Technology

TOS as a Service

Sep 26, 2026 · 2 min read · Technology

Terms of Service are complete bunkum. We all know this, because nobody reads them. And because people often can't read them, because someone else signed up for them. During my time on the IT helpdesk, I set up people's computers for them, including the software. So when Margaret from Accounts opened her new laptop, the …

Review: GraphHopper

Jul 17, 2025 · 1 min read · FOSS Technology Review

GraphHopper provides map information to people who write phone apps. They also have an app, though, so you can ignore all the different phone applications that want you to see this or that, and just see everything. I took a while to get used to the app, as it structures information in a fundamentally different way. …

Instructions Must Not Have Links

May 24, 2025 · 4 min read · Technology Documentation Wikis

IT documentation has a disease: in-text links. The disease-inducing thinking is quite clear: someone writing the documentation writes 'install the drivers for your graphics card', and then provides a link to how to install graphics cards because they saw others do that sort of thing. But once you accept the general …

Perfidious Oracle

Feb 2, 2025 · 1 min read · Technology Politics

Erik Uden noted some disquieting statements by Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison, and shortly after found his Oracle account terminated. Reading the full fediverse thread doesn't paint a better picture. I can't imagine doing business with a company that deletes a database account, then refuses to elaborate on what has …

Baldurdash Psychics and AI

Jan 18, 2025 · 5 min read · Prattle Technology

A fascinating article wandered across my feed, arguing that LLMs like ChatGPT replicate the mechanisms of a psychic's con. 'Fascinating' because it's devilishly clever, and quite seductive, but seems like complete bunkum for the most part. 'People get fooled into thinking LLMs are clever', Baldur Bjarnason says, very …

Musings on the Next Search Engine

Jul 19, 2024 · 3 min read · Politics Technology

Google's began by indexing massive portions of the internet, and rating sites according to which sites had the most links going towards them. You might state the general goal like this: We will write a program to rank the quality of writing on websites. This worked well for a while, but people with businesses saw how …