Recently updated blogs

I’m here to provide a look at the financial side of Critical Distance. In 2022 we needed to run an emergency GoFundMe to fix our tax status, and that’s not a place I want us to be again. After fixing our tax status, I spent 2023 getting our financial status in order. Our goals are to be stable, and to get a few extra things added to the site to …

That’s it, I’m no longer posting to this site. New blog posts can now be found over on Substack at Andrew Old’s Education Battleground, or sign up to receive them as a newsletter. Details of signing up for paid content can be found here. Since the last time I posted on this site the following […]

The launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 20221 marks the beginning of the new AI era. We’ve had many AI cycles in the past going all the way back to 1966. However, the last year has been particularly exciting. Today, everyone can have a compelling experience for free with ChatGPT 3.5 or Google Bard, with added amazement if you pay OpenAI to get ChatGPT 4 and DALL-E. I expect this …

This post and VLOG detail the writer's first record recon, including the missions to Vortex Music & Movies and Silver Platters. The writer traverses the Cross Kirkland Corridor from Redmond to Bellevue, sharing thoughts on the area's pedestrian unfriendliness. The trips are documented, and the writer recommends exploring the beautiful Cross Kirkland Corridor.

Main Summary 🤔 The north/south divide in England has historical roots dating back to the Viking invasion, leading to suspicion and stereotypes between the two regions. 🏠 The north/south divide in England can have significant impacts on house prices, education, and life expectancy. 🌍 A proper academic study by Professor Danny Dorling took cultural and economic factors into account to determine the north/south divide in the UK. 🌐 The concept …

Finally (hopefully, we'll see) something seems to be happening about the shameful Horizon scandal. Private Eye have made their special report on it free to download. I haven't watched Mr Bates vs The Post Office yet, but this is a great backgrounder on the whole fiasco.How to Fold a Julia Fractal. A fantastic website with great animated visualisations to help explain the beauty of maths. Gave me some new ways …

Following last year, I created a CSS wishlist for 2024.Before I get into the details, I have to say that creating a wishlist almost feels wrong because there are more features in CSS today than I could have ever wished for. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to CSS being where it is today: spec writers, invited experts, browser developers, everyone involved in Interop …

A couple of years ago I worked on a strategic project that was outside my remit. It was an incredible learning experience for me and here is some of what I learned. The problem I wanted to solve The problem for my team was that our tech estate was in contention. I was leading one of a number of engineering groups within a larger organisation; each group had its own …

Silence may indeed be “golden” except when one is trying to maintain some regularity in writing a blog. My silence this past Fall and into the end of the year was not intentional. I actually got as far as starting a new post in November on a “Blouse for Fall” only to have its completion thwarted by more pressing priorities. Such is life, as all of us know. So now, …

Following last year, I created a CSS wishlist for 2024.Before I get into the details, I have to say that creating a wishlist almost feels wrong because there are more features in CSS today than I could have ever wished for. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to CSS being where it is today: spec writers, invited experts, browser developers, everyone involved in Interop …

Thank you Patreon Supporters! Thank you to my Patreon supporters who help make these studies happen. Patreon funds were used for purchasing two ultimately useless knives, and some steel. Patreon supporter Marcus Ho even sent me some steel all the way from China which also ended up not working out. And I used Patreon funds to pay Shawn Houston (also a Patreon supporter) to do microscopy and grind two CATRA …

A quick introduction to adjusting the panning of overdubs in Loopy Pro clips, including a link to a miRACK configuration and instructions on how to use it in your own Loopy Pro configurationsIt’s common practice in music production that, when you’re layering your vocals with harmonies or doubles, you pan everything but the lead vocal around the stereo field. That gives a sense of physical separation between the voices and …

Happy New Year 2024 to everyone! It is kind of strange for me to decide to get an Atari 2600+ system, and yet here we are in 2024! The reason I say this is because I was never really into Atari back in the day, with the exception of the Atari Lynx and the Atari Portfolio! The Atari Portfolio is the only Atari system I still have today, with the …

After a soldier enlists in the Israeli army, there are two words to describe him (or her, although I'm providing the male forms of the words): טִירוֹן tiron - "new recruit" and טוּרַאי turai - "private" (his initial rank). While the two words apply to a similar time in the military, and look somewhat similar, they are actually not related etymologically.Tiron entered Hebrew in the rabbinic period, borrowed from the …

The barball strategy, popularized by Nassim Taleb, is a way to navigate risk/reward tradeoffs when you’re skeptical about the accuracy the risk estimates. While it originated in financial investing, it can apply to product and business strategy. Imagine a menu of investments ranging from low-risk & low-reward to high-risk & high reward. The barbell strategy picks mostly conservative low risk investments to cap losses, and a few high risk bets …