> Notes...

Was just telling Horsie about a program I listened to on NPR, which related to horses, and their whinnies. They theorised that the high sound isn’t coming from the vocal cords, but from just above the larynx, being similar to a whistle (in human terms) instead. Horsie told me they don’t use it to communicate anymore because for that they have “Horsemobile”, a portmanteau, so to speak, similar to “T-Mobile”. 🤣

Feeling guilty beyond belief after eating around 8 fluid ounces of Häagen-Dazs’s caramel cone ice cream. I told the Horsie not to buy it (she ordered rum and raisins, they delivered caramel cone), but she didn’t listen. Can that be considered an excuse? I mean, once it is paid for, it would be a shame to simply toss it, wouldn’t be?

That’s it, this was the last time. No more ice cream for me!

“Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” — George Eliot

Hi, I’m Mark Pilgrim. You may remember me from such classics as “Dive Into Python” and “Universal Character Encoding Detector.” I am the original author of chardet.

I was so genuinely and happily surprised to read the above! See, I have been a long time fan of him, and this online appearance was a small gift; he seems to be doing well and, well, that makes me happy.

➝ Via Hacker News.

Maybe it is just me—though I hyperbolise, as I can’t be alone—but I have zero issues using Safari (Apple’s web browser). I exclusively use it on mobile, and desktop, not a single problem. It is fast, lean, renders perfectly. Truly, “it just works”. I can’t fathom installing Chrome, or Edge, or any other web browser, on any of my Apple devices.

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: 09 Jun 2026 @ 17:26:21

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.

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?

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.

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).

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!

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.

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.

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?

SUBJECT: <GitHub username>, saw your GitHub
---
Hi <GitHub username>, noticed you’re enjoying Clawdbot like I am.

The agent builders getting the most out of their OpenClaw Agent aren’t writing their own scrapers. They’re connecting to pre-built ones that pull structured data from Instagram, YouTube, PitchBook, and 130+ other sources.

We built the scrapers.

Want to test drive them?

No, Jack, I do not. I do not want them here or there. I do not like them anywhere! Now, get off my lawn!

Deleting a BIG-IP F5 partition is such a royal pain! One needs to delete every single object within it before it can be removed. Good luck finding everything, as they are everywhere! Wouldn’t it be better to simply allow the equivalent of rm -rf, and be done with it?

When mum messages me, no matter what, I reply right away. Now, when the topic of the conversation is food—food that she cooked—I almost-literally fly.

And then an hour or so later, with a belly full, and a happy heart, and from the comfyness of our couch:

She says she is lucky to have me. I say it is the complete opposite: I am lucky to have her!

If there is a white line covering the width of the road at that “entrance” of the parking lot you are trying to use, you are going the wrong way. If you see cars parked oblique both sides, and their front faces you, you are going the wrong way. Every bloody time I go to the grocery I encounter cars going the wrong way, when I am trying to leave. Tonight’s gave me the finger and all. The audacity.

I feel we are witnessing the crumbling of society. Not just that minor, albeit annoying, detail. It’s everything.

Happy New Year of the Horse, everyone! May this year be good or, at the very least, better than the Snake we are leaving behind. This year is, on its entirety, the year of my Horsie, which is, well, a Horse! 😅