I am tickled that Microsoft, one of the leading proponents of this mad push to shove AI (or “AI”) into everything, is now being referred to as Microslop. Normally, I think these names are a bit childish (Micro$oft, anyone?) but this one works for me. It even has a “nice” logo:
I bide my time waiting for the AI bubble to burst, deflate, implode, explode or whatever it is that will cause it to finally come to an end.
Or at least the website is, now. I’ve changed up the colour scheme again, going with an icy blue theme to reflect our wintry cold. Mostly, I just wanted a change.
For future reference, it looks like this:
Also, if John Gruber was dead, he’d be spinning in his grave because the header font is Aptos. Yes, Aptos! (I was lazy and just grabbed a font that was handy. I may change it later.)
The next experiment in design might be to go with some kind of dark mode style. I wish WordPress had a built-in way to switch between light and dark themes (you have to use a plugin). It seems like an obvious thing to add, vs. whatever AI nonsense they’re planning to shove in.
First, Werdmuller is a great name for a writer or someone who writes.
Second, Ben is an incredibly decent and thoughtful person working in tech and media, and he wrote 47 lessons for his 47th birthday. They are worth a read.
Here’s what I did:
It seems to be running fairly decently. I’ll tweak a bunch of stuff (I need to disable Secure Boot to get it to recognize refresh rates higher than 120 Hz, for starters) and see how it goes. Before installing Mint, I also had a look at Kubuntu for the first time and I liked what I saw, but I’ll stick to Mint for now and do more distro-hopping somewhere down the line.
(Also, this was posted from Linux Mint.)
On my new PC (I’ll have another post soon on what I’ve installed and choices I’ve made/avoided this time around), I have the following drives:
I have Windows 11 Pro set up on the main drive and have been planning on setting up another dual boot system, using Linux Mint again, as I did on my older PC. Somewhat randomly, I chose to use the external SSD for Mint.
I booted from a live Mint USB stick and went through the installation. I let it choose to automatically configure the dual boot after verifying that it would install Mint to the external SSD.
Or so I thought.
The install took a very long time. I was patient, I let it do its thing. At the end, it prompted me to remove the install media (USB stick) and hit ENTER to restart. I did, expecting to see the GRUB menu where I would have 10 seconds (by default) to choose Mint, Windows or enter the BIOS.
Instead, I very briefly saw mention of hitting F2 to get into the BIOS, then it loaded into Windows. A survey of all drives showed none had Linux Mint on them. The USB stick, however, is asking to be formatted in Windows, which leads me to believe that Mint installed on the USB stick.
This would seem like a very silly thing to do, but it would explain the very long install time. Why would it install to the USB stick? I do not know.
What I am contemplating doing, though, is taking the 1 TB SATA SSD in my old PC–which has Mint installed–and putting it in the new one, then running Boot Repair to get the GRUB menu working properly. Maybe.
After several false starts (I haven’t documented earlier attempts), it almost feels like the new PC is trying to reject Linux–or at least Mint. Maybe I can try another distro again.
I will ponder.
Along with approximately 1 million other small websites! Here’s the link to the giant mosaic of thumbnails you can pan around and zoom in on:
One million (small web) screenshots
I found this link in one of Andreas’ weekly link dumps here.
It captured the site on August 25, 2025, when I posted about having 30 apps on my iPhone that needed updating and how I refused to update them.
That number is now 38.
I have tried adding various dark mode toggles to the site and all have not looked quite right, which keeps me from sticking with them. If you read this site and find it too bright, it actually looks pretty good in the reader mode of most browsers. Reader mode will work on individual posts, but not from the main page.
I’ll continue to look into better light/dark solutions. And I may tweak the colours (again) for 2026. Maybe I’ll go dark mode.
I’m also playing around with how to display categories and such. The dropdown menus are space efficient but look a bit utilitarian. On the other hand, they almost have a retro charm now. Another thing to ponder.
Here is a cat celebrating the new year.
I like the personal touch of it being signed by Cat.
Some of the thoughts are not fit to be heard by other humans. These have been omitted.
My older PC dates back to 2019, so it’s getting close to around seven years old. This seems to be the typical lifespan of my PCs, so I began looking for components to build a new one before year’s end. I was not in a rush, though that changed toward the end when ram prices suddenly went insane (thanks, AI companies!) I’d originally planned on going with 64GB but will stick with 32GB for now.
For other components, I bought nearly everything on sale and I made a change, going with higher end gear than usual. For example, the CPU I chose, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, is their top consumer CPU. I usually go mid-tier. The graphics card, my first AMD since the 9800XT I got with a coupon for a free copy of Half-Life 2, to give you an idea how long ago that was, is likewise the fastest they currently offer to consumers–a Radeon 9070 XT.
By buying on sale, I saved a lot of money. I haven’t added it up, but it’s probably between $600 and $800. This kept the overall price closer to my usual mid-tier range.
Every time I build my own PC, I generally have a lousy, joyless experience and vow to never do it again1. Then I do it again, because the now seven-year gaps between builds is enough for the memory to fade into “Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.”
For the record, I once again vow to never do it again. Note to future self: THIS TIME, LISTEN. I may still buy everything, but I’ll pay someone else to assemble it. They’ll do a better job with the cable management, anyway.
The whole thing was complicated by a defective component. I’ve packed the component up and will be returning it for a refund in the next day or so. This is always annoying, but there’s one component in particular that makes it even worse, and that is the motherboard, because everything connects to the motherboard.
It was the motherboard.
On the recommendation of a friend, I got my first-ever ASRock product, a high-end motherboard that weighed a ton, had RGB bling and came with an inscrutable quick start guide that failed to mention all of its components.
It also, as it turned out, had a bad ram slot. This meant I could only run with a single stick of ram. Not acceptable, of course. So I had to take everything off the motherboard, pack it back in its original box, find another motherboard and hope the whole mess didn’t happen again as I built my PC for a second time.
Because this was my first experience with ASRock, it’s very unlikely I will ever buy one of their products again. I’m sure they’ll manage without my contributions.
I went with an Asus motherboard, as I’ve used them multiple times, including my 2019 build, without issue. The second motherboard worked fine, and I am typing from the new PC now, hooray.
However, there was a complication with the second build and the new new motherboard. One of the two screws on the HSF simply would not line up and screw into the motherboard, as it was supposed to. I have no idea why one screw would not line up, but it would absolutely not line up. I spent about 20 minutes on it, growing frustrated, angry and getting the urge to go Hulk. I ended up walking away for a while. When I came back, I got it screwed in and done in a few minutes, as is often the case with these things.
But the experience reminded me how little the process of assembling a PC has changed in 30–or even 40–years. It should be a lot better than it is now, but this is the world we live in.
One of the things I like about having a new PC is starting fresh. I spent some time decluttering Windows 11 (this task gets longer all the time, sadly), and now I am sticking to my rule of only adding applications as I need them. It’s a great way to see what I really use.
Here’s the list so far (last updated December 19, 2025):
Applications:
Games:
Miscellaneous:
Diablo 3 was interesting, because I downloaded and installed the Battle.net client, then copied over the Diablo 3 folder from my old PC to the new one. I directed the Battle.net client to the new location, it grumbled about how it was the wrong version, so I clicked the Install button and a few moments later, after probably writing the new path somewhere, it was ready and fully playable.
I have two SSDs installed: a 2TB main and a 1TB secondary. I want to put a Linux distro on the second (I actually already did, but kind of munged things, so I wiped the drive in Windows), and I’m mulling over what to try. My 2019 PC has Linux Mint, which I’m most familiar with, but I may hold off, as 22.3 is due imminently–unless I go for something else. I’m not hardcore or leet, so it’s not going to be Arch. Sorry, Arch lovers!
Anyway, I’m glad the PC is up and running. I’ll probably post a few more times about setting it up, tweaking things and such. Hopefully none of these posts will be horror stories.
I am typing on it right now. But I am also tired and frazzled, so I will have more details later.
For now, enjoy this GIF from a simpler time.
I’ll have a full update soon…possibly tomorrow. It’s been an adventure.
(There have been no actual fires so far.)
A Ghost host, to be precise.
Last year, I began my search for a WordPress replacement in earnest, and signed up for a yearly plan using Ghost via https://www.magicpages.co/.
I have no complaints about the service or support, but 20 years of using WordPress proved a bigger hurdle to overcome than I thought. I really like some aspects of Ghost, but just as often I run into limits. It’s possible some of the limits might be theme-related, or could be overcome with CSS or something else, but I find I have little patience anymore to go down these rabbit holes to get things to work the way I want. WP is far from perfect (I could write a book–probably just from my posts highlighting WP’s issues) but I know it and have adapted to its flaws and weird bits.
I feel Ghost is close, but not quite it. Or maybe it is and I’m not willing to put in the effort.
Either way, I’m sticking with WP for at least a little bit longer. I’ll continue to ponder a move, but the urgency is no longer there.
Here is a cat:
I’ve had two cases recently where a device I have continues to work perfectly in every way, except for its primary purpose.
Last year, my camera, a Canon EOS M50, was experiencing occasional glitches, but I learned to live with them. Then one day, while out solo shooting birds at Piper Spit, it stopped taking photos. It would act like it was taking a photo, but would not actually finish the job.
I went through its settings and everything on the camera–including shooting and recording video–worked perfectly. It just stopped taking photos.
I ended up getting a new camera. It takes photos.
The other happened just recently. My iPhone 12 has occasionally sent a call directly to voicemail for no apparent reason. Now it rotates through several behaviours:
I did a cursory search on this and found a “Telus neighbourhoods” thread with dozens of replies reporting the same issue–but on every make and model of phone under the sun, both Android and iPhone. A multitude of “Changing this one random setting fixed it for me!” posts suggest the problem likely comes and goes based on the whims of the Telus network. It’s possible getting a new phone wouldn’t even solve the issue.
For now, I’m giving it time to see if it goes away (I did update and reboot my phone, as well as twiddle the dial on a few phone-related settings). If it doesn’t, I’ll probably grudgingly get a new phone.
Next up: A fan that refuses to blow air.