Just finished the audio drama “The Red Letter Day” starring Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes. It’s OK, not bad, but definitely only for people with nostalgia for the 80s series with Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes.
I’m reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron. I’m a huuuuge John le Carré fan, and this series sort of scratches that itch, but it’s not as “literary” or complex. It feels like a grittier, less action oriented version of the TV series “Spooks”
I was recently ordering food delivery, and a local restaurant replaced most of their image-free menu items with AI generated photos. (Some of their items always had real photos, but most didn’t until the AI photos were added)
I ordered from somewhere else and sent the first restaurant an email that I didn’t order from them due to the AI images of the food.
Also, fuck Thuisbezorgd for adding AI photo generation. I would have not ordered anything but it was already late and the family was hungry.
The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).
I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I’ve left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don’t want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.
Also – with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.
I bought my first Ticketmaster tickets ever recently and was shocked at the price. First and probably last time ever doing this.
Maybe that was Trump’s goal all along. Russian asset and all that
📉
All of the responses to this story seem to emphasize the legality of the court order, but that highlights the risk of the modern era: governments acting unethically, immorally, and leveraging the law to forward those goal. And if business will always capitulate, then ultimately they are an extension of that state authority - not a servant of the customer.
In the end, privacy becomes a brand, but not a reality.
Increase in detection due to more awareness and testing?
Increase in detection due to more awareness and testing?
It has nothing to do with AI.
They bet big on crypto and it hasn’t paid off for years. They continued hiring. Their stock has been flat or lowering for the past five years. They continued hiring.
Netherlands
My kid is 11 and gets to bike to school, or walk to music lessons or the store whenever. It’s pretty cool
🙋♂️ I left in 2025. It’s great! Walkable and bikeable cities, affordable groceries, my health insurance actually pays for stuff, there’s public transit, the food is safer, and not absolutely every I do funnels into only 12 companies.
I moved my family. When my kid needs higher education, it won’t cost more than our home. I can send him out in the streets without worrying he’ll be hit by a truck going 80. Active shooter or intruder drills aren’t a phenomenon in his school.
I only wish we could have done it sooner.
Netherlands
Trump Administration: takes notes
🙋♂️ I left in 2025. It’s great! Walkable and bikeable cities, affordable groceries, my health insurance actually pays for stuff, there’s public transit, the food is safer, and not absolutely every I do funnels into only 12 companies.
I moved my family. When my kid needs higher education, it won’t cost more than our home. I can send him out in the streets without worrying he’ll be hit by a truck going 80. Active shooter or intruder drills aren’t a phenomenon in his school.
I only wish we could have done it sooner.
He’ll announce something superficially positive and they’ll come back to him. The American “independent” voter is a gullible fool - they always have been.
Rubber stamping the blanket protection of fossil fuel companies. I guarantee it
So Reefer Madness is true?
Read the Smiley stories first.
1 Call for the Dead (1961)
2 A Murder of Quality (1962)
3 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
4 The Looking Glass War (1965)
5 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
6 The Honourable Schoolboy (1977)
7 Smiley’s People (1979)
8 The Secret Pilgrim (1990)
9 A Legacy of Spies (2017)
1 and 2 are more detective stories with the detective being a retired spy. But 3 is where it gets really juicy. 5 is the most well known. 8 and 9 I would say are optional.
And then read “Karla’s Choice” by Nick Harkaway. It’s actually a midquel in the Smiley saga, written by John le Carré’s son, who is also an author. I think he did a very serviceable job and I hope he writes more.