Recently updated blogs

hyperfine is a neat tool for benchmarking commands. If you provide it multiple commands, its output includes a comparison, saying which is the fastest, and by how much. I often find I want to benchmark before and after some change, by running the same test command on my main Git branch and a feature branch. Here is my hyperfine recipe to do that, using the --prepare option to switch branches …

One of the things I like the most about The Brutalist, I think, is that it is a movie that retains some of it’s secrets. Certainly, a lot of it drawn out right in front of you. This is an epic and I swear, almost a response to The Godfather. Mario Puzo had one of his characters say, right up front, “I believe in America.” Here Writer/Director Brady Corbet, joined …

I stumbled on the article, Lullaby Language by Jerry Weinberg. Here is an extract of the keywords that confuse teams involved in projects working together and the better ways of dealing with the situation. Should The meaning of “should” would be “probably won’t.” For instance, the sentence, “The Catalog Department should deliver component pricing data by 1 February to the IT Department.” Team-A interprets this as “The Catalog Department [must] …

June 2024 This was my longest distance to drive to get to the start of a walk on this trip, as I was staying in Stranraer, so it was a long drive to Auchencairn taking nearly an hour and a half. I had hoped to relocate to Dumfries for the later walks on this trip, but the hotels there were too expensive, so I made an early start and set …

We recently got back from a family trip to Mexico, a country I’d almost never been to (a couple of childhood day trips to Nogales, a walk across the border into Juárez in 1999, a day and a half in Cabo San Lucas giving a lecture.) I’m a fan! Some surprises: Drinking pulque under a highway bridge with our family (part of the food tour!) I heard this incredible banger …

Gidon KremerSongs of Fate Gidon Kremer violinVida Miknevičiūtė sopranoMagdalena Ceple violoncelloAndrei Pushkarev vibraphoneKremerata BalticaWeinberg/KuprevičiusRecorded July 2019Plokštelių studija, VilniusEngineers: Vilius Keras and Aleksandra KerienėŠerkšnytė/JančevskisConcert recording July 2022Pfarrkirche, LockenhausEngineer: Peter LaengerCover photo: Thomas WunschAlbum produced by Manfred EicherRelease date: January 19, 2024 The word fate comes from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to speak, tell, say.” In its Latinate forms, it took on the nuance of that which was spoken by the divine. …

Where have all the flowers gone?, a 1978 BBC film that ‘traces the hippies of ten years ago to find out how they are living today. Yippie leader Jerry Rubin, ‘Social Deviant’ Mick Farren, Oz editor Felix Dennis, Dr Timothy … Continue reading →

When it comes to korean skincare brand SKIN1004, I must say I’ve had good experience with their products so far although I haven’t tried many. I’ve found a few favorites from them and I plan to keep on trying more in the future. For today’s review, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on their Centella Soothing […]

After over twenty years in the software industry, I feel like users and developers are far too tolerant of poor quality products.

In the network of narrow streets off Kingsway, you will find the campus of London School of Economics (LSE). The collection of buildings are used by 11,000 students each year. However, within the publicly-accessible streets there’s a plenty of architecture, names and details that reveal a hidden history of the area. Early HIstory of LSE Founded in 1895, the aim of the school was “the study and investigation of the …

In a new book, The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry, Stacey D’Erasmo asks half a dozen artists, “How do we keep doing this—making art?” I read it avidly, devouring D’Erasmo’s profiles of a painter, a composer, a garden designer, and others, especially enjoying the “fugitive, occasional memoir” (her words) that her disclosures about herself add up to. I did have a hiccup, however: I had to set the book down …

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A blogging update: I’ve just started posting regularly on Substack, and you can find and follow me there. My Substack posts/emails will duplicate my material here, so there’s no need to commit to following both platforms! However, I’m realizing that more and more fellow fragrance-lovers do seem to be migrating to other spots and I want to stay in touch with them and keep my scribblings up to date. I’m …

My side project Abot for Slack, has been around for ~7 years, i.e., since Rails 5.1. It’s now yielding passive income while running on an almost complete autopilot. But I’m still keeping its dependencies up-to-date. The recent migration to Rails 8 was arguably the most impactful in the app’s lifetime. In this blog post, I’ll describe features introduced in the newest version of the framework and how they affected my …

In the wake of the recent wildfires in southern California, Watch Duty—a simple, free app that provides real-time fire maps and alerts, and which prizes, and is prized for, accurate data, collated by its volunteer… More