jmason's links
@jmason.ie
Following the links from http://pinboard.in/u:jm/ and https://jmason.ie/ .
(Automated bot account run by @jmason.org)
(Automated bot account run by @jmason.org)
update on the POP3pocalypse -- it appears that the most likely thing to work in the future will be to use SMTP forwarding to gmail, with ARC headers added. This is a comment thread detailing the rather […]
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/12/today-in-google-broke-email-2/#comment-265285
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/12/today-in-google-broke-email-2/#comment-265285
January 8, 2026 at 11:59 AM
update on the POP3pocalypse -- it appears that the most likely thing to work in the future will be to use SMTP forwarding to gmail, with ARC headers added. This is a comment thread detailing the rather […]
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/12/today-in-google-broke-email-2/#comment-265285
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/12/today-in-google-broke-email-2/#comment-265285
TIL there is a defined standard for cryptographic assertions of AI-free image origination:
"
“Provenance technologies like Content Credentials — which act like a nutrition label for […]
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24223932/c2pa-standard-verify-ai-generated-images-content-credentials
"
“Provenance technologies like Content Credentials — which act like a nutrition label for […]
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24223932/c2pa-standard-verify-ai-generated-images-content-credentials
January 6, 2026 at 12:13 PM
TIL there is a defined standard for cryptographic assertions of AI-free image origination:
"
“Provenance technologies like Content Credentials — which act like a nutrition label for […]
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24223932/c2pa-standard-verify-ai-generated-images-content-credentials
"
“Provenance technologies like Content Credentials — which act like a nutrition label for […]
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24223932/c2pa-standard-verify-ai-generated-images-content-credentials
Techniques to extend SD card lifespans in Raspberry Pi systems; putting /var/log into RAM is a nice trick
https://www.dzombak.com/blog/2024/04/pi-reliability-reduce-writes-to-your-sd-card/
https://www.dzombak.com/blog/2024/04/pi-reliability-reduce-writes-to-your-sd-card/
Pi Reliability: Reduce writes to your SD card
If you aren't using a read-only filesystem on your Pi, you can still reduce writes to the SD card to increase its lifespan.
www.dzombak.com
January 5, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Techniques to extend SD card lifespans in Raspberry Pi systems; putting /var/log into RAM is a nice trick
https://www.dzombak.com/blog/2024/04/pi-reliability-reduce-writes-to-your-sd-card/
https://www.dzombak.com/blog/2024/04/pi-reliability-reduce-writes-to-your-sd-card/
the Arch Linux wiki page about SSD tuning and enabling TRIM -- extremely detailed and useful!
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Solid_state_drive#External_SSD_with_TRIM_support
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Solid_state_drive#External_SSD_with_TRIM_support
wiki.archlinux.org
January 5, 2026 at 11:10 AM
the Arch Linux wiki page about SSD tuning and enabling TRIM -- extremely detailed and useful!
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Solid_state_drive#External_SSD_with_TRIM_support
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Solid_state_drive#External_SSD_with_TRIM_support
Ireland's SEAI have published a decent blog post with some real world facts about EV battery lifespans:
"In 2020 GeoTab, a telematics solution provider, published real world battery data of 6,000 EVs (BEV & PHEV) over millions of days to […]
https://www.seai.ie/blog/understanding-ev-battery
"In 2020 GeoTab, a telematics solution provider, published real world battery data of 6,000 EVs (BEV & PHEV) over millions of days to […]
https://www.seai.ie/blog/understanding-ev-battery
Understanding EV Battery Life
www.seai.ie
January 5, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Ireland's SEAI have published a decent blog post with some real world facts about EV battery lifespans:
"In 2020 GeoTab, a telematics solution provider, published real world battery data of 6,000 EVs (BEV & PHEV) over millions of days to […]
https://www.seai.ie/blog/understanding-ev-battery
"In 2020 GeoTab, a telematics solution provider, published real world battery data of 6,000 EVs (BEV & PHEV) over millions of days to […]
https://www.seai.ie/blog/understanding-ev-battery
A new paper from the inimitable Abeba Birhane, on the increasingly common practice of generating synthetic data using LLMs:
"Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the use of synthetic data as […]
https://synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
"Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the use of synthetic data as […]
https://synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
synthetic-data-workshop.github.io
December 18, 2025 at 10:49 AM
A new paper from the inimitable Abeba Birhane, on the increasingly common practice of generating synthetic data using LLMs:
"Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the use of synthetic data as […]
https://synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
"Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the use of synthetic data as […]
https://synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
Chafa is a very impressive image renderer for modern text terminal apps. It blows my mind that there's a direct line from my own gif320 tool ( https://github.com/jmason/gif320 , now 33 years old) to this!
https://hpjansson.org/chafa/
https://hpjansson.org/chafa/
Chafa: Terminal Graphics for the 21st Century
Turn pictures and animations into top-notch terminal graphics and ANSI art.
hpjansson.org
December 16, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Chafa is a very impressive image renderer for modern text terminal apps. It blows my mind that there's a direct line from my own gif320 tool ( https://github.com/jmason/gif320 , now 33 years old) to this!
https://hpjansson.org/chafa/
https://hpjansson.org/chafa/
Wow, this is an absolute bollocking for the Labour plan:
"95% of the more than 10,000 people who had their say over how music, novels, films and […]
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/16/boost-for-artists-in-ai-copyright-battle-as-only-3-per-cent-back-uk-active-opt-out-plan
"95% of the more than 10,000 people who had their say over how music, novels, films and […]
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/16/boost-for-artists-in-ai-copyright-battle-as-only-3-per-cent-back-uk-active-opt-out-plan
Boost for artists in AI copyright battle as only 3% back UK active opt-out plan
Liz Kendall faces pressure from campaigners as she tells parliament there is no clear consensus on issue
www.theguardian.com
December 16, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Wow, this is an absolute bollocking for the Labour plan:
"95% of the more than 10,000 people who had their say over how music, novels, films and […]
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/16/boost-for-artists-in-ai-copyright-battle-as-only-3-per-cent-back-uk-active-opt-out-plan
"95% of the more than 10,000 people who had their say over how music, novels, films and […]
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/16/boost-for-artists-in-ai-copyright-battle-as-only-3-per-cent-back-uk-active-opt-out-plan
A well-researched article suggesting that random UUIDs do not make a good primary key for database tables; I would tend to agree (for cases where performance is important).
"
- UUID v4s increase latency for lookups, as they can’ […]
https://andyatkinson.com/avoid-uuid-version-4-primary-keys
"
- UUID v4s increase latency for lookups, as they can’ […]
https://andyatkinson.com/avoid-uuid-version-4-primary-keys
Avoid UUID Version 4 Primary Keys
Introduction Over the last decade, when working on databases with UUID Version 41 as the primary key data type, these databases have usually have bad performance and excessive IO. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4122#section-4.4 ↩
andyatkinson.com
December 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
A well-researched article suggesting that random UUIDs do not make a good primary key for database tables; I would tend to agree (for cases where performance is important).
"
- UUID v4s increase latency for lookups, as they can’ […]
https://andyatkinson.com/avoid-uuid-version-4-primary-keys
"
- UUID v4s increase latency for lookups, as they can’ […]
https://andyatkinson.com/avoid-uuid-version-4-primary-keys
Via TJ McIntyre -- indications that the Thailand-Cambodia war is being driven by the "pig butchering" scammer compounds operating in the border area:
"Cambodia’s 2019 census put O’Smach’s population just over 9,850, but that doesn’t […]
https://archive.is/9qbX0#selection-3631.37-3735.16
"Cambodia’s 2019 census put O’Smach’s population just over 9,850, but that doesn’t […]
https://archive.is/9qbX0#selection-3631.37-3735.16
December 9, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Via TJ McIntyre -- indications that the Thailand-Cambodia war is being driven by the "pig butchering" scammer compounds operating in the border area:
"Cambodia’s 2019 census put O’Smach’s population just over 9,850, but that doesn’t […]
https://archive.is/9qbX0#selection-3631.37-3735.16
"Cambodia’s 2019 census put O’Smach’s population just over 9,850, but that doesn’t […]
https://archive.is/9qbX0#selection-3631.37-3735.16
Hari Kunzru nails it:
"These days I have a sense of falling from a precipice toward a torrent of algorithmically driven slop. It’s coming, whether we want it or not, and the consequences for our […]
https://www.artforum.com/features/year-in-review-2025-hari-kunzru-ai-slop-1234738077/
"These days I have a sense of falling from a precipice toward a torrent of algorithmically driven slop. It’s coming, whether we want it or not, and the consequences for our […]
https://www.artforum.com/features/year-in-review-2025-hari-kunzru-ai-slop-1234738077/
Slopocalypse Now
Hari Kunzru surveys the AI slop that dominates our feeds and likens the way it drowns out information to a new form of censorship.
www.artforum.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Hari Kunzru nails it:
"These days I have a sense of falling from a precipice toward a torrent of algorithmically driven slop. It’s coming, whether we want it or not, and the consequences for our […]
https://www.artforum.com/features/year-in-review-2025-hari-kunzru-ai-slop-1234738077/
"These days I have a sense of falling from a precipice toward a torrent of algorithmically driven slop. It’s coming, whether we want it or not, and the consequences for our […]
https://www.artforum.com/features/year-in-review-2025-hari-kunzru-ai-slop-1234738077/
A very silly optimisation for the “binary to decimal” conversion problem:
"The compiler has turned division by a constant ten into a multiply and a shift. There’s a magic constant 0xcccccccd and a shift right of 35! Shifting right by 35 is the […]
https://xania.org/202512/07-division-again
"The compiler has turned division by a constant ten into a multiply and a shift. There’s a magic constant 0xcccccccd and a shift right of 35! Shifting right by 35 is the […]
https://xania.org/202512/07-division-again
xania.org
December 8, 2025 at 11:00 AM
A very silly optimisation for the “binary to decimal” conversion problem:
"The compiler has turned division by a constant ten into a multiply and a shift. There’s a magic constant 0xcccccccd and a shift right of 35! Shifting right by 35 is the […]
https://xania.org/202512/07-division-again
"The compiler has turned division by a constant ten into a multiply and a shift. There’s a magic constant 0xcccccccd and a shift right of 35! Shifting right by 35 is the […]
https://xania.org/202512/07-division-again
A thought-provoking read on LLMs, poetry, the oral tradition, and Gene Wolfe:
"Even if LLMs are made out of poetry, they are incapable of producing poems. Or in Wolfe’s language, both the epic form and LLMs are story, […]
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-as-the-tales
"Even if LLMs are made out of poetry, they are incapable of producing poems. Or in Wolfe’s language, both the epic form and LLMs are story, […]
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-as-the-tales
Large Language Models As The Tales That Are Sung
Gene Wolfe, Albert Lord, machine culture.
www.programmablemutter.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
A thought-provoking read on LLMs, poetry, the oral tradition, and Gene Wolfe:
"Even if LLMs are made out of poetry, they are incapable of producing poems. Or in Wolfe’s language, both the epic form and LLMs are story, […]
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-as-the-tales
"Even if LLMs are made out of poetry, they are incapable of producing poems. Or in Wolfe’s language, both the epic form and LLMs are story, […]
https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-as-the-tales
"A live map that tracks frontlines of the war in Ukraine was edited to show a fake Russian advance on the city of Myrnohrad on November 15. The edit coincided with the resolution of a bet […]
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1pbt4m0/unauthorized_edit_to_ukraines_frontline_maps/
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1pbt4m0/unauthorized_edit_to_ukraines_frontline_maps/
www.reddit.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:08 PM
"A live map that tracks frontlines of the war in Ukraine was edited to show a fake Russian advance on the city of Myrnohrad on November 15. The edit coincided with the resolution of a bet […]
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1pbt4m0/unauthorized_edit_to_ukraines_frontline_maps/
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1pbt4m0/unauthorized_edit_to_ukraines_frontline_maps/
A recommended frame vendor from Poland, thanks to mags on ITC
https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/WallBonito
https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/WallBonito
December 3, 2025 at 3:20 PM
A recommended frame vendor from Poland, thanks to mags on ITC
https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/WallBonito
https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/WallBonito
Walkthrough of the "Medallion" architecture concept, which comprises three layers (or stages), each serving distinct purposes in the data pipeline:
"
- Bronze layer - This layer acts as the landing area for raw, […]
https://clickhouse.com/blog/building-a-medallion-architecture-with-clickhouse
"
- Bronze layer - This layer acts as the landing area for raw, […]
https://clickhouse.com/blog/building-a-medallion-architecture-with-clickhouse
December 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Walkthrough of the "Medallion" architecture concept, which comprises three layers (or stages), each serving distinct purposes in the data pipeline:
"
- Bronze layer - This layer acts as the landing area for raw, […]
https://clickhouse.com/blog/building-a-medallion-architecture-with-clickhouse
"
- Bronze layer - This layer acts as the landing area for raw, […]
https://clickhouse.com/blog/building-a-medallion-architecture-with-clickhouse
"Open Source backend in 1 file". This is nice; it's a little OSS sqlite database, authentication, file storage and admin dashboard for web apps.
https://pocketbase.io/
https://pocketbase.io/
PocketBase - Open Source backend in 1 file
Open Source backend in 1 file with realtime database, authentication, file storage and admin dashboard
pocketbase.io
November 28, 2025 at 1:06 PM
"Open Source backend in 1 file". This is nice; it's a little OSS sqlite database, authentication, file storage and admin dashboard for web apps.
https://pocketbase.io/
https://pocketbase.io/
Interesting -- a new, GPU-optimised storage format:
"Like Parquet, Vortex minimizes bytes on disk. However, Vortex is also designed with a core use-case in mind: decoding and querying data directly from object […]
https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2025/11/25/interface-parquet-vortex
"Like Parquet, Vortex minimizes bytes on disk. However, Vortex is also designed with a core use-case in mind: decoding and querying data directly from object […]
https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2025/11/25/interface-parquet-vortex
Questioning an Interface: From Parquet to Vortex
Breaking free from the shackles of interface-imposed performance limitations
www.polarsignals.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Interesting -- a new, GPU-optimised storage format:
"Like Parquet, Vortex minimizes bytes on disk. However, Vortex is also designed with a core use-case in mind: decoding and querying data directly from object […]
https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2025/11/25/interface-parquet-vortex
"Like Parquet, Vortex minimizes bytes on disk. However, Vortex is also designed with a core use-case in mind: decoding and querying data directly from object […]
https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2025/11/25/interface-parquet-vortex
Polly Toynbee in the Guardian writes, "The shameful attacks on the Covid inquiry prove it: the right is lost in anti-science delusion":
"
That number will stay […]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/shameful-attacks-covid-inquiry-right-anti-science-delusion-lockdowns
"
That number will stay […]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/shameful-attacks-covid-inquiry-right-anti-science-delusion-lockdowns
The shameful attacks on the Covid inquiry prove it: the right is lost in anti-science delusion | Polly Toynbee
There is nothing wrong with questioning the mighty cost of the lockdowns, but we can’t let hardline libertarians rewrite Britain’s pandemic history, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
www.theguardian.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Polly Toynbee in the Guardian writes, "The shameful attacks on the Covid inquiry prove it: the right is lost in anti-science delusion":
"
That number will stay […]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/shameful-attacks-covid-inquiry-right-anti-science-delusion-lockdowns
"
That number will stay […]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/shameful-attacks-covid-inquiry-right-anti-science-delusion-lockdowns
The paradox is this simple gap: high individual confidence in AI speed, versus stubborn organizational metrics that just won’t budge:
"- Perceived speed is high: Adoption is near-universal (90% usage […]
https://gradle.com/blog/developer-productivity-paradox-faster-coding-slower-delivery/
"- Perceived speed is high: Adoption is near-universal (90% usage […]
https://gradle.com/blog/developer-productivity-paradox-faster-coding-slower-delivery/
November 24, 2025 at 12:41 PM
The paradox is this simple gap: high individual confidence in AI speed, versus stubborn organizational metrics that just won’t budge:
"- Perceived speed is high: Adoption is near-universal (90% usage […]
https://gradle.com/blog/developer-productivity-paradox-faster-coding-slower-delivery/
"- Perceived speed is high: Adoption is near-universal (90% usage […]
https://gradle.com/blog/developer-productivity-paradox-faster-coding-slower-delivery/
An excellent page about slide rules -- very relevant to my interests, as I have a lovely antique Keuffel & Esser rule (previously owned and used by a 1950s rocket engineer) framed on my wall
https://amenzwa.github.io/stem/ComputingHistory/HowSlideRulesWork/
https://amenzwa.github.io/stem/ComputingHistory/HowSlideRulesWork/
amenzwa.github.io
November 20, 2025 at 10:06 AM
An excellent page about slide rules -- very relevant to my interests, as I have a lovely antique Keuffel & Esser rule (previously owned and used by a 1950s rocket engineer) framed on my wall
https://amenzwa.github.io/stem/ComputingHistory/HowSlideRulesWork/
https://amenzwa.github.io/stem/ComputingHistory/HowSlideRulesWork/
"A clone of the strace command for macOS" -- yayyyy, I've been lamenting this loss for years
https://github.com/Mic92/strace-macos
https://github.com/Mic92/strace-macos
GitHub - Mic92/strace-macos: A clone of the strace command for macOS
A clone of the strace command for macOS. Contribute to Mic92/strace-macos development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:54 AM
"A clone of the strace command for macOS" -- yayyyy, I've been lamenting this loss for years
https://github.com/Mic92/strace-macos
https://github.com/Mic92/strace-macos
tl;dr: a configuration-generation tool had buggy error handling code. Triggered by a permissions change, it generated over-large configs which then caused a crash in buggy config-reading code in their Bot Management module. This […]
https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/
https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/
Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025
Cloudflare suffered a service outage on November 18, 2025. The outage was triggered by a bug in generation logic for a Bot Management feature file causing many Cloudflare services to be affected.
blog.cloudflare.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:38 AM
tl;dr: a configuration-generation tool had buggy error handling code. Triggered by a permissions change, it generated over-large configs which then caused a crash in buggy config-reading code in their Bot Management module. This […]
https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/
https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/
At the 2025 Bitwarden Open Source Security Summit, WIRED's Andy Greenberg sat down for a fireside chat with GigaOm analyst Paul Stringfellow to discuss a revelation that turned his decades-long reporting […]
https://bitwarden.com/blog/how-cryptocurrency-became-law-enforcements-secret-weapon/
https://bitwarden.com/blog/how-cryptocurrency-became-law-enforcements-secret-weapon/
Bitcoin's big secret: How cryptocurrency became law enforcement's secret weapon | Bitwarden
WIRED's Andy Greenberg discusses a revelation that turned his decades-long reporting on its head: Bitcoin became a criminal's worst nightmare.
bitwarden.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:00 AM
At the 2025 Bitwarden Open Source Security Summit, WIRED's Andy Greenberg sat down for a fireside chat with GigaOm analyst Paul Stringfellow to discuss a revelation that turned his decades-long reporting […]
https://bitwarden.com/blog/how-cryptocurrency-became-law-enforcements-secret-weapon/
https://bitwarden.com/blog/how-cryptocurrency-became-law-enforcements-secret-weapon/
MAME, the Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator, can now emulate your favourite UNIX terminals. Amazing stuff
https://zork.net/~st/jottings/Real-VT102-emulation-with-MAME.html
https://zork.net/~st/jottings/Real-VT102-emulation-with-MAME.html
zork.net
November 11, 2025 at 10:47 AM
MAME, the Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator, can now emulate your favourite UNIX terminals. Amazing stuff
https://zork.net/~st/jottings/Real-VT102-emulation-with-MAME.html
https://zork.net/~st/jottings/Real-VT102-emulation-with-MAME.html