The Fantasy of Science in Fiction
I've been into Sci Fi for a long time, long enough to know that much of what is seen as Sci Fi isn't.... at least by my standard anyway. So what's the standard? Well... for starters...
- The story has to at least at the core be about an as-factual-as-possible concept and explore the ramifications that this concept has, while remaining as factual as possible.
- Story conveniences are allowed to assist you to get to the point of the story, or in the case of a movie (...)
Check Your Facts, Like It Or Not
One of my odd goals of this slog, aside from being a place to rant and an activity-indicator for SiegSpace, is to provide an additional source of researched facts on certain topics. Sometimes I find there isn't a reliable place for facts, so I'm hoping to help by being a unbiased reference. Thus, to achieve that goal I often need to do some research to line up facts that I remember. Most of it is on the Interweb, but sometimes I draw from books, deeper inside my head... Anyway I was working (...)
Security By Portability
I've been banking on the Internet for a long time. Started with a nice app on Windows in around 1998 and I was hooked. Phone banking, as in using the keypad or a tone generator (or in recent times voice) that's always been a crazy idea IMHO. Slow and imprecise. Never got into that one. I would have got into other computing style ones, that is pre-internet, but I was a late starter. Didn't get my first networked computer until 1997, and the Internet was all the rage. But, back on topic, I (...)
FastFoto Four-Hundred
I've got loads of film photos from yesteryear that I really want to be scanned. One of the biggest issues is the combination of time and quality. In short one wants the scan to be perfect, but at the same time one does not want to spend too much time. However, but the same logic, a bad scan is a waste of time as one will want to do it all over again at a latter point. As a result I've been inclined to scan negatives when possible, but there's a skill level I don't have and it'll involve more (...)
AI Doompop
As a long term Microsoft Windows programmer I (used to?) feel a bit tense when someone proposes switching to Linux or even something crazy like MacOS. I'd see it as a personal attack on my financial future of me and my family, and it was eventually tensions like that that make me want to move on from being a one-man-developing team. Over my last 20 years as a professional programmer I went from Assembly to C to C++ and (...)
It Has Fallen Far From The Tree
I mentioned in an earlier Slog that I've got a M1 MacBook Pro. Which I do! I'm using it right now in fact! It's very good for what I use it for; a general web browsing machine that has good battery life and a holistically decent hardware. Which it does, even about five years later. It's one of those with the TouchBar. A feature I thought was cool but less cool than it could have been since it replaced the function keys in the process. But it's still supported; I really like how when typing (...)
Weight Set Point and Early Conclusions
Early conclusions? What? This is poor science! Well it's all appropriate as I'm also ranting about Weight Set Point, which is not good science, but is probably at least partially true. Let's start with the Early Conclusions.
- Metabolism for the purpose of this discussion is about how your body uses a certain amount of energy just existing. This amount may increase and result in extra work done by the body in repairing/growing, or just make you feel more inclined to do stuff. (...)
Do No Evil to the Core
Is Google Evil? Is Apple Evil? Am I evil for thinking about these things?
TL/DR dunno.
I was riding home on my motorbike the other day, and I was thinking what makes Google be seen as an evil company. I think it's mostly it's 'cos of it's information gathering practices. But. It doesn't really profit from those directly. The data (generally) go to ad companies and in the end companies who sell products/services who know what Google stand for. It's like YouTubers who embed (...)
The First Time I Thought Software That Exists Today Could End Modern Society As We Know It
...and any further examples as they happen.
But yeah, this one.
How a ‘swarm’ of AI agents hacked another company, in the AI’s own words
As a Microsoft Engineer, This Is (...)
Fold Fame
The biggest surprise with using a Samsung Fold to me, aside from the fact that it wasn't as good at multitasking as I hoped, is the amount of interest I get from friends and randos.
Is it good?
What's the battery life like?
Wow that's big!
That's an iPhone isn't it? (...)
