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Cake day: June 29th, 2024

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  • Spoken from a European perspective: within a few decades, the US will lose its status as a superpower as it slides into isolationism. You simply cannot be both isolationist and a military and economic superpower. Add to it that much tech is still in the US, but people are waking up to the inherent vulnerability in that. Think government data being on US servers.

    These developments will hurt the entire world in the short term and new superpowers will rise. Russia has had its day, but China and India will be the top dogs. I am not discounting Brazil either as a local superpower is South-America. We do probably not want it, but they have the people and the production capacity.

    The next four years will accelerate all that. I have already read the first questions about F-35 warplanes being a wise choice as the US could potentially disable them remotely. That would turn them into expensive paperweights at the whim of the US. If the US themselves are less than stable, that would be a very precarious situation.





  • I am not sure about ‘ever’ (I am old and have been reading for over 4 decades now), but a book I hate-read recently was Foucault’s pendulum by Umberto Eco. It is meant to be a satire on conspiracy theories and as such it is still a relevant book after 35 years or so. However, the point of satire is to get to the point eventually, preferably within 500 pages. It was pompously written and sometimes felt like a showcase of ‘look how much I know!’.



  • I recently hate-read Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I had started reading it twice and stopped after a few chapters. I am aware that the book is meant to be satire, but the point of satire is to be to the point instead of having to slog through 600+ pages of drivel.





  • Core developer of an open source software suite here. We make money by doing the following things:

    • We offer a free and open source community package that has the basics. However, we offer a number of professional packages that we offer yearly subscriptions for.
    • We host our software. We charge by the number of active users.
    • Custom development.
    • Paid support like migrations or troubleshooting. Also helping external developers develop custom modules.

    This allows us enough income to develop the community part of the software.



  • Counter question: why do you think that you cannot get enough sleep? Do you feel sleep deprived? As somebody else mentioned earlier, you may not need as much sleep.

    A few general tips that may or may not apply to you:

    • No more screen time at least an hour before going to bed. Read a book instead. Blue light will mess with your brain.
    • Do not drink caffeinated drinks or alcohol. I usually stop drinking caffienated drinks around 3PM. I do enjoy a beer though, but I do not have any trouble sleeping.
    • When do you eat your largest meal of the day? You may simply be too busy digesting your main meal.
    • Do you suffer from anxiety, depression or any other mental issues that may prevent you from sleeping? Maybe it would help to have that looked into.

    I normally sleep from 10:30-ish to 6:30-ish. As for running, I mostly do that either late morning or late afternoon, as my energy levels are highest then. However, I have school going kids and a 9 to 5 job. I do not know your situation, so YMMV.


  • I think that the first 20 to 30 years will be very difficult for humanity. There is a distinct reactionionary movement that is blocking or even reversing progress needed to fix various problems (including, but not limited to climate change, destruction of ecosystems, housing problems and the world population aging beyond sustainablitiy). It will get very messy.

    After the boomer generation has died out as well as my own (GenX-er here), humanity can hopefully look forward again. As I age, I really think that it is our two generations that are blocking progress. As millennials and Gen Z ages, they will hopefully learn from us how not to do things.