I’ve heard from people in the past that my articles are too long, and I wanted to start by saying that, for the most part, they’re going to stay long, because I feel like the only way for me to make my arguments is to be
Does this thing still work?
Edit: Apparently yes, it does still work.
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As my interest in the micro-wildlife on our terrace has grown I have found myself wanting to know more exactly what I am looking at.
A good month, much of it away from home where, happy to relate, most of the plants survived the endless heat; heat that has been the worst of the time at home.
Listening to on the Wonders of Web Weaving podcast, one thing in particular caught my attention, and that was when she was telling James about her studio.
For a little under a year, everyone — myself included — has compared NVIDIA to Enron, largely because NVIDIA insisted, in detail, that it was nothing like Enron, WorldCom, or Lucent, a potent example of the Streisand Effect that would be much funnier if NVIDIA wasn’t holding up
The CMS engine that drives this site — Grav — has now been updated to version 2.0.18. Kudos to the Grav team for a very smooth process, very well explained.
Executive Summary:
In a flash, I was 16 or 17, at my friend’s house round the back of King’s Cross, and trying to work out what in the world to do next. A link from Gwern had sent me to , in which David Hill took his chances at a Diplomacy tournament.
Those days, we didn’t know we were nerds, let alone alpha nerds.
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Having been away from home for a bit, and with nobody here to keep the crows coming by, it took a few days to reestablish our relationship.
During the heyday of AT&T, it was often said that the telephone system was the largest machine ever built. The "hello machine" certainly was vast, but whether or not you consider it to be a single machine raises challenging questions of definition.
A great deal of the discussion of the so-called benefits or problems with AI comes down to the theoretical jobs that are (or are not) lost as a result of things LLMs can (or cannot do), or the equally theoretical productivity benefits that’ll come from using LLMs
Last summer, I noticed an insect bringing a bit of leaf to plug the hole in a bit of bamboo that is part of one of those folding director’s chairs.
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Good morning premium subscribers! As ever, please ping me at ez@betteroffline.com if you have any questions.
Oracle has one of the strongest mythologies in the tech industry.
I'm still writing my journals on paper. Makes it about a decade of notebooks, most of them Field Notes, kept in the archival wooden boxes[1].
A I just listened to raised again the thorny issue of blogger’s guilt, and tried to make it seem like nothing, that you are answerable only to yourself, that you can blog at any cadence that suits you.
The role of AI tools (LLMs, mainly) in Linux is under discussion, or it was, until Linus Torvalds “put his foot down” in support of the use of AI in Linux kernel development.
I can identify two major ways in which AI is used for Linux kernel development: authoring code and reviewing code.
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It’s been one year since I launched the premium newsletter, and I’ve decided to extend the discount
Finally, I have embarked on the Augean task of dealing with my bookmarks and tags, a reminder that link rot is all pervasive and also that rot is evitable if you make the effort.
The worst is when entities that clearly could afford to fix their links simply don't bother.
Dan Carr in How Brian Eno Created Ambient 1: Music For Airports:
In this article, I’ll discuss how Music for Airports was created, and I’ll deconstruct and recreate the tracks 2/1 and 1/2. Hopefully, the article will demystify some of Brian Eno’s techniques, and give you some ideas about how to adopt some of his ambient music techniques yourself.
Wow! This was a fantastic write-up of how Brian Eno went about creating the ‘first’ work of ambient music. Seeing it written down like this, it seems a lot less mysterious than I would've thought.
End of the day, it seems to me that Eno was a guy who fucked around, and found out. And boy am I glad he did, because Music For Airports is still my number one choice for when I'm working and writing.
Via.
Well, it's been a while.
It's not that I haven't had the time to post. It's just that I sort of fell off the wagon and stopped writing and posting regularly. That's something I want to remedy, because both are positive habits that make me feel better about myself. So, instead of procrastinating while waiting for the perfect ‘I'm back!’ post to be delivered through divine intervention directly to my brain (I'll be honest, I've already tried that approach for a couple of months and it's been less than productive) I thought I'd just rip off the band aid and get back to posting with a simple update on what I've been doing lately.
That said, life's been hectic. Chaotic, even! In one of the few posts that I did manage to publish recently, I wrote that ‘I feel like the speed of time has increased tenfold’ and that feels like an accurate summary of the last year. The kids keep growing up, and as they do they become more active. And as I try to keep up with them, time flies.
The odd thing is that, even if it feels like time goes by faster than ever, I somehow feel that I have more of it to spend as I please than I've had in many years. The other side of the coin of the kids growing up, I suppose. Whereas before they needed me (or their mum) present and ready to go at all times, they now keep themselves (relatively) safe and occupied longer and more frequently for each passing day. Oh, make no mistake, they are still annoying little things that hang on to our coattails in idleness as if their sole purpose was to prevent us from getting anything at all done. But then they suddenly disappear for an hour or two, and before you know it you're wondering where did the good, old days when they always wanted you around go? While these moments are just small pockets in an otherwise busy and demanding and rewarding life with my children right now, they are foreshadowing of what's to come.
Getting back to the point, I now have more time to do with as I please than I have in years. And here are some of the things I've been doing with that time in the past half year or so.
Won't go into the the details – you can find all of them in the workout log which I update every single day. If I work out on the day, which I still aim to do every day. While my overarching goal is still to stay healthy and keep my body in decent shape, I have been trying to improve my running fitness a bit over the past year.
Inspired by other people from around the web, I've wanted to see if it was possible to get back into peak running shape by training in a different way than I did during my marathon running days. So far, the answer is no. I've not been able to train with the required consistency to get anywhere close. Instead, as confirmed by a 5k race I ran recently, I've only been able to maintain fitness since last summer.
There are many things I could point to as reasons, but the cold truth is that it comes down to priorities. And the past year I've not prioritised running fitness. Other things have taken priority, in particular maintaining a healthy weight and participating in social events that disrupt the rhythm of both training and recovery. As my years of being young and promising are now behind me, I notice that these priorities come with a cost in terms of fitness.
And, being honest, it is a price that I am quite comfortable paying.
The reading log contains all the details of my reading. I won't bore you with all of it here.
I've been continuing to read books regularly, as I have for quite a few years now. Fantasy is still my go to for entertainment and relaxation. Right now I am reading the third book of the fourth of five trilogies (the fourth is actually a tetralogy) of Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings. It is enjoyable reading. I am also trying to venture outside of my comfort zone. Reading about Basho and the history of Haiku poetry was an attempt to do just that, as was reading Seneca's letters and a biologist's diary of attempting to encounter a wolverine in the wild.
What's changed over the past year is that I've branched out from just reading books for entertainment. I've rediscovered the joy of watching movies! Some time between watching shows (and then sort of just quitting) and reading books, I lost simply stopped watching movies. Perhaps not following ‘the scene’ as much as I used to back when I had more time meant that I didn't discover the interesting movies that were being made.
Either way, at some point this winter I felt the urge to watch a movie. So I did. And it made me want to watch another. Now I've settled into the routine of Friday nights being movie nights. And I like it! A decade of barely watching movies has given me a lot of material to feast upon. Some highlights so far are Sinners (good), Triangle of Sadness (also good) and Train Dreams (fantastic).
Yet, the highlight is a rewatch. Watching Interstellar again, more than a decade after the initial release, was a profound experience. It was, and remains, one of my favourite films of all time.
As my son continues to develop his interest in football (or soccer, as the yanks say) it has rekindled my own fascination for the beautiful game. We've watched most of Manchester United's games the past season. When the World Cup rolled around this summer, our enthusiasm didn't exactly wane. Add to that the fact that Norway were finally back in the good company, and had an all time campaign as they reached the quarter finals, I've been lucky to share many memorable football moments with both my family and friends this summer.
One of the many reasons why I love sports!
Two years after moving into a role as a Sales Manager Web for Obs, I transitioned to yet another new role this summer. It is my third role change in five years at Coop. I am now employed as an E-commerce Specialist for Obs BYGG.
My day-to-day tasks are much the same, while my overall responsibilities have changed a little. The new role is slightly more specialised and tailored to my strengths. Nevertheless, I found the circumstances of my previous role quite satisfactory, and the reasons for the change were mostly practical. Reducing my commute a few days per week from dreadful to next to non-existent chief among them.
I am happy that I've been able to improve my circumstance without having to change companies. Coop is a stable employer that focuses on provide opportunities for growth and contribution for its employees, and a place that I am happy to remain. A month into my new role, I now see myself staying both in the role and in the company for many years to come. Better yet, I think I'll be able to contribute to the company in a positive manner.
As I noted in regards to my workouts, I've been happy to participate in more social events than I've done previously. One of the good things about working offers plenty of opportunities to hang out with cool people, and I've take more of these opportunities recently.
I've also attended a couple of concerts this spring, and added three more to the calendar this fall. Live music is another thing that fell of the list of priorities during the most busy years with the kids and training for marathons, that I am now happy to have rediscovered. As the concert experience usually involves a couple of beers to make it even more enjoyable, it certainly isn't a boon for my fitness.
This summer, we also went on vacation with two of my best friends and their families. Making that happen involved us spending quite a few of our vacation days in the car, as we travelled to and from the chosen location. It was all worth it! Seeing your kids become friends and have the time of their lives with your friends' kids is a something special. I hope we can do it again the next couple of years.
A few changes here and there, if nothing big. The setup for this website remains mostly the same (documented in detail through a series of posts). When I deleted my Strava account, I exported all of my data. I've imported the workout titles and notes to backfill the workout log with these details for all sessions prior to late 2025, when I began making notes here. The result is that most sessions now contain commentary.
Last year I wrote about building a digital music library. The journey has continued this year, though I've mostly purchased digital music directly. As of now, my modest library consists of 1 030 songs from 97 albums by 67 different artists. I've settled into mainly adding new (to me, I'm very unconcerned about release times) records as I discover them, my library of owned music accounts for the vast majority of my listening. That's something! I would like to write about the music I purchase and listen to, as well as add a way to showcase my library and/or my listening history on the site.
I've also splurged on some new items this year. Not just one, but two sets of headphones: Sony WH-1000XM5 and Powerbeats Pro 2. Different use cases, in theory, but I'm not sure if buying both was worth it. Especially as I found my presumably lost Airpod that prompted me to purchase the Powerbeats… Ah, well. A topic for an upcoming post!
The other purchase I've made is the Polar Loop. I've been wanting to give overnight HRV measuring a go for a while now, to see if this data can help me inform my workout planning to help me be more consistent over time. One option was replacing my nearly decade old Garmin. It was an expensive option. Then there's the fact that I also prefer to wear a plain, old ‘dumb’ watch with actual dial and hands. Polar's subscription free band was a nice and relatively cheap compromise. I definitely need to write a post about how I'm collecting and using the data.
There are many additional topics I could have covered here. As I'm closing in on two thousand words already, I'm just going to leave it here. If you made it all the way through, congratulations!
Oh and by the way: If I owe you an email, I'll get right to it. Any day now. Probably!
Email, one of the most pervasive and enduring technologies of computer networking, was invented in about a dozen places by dozens of people in the 1960s. It's hard to lay out a clear history of the technology because it's just so obvious—pretty much as soon as more than one person could use a computer, there was some kind of mail facility.
I love this demonstration from Ghost Font: The Anti-AI Font Only Humans Can Read.
The explanation is very clear and as a proof of concept it works well.
These tracks have been in regular rotation for me this summer, as they all have something unusual or intriguing that has hooked right into my brain. I hope you find something notable here too!
As an album, I don’t feel Inferno quite works, as it’s both too long to maintain a coherent idea (over an hour!), and the individual tracks are not distinct enough to feel like the progression of an idea.
However, this one track Father and Son absolutely captured me, and I’ve kept going back to it since the album’s release in May. There’s something about the stylized pacing of the sampled voices, and the snippet of distorted voice that sounds like “miaow, miaow”, which has captured my subconscious. It plays over and over in my head, which is kind of a good thing! (If only the topic of the lyrics wasn’t such a bummer).
This was released in 2025, but I only discovered it last month. The first three tracks from the album I Love My Computer are all strong, but this one in particular warms my heart, as the melody reminds me of a dial-up modem connecting to the internet. This sound conjures more nostalgia for me than the more intentionally-nostalic iPod Touch, as I’m a bit too old to have those high school memories (my era is more Walkman tape player!).
I feel a bit conflicted about the message of this one, as I think it’s becoming increasingly easy to retreat into the safe cocoon of interacting only with your computer, and I see that being detrimental to people individually and to society. Still, Ninajirachi has said in interviews that the inspiration was her feeling of close collaboration with her computer while making music, and not talking to LLMs as I’d originally worried. So this is more like an ode to the feeling of communing with her instrument, which is a very common topic in music, and makes me feel better about surrendering to the beat.
In some ways this track triangulates between the previous two, as much of the vocal is sampled dialogue like in Father and Son, while the band is Australian like Ninajirachi. I love how the newsreader samples highlight the musicality and rhythm in some voices, and how local news can have an inherent comedy to it even when covering serious topics. I also enjoy hearing a trumpet again—it seems like it’s been a while since 90s punk and ska!
But overall, I just love the energy, the construction, and the lyrics of this whole album. At 23 minutes it would almost fit onto a single side of vinyl, but that just means it doesn’t have time to out-stay its welcome. Every track is a gem! The eclectic collection of samples is delightful, such as the one linking Morse code transmission rhythm back to the horse theme. Since its release in April this one has been a regular play for me, and I can’t help but feel good after listening to it.
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Absolutely fascinating article (as usual) from dynomight, about what they called Pseudpocalypse, and that's the lamest thing about it.
Feeling very pleased with myself after a major accomplishment, even though all it really proves is that I can follow instructions.
Hi premium readers! I’ll be taking a week off of the premium next week — July 17 — to have some well-earned rest. This will mark only the second time I’ve missed a premium piece since I started this newsletter in June 2025, and I
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Soundtrack: Ozzy Osbourne — Mr. Crowley
A lot of people have been making a lot of fun of the SoftBank 46th annual shareholder meeting and Masayoshi Son’s (to quote Bryce Elder of the Financial Times) Untethered Goose Game, specifically referring to slides that, well, looked like this:
As
In 1914 the Department of the Interior, through the Bureau of Reclamation, investigated the possibilities of developing the Columbia River. Thousands of arid but potentially fertile acres needed only water to become the Imperial Valley of the Northwest.
A very fine month indeed, in all sorts of ways. There was a cinema visit, a birthday party, many meals with friends, and a growing sense of contentment with the life I am privileged to enjoy
I succumbed to the offer of a free month with ChatGPT and enjoyed using it to do things like make it easier (but not easy) to move from idno to micro.blog.
June was a big month: I went to Porto & Lisbon, and had a lot of life stuff happen.
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Inspired by Rachel Roddy over on IG and the gorgeous apricots currently at the greengrocers, a small batch of preserve was on the menu this morning.
Rachel pointed out that one can buy packets of pectin designed to confer success on small batches.
It’s been an incredibly long few weeks, and as a result my previously-planned Hater’s Guide just isn’t possible within what little time I have left in this week, which is why I’m starting an ongoing series — Notes From The Bubble
There is a strand of thought out there that believes any and all legislation to do with seeds is evil and unnecesary.
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A little while ago I decided that paying micro.blog to host my, er, micro blog was probably a better bet for my mental health than continuing to plug away at my self-hosted idno (aka WithKnown).
So it’s been a big week for me after I published an exclusive covering OpenAI’s audited financials from 2024 and 2025, with reactions ranging from “oh my god, OpenAI spent $34 billion to make $13.07 billion in revenue!” to “actually, it’
A kind cyberchum alerted me to some mobile display issues, initially with my podcast website and then this site.
It all started a few weeks ago when I noticed an unexpected spike in the number of pages that could not be found on my website. For a few days I let it ride in the hope that it would resolve itself.
