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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@space_environmentalism/116750367443877061 Or just, you know, say No.

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/116716512905345949 Yeah, because there's no such thing as software portability. This is shameful.

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  Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable). Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.

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  Long ago, I was an angry young man who railed against all the injustices of the world, but time has passed, I have matured and learned so much more about things, and now I am an angrier old man.

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  The future of astronomy is bright. That is not good. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260427.html

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  In these security-conscious times, it's good to remember that people are often the target. Many years ago I was visiting the development part of Bell Labs, where they had a PDP-11/70 running their system. They were in a tizzy, major security breach. Someone had called the phone in the computer room and said, "Hi, this is Ken. What's the root password?" The operator, recognizing the legendary name, complied.

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  Someone, perhaps at Apple: Please explain this behavior. I turn on my Bluetooth headphones. I watch a video on my Mac. The video ends. I turn off the headphones. Some other device, perhaps a phone or iPad, elsewhere in the room immediately starts playing music through its speakers using the Music app. I did not ask for this. I do not want this. I think this is an inexplicable design choice. I just turned the headphones off; why is that a signal I want to listen to something somewhere, anywhere...

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  Keyboard quality: The S key (and to a lesser extent, C key) of my irritatingly named Apple Magic Keyboard are disintegrating after just a couple of years of light use. Shoddy.

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  I found this very upsetting. The security guys deciding a priori that it's hard to do so we don't need to concern ourselves. That hasn't worked out well in the past. You think they'd learn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPJ6NJkmDAo

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  "Cognitive surrender". https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/opinion/ai-claude-chatgpt-gemini-mcluhan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.W1A.nvg6.teoA33kuV9gh&smid=url-share

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  RE: https://hachyderm.io/@rsc/115924064984026510 This may finally be the end (for me at least) of a conversation started 30 or so years ago, when Ken Thompson and I tried to figure out a clean way to convert to and from digital representations of floating point numbers. Nice work, @rsc

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  Utter insanity. Complete disregard for anything or anyone else on the planet or in the sky. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/climate/space-mirror-satellite-solar.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SFA.mLor.YQZzOBNKM3YW&smid=url-share

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  Over the holidays last last year I was building an Airfix model (good way to ignore the outside world) and discovered two pieces had fallen off the sprues and were not in the box. I considered constructing them myself but I didn't have a good reference image to go by. 99% certain it wasn't my fault, I looked up how to contact Airfix, followed the instructions, and never heard back. Until Friday, when two tiny pieces of plastic arrived in an adorable little pouch and the modelma...

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  @inosirov@mstdn.social Thanks. Gene Golub was the adviser of an old friend and colleague, but I haven't crossed paths with him.

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  It struck me today that if you think you need a million more satellites in orbit to make your product succeed, your product is infeasible (the polite response) or bullshit (the accurate response) and you should feel bad about it. Please go away. @sundogplanets