Mastodawn

I find "It's a Fine Day" by Edward Barton/Jane Lancaster (1983) intensely melancholic in combination with its official video. Saudade maybe. The kid in the video could have been my dad & the adults could have been my grandparents. They're all dead and I miss them. I think nostalgia and the opposite of nostalgia, distilled, are bullshit. But it still gets me. What saves that song, for me, is "we will have salad" because of the mundanity of the juxtaposition & abruptbess.

https://youtu.be/4vgcYBwyw28

Jane - Its A Fine Day - (Official Video, 1983)

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

YouTube

John 6h ago

Wordle 1,752 4/6*

⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟨🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

Minute Cryptic - 6 April, 2026 (I found this one difficult.)
"Notice couples in less happy moods. Better to be single?" (4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (23,590 solvers so far).
https://www.minutecryptic.com/

WORD5 #549 3/6* (Hard Mode)

⬛⬛🟧⬛⬛
🟧⬛🟪⬛⬛
🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪

https://otherstuff.ai/word5/

#wordle #minutecryptic #word5

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXLI59e3Vo

Wordle - A daily word game

Guess the hidden word in 6 tries. A new puzzle is available each day.

John 18h ago

There are lots of good current O'Reilly books. I think they have gotten a bit less conversational and reading books like Mastering Regular Expressions was almost like conversing with a smart friend or teacher than a dry technical book. Programming Rust, for example, is a great book but I don't think it has "the funk" in the same way as a lot of 90s O'Reilly books. Although I'm probably reading the wrong ones. Plus I'm distracting myself from what I intended to do, which is unnecessarily dumb.

John 18h ago

It's a good book and Michael W Lucas has a sense of humour. I hope he gets interested in NixOS.

"Every so often, men contact the author complaining that his books use both male and female pronouns. This special edition, using only male third-person pronouns, is for those special people. As the market is so much smaller, it’s unfortunately priced higher.

For each copy of the Manly McManface edition sold, the author will donate one dollar to his local chapter of Soroptomists International."

John 22h ago

My sound memory is a 37.0/50. I need someone to do worse. Please. https://dialed.gg/sound

It's a little annoying that 4 of these were 8+ but one around 10hz off down in the lower octaves mucked up my score with a 2. I should be eating breakfast or doing stuff. Not auto-Pavloving with a mobile phone in bed. I could auto-Pavlov while eating. I think that one is an interesting game and harder than just notes (unless it conforms to scales ±. I'm sceptical of notes because A440 is artificial.)

Sound — How Good Is Your Ear?

Listen to 5 tones, then recreate them from memory. Prove your ears work.

Dialed

John 1d ago

I can only speak from my own experience but as I get older I'm less likely to enjoy being lost because of a greater appreciation of time being finite and a realistic appraisal of my own abilities. I think that's worth rebelling against because if something mostly makes sense either I'm lying to myself or it's too easy or it's not new. I want to fit in as many things as possible that don't make sense until they do, precisely because life is finite therefore I think feeling lost can be positive.

John 1d ago

Not the best idea to do puzzles while tired. Best case scenario it saves doing them tomorrow when I could be plugging away at NixOS, which I'm feeling lost at but I'm ok with that, and watching Sunday Brunch. It would be great if there were a NixOS book in the style, and quality, of a 1985-2010 O'Reilly book because it would be less mucking about. I have literally no compelling reason to learn about NixOS in depth but I'll carry on because I'm enjoying the novelty/challenge/puzzle/learning.

John 1d ago

Wordle 1,751 6/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨
🟨⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛🟨⬛🟩🟨
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Minute Cryptic - 5 April, 2026
"Raising agent for pear crumble - not egg free?" (6)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (17,398 solvers so far).
https://www.minutecryptic.com/

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=59LgHomq9S8

My color memory is a 41.2/50.
https://dialed.gg

🙂 Daily Quordle 1532
4️⃣5️⃣
6️⃣8️⃣
m-w.com/games/quordle/

WORD5 #548 6/6* (Hard Mode)

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛🟧🟧
🟧🟧⬛🟪🟪
⬛🟧🟧🟪🟪
⬛🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪

https://otherstuff.ai/word5/

#wordle #minutecryptic #quordle #word5

Minute Cryptic

Solve a clue with a hidden meaning

John 1d ago

People writing about specialist, esoteric, and complicated things often miss out large chunks of what they're explaining because in many, or enough, cases it would be re-explaining the obvious to their target audience. A distinct phenomena from stupid, or inexperienced. writers making the assumption that their audience knows what they know without good reasons for assuming that. Academic books are often terrible. CLRS is a good example of doing it right because of the very useful appendixes.

John 1d ago

Nina Kalinina 1d ago

RE: https://oldbytes.space/@bitsavers/116346860152891077

I can confirm; the number of ways my parents could reach out to me is decreasing. I can give them a call, but the calls from their side aren't reaching me. My primary email cannot interact with their primary email, but at least emails from their secondary email reach mine, and vice versa. The Russian government can read our email correspondence this way, of course.

The VPN is getting actively erased, and there are even rumours of criminalising the use of VPN services, so my parents are afraid of using one. It's even more interesting with the government basically mandating the installation of a government MITM&MDM software on all the mobile devices.

Things are grim. Gotta ask my dad whether he has any interest in returning to the HAM radio circles :D