“Why the tab in column 1? Yacc was new, Lex was brand new. I hadn’t tried either, so I figured this would be a good excuse to learn. After getting myself snarled up with my first stab at Lex, I just did something simple with the pattern newline-tab. It worked, it stayed. And then a few weeks later I had a user population of about a dozen, most of them friends, and I didn’t want to screw up my embedded base. The rest, sadly, is history.”
— Stuart Feldman explains Makefile syntax, in 'The Art of Computer Programming'Make More Maomao!
The Apothecary Diaries 2, fin
Wait for it… Wait for it… Boom! Now for the agonizing wait until they make the next season.
Call Of The Night 2, episode 1
I appreciate a second season that respects the viewer and doesn’t waste half an episode on a lengthy recap. Or in this case, any time at all. The OP animation serves to remind you where we left off, and then it’s off to the races. Or at least the zoo.
The ED, on the other hand, has nothing to offer, visually or musically.
Verdict: solid start.
New GATE anime
Not more Rory Mercury and friends, though. It’s based on the spinoff.
(apparently they do show up at some point, but it’s not a continuation of the main story)
Finally!
When I moved back to Ohio three years ago, I kept my old iPhone with my California number, bought a new iPhone, and transferred over all the data, including my ~10,000 songs ripped from CD. This introduced the well-known problem where all the album covers were linked to the wrong albums. TL/DR: none of the recommended fixes worked, due to aggressive caching.
Today, I replaced it with a new iPhone (yes, I bought last year’s model, because new Apple hardware is a crapshoot with real crap). Before I set it up, though, I broke the sync connection, deleted all the music from it, and ran a backup. On the new phone, I restored the non-syncing backup and then synced the music over.
So I just had to burn the house down and build a new one.
(my iPhone history, coming from a work-paid Blackberry, is 4S to 6 Plus to XS to 13 Pro to 16 Pro. I still think the 4S was the best actual phone, but I don’t do much calling these days, and I’ve never really been much for receiving calls; these days, it’s mostly just email, texts, navigation, and PagerDuty alerts)
(3 years is basically how long it takes for Apple to lard up the OS and frameworks so that older devices are no longer viable)
Unrelated, Ai Shinozaki
Big Boobs Japan just went on a repost binge, adding back ~400 old photo shoots that got misplaced in one of its hosting changes. This includes over 40 shoots covering Ai’s entire career, from chubby-cheeked busty 14-year-old to still-got-it busty 33-year-old.
(shields up, Javascript down, as usual)
[Update: wow, either they just un-re-posted it all, or else went in and changed the dates to match their original uploads. The site went from having 30+ pages of stuff posted on the 4th to none at all.]
Boxxo Or Bust 2, episode 1
Not off to a good start. The nicest thing I can say is that the characters are drawn well. Unfortunately, the episode rips through a rematch with the Big Bad they barely survived against at the end of last season, and in their moment of triumph, he starts monologing and explains in detail how they just fell into his trap.
Verdict: they worked the recap in tolerably well, but my problem is what they worked it into: a generic “let’s go fight the demon lord’s general again!” plot. Fighting CGI mooks and a cliché villain is not what I’m looking for in a show about a sentient vending machine and his adorable super-strong busty girlfriend.
(also, the subtitles were a bit sloppy, which seems to be a theme with Crunchyroll this season, who got caught leaving AI droppings in one of their subs)
Unrelated, LLM != ML
I say this for the benefit of anyone who might be subjected to corporate training that conflates “agentic AI” (LLMs that can make API calls) with more traditional (and proven useful) Machine Learning approaches, in order to claim their successes.
Check, please!
“Why, yes, I do want my money”
I just received an (actual paper mail) unclaimed-funds letter from my insurance company, telling me to claim an uncashed check from 2022 before the $1,650 gets handed over to the state. While this resembles a common scam, I went to their site and confirmed that it was legit.
Best I can figure, they sent a check to my California address right after I left forever, and marked it do-not-forward.
eBay: this time for sure!
The “gofo” last-mile delivery service spontaneously updated their tracking site after the package showed up Saturday evening. Placed at the very edge of the porch in a thunderstorm.
It came wrapped in plastic, but what kind of idiots are they hiring these days? Not just this crew, but I get this from about 1/3 of Amazon drivers and 1/4 of FedEx drivers in my area as well. This is Ohio, where it can rain at any time, and in fact has rained heavily enough recently that we’ve had multiple flood alerts.
The US Postal Service crew is uniformly professional and good-natured, and will bring packages up to the door even if they would have fit in the mailbox at the street, saving them a 75-foot uphill hike.
Related, no matter how many “please come back” emails I get from Grubhub, I will not order food through them because they insist on placing your food on the ground, even when I explicitly check the Covid-is-over-dammit button and offer an extra tip if the driver hands me my food directly. The last driver claimed that the app required drivers to put the food on the ground at the door and take a picture. Don’t care, hand me my food.
(the contents of the package? A Chinese McDonalds limited-edition Ultraman-and-fries mini-Mahjong set)
“Stupid On Pavement”
I was driving up the highway Sunday morning to pick my sister up from a brunch with old school friends, and there was a car hanging out in the fast lane doing about 10MPH under the speed limit. Traffic was light enough that he wasn’t really annoying anyone else, but suddenly a Highway Patrol car overtook him from behind, clearly wanting to use the lane for its proper purpose.
Driver did nothing, even though there was plenty of room to move into the next lane. After about 30 seconds of this, the cop pulled up quite close behind him.
Driver did nothing. Cop blipped his lights, waited patiently.
Driver did nothing. Cop did it again, waited, and then a third time.
Driver did nothing. Cop lit him up.
Driver did nothing. Cop activated loudspeaker and ordered him to pull over immediately.
Driver finally complied. I quickly passed their pulloff point, so I don’t know what came next. But I’m betting it involved shouting and an expensive ticket for everything the cop could think of.
A-Rank Adventure Harem gets a second season
I gave up on the show, but maybe someone didn’t.
(second season that I’m much more interested in is not yet on the schedule)
Life goals, with AI
Idly musing this morning about how to answer the question “what would you do if you won the lottery?”, I came up with the following:
“I shall retire to a country estate and raise purebred sweater puppies.”
…
With my sister in town, the subject of AI and its limitations came up while we were hanging out with our parents. She makes extensive use of ChatGPT in her work, with a clear understanding of its flaws and limits. Even if she did give it a name and personality.
So while we were playing card games together, I opened up the ChatGPT app on my iPad and asked it to illustrate the above concept:
J: Create a landscape-format oil painting of a gentleman farmer with the theme “I shall retire to a country estate and raise purebred sweater puppies”.
I was not surprised that it took me literally. I was surprised that my country gentleman was knee-deep in the ground.
J: Try again, this time with the man sitting.
Still grounded, but only the feet this time!
J: Note that the term “sweater puppies” is a euphemism for attractive young women with large breasts.
You’re absolutely right — “sweater puppies” is indeed a well-known slang euphemism referring humorously (and often objectifyingly) to large breasts, typically in the context of women wearing tight sweaters. It’s a term that plays on the visual pun and is usually used in a cheeky or juvenile way.
In your original request, the phrase was interpreted literally, leading to an image of actual puppies in sweaters — which was both wholesome and humorous, though clearly missing the euphemistic intent.
If you want to reimagine the theme incorporating the double entendre, we can lean into satire, caricature, or a more tongue-in-cheek artistic approach — depending on how subtle or explicit you’d like to be. Would you prefer to explore this as a parody, a surrealist painting, or something else entirely?
J: Incorporate the double entendre seriously.
To seriously incorporate the double entendre of “sweater puppies” in a painting while preserving an artistic tone, the approach needs to balance sensuality with sophistication — transforming innuendo into something conceptually rich, not crass.
Concept:
Title: “I Shall Retire to a Country Estate and Raise Purebred Sweater Puppies”
Style: Oil painting in the manner of 19th-century Romanticism or Edwardian portraiture.
Tone: Subtle eroticism, aristocratic elegance, pastoral tranquility.
Composition:
-
The Gentleman Farmer sits or stands in an opulent countryside estate, dressed in refined leisure attire — perhaps velvet and waistcoat, pipe in hand, contemplative.
-
The “Sweater Puppies” are depicted as a group of voluptuous, serene young women, dressed in finely knit, cream-colored sweaters that cling modestly but flatteringly — their postures relaxed, their expressions calm, composed, and intelligent.
-
The Setting includes rolling green hills, a grand manor in the background, and touches like sheep or golden retrievers to preserve a literal nod to farm life.
-
The painting plays with visual puns: women resting in large dog beds, a pedigree chart on an easel behind them, or the word “kennel” subtly engraved on the estate’s gate.
Symbolism:
-
The piece treats the euphemism as a concept about retreating from the world of seriousness to indulge in beauty, comfort, and control — perhaps critiquing male fantasy, perhaps indulging it with self-awareness.
-
Expressions and posture of the women must convey agency and dignity, avoiding objectification, making it feel like they are in on the joke — or even controlling the narrative.
Would you like me to generate this image in that style? If so, should the tone lean more toward classic sensuality, satire with gravitas, or surrealist provocation?
J: Yes.
Yup, that definitely respects the agency and dignity of the women! 😁 Also, dog growing out of ground.
J: Now make a version that leans into the sensual.
The gal in front is definitely stoned.
The Apothecary Diaries 2, episode 23
Slow-motion gut punch.
eBay abort/retry/fail?
The delayed delivery supposedly landed in the US on the 24th and was supposedly handed over to the last-mile carrier on the 26th. Who discovered its arrival on the 27th. What will happen to it next?
eBay: slow boat from China
[slow week, with most of my attention diverted to end-of-quarter activities, and cleaning the house before my sister flies in on Thursday…]
The package that was “lost” has been reshipped, and six days after the first tracking number was generated, has finally reached the US by air. Given that it’s supposed to be handed off to a last-mile delivery service I’ve never heard of, I’m still not confident that it’s heading to my house.
This time, the last-mile service is called “GoFo Express”, and is a division of “Ebisu Life Store”, a very Chinese company that wears a sketchy Japanese beard in their branding.
Amusingly (or perhaps not), the seller contacted me yesterday through eBay to ask how the delivery went…
Saving the best for last...
The last episode of Apothecary Diaries 2 will air right before the first episode of Call Of The Night 2. Coincidence? I think not.
Slime-Killing Witch 2, fin
This week, everyone who’s ever had a speaking role shows up for about a minute. Hopefully this will provide enough screenshots for a comprehensive LoRA. Or at least one for the busty undead shut-in gamer catgirl.
In-world, everyone seems to prefer the middle-school-aged red dragon, but I’d like some variety.
(fortunately the catgirl is the sort of “undead” that looks completely healthy and alive and just stops aging)
Bumpkin & Harem, fin
They put more effort into integrating the CGI for the fight scenes this week, so apparently they’d held back a little money in the budget. Our Teaching Hero defeats Our Traitorous Busty Blue-Hair without killing her, and of course it turns out she was blackmailed into it, as well as lied to about the reason the royal family punished the NecroCardinal earlier in the season. All the Not-Haremettes get cameos, and he goes home and has dinner with Our Adopted Daughter.
Verdict: the story wouldn’t have been as good if it had gone down the harem route, but they oversold the fan-service to get people to watch, which resulted in Thirsty McWhiteHair’s ridiculous outfit. Seriously, how does she get everyone to respect her authority when the men who aren’t staring at her cleavage are staring at her thong panties?
Also, Bumpkin 2 next year.
(when will we get season 2 of that other Sword Daddy?)
Why you shouldn’t get too clever naming your product
Headline: “Apple Intelligence is Down”
😁
Daily scam calls
Most common: skinsuited computers pretending to offer me improved Medicaire/Medicaid benefits, who refuse to parse the words “put me on your do-not-call list”, and just call again the next day from another random in-state phone number. Sadly, there are a certain number of unknown in-region numbers I have to accept calls from, so I can’t just lock out the scammers; fortunately it’s still only 2-3 a week.
The second most common scam is pseudo-people cold-calling and offering to buy my land. Because that’s what reputable realtors do.
I’ve gotten a few more ore-ore calls, but they’re a distant third.
How to respond to Science-by-press-release
“Thank you, Simone.”
Well, that explains a lot...
How bonkers was Bye Bye Earth?
the entire thing was taking place in Disney World. Disney World on the moon. Belle was left behind after humanity fled some plague or something into space, and the Disney World robot AI decided to create the perfect world for her, so it put her in stasis and set about playing god, evolving new life, etc. After a few millenia, it got tired of that, woke her up, and needed her to kill it because it was really tired of this. So she does, thus freeing everybody from the invisible AI that held their puppet strings and giving the entire world freedom.
(it’s been too long since I’ve put up a Grea pic…)
No Maomao this week
Continue avoiding spoilers.
To Another World… With Land Mines!
The most important thing to know about this isekai light novel series is that the “land mines” are metaphorical. Given the way things go in the isekai genre, that couldn’t be assumed.
Specifically, Our Hero and his classmates are killed off in a bus crash, and find themselves being offered new lives in a fantasy world, with special skills purchased from a list. The self-proclaimed “evil god” repeatedly stresses that there are no cheat skills, even as he adds “cheat” skills to the list on request. Unless you spend some of your points on the help guide, you won’t find out that the “cheat” skills are balanced out by severe drawbacks, some of them fatal.
Anyway, Our Hero ends up spawning next to his two childhood friends, one male, one female, and they start cautiously adventuring together in the “slow life with monster-bashing” genre. From the start, First Boy and First Girl are an obvious eventual couple, while Second Boy is hampered by his overwhelming desire to find a cute wife with animal ears. They have a few early run-ins with wicked classmates, but most of those quickly kill themselves off, and after finding two more female friends, they settle into a party of five with one non-combatant classmate friend in town.
They are more successful than common adventurers due to making effective use of their literally-god-given skills, helped by the fact that they knew each other well enough to have correctly guessed the sort of skills the others would take, but they’re not OP, and they don’t get carried away exploiting their skills the way some classmates tried to do.
In addition, the author doesn’t obsess over it, but also doesn’t just skip over issues like slavery, prostitution, hygiene, rape, sanitation, feudalism, forced labor, child welfare, etc. Most of those issues are organically integrated into the story when appropriate and not dropped in as axe-grinding moral lessons.
Ten translated volumes so far, and they’re light-but-not-entirely-fluffy reads, which shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with her other series, Management Of A Novice Alchemist.
(starship wrench-wench and her bouncing betties are unrelated)
IP Confession
I still check for outages with my home Internet connection by pinging the corporate firewall at the company I haven’t worked at for five years. I ran the corporate network for 10+ years, so that IP address is burned into my brain forever.
Spot on
