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Recreationally overengineering my location history

2025-08-19 overengineering, software It’s been a while since I published my last #overengineering blog post. That’s not because I didn’t overengineer things, I was busier starting projects as opposed to finishing projects. Today, we shall fix this lack of content. I like data. That’s about as surprising as the sun rising in the morning. A big part of that is visualizing various aspects of my life. I consider myself lucky enough to be able to travel quite a bit, so I always liked having a visua

Developer's block

Developer's block 23 August 2025 SoftwareDevelopment Writer’s block is the paralysis induced by a blank page, but software developers experience a similar block and it can even get worse over time. Sometimes a good analogy is that your wheels are spinning and you need to gain traction. Let’s look at the different kinds of developer’s block, what causes them, and how to get unblocked. A new project and it’s going to be your best ever You want to write great code. In fact, most developers wa

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Paramount Plus Coupon Codes and Deals: Up to 50% Off in August

The most talked-about TV show in the country right now, South Park, is on Paramount+. Don’t you want to know what got Trump in such a tizzy? Stream the much buzzed-about South Park, fan-favorite Yellowstone, original series MobLand, and rebooted crime drama Dexter & Dexter on Paramount+. The streaming network has a bingeable TV series for almost everyone. And whether you want to remember Lindsay Lohan’s old face in the classic Mean Girls flick, or wonder just how many more sequels Tom Cruise ha

GPT-5 is friendlier now - but not everyone likes it. Here's why

OpenAI / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways OpenAI has made GPT-5 warmer and friendlier. Many users say they don't want a friendlier ChatGPT. Challenge lies in finding a balance between simplicity and choice. Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. Looking for a kinder, gentler AI model? Then you might like the latest flavor of GPT-5. Other people, though, not so much. On Friday, OpenAI announced an update

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Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals

The IAPSOP is a US-based private organization focused on the digital preservation of Spiritualist and occult periodicals published between the Congress of Vienna and the start of the Second World War. Our all-volunteer staff digitizes, indexes and makes available free-of-charge these periodicals, in our archive, for use by students and researchers. We have a standing want list and will respond promptly to inquiries and offers from sellers. We accept contributions of material and labor to furt

Int. Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals

The IAPSOP is a US-based private organization focused on the digital preservation of Spiritualist and occult periodicals published between the Congress of Vienna and the start of the Second World War. Our all-volunteer staff digitizes, indexes and makes available free-of-charge these periodicals, in our archive, for use by students and researchers. We have a standing want list and will respond promptly to inquiries and offers from sellers. We accept contributions of material and labor to furt

Best VPN for Mac for 2025: Improve Your Privacy for Web Browsing, Streaming and Gaming

Most VPN providers offer a VPN app for Mac computers, but it can be difficult to choose the right provider with so many options available. Based on our extensive research and hands-on testing of VPNs over the years, these are the most important factors to consider when choosing a VPN: Privacy The primary consideration for any VPN -- including a Mac VPN -- should be privacy. If your Mac VPN is unable to sufficiently protect your online privacy, then your VPN is useless. At a minimum, your VPN s

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Living with Williams Syndrome, the 'opposite of autism' (2014)

"I get so anxious if I want to go out to things. I live with my Mum because I don't want to live on my own. I can't do money. I wish I could." Chris Steel is 40 years old. He is remarkably friendly and engaging, and is happiest when he is on stage acting in plays such as George Orwell's Animal Farm. As a child, his caring nature led him to take to the bedside of a victim of the Hillsborough disaster, with such compassion and diligence he was given an award by former UK Prime Minister Margaret

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19 Best Back-to-School Deals for 2025

It's “back to school” season for some and “been back in school” season for others, but regardless of your specific situation, now is the time of year when retailers are discounting all the school essentials. We've hunted down discounts on the best back-to-school gear our reviewers have hand-tested, from laptops and mattress toppers to bags and chairs. Be sure to check out our related guides, including the Best Back-to-School Laptop Deals, the Best Dorm Gear, and the Best Kids Backpacks. Top Ba

Sorry, Google, but the Pixel 10 doesn’t excite me

Joe Maring / Android Authority Remember the first Pixel devices, and the Nexus phones before them? I do. I loved my Nexus 5, and I remain convinced the Nexus 6P was the height of smartphone design. The Pixel 6 harked back to it, which was new and exciting at the time. However, I’m now bored with the Pixel lineup. I’m not accustomed to being unimpressed with Pixel phones; usually, the line always had something to interest me. But the Pixel 9 was just…meh. And now, it looks like the Pixel 10 wil

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Study: Social media probably can't be fixed

Ars Technica: I was frankly surprised at the ineffectiveness of the various intervention strategies you tested. But it does seem to explain the Bluesky conundrum. Bluesky has no algorithm, for example, yet the same dynamics still seem to emerge. I think Bluesky's founders genuinely want to avoid those dysfunctional issues, but they might not succeed, based on this paper. Why are such interventions so ineffective? Petter Törnberg: We've been discussing whether these things are due to the platfor

Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed

Ars Technica: I was frankly surprised at the ineffectiveness of the various intervention strategies you tested. But it does seem to explain the Bluesky conundrum. Bluesky has no algorithm, for example, yet the same dynamics still seem to emerge. I think Bluesky's founders genuinely want to avoid those dysfunctional issues, but they might not succeed, based on this paper. Why are such interventions so ineffective? Petter Törnberg: We've been discussing whether these things are due to the platfor

From Here?

Over the years, I’ve written plenty about comedy writers reusing jokes. Today’s topic is one of the most famous and most-quoted examples of the lot. So let’s turn to ersatz Bond film Never Say Never Again , which premiered in the US on the 6th October 1983. Oh dear, James Bond isn’t having much fun. NURSE: Mr. Bond? I need a urine sample. If you could fill this beaker for me? BOND: From here? The tale surrounding this is well-known by now. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais did some emergency r

The Missing Protocol: Let Me Know

The Missing Protocol: Let Me Know I want a new protocol, tentatively called “Let Me Know” (LMK). The purpose is to provide someone an anonymous way to get notified when a singular, specific event occurs. Here’s a basic use case: Some random blog author has published Parts 1 and 2 of a series. You enjoyed it, and you want to know when Part 3 is published. You don’t want to give away any personal information, you don’t want to subscribe to an RSS feed of other content, you don’t want to follow

A love letter to my future employer (2020)

I didn’t expect the be confronted with it so soon, but week four of the Makers pre-course has guided me down the path of starting the first draft of my CV. I wasn’t ready for this. All the underlying thoughts I have had about myself and my abilities have been strapped to a Saturn V rocket and blasted into the forefront of my mind. I know this is Becky talking, but there is a huge part of Charlotte that agrees with her. Who the hell would ever want to hire me? For the majority of people who do

10 Linux features you should be using to get the best performance and functionality

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Linux is powerful, flexible, and can do just about anything. However, to really get the most out of Linux and your computer(s), there are certain skills and habits you need to bolster; otherwise, you're not really enjoying the riches that can be mined from Linux. Also: 8 ways I quickly leveled up my Linux skills - and you can too Trust me, there are riches in that open-source operating system. So, if you want to get serious about this, read on and consider these tips as esse

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Budget Car Buyers Want Automakers to K.I.S.S

Get The Drive’s daily newsletter The latest car news, reviews, and features. Email address Sign Up Thank you! Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. Are you tired of car companies adding pointless doodads and gadgets to otherwise simple cars? Do you disagree with the idea that every daily driver needs a digital gauge cluster or biometric scanning to control cabin climate? Then by golly, you aren’t alone. New data from research firm AutoPacific shows that people interested in buying cars under $35,0

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Bourdain, My Camera, and Me (2021)

PUBLISHED VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE July 2021. The bone kept sliding out of my hand. I had picked it up at Ottomanelli & Sons on Bleecker Street, overloaded and teetering at the counter, balancing my cameras, my tripod bag, while I explained to the guy what I needed. “The biggest you’ve got,” I said. He wrapped it up in paper and I was on my way. The moment I walked out of the butcher shop I realized how slippery and wide the bone was. I could have splurged for a taxi, or asked for an assistant t

This Linux distro makes Slackware easier than ever

Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways Slackel is a user-friendly take on the otherwise challenging Slackware. There are four different desktop variations to choose from. Slackel is a great distribution for learning Linux. Slackware has been around since 1993 and has served as the foundation for many Linux distributions, such as the early iterations of SUSE. What sets Slackware apart from other Linux distributions is that it tries to be more UNIX-like than not. Sla

I’ve been a Spotify user since 2008, and these are the 5 tricks everyone should know

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority I received my invite to join Spotify back in November of 2008 — yes, back then, you couldn’t sign up by yourself; another user had to invite you with a personalized link first. I created an account, used my free trial, and finally had access to the world’s largest music streaming platform. For the first few years, though, I kept switching between Spotify and my personal music collection, canceling and restarting my subscription, until Spotify won, and it was g

Friction and Not Being Touched

The journalist Karen Hao – who published an absolutely fantastic book about OpenAI called “Empire of AI” recently – coined (as far as I know) one of the best terms for describing modern “AI” systems: Everything Machines. “AI” systems are not framed as specific tools that solve specific problems in specific ways but just as solution in itself: There is nothing “AI” cannot do, if it fails we just failed it by not prompting it right or not building large enough data centers or not waiting for anot

I know when you're vibe coding

3 minute read I shouldn’t have to care about this. I don’t want to care about how someone’s code gets into the IDE. Whether you wrote it by hand, copied it from a forum, prompted an LLM, or ran a simulation where monkeys are given infinite time to produce the solution. I care about what gets merged into the codebase. When I click that “Approve” button, I’ve got only a few worries on my mind. Does it produce the correct outcome? Will people understand this next quarter? Will they be able to ch

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10 ways true Linux power users get more out of the world's best OS

nadla/Getty Images Linux is powerful, flexible, and can do just about anything. However, to really get the most out of Linux and your computer(s), there are certain skills and habits you need to bolster; otherwise, you're not really enjoying the riches that can be mined from Linux. Also: 8 ways I quickly leveled up my Linux skills - and you can too Trust me, there are riches in that open-source operating system. So, if you want to get serious about this, read on and consider these tips as e

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The best mini PCs of 2025: Expert recommended from Apple, Intel, and more

PCs no longer have to be the big, ugly beige boxes that devour desk real estate. These giant machines have given way to the mini PC -- a computer no bigger than a hardback book, but capable of handling demanding workloads. The mini PC market can be somewhat bewildering, so I've done a considerable amount of legwork to distill things down to a handful of choices, from the Intel NUC 13 workhorse to the AceMagician AMD Ryzen 9 Mini gaming PC, to the oftentimes overlooked Apple Mac Mini. Also: The

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TCL QM8K Review: The Best Mid-Tier TV

The main way to tell how old a TV is? Look at the bezels. Until about 10 years ago, they were thick picture frames, but they’ve slowly gotten smaller and smaller as the models turned over. With its new QM8K QLED, TCL has removed them entirely. Innovations in panel design mean that this blindingly bright screen looks like it's floating in space on its pedestal mount. It’s a classy party trick that makes it easy to hide on the wall with images or artwork on it, and it improves the viewing angle t

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Why I do programming

This piece was inspired by this post by Aaron Boodman. I remember myself as a calm, quiet kid, happiest when I had a bunch of wires in my hands. My parents used to give them to me as toys along with a screwdriver and an old cassette player I could take apart and try to put back together. I was three years old. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I loved the feeling of exploring the insides of a machine, trying to understand how it works. In first grade, I was introduced to MS-DOS and Logo with

The best password managers for Android of 2025: Expert tested

Bitwarden consistently features as one of my top password manager recommendations across numerous platforms, and Android is no different. Why we like it: With Bitwarden, you can sync unlimited credentials across as many devices as you want for free, so it's easy to access your logins, credit cards, identities, and notes wherever you need them. Saving and autofilling work well in mobile apps and browsers via biometric unlock with your fingerprint or face. Review: Bitwarden Bitwarden is open so

A small web July

A Small Web July 29 Jun, 2025 I am putting this out into the ether to see if anyone wants to join me, in any capacity, in some kind of accountability structure (following each others blogs about this on RSS, a 32-bit Cafe thread, sporadic guestbook/cbox comments, idk!) for spending less time on the corporate web for the month of July. I am interested in seeing how my brain wiring shifts with some new rules and a new month. My (personal) rules for July are: Almost no walled garden social medi

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The 13 Best Healthy Beverages for Staying Hydrated in the Heat

When it comes to picking the right healthy beverage for your taste and preferences, there are multiple factors to consider. Below, we outline them so you can find the right drink for you. Dietary notes If you follow a specific diet or are looking for specific ingredients, this can help you narrow down the best drink for you. Examples include gluten-free, vegan, nut-free, low-sugar or zero-sugar, and no artificial flavors or sweeteners. You’ll also want to think about what is added to the drink

Launch HN: Promi (YC S24) – Personalize e-commerce discounts and retail offers

Hey HN! I’m Peter from Promi. We’re building a platform for ecommerce merchants to send realtime personalized discounts, optimized with AI (obviously) Sales Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiO1S7RBn-o Demo: https://youtu.be/BCYNCqb4fUc Website: www.promi.ai All the big tech companies send personalized discounts - Uber, DoorDash, Google, etc. In fact, I was the product lead overseeing discounts at Uber, so if you’ve gotten a promotion on Uber Rides or Eats, that was our tech. These per