The stories still passed down and translated into other languages two thousand years from now will be the answer. I think Sherman's memoirs could become something like the Iliad. They're surprisingly funny, engaging,…
It wasn't just fax machines. Throughout the Eastern bloc, typewriters were strictly controlled and registered. There's a great scene in The Lives of Others [1], a German movie about a Stasi agent and a dissident writer,…
Sylve, proxmox, and TrueNAS are all tools focused on: virtualization, containers, storage, and clusters. I've not used webmin, but it looks like a broader focus. Something like a kitchen sink of administering anything…
Another proxmox-esque project I've been watching is Sylve, a control plane for FreeBSD that provides a web interface to jails, bhyve VMs, and containers [1]. It's new-ish, but it looks like a possible sweet spot…
Germany uses mixed-member proportional representation. You cast two votes in each federal election: one vote for a registered political party at the federal level and one vote for among a list of local candidates from…
I picked up a copy on ebay a while after the Kickstarter! Mapmaker is a great game for tabletop veterans and newbies alike, although the first playthrough can be a little opaque even to regular gamers (especially the…
I remembered seeing this game as a kid, but the name sounded off... And Wikipedia reveals it was released in North America (NTSC format) as "Shipwreckers!"[1]. It also featured 5-player local multiplayer if you had…
There are two split-keyboards made by Ultimate Hacking Keyboard [1], UHK 60 and UHK 80, that have an optional trackpoint or trackball module. They're not cheap, though. [1]: https://uhk.io/
I've met plenty of people who want to make products that solve problems, even if the product's user only has those problems once in a while. Reaching for a well-liked, well-matched tool whenever a problem arises isn't…
One factor I never see anyone talking about is that, for Framework laptops, the webcam is easily physically removable and the laptop will continue to function without it. That's the reason Framework is one of the only…
> getting a tantalising glimpse of what might be possible if only you weren't so timid/proper/responsible/considerate/whatever. I think that glimpse is only tantalizing, and Kerouac's types only magnetic, when the…
Sadly, often once some new degree of connection becomes possible, its absence is very quickly seen as unconscionable. But that instinct is corrosive to human flourishing and freedom in the long term. Once it's possible…
With cars, networked computers are encroaching on privacy from two sides: the computers inside the car sharing sensor data and the computers outside the car sharing camera data from known points on the road. Older cars…
It's BoardGameGeek's aggregation of all the games in the Undaunted series. You have to click on the specific games (e.g. Undaunted: Normandy or Undaunted: Battle of Britain) to get the detailed info on each. Edit: in…
It was mostly unbalanced because Magic: The Gathering wasn't designed with movement, range, or position in mind. So there were all kinds of effects interactions that didn't make sense and we always had to rule things on…
My brother and I made up a version of Magic as kids where all the mana is laid out sideways in staggered rows between the players, creating a sort of hex grid landscape. You drew and played from your deck, but placed…
Graphene OS only supports devices for as long as the manufacturer is providing security updates for the phone's firmware. Firmware is binary blob, so there'd be no practical way for anyone else to provide/develop…
I generally agree, but that basically sounds like prudent investing for eventual retirement. Yes, tune the degree of aggression both in terms of work input and spending restraint, but the "work input" has to be high…
The way it shakes out is that there's no widely accessible way of escaping actual, ongoing work, which is what unmotivated people actually hear behind the words "passive income." Whatever the industry/vertical/field, a…
I think mutual aid organizations and friendly societies of various kinds among American immigrants (at least historically) benefited from a strong selection effect: people willing to immigrate to a faraway country…
The idea of using an LLM to manage media streaming subscriptions seems completely bonkers-nutso-crazy to me. Then again, I don't have streaming subscriptions anymore. I'll grant that streaming platforms played…
Nominally, stopping the spread of communism in Asia. Actually, stopping the spread of Chinese and Russian influence in Asia. Our politicians did then and do now frequently miss the trees for the forest when assessing…
American reaction to the Cuban Revolution was deeply incompetent. The Bay of Pigs is up there with the Iran Hostage Crisis and the withdrawal from Afghanistan (and specifically from Bagram) in the list of stunning…
> Are you getting at a tiny silver lining or do you actually think these wars were remotely a good idea? I'm getting at outcomes, whether or not a war is a good idea in the first place. War is never a good choice, IMO,…
> Personally I can't believe someone would think it's OK to invade someone else's county and massacre civilians on the scale of Vietnam or Korea in order to establish profitable trading relations. Strange. I don't…
The stories still passed down and translated into other languages two thousand years from now will be the answer. I think Sherman's memoirs could become something like the Iliad. They're surprisingly funny, engaging,…
It wasn't just fax machines. Throughout the Eastern bloc, typewriters were strictly controlled and registered. There's a great scene in The Lives of Others [1], a German movie about a Stasi agent and a dissident writer,…
Sylve, proxmox, and TrueNAS are all tools focused on: virtualization, containers, storage, and clusters. I've not used webmin, but it looks like a broader focus. Something like a kitchen sink of administering anything…
Another proxmox-esque project I've been watching is Sylve, a control plane for FreeBSD that provides a web interface to jails, bhyve VMs, and containers [1]. It's new-ish, but it looks like a possible sweet spot…
Germany uses mixed-member proportional representation. You cast two votes in each federal election: one vote for a registered political party at the federal level and one vote for among a list of local candidates from…
I picked up a copy on ebay a while after the Kickstarter! Mapmaker is a great game for tabletop veterans and newbies alike, although the first playthrough can be a little opaque even to regular gamers (especially the…
I remembered seeing this game as a kid, but the name sounded off... And Wikipedia reveals it was released in North America (NTSC format) as "Shipwreckers!"[1]. It also featured 5-player local multiplayer if you had…
There are two split-keyboards made by Ultimate Hacking Keyboard [1], UHK 60 and UHK 80, that have an optional trackpoint or trackball module. They're not cheap, though. [1]: https://uhk.io/
I've met plenty of people who want to make products that solve problems, even if the product's user only has those problems once in a while. Reaching for a well-liked, well-matched tool whenever a problem arises isn't…
One factor I never see anyone talking about is that, for Framework laptops, the webcam is easily physically removable and the laptop will continue to function without it. That's the reason Framework is one of the only…
> getting a tantalising glimpse of what might be possible if only you weren't so timid/proper/responsible/considerate/whatever. I think that glimpse is only tantalizing, and Kerouac's types only magnetic, when the…
Sadly, often once some new degree of connection becomes possible, its absence is very quickly seen as unconscionable. But that instinct is corrosive to human flourishing and freedom in the long term. Once it's possible…
With cars, networked computers are encroaching on privacy from two sides: the computers inside the car sharing sensor data and the computers outside the car sharing camera data from known points on the road. Older cars…
It's BoardGameGeek's aggregation of all the games in the Undaunted series. You have to click on the specific games (e.g. Undaunted: Normandy or Undaunted: Battle of Britain) to get the detailed info on each. Edit: in…
It was mostly unbalanced because Magic: The Gathering wasn't designed with movement, range, or position in mind. So there were all kinds of effects interactions that didn't make sense and we always had to rule things on…
My brother and I made up a version of Magic as kids where all the mana is laid out sideways in staggered rows between the players, creating a sort of hex grid landscape. You drew and played from your deck, but placed…
Graphene OS only supports devices for as long as the manufacturer is providing security updates for the phone's firmware. Firmware is binary blob, so there'd be no practical way for anyone else to provide/develop…
I generally agree, but that basically sounds like prudent investing for eventual retirement. Yes, tune the degree of aggression both in terms of work input and spending restraint, but the "work input" has to be high…
The way it shakes out is that there's no widely accessible way of escaping actual, ongoing work, which is what unmotivated people actually hear behind the words "passive income." Whatever the industry/vertical/field, a…
I think mutual aid organizations and friendly societies of various kinds among American immigrants (at least historically) benefited from a strong selection effect: people willing to immigrate to a faraway country…
The idea of using an LLM to manage media streaming subscriptions seems completely bonkers-nutso-crazy to me. Then again, I don't have streaming subscriptions anymore. I'll grant that streaming platforms played…
Nominally, stopping the spread of communism in Asia. Actually, stopping the spread of Chinese and Russian influence in Asia. Our politicians did then and do now frequently miss the trees for the forest when assessing…
American reaction to the Cuban Revolution was deeply incompetent. The Bay of Pigs is up there with the Iran Hostage Crisis and the withdrawal from Afghanistan (and specifically from Bagram) in the list of stunning…
> Are you getting at a tiny silver lining or do you actually think these wars were remotely a good idea? I'm getting at outcomes, whether or not a war is a good idea in the first place. War is never a good choice, IMO,…
> Personally I can't believe someone would think it's OK to invade someone else's county and massacre civilians on the scale of Vietnam or Korea in order to establish profitable trading relations. Strange. I don't…