I spent a lot more time on GEnie than CompuServe but I spent a lot of time on CompuServe too. Like other former CompuServe habitués, I still remember my login: 70212,51.
CompuServe was headquartered in my hometown-by-marriage, the Upper Arlington neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. There’s a big ol' commemorative plaque on the spot now, the kind of plaque you find at historical battle sites and such.
The Raycast productivity app (one of my most-used apps) is coming to iOS (and Windows too, but I care about iOS). Hard to see how an iOS version would work; the app is extremely keyboard-focused. The developers say it’s a power-user tool for people who spend 8+ hours a day at their computers.
Caroline Ellison, star witness at the FTX trial, says she was obsessed with Sam Bankman-Fried. “The longer I worked at Alameda, the more my sense of self became inextricably intertwined with what Sam thought of me and the more I subordinated my own values and judgment to his."
Today I learned that Comma Separated Value (CSV) computer files were used in IBM Fortran compilers in 1972, and the term was first used in 1983. And that CSVs are extremely popular today for the most advanced AI applications.
I’m surprised CSVs aren’t even older. It seems like such an obvious way to structure data. Then again, sometimes brilliant breakthroughs seem obvious only in retrospect.
This came up on my YouTube recommended videos: “Is it normal to talk to yourself?”
I know the answer to that one: No!
Absolutely not!
It’s weird!
Talk to the dog instead.
This morning, I was reading a listicle of health tips and one of the most important things they said you should do is, “Get good sleep.”
“I’ll get right on that!” I said. “And I’ve always wanted to be a foot and a half taller so I can play pro basketball, so I’ll do that too!”
The Tupperware party was good while it lasted. We take the benefits of Tupperware for granted, but it was a significant innovation in its time, one that we should be grateful for, says Megan McCardle. “As with so much in life, the strategies that made Tupperware a success in the 20th century also made it hard for the company to adapt to the 21st.” Maybe true, but these days, when a consumer brand fails, my first thought is to blame financial shenanigans rather than business execution.
I’ve been at work for two hours and I’ve already added 12 tasks to my to-do list.
That’s productivity, right?
A model train layout in a house’s front yard.
This 10-second video of the model train layout gives you a better view of what’s there.
A little free library built into an abandoned newspaper box.
Whimsical, terraced yard decorations.
Detail of the whimsical terrace.
Tasteful minimalist lawn display featuring Harris-Walz sign and pink flamingo
Yes, I gave Minnie one of the treats. She thought it was fine but not fantastic.
Why there are so many movies with the word “Amityille” in the title.
because the word “Amityville” is a real place name and consequently cannot be trademarked, there are actually 30+ Amityville movies, with some just being an unrelated movie they slapped the word Amityville onto and some that are actually attempting to remake/recreate/just do a haunted house thing the original.
Also: The science fiction/fantasy writer Diane Duane says she “grew up six or seven miles from one of the Amityvilles” and the “cognitive dissonance involved when the first film came out—knowing the sleepy suburbia that lay just over thataway—was hilarious.”
I, too, grew up a few miles from the same Amityville — the one featured in the first movie. One of the girls I was friends with in high school (who occasionally visits my Facebook profile) dated a guy who lived just down the street from that house.
