Author Archives: skierpage

About skierpage

As you might guess, my site is mine. My Schema.org info is at .

there aren’t civilizations more advanced than us nearby

Posted on 2024-01-10 by skierpage

The Fermi paradox is brutal and sad. Civilizations in the Milky Way more advanced than us us seem vanishingly unlikely. The Milky Way galaxy is only 90,000 light years across. So any civilization that managed to reach our level on … Continue reading →

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music: CHIC appreciation part 42

Posted on 2023-12-21 by skierpage

Great to see Jack Stratton acknowledging the Titans of funk R&B, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (RIP) of CHIC, in his Don’t Steal This Groove music production video. He recreates their chucking guitar sound and clear bass. But I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in music | 3 Comments

web: multimedia killed by far worse videos

Posted on 2023-12-09 by skierpage

Video now consumes most Internet bandwidth. But video is terrible for imparting information about… stuff on web pages, or for teaching me about music. Videos that scroll through web pages It is nuts that in order to read about, say … Continue reading →

Posted in software, web | Leave a comment

demise of the open web, yet again

Posted on 2023-12-09 by skierpage

More handwringing over how the web has gotten worse. There have always been lots of The Web is Dead articles – here’s one from 2010!, but Denny Vrandečić mentioned more recent ones in a great Facebook post, including Why the … Continue reading →

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eco: no recycling needed if you never buy

Posted on 2023-11-12 by skierpage

Hey cunning linguists, what’s the German word for “Fear of buying something new because that would still leave you with the old thing that kind of works as well and it’s not eco to just throw it out so you … Continue reading →

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music: “new” Beatles songs will never end

Posted on 2023-11-10 by skierpage

“Now and Then” is sweet and has a good backstory, but this is not the last Beatles song. 2024: Sean Lennon finds a tape of his dad whistling a fragmentary tune and muttering a few lines. The remaining Beatles and … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, music | 1 Comment

music: more Cory Wong live greatness, Mark Lettieri!

Posted on 2023-11-05 by skierpage

The Fearless Flyers Live in Europe joins the triumvirate, the Holy Trinity of low-volume mostly instrumental handheld-camera concert videos: CORY WONG // LIVE IN MPLS // 9 FEB 2019, Vulfpeck Live at Madison Square Garden, and now this. Hmm, what … Continue reading →

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music: 10cc of near greatness

Posted on 2023-09-29 by skierpage

Someone said something that reminded me of a lyric, turns out it was from a 10cc song. They’re still famous for “I’m Not in Love,” a song so immaculately crafted that I unwillingly succumbed to its overwraught bathos (pathos? mythos?). … Continue reading →

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web: how to read blocked web articles

Posted on 2023-09-29 by skierpage

It’s an arms race to read articles that fade out under a “Please subscribe” overlay. In Firefox, try: I feel bad doing this, and a little less bad for running uBlock Origin to disable ads. I subscribe to the Guardian, … Continue reading →

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Nuala, 2007-2023

Posted on 2023-08-17 by skierpage

The original title… For years in my mind this obituary was titled “Angry lesbian bitch.” Shortly after we adopted Nuala, a group of teenage boys stayed with us and learned that if you lightly poked her, she would make a … Continue reading →

Posted in dogs | 4 Comments