BoxOfRain

> [UI] should have stopped changing almost 30 years ago In some ways it did, modern CLIs haven't changed that much fundamentally from their older counterparts. You can do more things but someo…

My converse hot take is that I actually really liked Aero, I've always had a thing for translucent UI elements and glowing things.

I love learning about pre-internet ways of transferring data on the back of other things. Another cool example is that the UK is only shutting down its longwave AM radio service this month (as opposed…

This Teletext emulator displays a few projects recreating various services: https://zxnet.co.uk/teletext/viewer/ . I'm planning on building my own Teletext service at so…

> They built the RBMK reactors (like the one at Chernobyl) specifically because the dual-use design allowed them to generate civilian electricity while simultaneously harvesting plutonium for weapo…

There'd be other interesting implications as well, socialist systems were more open to the idea of cybernetics and with a proper computer industry the Soviets might have had more room to explore …

Map Men did a great video on the reverse of this, classified Soviet-made maps of Britain which were all labelled in Polish! They were in some cases more accurate than the British OS maps of the era wh…

I'd rather pay some nominal fee for access than give up my identity to an unaccountable entity I'd struggle to take cross-border action against if that became necessary. The price shouldn&#x…

I still think we're looking for a shadow by shining a torch at it personally; we have a rather chauvinistic view on what consciousness 'ought' to look like and this fundamentally shapes…

I'm not sure if this tracks internationally, but in the UK sports betting is enormous and young men are included in this. I've got mates from uni I distinctly remember putting chunks of th…

Even without AI slop I've noticed this happen on Reddit. I once made a rather boisterously-argued comment on a political issue I'm passionate about, and I realised that I'd made a serio…

It's an interesting question, we often talk of 'socioeconomic class' but in reality social and economic class are quite distinct things I think. This is particularly pronounced in count…

> India must remain an integral portion of the British Empire so long as the British nation continues to be predominant at home. It was well-understood in those days how much of the British Empire …

> but because AI surprised the copyright industry, it's now too late to enforce copyright like that. I think I've got whiplash from the way a lot of the tech scene has gone from 'IP …

I feel this won't necessarily be a popular take here but I really don't like things like Idiocracy. To me it comes across as deeply misanthropic, and kind of ignorant of what human nature ac…

This sounds a tad misanthropic, if I had the choice to opt out of working full time making music is one of the primary things I'd spend my time doing. I like software but at the end of the day …

In true British fashion the requirements for draught beer and cider are in pints, while wine is sold in millilitres.

That's fair, can't argue with that one. Personally I'd have us use what the Royal Navy used to serve its rum ration in, the half-gill. This is 1/8 of a British pint or 71 millilitr…

When my mates at school had the aero glass effect on the new Windows, my ancient hand-me-down laptop wouldn't even try to run it. It could however run Compiz somewhat if it was persuaded very har…

Using an inequality symbol to highlight inequality is elegant, I wish they'd gone with that!

> On the other, Rao much more optimistic than Orwell, who declared doublespeak the lingua franca? If time travel were possible, one of the first things I'd do is introduce Orwell to the '…

There's still one example of a working offshore radio ship, the Ross Revenge in southern England which you can go and visit. She's one of the former Radio Caroline ships, the studios are sti…

My favourite OSX in terms of visual design was the Panther/Tiger era personally. Leopard looked good, but there was something really cheerful and friendly about Tiger. The iPods of those days wer…

That's wild to think about, I've been playing the guitar longer than that yet his are heights I'm unlikely to reach. He was such an innovative guitarist.