Bonjour bonsoir, geeks. Music, with more GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! and new Islands.
Death Breath by GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! (bandcamp.com)
And That's Why Dolphins Lost Their Legs by Islands (bandcamp.com)
Man announces he will quit drinking by 2050. Via Nelson.
[fr] Linguisticae - Quoicoubeh : retour sur une panique générationnelle.
Hey geeks, and music with Hashimoto.
Me with a fake moustache by Hashimoto (bandcamp.com)
Here's what world-class Scrabble looks like.
Tech over Tea #174: Fedora Linux with the project leader, Matthew Miller. Didn’t know Matthew; lots of balanced takes on many Linux topics.
Gary Bernhardt: The Unix chainsaw.
Julia Evans: Some tactics for writing in public.
Casey Muratori: Efficient DDA circle outlines. Cool, and learned about Digital differential analysis.
Yahtzee Croshaw: Random documents and audio logs.
The infamous EVE Online bank heist.
Karawynn Long: The coming enshittification of US public libraries, via Nelson, who sums it up: “Maker of beloved library apps Overdrive / Libby was bought by private equity firm KKR in 2020, now turning the screws of rent-seeking”. Context: see Cory Doctorow’s “enshittification” playbook & examples.
Holaaa, and music with Léonie Pernet.
Le club de consolation by Léonie Pernet (bandcamp.com)
Berkeley Earth: June 2023 earth temperature update.
Lex Fridman speaks to Palestinians in the West Bank.
Oh the urbanity: Elevated trains are good, actually, on the fiasco of Montréal’s abandoned “REM de l’Est”.
Not Just Bikes: Designing urban places that don't suck.
Ars Technica: Google’s nightmare “Web Integrity API” wants a DRM gatekeeper for the web.
Bonjour bonsoir, frendz, and music with Emin Gök.
Silentio by Emin Gök (bandcamp.com)
Derek Sivers: The past is not true.
Time lapse of ants invading a flatbed document scanner.
[fr] Jamy / Épicurieux - Utilité écosystémique des insectes et moustiques.
[fr] Philoxime : L’éthique de la voiture électrique.
David Cain: Is it time for Plan A?
Tom Humberstone: I’m a Luddite (and so can you!)
Why I hate frameworks, or “Modern software development summarized”, or “Factory Factory Factory”. HN.
no-more-secrets, “a command-line tool that recreates the famous data decryption effect seen in the 1992 movie Sneakers”. HN.
Hey geeks, and music with PJ Harvey:
I inside the old year dying by PJ Harvey (bandcamp.com)
Nautilus: A third of North America’s birds have vanished.
“Brossez vous les dents sous la douche”.
Real Engineering: The questionable engineering of Oceangate.
Anil Dash: “VC qanon” and the radicalization of the tech tycoons.
Legal Lullabies, a 50 minutes-long reading out loud of the Instagram Terms of Use. Via waxy. If this makes you giggle, see also Robert Sikoryak’s “Terms and Conditions”.
The Linux Experiment: Prospectives about the crumbling ad-based internet.
There I ruined it, AI-generated mashups of classic singers singing modern songs. Via Nelson.
Hola frendz, and mmmmmmusic with Fridge { Happiness + The sun }, and Ouai Stéphane.
Happiness – Anniversary Edition by Fridge (bandcamp.com)
The Sun by Fridge (bandcamp.com)
Ouai Ouai EP by Ouai Stéphane (bandcamp.com)
Derek Sivers: dashing dog, searching for purpose.
SMBC: Man-Spider, How science metrics work, Shining, Solar.
TikTok / Alex Falcone: I have nothing to hide.
Drew DeVault: Seriously, don’t sign a CLA.
Tech over tea: The future of packaging on Fedora Linux.
Dylan Beattie: The Web that never was and Plain text, thx Heinz.
Sebastian Ruiz / Cold Take: Business-heads are ruining video games
Quake Speedruns Explained: Quake’s most “boring” record; the history of e2m6.
👋, passerby, and music with more The Bad Plus.
Never Stop II by The Bad Plus (bandcamp.com)
[fr] Science Étonnante : La formule qui a transformé la finance mondiale : Black-Scholes.
Not just bikes - The dumbest excuse for bad cities: size and Oh the urbanity: The human-scale urbanism of Dutch suburbia.
Tang ping, a.k.a. “lying flatism”.
Please remind me how we are moving forward. In this video, a machine from year ~2000 (600MHz, 128MB RAM, spinning-rust hard disk) running Windows NT. Note how snappy opening apps is. HN.
Imaginary problems are the root of Bad Software. HN.
Masnick’s Impossibility Theorem: Content moderation at scale is impossible to do well (2019).
sirrandalot: Make your Blender renders unnecessarily complicated, via Nelson.
Quake done Quickest Lite: Full run in 10:09, Cinematic movie, Commentary with runners by “Quake speedruns explained”.
Hey geeks, and music with Modulogeek.
Fragile Humans by Modulogeek (bandcamp.com)
[fr/qc] IRIS : Le Grand Prix du déni écologique.
Asianometry: Soviets attempt to abolish money.
Drew DeVault: How to go to war with your employer.
Graydon Hare: Curse of the CEMBI / Let maintainers be maintainers, fuck yes.
Scott Alexander: Your incentives are not the same as media companies’.
Ross Scott: Discussion on AI, consciousness, and future of society with Jacy Reese Anthis.
How speedrunners uncovered Quake's strangest bug, and Matt - Shooting through walls: Unraveling the code behind Quake's Lightning Gun bug (HN).
Hi nerdz, and music with Calexico.
Feast of Wire [20th Anniversary] by Calexico (bandcamp.com)
Why does Jack Nicholson repeatedly break the fourth wall in The Shining?
Brodie Robertson: The truth behind Ballmer’s “Linux is a cancer” quote. Or if you prefer reading, a Reddit or Quora on the topic.
Ted Chiang: What’s expected of us, and a recent interview by FT about AI.
Frost / Cold Take: The current state of online multiplayer games is embarrassing.
Bonjour bonsoir, and music with new Horse jumper of love.
Heartbreak Rules by Horse Jumper of Love (bandcamp.com)
Arnaud Delannoy: Careless Whisper’s lick on 100 instruments (but without saxophone), via waxy.
xkcd #2782: Wikipedia article titles specificity.
Tom7 - GradIEEEnt half decent: The hidden power of imprecise lines 👏.
Graydon Hoare on the Rustconf fiasco: Batten down fix later, via r/rust.
I guess my main suggestion is a don’t-listen-to-me suggestion: “hire and listen to professionals with training in the subject”, where “the subject” covers everything “a bunch of compiler nerds” are typically bad at. Project management to political science to finance to communications to mediation to personnel.
The Project is now a decently large (and very diffuse) organization, and humans have studied how to run those for a long time, have categories of professionals who are expert in each topic. Listen to them. Don’t try to work each out from first principles, and don't pretend that because you're a bunch of compiler nerds on the internet you get to dodge all the mechanisms of a normal organization.
Hi frendz, and music with remixed Bell Orchestre.
Who Designs Nature's How by Bell Orchestre (bandcamp.com)
[fr] Science étonnante : Le verre.
[fr] Est-ce que les Suisses sont forts à la guerre ? (merci Berthe)
Simon Willison: Lawyer cites fake cases invented by ChatGPT, judge is not amused. Or see video by Leonard French.
The greatest classic Tetris game of all time just happened, via Kottke.
Hola, and music with The Bad Plus (thx Uri).
the bad plus by The Bad Plus (bandcamp.com)
Sepak Takraw, a.k.a. foot-volleyball, via Nelson.
How Tokyo became an low-car paradise.
SMBC: Gifted, Fix social media.
Yahtzee Croshaw / Extra Punctuation: The pursuit of realistic graphics is killing AAA games.
Hi geeks, and music with new Colin Stetson.
When we were that what wept for the sea by Colin Stetson (bandcamp.com)
Oh the Urbanity - Montreal’s urbanist transformation: 9 steps towards a better city.
Bobby Fingers, via waxy.
Louie Zong: SING A NOTE, via waxy.
Amy Goodchild: Early computer art in the 50’s & 60’s, via waxy.
Bonjour bonsoir, geeks, and music with new Grand Blanc.
HALO by Grand Blanc (bandcamp.com)
[fr] Linguisticae : Des migrants privilégiés.
Luis: BEST CROISSANT IN PARIS.
Casey Muratori: Performance excuses debunked. 👏👏👏.
madhadron: The seven programming ur-languages.
Ted Chiang: Will AI become the new McKinsey? via Kottke.
An AI artist explains his workflow, via Kottke.
Bonjour bonsoir geeks, and music with new Martyn Heyne.
Eight reflections in darkness by Martyn Heyne (bandcamp.com)
Solving a maze with water, and How do electrons find the “path of least resistance”?
aaron hughes: Five Cents, via Kottke.
Charles Brooks: Architecture in music, via Kottke.
Drew DeVault: Who should lead us? Fuck yeah, and an excellent conclusion rightly bashing on “Craft X/Y/Z should remain apolitical” stupidity (where “Craft X/Y/Z” is software, music, movies, writing, video games, whatever):
Forget the politics and focus on the software? It’s simply not possible. Free software is politics. Treating other people with respect, maturity, and professionalism, and valuing their contributions at any level, including leadership, regardless of their appearance or identity – that’s just part of being a good person. That is apolitical.
Technological antisolutions, via jwz.
Drew DeVault: The Free Software Foundation is dying.
Quake Speedruns Explained: This “Quake Done Quick” project is a work of art.
[fr] Monsieur Phi : GPT-4 est-il incontrôlable ?
[fr] Nitot : ChatGPT et l’IA générative sont-ils compatibles avec le virage climatique ?
Leonard French: You don’t own your AI-generated content.
NYT: The real-world costs of the digital race for Bitcoin.
Mike Masnick @ TechDirt: Substack CEO Chris Best doesn’t realize he’s just become the nazi bar. From the same author, see also (2022) Hey Elon: Let me help you speed run the content moderation learning curve, and Yishan on moderation at Reddit.
BEHIND YOU, A THREE-HEADED MONKEY! And music, with Blithe Field.
Grits Kissed by Blithe Field (bandcamp.com)
[fr] Fanny Ruwet / Les gens qui doutent : Entrevue Guillaume Meurice.
SMBC: Suffering, Human arts, Words.
CoRecursive: Doug Crockford talks about JavaScript.
Andy Baio / The Verge: Chasing rainbows.
Yahtzee Croshaw / Extra Punctuation: For everyone that says I hate video games.
Rodney Brooks: What will transformers transform?
Simon Willison: Language models like ChatGPT as a “calculator for words”.
Timothy B Lee: Copyright lawsuits pose a serious threat to generative AI.
The Economist: Big tech and the pursuit of AI dominance.
jwz: Clearview AI scraped 30 billion images from Facebook and gave them to cops.
Feedly launches strikebreaking as a service.
WaPo: ChatGPT invents a sexual harassment scandal and named a real law prof as the accused.
Hi nerdz, and music with new Ada Rook and Aleks with a K’s excellent OST for Dwell.
Rookie's Bustle by Ada Rook (bandcamp.com)
DWELL Episode 2 : The Sunken City OST by Aleks with a K (bandcamp.com)
[fr] Clément Viktorovitch : Macron, une légitimité en question.
[fr] Homo Fabulus : Racisme et { biologie, sociologie, sciences cognitives }.
Mattias Adolfsson’s whimsical illustrations, via Kottke.
SMBC: Sunset, Inversion of kidhood, Flatten.
Dwell is !@#$% bonkers.
Legendary Quake e4m2 speedrun record finally beaten after 22 years 🤯.
Planet: One more way AI can help us harness one of the most underutilized datasets in the world.
Yahtzee Croshaw / Extra Punctuation: Three Things, Somewhere, Quarter 4 2027
Joblow: Software complexity, Docker containers, ridiculous layers upon layers to get anything done.
Bonjour bonsoir geeks, sur un chouette nouveau-ish Blais.
Sérénades by Jean-Michel Blais (bandcamp.com)
John Green: The seduction of despair, and Nature: Negativity drives online news consumption (HN).
The difficulty of living in exponential time.
The beauty of Quake. Quake these days is a glorious perpetual stew. Soooooo much delicious new soup made in this old pot, excellent maps, mods, and kickass sourceports.
People Make Games: We entered the world of Microsoft Excel eSports & got our asses beat. Kind of a weird mix between a security CTF and usual eSports.
Jim Stephanie Sterling: Accessibility and “Gamer Pride”.
FTC finalizes order requiring Fortnite maker Epic Games to pay 245 million $ for tricking users into making unwanted charges. Fuck yeah, fuck Epic predatoryware.
Yowdy frendz, and music with Dreamcrusher.
Suite ONE by DREAMCRUSHER (bandcamp.com)
Not Just Bikes: Stupid SUVs are literally killing us. Excellent rant backed by hard facts. Seeing such a usually mild-mannered commentator explode with rage gives a measure of how infuriating this situation is.
[fr] Clément Viktorovitch : Est-il légitime de bloquer tout le pays ?
[fr] Stupid Economics : Ce que cache la réforme des retraites.
[fr] Débat Jancovici / Marignac : Demain, quelles énergies ?
[fr] Science4All : Qui paiera pour la sécurité ?
Winners of 2022’s World Nature Photography Awards, via Kottke.
SMBC: Time travel III, xkcd #2747: Presents for biologists.
Allan Blomquist: Tomorrow Corp. tech demo (caveats, HN). Neat demo of the tooling for a commercial indie game. Integrated editor, hot-reloading code & assets, debugging, reverse-debugging with snapshots 😍.
Yahtzee / Extra Punctuation: The “live-service” game model is dying.
The Onion: SpaceX Crew Member Realizes He Fired After Being Locked Out Of Capsule 😄.
In “I have nothing to hide” news,
r/Android: Samsung “space zoom” moon shots are fake (HN), thx Heinz. Oh how surprising from that same company that is repeatedly caught pretending high-end-DLSR photos were taken by their phones, only to be caught by EXIF metadata 🤦♂️. EDIT March 15: they blog about it and seem to be happy about it.
Hey nerdz. It’s Godspeed week in Montréal! So here’s your usual reminder to hear & buy all of Godspeed again:
F# A# ∞ by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
Slow riot for new zero Kanada by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
Lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND! by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
Asunder, Sweet and other distress by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
"Luciferian towers" by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! by GY!BE (bandcamp.com)
Shaun: JK Rowling's charming friends.
SMBC: Algo firing, Rich.
Noah Smith: The cause for teenage unhappiness is probably their phones. HN.
Jim Stephanie Sterling: How AI takes the art out of the artist.