Recently updated blogs

Robb Knight in My Computing Origin Story and Kev Quirk in My computing History have both written posts about their computing history as part of WeblogPoMo2024. I thought I’d write about mine. I didn’t have my own computer until I had used computers for several years. My older brother got a job working for Instant Software when I was in high school. He often brought Apple IIs, Exidy Sorcerors, TRS-80s …

Sorry for a prolonged absence on my part,but, these guys are just Krazy.It sounds like the music a mom's basement dwelling guy with ADHD would send to the recording arm of Sony,fully expecting a lucrative contract in response. A sort of a less processable version of mid-period Associates,but with a mentally ill version of that bloke from Spandau Ballet crooning away instead of Billy Mackenzie; albeit with better song titles.Whether …

Stages of plumbing demo and rough-in…

Don’t get me started on the fact that if you do login, you’re taken to the store homepage instead of the specific page you were trying to visit in the first place …

By and large, math journals treat the authors like a pesky annoyance, sort of the way a local electric company treats its customers. As in — yes, serving you is our business, but if you don’t like our customer service where else are you going to go? Not all editors operate that way, absolutely not all referees, but so many it’s an accepted norm. We all know that and all …

The firebox

I hope you’re ready for more smart home content. I’ve been wanting to get a “smart” thermostat for some time now. I put a lot of time into research, since all of the contenders suck in their own ways. Here were my requirements: Allows for physical control Has a humidistat and supports controlling a humidifier Relatively cheap (<$100 USD) WiFi-enabled (I don’t want to bother setting up Zigbee or Z-Wave) …

One of the biggest decision players make during a Fallout playthrough is how to side with (or against) various factions present in the games. These factions often give the player a moral dilemma when deciding if they should side with them or not, weighing the player character's values in areas like freedom, knowledge, humanity, order, chaos, peace, and others. This post is a simple breakdown of factions present in each …

Hey, did you know I make really good BBQ chicken wings? I use a recipe I invented myself, and every time I make it I’m terrified I’ll forget how to do it; I’ve never written it down. Today, that changes! I’m writing this mostly because I want to print it out and add it to my cookbook, but since I don’t have anything else to post about right now, you …

I attached the roof panels to the mollicroft frame, undercoated it all (figure 1) and then hoisted the whole thing atop the body and fixed it to the two end-wall rafters (figure 2). Fig. 1. The mollicroft ready for installation… Fig. 2. … and screwed to the end rafters. I made up the short side rafters (figure 3), which are attached to the top wall plate at their outer ends …

It looks like that Orson Cart has been playing with his caravan again. Jack Plane

Welcome back to the (very) occasional newsletter Working On It. It has been 277 days since the last issue. Antisemitism, U.S.A. A couple of years ago, my colleague John Turner and I bounced around ideas for a podcast on the history of antisemitism in the United States. We were sure it was necessary topic that public audiences would benefit from learning about. Regrettably, it has become painfully obvious that we …

At the start of 2024, I gave a talk titled "Secrets of the Laravel Team" in which I talk about how Laravel works as a company, how we manage projects and continue to ship the high quality you come to expect of us. I‘ve given this talk at: Laracon EU (where the video was recorded) Laracon India

I’ve been reading scripts for schemes, competitions and all sorts on and off for over a decade, and from when I first dipped my toe into script reading, I learned about how highly regarded the BBC Writers Open Call was. It’s one of the biggest opportunities for scriptwriters in the country, with no threshold on how experienced you had to be, no entry fees and few parameters on the story …

Last year I was asked to contribute to the Serpentine Galleries’ Infinite Ecologies Marathon, a prelude to their Inifinite Ecologies programme, with something that expressed what I thought was missing from most discussion and practice of what we might call ecological art. Over the last few years, I’ve been concerned with what might broadly be called a new crisis of representation when it comes to ecological work. This awareness stems …