> Notes...

Found a co-worker who thinks like me when it comes to Fridays. “Is it Friday already? Oh gosh, two more days and it’s back to the office!” 😅

The Em Dash has responded to the “if your writing has em dashes, it was AI generated” new fad.

I would like to address the recent slander circulating on social media, in editorial Slack channels, and in the margins of otherwise decent Substack newsletters. Specifically, the baseless, libelous accusation that my usage is a telltale sign of artificial intelligence.

➝ Via McSweeney’s.

With new capabilities come new dangers. The safety team finds that if Agent-2 somehow escaped from the company and wanted to “survive” and “replicate” autonomously, it might be able to do so. That is, it could autonomously develop and execute plans to hack into AI servers, install copies of itself, evade detection, and use that secure base to pursue whatever other goals it might have (though how effectively it would do so as weeks roll by is unknown and in doubt). These results only show that the model has the capability to do these tasks, not whether it would “want” to do this. Still, it’s unsettling even to know this is possible.

➝ Via ai-2027.com.

I am going to disconnect from the Fediverse next. I figure that will make me an online anti-social, no? It is the last social media in which I participate mostly as a lurker, with some ocassional posts, and replies. Yet, I have found my very few interactions to be often missunderstood. Again, it could be a me problem, so better take it out.

It has been over a month since Google revamped Snapseed and, though I am fine with the changes—many people aren’t—I am getting a bit tired of seeing updates almost every week, with no changes on the changelog; that is, the changelog has been the same since it was revamped.

You might notice some new things sprouting around here. Not only did we freshen up the app to help make editing a breeze, but we also swat away some pesky bugs for a smoother experience. Oh, and remember to give the new film filters a try for some sweet, vintage looks. As always, these are free of charge.

Yes, we know, now, quit it! Geez!

Coming across a few MacPaint arts from the mid-1980s brought me a lot of memories, even though I saw them in the early 1990s. I remember vividly when I got my very first Mac around that time (Performa 575) at Sears. Over $2,000.

➝ Via Decryption.

Hashing known_hosts is a good idea, as it reduces the amount of information an attacker will collect, if/when (ha!) your machine gets compromised. Usually, a line on the known_hosts file looks like this:

less ~/.ssh/known_hosts
...
tilde.team ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAID1zw6+VOW8L4Rr3swbUVju3GGcknaV/fyhSJwH7NLfu
...

After running ssh-keygen -H it will look like this:

less ~/.ssh/known_hosts
...
|1|c6NiIH06AidrkPUman0oPEx6+6Y=|rPhYjXlkLgYaNR8jwaNMy7mur4I= ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIJsJP1XDyRhEPdtgBeXYm2hf4GKG9aLlqA1+ZPgBadbl
...

That’s it! Oh, and don’t forget to add to your ~/.ssh/config the following, so that future entries are hashed as well:

Host *
	HashKnownHosts yes

The worries of a parent never end. First one worries about been able to provide. Then one worries about them (children) been able to succeed. I see both worries as equally important. It reminds me how I feel when it comes to responsibility.

Started using Zen web browser at work, because Google, in their infinite wisdom, decided to deprecate a ton of widely used extensions from Chrome. So far Zen is doing its thing, and doing it well.

Co-workers were talking about that huge storm the other night. They were saying it felt worse than our last hurricane. I was stumped! There was no storm near my house, and I even went out to water partner’s plants, because “they were thirsty”—her own words. Then partner called me to tell me about the storm. We did had a storm, and it was something out of this world, she said. Constant lightning, and thundering, and lots of rain (late night). And… I slept through it all! 😅

456 didn’t deserve to die. Many others didn’t deserve to die, but 456 especially didn’t. I need a Wellness Center. I need Ms. Casey.

We are watching “Squid Game” season 3, which has been good, so far—I will wait until we’ve watched all episodes to rate. My favourite is 222 (careful, that link has spoilers!). My second favourite is 149.

Update: 07 Nov 2025 @ 22:17:53

I am ready to rate “Squid Game” season 3 (★★★★☆) now. It was entertaining, albeit sometimes too slow. I found season 1, and 2, to be better.

As I paid almost three times more for a tiny grocery shopping this evening, I felt grateful that at least they were harvested, and made by real American, patriotic, heterosexual, white, christian workers, and not illegal immigrants. 🇺🇸

First there was Jekyll, then there was Hugo (which I use), with many others in between. Now it seems Astro is the latest kid in the block. Beautiful stuff can be done with it, if you don’t mind, and/or know, JavaScript. I might be too old for it.

Musk has confirmed that its Grok AI (version 4) is coming to Teslas “next week at the latest”. I don’t want it. I wouldn’t want Musk in my car, neither.

If a company follows what other company is doing, and uses that other company as a template almost to the dot, they are no “leaders”. They can’t flaunt innovation. They are followers, who imitate, and copy.

“Man Afraid to Ride Subway Named Head of NASA”, reads the Rolling Stone headline, when referring to the man (Sean Duffy) which our president has picked to lead NASA as its interim administrator. It concludes, and I kid you not:

“Meanwhile, let’s hope Duffy (who’s afraid to hop on the 6 train) is ready to take on a government agency that has launched humans to the moon and probes to interstellar space.”

Showed a nephew some of what’s possible to do within Diablo IV, and he said, “I don’t think I will ever be able to learn this game”. He has never played a season, and is at paragon 152 while still having rare (yellow) items, and no paragons assigned, and no customisation of any kind. He has, pretty much, been playing blindy all along. 😂

Because I work using Ubuntu, and do personal stuff using macOS, I am always confused and going nuts with keyboard shortcuts. From copying and pasting, to closing windows, to locking the machines. So. Very. Hard! I need to find a solution that will make Ubuntu (Gnome, actually) mimic macOS keyboard shortcuts.

I noted this because, as someone who has to constantly spell his surname, it makes it harder when the listener is expecting a bastardisation of something that has been accepted and adopted as a standard. Anyway, enough of it, I just had to take it off my chest. LOL.

The Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, or NATO phonetic alphabet, was created to clearly communicate the spelling of words. So many people these days are inventing their own! It doesn’t help, at all.

• Alfa
• Bravo
• Charlie
• Delta
• Echo
• Foxtrot
• Golf
• Hotel
• India
• Juliett
• Kilo
• Lima
• Mike
• November
• Oscar
• Papa
• Quebec
• Romeo
• Sierra
• Tango
• Uniform
• Victor
• Whiskey
• Xray
• Yankee
• Zulu

It looks like Grok (Musk’s own LLM and chatbot) is doing “great”. It seems that Musk, just like the Biblical god, is molding it to his own image. That will end up well, I am sure.

“Do you want to see it?” – asks the Horse about “Building The Band”. “I am going to take a bath.” “Turn it off, turn it off, I want us to see it together.” – I reply while gesturing by closing my left hand, uniting all fingers tips, Italian style. “We will see it together” – replies the Horse, “… or not”. We both laugh.

Partner just announced, to my delight, that tonight we will have thinly sliced pork for dinner. It comes with rice, because, duh, rice is godly, and a mixed salad which I plan to dress with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Salivating already.

Re: #1752083523

It believe it means they are not leaning left, nor right or, in other words, neutral. Kind of “factual, impartial, and fair”. Makes sense, right? Anyway, unless told otherwise, “that’s my story, and I sticking to it.”

grep -i passwd *.log | awk {'print $7'}
...
/etc/passwd
/..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5cetc%5cpasswd
/....//....//....//etc/passwd
/..%2f..%2f..%2fetc%2fpasswd
/.htpasswd
/config/.htpasswd
/.env.passwd
/backup/.htpasswd
...

With almost 2,000 different tries—of which the above is a small sample—it seems someone is hell-bent on finding a passwd of some sorts. I don’t have one, OK?!

The above depicts some famous wave, which is big—see the size of the boat in comparison. It is a woodblock print from a now superfamous person. Do you know the name (「富嶽三十六景　神奈川沖浪裏」) of the print without searching for it? How about the name of the artisan who made it?

Does anyone knows what the meaning of this symbol is? I have seem it on websites without explanations, nor links to anywhere. Just the SVG by itself. All my searches have been futile.

My back hurts, it is hot, and it might rain. You would ask, how are those three related? Well, the lawn is a “grown adult”, and it is not going to mow itself!

Update: 02 Oct 2025 @ 13:43:19

This “deed” is done. Lawn mowed, and just in time, as we are under the menace of rain. Let it fall!

In love with the work of Max. Specifically minimator, graxel, breaklock, commitbeat, and vivus. Go browse his repositories, you will not be disappointed!

More often than not I am so torn between serif, and sans-serif. Not even funny.

Is it a sign of age using commas? Is it a sign of age using proper capitalisation, and periods ending a sentence? Each time I interact using a text-based medium with anyone younger—with very rare exceptions—I am reminded of having grown older. 😅

Learning how to fly, just like birds do, it’s quite easy. But don’t take my words for it, read it all by yourself—the illustrated version is awesome! I am talking—if you haven’t followed the previous links—about “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

There is an art, it says, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it. The first part is easy.

All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt. That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.

Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.

Our manager just told us that he will be leaving the team 1 August 2025. We knew he was leaving, just didn’t know when. Now we know, and we wished him well. Onto the search for our fifth and—final?—manager we go!

Apparently using em dashes is proof that a tool (AI, for example), was used to write things instead. As someone who likes to use en dashes, em dashes, and dashes, who uses macOS/iOS, I find that simply amusing. Pff, as if!

To create these notes I use Hugo, and Markdown, so generating them is as easy as using -, --, and ---.

At the risk of being labeled a boomer—something kids already do, anyway—I have to say that the music from the 80s and 90s beats the one from the 2000s, and the 2010s, so far. It reminds me what my mum and dad used to say about the music of their time. Every generation, pretty much the same.

So far a lazy day today. No work (happy 4th!), so woke up at a luxurious 06:30 hours. Had coffee with mum, got coffee for Horsie, played a bit of Diablo IV (manning a Spiritborn this season), went to return some clothes, bought bánh mì, took some to mum, some to aunties, and now back home. All that, and is barely 14:30. Rain’s coming, which will make today even a better day. Couch bound!

It has been almost 14 years since Mark Pilgrim disappeared akin to what has been described as an “infosuicide”. I still miss his writings, and hold the hope that he may, one day, come back. I hope and wish all is well with him, and family.

At the end of every episode of “The Big Bang Theory” (★★★★☆) they used to show a Chuck Lorre Productions “card”. This one was my all-time favourite:

The Prophet
A young woman stepped forward from the throng and asked, “O’ great prophet, tell us how we might find love that is unconditional, unwavering and unending.” The prophet did not answer right away. He looked off into the distance, gathering his thoughts. Silence descended upon the crowd. Then he turned his gaze upon the young woman and said, “Get a dog.”

I wish everyone was like mum, when it comes to be on guard, and suspicious, about everything Internet. I have given her the cookie-cutter talk about Internet security, in simple terms, but I have always told her, “If you have any doubts, you can always call me, and I will come to help you.” And she sure does! At least once every couple of weeks I get such call, or message. Today was one of those days.

As a bonus I get fed as well. I am not sure if ever mentioned it, but mum’s cooking is second only to partner’s. Of course, I tell each the same. They really are both wonderful.