Author: scjody

As a random exploration today, I was wondering if an LLM could figure out how to fix an integer overflow in some simple Go code. Here’s the prompt: How can I print the value of “Big” in this program? As written, I get ./prog.go:19:14: cannot use Big (untyped int constant 1267650600228229401496703205376) as int value in…

Construction Haus proudly hosted Greetings, an experience, in November 2023. The experience consisted of a bunch of awesome people and 4 art installations: Greetings The titular art installation was based around a vintage Commodore 64, bought at a K-Mart in St. John’s, Newfoundland when firetiger was 6. Participants were invited to use either Print Shop…

L’OsstidBurn is an excellent regional burn held near Montréal. Unfortunately their WordPress installation is being non-excellent right now, so I’m posting the results of the post-event survey I performed here…

For anyone using Google Compute Engine (an excellent alternative to Amazon’s AWS EC2), the following wrappers and configs will make your life easier… gcloud compute ssh wrapper to figure out the zone automatically Put this in your path and you’ll be able to connect to an instance without figuring out its zone in advance: gssh…

A friend asked me if there were plans for the kitchen shelves and wash station I’ve built for festivals. There weren’t, but there are now! At some point I’ll redo these in CAD, but for now my sketches should be good enough to build from. Materials: These should be built out of decent-quality plywood. 5/8″…

Source / context This place is a message…and part of a system of messages…pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor…no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here…nothing valued is here. What is here is dangerous and…

I went to Frostburn last weekend. It was pretty fun, but also pretty freezing. The highlights for me were my campmate Steph deep frying All The Things, eating at the White Dragon Noodle Bar, seeing our campmate Mick’s flame effects, and hanging out with the rest of the Totenkitten Empire. The big downside was the…

I’m participating in Movember this year – go here to donate or if you just want to see how much of a moustache I can grow! Also I spent a good chunk of the summer and fall building a shed. I dug a hole, poured a concrete slab for the foundation, built and raised the…

A few people have asked me about this recently, so I’m going to summarize the options I know about. Please share your experiences in the comments, especially if you’ve tried one of the options I haven’t or if you have more up to date costs than I do. Advice on flying: You might be able…

Ceiling Magma, originally uploaded by scjody. Liz & I put some holes in the walls and ceilings last Caturday as part of my renovation planning. It took Magma 6 days to figure out how to get up into the ceiling, but here he is! Meow!

I found this printed on a dead tree and was going to send it to a friend, but I’m posting it here mostly as a personal archive of useful information: Here’s what you should look for in a good therapist.  Some good signs are: Someone you know says this therapist has helped her with a…

Magma’); DROP TABLE users;–, originally uploaded by scjody. I has a kitteh. He came home from the SPCA on Caturday, and he’s been mostly hiding under things and on shelves since then. Hopefully he’ll get used to the place soon :)

Shoulder surgery went well, I think. I spent Tuesday in the hospital, came back to Montréal on Wednesday morning, and I’ve been recovering at home ever since. As predicted, recovery has been easier than last time because they didn’t do as much. They didn’t put in a nerve block (the anesthesiologist felt it wasn’t worth…

I visited Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories in October last year, and I was struck by the number of 3 legged polar bears I saw. First, a few 4 legged ones, like the Arctic Alarm bear. If I hired a polar bear to guard my shop, I’d want him to have a full complement of…

I just bought a house. Buying a house is a lengthy process but my closing date was today, which means it’s legally mine and I have the keys. I bought the house on the right.  It’s the same construction as the houses on the left but it needs a lot more love and attention.  It’s…

This morning I bought a house in Montréal. Details later. Right now I’m off to Playa del Fuego, the twice-yearly Burning Man-inspired event in Delaware I attend whenever I can. Have a great weekend!

This weekend was our mostly-annual Ride For Pie, where we cycle out of town to buy the best apple pies in the world. I forgot my bag on this year’s ride… so I invented a pie sling using a bicycle inner tube. The pies survived admirably. In related news, life is good :)