bargain price of $25 in addition to what we already pay, to upgrade to their “most advanced Wi-Fi package”, which is pretty much a device upgrade to one that supports Wi-Fi 7. The thing is, we don’t use their Wi-Fi, we have our own router, and access point, and almost none of our devices supports Wi-Fi 7 yet. I wonder how many will bite on that offer not knowing any better.

These are delightful and, on their own, one of the real reasons for the end-of-year holidays: Italian Panettones. I know they have plenty of carbs and sugars and, yet, can’t stop munching them accompanied by a cold glass of milk.

People in other places complaining about snow, and their shoveling and here, well, here all we got was a squalid tiny bit of rain, and a couple of days with “feels like” 2°C. Snowy Christmas… no such a thing.

Yesternight was “The Family Plan 2” (★★★☆☆) , and half of “The Family Plan” (★★★☆☆) , weirdly in that order, night. They were entertaining, and a good way to end an otherwise stressful day. Tonight we will finish watching the second—which was the first. Some might find that weird, I know, but it’s just business as usual around here.

This week’s end was a Marvel’s weekend with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (★★★☆☆) , and “Thunderbolts *” (★★★☆☆) on our watched list. They were quite entertaining, as I was expecting them to be. But “🎶 now, the end is near and so I face the final curtain”, and fun is over. Working week starts tomorrow. Yay! 🤭

What kind of sorcery is this? Whether it will survive a washing or not is irrelevant. The skill level is of 100.

➝ Via brettezeleliquide.

Re: Claudrod #1764508303

Yay, super glad Claudine is drawn to me, based on the above! I fit at least two of her “requirements”. 😂🙈 Contributing a little of transparency too, I genuily found you to be an awesome person and friend, Claud! There, biodegradable note in a bottle tossed on the Internet “sea”.

Was watching “Doctors” (★★★☆☆) today. It was great the first 3 episodes. By episode 5 I don’t think I want to continue. Well, I am sure I don’t want to. I’d rather avoid 15 episodes of getting upset, or shaking my head in disbelief, or both.

It was a good try, and not time wasted. It would have been if I continue watching. So, calling it a wrap now is the sensible thing to do.

The recent sale of a Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” print at a record price reminded me of my line in the queue (now for over 2 years) for one from Mokuhankan. My message when I signed up on their waiting list was, “I will wait just, please, don’t forget about me”, on 18 May 2023. Still waiting.

On Anthony Bourdain’s Lost Li.st you can find a few things of interest. I wish there was more, as I liked Anthony very much. On his dinner with Obama in Hanoi, Vietnam:

“The reaction among regular people in Hanoi to the fact that the US President chose to eat Bún chả was beyond all imagining. The effect was unbelievable. People were actually crying the next day, describing to me their shock and their pride, the reactions of their neighbors, to this completely unexpected choice of meal—and the venue.”

I have eaten Bún chả, and it is delicious. There is another similar plate that has more protein (shrimps and eggrolls, in addition to grilled pork) whose name escapes me now, which is a favourite of mine. But I digress.

“You were specially selected to receive a GO2bank offer because you’ve used one of our banking products in the past OR you opted in to receive marketing from one of our trusted third-party partners. No credit check was performed, no one filled out an application on your behalf and no account was opened in your name. The card sent to you is not active and has no value until you choose to activate it and deposit money into your account.”

Kid received not one, but two of these offers on the mail today. Both have a full blown plastic, RFID chip, debit card in it. When someone wonder how, or why, the bank went belly up, remember this.

Unlike The New York Times gift articles, for which you do not need an account to read them, The Washington Post gift articles require the creation of a “free” account in order to “redeem” them, like so. So, not free.

Thanksgiving was a success! We had 21 people joining us, so much food that everyone got to pack take-away at the end of the night. Afterwards cleaning is complete, all is well.

Today’s coolish, with 6°C earlier this morning, and sunshine. After coffee with mum, and an early 2 miles walk with dad, it is time to chill in the comfiness of my couch.

Heavy cleaning towards Thanksgiving celebration/hosting completed. That means toilets gleam, showers sparkle, and overall kitchen area looks OKish. Got to wait until everyone is awake (yes, some are still in bed here), to finish up one bathroom, and for some cooking to end, to tidy up the kitchen. I’ll say half way there. 😅

Today’s our dear friend Martin birthday! 🎂🎁🥳 We have been friends for almost two thirds of my life. Our family is forever grateful to him and for him, seventy times seven. May you celebrate many more birthdays, Martin, in good health, and peace! ❤️

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we are hosting, like we do almost every year. This time around we are expecting 22 people, all family. As you can imagine, it is going to be a busy day. I am on clean up duty, before and afterwards. Yay! 😅 Still, happy to see a bunch of the family at once, and share a meal with them. As Horsie said, elders have their time left counted—but, don’t we all?—and we never know if we will be able to share a day again with them.

Now that we have re-subscribed to Hulu, we have restarted watching the ever awesome “Futurama” (★★★★★) , now on season 13. I am going to assume you know what “Futurama” is, but if you don’t, please look for it, and watch it. You will be thankful.

Receiving an SMS alledgedly from Bank of America in the middle of the night, asking whether or not we authorise a check for a specific amount, on a certain account, and directing us to follow a link to confirm the depositor’s name, and view the check image seemed like the perfect phishing, just like some Redditors thought it could be. Can we be blamed, after all?

I called BofA and, yes, it was valid. But so many wrongs on this one. The short code number they used is not listed anywhere, so that we can verify it really came from BofA. The link on it, instead of simply telling us to use their mobile app, or to login at the bank portal, and the Bank of America image they added to the SMS. It is as if they are training us to fall for phishing.

One of my ex-sister-in-law—yes, I have more than one—is an architect. Through her, during her college years, I was introduced to Les Corbusier, whose architectural design I have been in love with since. His exposed concrete, monolithic buildings are proto-brutalist, and I am a brutalism, and its simplicity, fanatic.

Nuclear weapons. Not nucular weapons, but nuclear ones. I don’t know from where I got to this page. I picked it up on my desktop, while browsing the iCloud Tabs (tabs open on my phone).

“What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons? By threatening to use nuclear weapons. And we can’t get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons.”

It is a good read. I am glad I did.

I took the first, and most likely only, plunge into the Black Friday shopping frenzy we all have been conditioned to each year. Last year’s was Hulu, this year is Disney+ plus Hulu. All and all it costs us $5.65 a month. That’s $4.99 for the actual service, plus taxes, federal, and local communications fees.

“The Office of the First Lady of the United States needs to end. Institutional nepotism of this sort presents several problems. Primarily, we allocate budgetary resources and authority to a person whose sole qualification is being married to an elected representative.”

In complete agreement with Roshan on the “Abolish the First Lady” topic. “No one ever really cared who Angela Merkel’s husband was […] The real reason no one cared is that he’s just a guy there who stands or falls on his own merits”, he writes. Indeed!

I forgot to note that this issue with the Spotlight was fixed on macOS 26.1. I know we tend to complain, and blame Apple for the obvious gaffes they make, but they will eventually get their act together, and come through.