< Notes...

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!

“Be sure to bring up politics at Thanksgiving dinner. It’s going to save you money on Christmas gifts.”

Often the Fediverse brings small wisdom nuggets with a touch of humour. This one sure is funny. I don’t know if I have the heart to follow through on it, as I wouldn’t want the death of an elder in my conscience.

“So secure was the annual contest to fill three director and four officer positions that when one trustee lost his cryptographic key to unlock the results, the error made it impossible.”

The International Association of Cryptologic Research election was so secure , that its results couldn’t be known. Now, that’s one way to do it, ain’t it?

The futureme service, or project, is very ambitious. It allows you to send an email to yourself—or someone—into the future. Funny thing is, it can be as early as today, which is alright, and as far into the future as 31 December 2075. That’s where the previously attributed noun comes into play.

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.

“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.

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. 😂

When writing about the US Mint ending the production of new pennies, Jason Kottke wrote this witty remark with which I agree:

“One of the very few things that incompetent stopped clock in the White House has gotten accidentally right.”

➝ Via Kottke.

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: 11 Nov 2025 @ 12:22:15

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.).”

Thanks to Lyse for reminding me this gem exists and, as I am borrowing the movie indefinitely, I shall watch it this weekend!

These are two little nuggets I have under this domain, which I had forgotten about but found earlier today while cleaning old staled DNS records. Both safe to execute, I promise. The first:

dig +short txt badhorse.netbros.com | sed 's/[\" ]//g' | base64 -d

And the second, similarly:

dig +short txt poem.netbros.com | sed 's/[\" ]//g' | base64 -d

Grokipedia. Created by Elon to “purge out propaganda flooding Wikipedia”. LOL. I mean, Wikipedia deserves competitors. Competition is good, but that one Grok-based one ain’t it.

Mum tells me, while I wait for ông to get ready, “Take him with you, otherwise his mind will keep going bad. You know, if you leave a book on a table, untouched for a long time, it will be covered with dust. Same will happen to his mind.”

Ông tells me, while we walk, “Mum is loosing her mind. She didn’t remember Trang’s mother was in the hospital recently.” I ROFLMAO in my mind, but softly smile and nod.

I remember reading that Jesus said: “Fear everyone, expel the stranger, blame the poor, feed the rich, ignore the sick, sacrifice the young, love only thyself, trust only Caesar, throw lots of stones.” Right? 🙄

You’ve got to keep your subscription up! 😂 This cartoon from The New Yorker (one of the few sites still using “www”, I just noticed) made me laugh out loud. In a way, it reminded me of this one.

As seeing in a picture a family member sent, after we were chatting—in the family group—about how the Grim Reaper was so busy lately. “Well, not busier than Quynh, but almost!”, to which she replied with the image of a coffe mug with the following written in it:

Re-tired
(adj.)
I was tired yesterday, and I’m tired again today.

I should have noted that the “well, not busier than Quynh…” was messaged because she has been very inactive in the group lately. 😂

Pretty hilarious short story of a conversation of two intelligent beings about, well, meat!

“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?”

This part hit home for me, funny or not. Yes, it is supposed to be funny, yet it is also sad. After closing their case on the Solar System, they decided to visit a “rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence” nearby who, apparently, “wants to be friendly again”. “They always come around”, says one of them. To which the other replies:

“And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone…”

US, that’s us.

We recently replaced our very old, dilapidated, non-stick “teflon” frying pan with a ceramic one, and oh boy, let me tell you: it sure is getting the “royal” treatment! Conscientious cleaning after each use, with soft sponge, and immediate drying. It has its own spot, no other pan on top. I mean, I wish I was a new frying pan, for sure!

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!” 😅

We long thought T-Rexes were extinct. Imagine our surprise, and utter panic, when we found this one laying on the parking lot next to our car. Lucky for us they were a friendly one, so after exchanging pleasantries we left them on the grass—which is much closer to their natural habitat.

SUBJECT: A very bad news for you
---
I want to inform you about a very bad situation for you. However, you can benefit from it, if you will act wisely. Have you heard of Pegasus? This is a spyware program that installs on computers and smartphones and allows hackers to monitor the activity of device owners. It provides access to your webcam, messengers, emails, call records, etc. It works well on Android, iOS, and Windows. I guess, you already figured out where I’m getting at.

These people watching all my moves, specifically when I engage in activities related to “highly controversial porn videos”, recording all my actions with their “spyware program”, learning “about all aspects of [my] private life”, and concluding that I have a “sick perversion” are getting it all wrong. Instead of demanding BTC from me they should, instead, be paying me for all the entertainment I sure am bringing them.

I slightly changed the 404 page around here. It used to be Bernie, but he messaged and told me he was tired of it, and was quitting. So, I hired some birds. Just type some rubbish at the address bar after https://netbros.com/ and you will see.

I swear, each time I see written Polish or Czech, specially when all in lower case, I think of a Caesar cipher.

A satire filled article on how the author will do “anything to end homelessness except build more homes”. I mean, will it ever end?! The repercussions would be disastrous! 😂

“Look, if you give people homes, the next thing you know, they’re going to start to get their lives together and then get jobs and start organizing. Then they’ll expand Medicare to everyone and build a fucking light rail line instead of a goddamn border wall, and no one will drive anymore, and cars will die out, and the air will get clean, and can you imagine the problems we’ll have then?”

➝ Via Hacker News.

“Oh, a horse with a horn is called a unicorn/A horse with stripes is called a zebra/A horse with wings is called Pegasus/And a horse with a broken leg is called glue.”

Poor broken leg horse. I shall not show this to Horsie, because it will make her sad, and even cry. She will know is a joke, but who jokes like that with “family”?

I don’t use profanities, but allow me, please, this time. “I don’t give a fuck”, “I don’t have fucks left to give”, etc., is used to utterly mean, I don’t care, right? I have found, though, another meaning for it.

“I don’t have fucks left to give” says that I am, absolutely, not going to let any stressful situation bring me worry, or take away my peace of mind. I am, still, giving a fuck about it, and will act to the best of my knowledge—and expediently—to resolve it, and bring it to closure.

Bottomline, because “I give a fuck”, “I have zero fucks left to give”. Do I make sense? 😅

Le président Macron devrait le savoir depuis le temps, qu’il ne faut pas chercher Brigitte Macron. Tout le monde le sait, pourquoi pas lui? 😂

George’s blog Terms of Service always makes me smile. The latest revision has a subtle, but ever-present, touch of AI to it.

Mum’s Day today. Kim gets to do whatever she wants today. Pretty much as she does each day. Yay! LOL.

“What a horse wants, what a horse needs, is always having a patch of grass that’s ever green…” — Read/sing it with the music of “What a Girl Wants”, by Christina Aguilera. I sang it this morning to my partner. She is a Horse 😂.

I cut half of the onion, and I was fine. It wasn’t until I cut the second half that the onion decided it had enough, and it make me cry.

Kim today; “The Holy Land is being demolished”. Me “Oh nooo! Anyway, how was your day?” :-D