An otherwise good article, but weakened by this bit. Fracking and the use of natural gas is actually pretty great ecologically compared to the other ways we get and use fossil fuels. It got a bad rap because it probably really stunted US adoption of renewable resources… and it’s my theory the coal industry was behind the public damnation.

> Whenever you try to vent how you don't fit into the culture people point out that it's your fault you're the weirdo.

Surely it’s pretty self evident why this is the case.

The most reliable and performant UI code I’ve written usually tackles this head on by thinking through all the possibilities of different states the application can be in and how the transition of each state should look. This can very quickly get mind boggling complex.

Systems programming languages seem like they model their problems better because it’s less common to ask a systems programmer for a like button that shows bubbles when you press it. If you model your UI explicitly like a state machine, you can say “no” to the bubbles like every systems programmer says “no” to most features, because you realize the explosion of state will be unmanageable. Or you can use a JavaScript framework and download a bubbles package and wonder why your app is buggy, but have job security.

Disable font smoothing and restart/relogin.

  defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

There’s a few reasons why.

1. Non integer scaling sucks on Linux. It sucks on all OSs, but it’s just unusable on Linux IMO.

2. Text antialiasing sucks for most OSs except Microsoft ClearType, but I hate Windows.

I currently use an old LG UltraFine 5k. It’s physically cracking / falling apart and has atrocious burn in. I tried replacing it with a Dell 32” 6k monitor. The stupid matte coating on it and seemingly all other high DPI screens is so, so bad.

I just want glossy 5k at 120Hz with decent build quality and color accuracy.

I don’t even like the fact it’s mini LED. Blooming is pretty awful on those things. I hope there’s a way to turn it off.

So yes, I bought a $3,500 monitor to read text because no one else can seem to do it even remotely acceptably.

I think this kind of stuff is OK for the most part. I think it's a thrilling part of computer science: building systems so complex they're just on the brink of what can be fully understood by a single person. It's what sets software engineering apart from other engineering fields where it's unacceptable not to fully understand the engineering, say, for factories, buildings, bridges, ships and infrastructure and such.

In fact, efficiency was the main reason I wanted a mini split in the first place. It just bugged me to _not_ pump the heat entirely outside the structure. And I paid a bit more for that versus just using a window unit or “portable” AC. All we’re talking here is the location of the condenser coil: inside versus outside. It just makes sense to put it outside, with just a small penetration in the building.

Well, during electrical inspection apparently I paid too much. After paying more than a certain threshold for converting an unconditioned space to a conditioned space, I now need to insulate the accessory structure to a certain degree in order to pass code.

The kicker is, the only way I can insulate the space to meet code is to insulate with polyiso (aka styrofoam) because the structure is so small. So, I guess in an effort to be “green” according to local government, I need to rip out the mineral wool insulation, dump it and replace it with styrofoam. Or put the mini split in the dump and buy a cheaper less efficient unit like a window unit.

I’d save approximately $0.30 a year on energy costs to insulate to code versus what I have now with the mini split.

This whole industry is stupid and that’s because it’s regulated by idiots.

Name and shame: this is Chapel Hill, NC.

[0] https://simonwillison.net/2025/May/21/gemini-diffusion/

[0] https://github.com/Kitware/ParaView

[1] https://github.com/Kitware/VTK

I always just assumed they were building some kind of logging software (“tail”scale), used Wireguard to connect hosts, and just kind of stopped there. Don’t get me wrong, Tailscale is a nice way to connect machines. It’s nice because Wireguard is nice.