1 week update: still haven't won a chess match against a human in Duolingo yet.
All of the puzzles have been fun brain teasers on their own, but I haven't (yet) figured out how to translate them into the actual game of chess.
I've been doing the Duolingo chess course for a month now. It's engaging and I like the puzzle solving aspect of the exercise.
I am still very bad at _playing_ chess, however.
I wrote a thing! It's sort of about npm, but mostly about things like WebAuthn and token hygiene and supply-chain security in general. :)
A screenshot of two social media posts discussing the EU's spring 2025 economic forecast. Top post by euobserver (@euobservercom): Text: "Brussels has cut its 2025 growth forecast for EU and eurozone GDP to 1.1 and 0.9 percent, respectively — down from 1.5 and 1.3 percent projected last autumn." Includes a photo of a suited man (Valdis Dombrovskis) speaking at a podium with an EU logo in the background and a microphone. Bottom post by European Commission (@ec.europa.eu): Text: "🌷 The EU economy began 2025 on a somewhat stronger footing than anticipated. It is projected to keep growing at a modest rate this year, with growth expected to pick up in 2026. More info: europa.eu/!cFPpp9" Below are four infographic panels: Top-left panel: Title: "European Economic Forecast – Spring 2025". Leafy green design. Top-right panel (Growth): Title: "Gross Domestic Product" Shows GDP for Euro Area and EU across 2024, 2025, and 2026: Euro Area: 2024 (0.9%), 2025 (0.9%), 2026 (1.4%) EU: 2024 (1.0%), 2025 (1.1%), 2026 (1.5%) Label: #ECForecast Bottom-left panel (Inflation): Title: "Harmonised index of consumer prices" Euro Area: 2024 (2.4%), 2025 (2.1%), 2026 (1.7%) EU: 2024 (2.6%), 2025 (2.3%), 2026 (1.9%) Label: #ECForecast Bottom-right panel (Unemployment): Title: "Unemployment rate" Euro Area: 2024 (6.4%), 2025 (6.3%), 2026 (6.1%) EU: 2024 (5.9%), 2025 (5.9%), 2026 (5.7%) Label: #ECForecast
Deux salles, deux ambiances …
#EUpol
The image shows a retail shelf displaying a boxed electric griddle by the brand "Bluesky." The product is labeled with "Piastra Plancha Plită," indicating it is marketed in multiple languages (likely Italian, Spanish, and Romanian). The griddle has a power rating of 2000W and features a thermostat control labeled "SELF CONTROL Thermostat." A diagram on the box shows the griddle is 47 cm wide. The price tag on the shelf below the box shows 39.99 €. The griddle appears to be targeted for indoor cooking, with side handles and a flat non-stick surface.
Good news everybody! You can buy #Bluesky at the French supermarket now.
A photograph of Louis Bamberger, seated on the right, wearing a mustache and bowler hat, and his sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld, standing on the left, wearing a fur hat and shawl
Let's talk about these two department store owners: brother and sister Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld. From Newark, New Jersey.
They are random people, basically. But in the late 1920s, with fascism taking over Europe, they made a choice that profoundly changed the world: 🧵
The future of web development is…
- Java applets
- ActiveX
- Flash
- XHTML
- Silverlight
- Progressive Web Apps
- CSS-inJS
- Blockchain
- AI
…Get on or get left behind.
alex.party/posts/2025-0...
😆
The refresh of Elder Scrolls #Oblivion is wild y'all. It looks now like I *thought* it looked like way back when. If this release does well enough commercially, perhaps they'll refresh #Morrowind next? A boy can dream.
Death by Shakespeare Causes of 74 deaths in Shakespeare's plays #ShakespeareDay
Death by Shakespeare
Causes of 74 deaths in Shakespeare's plays
#ShakespeareDay
Dude's just into locks man
p.s. I've never been to #Denver so looking forward to checking the city out a bit too. If you have suggestions for things to do (read: eat), let me know! 😄
I'll be speaking at #OWASP #Snowfroc this Friday! The talk is called "Patterns of failure in modern #authorization" and it's about why #authz is getting harder instead of easier. Some academic research but also interesting examples of authz failure at large, well-known brands. Hope to see you there!
Dude, grew up in the place that Randy Bachmann wrote Prairie Town about. ;)
Great suggestion though.
Any other quirky #ClassicRock bands I should be on the lookout for? Open to suggestions for sure :)
Why BÖC? I was inspired by playing a Godzilla pinball game at the arcade & their quirky song of the same name was on the soundtrack (obviously?). I was like "dang this slaps what is this?" Anyway if you like weird rock about ghosts and monsters and stuff, you might like the album it's on: Spectres.
Anyway I've listened to four albums now and… it's pretty hit and miss. What's good is extremely good, and what's bad is absolute trash, and there's a lot in between. I guess if you've been active as long as they have, consistency is going to be an issue.
i.e. it's not all "Don't fear the Reaper" :P
Listening to some classic rock lately and have rediscovered Blue Öyster Cult. Apparently they're still active, having released an album in 2024. For reference, their eponymous debut album came out in 1972. For further reference, my parents were kids when that album came out. That's wild to me, haha
Fascinating commentary of what statehood means with respect to land, or the lack thereof.
Word of the Day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet individual whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
I shouldn't have said "no rights", but yes, it's fundamentally about through-ticketing. To be fair, that's also an issue for air travel—if the operators for a multi-leg route have nothing to do with each other, & the tickets are issued separately, then a missed connection is the passenger's problem.
…there are no EU rail rights, as there are for air travel. Imho, that's the reason the thing doesn't exist. It's not a computer problem—it's a business problem. Spending the time and money to build this doesn't result in a viable business, because the regulatory environment makes it impossible. 🫤
… but, could you actually buy those tickets? Debatable—even if you go direct to the operators in some cases! And (again, as you've pointed), what happens when things go sideways? Even if the hypothetical solution _could_ sell you the tickets, a delay on one leg screws you for the rest, because…
…it's certainly not, like, a week-end job, but it's all entirely within the realm of what is technically possible. As you've mentioned in the past, the real hurdles are institutional. Could such a Rube Goldberg machine generate a "good" answer? Yes …
Are there technical hurdles to offering a comprehensive overview of rail routes and ticket availabilities in Europe? Yes—but speaking as a professional computer person 😆, that's not actually the hard part. API calls, a data lake, some stats modelling, and maybe rub some LLM on there…
I have written a piece for @energiewendeger.bsky.social about why 2025 is a crucial year for #CrossBorderRail in the EU. New Commissioner, political commitment, and a bunch of problems that can be fixed!
energytransition.org/2025/02/2025...
Nah. Macron was all in on the "start-up nation" like 8 years ago. This is nothing new.
And yet, they would never fine somebody for smoking or vaping on the platform—which is, literally, the _only posted fine_.
Chapeau, SNCF.
« astroterm is a #terminal based star map written in C. It displays the real-time positions of #stars, #planets, #constellations, and more, all within your terminal. Configure sky views by date, time, and location with precise ASCII-rendered visuals. »
github.com/da-luce/astr...
«There are no built-in constructs for looping. Nobody has time for yesterday's loops or last week's break statements. If you must loop, use recursion.
Every program must end with PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE, because you have to grow your audience! Hashtag hustle.»
😆 tabloid.vercel.app
