The Penguin of Evil

Retired Linux hacker, gamer, retrocomputing, model trains

ESO: EtchedPixels & PenguinOfEvil (Wombles, Greymanes, Chill Mode)

Business: http://www.etchedpixels.co.uk
Fuzix: https://www.fuzix.org
Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels
RC2014 Boards: https://hackaday.io/EtchedPixels

Last Notes

2025-10-13 20:13:42 UTC

There was a time when vibe coding meant teledildonics, now it's #ai and people are still getting shafted.

2025-10-03 11:23:04 UTC

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The article says 300,000 are not in school. Not 300,000 are not being educated. That's 300,000 someone doesn't have a record of.
The article then spins it as 300,000 not in education without any explanation of the magic jump from what the data says to what they want to claim.
The problem is we *don't* know what is up because DfE refuses to conduct exit interviews for those leaving schools, and governments continue to say we ought have a register, then refuse to fund it.

2025-09-18 21:04:19 UTC

All my #fuzix and #retrcomputing stuff (and train stuff and whatever) as now been migrated from shithub to Codeberg EtchedPixels

2025-08-25 17:18:33 UTC

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I try and use a mix of sources that are not politically vested in that topic, or whose userbase are deeply financially invested.
If you want to know about climate change data, then actuarial and insurance company papers for example.
Hindu, Al Jazeera and some others are ok for different views on the world. The Continent is a view on things that never make our press but is rather more longer article than news directly.

2025-06-13 17:15:22 UTC

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Most of the problem we have in Wales is overtourism and almost none of them fly.
Doesn't work for that case.
Most AirBnB these days is just a hotel with a dubious exemption from half the hotel safety regulations

2025-03-19 20:44:57 UTC

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They really ought to start testing Lords and MPs on a yearly basis for alzheimers and dementia so they catch them earlier.
If people can't drive with bad eyesight they certainly shouldn't be running the country when they can't remember to declare their millions in related stocks.

2025-03-05 15:50:49 UTC

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Luxembourg is probably the big other Western example of this.

2025-02-03 14:22:06 UTC

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Until they get ordered not to from the US end or until Microsoft just disable all their logins and updates. Same with all the EU and US power systems that as good as remote controlled from China.
Tech folks have been warning about this for as long as energy folks were warning about gas dependencies.

2025-02-01 12:27:27 UTC

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Conservation zones merely deal with planning restrictions. The planning restrictions don't really touch on maintenance.
Indirectly they devalue the properties as they often make solar and insulation and decent windows hard so that leads to them being less desirable.
More of a problem is that there are no builders available so you can't fix falling down buildings any more because everyone is on a new build site or gone abroad where there's more money.

2025-02-01 10:23:51 UTC

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If you can fight the paperwork monster and the huge costs it causes then the actual policies on listed buildings are pretty good about recognizing the balance needed.
Conservation zones are a disaster in many places though, as it's basically local government nimbys at work so completely at odds with reality, and frequently even with central government guidance on environmental considerations.

2025-01-19 16:16:39 UTC

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Writing a mktime() is a fun adventure in itself

2024-08-19 17:56:12 UTC

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Battery is even worse and most of it runs from random clouds in China. Was quite a battle to find an internet free solar/battery setup.