--ISO DATES-- [24/01/29] Creating weeklinks category, homepage now displays categories

_posts/weeklinks/2023-12-03-weeklinks-001.md

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+---
+title: Weeklinks 001 - Philosophy, grief and macaques
+category: weeklinks
+layout: post
+---
+
+I read a lot of stuff on the internet. A lot of it I don't enjoy, or it outright angers me. However, I frequently come across some diamonds in the rough: articles I really enjoy, useful tools and guides, a dearth of blog posts and the ever-present Wikipedia article.
+
+The problem that I face is that all of this consumption is ephemeral. I read an blog post, think to myself _Wow that was a really great read_ and then promptly forget all about it. To resolve this, I am starting (as of right now) a weekly-ish roundup of all the interesting stuff that I've read and found. It helps me keep track of all the stuff I have read, and also has the added benefit of sharing it with others. 
+
+Without further ado:
+
+- A [very interesting philosophy paper](https://consc.net/papers/extended.html) on the limits of the human mind. Where can the mind actually be said to end? How is a diary any different from your memories? This is especially potent when considered with the possibility of neural implants and the increasingly common cyborg-fetishism of the ultra-rich. I take extensive notes at work, and it is fun to consider whether they are actually a _part_ of me. 
+
+- A bit less heavy, this [blog post](https://jacobbartlett.substack.com/p/my-toddler-loves-planes-so-i-built) about a father who built his daughter her own radar app to spot planes together is both heartwarming and technically interesting. I recommend the [HN thread](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38435908) where I came across this too, it has some equally nice stories about technology and parenthood.
+
+- [This post](https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/) is in the same vein. A story of family's beloved app reaching the end of its life, and being manually revived (but only for the family). It has a nice sentiment about software on a small-scale, as something that can be personal, private, and free from corporate interests. 
+
+- [Here](https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html) is a useful tool for checking how good your browser setup is for blocking ads and fingerprinting. Pretty happy with 99%, but room for improvement.
+
+- A fun little rabbit hole of a [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximate_measures) about approximate measurements. Apparently dash, pinch, smidgen, drop and hint are all quantifiable!
+
+- Another rather techy [blog post](https://luke.hsiao.dev/blog/housing-documentation/) about why you should write documentation for your house. This currently exists for my partner and I as a couple of binders filled with notes, instruction booklets and takeaway menus, but I am looking forward to a proper setup whenever I get around to it.
+
+- [This](https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/16/were-more-ghosts-than-people/) is a very interesting piece on religion and loss, explored through a relationship to a virtual character. Thought-provoking stuff, especially when confonting how we strive for control in our lives even with death always looming over us. I will certainly never play _Red Dead Redemption 2_ in the same way.
+
+- And finally (for a happier ending): enjoy [these excellent photos](https://time.com/3148/these-monkeys-are-having-the-best-spa-day-ever/) of Japanese macaques in a hot spring. I especially like this [almost biblical one](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/japanese-macaque-snow-monkeys-spa-day-3.jpg).
+
+Thanks for reading!<br>
+A.

_posts/weeklinks/2023-12-10-weeklinks-002.md

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+---
+title: Weeklinks 002 - Trains, iPods and plagiarism
+category: weeklinks
+layout: post
+---
+
+Hello again. Lots more interesting stuff this week, so I'll jump right in.
+
+- [This](https://social.hackerspace.pl/@q3k/111528162462505087) is a fascinating Mastodon thread. A very impressive reverse engineering of some train software, showing that it was deliberately designed to brick itself when being fixed at third-party repair workshops. Capitalism makes people do silly things.
+
+- [A mammoth article](https://emilygorcenski.com/post/making-god/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) by Emily Gorcenski, dissecting the recent A"I"[^1] "revolution". It is meticulously researched, and gets deep into the motivations behind the grift.
+
+- Next up, [a technical breakdown](https://www.cameronmacleod.com/blog/how-does-shazam-work) of the inner workings of Shazam. This is always something that I have been amazed by, but never looked into the technology behind it. Who knew that Shazam used to be a phone number you could call? I'm certainly too young for that.
+
+- Something a bit different: I learned this week that you can play (online!) chess from you command line, through `telnet` and [freechess.org](freechess.org). Just run `telnet freechess.org 5000` and play some games. I love things like this, and that they continue to exist.
+
+- [A tool for easily dithering images](https://seleb.github.io/ordered-dither-maker/), very cool.
+
+- I learned this week about the [Rockbox project](https://www.rockbox.org/), which is custom software for mp3 players (inlcuding iPods!). [Here is a thread](https://mastodon.social/@bagder/111538350617290554) from Daniel Stenberg about how the iPod was "rockboxed".
+
+- I was too quick to use "mammoth" earlier. For the final link today, [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDp3cB5fHXQ) is a ***mammoth*** deep dive into the problem of plagiarism on YouTube. Some incredible stuff in here, and it is very interesting throughout, despite being almost 4 (four) hours long.
+
+Thanks for reading!<br>
+A.
+
+<hr>
+
+[^1]: It is artificial, but certainly not intelligence. Just statistics.

_posts/weeklinks/2023-12-18-weeklinks-003.md

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+---
+title: Weeklinks 003 - Bryan, Cory and Mickey
+category: weeklinks
+layout: post
+---
+
+I've been pretty busy this week, so a little shorter than usual (although I still found plenty of time for some [Cory Doctorow](https://pluralistic.net/).
+
+- First up, with no exaggeration, the [Greatest Blog Post of All Time (so far)](https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/). This is a full and thorough breakdown of the inner workings of a mechanical watch; something I had a vague interest in before this, but am now fully and whole-heartedly invested in. The content alone is enough to get me to recommend it, but it is paired with countless interactive animations and diagrams, which take this thing to another level. And that's before you realise that they were all written, *by hand*, in OpenGL. Amazing stuff.
+
+- Next up, something amazing in a different way: [the Perseverance rover has now been active for 1000 days!](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67700437)
+
+- Apologies for the YouTube link: [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQfJi7rjuEk) we have a great talk from Bryan Cantrill about so-called "AI doomers", who genuinely believe that Chat-GPT is going to kill us all. Bryan breaks down this idea and why we should take it seriously, as well as repudiating some of the main "doomer" talking points (but in like, a fun way).
+
+- [This man](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/17/i-never-thought-i-would-get-this-far-london-man-runs-365-marathons-in-365-days) has just completed 365 marathons in 365 days. An absolutely incredible achievement, and I hope he breaks the record. It is all for charity and he seems like a good guy.
+
+Last up, a couple of links from Cory Doctorow (I told you I'd been reading him!): 
+
+- ["If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"](https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/). This is a great breakdown of the problems that now seems to be present in every software medium: the idea that you don't own your games/music/films, you are merely renting them. 
+
+- [It all started with a mouse.](https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/) On January 1st 2024, Steamboat Willie (the first Mickey Mouse cartoon) *finally* enters the public domain. As Cory talks about, it is high time that Disney contributes back to the public domain space after benefitting from it for so long. I can't wait for all the legally-prtoecte memes.
+
+And that's all for this week.
+
+Thanks for reading!<br>
+A.

_posts/weeklinks/2024-01-09-weeklinks-004.md

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+---
+title: Weeklinks 004 - Obfuscation, dial-up and tiny chess
+category: weeklinks
+layout: post
+---
+
+I am back after the winter break, and glad to say that I did a whole lot of reading over the holidays. I have a **swathe** of links for you, covering a whole range of topics and interests. Let's jump in!
+
+- First up is [this rather demoralising article](https://www.404media.co/facebook-is-being-overrun-with-stolen-ai-generated-images-that-people-think-are-real/) about the fake image epidemic plaguing Facebook and the internet as a whole. I've resisted the so-called "AI revolution" from the beginning, and stuff like this is exactly why. On a better note, [404 Media](https://www.404media.co) are doing some great reporting on this and similar topics, check them out.
+
+- I finally found time for [this ~30 minute Tom Scott video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqRREz0iBes) about the world's largest optical telescope, and it was just as good as I expected. So many interesting insights in here, but my favourite was the way the mirrors are created. ***Literally atomising*** aluminium and spraying it in a fine mist. Crazy stuff.
+
+- [This](https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2023-December/033317.html) is an interesting (and kinda hilarious) email exchange from the Vostok Antarctic Research Base, about changing their timezone.
+
+- [More great reporting](https://www.404media.co/laion-datasets-removed-stanford-csam-child-abuse/) from 404 Media on the terrible and awful effects of "moving fast and breaking things".
+
+- [This](https://ethanzuckerman.com/2023/12/22/how-big-is-youtube/) is a great analysis of the current size of YouTube (*way* bigger than I expected, even though I knew it was huge). It seems insane that the number of videos appears to have almost doubled from 2021 to 2023 (!!). This also led me down the interesting Wikipedia rabbit hole of the [German tank problem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_tank_problem)
+
+- This one is a little late, due to the Christmas theme, but it is worth it. I highly recommend compiling and running this [horrifying C code](https://udel.edu/~mm/xmas/xmas.c) and observing the output. There is a breakdown [here](https://udel.edu/~mm/xmas/), but sometimes it's better to bask in ignorance.
+
+- If you phone [this number](https://talkpaperscissors.com/), you will get matched up against a random opponent to play Rock Paper Scissors. I haven't tried it myself (it requires a US number), but I am interested to hear your thoughts!
+
+- If you know me, then you know I love people on the internet using their strange, domain-specific knowledge to implement a ridiculous idea. [Dial-up over a Discord Call](https://www.lilysthings.org/blog/discord-dialup/) certainly ticks those boxes.
+
+- Similar to the above, [this](https://www.fourbardesign.com/2020/10/diy-espresso.html?m=1) is a wildly impressive blog post about DIY-ing a pocket-sized espresso machine.
+
+- If you are bored and have a browser handy, I recently found out that PICO-8 games are playable in the browser [over on itch.io](https://itch.io/games/platform-web/tag-pico-8). POOM to your heart's content!
+
+- [An interesting look](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/9780/did-english-ever-have-a-formal-version-of-you) at the English language, and whether we ever had a formal version of you.
+
+- Next up, [a fascinating breakdown](https://forrestheller.com/Apollo-11-Computer-vs-USB-C-chargers.html) of how the Apollo 11 guidance computer compares to the CPUs inside everyday phone chargers.
+
+- If you are interested in writing code (or learning to), [this is a great list](https://austinhenley.com/blog/challengingprojects.html) of challenging projects for you to try.
+
+- [A nice breakdown](https://blogsystem5.substack.com/p/the-ides-we-had-30-years-ago-and) of old IDEs, coupled with a bit of consternation about the things that we have lost since then.
+
+- [Here](https://dubroy.com/blog/cold-blooded-software/) is a nice sentiment about writing software which will continue to work (long after it stops being maintained) along with a great story. I especially like the bit about "boring technology".
+ 
+- On the lighter side, [here is a humourous write up](https://andreasjhkarlsson.github.io/jekyll/update/2023/12/27/4-billion-if-statements.html) about creating a script to tell if a number is odd or even, one number at a time.
+
+- [This is an excellent video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne40a5LkK6A), covering Sebastian Lague's tiny chess bot championship. Many interesting insights and tidbits throughout, and it has definitely inpsired me to get into [chess programming](https://www.chessprogramming.org/Getting_Started).
+
+- [Some thoughts from Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jan/2/escalating-streaks/) on motivation through the tracking of streaks.
+
+- And last but not least, rounding out the list we have another [article from 404 Media](https://www.404media.co/13-year-old-becomes-first-person-to-ever-beat-tetris/), about the first person to quote-on-quote "beat" Tetris.
+
+Phew! We made it. Thanks for reading if you stuck around. I am going to attempt to be more consistent with these throughout 2024, but as always, no promises. 
+
+A.