Recently updated blogs

Had intended to head over the Derwent for my next trotanostering session, but a stiff north-easterly wind knocked that idea on the head. Switched my attention back to the Soar instead where I knew I could tuck myself away around the back of the island. However, looking out of the window I was in two minds and nearly didn't go but when I checked the weather forecast and saw the …

For close to two decades now, the venerable YSI Castaway has been the gold standard for small, relatively cheap, handheld CTDs. In the early days of OpenROV, the robot’s little payload bay was sized explicitly to fit a Castaway. When Kersey and I started building the OpenCTD, our benchmark for viability was how well the ... Read More "Comparing the OpenCTD to a YSI Castaway" »

Here's my weekly update with a few interesting random findings that I came across the last week or two. I am going to try to make sure they're here in time for you to enjoy with your morning coffee (or beverage of choice) every Saturday or Sunday, and include some of my thoughts around them.Side note: This is a sample AI generated 'podcast' discussing this post, from a new tool …

I like this silver maple bowl that I just finished, and I liked making it even more. Part of the reason is that it gave me an opportunity to use a curved (cooper’s hollowing) drawknife that I had picked it … Continue reading →

Artist: Coffin Rot Album: Dreams of the Disturbed Year: 2024 Genre: Death Metal Web: https://youtu.be/lI5ZbGiEQao / https://coffinrot-maggotstomp.bandcamp.com Country: United States Quality: 320 Kbps Tracklist: 1. Slaughtered Like Swine 2. Perverted Exhumation 3. Lurking in the Cemetery 4. Unmarked, Shallow Grave 5. Living Cremation 6. Hands of Death 7. Predator Becomes Prey 8. The Howling Man Witness: -[*]- Fucking killer new album from Portland's Coffin Rot! Thanks to CarlG for spreading …

It's that time of the month again.... stumping time! Here we have a clever scene (at least, we think so) featuring a man in a convertible. No hints, just a picture. Remember this movie? As always, if you are not familiar with the rules to the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie game or the prize, click here!

So this here is a Destroid Tomahawk. Destroids are land-based mecha used by UN forces to fight alien invaders in the anime Macross, which was release in the United States as part of Robotech.This is the edition of BattleTech that I played back in the eighties. That is not a Destroid Tomahawk. It is a Warhammer BattleMech. As I understand it, the company that licensed Macross to make Robotech then …

A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds. Please vote for people who care about women. This should not be …

The Ordinal Society by Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy (Harvard University Press, 2024) Vasts amounts of data accrue and follow each of us around, some of it visible and gameable, much of it obfuscated and impossible to interrogate. All of it eventually becomes ranked, stacked, and ordered into systems that not only surveil our every move but have worked their way into every crack and crevice of our social relationships. …

Despite living in Taiwan for more than one-and-a-half years, until yesterday I was yet to catch a bus. The schedules are numerous and confusing, and I have better transport options:The light rail’s within a 10-minute walk of my apartmentI’m less than 15 minutes from the MRTThere’s a YouBike (bike rental) station 100 meters from my buildingI have a scooterUber is cheapA night market, two shopping malls, three cinemas, three supermarkets, …

Adedapo Adeniyi is a promising 20 yo abstract SF author from Ilorin, Nigeria. Disclaimer: you should read The Dilemma of the He and His House, House? then Mosquito Farm before reading the interview. Which Nigerian city do you live in? Can you describe it for us? I live in Ilorin, it's in Kwara State. I think Ilorin is great, I've lived here all my life, it's claustrophobic and surreal, simultaneously …

This week, I was disturbed to see that Stef O’Driscoll’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been cancelled by Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. Nice eh? The reasons given were that the show included the phrases “trans rights” and “Free Palestine” in a rap performed by one of her actors. She says that her production, set in the rave scene of Manchester, “expressed solidarity with trans people and the …

Every problem at every company I’ve ever worked at eventually boils down to “please dear god can we just hire people who know how to write HTML and CSS.” This UX is awful? That UI looks old? Accessibility busted? Performance bad? Design team can’t ship stuff? Customers annoyed by tons of bugs? Everything takes too long to build? No time for small usability improvements? Hire. HTML. And. CSS. People.

After writing last month’s post about Tamara Andreeva, I’ve discovered a few new details about her life both in China and in the US, which I’ll share soon. But today I’d like to post a poem by Taisia Bazhenova (1900-1978), who, like Andreeva and Mary Custis Vezey, came to California after getting a literary start in Harbin in the 1920s. Like Andreeva, Bazhenova largely abandoned poetry a few years after …

Antique Folk Art Whirligig. A simple abstracted bird original paddles. Circa 1940 or so. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb