> Notes...

Fridays, just like Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, have a certain je ne sais quoi for most of us. Each day kind of different, I am sure you know what I am talking about. Today, Friday, is missing it for me.

Rediscovering Picasso. The horrors of war as the artist decided to capture it.

“In the struggle for existence, it is only on those who hang on for ten minutes after all is hopeless, that hope begins to dawn.”

I heard this on NPR today while driving. They were talking about aphorisms, and the guest was asked to say his favourite—the above—one. It is from G.K. Chesterton. When feeling this despaired, I will think of this.

CPAP machine company calls me to see how I am doing with it, and to ask a few questions. I say “I have not been able to get used to it, I will have to return it”. They ask me for my date of birth, and email address. I tell them “I didn’t call you, you did. You should have all the information on file, I see no reason to provide it to you now”. After exchanging pleasantries we discontinue the call.

I then call back, and ask for the steps to return the machine. I am asked for my full name, date of birth, and email address, to pull up my account. They say an RMA number, and a prepaid label for its return will be sent to me. I offer to save them money by returning it to the same place I picked it up. I can’t, they tell me. That place only dishes out new machines, and doesn’t take used ones back. OK then!

So instead of dividing the Mersenne number by all prime numbers less than 2¹²⁷ – 1, it suffices to perform calculations to determine s₁₂₅ and then divide by 2¹²⁷ – 1. That’s much simpler, right?

That easy it is to identify a prime number without a computer. Piece of cake, right?

➝ Via Hacker News.

I applied for a manager’s position. It was only posted for a week, inherently lowering my expectations. To make a long story short, I don’t think I will get the chance to fill it, perhaps not even to interview for it. The thing is, I wholeheartedly believe I can be a good manager.

I know everyone on my would-be team; some I have known for a very long time. I know how to do some of their duties. I know their capabilities and some of their drawbacks. I know what some of them, if not all of them, would want from a manager. I know how I shouldn’t manage, because I have experienced that myself. I am very conscientious about my workplace and meticulous about my work. Anyway, I tried.

“So this is a very exciting day for me, because today, we’re going to start quantum mechanics and that’s all we’ll do till the end of the term. Now I’ve got bad news and good news. The bad news is that it’s a subject that’s kind of hard to follow intuitively, and the good news is that nobody can follow it intuitively. Richard Feynman, one of the big figures in physics, used to say, “No one understands quantum mechanics.” So in some sense, the pressure is off for you guys, because I don’t get it and you don’t get it and Feynman doesn’t get it. The point is, here is my goal. Right now, I’m the only one who doesn’t understand quantum mechanics. In about seven days, all of you will be unable to understand quantum mechanics. Then you can go back and spread your ignorance everywhere else.”

Professor Ramamurti Shankar “Fundamentals of Physics II” transcript introduction will keep me in his class, heck, will make me sign up for it even if I didn’t need the credit! Such quality on a professor is the reason why he teaches at Yale.

SharePoint, or OneDrive, or whatever name they are giving these days to Microsoft’s enterprise storage (part of their “Office 365”), just gobbled up the many changes collaborators made on a document I shared. Incredibly enough, I saw the changes as they were happening yesterday, yet today they are no longer. Infuriating, to say the least.

The Manrope font is not too shabby. I mean, I like it! My love for fonts, specifically monospaced, and sans serif, is an obsession: 98% of the time I inspect a webpage element it is to check what kind of font is been used.

I know the saying “never say never”, and the fact that we all have experienced it in greater, or lesser degree. So, I may be shooting myself in the foot but… I really, really, really dislike AI generated imagery. That’s the note.

“The issue was not caused, directly or indirectly, by a cyber attack or malicious activity of any kind. Instead, it was triggered by a change to one of our database systems’ permissions which caused the database to output multiple entries into a “feature file” used by our Bot Management system. That feature file, in turn, doubled in size. The larger-than-expected feature file was then propagated to all the machines that make up our network.”

Cloudflare’s entire blog post goes on to explain that they made a “boo-boo”, and how they are not going to do it again. At least not the same way.

I saw, and then heard this (the music takes a bit to form), and immediately liked it. Not just because they use an “old” technology to make music, but because the sound they create is trance like, and I love trance!

➝ Via Kottke.

“Based on replacement costs, Eugen’s time and effort, and the fair market value of the Mastodon brand, its associated properties, and the social network, we settled on a one-time compensation of €1M.”

Eugen Rochko is stepping down as Mastodon’s CEO, staying “in an advisory role” with Mastodon’s team. €1M ain’t much, but I figure he enjoyed what he did.

The highlight of the mornings I am forced to come to the office was that trance-like flickering light at the corner Walgreens. I always looked forward to seeing it as it had an amazing, calming, effect on me. Now is gone; someone had the bad idea to “fix” what wasn’t truly broken.

It is next to impossible to get an account on Hetzner. I have tried twice in the past, and just when I thought I was home free, the account gets locked, and/or extra ridiculous¹ documentation is requested (which I refuse to furnish). Great prices they have, innaccessible they are for the rest of us.

I now have a plan to—finally!—migrate to a new VPS. Well, I have a timeframe, actually. I will be using some of the free time I will have during the holidays to end this saga. I will also add a couple of other services to my selfhosted collection. Running my own IRCd is on the tentative list, as I am not quite sure about it.

To make amends for this, mum called me last night. “Come help me eat some food”, she said. Funny, I was about to drive over her house to drop off a case of beer, and a bag of her favourite coffee. I guess we forgave each other. Food was good, and I brought a whole flan home. Maybe priests should visit more often.

The Horsie and I watched “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (★★★★★) last night. This is the—wow, had to pause to think here—sixth time I have seeing this movie, but the very first, and probably last, with the Horsie. She was rather lost, because she hasn’t seeing the preceding movie on the trilogy, nor any other based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings.

Call me weird, but I don’t tire of seeing them.

Just a short one to note that Christmas has been declared in full swing for a week now—ever since we got our first cold front. Not only stores are selling the season’s fares, but radio stations are playing Christmas’ music all day long. It all started 1 November. So, happy holidays, am I right?! 🤭

Once again, organised religion is getting in my way. My very sacred Sunday morning with Mum and Ông, and our holy coffee time, has been excommunicated by the visit of “the priests”, as she wrote to me. Maybe I am a curmudgeon, but having someone visiting uninvited, and impromptu, doesn’t fly with me unless they are very close. I doubt these “fathers” are.

On this one, which I use every once in a while to count the amount of notes per year, Lyse came up with a much more streamlined solution. Thanks, mate!

(for file in *.md; do \
    grep --max-count=1 'date:' "$file" | \
    sed 's/date.*\([[:digit:]]\{4\}\).*/\1/'; \
done) | sort | uniq -c

Came across Wealth which was illustrative, rather accurate, and super easy to read (and I loved the page design, and font, but I digress). Though still not fully set, Horsie set us at an upper ↑3. That is:

“If they lose their job, it’s financially stressful, but they can make it a few months without income. Upper ↑3 could even make it a year if they maxed out their credit cards. They generally can choose where to work, and to leave terrible work environments. Their hours are dictated.”

I pinged a retired friend about it, sending him the link, and asking “Pick your ↑X Wealth 🤑”. He replied:

Yes, I’m #6 (Rich) and am striving to be #7 (Ultra Rich). 🤑 I found 6 figures to 7 figures and to 8 figures fairly easy to obtain, but that jump to 9 figures ($100M) seems like an incredibly huge mission that I don’t think I’ll see in my lifetime. Hopefully the Dynasty Trust I leave to my heirs will someday reach that level. 😇👍

➝ Via Hacker News.

Just sent Martin his birthday gift to the Netherlands, for which we paid $85.20 on postage. Not too bad. The real surprise, though, came to be the extra fee he will need to pay upon delivery: $40. When I asked why, and if I could pay for it in advance here, I was told that it was Netherlands-specific charge, and that there was nothing I could do about it. Ugh, TIL.

I find it funny when people announce that they will share their screen “really quick”, then proceed to sing-song softly, or talk to themselves about what they are doing, or why things are not working the way they want them to. 😂

Due to my personality, I tend to be impulsive, and rather terse when answering to emails. That’s changing thanks to AI. LLM’s ability to rewrite emails and take away sarcasm and conveying my reasoning, all while keeping a professional and collaborative tone is very, very helpful.

“If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too.”

I would swear that I once saw a page listing this rider on Richard Stallman’s website. I haven’t been able to find it this time. Not sure what drove me down this rabbit hole today, but there I was.

Every Wednesday our manager brings bagels for everyone to enjoy. I haven’t counted them, but easily three dozens, plus a few cream cheese pots—including “fancy” flavoured ones. We are all very, very thankful to him. Thank you, Jim!

What brings me here, though, is someone doing ala “The Muffin Tops”, just with bagel tops. I mean, what kind of a psychopath will take the top of a bagel, and leave the bottom behind? That’s it, that’s the note.

After so much wait for iOS 26.1, and the inclusion of Vietnamese for use in Live Translation, I feel nothing short of dissappointed. Mum says the translation is an abomination, and begged me to, please, not to use it. Sometimes she gets confused with the service being used, but the end result is what matters. She messaged me, using her classical english:

“Stop writing in Vietnamese. Translate from google, totally different from what you think or what you want to say.”

I completely agree with the OP on this need for attention to details. I like it, and I try to adhere to it as much as I can. See the #elders tag, for example. Compare it to the #family tag. See the “1 note”, and the “5 notes”. A small detail, but it shows caring.

➝ Via Hacker News.

“This is not just a piece of paper”. Immerse yourself “traveling” along with this video, from the smallest, to the biggest. Very, very well done.

Apple’s new iPhone Pocket feels like something one would read on April Fools’ Day, which is how I felt when they first came out with their Polishing Cloth. Alas, it is not! 😅

Update: 09 Jun 2026 @ 17:26:21

Holy fuck! Please pardon my Icelandic, but what in the world?! Somewhere on my April Fools’ thought I missed the most important piece of information.

“iPhone Pocket in the short strap design retails at $149.95 (U.S.), and the long strap design at $229.95 (U.S.).”

With 1°C (feels -6°C) temperatures today is, by far and so far, the coldest day of the year around here. Horsie freezes. I am already dressed with my shorts and tshirt to go grab coffee at mum’s, and go walking with ông. Sun shines!

If this comes true, that is, front facing camera and Face ID components becoming invisible on a 20th Anniversary iPhone, then it will be my time to upgrade.

I am watching “Wednesday” (★★★★☆) with the kid. It is pretty entertaining, and the actor on the main role, Jenny Ortega, totally aces it. I had started to watch it alone when the first season came out, but Horsie diverted me elsewhere. Glad it happened, so that I can have a watching pal this time around!

Typhoon Fung-wong has devastated the Philipines, leaving death, displacement, and destruction along its path. The “tired adage” comes true once more, and more than ever the need for help.

“The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.”

The equivalent of one week of your sugary drinks can mean life for a family. Every donation helps, no matter how little. Please consider donating a little today.

I had to wait around 30 minutes, and finally provide aid, in order to get $40 “digital gift card” for the Horsie, while opening a Costco membership for the first time throught a reseller. I will tell you this much: I would have, gladly, given away $40 not to go through that. 😅

“Imagine applying for a job. You know you’re a strong candidate with a standout résumé. But you don’t even get a call back.

You might not know it, but an artificial intelligence algorithm used to screen applicants has decided that you are too risky. Maybe it inferred you wouldn’t fit the company culture or you’re likely to behave in some way later on that might cause friction (such as joining a union or starting a family). Its reasoning is impossible to see and even harder to challenge.”

➝ Via The New York Times .

Today, after an unfriendly IRC exchange, @prologic deleted all mentions of twtxt.net, the Yarn.social repository (or made it hidden), and shutdown Twtxt.net—yes, it is unreachable. I am hoping that this was a decision taken emotionally in haste, and that the site and service will eventually come back online. 🤞🏻

Currently on season 2 of “The Pride of the Temp” (★★★★☆) , a Japanese drama series based around an extremely skilled temp worker (派遣, haken), and her incredible array of obscure certifications and skills.

Often reminding me of “The Office”, the series uses Haruko’s (the main character and temp worker) encounters with her fulltime workmates to humorously explore the social and economic divide between permanent and temporary employees in Japan’s corporate culture.

“Notarize your macOS software to give users more confidence that the Developer ID-signed software you distribute has been checked by Apple for malicious components. Notarization of macOS software is not App Review. The Apple notary service is an automated system that scans your software for malicious content, checks for code-signing issues, and returns the results to you quickly.”

Apple’s notarisation service is good for the user, and developers—the last need to pay $99 a year for it. Yet, there are some that believe the Apple’s notarisation blocks software “freedom”.

➝ Via Hacker News.