The star of the #Olympics

SANDY TOKSVIG: yes, the windows NT kernel was first introduced to the public in 1993. it is still used to this day! windows 11 states that its kernel version is NT ten point oh.

ALAN DAVIES: and uh, what's the NT for?

SANDY: new technology. it replaced the previous--

DAVID MITCHELL: new technology? the new technology kernel?

SANDY: yes, and the filesystem, NTFS, is the--

DAVID: new technology file system. and - to be clear - this is from nineteen ninety three?

ALAN: yes, but you have to consider that it was new at the time.

DAVID: oh, i have to consider... everything was new at the time! that's what "new" means! i-- when i was born, i was new! but they don't call me "new david", do they? because - by definition - things stop being new after a point!

AMERICAN CELEBRITY GUEST: ok, but, like... you know, like, with the... the other one was like, the old one, right? so they--

DAVID: but you must understand that anything that has ever been replaced by anything ever could be described as "the old one", right? it's a completely useless name! "hello, my name is new man, my father is old man, because i'm new and he's not and we don't need to specify any further details!" it's madness!

AMERICAN: yeah, but [laughs]

DAVID: so what happens when they replace the new technology kernel, then? do we get the new new technology?

ROB BRYDON: i think it would be, they rename the new technology to old technology, and the replacement gets called new technology. so the NT kernel is now the OT kernel, and--

ALAN: i bought a new fridge last month.

SANDY: moving on!

The fact that Microsoft Teams 🤮 contains a feature called "Teams" where actual teams can create a Team, and at Microsoft the teams working on that feature probably have a Team to discuss the Teams feature, suggests that there exists a Microsoft Microsoft Teams Teams Teams' Microsoft Teams Team.

An eggcorn is when someone mistakes a word for a different word, often in the context of an idiom. It comes from the surprisingly common mistake of thinking the word "acorn" is actually "eggcorn".

Anyway, my favourite eggcorns are the ones that imply the existence of a powerful and mysterious animal, such as "and their elk" (instead of "and their ilk"), "from the gecko" (instead of "from the get-go"), and, most recently, "locust of control" (instead of "locus of control"). #linguistics

Every year, students around the world submit videos to a "Dance Your PhD" contest. The goal is to "explain your research through interpretive dance."

This year's fabulous winner, Weliton Menário Costa, explores kangaroo behavior & promotes diversity. It is, by far, the best I've ever seen.

Go watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoSYO3fApEc #science #dance #art #animals

"The wrong Amazon is burning"
Sticker spotted in Anchorage, Alaska

Why I am not ordering anything from the UK any more:

Sticker: GBP 2,50
Shipping to NL: GBP 3,00

Eh fine, I am happy to support an artist. So the sticker was sent to NL.

Then customs decided to take their share of 21%. So Converted back to euro this is 21% of € 5,43 which is € 1,14.

Are we there yet? Nooo, the postal agency wants their share too for handling all this terrible paperwork and is charging me another € 6 for it.

So, i got me a sticker for € 12,57. Super. So yeah, Thank #brexit for this and everyone who voted for it. I'm not ordering anything any more from the UK. :(

So apparently the term "patch" in software development comes from punched paper tape.

"Small corrections to the programmed sequence could be done by patching over portions of the paper tape and re-punching the holes in that section."

https://chsi.harvard.edu/harvard-ibm-mark-1-language

#til #computers #development #language #history

“The teacher who created this bookshelf could become a target for far right-wing groups. That's why NPR is not naming her, nor her students.” Another distressing story about people living under threat of potential violence, simply for daring to read and safeguard works that have been targeted by a repressive, regressive regime. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/29/1222539335/banned-books-high-school

Five examples of the UK’s crackdown on climate protesters https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/23/five-examples-of-the-uks-crackdown-on-climate-protesters

https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/

“Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.”

Nice.

This is exceptional: https://archive.is/BpdDc

The discussion about how the EU handles borders, can be fully described by #Excel.

I went to a food bank today for the first time in my life. I didn’t expect much, it’s charity after-all.

They gave me 2 big carrier bags - I couldn’t stop thanking them and carted them home.

When I opened them at home I noticed chocolate. I cried…cos I hadn’t even thought of buying myself chocolate in months cos it seemed so frivolous. But they put some chocolate in. It was so kind. 🥲

There’s so much suffering out there. It can happen to anyone. I founded and ran two companies in my 20s. High flying career and was making £50 at my last job in tech.

All fell apart 2 years ago. Been struggling to piece my life together ever since.

Please be kind to each other.

Love this - stuck on 301 views despite YouTube solving the problem eight years ago.

https://youtu.be/oIkhgagvrjI?si=wpUHEwG-Qi3Xi36I

Hofstadter's Law
"It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law"

Love this online recipe hack!
...

If you add “cooked.wiki/“ to beginning of ANY recipe url (before the https:/) it strips away everything but the recipe and organizes the ingredients and method into separate columns.

Also adds a dictation option too!

#cooking #recipe

“In the offing” an idiom, as described on the wall of a gallery at Turner Contemporary in Margate

Paris-based software engineer Etienne Jacob takes a creative approach to coding with his mesmerizing animations that fall at the intersection of art and math.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/01/etienne-jacob-gifs/

#math #gif #animation

Mouse secretly filmed tidying man’s shed every night.
"It has been going on for months. I call him Welsh Tidy Mouse."
#news #mouse #MouseNews
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/07/mouse-secretly-filmed-tidying-mans-shed-every-night