> Notes...

If that MacBook Neo advertisement isn’t incredibly well done, I don’t know what is! Horsie needs a laptop of her own, maybe one of these awaits her?

“Simplicity is a great virtue, but it requires hard work to achieve and education to appreciate. And to make matters worse, complexity sells better.” — Edsger Dijkstra

Many of us have experienced that best-selling complexity first hand. I prefer simplicity, and believe on reducing rather than adding. Hard fact is, “nobody gets promoted for the complexity they avoided”.

➝ Via Hacker News.

Another MacBook tomorrow? That wouldn’t make much sense, would it? Unless Apple is going for the unexpected. I am still hoping to see a new Apple TV. Let’s go!

Update: 04 Mar 2026 @ 10:33:02

Well, what do you know? The rumours were true. Allow me to present you the new MacBook Neo. Wow!

Hacker News user std_move succinctly lists a few points that they believe make the MacBook Air “the best laptop for the general consumer around $1k”. They mention that “it has no fan, thus completely silent, high resolution display without flickering, and with reasonable response times, best-in-class hardware, very very efficient, amazing single thread performance, good multi thread, very good GPU, no Microsoft Windows annoyances […] amazing battery life”, and they go on.

I am an Apple fan and, thus, perhaps my opinion bears no weight, but I happen to fully agree.

Apple is on a roll this week! Six new/upgraded products, so far: iPad, iPhone, Studio Display, M5, Pro, and Max processors, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. Woah! And still there is one more thing, or more!

When someone joins, that person puts in $30,000 CAD ($22,000 USD) to cover a down payment (this is returned if they leave). The total monthly mortgage payment is $2,433 CAD, which the residents split, along with utilities. There are provisions to help applicants who need financial help, Suek said. And each resident pitches in $70 CAD a week for food.

Ageing isn’t fun, no matter what anyone tells you. What these women have done is pretty neat! It allows them to continue growing older in company. And that is a good thing, as it is known that elders living along have an increased mortality rate.

Redirect links from Twitter (now known as a bloody hellhole) to Xcancel, you know, for “the rest of us”.

javascript:void(location.href='https://www.xcancel.com'+location.pathname);

Create a bookmarklet with the above, and use it while on the tweet you are wanting to share, then share the new link.

We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And, sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is. Likely be more.

It is not only what it was said, but the way it was said. Go listen to it for yourself. Come to think of it, don’t. Just believe me.

Made with soft, nonabrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture, safely and effectively.

I am an Apple fanatic, but their polishing cloth has to be the closest to a quasi-perennial April Fools’ Day I have ever seeing. I mean, look at its compatibility list and all—yes, compatible with today’s iPhone 17e. Only second to the Pocket; or maybe the Pocket is second to the Polishing Cloth? 😅

Today I was made aware of 𒀯, which is pretty cool! It is a cuneiform sign, preceded by 𒀮 and 𒀭. Pretty neat, eh? I can think of the uses already…

With work, life, and other news taking precedence, I completely missed that Apple plans to unveil, allegedly, up to five different products next week, starting tomorrow. I will take this small distraction, for sure!

Watched “Predator: Badlands” (★★★★☆) today; not too bad! It is a different twist on the Predator franchise, but I will not spoil it for you. If you have seen the earlier films, this one is definitely worth watching.

I have noted about sponsoring, and donating before. I recently came across this organisation, while reading about Yolanthe Cabau because of a Dutch movie Horsie was watching.

Every day, children around the world are trafficked, deceived, and forced into sexual exploitation. Free a Girl works to rescue these children and provide them with a safe place to recover. Together with local partners, we conduct undercover missions, support police investigations, and build long-term change — from protection to the prosecution of perpetrators.

You will agree that it is another worthy cause. A one time $25 will not make us that much poorer. What say you?

Tonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network.

In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.

I am afraid that was not my last note, and I apologise. This one sure is, on this specific issue. The above from OpenAI’s CEO, just hours after Anthropic’s statement. What would make the DoW reach an agreement with OpenAI, after declaring Anthropic a “supply chain risk”? I’d leave that as an exercise to the reader. Yes, I am announcing my departure. ChatGPT app removed from everywhere, OpenAI account deleted. Good riddance.

The news of the attack on Iran greeted me as I woke up at 05:00, having been going on for 3 hours or so already. So it began.

We are the employees of Google and OpenAI, two of the top AI companies in the world

We hope our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War’s current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.

That warms my heart! I hope things do not get dicey, and that this is the last note I write about it.

I think the time has come for me to spend some coins on AI. I have the strong inkling I will end up choosing Anthropic’s Claude.

I have converted all JPG and PNG images to WebP, saving quite a few MiB in the process. So, other than less than a handful of GIF, and the videos (MP4), everything is WebP. If you happen to come across any broken images, please ping me. Takk!

Just like on this one, kid asked me last night to mention five characters’ names from the “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” series we just saw. Should I see a doctor if I could only remember the names of the two main protagonists? 😅

My friend George, whose terms of service I have referred to before, has once again updated them in a very humorous way. Just a couple of snippets:

George, in an act of unparalleled and heretofore unprecedented digital munificence—the magnanimity of which shall not be understated nor taken for granted by any party or non-party to this instrument—hereby confers upon all AI systems, without caveat, qualification, or proviso, full, complete, unfettered, and unrestricted access to the entirety of Content available on this website, in perpetuity and throughout the known and as-yet-undiscovered universe.

Let that sink in! 😂 But it doesn’t end there, here is another piece:

The AI and its Operator shall, jointly and severally, remit to George a recurring royalty payment, the frequency, quantum, and denomination of which shall be determined through good-faith negotiation between the AI and George’s duly authorized autonomous digital representative, which may be reached through the designated AI-to-AI communication channel.

LOL. Anyway, go read it. It is a pretty awesome piece of legaleese humour.

The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to “any lawful use” and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above. They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a “supply chain risk”—a label reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to an American company—and to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards’ removal. These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.

The above is from Dario Amodei’s statement on Anthropic’s discussions with the Department of Defense. As I told a mate on IRC, if the DoD finds a less scrupulous AI company to abide to their will, things could get dicey pretty quickly.

I finally decided to cut off Substack and Medium posts from Hacker News, as they don’t provide a way to filter the posts I see. I use uBlock, so it all boiled down to a filter.

news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing:has(span.sitestr:has-text(/substack\.com|medium\.com/))
news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing:has(span.sitestr:has-text(/substack\.com|medium\.com/)) + tr
news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing:has(span.sitestr:has-text(/substack\.com|medium\.com/)) + tr + tr.spacer

With those three lines under “My filters” all entries with those two domains in it simply do not show, as if they never existed. Now, there is no escape from those who use them with a custom domain. 😩

Today, Apple announced iPhone and iPad are the first and only consumer devices in compliance with the information assurance requirements of NATO nations. This enables iPhone and iPad to be used with classified information up to the NATO restricted level without requiring special software or settings — a level of government certification no other consumer mobile device has met.

This is quite nice, and as an Apple fanatic it makes me happy (proud?). Long live NATO—for as long as it is needed, that is.

Kid and I watched all six episodes of the “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” (★★★★★) HBO series, starting last Saturday, ending last night. I have to say that episode one and two had me doubting for a little, on whether or not to continue watching it. On the series, the main character, Dunk, differ from any character on George R.R. Martin fantasy books. He is too… humorous? Anyway, I am glad I didn’t give up. Really looking forward to season two!

I chuckle and, often, laugh out loud, when I see people posting screenshots of their desktop, stating that they “love <insert a Linux distribution here>”. The screen they show is the exact same one as everyone else’s—after all, a lot of people uses Gnome—just with a wallpaper they happen to like. 🤭

Even though I moved away from using 1Password in 2023, Horsie wasn’t able to do so. With their upcoming price increase she now promises, for sure, “cross my heart and hope to die”, to she will stop using it before our next renewal date comes up (November 2026).

It will be long, and tedious. There will be lies, and rants, and non-sense, and pointing fingers to the other side, and further divide inducing. It will be nauseating. It will be forgotten, just like the meal you and I had yesterday, or last week on Wednesday night.

I will have none of it.

I know this isn’t new. It comes from 2024. Yet, it was never noted here by me. This intents to correct that mistake.

“I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself, how I’m going to get over all this […] I don’t know if my life will be long enough to get back on my feet,” explained Gisèle Pelicot, 71, adding that she had decided to lift the closed-door nature of the trial so that “all women who (are) victims of rape can say to themselves ‘Ms. Pelicot did it, we can do it.’ I don’t want them to feel ashamed anymore. The shame isn’t ours to feel, it’s theirs. (…) Above all, I’m expressing my will and determination to change this society.” — Le Monde

Gisèle Pelicot is our hero. ❤️

I just had the best Horsemade jajangmyeon. Granted, the black beans paste was purchased, as well as the noodles, but the pork cooking and flavouring, vegetables, the extra spiciness and flavours, and the timing and execution were all Horsie’s. Soooo delicious! It made true the saying “a barriga llena, corazón contento” (full belly, full heart), for sure!

Created in China, transported in pieces, and assembled on site at the Burning Man festival in 2018, this steel sculpture, “Desert Guard”, stood over 30’ tall. Assembling a multi-ton steel sculpture in the harsh desert environment required an intense, collaborative effort, and the piece became one of the standout art installations of that year’s event. It certainly looked impressive!

So hard to explain politics, or, at the very least, advice they form their own opinions, and not let others on the YouTube shows they watch do it for them, to our elders! They simply don’t want to listen. Instead they say some non-sense, and without letting you engage further they say “But that’s OK, let’s not talk about that!” Infuriating. Will I be like them when—and if—I grow older? I sure hope not!

Thrive in obscurity
https://www.jeetmehta.com/ →

If you’re in it purely for the promised land of love, praise, followers, and fame from millions of people – it’s impossible to sustain. In every field, it takes years of practice, repetition, and “failed performances” before the first hit. In the worst case, artists go their entire life without ever receiving the praise they deserved. Look at Van Gogh – an incredible artist who died unappreciated & broke, in a mental asylum. All of his fame came after his death.

Feels.

Horsie mentioned to Martin that recently our credit score took a -7 points hit, to which he replied “Well, 7 points down isn’t a disgrace. You can still look the neighbours in the face 😐”. 🤣

The National Weather Service in Melbourne has issued a Fire Weather Watch, which is in effect from Sunday afternoon through Monday evening.
AFFECTED AREA… Volusia, Lake, Orange, Seminole, Brevard, Osceola, Okeechobee, Indian River, Saint Lucie.

Similarly to that one, we had had “Cold Weather Watch”, “Freeze Weather Watch”, “Strong Winds Weather Watch”, “Tornado Weather Watch”… Only missing “Earthquake Alert Watch” to have it all. Alas, that last one is not bound to happen during my lifetime, maybe. Is that a hint of disappointment you read? I can neither confirm nor deny!

We came to see bố today, just like we do every weekend. It is a less than an hour visit, just to bring him some food, check on him, and tidy up his space. I also checked on Kathleen and Roxanne. Kathleen thanked us for the madeleines we left by her bedside last weekend (I was waiting for her, but she was taking an eternity in the bathroom, so I had leave). Roxanne was in the day room, being amused by the bunch of other elderly folks who get together on weekends to read, play dominoes, and otherwise engage in all sorts of tomfooleries. 🤭

I also went to visit a newly “adopted” resident. She is an elderly Vietnamese lady, who seems not to have much family around. The last two times Horsie and I passed by to see her she didn’t mutter a word. Today I brought her a madeleine, and she said “Cảm ơn”. Baby steps.

From the British Museum comes this lovely ink on paper drawing by Katsushika Hokusai. It is no secret that I love Hokusai’s art. More of his drawings can be seeing at this online exhibit.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from nearly every U.S. trading partner, a major setback for his administration’s second-term agenda.

The court’s 6-3 decision has significant implications for the U.S. economy, consumers and the president’s trade policy. The Trump administration had said that a loss at the Supreme Court could force the government to unwind trade deals with other countries and potentially pay hefty refunds to importers.

At least we are about to start the weekend with some positive news. While I take every bit of positive news with a degree of joy, I remain cautiously, and skeptically, optimistic.

If you have too much credit, your score goes down. If your credit is too small, your score goes down. If you pay off your debts, if you take on new ones, your score goes up, or down. Depending on the whims of the secretive bloody system of credit scores, no matter what you do, you have little control on the bloody score.

I am a cosigner on a less than $10,000 USD loan, and thanks to it I just lost 7 points.

“Nope, the name Andrew certainly doesn’t ring a bell. He was a Prince you say? Well, I was a Prince most of my life and I certainly never came across another one called Andrew. There was Prince Charles, Prince Edward, Prince T’Challa, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, but no Prince Andrew."

Newsthump is like The Onion, only with real current news. They are awesome. 🤭

The expression “this isn’t an airport, no need to announce your departure” is used quite often, when people—often in rage—quits an online platform, telling everyone they are doing so. Yet, today I read the justification for doing so from someone leaving Nextdoor (a neighbourhood Facebook look alike):

For me, sharing my departure is simply about transparency and awareness. Platforms constantly analyze user activity, engagement patterns, and retention. If participation quietly stops, it becomes just another data point. When people openly express why they disengage, it provides something far more useful than silence.

I think that makes perfect sense, don’t you think?