where

Oct. 30th, 2025 01:40 pm
calimac: (Default)
[personal profile] calimac
I was in a hurry for some reason when I put down my reading glasses, and I remember thinking, "This is not where I usually put them." But where that somewhere was, I now cannot in the least recall.

For several days now, I've been checking every shelf and drawer in the house without luck. I use the glasses mostly for the computer screen. Without them, I have to bring my face right up to the screen - that, or increase the font size bigly, which I don't like doing because I find it choppy to read with fewer words visible.

I dreamed I found them, but I checked when I woke up and they weren't there.

My vision hasn't changed much, but I may have to schedule an eye exam and then buy new glasses. What a nuisance, especially with my schedule already being filled up with medical appointments. I hope they still have the heavy black frames I got these with, because I wanted something sturdy for glasses I was always taking on and off (though not as eccentrically as Derren Nesbitt in that Prisoner episode).

Two Different GM Styles

Oct. 30th, 2025 02:12 pm
lydamorehouse: use for RPG (elf)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
 ...and now back to the subjects no one cares about (but me.)

I've spent the last couple of days preparing for my D&D group. One of our players has to have gallbadder surgery the day before our planned game and since his character is critical to that plot (we're rescuing his sister, who he also plays,) I'm running a micro-campaign, something to be one and done in three hours. The basic set-up is that in some time between adventures (we skipped a level between our first campaign and our second, so it's probably going to take place in those years? months?) Because many of my players read this blog, I won't tell you anything about it other than to say that I'd (long ago) bought a module with this adventure in it, so whole plot has been laid out for me, along with treasures and stats and such. This has not stopped me from spending an inordinate amount of time creating my own twists and flavors to things as well as inventing a reason for my players to have all gathered in this town--and a whole-ass town (not to mention designing a whole new part of my world, complete with mythology.) 

Meanwhile, I have stopped prepping for my Tuesday night Thirsty Sword Lesbians game.

Other than keeping track of the story so far (and having all of the locales and NPCs in my large, sprawling document--much of which I randomly work on when I'm feeling in a cyberpunk mood,) I just show up and start playing pretend with my players. I think in the last session, we maybe rolled the dice four times, tops. That group is just generally great fun. I off-handedly had them run into a pair of stoner boys in a stairwell the session before last and these two dudes invited the lesbians to "Bob's Party." An event I literally pulled out of my brain. Sure enough, my players remembered Bob's party and now we have a whole subplot involving Bob and the things we learned at that party.

And it's all just rolling out of my head in real-time.

Tons of fun.

But so is the game I prepare DAYS in ADVANCE. I think the reason RPGs are so popular is because they're almost always a surprise. Players and GMs can try to plan ahead, but dice rolls and improv are what ultimately shape the game. I just find it kind of funny that I'm both kinds of GMs. I over prepare and I'm also 100% winging it. I mean, that's probably true for a lot of GMs?

If you gotta ask, you ain't gottit

Oct. 30th, 2025 07:18 pm
oursin: George Beresford photograph of Marie of Roumania, overwritten 'And I AM Marie of Roumania' (Marie of Roumania)
[personal profile] oursin

Or words to that effect.

Anyway, general sense of Point Thahr, Misst, in this piece: Can I learn to be cool – even though I am garrulous, swotty and wear no-show socks?

Mind you, and perhaps this is a generational thing, I murmur, thinking of dark jazz cellars and so on, I so do not associate 'cool' with:

Cool people are desirable and in demand; others want to be them or be with them. That social clout readily converts into capital as people buy what you’re selling, hoping it will rub off on them.... A much-publicised paper recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that cool people are seen as possessing six attributes: they are extroverted, open, hedonistic, adventurous, autonomous and powerful.

WOT.

And further on, we have an interview with somebody author of article considers Peak Cool:

[S]tudying fashion in London, she learned how to talk her way into fashion week events, pretending she was “supposed to be there – like, no doubt about it”, she says, eyes glinting. She then parlayed that talent for networking into styling and creative consulting work. “All the coolest people I know are hustlers,” Delaney says. “If you’ve just had it given to you, then it’s not that cool.”

Hustlers??? The truly cool do not hustle.

Perhaps this strikes me as particularly Not Getting It because I have just been reading Eve Babitz?

And IMHO, you do not 'learn' to be cool: if you are cool, what you do is imbued with coolth, even if it doesn't tick the obvious boxes.

Life with two kids: Wednesday shoes

Oct. 30th, 2025 05:45 pm
andrewducker: (Dr Who)
[personal profile] andrewducker
This morning Sophia announced, as we were about to leave the house, that she couldn't find her school shoes.

Her black school shoes.

The ones that are and integral part of her Wednesday costume. For the school Halloween disco. This evening.

Jane and I frantically tore the house apart for fifteen minutes and checked *everywhere*. Eventually we forced her, crying, to put on her trainers, promising her that if her shoes turned up we would bring them in to her.

Because we left fifteen minutes late we missed the bus. And so it was that we were halfway through the walk to school when Sophia quietly said "Oh."

And then told me that she'd just remembered that yesterday she'd come home from school in her welly boots, leaving her shoes at her peg.

You'll be delighted to hear that I didn't murder her.

The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin

Oct. 30th, 2025 08:49 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A fairy's efforts to recover stolen arcane tools via illicit means produce spectacular calamity.

The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin

The AI-Designed Bioweapon Arms Race

Oct. 30th, 2025 11:05 am
[syndicated profile] bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

Interesting article about the arms race between AI systems that invent/design new biological pathogens, and AI systems that detect them before they’re created:

The team started with a basic test: use AI tools to design variants of the toxin ricin, then test them against the software that is used to screen DNA orders. The results of the test suggested there was a risk of dangerous protein variants slipping past existing screening software, so the situation was treated like the equivalent of a zero-day vulnerability.

[…]

Details of that original test are being made available today as part of a much larger analysis that extends the approach to a large range of toxic proteins. Starting with 72 toxins, the researchers used three open source AI packages to generate a total of about 75,000 potential protein variants.

And this is where things get a little complicated. Many of the AI-designed protein variants are going to end up being non-functional, either subtly or catastrophically failing to fold up into the correct configuration to create an active toxin.

[…]

In any case, DNA sequences encoding all 75,000 designs were fed into the software that screens DNA orders for potential threats. One thing that was very clear is that there were huge variations in the ability of the four screening programs to flag these variant designs as threatening. Two of them seemed to do a pretty good job, one was mixed, and another let most of them through. Three of the software packages were updated in response to this performance, which significantly improved their ability to pick out variants.

There was also a clear trend in all four screening packages: The closer the variant was to the original structurally, the more likely the package (both before and after the patches) was to be able to flag it as a threat. In all cases, there was also a cluster of variant designs that were unlikely to fold into a similar structure, and these generally weren’t flagged as threats.

The research is all preliminary, and there are a lot of ways in which the experiment diverges from reality. But I am not optimistic about this particular arms race. I think that the ability of AI systems to create something deadly will advance faster than the ability of AI systems to detect its components.

(no subject)

Oct. 30th, 2025 09:45 am
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] boxofdelights!

All Hallows' Eve Eve

Oct. 30th, 2025 08:19 am
chefxh: (ceiling cat)
[personal profile] chefxh
Today I take the absolutely disgusting Trolli gummy eyeballs to class to share with els meus companys.

Kevin bought some red and purple hair color sprays, so I might not be such an éminence grise for a day or two.

SMOF News, volume 5, issue 9

Oct. 29th, 2025 06:59 pm
petrea_mitchell: (Default)
[personal profile] petrea_mitchell
Does it seem quaint that the most lasting issue of the 2023 Hugo drama is just trying to get the trophies repaired and distributed?

For that matter, does it seem quaint that two years ago, some people were scared that the Chinese government might disappear them at the airport over their social media posts?

Bundle of Holding: Tentacles 7

Oct. 29th, 2025 02:14 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The seventh all-new library of Sanity-shattering tabletop roleplaying ebooks inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos.

Bundle of Holding: Tentacles 7
oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)
[personal profile] oursin

What I read

Finished Encampment, which was brilliant, and intense.

So intense that I had to decompress with a brief Dick Francis binge: Driving Force (1992) - a bit subpar I thought, slow start, massively convoluted plot; Wild Horses (1994) - the one involving a paraphilia I actually did a post here on back when, and making of a movie; Twice Shy (1981) which has a lot of v retro though presumably at the time cutting-edge computer nerdery involving programs on cassette tapes.

On the go

Have started - this was while I was out and about in the world last week - Peter Parker's Some Men in London: Queer Life, 1960–1967 (Some Men in London #2) (2024), since I was recording a podcast last week with the author and he assured me it was somewhat less of a downer than the previous, 1950s, volume. I think it may be a dipper-in over some while.

Still dipping in to Readers' Liberation - liked the first chapter, which is about what readers bring to the book, the second seems a bit heavier going.

Eve Babitz, Eve's Hollywood (1974) - perhaps not quite as good as Slow Days, Fast Company, but it was her first published work.

Up next

No idea: have just sent off for The Scribbler Annual but no idea when it's likely to arrive.

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


What dark purpose compels a girl and her android companion to wander post-apocalyptic Japan?

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 6 by Sakae Saito
[syndicated profile] bruce_schneier_feed

Posted by Bruce Schneier

Signal has just rolled out its quantum-safe cryptographic implementation.

Ars Technica has a really good article with details:

Ultimately, the architects settled on a creative solution. Rather than bolt KEM onto the existing double ratchet, they allowed it to remain more or less the same as it had been. Then they used the new quantum-safe ratchet to implement a parallel secure messaging system.

Now, when the protocol encrypts a message, it sources encryption keys from both the classic Double Ratchet and the new ratchet. It then mixes the two keys together (using a cryptographic key derivation function) to get a new encryption key that has all of the security of the classical Double Ratchet but now has quantum security, too.

The Signal engineers have given this third ratchet the formal name: Sparse Post Quantum Ratchet, or SPQR for short. The third ratchet was designed in collaboration with PQShield, AIST, and New York University. The developers presented the erasure-code-based chunking and the high-level Triple Ratchet design at the Eurocrypt 2025 conference. At the Usenix 25 conference, they discussed the six options they considered for adding quantum-safe forward secrecy and post-compromise security and why SPQR and one other stood out. Presentations at the NIST PQC Standardization Conference and the Cryptographic Applications Workshop explain the details of chunking, the design challenges, and how the protocol had to be adapted to use the standardized ML-KEM.

Jacomme further observed:

The final thing interesting for the triple ratchet is that it nicely combines the best of both worlds. Between two users, you have a classical DH-based ratchet going on one side, and fully independently, a KEM-based ratchet is going on. Then, whenever you need to encrypt something, you get a key from both, and mix it up to get the actual encryption key. So, even if one ratchet is fully broken, be it because there is now a quantum computer, or because somebody manages to break either elliptic curves or ML-KEM, or because the implementation of one is flawed, or…, the Signal message will still be protected by the second ratchet. In a sense, this update can be seen, of course simplifying, as doubling the security of the ratchet part of Signal, and is a cool thing even for people that don’t care about quantum computers.

Also read this post on X.

(no subject)

Oct. 29th, 2025 09:06 am
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] rachelmanija and [personal profile] watersword!

Dept. of Sometimes You Win

Oct. 28th, 2025 09:50 pm
kaffy_r: Chan, Binnie and Han of SKZ bouncing (3racha bouncing)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
Hey Guys, Guess What? C'mon Guess!

Nah, you don't have to guess. 

Remember back when I was having fun with the American medical system, which appeared bound and determined to prevent me from having access to Brexpiprazole*, aka Rexulti for less than $400 per month. I told you about my favorite superhero-who-should-have-a-nobel-prize-for-awesomeness, Nicki who practically turned herself inside out to get me the meds without breaking my bank. 

Back on Sept. 2, I told y'all about that. I haven't updated you about what's happened since then. And up until yesterday, any news I could have told you was simply "nothing has worked, and I'm too exhausted to die on this fucking hill." First because neither link that Nicki gave me resulted in any help. And then the original superhero in my life, Bob, found a better link for one of the organizations that Nicki hoped might help. And sure enough, both he and Nicki were right about that organization; I just might be eligible a program that would provide me Rexulti for zip, zilch, nada until the end of the year, and then could do the same for next year as long as I applied again. 

So I put together the application, and marched it to Nicki; she filled in the shrink's part of the application and faxed it off (faxes! Modernity!) to the organization. 

I had a little frisson of hope when the organization texted me to let me know indirectly that my application had been received. But when I saw the envelope in our post box Friday, I had a bad feeling. Sure enough, they rejected me, saying, "your diagnosis doesn't meet our requirements". I read it and said the whole not-dying-on-this-fucking-hill bit. But the look Bob gave me made me reluctantly (and irritably) decide I'd leave a message to Nicki in her voice mail very early Monday morning, basically to say that this had happened, and why, and should I set up an appointment with my shrink to figure something else to prescribe me. Part of me - a very small part of me, mind - remembered something else, something just enough to ensure I made the call; that Medicare had used the same excuse reason when it initially refused to cover it, so who knew, maybe the same thing could happen in this case.

Didn't hear from Nicki Monday, but was gearing up to call her and actually talk to her rather than leave a message today, when she called. She'd apparently called around 8:30 a.m. but I was fast asleep. She got my voice mail, and redid the application, using a different diagnosis code. She told me she sent it at 4 p.m. Monday, and at 2 a.m. Tuesday the organization left an email telling her that the decision had been reversed, and I had been accepted into the program. 

Reversed. 

Accepted. 

She was so happy for me!

This evening, I got a text letting me know that my 2025 supply had been shipped. That fast. 

I shouldn't have to be celebrating like a mad thing because Nicki the superhero who deserves a Nobel Prize for Awesomeness once again proved that she should wear the damn cape and is probably capable of flying if told that would help one of her boss's patients. 

I shouldn't have to depend on the kindness of strangers to keep my sanity. 

Fucking American "health" system. 

And I'm still celebrating like the mad thing I would surely be without this med. And I'm going to be happy about it. 

* Hey, I can now say and spell the generic name!


when to hang up the phone

Oct. 28th, 2025 04:08 pm
calimac: (Default)
[personal profile] calimac
We have a landline, which means we get a lot of junk and spam calls despite being on the Do Not Call registry.

This is not a reason to give up the landline, because I get junk calls on my cell phone too. Most of the latter are in Chinese and appear to be live persons. The last one to call when I had the phone on called three times before registering - whether understanding my English or not - my saying "You have the wrong number" and hanging up.

Many of the junk calls on the landline used to be live persons. I had good luck squashing them by telling political callers that we have a rule in this household: we don't vote for any candidate who calls us more than once. Another oddity was one caller who asked to speak to the homeowner. "They're not here," I said; "they're never here." "I don't understand," said the caller. I replied, "Have you ever heard of ... rentals?" And then hung up. But a lot of callers, whether live or recorded, are from police charities or "the department of medicare" or something, so I just say, whether live or recorded, "Wrong number" and hang up.

What I really hate is live callers who begin by giving their name but then saying, "How are you today?" This is a fine piece of social lubrication to begin a mutually-agreed upon business conversation between two people who each know why the other is there. It is not a good way to begin one where the party being asked is completely ignorant of who the caller is or what they want. I usually say something like "That's a strange question to call somebody up in order to ask them." Then they usually hang up.

However, I'm expanding my rules for hanging up immediately without saying anything.

I'd noticed that calls that turned out to be boiler-room salespeople always began with, after you picked up and said "Hello?" a little boing sound. I think this was to notify the boiler room switching equipment, which probably calls many numbers at once, that here was a live one, before transferring to a person, which always took a few seconds. So now when I hear that sound, I instantly hang up.

But now I'm getting a lot of calls without the boing in which the response to my saying "Hello?" is for the caller also to say "Hello?" Before I established that these were all recorded, I figured it was a boiler-room who had just been switched onto the line and who said this to verify they had a caller. So I would say, "No, you called me. The way this works is, I say hello, and then you tell me who you are and what you want." Then there follows a pause while the computer tries to figure out what kind of response this is. Then they give a name and launch into the prerecorded spiel.

So my new rule is: If the response to my saying "Hello?" is to also say "Hello?" I will hang up immediately. I may trip up some live callers with bad connections this way, but they'll probably call back, like that Chinese-speaker did. I just don't want to waste any more phone etiquette lessons on robots.

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