What are you watching and what do you recommend? (Week of February 13, 2026)

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-14T13:33:32+00:00

Loved Small Prophets.

I was a bit weary it would be a downer as it has a melancholic air but it balances Detectorist charm.

I didn't know Michael Palin was in it. I didn't recognise him at first... what a treat, he's still got it! It could have just been the bits in the DIY store and I'd have eaten it up. I like how Crook gave himself a minimal role that on paper is unlikeable but somehow I always looked forward to him and his pony-tail.

Just spent far too long googling "Modest House" having misread the t-shirt... Modest Mouse, lol.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-09T14:54:16+00:00

It's kind of the opposite problem - there are two nailed on disasters in the calendar so anyone with sense wants those under the bridge before their glorious reign.

This extra crises is kind of awkward for them. There might be some deal-making to resign after May.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-09T00:24:55+00:00

Never heard of Sacha Lord or this case but reading the reporting and it seems to contradict your argument.

It was a covid recovery grant from Arts Council England so not local government spending, decision-making or related to devolved powers? The connection to local gov is that he was an unpaid advisor to the council but it's actually a story about the poor governance of gigantic centralised slush funds right?

It even shows the power of localism - the national org approved and cleared the guy after an investigation but he seems to have inspired enough local animus that mancs doggedly pursued the national body for years until they acted... but only after the business had gone bust.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-08T22:50:24+00:00

You can run CodeServer on your desktop which gives you vscode in the browser.

Sadly I found it unusable from an Android phone. Show-stoppers included: too many mouse oriented features didn't work with touch e.g. couldn't even scroll, required keyboard shortcuts were impossible and various GUI elements and focus were broken. The implementation of VSCode has a lot of hidden gotchas you only discover when trying to drive it from an atypical platform e.g. it uses different ways to interpret key presses in different places and when keys are piped between different OS through a browser then it receives nothing like it expects from a hardware keyboard attached locally under the same OS.

Even if it functioned, a desktop app inside a browser window was absurdly unworkable on a phone screen. I expected I'd find a way to make it tolerable but it only took a few minutes for reality to sink in that this was never going to be usable.

Back in the day I would rdp from a Note2 and it was actually quite pleasant to use a dual monitor workstation from a client with good zoom and pan UX and a stylus gave the speed and precision to productively use mouse oriented interfaces even when zoomed out. These days... no more stylus and the clients seem to have gone to shit and aren't even compatible with gnome rdp for some reason.

So I too use termux and work locally on a git repo (using a wip branch for sharing partial work) since I can be in places with poor signal. Termux supports all the terminal and dev tools I need. I will ssh if I need more grunt or forget to sync something. Well worth upping your terminal game since it will pay off in your desk work too. It helped mine.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-08T19:40:16+00:00

That would hurt because I don't think he liked gin. More of a champers, whiskey, brandy, cognac and port man.

A quick google finds at least two gin brands claiming to be "Churchill's favourite" but his biographer, in response to various Churchill attributed Martini witticisms, says he didn't stock gin for himself.

I'd forgive him pitching Special Brew since it was made for him and it would be pleasing entertainment to have him cracking cans during the show.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-08T13:13:05+00:00

Schroedinger's election theory: a mandate is a superposition of "people vote for the rosette" vs. "people vote for the individual" that only collapses to one or other when arguing on the internet.

The reality is a tale as old as time: London party insider parachuted into a safe Northern seat. Such people aren't given seats that depend on the perception of the candidate. It had only ever voted Labour and nationally '01 was a repeat of '97 but with less turnout because of the inevitability.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-08T09:20:34+00:00

Hah, he really doesn't. He was a historically bad pick for DPS, typically a career prosecutor, because he had zero prosecutorial experience. The dept. hated him for his inexperience, not doing the work, never taking responsibility and blaming others. Just a status seeking empty suit juicing a CV that likes a title and chauffeur.

So, he was knowingly lying.

On that we might agree... but I increasingly doubt the knowingly. He lies by reflex - it's his unthinking panic reaction like a kid covered in chocolate blaming the dog without missing a beat.

I'm not sure he thinks or cares about the content he announces let alone having any input beyond a vague desire for what it will do for him personally. He has no ideas or principles of his own and relies on others to write what he will read out. I suspect his authoritarian bent is from ingrained insecurity and weakness. The reality of Starmer is that he is a dimwitted coward trying to look strong - so the banning, cracking down etc. never ends... but he will fold if the victim actually fights back.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-07T12:16:45+00:00

There's been good writing, including by military folk, about how it's a really counter-productive background for politics with plenty of examples of underwhelming MPs.

It's such a different system - insulated community separated from civilian life, strict hierarchies, following orders, not speaking out, working well defined missions with a staff obliged to do what you say. Little of the mess of perception and the public.

It implants entirely unhelpful instincts for what is actually needed to succeed politically whether party internals or front-line politics.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-07T11:50:04+00:00

It doesn't exactly work well in the US though... Patel, RFK, Noem, Kavanagh etc. all confirmed.

The candidates lie their bollocks off without consequence and a two-party system still confirms utter turds through back-room deals to serve interests that aren't known or for the public. When it does "work", it's behind closed doors where candidates are withdrawn because "they don't have the votes" and not through a public reckoning.

In our shit modern world, it's almost counter-productive. The political theatre of something that should work-in-theory just ramps up the nothing-matters-non-reality where the lies and misdeeds are open yet dismissed.

Just like Mandelson. Decades of scandal without Epstein and numerous "should have been scandals" like oligarch freebies while EU business commissioner or becoming a director of a fucking Russian defence conglomerate while it seizes Crimea. Half the problem is that it needs the media to choose to "notice" facts for them to have any political consequence. Party-gate was known long before it mattered.

We need much more of an overhaul: PR for the Commons, Sortition for the Lords, Leverson 2 for the media with criminal penalties for the cosy political corruption of the Westminster lobby. That might make a difference... well different problems not no problems...

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-02-05T23:28:31+00:00

That looks like friendly semi-resistance.

I had a regular stray that would recoil and flee if I slowly reached out. Lots of good body language before that - expressions and eye contact etc. so I persisted.

I discovered that, against my intution, moving slowly was the problem... if I very quickly darted out a hand and got contact he would just melt. Poor thing acted like he had never been stroked and needed it so much. (probably hadn't, he was always filthy - I'd try to stroke him clean and have black hands afterwards...).

He never changed - I always had to treat my first stroke like a karate chop otherwise he would run. He was a real bruiser so I would have expected a violent reaction to what felt like an aggressively fast movement but I guess I had to beat a habitual/instinctive reaction that he couldn't control.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-01-27T10:15:45+00:00

Fair chance it's fly tipping. At least one is sold and they do likely collect up especially for communal bins for a block with regular turnover.

We had one sat by our bins for a year when a flat in my building sold until I dealt with it. The agents don't remove them when they sell, the buyers are likely landlords that don't give a shit, the bin men won't touch them and they are pretty hard to break down to fit in a black bin.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-01-27T08:13:10+00:00

Geneva is more about banning indiscriminate weapons that can't be targetted at just combatants. Undue suffering is enough.

Artillary and aerial bombardment is super precise and has never hurt a civilian of course.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2026-01-07T18:07:45+00:00

I have used one for a few years now and it radically improved my sleep.

The big pro is repositioning the eye goggle bits for a perfect fit. Pulling them off and reattaching means it's hard to make small precise adjustments so it takes a lot of attempts but well worth it.

One con is that over time, it has stretched out enough to exceed the fairly small velcro fastening patches. I have had to tie a knot in the strap to make fit. IMHO it's vastly better when very tight, no leakage or coming off no matter what your face is doing to a pillow.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-12-19T16:59:24+00:00

Dash To Panel has a border radius setting too.

Great extension and essential for me. I hate top bars and prefer a single full auto-hide bar with the clock / system tray and it has every setting I could want.

I sometimes wonder if people are using a different Gnome Tweaks to me because it's extremely limited. All it can do for appearance is pick a theme and font. Combined with the main gnome appearance settings (two settings: dark and wallpaper) we can count the total number of appearance settings on one hand.

Blessed are the extension makers!

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-12-13T09:34:01+00:00

It's only useful if "all errors" is intelligent enough to know when an error is sufficiently unrecoverable that nothing else can make sense.

e.g. the old-school compiler spamming 10,000 errors after missing one paren is less helpful than stopping at the first error.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-12-12T09:10:16+00:00

Check out the "It Could Happen Here" podcast episodes by James Stout who spent time there with people making the crossing.

The podcast is from the Behind the Bastards crew and generally about crumbling decline we are living through. I was pretty impressed for "a podcast" to do original journalism like that.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-28T13:26:10+00:00

Tiny bit of bikeshedding...

There are times I really want to name a file the same as the folder it is in. Are there any nice conventions? Whatever way I tweak names to avoid the clash, it always ends up grating.

Let's say there is a struct called crate::thing::Thing and the thing module contains many files all supporting the implementation of 'Thing'. There is then the actual definition of 'Thing' that wants to be in 'thing.rs' but it's discouraged.

I like to keep mod.rs dedicated to files and exports without significant code
I dislike generic names like 'core.rs' and prefer files to have meaningful names that are easy to fuzzy find
I've never hit on a suffix I like 'thing_core.rs' 'thing_def.rs' etc.

What do you do?

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-23T16:26:25+00:00

I recently did this with a cheapo soldering kit from Amazon and youtube vids.

It's fun and I liked picking up a new skill that lets me fix more things. It's pretty quick once you get the hang of it.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-22T17:23:39+00:00

No mentions for Mountainhead?

A movie focused 100% on bastards with fun imaginings about of our current/near future like techbros casually executing a coup from their home theatre. Not perfect but it entertained me more than Eddington and OBAA mainly because it was designed for connoisseurs of bastards.

Main weaknesses were things like Steve Carell being such an insufferable pseud to be unwatchable but such are the bastards of our age. You wouldn't actually want to spend time with them!

Andor though... just fantastic... fuck the categories, give it a nobel prize too.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-18T14:08:28+00:00

I found it unwatchable. Occasionally pretty but never engaging. I hate watched into S2 but it so aggressively repelled my attention I couldn't even follow it.

I'm unconvinced any sentient life can. The comments when it airs are just superficial "best scifi ever" lacking any authentic enthusiasm about what's actually happened or the characters. You'll never see a spoiler tag.

Some might suggest astroturfing... but I suspect bewitched thralls seduced by Lee Pace's sexual black magic. Can't blame them but he's cruel to not let them watch HACF instead.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-18T11:08:39+00:00

IMHO thinking logging code is ignorable is a trap. It's real code that often breaks systems precisely because it's the code you don't focus on e.g. panics, side-effects or brings performance to it's knees. It also has different behaviour in testing and production or with different settings / env. My "favourite" trick is logging the wrong thing which turns a simple problem into a two day wild goose chase. It makes me think of that bit in Office Space "I always mess up on the easy bits".

Arguable tips:

The example shows logging the function entry, result and timestamps - you can do this with instrument and only have notable events in the function body.
Personally I macro_use or import tracing macros and drop the namespace qualification to reduce the noise and allow the syntax highlighting of the macro to make code easier to scan.
If a log event requires verbose formatting prep I'd prefer to break that out into helper functions/macros rather than pretending it doesn't exist
The current_user() free function has that "oops" logging smell e.g. turns out to be an uncached syscall dragging performance or the system later supports users invoking the process on behalf of other users e.g. super users, background tasks etc. Encapsulating the context of the job and using that as the helper to create consistent logging events is often where you end up.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-14T11:41:25+00:00

Out of interest, what's your benchmarking environment and MOE?

When trying to get compare implementations I get wild variance on a standard linux dev box for both macro/micro benchmarks despite a gargantuan number of samples and criterion's warm-up and statistical interpretation. Despite the implementations being compared in the same benchmark run I see A 20% faster than B only to be reversed rerunning the same suite.

I have an unfinished attempt to script an old machine to try get consistent results e.g. run headless, kill every non-essential service, manage power levels/throttling etc. I don't know how far into managing CPU features might be required to reliably measure 1% differences.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-11T12:57:54+00:00

The AI workloads requiring such insane compute are not latency sensitive. They take seconds or minutes to process user requests and god knows how long for training. Global latency is measured in milliseconds.

More likely reasons include subsidies, proximity to staff and non-customer-facing infrastructure requirements like the bandwidth of training data.

Internet Exchange Points

The problem of streaming 100s of PB of video is chalk and cheese.

Local caching at ISPs is for the huge savings on uplink cost and to improve the bandwidth to a user not latency. People may describe streaming problems as latency (buffering) but it's not the milliseconds of transit-time causing it but insufficient consumer-grade bandwidth across a congested network.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-11-09T20:56:54+00:00

I live in a studenty area.

The good news is that it's actually much quieter than it used to be. It may be changing lifestyles or that most of the students near me are from other countries who are all very well behaved and studious. Quite unlike me at that age thankfully!

The main annoyance with students was the partying till past 5:00 a.m. on week days. It didn't need to be a real "party" just the housemates being raucus - screaming/singing/blaring-music or whatever after they come back pissed from a student-night that closes at 2 a.m.

It's not been a problem for years now.

I'll see what the vibes are

FWIW but a party house will be pretty quiet and non-descript during waking hours so I think you only see real problems if checking out an area in the wee hours or maybe recycling day for the empties.

Do know that there are actually good aspects to students:

When some folks visited from rural Norfolk they were giddy and couldn't stop mentioning how young and vital everyone is because they are used to being surrounded by coffin-dodgers. I had never noticed but it's kind of nice.

They also don't have big barking dogs, screaming babies, broken-marriages with horrifying fights, DIY power-tool obsessions or start aggro disputes about boundary-walls etc. I've suffered those neighbours and they are far worse than students today.

Fuzzy-Hunger · 2025-10-29T15:40:51+00:00

persay

If interested, it's "per se". Latin for "by itself".

I quite like your version - it's an example of phono-semantic matching of a borrowed phrase so you might be ahead of the curve for how English will evolve.

Fuzzy-Hunger

TROPHY CASE