I'm giving a talk online at 13:00 Atlanta time, 18:00 UK time, about 4:45 from when I post this:
“Factoring Integers by Chasing Rabbits in Circles.”
https://www.gathering4gardner.org/news-2026-10-30/
I have no idea what hashtags I should use for this.
Anyway ... the title and abstract are on that page.
Less than 5 hours ... I should be planning what I'm going to say ...
This is a fabulous tribute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKcH-ZR7Fao
"Make now always the most precious time, now will never come again."
No matter how far you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
It will never not be funny that in their 250th year of independence from being a colony under a mad king, the USA decided to embark on a colonial war to appease their mad king.
If you've never written time code, you have no idea how fucked up time code is to write.
You know the common expression "it's not rocket science"?
Time code is fucking rocket science. Grownup programmers *never* write that shit by hand, they *always* turn to people who write it for a living.
Classic joke, here.
"Days Since Last Timezone Error: -1"
Found this in a post over boosted, but posting here again.
We've lost one of the good ones.
😢
"Why losing Patrick Stewart hits so hard for women"
https://losingmyperspicacity.beehiiv.com/p/why-losing-patrick-stewart-hits-so-hard-for-women
(edited for typos)
Julie DiCaro:
"In this miasma of misogyny, Patrick Stewart was a shining beacon of moral fortitude. He was the guy women aren’t afraid to get in the elevator with. He was the man women would have trusted to walk our friends home. He was the guy we’d pick, again and again, over the bear. In a world of Shane Gillises and Johnny Depps, Patrick Stewart stood out as an advocate, a protector, and what we wish more men would be."
https://losingmyperspicacity.beehiiv.com/p/why-losing-patrick-stewart-hits-so-hard-for-women
9/n
RE: https://mastodon.social/@LillyHerself/117535691911263348
In other news Alphabet’s market value fell by more than $400 bn yesterday.
A reminder for those who have seen it, an announcement for those who have not ...
I'm giving a talk in the G4G Weekend Social tomorrow afternoon (UK time):
“Factoring Integers by Chasing Rabbits in Circles.”
"It seems obvious that if you want to factor an integer, you need to try dividing it by potential factors. One damn factor after another. In this talk we'll see that there is another way."
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all Number One, we're only mortal." -- Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart
RE: https://disabled.social/@Aaidanbird/117531798326023399
A question to which I would also like an answer. Someone recommended tuta.com but that also has questions surrounding it.
Are they all going the same way?
Is there a protondrive option that isn't falling prey to the current genAI nonsense? I fled google for proton, but it started doing questionable things. so swapped basic email to Fastmail, but now that's being weird.
Tech companies stop it with "enhancements" please. they make things inaccessible and annoying and vectors for attacks. just let me have a highly secured email and online backup drive (great if you have muliple computers so i can pass stuff between the two.)
Any Recs?
@ColinTheMathmo I had quite a few enquiries of this kind when the Log4j vulnerability happened five years ago. I've been expecting at least one or two about PHP.
(I'm secretly hoping someone will demand I check that PuTTY makes no use of the number 4…)
I lose again!