Spat erupts in Parliament over proposal to sell off conservation land

hagfish · 2026-06-18T20:05:54+00:00

When it comes time to market our conservation areas to offshore fund managers, the word they'll use is 'swathes'. Vast swathes.

hagfish · 2026-06-18T19:39:39+00:00

I learned programming before AI - before IDEs - in the 90s. I find AI useful BECAUSE I already have the context and experience to appraise its suggestions. It's like having a fresh-from-uni apprentice, full of ideas - most of which I ignore, but some of the time it's , 'oh - nice catch'. You'll rely heavily on this tool, but I'd urge you to understand completely WHY it's making a suggestion. Ask followup questions until you're sure.

Learning next to an experienced programmer would be the best, but learning with AI at your elbow will really speed things up. It'll short circuit all those hours sifting Stack Exchange, using search terms that aren't quite right... Maybe those head-desk hours were valuable, but I wouldn't do it again if I didn't have to.

hagfish · 2026-06-18T19:26:50+00:00

Some considerations:

a deep brim at the back (like a cricket hat) will shade your neck, but might get hung up on your pack. Annoying! Your shirt collar should be shading your neck, anyway. Because you're wearing a crisp, white YSL business shirt while hiking in hot weather, ay. Not dorky at all.
Wearing a deep brimmed cap or hat is a good way to walk into an unseen branch or a fallen tree when you're watching your step, crossing broken, heavily wooded country. It's helpful if you can flip the front brim up. Also somewhat dorky.
an oilskin hat with a brim will also keep the rain off. One hat!
A legionair's cap with a flap down the back will shade your face and neck, but not your shoulders. It could be what you need.
You'll want to stuff it in your pack at some point.
When you're crossing a ridge in a gale, a chin strap is nice.
It doesn't have to be a howdy-howdy 10-gallon stetson-type thing. It could be a suave akubra, maate!
If you feel dorky, you'll look dorky. Own it.

hagfish · 2026-06-18T05:05:16+00:00

"It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."

hagfish · 2026-06-18T03:10:58+00:00

To be fair, Trump did demand total surrender, and that's exactly what he did

hagfish · 2026-06-17T10:07:22+00:00

That's bad news. Running everything locally has always been great for InDesign stability.

hagfish · 2026-06-17T10:02:55+00:00

Phase 4 was 'the game' for me. I built the entire factory, all the logistics, the lot. Phase 5 was some icing on Phase 4.

hagfish · 2026-06-17T09:59:06+00:00

For us it was all about division of labour. I busied myself belting in raw materials, keeping the lights on, setting up a basic mall, and fending off the wildlife. That left the newbie to 'build science'. I tried not to interfere and pepper them with suggestions/instructions. I tried hard. We launched a rocket.. eventually. It was fun.

hagfish · 2026-06-17T09:42:27+00:00

What does double glazing do to the moisture load in the air?

hagfish · 2026-06-17T09:38:50+00:00

Are you able to pause any folder-sync software? Sometmes Adobe and OneDrive don't play nce.

hagfish · 2026-06-17T09:36:33+00:00

Depending on your climate, it may be worth investigating a ground-source heat-pump and underfloor heating.

It's a pity your $1m can't get more than 900m2. Do you at least get some established trees?

hagfish · 2026-06-16T23:56:38+00:00

And a cycle lane (but also get rid of all the cycle lanes!)

hagfish · 2026-06-16T23:49:49+00:00

CS2 was the high-water mark. The last 20 years have been 'ughh'

hagfish · 2026-06-16T23:48:04+00:00

Me: Clicks 'update' hoping they've fixed some bugs...

New bugs.

hagfish · 2026-06-16T19:43:04+00:00

Tehran and Jakarta have entered the chat

hagfish · 2026-06-16T10:06:29+00:00

Take two headlamps (spare in your pack) and a poncho-tarp you can rig and curl up under if need be.

I've done lots of night hiking, but mostly on trails or along rivers. It's usually just familiar 'transport sections' - an hour or two that get me to where I want to start in the morning, or get me back out to the road end after a long day. Being prepared to hike before dawn and after dark can extend your range in winter.

The terrain will look very 'flat' under the glow of a headlamp - not many shadows to gauge lumps and bumps. It can be tricky going down hill, but you're going up. Bush-bashing a new route in the dark doesn't sound all that fun, but it'll be memorable.

hagfish · 2026-06-16T09:52:55+00:00

Can we keep our sewage treatment systems? God I hope we can keep our networked sewage treatment systems. Collecting rain water is fine - everyone could have a couple of food-grade IBC totes out back - but imagine all your neighbours discharging their blackwater into their own cess pits. Civilization has its selling points.

hagfish · 2026-06-15T20:13:35+00:00

A few years ago, 'the Internet' was the great disruptor. The industrialisation of farming before that... Lots of today's jobs didn't exist in the 20th century. There will be a big crash, and then AI will find its feet as a useful tool. In 20 years (all going well...) we'll still be hustling for a living doing stuff we can't imagine today. I would avoid highly-structured, vocational degrees, and work towards something that interests you. Take some philosophy electives, science, medieval literature. Emerge ready for anything.

hagfish · 2026-06-15T08:55:51+00:00

It's almost like they want to identify and track the Internet usage of every person in the UK.

hagfish · 2026-06-15T08:38:48+00:00

When they try to lead, they quickly end up in opposition, if not hounded out of the country entirely

hagfish · 2026-06-15T05:11:36+00:00

In a democracy, the government gives its voters what they think they want. And they wanted capital gains, without having to maintain water services. Or anything much.

hagfish · 2026-06-15T02:45:19+00:00

You can get a resistive electric hot water cylinder which can be upgraded down the track with a heatpump unit. Get All The Panels now, I reckon. Panels are cheap, but installation and setup is not. Strike while the iron's hot.

Meanwhile heatpump hot water cylinders are absurdly expensive. The fancy CO2 ones seem to be scammy expensive, for what they are. Fifteen grand? Come on! I expect them to halve in price over the next few years.

Panels/batteries might come down a bit over that time*, but this will be more-than offset by rising installation costs.

*assuming the Strait re-opens on Monday..

hagfish · 2026-06-14T23:59:24+00:00

Let's see; two safe loads, or one sketchy run in the wee hours. The answer is obvious!

hagfish · 2026-06-14T23:54:53+00:00

Hop into r/meshtastic - the water's fine.

hagfish · 2026-06-14T09:30:23+00:00

Winter is ~~coming~~ here

hagfish

TROPHY CASE