Events

We've got a big demo at 8am that we've just put to bed, which means I get to go to bed. While the pipelines ran I came across Cory Doctorow's latest post on how DRM ruins everything: [In 2002,] we warned that giving manufacturers the power to restrict how you configured your own digital products would lead them to abuse that power – not to prevent copyright infringement, but to shift value from you to them. The temptation would be too great to resist, especially if the companies knew they could use the...

With tomorrow night having the earliest sunset of the year, it got dark at 4:20 pm—two hours ago. One loses time, you see. Especially with a demo tomorrow. So I'll just read these while devops pipelines run: Reversing their First Amendment argument from only 18 months ago, the Chicago Tribune editorial board finally agrees with most Chicagoans that the big sign facing down Wabash Street from the tower named after the XPOTUS has to go. After reporting on elections for 22 years, Josh Marshall finally...

The deployment went so smoothly, it bored me to tears. Perfect. Oh, and the XPOTUS's company got convicted of tax fraud. Where's my popcorn?

We didn't deploy code to production at the end of last sprint because we had a seriously large epic that took 3 weeks to complete. It involved re-architecting an entire feature so that it can support multiple data types rather than the single type we originally planned for. We knew this would happen, and we expected it right around the three-year point in development. So here it is, right on time. But despite all the testing and care that we put into the Dev/Test branch, and despite the multiple...

My drivers license expired in 2020, when all the Secretary of State's offices (what we in Illinois call the DMV) were closed, so I just renewed it online. I had hoped to upgrade to a Real ID, but it turned out the 2021 deadline for getting one got pushed back to 2023. Since I moved in October, I actually have to go to the SOS office as they won't accept address changes online. But I still don't need a Real ID, it turns out: Americans will have two more years to obtain a Real ID driver’s license or...

Derp. Yesterday was the 30th birthday of the SMS, too. Also, I came across a nifty live CTA tracker, so I now know where part of my bonus is going. I feel seen! (They have a bunch of other live trackers, including one for the Tube. Kewl.)

Clearly, I have to get my priorities in order. I've spent the afternoon in the zone with my real job, so I have neglected to real all of this: Lawyers who don't subscribe to the radical right-wing theory of constitutional originalism shouldn't argue it to the Supreme Court. If Republican US Senate candidate Herschel Walker really got into law school, I'll eat my own JD diploma. British architecture protects against cold, damp weather, but not the heat that global warming will bring to the island. I have...

In Chicago, from November 15th to December 31st, the sun sets before 4:30pm. Not much before; for about 11 days, it sets within a few seconds of 4:20pm before getting just a few seconds later. The only point I'm making is: it's dark already. Cassie has gotten exactly one walk in full daylight a day for the last week, and that will likely continue. Ah, winter. Oh, and the Fourth Circuit has once again (metaphorically) called XPOTUS-appointed Federal Circuit Judge Aileen Cannon an idiot.

Meteorological winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere today. In Chicago right now we have sunny skies and a normal-for-December 2°C. And any day above freezing between December 1st and March 1st works for me. Meanwhile: Eric Levitz explains why four railroad unions might go on strike next week. Hint: greedy private equity investors. Adam Conover explains why so many major retail chains have gone bankrupt in the past few years. Hint: greedy private equity investors. The pilot who crashed his Mooney...

Even though I'm president of a medium-sized non-profit organization who understands the importance of keeping in touch with constituents, I have run out of patience. For the last couple of weeks, I have mercilessly unsubscribed from every mailing list that sent me more than two emails a week. I might wind up missing a couple of them, but my dog, some of them just would not shut up. The worst offender was my undergraduate university. In the last week, until I finally unsubscribed from them just now...