The Excuse of the Day for 17 Jan 2026 is...
2026-01-17 12:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
excuseoftheday_feeda squirrel chewed through the cables
excuseoftheday_feed
Philippians 2:14-16
2026-01-17 12:00 pmvotd_feed“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.”
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Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.
The Charm, Such As It Is, of the Charmera
2026-01-16 10:23 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Kodak did a brisk business over the holidays with their meme camera, the Charmera, which is tiny enough to fit on a key chain and takes deeply lofi photos, especially in low light. But it cost $30 and as it happens I do need a keychain, so I thought I would try one out and see what I thought.
Inasmuch as every camera must be inaugurated with a picture of a cat, here is the very first photo out of the camera:
And here is a picture of me, with said camera, in my bathroom mirror.
These pictures are pretty terrible! But admittedly they are also inside my house where the lighting is not great. What happens when we go outside?
Nope, still pretty terrible.
Which is to be expected, as this thing comes with a 1.6 megapixel sensor (1440×1080), and the sensor itself is likely the size of a pinhead. You’re not taking pictures with this camera for high fidelity. You’re taking them for glitchy lo-res fun, in as good of lighting as you can get. This also had video, at the same resolution, but you know what, I’m not even going to bother.
In addition to the primary color mode the Charmera has other “fun” modes including ones that add frame and goofy pixel art to your picture, which, you know, okay, why not. You need to bring along your own micro memory card, and it’s a real pain in the ass to get it in, so you will probably never take it out (you can connect it to your computer via USB, which is also how it’s charged), but once it’s in you can take effectively infinite number of pictures because the individual image files are so small.
The UI is not great, the little screen on the back of the camera is too tiny to be of much use, and quite honestly I’m not sure what the use case of this thing is, other than to have it, and possibly give it to an 8-year-old so they can run around taking pictures without running the risk of them damaging anything valuable, like your phone or a real camera.
But, I mean, as long as you know all that going in, yeah, it’s kind of fun. And for $30(ish) bucks, not a huge outlay for trendily pixellated photos. I’ve made worse purchases recently.
— JS
6-day and IP Address Certificates are Generally Available
2026-01-15 12:00 amlets_encrypt_feedShort-lived and IP address certificates are now generally available from Let’s Encrypt. These certificates are valid for 160 hours, just over six days. In order to get a short-lived certificate subscribers simply need to select the ‘shortlived’ certificate profile in their ACME client.
Short-lived certificates improve security by requiring more frequent validation and reducing reliance on unreliable revocation mechanisms. If a certificate’s private key is exposed or compromised, revocation has historically been the way to mitigate damage prior to the certificate’s expiration. Unfortunately, revocation is an unreliable system so many relying parties continue to be vulnerable until the certificate expires, a period as long as 90 days. With short-lived certificates that vulnerability window is greatly reduced.
Short-lived certificates are opt-in and we have no plan to make them the default at this time. Subscribers that have fully automated their renewal process should be able to switch to short-lived certificates easily if they wish, but we understand that not everyone is in that position and generally comfortable with this significantly shorter lifetime. We hope that over time everyone moves to automated solutions and we can demonstrate that short-lived certificates work well.
Our default certificate lifetimes will be going from 90 days down to 45 days over the next few years, as previously announced.
IP address certificates allow server operators to authenticate TLS connections to IP addresses rather than domain names. Let’s Encrypt supports both IPv4 and IPv6. IP address certificates must be short-lived certificates, a decision we made because IP addresses are more transient than domain names, so validating more frequently is important. You can learn more about our IP address certificates and the use cases for them from our post announcing our first IP Certificate.
We’d like to thank the Open Technology Fund and Sovereign Tech Agency, along with our Sponsors and Donors, for supporting the development of this work.
6-day and IP Address Certificates are Generally Available
2026-01-15 12:00 amlets_encrypt_feedShort-lived and IP address certificates are now generally available from Let’s Encrypt. These certificates are valid for 160 hours, just over six days. In order to get a short-lived certificate subscribers simply need to select the ‘shortlived’ certificate profile in their ACME client.
Short-lived certificates improve security by requiring more frequent validation and reducing reliance on unreliable revocation mechanisms. If a certificate’s private key is exposed or compromised, revocation has historically been the way to mitigate damage prior to the certificate’s expiration. Unfortunately, revocation is an unreliable system so many relying parties continue to be vulnerable until the certificate expires, a period as long as 90 days. With short-lived certificates that vulnerability window is greatly reduced.
Short-lived certificates are opt-in and we have no plan to make them the default at this time. Subscribers that have fully automated their renewal process should be able to switch to short-lived certificates easily if they wish, but we understand that not everyone is in that position and generally comfortable with this significantly shorter lifetime. We hope that over time everyone moves to automated solutions and we can demonstrate that short-lived certificates work well.
Our default certificate lifetimes will be going from 90 days down to 45 days over the next few years, as previously announced.
IP address certificates allow server operators to authenticate TLS connections to IP addresses rather than domain names. Let’s Encrypt supports both IPv4 and IPv6. IP address certificates must be short-lived certificates, a decision we made because IP addresses are more transient than domain names, so validating more frequently is important. You can learn more about our IP address certificates and the use cases for them from our post announcing our first IP Certificate.
We’d like to thank the Open Technology Fund and Sovereign Tech Agency, along with our Sponsors and Donors, for supporting the development of this work.
Their Kingdom Come (Night Eaters, volume 3) by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
2026-01-16 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
Their last cunning scheme set apocalypse in motion. What wonders will follow Billy and Milly's next bold endeavour?
Their Kingdom Come (Night Eaters, volume 3) by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
Galatians 5:16
2026-01-16 12:00 pmvotd_feed“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
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Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.
The Excuse of the Day for 16 Jan 2026 is...
2026-01-16 12:00 amexcuseoftheday_feedInternet 1 traffic is being routed onto Internet 2
[Review] Quarantine Zone: The Last Check
2026-01-15 01:36 pmtally posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gamingI picked up Quarantine Zone: The Last Check on an impulse purchase and thought I'd leave a few thoughts on it!
It's a sim game where you have to check people for zombie symptoms before letting them into the checkpoint. There's also some base management to it, as well as some little zombie shooting segments, but the sim part was what got me interested.
And the sim part is pretty fun! I've sunk quite a few hours into it. Very nice gameplay loop of checking symptoms, with increasing difficulty as new symptoms reveal themselves.
The base building is...fine? It's just very shallow and not challenging. I don't mind it, I just find myself wanting more complexity in it.
And finally, I find the zombie shooting bits (you have to defend the wall from a horde) to be boring and unwelcome but mercifully short, easy, and infrequent. Honestly, I wish they would have scrapped this entire thing and instead focused on putting more into the base management.
It's a little buggy, but receiving fixes.
I've only played the campaign so far, which I like, but I do worry that once I'm done with the campaign, there won't be much reason for me to come back to play the endless mode.
My verdict: good game, but maybe buy it on sale.
It's a sim game where you have to check people for zombie symptoms before letting them into the checkpoint. There's also some base management to it, as well as some little zombie shooting segments, but the sim part was what got me interested.
And the sim part is pretty fun! I've sunk quite a few hours into it. Very nice gameplay loop of checking symptoms, with increasing difficulty as new symptoms reveal themselves.
The base building is...fine? It's just very shallow and not challenging. I don't mind it, I just find myself wanting more complexity in it.
And finally, I find the zombie shooting bits (you have to defend the wall from a horde) to be boring and unwelcome but mercifully short, easy, and infrequent. Honestly, I wish they would have scrapped this entire thing and instead focused on putting more into the base management.
It's a little buggy, but receiving fixes.
I've only played the campaign so far, which I like, but I do worry that once I'm done with the campaign, there won't be much reason for me to come back to play the endless mode.
My verdict: good game, but maybe buy it on sale.
System Collapse (Murderbot, volume 7) by Martha Wells
2026-01-15 09:18 amjames_davis_nicoll
Murderbot and allies struggle to establish friendly relations with a rediscovered lost colony in time to protect them from a predatory company.
System Collapse (Murderbot, volume 7) by Martha Wells
January London meetup
2026-01-15 11:08 amcaptainawkward_feedAnnouncement: the audience for these has changed, so I’m going to do them once every three or four months instead of monthly. So please come to this January one if you’re interested, there won’t be another until probably April.
24th January, 1pm, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, SE1 8XX.
We will be on Level 5 blue side (the upper levels are no longer closed to non-ticket-holders), but I don’t know exactly where on the floor. It will depend on where we can find a table.
I have shoulder length brown hair, and will have my plush Chthulu which looks like this:
Please obey any rules posted in the venue.
The venue has lifts to all floors and accessible toilets. The accessibility map is here:
The food market outside (side away from the river) is pretty good for all sorts of requirements, and you can also bring food from home, or there are lots of cafes on the riverfront.
Other things to bear in mind:
1. Please make sure you respect people’s personal space and their choices about distancing.
2. We have all had a terrible time for the last four years. Sharing your struggles is okay and is part of what the group is for, but we need to be careful not to overwhelm each other or have the conversation be entirely negative. Where I usually draw the line here is that personal struggles are fine to talk about but political rants are discouraged, but I may have to move this line on the day when I see how things go. Don’t worry, I will tell you!
3. Probably lots of us have forgotten how to be around people (most likely me as well), so here is permission to walk away if you need space. Also a reminder that we will all react differently, so be careful to give others space if they need.
Please RSVP if you’re coming so I know whether or not we have enough people. If there’s no uptake I will cancel a couple of days before.
kate DOT towner AT gmail DOT com
John 8:31-32
2026-01-15 12:00 pmvotd_feed“[Dispute Over Whose Children Jesus’ Opponents Are] To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””
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Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.
Outgunned 1
2026-01-14 09:59 pmjames_davis_nicollMy Outgunned game is a spy thriller of sorts. I thought it would be fun to skip the usual "characters start together, get briefed, plot their mission together" and so on, I'd start with three of the five breaking into an apartment. They are 14-year-old Diane Dean (the driver), 18-year-old Concordia Butterstein (unsanctioned intrusion and asset acquisition expert) and 70-year-old Jethro Winthrop (the smooth talking fellow who hired the other two because they offered the best value for price)
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Beric the Briton, by G. A. Henty
2026-01-14 11:07 pmstandardebooks_new_feedA young Briton, learned in Roman ways, becomes their chief adversary.
Tragedy at Ravensthorpe, by J. J. Connington
2026-01-14 10:49 pmstandardebooks_new_feedChief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield investigates the theft of valuables from a country estate after a masquerade ball.
Father Henson’s Story of His Own Life, by Josiah Henson
2026-01-14 10:34 pmstandardebooks_new_feedJosiah Henson’s autobiography recounts his life in slavery and his escape to freedom in Canada.
Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)
2026-01-14 03:39 pmjames_davis_nicoll
A vast megadungeon from Expeditious Retreat Press for D&D, AD&D, and other tabletop fantasy roleplaying games.
Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)
The Academy Is…: 2005
2026-01-14 04:35 pmscalziwhatever_feedThe Academy Is…, one of my favorite bands from this century (and yes, I feel old just typing that out), has recorded their first new album in eighteen years, titled Almost There, and will be putting it out in March. In the meantime, here is the first single from the album, “2005,” which is a paean both to that year and still being around more than 20 years later. Speaking as someone whose debut novel came out in 2005: Feel it.
Also if you want to preorder the album and merch, they have a shop.
— JS
Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire
2026-01-14 10:21 amjames_davis_nicoll
...Wait, we're supposed to believe that it's the rebels who are wrong?
Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
2026-01-14 08:54 amjames_davis_nicoll
A teen subject to intermittent time-loops sets out to prevent the murder of his unlikable grandfather. This will be much harder than he expects.
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
1 John 4:20-21
2026-01-14 12:00 pmvotd_feed“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
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Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
2026-01-13 08:52 amjames_davis_nicoll
Sisters process family tensions as the world slowly grinds to an end.
Private Rites by Julia Armfield