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Diary for Friday, July 24rd

Diary for Wednesday, July 24rd

Figure 1: Source: BanG Dream! YUME∞MITA (A show highly slept on.) — Figure 1: Source: *BanG Dream! YUME∞MITA*
(A show *highly* slept on.)

The blog has been getting many upgrades! Non-exhaustive list:

Content has now been split into diaries, articles, and notes;
Clicking a tag on the index pages now behaves consistently between the tag cloud and the list entries;
Front page now only shows the latest diary entry;
Blog now implements public/friends/private access levels, although there is no authentication feature yet;
Code blocks now have syntax highlighting.

I started writing an article on copyright. Just like yesterday’s article, it leans rather negative, also because it flows out of that one. I don’t want to make too much of a habit of writing negativistic opinion pieces all the time, so I’ll try to make the next article more positive, and not an opinion piece. Reading too many opinions isn’t good for you.

Objective Taste

We talk of “taste” as a quintessentially “subjective” thing, belonging to a hidden inner world, unbeholden to criticism and argument from outsiders; but I think we do ourselves a disservice by seeing it that way.

Qualifying “Taste”

As I’m writing this, I’m baking a ready-made ham-and-mushrooms pie¹. I expect to enjoy this pie, because I like ham and mushrooms and I’m very favorable towards the brand, especially their pies². But I don’t expect my brother to like it; he hates mushrooms. You can certainly say that mushrooms are not to his taste, and certainly that’s subjective, it’s an interesting fact about my brother, as an individual.

Copyright is Bad

I think copyright, doubtedly a bad system in practice, is also fundamentally a bad idea. But first, let me clarify on the three broad types of intellectual property

A Taxonomy of “Intellectual Property”

First, there are trademarks. I run a company, called Acme Doodads. We make high quality thingbobs, with good customer service and a lifetime warranty. This is costly for us, but our customers love us for it, so it’s good business. You make some plastic crap and make a clanker tell your customers you won’t be honoring their warranty when it inevitably breaks after two months. You’d love to also call yourself Acme Doodads. But you would be stealing from me, and that shouldn’t be allowed. It isn’t, because “Acme Doodads” is my trademark. This extends to other branding like logos, too. Trademark law is, in my opinion, straightforwardly good.

Regarding Codeberg's Anti-LLM Statement

Regarding Codeberg’s Anti-LLM Statement

After Codeberg’s latest statement I have decided to migrate off the platform and hereby retract my former endorsement of the it. They’ve officially made a large number of projects persona non grata, notably including projects written and maintained with heavy use of LLMs. This does not currently include me, but it covers at least one awesome project a close friend of mine has poured hundreds, probably thousands, of man-hours into that is starting to see real adoption. That project does not use Codeberg, admittedly, but it’s a matter of principle.

Index of Open Projects

Behold, an index of my various open projects!

This is a living document; it will change over time.

Here is a bunch of filler text so that all the stuff underneath disappears under the fold on my front page. I will remove this later when I come up with a better solution to this. Foo bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz bar baz foo bar bar foo foo foo baz quux quux baz foo bar baz.

Thinkpad X201 Adventures

Introduction

I’m the proud owner of this Lenovo Thinkpad X201:

Figure 1: My old Thinkpad X201. — Figure 1: *My old Thinkpad X201*.

It’s a 2010 machine, so a bit older, but I love the form factor and robustness. I have a special fondness for this machine, as it was once my main laptop; until I stepped on it and cracked the screen, that is.

Wrocław/Millennium Strike

Wrocław/Millennium Strike WROC.WAV

Arriving

Alex, apt-get, mercury.lamp, pachy and myself were in Wrocław¹, Poland between April 30th and May <END DATE> for Millennium Strike Live WROC.WAV where apt and merc were performing (B2B, under alias Re;iwa Diabolik). Shout out to pachy for finding time and money to join us last minute; I am very very glad he was able to be there, it wouldn’t have been the same without him.

Figure 1: Quake III was a good game. — Figure 1: *Quake III was a good game.*

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Premier Impact Retrospective

Introduction

This is a retrospective on Premier Impact, a music event we held on the 10th of May 2025.

Figure 1: Event poster. I participated under the alias “Sakka”. — Figure 1: *Event poster. I participated under the alias “Sakka”.*

Organisation

Context

A bit of context that’ll help illustrate some of the organisational difficulties involved in the event:

My mom and (later) brother were staying over at our place between April 20th and April 29th;
We were in Wrocław, Poland from April 30th until May 5th for Millennium Strike Live WROC.WAV;
Premier Impact took place on the 10th of May;
Suzubrah stayed over at our place between May 19th and May 26th.

The observant reader might notice that this is a bit of a tight squeeze; it couldn’t realy be helped¹, but it was the underlying reason for a lot of the difficulties encountered.