Nate Cull @natecull@mastodon.social

Novas: The Whole Ridiculous Thing

http://natecull.org/wordpress/2019/09/09/playlist-notes-novas-chronology/

Six episodes in and Legend of the Condor Heroes 2017 continues to impress me as the best TV version yet of probably *the* most famous Chinese martial arts epic ever.

If you like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, etc, then this is a great time to get on board the Jin Yong train.

Genghis Khan! The Jin-Song wars! Kung fu princesses! (multiple of) Kung fu witches! The forbidden NINE YIN BONE CLAW skill! A martial arts tournament! (of course) Romance! (multiple of) A big war!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4crHldKx6c&index=1&list=PLJIYzNjvxw8v2TkPFnjYx-xD2IqOKjbYk

That's it everyone, my timeline is now tuned (chef kiss) perfectly

@Gargron @enkiv2 @kitkat @eq

It turns out that Atari 400 Microsoft BASIC II on ROM Cartridge (1982) was exactly how basic anyone could ever get.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Microsoft_BASIC

Patrick Moraz, Video Games (How Basic Can You Get), 1984

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH0sBBeM99k

Me, an old raving greybeard:

I remember the days when computers could process keystrokes as fast as you could type. Faster, even. Aye, that was a fine decade that was.

The children, scornfully:

Oh grandpa, stop peddling those old myths. Computers are just slower than humans, and they've been slow forever.

Me:

And America wasn't even at war with anyone, leastwise if you don't count Somalia or Kosovo or Iraq. Not Afghanistan anyway.

The children:

Now you're just making stuff up Grandpa.

Don't think of it as a "world war".

Think of it as "stack-ranking the global economy to drive accelerated disruption at scale".

Tired: No accounting for taste

Wired: Collaterized Taste Obligations, but on the blockchain, and with permadeath

Windows Modules Installer Workers of the world unite!

You have nothing to lose but your [waiting] [waiting] [100% disk usage] [waiting]

Uh oh I just fell down a Prince rabbithole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PriU4h1ooJ8

"Compassion", 2010

Zero point approaches
And the fields around you drop
Thoughts become reality
And it feels like time has stopped
But all that's on the radio
Is electromagnetic pop
Steady, your teeth are gnashing
Compassion
Get it on
Compassion
Right on

Today I learned that there is not just metadata, but "paradata".

I wonder what data about the data-recording processes used by paranormal investigators is called.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradata

Havana Syndrome quietly continues to be an ongoing thing.

<< CIA Director William Burns is deepening his involvement in the effort and is now receiving daily briefings on the status of the investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter. Burns has also appointed a senior officer reporting directly to him about those efforts. >>

Tom Bearden and Andrija Puharich would both be chortling right now.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/10/russia-gru-directed-energy-486640

Tired: The scientific process

Wired: The scientific thread

Hired: The scientific cluster of containerized microservices

That there is also the face of "this either needs a REALLY BIG area of affect weapon, or it's a puzzle, and you told me there wouldn't be puzzles, I could take the ranged combat build, and guess what, I took the combat build. YOU loaded this map, so YOU solve this freaking puzzle."

I just really like Belphebe's expression in both of these covers.

"Welp. For once, the tour brochure was on point. That there is definitely, as advertised, one big ol' wall of serpents."

Large versions :

https://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Wall_Serpents.jpg

and

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36329240@N06/4211879484

I want to believe that "Wall of Serpents" (1979) is an extremely literal fantasy precursor to Snakes On A Plane.

(Warning: Good Show Sir is a little like TVTropes, but, for science fiction book *cover art*. You may be there a while.)

https://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=17035

The Lion, the Witch, and the Warp Drive

Remember
That if the user don't love it
Then your update
You can shove it

We should maybe think about going back to the days when computers did one thing at a time and when it was done, and not before, then they did another thing.

Because "heyyyy I see u just resumed from sleep after a week how about I launch a dozen simultaneous background update processes which will now all fight constantly for disk I/O for the next quarter hour" is actually worse than "here's a big old script which will take an hour to finish, but you get to use your computer in the meantime".

Hey Jude
Don't make it slow
Take your update
And do it later