Ross's Micro Blog

I read this headline to my wife and she said “Is that a cryptic crossword clue?” 😂
https://social.lol/@philomath/113161418294970353

I bought 9 CDs today. Yes. CDs.

Why?

Because in my new office I found a reasonably good speaker with an iPod dock.

And then I remembered I had an old iPod lying around.

And you can still sync music to it.

But only music you own. None of the DRM’d streaming stuff.

So I've bought a bunch of pre-loved CDs that I intend to rip and copy to my iPod.

Living the dream!

Might buy a BluRay player next and update my old DVD collection!

I am very curious about how "Pinkary” – the social network that seems to mostly be Laravel folks – handles data protection, disputes, DMCA takedowns, spam, and moderation. Is it just based on the idea that everyone is nice and we have a Re:CAPTCHA?

(Yes I know it's open source and I could go looking)

Is anyone using the Git client “RetCon”?

Looks very interesting, but also potentially dangerous if it messes up.

https://retcon.app/

Has anyone done any research on the relative energy consumption of training generative AI models vs all the teenagers sending each other zillions of meme images and videos all day long?

This is old from @jessitron , and I only just read it, but it is poignant.

https://jessitron.com/2023/04/15/when-the-world-feels-wrong/

This is wild if you make it be crazy. But it’s also wild if you point it (Google’s NotebookLM) at a real website and ask for the voice summary. I got a really nice 5 minute podcast all about me out of my blog. It made me really happy!! (YMMV)
https://www.threads.net/@reckless1280/post/C_5sAuextt-

I discovered something yesterday that I could swear was not true.

Neither PHPStorm not PHPStan on strict level 9 ensure that types are correct during simple assignment.

Like:

/** @var string $thing */
$thing = [];

gives NO ERRORS!!!!!

WHAT?!

It only works for class properties and constants?

Wow. I must have known, but I feel like I never knew.

😆 Oh my actual goodness! Never!! It can’t be!!!

WhatsApp FINALLY made a MacOS App in Apple Silicon!

🤯

Are there any cap (hat) aficionados here? I want:

– A “trucker-style” cap.
– That doesn’t show sweat stains much (or washes them out)
– That’s cool and vented
– That isn’t too tall and doesn’t make my already-tall head look stupidly tall.

Recommendations?

I’m listening to the Vergecast talk about AirPods.

Can someone convince me that these things don’t feel like they’re always on the verge of falling out of your ears?

Because I had the wired buds and no matter how I wore them they always felt like the weee on the verge of falling out of my ears. And it was just really distracting!!

More for puzzlers… today I discovered the “BlackBox" game on iOS. Like an escape room on your phone.

A really neat puzzle game. Worth doing the free stuff at least, if you've not already done so.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/blackbox/id962969578

I’ve always been a frustrated cryptic corssworder. I really want to get good but never have.

This week I discovered the daily Minute Cryptic, and it’s a really good way to get learning with good explainers and not the frustration of an entire puzzle to do.

https://www.minutecryptic.com/

Oh come on. My SonyEricsson K750i had this five years earlier than that!!!

https://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/retro-phone-review-sony-ericsson-k750i-1299208
https://www.threads.net/@tomwarrenuk/post/C_vy3xzOcKG

@davatron5000 Also… was interesting to hear more of your thoughts on “Second Brains”.

FWIW I made https://notes.veryuseful.app/ which saves a single JSON file with all my Markdown notes in it to a local file. The only limit being how much you can load into your browser at once.

(The made this because corp IT doesn’t have a markdown notes editor approved. 🙄)

I had a plan to sync to Dropbox as my next step. This wouldn’t merge but would make it cloud-available.

Might be something to think about.

Do any #WordPress folks here know which Facebook group turbo-admin.com was mentioned in today? Got a nice bump in traffic and some sales, but I don’t know where from.

📖 Seriously – I’m really churning through books. This one was short and for good reason. It’s an excellent book of information and strategies for ADHD adults. I often feel like I’m non-neurotypical despite not having a diagnosis of everything. There’s definitely stuff I relate to in here and definitely some great tips and strategies!

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/09/book-extra-focus-jesse-j-anderson/

I’m fascinated by international parcel tracking.

UPS have a parcel for me that left Philadelphia at 11:08 this morning. And it’s scheduled for delivery by 10:30 tomorrow morning.

It’s probably got to get to a UK airport, then to a distribution centre, then to the local delivery hub, and then out for delivery.

Race on!!

🍿 ⏱️

📖 Weird how I’m reading so many books all of a sudden.

Blake Crouch’s Recursion was fun, though too long and ended with a whimper.

My notes contain mild spoilers, but probably nothing you couldn’t figure out from the blurb.

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/09/book-recursion-blake-crouch/