Theo Honohan
@theohonohan.bsky.social
"The subtlest and most pervasive of all influences are those which create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes."
November 18, 2025 at 6:47 PM
November 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
"Men can be provincial in time, as well as in place." (In this case, seemingly the Bell Labs of the late 40s? God bless the commenter, anyway) news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592...
November 17, 2025 at 9:09 PM
"Men can be provincial in time, as well as in place." (In this case, seemingly the Bell Labs of the late 40s? God bless the commenter, anyway) news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592...
November 16, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The model rocket company Estes produced a kit in 1979 that took a Kodak 110 film cartridge for aerial photography. It took one photo per flight, so you'd need to fly the rocket at least 12 (and up to 20 or 24) times before sending the cartridge off for processing.
www.dembrudders.com/history-and-...
www.dembrudders.com/history-and-...
November 16, 2025 at 5:32 PM
The model rocket company Estes produced a kit in 1979 that took a Kodak 110 film cartridge for aerial photography. It took one photo per flight, so you'd need to fly the rocket at least 12 (and up to 20 or 24) times before sending the cartridge off for processing.
www.dembrudders.com/history-and-...
www.dembrudders.com/history-and-...
![Painting: Arthur Streeton, Sheep country [or The Grampians from the plain], c.1920](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b2t4xsc2doon5nbg7fpsskdc/bafkreidf5nm6vr5nawi5rmy6gz5xczikgnag5njvlymlznzt33azdpc6eq@jpeg)
November 15, 2025 at 11:35 PM
A machine in the garden www.theguardian.com/science/2015...
!["The Murchison radio-astronomy observatory. This is the most radio-quiet observatory on the planet. Photograph: Craig Kinder/SKA" A colour photo of one of the dishes of "the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)[, which] consists of 36 white-painted dish antennas, each about 39 feet across, spread over a circle approximately 3.7 miles in diameter" in the Australian outback.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b2t4xsc2doon5nbg7fpsskdc/bafkreifup74mcrasbwzaqsc3l33zwbw7zg5berswrwqyfrw2awsicq7ivm@jpeg)
November 15, 2025 at 11:35 PM
A machine in the garden www.theguardian.com/science/2015...
I should remark that the quantity Ian Jack describes has the same units as the cant deficiency. Depending on your point of view, this may seem pretty close to accuracy. granta.com/the-1210-to-...
On balance, Jack probably shouldn't have told this just-so story which oversimplifies the dynamics.
On balance, Jack probably shouldn't have told this just-so story which oversimplifies the dynamics.
November 15, 2025 at 11:11 PM
I should remark that the quantity Ian Jack describes has the same units as the cant deficiency. Depending on your point of view, this may seem pretty close to accuracy. granta.com/the-1210-to-...
On balance, Jack probably shouldn't have told this just-so story which oversimplifies the dynamics.
On balance, Jack probably shouldn't have told this just-so story which oversimplifies the dynamics.
He's on Instagram: www.instagram.com/p/DNYcr4pOayw/
November 15, 2025 at 10:38 PM
He's on Instagram: www.instagram.com/p/DNYcr4pOayw/
"The rectangles of the real world which the camera may preserve are so often unsatisfying in color that the photographer feels compelled to change them."
www.artforum.com/columns/cont...
Colour photography may be more demanding, but that's surely not the fault of the camera (or of "rectangles").
www.artforum.com/columns/cont...
Colour photography may be more demanding, but that's surely not the fault of the camera (or of "rectangles").
November 15, 2025 at 10:33 PM
"The rectangles of the real world which the camera may preserve are so often unsatisfying in color that the photographer feels compelled to change them."
www.artforum.com/columns/cont...
Colour photography may be more demanding, but that's surely not the fault of the camera (or of "rectangles").
www.artforum.com/columns/cont...
Colour photography may be more demanding, but that's surely not the fault of the camera (or of "rectangles").
By the way, UNIX folks have a tool for this called figlet. It comes with a range of OK fonts and you can, of course, also make your own.
www.figlet.org/examples.html
www.figlet.org/examples.html
November 15, 2025 at 10:28 PM
By the way, UNIX folks have a tool for this called figlet. It comes with a range of OK fonts and you can, of course, also make your own.
www.figlet.org/examples.html
www.figlet.org/examples.html
Photo by Billy Dinh. I think this shows the Hooghly River at Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, where there is a bathing ghat.
www.billydinh.com
www.billydinh.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Photo by Billy Dinh. I think this shows the Hooghly River at Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, where there is a bathing ghat.
www.billydinh.com
www.billydinh.com
This is related to Hamilton's attempts to render tyres in perspective. I don't know how seriously he expected anyone to take this failed attempt to create a drawing which probably wouldn't have been all that interesting anyway. He is a pretty overrated guy.
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks...
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks...
November 14, 2025 at 11:44 PM
This is related to Hamilton's attempts to render tyres in perspective. I don't know how seriously he expected anyone to take this failed attempt to create a drawing which probably wouldn't have been all that interesting anyway. He is a pretty overrated guy.
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks...
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks...
For the ironic/cynical architect/designer/urbanist in your life
November 14, 2025 at 6:25 PM
For the ironic/cynical architect/designer/urbanist in your life
Of course, this is not what cant deficiency is – it's a function of speed, curvature and superelevation – and never mind both writers' obliviousness to the pretentiousness of the term. They're too busy congratulating themselves for "beadiness" and "exactitude".
www.theguardian.com/books/2009/o...
www.theguardian.com/books/2009/o...
November 14, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Of course, this is not what cant deficiency is – it's a function of speed, curvature and superelevation – and never mind both writers' obliviousness to the pretentiousness of the term. They're too busy congratulating themselves for "beadiness" and "exactitude".
www.theguardian.com/books/2009/o...
www.theguardian.com/books/2009/o...
Anthea Hamilton's The Squash (2018)
November 13, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Anthea Hamilton's The Squash (2018)
It's probably obvious, but synths built by slightly eccentric artists look a lot more interesting than synths built by engineers with an interest in audio or music. The basic aesthetic rules are the same, there's just more visual fun www.lovehulten.com/pinklab.html
November 12, 2025 at 9:47 PM
It's probably obvious, but synths built by slightly eccentric artists look a lot more interesting than synths built by engineers with an interest in audio or music. The basic aesthetic rules are the same, there's just more visual fun www.lovehulten.com/pinklab.html
November 12, 2025 at 9:34 PM
November 11, 2025 at 10:12 PM
May we tell you about Questar? gregorygross.com/blog/entry.p...
November 11, 2025 at 5:08 PM
May we tell you about Questar? gregorygross.com/blog/entry.p...
Leslie Lamport on inspiration from the diversity of "nature" www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
!["I like working in an industrial research lab, because of the input," he says. "[French film director] Jean Renoir wrote in his autobiography that when someone asked his father, [Impressionist painter] Pierre-Auguste, why he painted from life, taking his easel outdoors rather than painting in a studio, he said: 'If I were to paint a tree in the studio, I would be able to paint five or six different kinds of leaves. That's all that would come to me. But when I go out in nature, there are millions of different kinds of leaves. I need nature for that inspiration.
"It's the same with me. If I just work by myself and come up with problems, I'd come up with some small number of things, but if I go out into the world, where people are working on real computer systems, there are a million problems out there. When I look back on most of the things I worked on – Byzantine Generals, Paxos – they came from real-world problems."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b2t4xsc2doon5nbg7fpsskdc/bafkreidosmvqbjwecpcz6ncxc3ee7g5hjro3w5qkclaszdciqk3ig5nw6a@jpeg)
November 10, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Leslie Lamport on inspiration from the diversity of "nature" www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
"Oh Diablo Canyon 2, why can't you be more like Diablo Canyon 1?" www.larrysultan.com/gallery/evid...
November 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
"Oh Diablo Canyon 2, why can't you be more like Diablo Canyon 1?" www.larrysultan.com/gallery/evid...
November 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM
November 9, 2025 at 5:20 PM