Done Since 2026-05-18

[mdlbear]

It is now meterologically summer. Tomorrow's predicted temperature is 26°C (81°F). The little thermometer on the shelf by my desk says 26.5. I'd rather be cold, thanks -- it's easy to put layers on. Probably time to fold up my blanket.

Our flight back from Hamburg on Monday was 45 minutes. We spent at least that long waiting for our wheelchairs in Schiphol. The con was worth the trouble travel, but it might be too much for me next year. I'll be 80 by then. And between trigger finger, stiffness, and lack of practice, my hands weren't in any shape to play more than one or two songs per day on average, and I have to plan for the possibility that it won't improve much -- I may have to re-learn keyboard. It's only been 60-odd years...

See Saturday for the following quote: "See a provider if you’re feeling pain that lasts more than a few days without getting better." Um... how many months has it been?

Linkies: bad news first: The United States loses its status as a liberal democracy. Will probably go unreported by US mainstream media.

Then the corresponding good news: The EU Is Going Through a Trump-Fueled Breakup With Big Tech For obvious reasons.

Nostalgia: ~ rip.so :: the digital graveyard

Pretties: Artist Made Hundreds of Safari Animal Sculptures for His Town KLM commercial: Swan Take off

Notes & links:
0518Mo
  = hx work session
    * Dutch
  * 14:50 HAM KLM flt KL1756 to AMS 16:00 booking code XOQP5F
  * make done
  @ Five Fascinating Traits You Never Knew Were Linked to Autism | by Nera Urquhart
  * see whether CPAP fits in the travelpro backpack.  Underseat volume looks big enough.
    -> it does, easily.  Should get an inner bag for CPAP, tubing, headgear, and power
  
0519Tu
  * order cat litter, cat fud, paracetamol (foil packages for travel)
  @ Angine de Poitrine - Fabienk -- orchestral interpretation
  * 10:17 (scheduled) leave for 11am Haga Pelvic floor PT
    % note: lying on my stomach hurts.
    -> work on breathing deep and feeling what it does to the pelvic floor.  _very_ subtle
       and difficult to pick up.
  @ A Sane Adult’s Quest for the Hidden Meaning Behind the 6–7 Craze | Carlyn Beccia
    " In a culture obsessed with optimization, productivity, and legibility — where every
      action is tracked, branded, measured, and fed back to us as data — nonsense becomes
      one of the last spaces where connection isn’t transactional. There’s nothing to
      sell. Nothing to perform. Nothing to optimize.  "
  @ ~ rip.so :: the digital graveyard ~
    (via Hackaday - Remembering The Tech We Lost With A Virtual Graveyard)
    ~ alive against odds :: rip.so ~
  * SL paracetamol foil packs for travel
  @ NeoSander-Detail Sander – HOZO
    arrived while we were at DFDF.  Tiny hand-held with shaped surfaces and multiple
    grits.  Also straight and curved saw blades, which I suspect may be even more useful.
    -> should be a really useful companion to the Cubiko CNC router.
  = hx work session
    * Dutch
  * 19:00 - 20:30 (10am-11:30 PST) Healing Center Passages support grp - 1st, 3rd Tu
  * load drugs
  * wash socks

0520We
  * walk:  DSB804: .64km, 2hp, 15mm, 16min, 1200st
  @ EU states must provide proper ID for transgender citizens
    " The EU's top court on Thursday said the bloc's countries must provide trans citizens
      IDs reflecting their "lived gender." "
  @ Discord enables end-to-end encrypted voice and video calling for every user
  = hx work session
    * travel:  order reading lamp.
    * Dutch (minimal)
    * guitar
    $ I HSX €19.38 from Convera UK Ltd.

0521Th
  @ Oberth effect - Wikipedia
    How a powered flyby works
  * walk:  DSB804: .64km, 1hp, 18mm, 17min, 1300st
  @ The Serverless Database Is Doomed | by Oz | PostgreSQL Blog | May, 2026
    " Serverless computing is fantastic for event-driven scripts, cron jobs, and
      unpredictable background tasks. But the database is ... heavy, it requires state,
      and it demands sustained, predictable performance. "
  = hx work session
    * upgrade GoingSideways.blog to WP 7.0
    * read WP 7.0 docs
      @ WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” – WordPress News
      @ Version 7.0 – Documentation – WordPress.org
      @ Dev notes 7-0 – Make WordPress Core
      @ WordPress 7.0 Field Guide
        AI building blocks of the future
        PHP Only Block Registration
    @ Your Website Footer Can Be A Sneaky SEO Killer | by Nick Nolan | Medium
      Real, established businesses usually have these in their footer:
          Privacy Policy    An About page    Terms of Service    Contact information
          High-level navigation
    @ How to Write an Author Bio [Includes Examples and Templates] 
    * gratitude post
    & answer email asking for sheet music for Rocket Rider's Prayer.  Found
      a copy of one of the two notebook pages it was on...
    * Dutch
    * guitar - Desolation Row.  LH back-of-hand pain
    * 0522SL:  flat silicone drain afvoerstop voor 1e etage badkammer waschbecken.

0522Fr
  * walk:  8:30ish DSB801: .85km, 10hp, 23mm,
  @ Artist Made Hundreds of Safari Animal Sculptures for His Town
  % 18:18 feeling somewhat out of it.  mild headache, poor eye tracking, sleepiness(?)
  @ Greenland's retreating ice sheet linked to rapid methane release - Earth.com
  = hx work session
    * Dutch - long session
    x guitar
  * bring up  + kleenex, + clean cat bowls (+ staged)

0523Sa
  * walk:  DSB804:  8hp, 22mm, 34min, 1200st, 
  @ Einstein's twin paradox explained - Amber Stuver - YouTube
  @ Health and Safe-Tea at Work: Brewing Time - YouTube
  @ Hip Pain: Causes and Treatment
    " You can usually treat hip pain at home by taking a break from physical activities
      and by taking over-the-counter pain relievers. Visit a healthcare provider if you’re
      feeling hip pain that’s bad enough to affect your daily routine or that’s making it
      hard to move. See a provider if you’re feeling pain that lasts more than a few days
      without getting better. "
  @ KLM commercial: Swan Take off
  % RATS -- the compression gloves I ordered yesterday are _way_ too small even though I
    measured right in the middle of the M range on their size chart.
    -> ordered size L from two different companies.
  % L hand especially stiff; triggery on middle finger.
    Tendon Gliding Exercises help a little
  @ Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names | Kalzumeus Software
    Mike Whitaker (Penfold) - Names are hard - YouTube
  @ Reflections on an Essay by Wigner | Sergiu Klainerman | Inference
    (via For Sergiu Klainerman, maths is a fact to be divined | Aeon Essays)
    The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences full text
    (via Wikipedia)  (Also linked from 2021/12.done and 2025/12.done)
  @ The EU Is Going Through a Trump-Fueled Breakup With Big Tech | WIRED
    " Earlier this month, the Dutch government moved its open-source code off of GitHub
      and onto a Forgejo instance hosted on government-owned servers. "
  @ RIP In Memoriam: Peter G. Neumann (1932-2026) – Communications of the ACM
  @ The United States loses its status as a liberal democracy: ‘Trump is aiming for a
    dictatorship’ | U.S. | EL PAÍS English
  = hx work session
    * Dutch
    x guitar

Comments

[hrrunka]

We hit 27.2ºC on Friday, but only 25.5ºC today. Forecast is for over 30ºC tomorrow and Tuesday, though...

[mdlbear]

I'm seeing 28 and 29 respectively, but we'll see.

[hrrunka]

...and wind and humidity will also make a difference to how it feels. The high pressure centered over southern North Sea's going to make for very little wind...

[madfilkentist]

The US has been dropping seriously in other rankings of freedom, but that sounds like the most serious downgrade yet.

Europe is still more censorious than the US when it comes to Internet content. I noticed this quote: "Schaer says it is important for the French government to be in control of the technology that it is using, with data being stored locally in the country, not abroad." That's ominous. LiveJournal moved to Russia because of a similar demand by the Russian government.

[mdlbear]

As seen from over here, the main issue is preventing censorship, spying, and interference by American companies, which are subject to American laws (and hence the whims of America's madman-in-chief) no matter where the data actually is. As exemplified by the incident mentioned further down in the article:

the true wake up call came in May 2025, when the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, lost access to his email, which was hosted on Microsoft Outlook, and found his bank accounts frozen.

More on this

[mdlbear]

Microsoft's ICC email blockade

[hrrunka]

Here in UK the main threat to data security is seen to be companies like Palantir, who've somehow been getting huge contracts involving access to personal data without any other bids even being solicited. In some quarters companies like that are seen as a threat to national security.