An article about the old homebrew / hobbiest phase of personal computers. I used to subscribe to Byte magazine in my teens. I wish I had kept a few of those old issues. I do have a collection from Creative Computing on my bookshelf.

Creatures of Thought

Had a little project I was working on before the move. Had to put it aside for a few months. When I tried to run it yesterday, it failed. Seems Ubuntu upgraded Python and some older libraries won’t allow 3.13 or whatever I’m using now. Tried to install an older version, but Ubuntu uses Python as part of the OS now so it (more or less) blocks older versions from being installed. They are ways but they aren’t pretty. So I’m sorta stuck. It’s only a Raspberry Pi so I’ll just get new hardware and install on older OS. I’ll also use Virtual Environments, even though this a single user (and perhaps single application) machine.

The upshot is expect everything to be broken in the future. If you have working (Python) today, make copies of all libraries and tools in a virtual environment. Because nothing may work tomorrow. I’ll contrast this to the Good Old Days where you could update things and they would mostly work. And if they didn’t you could safely downgrade.

On a similar note I’m told everyone uses ChatGPT to look up bugs these days, the same way everyone used to search Q&A web sites, mostly Stack Overflow. So if nobody is using the Q&A sites, where will future answers (content) for big fixes and other information come from? Will AI tools leave us stuck in 2025? I can see this being a problem with other forms of content.

Now you kids get off of my lawn!

From CACM. This was a big story in the UK, but to me the real failure seems to be in the UK justice system. How did they prosecute hundreds (?) of post office employees with what seems to be little or no factual evidence. Didn’t anyone think there was something else wrong?

How Software Bugs led to ‘One of the Greatest Miscarriages of Justice’ in British History

from the Associated Press.

Fictional fiction: A newspaper’s summer book list recommends nonexistent books. Blame AI

From The Guardian UK.

Soul icon Irma Thomas on the Stones, segregation and survival: ‘Restaurants refused to serve us – we lived on sardines and crackers’

Moving into the new house involved lots of set-up. Nearly every tech encounter was bad. When things work, they mostly work well, but something out of the ordinary (like assigning a completely new owner) leads to problems. My garage door opener was first. Seems simple. There is an app to open and close the doors remotely. Why not? Could be useful. Took me days. Problem was (fundamentally) that the old owner was still logged in and only a factory reset would get him to give up control. Except it took hours to get to this understanding.

This week my nest thermostat (which nowhere says “nest” or even “Google” — as if I’m supposed to know this) started rapidly going on and off the WiFi. Good old Reddit says it could be lots of things but likely a router with a single SSID for 2.4 GHZ and 5 GHz channels. Ok. I’ll log in and re-name one. It’s a new Netgear Nighthawk mesh system with three nodes that I set up via a phone app. Checked the app and no way to do this sort of setup, or any of the other things I usually do with a router. So I went to my PC and tried to log in. It started asking me security questions (where was I born?). Ok. Easy. Except it didn’t like my answers. Seems there is a bug that will probably require me to do a factory reset and start all over. I don’t see any guarantes that it will not hose me again with these sorts of questions.

Today I tried to program the keyless lock for the garage. We have two, one for the front door and one for the garage. Decided to do a factory reset of the garage lock and put in some codes. A few hours later, nada. Lots of other people with similar problems. YouTube videos no help. Sent in a support request. Reading Reddit it looks like lots of people buy these locks, can’t get them to program, and just ignore the keypad and use an old fashioned key. One guy claims to have 30 in an apartment and none can be programmed. So it isn’t just me. Oh, seem the front door looks very similar but is a different manufacturer. I’m going to hold off on that for a while until I get caught up.

From CFA Institute.

Vices, Virtues, and a Little Humor: 30 Quotes from Financial History

I was not at all familiar with Bob Dylan until I went away to college on the East Coast in the early 1980s. Not really his best era, but I dug up all of his old stuff and as someone said, It was like busting out of jail. Here’s a list of my favorite Dylan songs, in no particular order and only from albums I actually own.

• Mississippi – Love and Theft
• Brownsville Girl – Knocked Out Loaded
• Shooting Star – Oh Mercy
• Like a Rolling Stone – Highway 61 Revisited
• Things Have Changed – Side Tracks
• Tangled Up In Blue – Live at Wembly Stadium
• George Jackson – Side Tracks
• Everything is Broken – On Mercy
• Mr Tambourine Man – Bringing it All Back Home
• Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) – Street Legal

Or listen to the Spotify Playlist.

Before we left Texas I saw a small mouse in the garage. Had never had problems with rodents but figured I’d deal with it. Set out some traps. Noticed some fluff under one of the cars. It was insulation, probably dug out by said rodent. Looked under the hood and he was definitely there at some point. Caught him and thought it was done. Fast forward a few months, after having the car shipped to New Mexico, the A/C started making an ungodly noise. Figured something happened during the move. Brought it to the local dealer to be fixed and it seems said mouse had probably set up housekeeping in my A/C vent. I suppose I got the last laugh (not that anyone is laughing) but he still cost me a big repair bill.

It seems the new Pope has New Orleans roots. He comes from a Creole family from the 7th Ward, Baquie / Martinez. From Verite News.

Pope with Creole ties could usher in era of transparency for Catholics