I first heard of it from Joel Spolsky’s blog and wikipedia also credits that article with popularizing the concept. In it’s original formulation, it was based on remote procedure calls being hidden in APIs. Because a remote computer call has all these limits of latency, packet/info loss, and possible connection loss, it is impossible to make a perfect abstraction that allows the programmer to treat the remote call as though it were local. The reality the abstraction tries to hide “leaks” in those fundamental limits.

All of contemporary global society is such an abstraction; that’s one of the principles of post-modernism. When you buy clothes online an entire invisible work force of shippers, manufacturers, resource procurerers, and more lies beind each article of fabric.

Pressure from climate change, tariffs, global war, and more are straining the foundations of society and the comfortable abstraction is starting to crack.

The dip in usage comes just as Microsoft has been forcing full-screen ads onto the machines of customers running Windows 10 to encourage them to upgrade.

Yeah no shit! When my computer does full-screen, disruptive things that I didn’t tell it to do, I figure out how to remove that malware. I’ve been off Windows at home for about a month now, thanks Linux Mint! Getting some games to work has been challenging, but most things have just worked and quite a few work much better!

Performance is up overall, and my confidence that my computer isn’t running a bunch of secret ad and spy ware is way up. Hardware like my gamepad and microphone would randomly disconnect and have issues on Windows, all working perfectly now.

Unfortunately I’m still deep in MS land for work, but there’s almost a comedic quality to it. Everything’s very slow, everyone has constant issues with Teams, or Office online, or Dynamics, or copilot shoving it’s tendrils into everything. Watching businesses struggle to keep operating in the face of Microsoft’s inadequacy is like being a mechanic watching a motor grind to a halt because the owner/manufacturer replaced all the oil with syrup.

Like yes, it’s my problem to fix, but I’m just glad it’s not my car.

I had in some ways the opposite 23&Me experience and goals. My parents told me growing up that I had some small native ancestry. This is actually a common myth many Americans have either been told or somehow deluded themselves into believing.

So I did the DNA testing (which I now regret from all the obvious enshittification and privacy reasons) to prove that my ancestry was boring and predictable. Which it was, no indigenous ancestry, just the expected European countries that my great grandparents came from.

They also do a lot of nice health screening things and I think that’s probably the much more valuable aspect of it. It really is very American that people are so much more concerned with what DNA says about one’s race or ethnicity than about their health and wellbeing.

Every 5 minutes, at max volume:

YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US. ALL AVAILABLE OPERATORS ARE HELPING OTHER CUSTOMERS. PLEASE STAY ON THE LINE.

2 minutes later:

DID YOU KNOW <COMPANY> IS WORKING TO SAVE CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU MONEY? UPGRADE YOUR PLAN TO ULTIMATE TODAY AND SAVE! YOU CAN ADD BASIC CABLE TO YOUR INTERNET PLAN FOR FREE FOR 3 MONTHS. MAKE ANY SOUND AT ALL TO LEAVE THE SUPPORT QUEUE AND SPEAK WITH A NEW ACCOUNT SPECIALIST RIGHT AWAY.

returns to playing compressed elevator music through an old can

I also got randomly sent this image from a matrix on the technics.de server. Aside from all the antisemitism and nazi stuff, I admit I was a little charmed by it. Reminded me of timecube and the good old days of how the Internet used to be a place for nerds, outcasts, and complete fucking psychopaths.

Edit: Link to proof ཚྒྷཚྒྷ

As a person who occasionally makes confessional asides “to the camera” I find it amusing to rhetorically ask “Chat” about things. “Ugh, I don’t wanna cook tonight. How about it Chat, we ordering pizza?”

It’s because they ruined Linux! Damn Linux users!

I’ve absolutely driven past a cop who was playing WoW on his laptop while sitting in traffic.

I don’t know who really got that trend going. I’ve enjoyed up to hour-ish long videos on more or less anything, but a few years back the first truly excessively long video I remember is Whitelight’s 7 hour long overview/miniseries on Death Stranding. And to be fair, I did find that faster and more enjoyable than playing Death Stranding.

(Also I get why folks make them: more ads plus having that much watch time heavily biases the algorithm towards you so it’s more money overall. And the kind of person that watches 7 hour long reviews in the background (or while sleeping), aka me, certainly help weigh the scales for super long videos.)

But also, I kind of like when shorts are like a minute long or less so I can watch one when I’m like, on the shitter and not accidentally end up with a video essay. I mean 10 minutes used to be the limit of every youtube video! Will they introduce a new, even shorter format? Bring vines or blips back?

Alright, I split the differance, I think that should make everyone happy.

Can’t wait for 10 hour long reviews of Elden Ring, BUT VERTICALE AND LOOPS NOW!?!

The article reads like a fever dream, I can’t believe Kotoku published this guy’s notes about a podcast he heard. They say the car set wqs “hermetically sealed” because it had to go upside down, and that the set was evacuated for 3 hours after. But also that Will Smith just farts a lot, as everyone knows. Insane stuff.

I guess assembler is sumerien then, only still written and understood? And cobol or fortran? Linear a and b?

Visit your nearest aquarium! They often have a petting tank where you can touch rays and small sharks. And if not, hey, at least the aquarium is still great!

Some alcohol cooks off when used this way, but not all. Be cautious when cooking for others to mention this so non-drinkers can make an informed choice.

It can be a delicious addition though: alcohol dissolves flavor and aromatic compounds that water and fat cannot, so you get a lot of unique flavors especially from barrel-aged drinks like whisky and wine.

In Alejandro Jodorowsky’s concept for a Dune film from the early 1970s, each house has their costumes and architecture designed by a contemporary artist. Giger was the designer for the Harkonnen, and several of his ideas persisted beyond the failed film.

The Harkonnen Castle

A Harkonnen chair

I assumed Villeneuve was calling back to those designs.

People in times of desperate oppression and violence rarely turn to the uncaring vastness of the chaotic universe for comfort.

Is it just me, or is it worrying how companies keep packing up and selling off the only parts of their businesses that actually, you know, make stuff, in favor of becoming full time bullshit peddlers?

I’ve been wanting to get a pipe Garfield tattoo since first seeing this. It changed me. Made me better.