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This is just so perfect, and a great explanation of what I regularly struggle with…

Someone will ask me a series of really strange questions, which leads me to ask “So.. what are you actually trying to achieve?”

Put down the chocolate-covered banana and step away from the European currency systems.

What you are asking for makes no sense.

All that you are going to receive by way of responses are bodges that attempt to do the nonsensical task that you have set, from people who are either making wild guesses as to what you are actually trying to achieve, or who don’t understand enough about the tool that you have chosen to know that what you are asking makes no sense. In both cases, that isn’t going to help you.

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The ultimate cause of our failure was a simple one: despite all statements to the contrary, it was not due to lack of bravery on the part of our men, or to any fault of the Fleet’s. We were defeated by one thing only - by the inferior science of our enemies. I repeat - by the inferior science of our enemies.

Superiority, by Arthur C. Clarke. What a spectacularly subtle reminder about technology and its proponents.

You will have a strong negative and opinionated reaction to at least one or more of these bullets. Your strong negative and opinionated reactions are a clear sign you care about how you spend your time, so keep reading even if you’re mad.

Rands provides some fantastic tips for saving yourself from yourself. One day I’ll get down to under 100 browser tabs. One day.

Kottke’s summary of Kubrick’s commentary around 2001’s ending puts it better than I could myself, understandably. I’ve only seen the film twice, and I don’t think I’ve ever spent enough time thinking about it - but it really does deserve everything people feel about it.

It’s weird, it’s fantastic, it’s epic and the pacing is glacial - but it’s amazing. You should watch it before reading the article, and I’d love to know what people think about the summary if they have.

What happened when Apple wanted to CNC machine a million MacBook bodies a year? They bought 10k CNC machines to do it. How about when they wanted to laser drill holes in MacBook Pros for the sleep light but only one company made a machine that could drill those 20 µm holes in aluminum? It bought the company that made the machines and took all the inventory. And that time when they needed batteries to fit into a tiny machined housing but no manufacturer was willing to make batteries so thin? Apple made their own battery cells. From scratch.

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It’s amazing to me that we’re looking to guidance from the survivors of the Nazis, so soon after as well.

NY Book Review looks a few books from the past, and I’m just gobsmacked by the horrors that we’re seeing in “first world” countries of late. I just can’t process it.

Liberal democracy has enjoyed much better days. Vladimir Putin has entrenched authoritarian rule and is firmly in charge of a resurgent Russia. In global influence, China may have surpassed the United States, and Chinese president Xi Jinping is now empowered to remain in office indefinitely. In light of recent turns toward authoritarianism in Turkey, Poland, Hungary, and the Philippines, there is widespread talk of a “democratic recession.” In the United States, President Donald Trump may not be sufficiently committed to constitutional principles of democratic government.

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n. pl. hous·es (hou′zĭz, -sĭz)

1. A place to store all one’s unfinished projects.

More from the “I don’t want to do it, so I’ll ruin it for those that do” camp.

“Aquamation,” a greener form of body disposal, is gaining acceptance in America. But some powerful groups are fighting to stop it.

… When their aquamation legalization bill came to the floor of the state House of Representatives, however, it was derailed by a gruesome speech by a lawmaker who also happened to be a casket-maker.

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I love removing unnecessary things from the data centre… old hardware, bad configurations and so forth, but today’s was pretty good. It was a patch that … just shouldn’t have been.

At one end, an F5. The DB9 failover port to be exact.

Then a Cisco “blue console cable”, two intermediary infrastructure patch panels…

And then at the other end, the ethernet port of an APC PDU.

Wonders will truly never cease.

Get this into your earballs and eyeholes, it’s a lot of fun. The full list of movies is spectacular.

via kottke