Arbitrary Thoughts

1 Articles

• Not “right wing” but “unbiased”

Art, Music, and Literature

2 Articles

• It’s funny how dumb you are
• On maybe going to see Avatar 3

Books

271 Articles

• Technical papers read in 2023
• Perusing someone else’s book list
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (1987) (read in 2025)
• Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of ...ami (1985 jp; 1991 en) (read in 2023)
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) (read in 2025)
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook: Dung...y Matt Dinniman (2021) (read in 2025)
• Carl’s Doomsday Scenario: Book 2 by Matt Dinniman (2020) (read in 2025)
• Dungeon Crawler Carl: Book 1 by Matt Dinniman (2020) (read in 2025)
• The Withdrawal by Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad (2022) (read in 2023)
• Kindle’s getting scammier
• [More]

Design

82 Articles

• Real life in the digital age
• Apple’s aggressive upgrades
• Living with shitty apps and web pages #44593
• Response to a request for a UI/UX design review
• Building a web with accessibility in mind
• Dark pattern: Google really, really, really, really wants your phone number
• Apple Music search is questionable
• Fielmann’s online store continues to be a debacle
• SunriseTV is a dumpster fire
• Jabra Headsets are a dumpster fire
• [More]

Documentation

earthli.com

91 Articles

• earthli.com moves to HostFactory
• Earthli now uses the UTF8 encoding 🍾
• Earthli gets OpenGraph and Twitter metadata
• Earthli is now 100% responsive
• Earthli is now 100% HTTPS
• WebCore 3.5: new form styles
• New Quake battles!
• New earthli home page
• earthli upgraded
• Uploading pictures in earthli Albums
• [More]

Finance & Economy

91 Articles

• The stock market is fake
• White-collar crime does the most damage by far
• Refusing to play on a level playing field
• Capital mines us hollow
• Great interviews with and by Doug Henwood
• Silicon Valley has always been a clown show
• PSA: Trickle-down is a scam; stop falling for it
• You’re lucky you’re not poor
• Mark Blyth is old and has seen it all before
• Richard Wolf explains Marxist Economics (again)
• [More]

Fun

270 Articles

• Eurovision 2026 in Vienna, Austria
• The NYT Spelling Bee’s unique vocabulary
• Translate English to English
• You are the AI
• Wordle gets biblical
• O is penguin
• ESC 2025 in Basel, Switzerland
• Two hours of Stewart Lee (Tornado and Snowflake)
• The genius of Ricky Jay
• None of these memes are funny
• [More]

History

1 Articles

• Long Story Short: WWII

Jeet Kune Do

20 Articles

• Class − Wednesday August 14, 2002
• Class on Monday September 2nd, 2002
• Class − Thursday, October 3, 2002 − Swan Song :-(
• Class on Thursday, Dec 5th
• Class − Sunday, September 29, 2002
• Exercises
• Class Monday Sept 16
• Class on Wednesday, Sept 18th
• Class − Friday August 30, 2002
• Class − Monday August 26, 2002
• [More]

Miscellaneous

225 Articles

• Who has time for small talk?
• TrueAnon is where you learn stuff
• A truly new plot idea in a short story
• Is our children reading?
• Content creators are probably miserable
• “In die Gruppe” or “in der Gruppe”?
• Innovating despite capitalism
• What’s the C-Suite reading these days?
• The brainwashing you don’t see
• 4Chan was hacked to death
• [More]

Movies

192 Articles

• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2026.04
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2026.03
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2026.02
• Movies and series watched in 2025
• Renato Kaiser: S’läbä isch geil
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2026.01
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2025.21
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2025.20
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2025.19
• Capsule Movie Reviews Vol.2025.18
• [More]

Notes

290 Articles

• Links and Notes for May 22nd, 2026
• Links and Notes for May 15th, 2026
• Links and Notes for May 8th, 2026
• Links and Notes for May 1st, 2026
• Links and Notes for April 24th, 2026
• Links and Notes for April 17th, 2026
• Links and Notes for April 10th, 2026
• Links and Notes for April 3rd, 2026
• Links and Notes for March 27th, 2026
• Links and Notes for March 20th, 2026
• [More]

Philosophy, Sociology, & Culture

113 Articles

• Pessimismo dell’intelligenza, ottimismo della volontà
• Can monsters contribute to the conversation?
• Be the white cat
• The point is to thrive, not just to survive
• If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything
• You can’t skip learning
• Transforming insecurity into fealty
• John Tesh’s enduring legacy
• The future is atomized
• Non-alignment > Neutrality
• [More]

Programming

339 Articles

• jj vs. git vs. GUIs
• Optimize by keeping only the code you need
• Learning about OCaml Effects
• The goal is to test everything automatically
• Using extensions for operators in C# 14
• Thinking about the null-object pattern
• Discussing DI, IOC, and containers
• A review of 35 Microsoft Ignite 2025 dotnet videos
• Toub’s 232-page tour-de-force on performance in .NET 10
• The idea of MCP: “Tea. Earl grey. Hot.”
• [More]

Public Policy & Politics

805 Articles

• How is it OK to celebrate murder?
• Scott Ritter explains military planning
• U.S. is on another crusade
• You should know by now that the U.S. is Omelas
• Carney comes to his own rescue
• The U.S. love affair with solitary confinement
• CBS surprises no-one
• EU sanctions Jacques Baud for thoughtcrime
• “I exist legally in your imagination”
• Fraud is just an excuse, not a principle
• [More]

Quotes

389 Articles

• You’re not crazy; I’m crazy.
• Learning is not wisdom
• The spice of life
• Gettin’ that bag is as old as time
• How like us the ape
• There are no geniuses in a crowd
• Grudges are a waste of time
• Our problem is obedience
• They’re right there
• They can’t help themselves
• [More]

Science & Nature

72 Articles

• Dead dinosaurs are one-time-use batteries
• James Webb telescope gets help
• Science: There’s nothing like proof
• How humans learn: System 2 => System 1
• Utica’s Air Quality is Hazardous?
• The Enlightened Treatment of Ignaz Semmelweis
• Clever corvids
• Contrasting reactions to COP28
• Sometimes being realistic == being pessimistic
• Carbon offsets are, and have always been, bullshit
• [More]

Sports

75 Articles

• Canada still rules men’s hockey
• Super Bowl LX (Good Bunny)
• Real Fit Life (RFL)
• Table Tennis Tour-de-Force
• Spam videos are eating up Caitlin Clark
• Ultramarathons are kind of crazy
• Hypocrisy of Olympic propoportions
• Are wall angels supposed to be difficult?
• Managing maps on a Garmin device
• Garmin Edge 500 => Edge 530
• [More]

Technology & Engineering

309 Articles

• Cody Johnston examines A.I.‘s influence on mental health
• What are we not getting in exchange?
• LLMs are a helluva drug I guess
• The amount of truth on the Internet is a rounding error
• “AI” claims another victim
• MacOS UI tips
• Checking ChatGPT’s pulse again
• Who’s using AI on their phone?
• Why aren’t you using AI to get rich?
• Get back to work, monkey
• [More]

Tips & Tricks

30 Articles

• Source Link Flakiness in Visual Studio 2017 and 2019
• Docker for Windows and Hyper-V
• Repairing Windows Updates that refuse to install
• Syncing Contacts with the Apple iCloud
• SQL Server Express Windows Authentication error
• Set Up Spell-checking Languages in MacOS
• Avoiding Planned Obsolescence with a MacBook Pro
• Showing Pictures on a Map in OS X Photos (2016)
• Windows 10 Windows Update Malfunction
• Git: Managing local commits and branches
• [More]

Video Games

40 Articles

• Grinding GTA IV Missions
• Awesome Weaponry
• The Dark Side of GTA IV
• Driving Drunk – Fakin’ It Edition
• Battlefield: BC, GTA IV, Metal Gear Solid IV and Valkyria
• Zero Punctuation Crysis Review
• Fake Rock Hero
• Approaching Crysis
• Halo 3
• Alan Wake
• [More]