I can't believe I've been mudlarking on 87 days!

It was lunchtime and I arrived at the foreshore just before low tide. There were a group of people who walked up and underneath the wharf. I weren't sure if they were mudlarks, although at least one person was wearing gloves. The easiest way to spot other mudlarks is wellies.

Then after that there were a few tourists about. Much easier to spot, no wellies, no gloves, picking things up with their bare hands.

I stumbled across a very large but sadly no longer living crab.

Finds included a stripey stone, a piece of Metropolitan Slipware and a piece of a Bartmann jug.

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Posted by Tony Finch

https://civio.es/novedades/2025/11/17/this-is-the-landmark-ruling-that-sets-a-new-standard-for-algorithmic-transparency-in-spain/

https://dotat.at/:/PCVLG.html

2026‑02‑03 - A landmark ruling that sets a new standard for algorithmic transparency in Spain.

https://civio.es/novedades/2025/11/17/this-is-the-landmark-ruling-that-sets-a-new-standard-for-algorithmic-transparency-in-spain/

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https://dotat.at/:/PCVLG.html

bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/microsoft-is-giving-the-fbi-bitlocker-keys.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71550

Microsoft gives the FBI the ability to decrypt BitLocker in response to court orders: about twenty times per year.

It’s possible for users to store those keys on a device they own, but Microsoft also recommends BitLocker users store their keys on its servers for convenience. While that means someone can access their data if they forget their password, or if repeated failed attempts to login lock the device, it also makes them vulnerable to law enforcement subpoenas and warrants.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/microsoft-is-giving-the-fbi-bitlocker-keys.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71550

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Posted by Tony Finch

https://blog.literarily-starved.com/2026/02/technology-the-nearly-perfect-usb-cable-tester-does-exist/

https://dotat.at/:/WYJE9.html

2026‑02‑02 - A (nearly) perfect USB cable tester.

https://blog.literarily-starved.com/2026/02/technology-the-nearly-perfect-usb-cable-tester-does-exist/

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$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Note that this was written on Monday, 2 February, but is being posted on Tuesday the 3rd because posting from just my laptop is tedious and I have no confidencs in Sable's ability to stay up long enough.

Despite it being disaster season, it's been a pretty good week, modulo exhausting travel and (voluntarily) limited sleep, all thanks to Contabile, the main UK filk convention. N and m went last year; this year we all went (m traveling separately because they're living in the UK now). It's been a very good weekend, and not a bad week before that.

As usual, I'm unlikely to write a separate trip report later (one can hope, but...). The trip was definitely an adventure, taking the ferry from Hoek de Holland to Harwich, then two trains and a cab to the con hotel. The premium lounge on the ferry serves surprisingly good food. So does the con hotel, the Wensum Valley Hotel, about a 20 minute cab ride outside Norwich.

My travel planning and prep has definitely declined. The biggest problem was taking a laptop with a grossly inadequate batter -- I should have taken (Framework 12)Lilac, instead of (Thinkpad x230)Sable, which is definitely showing its age, and has a usable batter life measured in minutes. The list of forgotten stuff is under the cut following the entry for Friday.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: a little on edge because travel, otherwise okay
Current Location: bar table 3, Wensum Valley Hotel, Norfolk
Current Music: all weekend, at Contabile. See post for singing.

mneme

I've been getting some feelers and at least one interview opportunity which seemed to vanish re-appeared, but I'm also widening my net -- it's so easy to try to use only the job sites and particularly LinkedIn, but in fact so many companies only post their jobs on their internal web site so if there are placed you'd love to work I guess it's best to look directly there to see if they have openings.

In other news, the larp (re-run for the first time in 15 years ago! Written 17 years ago! Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here) is coming together; we'll send out the casting hints tomorrow (HOPING) and then do some edits on the character sheets for the next two weeks before things get busy again (with Dreamation and then Intercon in quick succession!).

We went out to NOLA two weeks ago for a friends thing (and to see Chwebaccus) and then our plane got delayed for four days (it was originally going to come back on Sunday). So, we HAD to spend the week in NOLA (oh, no!) for an extra four days, finishing out the week; I can't really complain; it gave us some time to reflect and in which we couldn't keep our existing patterns (and also some extra days to enjoy NOLA nightlife, including a Fusion Dance thing that was apparently their revival of the local scene; I mostly danced with

drcpunk but did also get dances with around 4 other dancers which was nice. The venue was in the back of a clothing shop, which gave nice speakeasy vibes (although since it didn't occur to me to buy soda from the store, I got rather parched and we headed out after 2ish hours when the band finished their set).

Before that, we did Arisia, which was small (for an Arisia, anyway) but rather pleasant.

I've also gotten back into reading Wyrm (which I had previously paused after reading chapter 21). I have to prioritize working on the larp, but it's pretty nice.

billroper

Cleaned up a bunch of stuff at work today, which was good.

And more to do tomorrow...

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Posted by Tony Finch

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2026/01/10/removing-tahoes-unwanted-menu-icons/

https://dotat.at/:/2WKIU.html

2026‑02‑02 - Removing macOS 26 Tahoe’s unwanted menu icons.

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2026/01/10/removing-tahoes-unwanted-menu-icons/

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Posted by Tony Finch

https://anil.recoil.org/notes/oxcaml-httpz

https://dotat.at/:/3ZMIT.html

2026‑02‑02 - A fast zero-allocation webserver using OxCaml.

https://anil.recoil.org/notes/oxcaml-httpz

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https://dotat.at/:/3ZMIT.html

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Posted by Tony Finch

https://youtu.be/QKSPk_0N4Jc

https://dotat.at/:/B2KL7.html

2026‑01‑31 - Don Bickler: the engineer who invented the Mars rover suspension in his garage.

https://youtu.be/QKSPk_0N4Jc

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Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/ai-coding-assistants-secretly-copying-all-code-to-china.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71544

There’s a new report about two AI coding assistants, used by 1.5 million developers, that are surreptitiously sending a copy of everything they ingest to China.

Maybe avoid using them.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/ai-coding-assistants-secretly-copying-all-code-to-china.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=71544

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Posted by Tony Finch

https://kohlschuetter.github.io/blog/posts/2026/01/27/tb25/

https://dotat.at/:/FPIQ9.html

2026‑02‑01 - Reliable 25 gigabit ethernet via Thunderbolt.

https://kohlschuetter.github.io/blog/posts/2026/01/27/tb25/

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billroper

Sam, Bonnie, and I packed out of the room at Confusion at check out time, loaded the car, and just kept going, stopping for a nice lunch at the BBQ place in Chelsea. The weather was good and we made excellent time getting home.

I had a good time. I didn't manage as much music as I'd hoped (and never got to the Dealers' Room), but Clif's and my concert went well, and I had a lot of good conversations.

On the way home, Sally called to let me know that Capricon had resolved their insurance problem, so I should be in the Dealers' Room there -- but not until Friday, because given the amount of time that I've taken off, working a full day on Thursday seems like a really good idea! :)

minoanmiss

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: relieved

jjhunter

1.) Yesterday we hosted an playreading brunch with a fun group of friends - may it be the first of many more! This time we did Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia".

I used to host regular playreading potluck dinner parties years and years ago when I lived in a co-op, and losing access to rooms of a size where 8+ people might cheerfully cram themselves on various chairs and couches and floor nooks with cushions was one of the griefs I carried with me from that co-op's breakup. I'm glad to be restarting now.

2.) Today I had the the mindblowing joy of seeing 'Noli Timere' ('be not afraid') at ArtsEmerson.

Calling it an aerial dance doesn't quite do it justice; you can see the local trailer here or read a great WBUR feature about it here. ("In a time defined by uncertainty and distance, this piece isn’t just about resisting the gravity that weighs on us, it’s about choosing to catch each other when we fall, to carry each other through the invisible webs that bind us.")

3.) We have had an entire week+ of snow on the ground, and a foot of it is still here!

This delights me for many reasons, not least that this means another year of the invading fire ants being killed before they can establish themselves. Every winter we get at least ten days in a row of freezing weather is a winter I heave a big sign of relief.

kaberett

Reading. Successfully completed the rereads of The Human Division and The End of All Things, and moved on to The Shattering Peace, John Scalzi. ( Read more... )

I did appreciate the way that the time elapsed in series-internal chronology and between publications matched nicely; that all felt very Correct on a hindbrain level.

And some unpublished poetry I'm not able to share but really want to, because it's very good.

Writing. The put-some-words-in take-some-words-out dance continues.

Watching. Bits of Iron Man and His Awesome Friends, and also Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, because the Child is having a special interests and his special interests include Howard Stark playing dad rock and also not being a terrible father.

Playing. We finished ridiculous puzzle #1! We spent a bunch of the afternoon working out how all the disparate rooms we'd managed to build fit together. It was bullshit, and extremely satisfying.

The Inkulinati run with the Exploders set-up continues astonishingly easy except, weirdly, against Hildegard.

Cooking. Extremely pleased with the results of the experiment of boiling swede + parsnip + carrot up with a tea strainer containing rosemary, slightly crushed black pepper, and a crushed clove of garlic (and indeed cooking it all the way to Basically All The Liquid's Gone in order to keep the flavours in). Will attempt to remember the fundamental principle of bouquet garni for next time I need to do this, if there is a next time.

Exploring. A bit of time in the City of London, during which I discovered that at least some of the lions on the Bank of England are sticking their tongues out.

Observing. Great tits at my mother's! Roe deer (I think) and a hare at The New Site. A Very Dramatic Moon.

Growing. Sciarid nematodes arrived and applied. Both orchids Definitely Thinking About Flowering. Jalapeño plants both conclusively dead but jalapeños themselves all harvested (whether I get around to smoking them is a different question).

dotaturls_feed

Posted by Tony Finch

https://github.com/vladkens/macmon

https://dotat.at/:/M5I8W.html

2026‑02‑01 - macmon: sudoless performance monitoring for Apple processors. CPU / GPU / RAM usage, power consumption and temperature.

https://github.com/vladkens/macmon

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minoanmiss

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Current Mood: curious

jjhunter

Fascism is a form of social cannibalism; it will eat us everywhere it takes root, and it cannot help our species long survive.

Fascism cannot fight climate change, because fascism will not admit limits to its control, not even self-evident limits imposed by basic properties of physics.

Fascism cannot save our children, because fascism is too busy eating them first. Fascism cannot save white people from their own fears of slave rebellions and economic overturns, because fascism will eat them too when fascism has finished eating the rest.

Everywhere fascism goes, it steals and gluts itself on the labor of the people it targets. It divides, and it eats, and it masturbates over its hollow assertions of power and purpose and ascendance.

Most human societies have strong taboos against cannibalism. The ones that don’t have equally strong limits on when it is socially appropriate, or they themselves don’t long survive.

Why do we allow cannibals to walk among us and openly pick their targets to maim and hurt and murder for their dinner tables?

___