Richard

Pun time: that’s a re-bidet-lating injury.

WordPress, AI, and the Human Niche Every day I spend one to two hours thinking about what to write for my blog. Yesterday I noticed that Wordpress wants to get AI to draft the first version of posts using the AI model of our choice, as long as it's American, and take away the hours of blank page syndrome. If you're working towards a deadline, and you're writing for work, that might make life easier, but it might also make blogging less niche, less interesting, and more kitsch.

WordPress, AI, and the Human Niche

Every day I spend one to two hours thinking about what to write for my blog. Yesterday I noticed that Wordpress wants to get AI to draft the first version of posts using the AI model of our choice, as long as it's American, and take away the hours of blank page…

Time to anger a few people ;-). I just popped my Wordpress 7 AI image alt-text generation cherry. This is on a test instance, not my main blog.

I’m tired of the Apple Watch. An Apple ring would do the same thing, without taking over a wrist. I am not saying i would pay for one. Just that it would be less wasteful.

When I notice a typo on my blog, I can fix it. When I notice a typo on Bsky, Threads and other mediocre American sites I can't. When will Americans learn about editing posts. ;-) (No of course this isn't a mischievous tease) ;-)

Sliding to 11ty from Hugo With Gemini Help I currently use Hugo as a static blog. Before using Hugo I had tried with 11ty and failed because I couldn't find documentation that suited my contextual understanding. It's after a lot of trial and error that I eventually chose to experiment with, and then stick with Hugo since 2024 or earlier. The reason for this is that once I found the tools to migrate from Wordpress to markdown, suited to Hugo, and found a theme that worked, I could blog with relative ease.

Sliding to 11ty from Hugo With Gemini Help

I currently use Hugo as a static blog. Before using Hugo I had tried with 11ty and failed because I couldn't find documentation that suited my contextual understanding. It's after a lot of trial and error that I eventually chose to experiment with, and…

Global EV sales fall again in February Global EV registrations fell 11% in February, dragged by ‌China's largest sales drop since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, data by consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) sh...

If we are lucky the Drumpf Oil wars will be the last ones. I hope that after this we transition to petrol cars, buses, cycling, walking and running. Cars are absurd, especially at 30 CHF per day, to be parked in Geneva, per day. I really hope that dinosaur soup wars will be a thing of the past.

London, San Francisco and Beijing achieve ‘remarkable reductions’ in air pollution Cycle lanes, electric cars and other interventions have helped 19 global cities slash levels of pollutants by more than 20%

What articles completely forget is that during the Pandemic honeymoon the mental illness of using cars was gone. For weeks that background noise of traffic was gone. Eventually the illness of driving came back and so did that noise. Cycling, walking, and buses should be safe and convenient.

"At 0.0031, you are essentially hitting the physical limit of 10-bit or even 12-bit display" I'm curious to try with another monitor now.

I think it comments on the screen we're using and the environment, as much as it comments on our ability to discern colour differences.

Replacing FTP with Rsync For my Blog Recently I have been playing with rsync a lot. In the process of synching source A to B, as well as synching between machines I have grown familiar with how it works. It is for this reason that the move from using ftp for rsync to update the static part of the website began to make sense. When I write a blog post I update wordpress with the markdown from the static blog post and then I run hugo to prepare the static site.

Replacing FTP with Rsync For my Blog

Recently I have been playing with rsync a lot. In the process of synching source A to B, as well as synching between machines I have grown familiar with how it works. It is for this reason that the move from using ftp for rsync to update the static part of the…

That's a good return on investment. I'd assume you go for long rides without too much stopping for them to last that long.

How many thousands of kilometres did these last. I suspect they're amortised by now. The beauty of cleats is that I often have to replace one at a time. Usually the right foot.

On Half Litre Kettles and Tea Drinking For years I thought, "I want a smaller kettle so I can boil enough for a cup of tea or to make coffee, without throwing out two thirds to three quarters of the water I boiled. For years I thought that getting a smaller kettle was a waste of money, as they are often more expensive than larger ones. That is, until a certain person was elected for a second time and that nation showed real hatred towards the entire world.

On Half Litre Kettles and Tea Drinking

For years I thought, "I want a smaller kettle so I can boil enough for a cup of tea or to make coffee, without throwing out two thirds to three quarters of the water I boiled. For years I thought that getting a smaller kettle was a waste of money, as they are…

Of Seesmic, TikTok and Qik Internet coelacanths like @documentally remember a different era. We remember internet video communities in the early days of Seesmic and Qik. Seesmic was a video instant messaging platform. We could either post disconnected videos about anything, or we could reply to each other and have converssations. KDFA had "Le Bar est ouvert", Documentally had the English language equivalent. We had conversations on a daily basis.

Of Seesmic, TikTok and Qik

Internet coelacanths like @documentally remember a different era. We remember internet video communities in the early days of Seesmic and Qik. Seesmic was a video instant messaging platform. We could either post disconnected videos about anything, or we could reply to…

They spent millions ruining the road system around here. Now I am tempted to take the car rather than walk, despite them ruining the road system for people to walk and cycle. I don't feel safer, and traffic density makes walking less fluid than it was.

When oil producing cretins start wars, as Drumpf does, we have all the more reason to stop driving cars, to cycle, and take public transport instead.

For the last time in history. When I learned to drive petrol was at 1.20 CHF per litre. When it got to 2 CHF per litre my driving habit took a serious hit. Drumpf & Co are going to encourage the world to switch to electric with their bellicose activities. The Petrol era is at an end, for cars.

On Immich and Gemini Help It's interesting that my use of Immich has evolved with my adoption of Gemini. I know that the cool thing would be to vibe code an Immich clone, and then show off about it to the world. I don't want to do that. I don't find it interesting to re-invent the wheel. I think it's more interesting to get a model such as Gemini to help me make Immich stable on a Pi 5.

On Immich and Gemini Help

It's interesting that my use of Immich has evolved with my adoption of Gemini. I know that the cool thing would be to vibe code an Immich clone, and then show off about it to the world. I don't want to do that. I don't find it interesting to re-invent the wheel. I think…

The Spinning Top. I have watched The Man With the Movie Camera many times.

Gas Prices Continue to Surge in U.S., Rising 14% in a Week

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/b... their prices will be as high as in Europe soon. ;-)

If you walk by a property and a dog starts barking at you, has anyone yelled "Snitch" at the dog? ;-)

I know I am excited or nervous about a meetup because I can't stop pacing around, and can't focus. I just wrote a blog post before an "event". To me this is a clear sign I didn't give a duck about going. I went a month ago in Nyon, but not today. I know the ROI for this is low.

Stinks of "spam" doesn't it? My instinct is that it's spam.

On the Convenience of Buses Making Self-Driving Cars Obsolete In the last two days I ran 8.7 and 7.6km. I also walked 7km and 6 or more kilometres. I'm also recovering from a cold. That's why yesterday I broke a fundamental rule, by catching a bus. For clarity, I am opposed to buses because their frequency is low, and at 3 CHF per trip per direction the bus is an expense I don't need, as I am happy to walk.

On the Convenience of Buses Making Self-Driving Cars Obsolete

In the last two days I ran 8.7 and 7.6km. I also walked 7km and 6 or more kilometres. I'm also recovering from a cold. That's why yesterday I broke a fundamental rule, by catching a bus. For clarity, I am opposed to buses because their…

I really want to write a critique of mobilité douce, but that would break my "be positive" blogging rule.

The price of buses went up. They say "we want people to walk" but they make it easy for cars to mount pavements. They say "we want people to cycle" but cycling infrastructure kicks us off out of traffic and forces us back in a few meters later. They want us to take buses but bus prices increased.

The more I use SM, the angrier I become. That's why I blog. Blogging isn't toxic, because it's quiet. That's why you write your newsletters. I get angry because I see noise, but never the reward of convivial chats. Without convivial chats I'd rather blog for myself and get an occasional like.

Never forget not to remember that "social" media is no longer a network of friends of friends. The subtext that made Pre-pandemic Twitter, and Pre-Zynga FB a pleasure is dead and buried. The fact that BS is filled with people bitching about the curren Cretin in Charge demonstrates an unhealthy NW.

While on the 810 TPN bus last night