I came across this fun little comic titled We Didn’t Lose the Plot. It has a straightforward conclusion: more things should come to an end. The “things” referred to here is media like books and movies and television but I’d extend it to many other things as well.

Like web projects.

So often, things are built in the attempt to have infinite growth. And like cancer, they seemingly grow to the point where the entire thing eventually dies or becomes useless at the problem it originally set out to solve.

I like projects that have a definitive end. One of the things I liked about doing the Fifty project was that it had to finish. I don’t need to do a Fifty: The Refiftying, or Fifty 2: Fifty Boogaloo, or 2 Fifty 2 Furious. The project is done.

It’s likely why I enjoy building concepts or mini-apps. They’re quick and solve a specific problem or answer a particular question without needing to be grown, sold, serviced, or maintained.

I’ve been considering potential projects that would have a specific end in mind with which I could build a mini-site around. I don’t have anything planned yet but I’m looking forward to the possibilities.

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Hoe weet je dat je in Frankrijk bent? Huiskamervraag; antwoord hier morgen. We sliepen om 7 uur en we ontwoken om 4 uur. Een vorstelijke nacht slaap en omdat het er niet inzat dat ik nog in slaap zou vallen voor de wekker afliep om 4:45 werd er opgeruimd, na eerst aan de bandjes gevoeld te hebben. Hard. Mooi. Naar de boot was 25 km of zo, maar wel met hindernissen, want het fietspad langs de snelweg was afgesloten. Je kon alleen de snelweg op vanaf daar, maar ik had niet door dat het een snelwegoprit was. Zat ik inene op de vluchtstrook in een 6-baans gekkenhuis. Nou was het vroeg, maar er werd druk en hard gereden al. Na een paar honderd meter scheidde alleen de vangrail de snelweg van het fietspad, en ik was het hek aan de andere kant van de werkzaamheden al gepasseerd. Met de moed der wanhoop tilde ik mijn rijwiel inclusief bepakking over de vangrail heen. 50 kilo schoon aan de haak. Het zal de adrenaline geweest zijn, denk ik.

The rebooted GCHQ digital warfare series has more zip than its predecessor – but people bashing away on computers in a bunker near Cheltenham is inherently unsexy

If the espionage battles of the future are going to be fought online, TV thrillers will have to reflect that fact, much as they might not want to. Cyber-attacks, cross-border malware and digital misinformation just aren’t especially televisual: whatever you do, you always end up with a speed-typing nerd muttering “Shit!” as gobbledegook scrolls across a monitor and red lights flash in the distance.

In 2022, Channel 4’s missable drama The Undeclared War tried to crack the problem by throwing heavyweight film-making pedigree at it. Peter Kosminsky, the esteemed director behind Wolf Hall and The Government Inspector, had evidently researched the back end out of the subject, presenting the details of an imagined campaign of Russian interference in Britain’s daily digital functionality – and, from there, the democratic process of an election – in a way that real-life sleepless nerds said was credible enough.

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FIFA World Cup 2026? The FIFA World Cup? is football's most prestigious international tournament, bringing together the world's leading national teams in a global celebration of sport, culture and identity. First held in 1930, the competition takes place every four years and has produced some of the most memorable moments and influential figures in sporting history. The FIFA World Cup 2026? marks a new chapter for the tournament. Hosted across Canada, Mexico and the United States, it is the first edition to be staged across three nations. Featuring a record 48 teams, 104 matches and 16 host cities, the tournament represents the largest and most inclusive FIFA World Cup? ever held. Defined by passion, national pride and unpredictable drama, the World Cup extends far beyond the pitch. Football intersects with fashion, art, music and popular culture, while each nation expresses its own visual identity through uniforms, symbols and supporter traditions. Players such as Pelé, Diego Marado

A federal judge has approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement over pirated books used to train its Claude chatbot, with authors and publishers set to receive about $3,000 per book. The case produced a mixed ruling for the AI industry: training on copyrighted books was found not to be illegal, but Anthropic's use of pirated copies from shadow libraries was. The Associated Press reports: District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides "meaningful relief" to affected authors and publishers. About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment. Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was "the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The White Stripes

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De reisadviezen voor verschillende landen in het Midden-Oosten zijn aangescherpt. Dat komt omdat de veiligheidssituatie daar is verslechterd, aldus het Nederlandse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken. "De situatie in het Midden-Oosten blijft onvoorspelbaar."

De reisadviezen voor Qatar, Jordanië, Saudi-Arabië, Koeweit en de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten zijn inmiddels oranje. Dat betekent dat het ministerie adviseert om er alleen heen te reizen als dat noodzakelijk is en er niet op vakantie te gaan. Bij problemen kunnen Nederlandse ambassades in de landen minder goed helpen. De oranje kleurcode geldt ook voor delen van Oman.

Het reisadvies voor Bahrein is rood. "Wat uw situatie ook is: reis er niet heen. Het is er te gevaarlijk", meldt het ministerie. Nederlanders die in Bahrein zijn, worden opgeroepen om het land te verlaten, mits dat op een veilige manier kan.