Pupdate

It’s been something like the wettest February on record, which has somewhat curtailed long walks :( But the boys have still enjoyed getting out and about even if it’s meant washing their fleece coats every few days to clear off all the mud.

State of Open Conference

I’ve noticed a bunch of friends getting involved in Open UK “The UK organisation for the business of Open Technology”, so I submitted a talk for State of Open Conference 24 (SOOCon24) that was thankfully accepted.

The event was a really good gathering of the clan, and a chance to catch up with old friends and meet some interesting new folk.

Lots of the international speakers and attendees were passing through London on their way back from FOSDEM, so despite the UK focus there was a global flavour to the event.

OpenSSF Meetup

With a sizable contingent of Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) people in town it provided an opportunity for the first OpenSSF London Meetup. It was great to see some of the tremendous work being done by the community, and have a chance to chat to folk about it over beer and pizza.

I sold all my tech stock

AI is the bubbliest bubble I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been paying attention to the tech market for over 40y now.

I’ve had a standalone post rattling around in my head for a few weeks, but there’s really nothing I could add to Tim Bray’s excellent ‘Money Bubble‘.

My biggest frustration is that the pursuit of AI rainbow ponies seems to have stopped work on some of the more mundane (but really serious) things that need to be done.

My biggest concern is the environmental impact. Those billions that are being poured into AI are using a significant chunk of fabrication capacity, energy and fresh water; and I’m not convinced that the return on ‘investment’ is clear.

Yocto

One of Atsign’s potential customers builds their stuff with Yocto Linux, so I’ve been taking a look at what’s involved in getting our stuff into an image.

It’s not an embedded Linux distribution,
it creates a custom one for you.

https://www.yoctoproject.org/

The M920q that I added to my home lab last month has been getting some proper work to do. My initial build of ‘Poky’ took around two hours, and had the fans spinning hard most of the way through. That machine has now been hidden away in a place where I can’t hear it.

I’m finding Yocto even more complex than OpenWRT (or LibreELEC), but I’m already seeing the benefit of super fast rebuilds for minor changes.

Bye bye Bennetts

I’ve used Bennetts for motorcycle insurance for pretty much the whole time I’ve been riding bikes, which is over 30y now; so my heart sank when (after getting an email saying my renewal quote was on its way) I got a letter saying they ‘needed more information’ before they could provide a renewal quote.

That turned out to be pretty disingenuous. They didn’t need more information. The actual problem is that their underwriters for multi-bike policies aren’t working with them any more, and so they can’t renew my policy. The quote for the CB1000 and Vespa separately was (of course) ridiculous.

Swinton still are doing multi-bike, and although I couldn’t get an online quote the call centre process was quick and painless (and was able to use info I’d filled in online for the main bike).

Root canal

Root canal has a bad reputation, it will probably be less bad than what we’ve just done.

My dentist Kevin

Kevin was right. The root canal work was less traumatic than cutting off a crown and dealing with what had happened underneath it. The worst part is it’s left me with a fat lip (and an ulcer) where the rubber dam was in contact.

Solar diary

A wet month also meant a cloudy month, so rather than 3.5% more solar for the extra leap year day there was almost 25% less :(

Beating Beat Saber

No fresh full combos, but I’ve been loving some of the new tracks in OST 6, and Lindsey Sterling’s ‘Heavyweight’ has turned into a real ear worm for me.