Introducing Your Future Humans of earth. I have an announcement to make. I am going to be a musician. Now, just to be completely upfront with you, I don’t know how to play any instruments or sing Yet. But, imagine if I could. Music has the power to change the world. I could bring … | Continue reading
I am about to enter the great limbo that many non-researching teachers and professors experience each year. We call this period “Summer Vacation” or “Holidays.” Despite the fact that I am still correcting exams, interviewing potential candidates, advising interns, preparing conte … | Continue reading
Sounds normal to me If you’ve been using LinkedIn over the past several months, you’ve maybe noticed an uptick in solicitation to chime in on certain topics of expertise. I won’t judge you for taking part. We’ve all been a little bored at work and taken personality or IQ tests, a … | Continue reading
Note(s) The title of this post is indeed a reference to the song Supernova Goes Pop by Powerman 5000 from their album Tonight The Stars Revolt! The headings are lyrics from the song. Song Lyrics Supernova Goes Pop by Powerman 5000 Are you the future or are you the past? Have you … | Continue reading
Earlier this week I came across a post on Mastodon: Toot from @clive@saturation.social regarding online product reviews Of course I had to read the article. I read reviews quite a bit. I know you shouldn’t trust them, but I do it anyway. The article shared in the post, How Google … | Continue reading
I keep a little file on my computer. It synchronizes with my other devices using Syncthing. The file is called useful-commands.md. Basically, if I ever had to spend more than 5 minutes figuring something out, I keep the commands in that file. Problem I have multiple employers tha … | Continue reading
The first post I made to this blog was on 2021-01-28. That was three years ago. Since then, I have made around 60 posts. The intention to write more was there, but time and inspiration were not on my side. Nonetheless, I feel that the past three years have been a success. This is … | Continue reading
Digital Privacy has an image problem. At the moment, there isn’t anything sexy about it. If it were a trailer for a film, you’d be playing on your phone while it was on. It needs an image makeover and a re-branding. Many movements have the right idea and are presenting it as invi … | Continue reading
The PineTime is great. I say this with some bias because it is the the only smartwatch I have ever used. Long story short: after a year and change of use, the PineTime has not let me down. Updates have improved battery life and added new watch-faces. I am not a hacker so I cannot … | Continue reading
Sometimes peculiar thoughts cross our minds. I’m not a deep, philosophical person; I hate overthinking. But, actively fighting against overthinking is just overthinking, isn’t it? Now, you can call me silly—I have laughed at myself over this—because somehow a video game console b … | Continue reading
Hello music nerds. The end of the year is creeping up on us and that means it is time to take a look back at the year in music. As much as I love discovering new music, this year was not a huge year for that. As far as I can tell (using beets and ListenBrainz as sources) I listen … | Continue reading
Opportunities are everywhere. Sometimes, though, you need to make your own opportunities. All it takes is an idea. And ideas can come from anywhere. This is the story about a boy. One day, towards the end of the 1970s, he read a book. Some would call it historical fiction, some s … | Continue reading
“Did you hear what happened today?” “No, what?” “Somebody was killed…” That is a common exchange I’ve had with my students. It seems to me that more than once a day, something atrocious is happening here in France. Statistically, that is likely true. France is small, but that doe … | Continue reading
There once was a magical glass pyramid. It sat on top of a hill. All were welcome to come and live in the glass pyramid. All you had to do was follow the long and winding path up the hill. Outside the pyramid, it was dangerous. There were no houses. There was no food. Inside the … | Continue reading
It will (again) come as no surprise that we will (predictably) work on finding a way to use GPT-4/LLM/ChatGPT/whatever to create content for classes and find ways to allow students to use it in class. me, 3 months ago It might be worse than I thought. Not only are we going to be … | Continue reading
I bought a little digicam. It looks like this: Kodak Pixpro WPZ2 It is yellow and plastic and is exactly what you would expect to get when you go into the local electronics shop and ask for the cheapest thing they have. Well, this was the second cheapest. I probably should have g … | Continue reading
My partner has a podcast! It’s in French, and it is about the history of Spain. So, if you speak French, check out Pourquoi les espagnols sont comme ça ?: Spotify Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts RSS It is also on YouTube, and that is what this post is really about. Now, my better … | Continue reading
Reflecting upon this school year as it draws to a close, the word that comes to mind is “predictable.” Perhaps with age and experience, I am becoming overly critical, and predictable as well. I must say, though, that many of the frequent criticisms of education and GenZ proved al … | Continue reading
Recently, a new Android phone has come into my possession. It is fortunately very light on the bloatware that comes on many devices. Just the standard Google stuff, the required packages, and 4 OEM packages. What’s more, it is very up-to-date and will probably stay that way based … | Continue reading
Recently, a new Android phone has come into my possession. It is fortunately very light on the bloatware that comes on many devices. Just the standard Google stuff, the required packages, and 4 OEM packages. What’s more, it is very up-to-date and will probably stay that way based … | Continue reading
Introduction I used to use Gemini. (I cannot recall why I stopped using it). Call it prescience, call it hoarding, but I happened to keep my bookmarks file from those days. During some Spring cleaning I opened it up to see what was there. There were a number of bookmarks, one of … | Continue reading
Introduction I used to use Gemini. (I cannot recall why I stopped using it). Call it prescience, call it hoarding, but I happened to keep my bookmarks file from those days. During some Spring cleaning I opened it up to see what was there. There were a number of bookmarks, one of … | Continue reading
The vinyl bandwagon has made a few laps around the block in my lifetime. I have occasionally run alongside it, too. While I have never climbed up on my soapbox to tout the strengths of the format or rally followers under an “It Just Sounds Warmer” banner, I must admit that the ri … | Continue reading
The vinyl bandwagon has made a few laps around the block in my lifetime. I have occasionally run alongside it, too. While I have never climbed up on my soapbox to tout the strengths of the format or rally followers under an “It Just Sounds Warmer” banner, I must admit that the ri … | Continue reading
Note(s) The images provided here have been anonymized in such a way to preserve the original appearance. This is not meant to be a personal attack on anyone, but if you recognize your CV here, email me and I will make it disappear. I am fed up. LinkedIn, the “professional” networ … | Continue reading
In March 2021 I wrote about using pandoc to make my presentations for class. Towards the end of that post, I wrote: My next quest will be to figure out how to make my own themes and styles. If you know how or have a nice, simple, guide, let me know. Well, it turns out that I was … | Continue reading
Gather round, my younglings, hear my prose. I will tell you a story everyone knows... Our good hero has things to say and things to share. Belly full and coffee prepared, they take their seat and stare. A blank screen beckons. Fingers fly and letters coalesce into words and sente … | Continue reading
Mid-November, 2022, my trusty Nokia 5.3 began acting up. I began looking for a new device. I was only looking, though, because I don’t relish spending money on a device, or reading reviews, or dealing with transferring things from an old phone to a new phone. I rediscovered the F … | Continue reading
NB: The following is neither a review nor a recommendation. It is a brief look at one of my most used pieces of software. You turn on your computer. There is work to be done. Work sometimes requires communication, and despite all the amazing ways we have to communicate, email is … | Continue reading
Note(s) The following is neither a review nor a recommendation. It is a brief look at one of my most used pieces of software. You turn on your computer. There is work to be done. Work sometimes requires communication, and despite all the amazing ways we have to communicate, email … | Continue reading
It is funny how little I understand the tools that make this blog work. Sure, I can (sort of) read HTML, and I can guess my way through CSS and JavaScript. But, when it came to making this blog, I just picked Hugo and stuck with it. I followed Mogwai’s Creating a simple.css Site … | Continue reading
I read the docs for the Bitwarden CLI. All straightforward enough. But, I am not always clear-headed. Having, as I tend to do, skipped a step I was stalled for about 45 minutes trying to figure this out. I use the Bitwarden CLI regularly through a qutebrowser userscript (and rofi … | Continue reading
Hello out there, people of the World Wide Web! It is now 2023 here is France. I am wide awake and ready to write about 2022. 2022 ripped by at warp speed, but my Millennial brain has managed to pick out a few titbits. This is a very unstructured flyover of those titbits. I warn y … | Continue reading
Hello out there, people of the World Wide Web! It is now 2023 here is France. I am wide awake and ready to write about 2022. 2022 ripped by at warp speed, but my Millennial brain has managed to pick out a few titbits. This is a very unstructured flyover of those titbits. I warn y … | Continue reading
I am in the market for a new phone. One of the phones I nearly purchased is the Coolpad Cool S. Wait. Sorry. That link isn’t right. This is the Coolpad Cool S. You might have noticed a striking similarity between these devices. Look. See? Are you seeing it? Moving on. I did not b … | Continue reading
Note(s) I do not own any of the devices mentioned below. While searching for new phone I came across a brand that I have known about for some time, but never considered as I am not a target customer. I was, however, wowed by the presentation of their website and repairability pro … | Continue reading
The Quest Begins It pains me to even think about embarking on this quest. There is nothing wrong with my phone. I will keep it until it honestly and truly bites the dust. A series of things have led me to once again start thinking about replacing it. The first being that it looks … | Continue reading
It has been long enough since my last update that I honestly forgot how to add a new post… This is going to be a bit of a hodgepodge of information and updates. PineTime After a short exchange over on Fosstodon, I needed little convincing to buy a PineTime. For starters, this is … | Continue reading
Let’s keep this short, shall we? As a professor, I am privileged with some time off that other professions do not enjoy. One would expect—and some hope—that I would spend that time on holiday, or practising a hobby. That is not my bag. First, I do not get four, three, or even two … | Continue reading