Recently updated blogs

Lee Peterson: The first one is via a VPN. If you already have one or if not you can sign up easily with someone like Nord (the one I use, don’t use a free service!) and simply set your country to Albania. In Albania, Google can’t run ads so you don’t get them. It’s how I use YouTube on the Apple TV. This is a great tip that I had …

I often like to look up the situation of restaurants I'm heading out to on Google Streetview, just so I know what to expect when I get off the bus and lessen (though not completely mitigate) the chance I might head off in completely the wrong direction. I wouldn't recommend doing this for Xi Home just yet though - Blossom Street until recently was a dark, dodgy alleyway round the …

Here's what we looked at this week:Project I-XRAY uses Meta's Ray-Ban 2 smart glasses to instantly access people's personal information. Unusual auto mods: Infinity taillights, and headlights with animated eyeballs.The Pi Foldable Lap Desk, for working/eating in cars.Cabin Anna, that house that slides open, goes into production. Do you have half a mil lying around?Google Japan's keyboard with a Möbius strip form factor.The Spider X1S, a large-format laser cutter with …

One of the tricky parts about covering biopharma research (and one of the tricky parts about trying to fund it or manage it!) is that it works on several time scales at once. I'll illustrate that with several recent news items. There are sudden events like the success or failure of a clinical trial, and there was a good example of that earlier this week. A small company called Scholar …

Jason Koebler reports on a program that automates applying to jobs on LinkedIn, using a few prompts and the now-obligatory LLM. As with most so-called AI, it’s capabilities seem to be more oriented toward volume than quality: the applications it spits out are either generic or inaccurate or both. This is a predictable, dystopian, and also in many ways very funny turn of events. (Look, the days are dark and …

To expand translations of Philippine literature, the National Book Development Board offers translation grants to publishers. Sponsored. The post Frankfurt 2025 Guest of Honor Philippines Offers Translation Grants appeared first on Publishing Perspectives.

NASA NASA Earth Observatory mapped the Gulf of Mexico’s above-average sea surface temperatures (6-7 October) and brightness temperature—“which is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures (white and purple) from the warmer surface below (yellow and orange)”—as Milton crossed Florida. CNN maps the impact of Hurricane Milton across Florida. Riley Walz’s Waffle House Index map: “FEMA officials informally track disaster impact by checking if Waffle House stays open. This site uses …

Minions, today I'm here to talk to you about strategic thinking. But that's boring, so lets call it STRATEGERY instead.You see, thinking ahead and forming a plan are at the very heart of the rough-and-tumble world of cake decorating.Observe: [squinting dramatically] STRATEGERY.How do you make your message stand out? [whispering] Strategery How do you recover from mistakes? STRAR… Satr... Strategery?How do you make sure you ice EVERY SINGLE cupcake? You …

After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve decided to officially fully retire this blog. The ribbonfarm.com domain and all links will remain active, but there will be no new content after November 13th, 2024, which happens to be my 50th birthday. There will be one final roundup post before […]

[“For sale: baby shoes, never worn” is an amazing six-word story, but it’s probably best to not text it to your pregnancy class group.] Recently, a man was apparently dumped by his girlfriend via text message, and found the exchange summarized by AI: On Wednesday, NYC-based software developer Nick Spreen received a surprising alert on his iPhone 15 Pro, delivered through an early test version of Apple’s upcoming Apple Intelligence …

Josh Marshall tweeted a recommendation for Johnson's monologue about the debate and it does justify the build-up. Pound for pound, though, I might be more impressed with the one he did for This American Life about a would-be right wing media racist troll who failed for the most unexpected of reasons. I find Johnson more thoughtful-funny than laugh out loud, but he's very good. He has that knack of either …

Seuls les fous en tentent l’ascension Je vous ai déjà parlé de Bruno Leyval, l’artiste qui a réalisé la couverture et l’illustration de Bikepunk ? Mais si, souvenez-vous. J’avais même mis en texte une des ces photos. Les territoires perdus (ploum.net) J’adore travailler avec Bruno. C’est un grand professionnel qui incarne néanmoins l’archétype de l’artiste fou. Pour le découvrir, je vous conseille cette formidable interview. Bruno Leyval : Interview d'un …

III. Personalized, as opposed to Public Health, Nutrition Stephanie Rogus, a former doctoral studentt in my NYU department, and Peter Lurie, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, have a new paper out: Personalized nutrition: aligning science, regulation, and marketing. Health Affairs Scholar, Volume 2, Issue 9, September 2024, qxae107, https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxae107 Proponents of personalized nutrition assert that population-based approaches to dietary recommendations have had limited impact because …

This is the Lymow One: a tracked robotic mower that can overcome uneven terrain and slopes up to 100%. This robot can mow up to 1.75 acres on a daily basis. It uses brushless motors to rotate 2 mulching blades at speeds up to 6000 RPM. It has a cutting width of 16 inches with adjustable cutting height of 1.2 to 4 inches. It has a 1200W output power. This …

There we were, Lucie and I wandering along at the start of our morning walk, when out of an orchard wandered two Roe Deer followed a minute or so later by a third. A totally chance meeting that was obviously completely unexpected to both parties. Normally in this situation the deer will take a look and then run for it but on this occasion we just stood staring at each …