jan24 reading

2024-01-11

💻 JSFree.org

this gave me some inspiration for the css of my site
but I'm not this dogmatic about a js-less web, I guess it could affect site accessibilty. I have several friends who work on this, I should ask them. There are detailed standards for web accessibilty (outside of just js) and tools like axe-core can check compliace

☁️ DNSSEC

easy enough to turn this on with most registrars, I wonder why it's not the default?
not sure what DNS tunneling is: "Attackers can use SSH, TCP, or HTTP to pass malware or stolen information into DNS queries"
spoofing/hijacking makes sense.. the other listed vectors are also interesting variations on ddos
DNSSEC is just signing all the requests back to the root, with a cool irl signing ceremony to cover the root zone. This reminds me of a Radiolab episode about a signing ceremony ..ah but that was a crypto project. Deeper review of DNSSEC here
I'll turn it on, seems like the downsides are what you'd expect: more overhead with parsing the requests and support is not universal, not relevant for my micro site but interesting to learn about

various funders are directly backing a research group aimed at broad drug discovery
not a lot here on what they'll pursue or detail on how they're structured; there's a lot of whinging about diverting investments away from universities and poaching PIs and scientists from academia
their press release says the model "empowers scientists to investigate any disease" and, after locking in on a mechanism, they'll form companies to pursue things further

🇷🇺 Gentleman in Moscow

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Scottish Play

I listened to two productions on Libby, the one from BBC2 is really great
I spoke with ChatGPT about the different scenes and background (fairly helpful), and I also did some Anki decks on quotes and themes and this was really fun (Happiness!!)

🥶 Fargo, Big Lebowski

an inadvertent Coen Bros trend!
loved the imdb trivia on these -- helped me understand the point of the "Mike" scene in Fargo: it establishes that some people lie categorically and helps prompt Frances McDormand to re-investigate William Macy
maybe we'll check out the new-ish Fargo TV series too

⛰️ The Sound of Music

an Xmas tradition is born
this was one of like three movies we had at home so I know almost all the songs, very fun
and I just learned it's based on a true story, and the movie is relatively faithful to the story!
there are also great lullabies here
ChatGPT did an ok job extending "favorite things" with new stanzas..but I guess some repetition for the baby won't be noticed!

⚔️ NAC5

from scratch: flat bar, square tubing, cedar tops
the guys from This Old House bevel the caps for water and use wooden posts.
various types of hardware.. neither video mentioned "post protector sleeves" but those would probably be good