Recently updated blogs

It feels like there is a lot of doom and gloom in the world today, from global warming to crime to economic and integrational inequality to political polarization, etc. It’s very easy to get wrapped up in this negative view of the world and I’m far from immune to it. I’m now in my early 40s and have 3 young kids and I regularly worry about the type of world …

State and local ballot measures this November could add a total $50 billion to transit funding, and they have a high rate of success (Smart Cities Dive). That’s important because most federal funding remains several tilted toward driving (Transportation for America). Humans have to take driver’s tests. Why not autonomous vehicles, too? (Associated Press) On the other hand, why do so many human jobs require a driver’s license when driving …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 […]

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 …

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 …

This month we have two new books joining Genre: A 33 1/3 Series: Soul-Folk and Shoegaze. Keep reading to find out more about each book. Liking the Genre series? Let us know what genres you’d like to see us add to the series in the comments. This book traces the growing imprints of soul-folk and how it made its way from folk tradition to subgenre. Along the way, it explores …

An epic adventure anthology which takes some big chances. Extremely impressive. Easily adaptable for a variety of games (D&D, Legend of the 5 Rings, Usagi Yojimbo). Review Originally Published December 25th, 2000 I was immediately drawn to Shiki for one simple reason: It dares to be epic. Many generic adventures share a simple problem: They confuse “accessible” with “boring”. They don’t do so in so many words, of course (no …

[As with Shining the Holy Ark I will try to use official English names wherever possible, however as I’m playing in Japanese there might be some slight differences/slip-ups/personal preferences along the way. You can read through the official English script here. One last thing: Here, “Shining Force III” refers to the trilogy as a whole. I’ll always use “Scenario 1” when talking specifically about this game.] CONTENTS ~Chapter 3: Target: …

What caught my eye this week. I belatedly enjoyed Dumb Money on Netflix this week. Finumus put me onto it as a chaser to the story in my Active Antics links below about the Canadian who made and lost $300m trading Tesla options. Dumb Money is hilarious (whereas that second story is almost tragic) but it’s also a solid piece of filmmaking. The movie deftly captures the time and (all …