highlyeccentric

Sigh.

So in addition to memory, solid-state drives, high-end video cards, now they're eating up hard drives. Some drives up up 60% in THE LAST FOUR MONTHS, according to a report from a German news source.

From the article: "The trend is also visible in the U.S. A Seagate IronWolf drive with just 4TB capacity would have set you back $70 in early 2023; that drive is now $99. Similarly, the 8TB model is $199, when it would have been priced as low as $130 a couple of years ago. Western Digital's Red Plus alternative is now $175 for 8TB. The toughest blow of all? Seagate's iconic BarraCuda 24TB drive, which we've seen cost as little as $239 during sales events, now costs a whopping $499 on Amazon, and you'll be buying it from a third party. Newegg doesn't even have it in stock."

Apparently there is a knock-on effect of people now building PCs with DDR4 memory instead of the latest DDR5 because all of that memory is being gobbled up by AI. So now older motherboards are in higher demands? AI server boards are specialized beasts and aren't the same thing that you're going to put in your gaming rig.

Apparently the hard disk drives are used to store the bulk data for training AI models, then all the operations are carried out on SSD arrays for speed. Makes sense, from a computer operations standpoint.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/hard-drive-prices-have-surged-by-an-average-of-46-percent-since-september-iconic-24tb-seagate-barracuda-now-usd500-as-ai-claims-another-victim

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/1332213/hard-drive-prices-have-surged-by-an-average-of-46-since-september

bella_luugosi

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Content advisory: light mentions of neurodivergence and burnout

( Challenge #8 - Talk about your creative process. )

I am hoping that everyone else's responses to this challenge will help me to understand a little about how other people approach projects, creativity, and maybe get some ideas about how to do things differently. If anyone has any thoughts to share about getting past this sort of rut (despite what I said about self help books I am open to advice!) and I would particularly be interested in experiences of neurodivergent people who are also prone to fixation.

feng_shui_house

I followed a link about Uncleftish Beholding-a short scientific story/article published by Poul Anderson in 1989 in which he uses word play to replace most French/German/Latin derived words with Germanic words (inventing a lot of them).

That link led to other links, etc. Eventually I wound up on a Facebook group of glorious wordplay convos with punsters galore. It's one of the few Facebook links I tried that allowed non-Facebook me to keep scrolling- so the novelty of being able to look FOREVER kept me going until my right hand went OW!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/waywordradio/posts/10153722438023584/
*sample from very far down the DoomScroll*

Witnesses were quick to ascertain that the man who fell from the rooftop bar was not a bouncer.

He fell to the street below and was run over by a mass transportation vehicle. Turns out he was a busboy.

I knew a guy that fell from a three story deck into a large rubber plant and quickly rebounded. He got a new nickname, Basketball Jones.

He had recently ended a long term romance and was on the rebound.

With a twist, he fell on the rocks - there was a cliff below. You could call him quite a tumbler.

The bartender identified him as Tom Collins.

When they found him he was flat broke.

No but he was a well grounded person

thewayne

This is one specific manufacturer, WHIIL. Researchers found that the Bluetooth channel, used normally for configuring the wheelchair upon delivery and for service, was completely unsecure. No authentication, no certificates, no nothing.

The researchers were able to take complete control of the wheelchair, making it run at top speed (5 MPH) and sent it careening down stairs.

One comment on Bruce Schneier's blog commented about OpenBSD, a Unix fork that prides itself on being very secure. They do not support Bluetooth at all. When asked about it, they said that the Bluetooth stack cannot be secured. I'm surprised that something like a wheelchair interface isn't secured with just a panel and a USB cable. Simple controlled physical access. The scariest part is that they can now do Bluetooth well over half a mile, both send and receive - so theoretically hacks like this and transactions can be phished and the baddies are no where near you.

https://www.securityweek.com/researchers-expose-whill-wheelchair-safety-risks-via-remote-hacking/

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/01/hacking-wheelchairs-over-bluetooth.html

oursin

I'd like to think, yeah, still got it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were desperately scratching around for somebody who'd even heard the name of the author of once-renowned and now pretty well forgotten, except by specialists in the field, sex manual. Which has its centenary this year.

Anyway, have been approached by a journo to talk with them about this work and its author -

- on which it is well over 2 decades since I did any work, really, but I daresay I can fudge something up, at least, I have found a copy of the work in question and the source of my info on the individual, published in 1970. Not aware of any more recent work ahem ahem. The Wikipedia entry is a stub.

My other issue is that next week is shaping up to be unwontedly busy - I signed up for an online conference on Tuesday, and have only recently been informed that the monthly Fellows symposium at the institution whereof I have the honour to be a Fellow is on Wednesday - and I still have that library excursion to fit in -

- plus arranging a call is going to involve juggling timezones.

Still, maybe I can work in my pet theme of, disjunction between agenda of promoting monogamous marriage and having a somewhat contrary personal history....

susandennis

By this time next week, the pool may be totally fixed and operational!! We hope. On Tuesday, Erica, the fitness director, indicated it could be lots of weeks yet but she did say she was operating on old info. They sent out an email yesterday saying the fix would be installed early next week. So... maybe.

Wednesday, my Wegovy should be here.
Friday, my new closet gets installed.

Now if I can just get Biggie's bladder stones resolved, I'd declare this year a success! The next vet appointment isn't until February so I'll hold off on declarations...

For the record, oatmeal with oat milk is pretty darned ok.

I spent a lot of time yesterday getting the Food & Beverage stuff organized. Most of what I did yesterday was one off - Roster, calendar, etc. Today I need to finish up and get it to Harriet. I'll do that this morning.

Then I need to unhook the cat beds and move them. We need some days to get used to the situation before the new closet goes in.

Across the Hall Jim (not Down the Hall Jim) now has caregivers who come twice a day. They make sure he has meals and isn't doing anything crazy. I had a chance to talk to one of them yesterday. She said that she had heard that he was short listed for the Memory Care Unit. Memory Care is a small wing that is tightly controlled. The residents are not allowed to leave the hall unescorted. The residents there are mostly bright and cheery and remember nothing. They need constant care. That's Jim. The unit is mostly always full so someone's gotta kick the bucket to make room for Jim. But, at least, everyone now fully knows that he's out of marbles.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a new little thing knitting pattern and tried it out. I love the end result but I think it was way too fiddly to do. This morning I like her way better than yesterday so I may change my mind but for now, she's a one off

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-revealing-cell-nanocourier.html

An international group of researchers led by Pompeu Fabra University has discovered the nanomachine that controls constitutive exocytosis: the uninterrupted delivery of spherical molecular packages to the cell surface. This is an essential activity present in virtually all organisms to preserve cell fitness and other vital functions such as communication with the cell's exterior, cell growth and division.

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-revealing-cell-nanocourier.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-honeycomb-lattice-sweetens-quantum-materials.html

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are pioneering the design and synthesis of quantum materials, which are central to discovery science involving synergies with quantum computation. These innovative materials, including magnetic compounds with honeycomb-patterned lattices, have the potential to host states of matter with exotic behavior.

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-honeycomb-lattice-sweetens-quantum-materials.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-sharks-famous-fearsome-teeth-ocean.html

Sharks are the most feared predators in the sea, and their survival hinges on fearsome teeth that regrow throughout their lives. But changes in the ocean's chemistry could put those weapons at risk.

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-sharks-famous-fearsome-teeth-ocean.html

vivdunstan

Today’s arrival while I slept. For when I finish playing through the previous game!

This can be played by 1-4 players, and is a series of short games, trying to complete chapters of the LOTR story. It is very challenging in solo mode! Which is why I am only part way through Fellowship. But enjoying.

The game box of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game" designed by Bryan Bornmueller. The box is slim, with a dark design, ornate font for the lettering, and a bright Eye of Sauron visible above a swirling landscape.

The game box of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game" designed by Bryan Bornmueller. The box is slim, with a dark design, ornate font for the lettering, and a bright Eye of Sauron visible above a swirling landscape.

james

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

gywomod posting in

getyourwordsout

We have now closed pledging for GetYourWordsOut 2026. If you did not submit a completed 2026 GYWO Pledge Form or did not submit a registered Dreamwidth account or OpenID that can access Dreamwidth, you are not a member for 2026.

The GYWO moderators are thrilled to spend the next year writing with 823 writers.

Those who have come by too late, we appreciate your interest, and we hope that while you aren't able to join us officially, you'll make your own writing goals and achieve them. You’re welcome to subscribe to the community to keep a look out for 2027 news, or follow us on gywo.bsky.social or

gywo for prompts, writing advice, and resources. Pledging for 2027 will open in December 2026.

Have a great year!

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tiny-titans-recovery-fossil-burrows.html

An international team of scientists from South Africa, Canada, France and the UK has uncovered fossil evidence of a tiny ecosystem that helped kick-start the recovery of Earth's oceans after a global mass extinction.

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tiny-titans-recovery-fossil-burrows.html

tozka

🎬 Wake Up Dead Man: Directed by Rian Johnson. With Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin. Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history. 🔗

What I liked: the cast; how the director/writer obviously had an itch to scratch re: Christianity and the State of Things Today and really wanted to Say Something; how it's structured like an Agatha Christie novel almost exactly, or at least some old fashioned one (which in that context the plot pacing makes perfect sense). I also liked the makeup/wardrobe, which didn't glam up any of the actors except maybe Josh Brolin.

What I didn't like: the overly long introduction sequence which focused on characters that made barely any impact and weren't even good red herrings; the people who need to hear about the kinder Christianity stuff wouldn't watch this movie anyway so it ends up kind of like, well...preaching to the choir.

Unbeknownst to me, my parents were watching it on the same day-- but it turns out that we liked/disliked almost the exact opposite things. They loved the long intro!

mount_oregano

The novel Semiosis is now available in Ukrainian from Lobster Publishing.

This has to be the most beautiful edition of the book, as you can see in these Instagram reels.

I know just enough of the Cyrillic alphabet to know that СЕМІОЗИС is Semiosis and Сью Берк is Sue Burke.

Meanwhile, my heart breaks for the people of Ukraine. I visited Kyiv in 2006 when it hosted the European Science Fiction Convention, and I was impressed by the elegance of the city and the patriotism of its people. They made sure, back in 2006, that I understood they were not Russian.

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

Finding my damned glasses, which were lurking underneath the pile of sweaters, blankets, and other stuff draped over the arm of the couch nearest my desk.
Discovering that nova, my fileserver, still has python2.7 on it. The reason I wasn't able to post through it was that neither python2 nor my posting program (ljcharm) was installed.
Assuming this can be posted, being able to upgrade (Thinkpads) Raven (which I was using for posting) and Panther (which I hadn't realized wasn't upgraded).

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

nyctanthes

I will get to Challenge #6: Top 10 at some point. I want to talk about theatre I've seen, but that requires more time and thought than I currently have.

Also! Tomorrow!

threesentenceficathon begins! (pleasepleaseplease let me inspired just a leetle bit...)

Challenge #7: Three Things I Like About Meeee

1. When I start something, I finish it. This can be bad (sunk cost fallacy), but generally (see below) is a plus.

2. I’m funny. For a while I worried that my humor was too off-the-cuff, and I couldn’t translate it into writing. But that’s not true! I rather enjoy reading my own stuff and LOL-ing at my ~~occasionally~~ frequently juvenile jokes.

3. I say the thing that everyone’s thinking but is afraid to verbalize. When I was younger, I was too blunt, and this honesty was often off-putting. As I matured, I learned to leaven the truth with humor, to manage my tone, to not make it a personal attack, which really, really helps.

Challenge #8: Creative Process

Rather than get into the weeds of my process, which aren’t that interesting, including to me, I’ll just say that, at a macro-level, what most drives my writing process is that when I draft something and determine it’s worth pursuing, I finish it. Once I broke my two-decade plus writing drought, the third piece of fanfic I wrote was a 86K word novel. Did it receive any comments or kudos as I posted it, chapter-by-chapter? Not really. But by god I was going to finish it. Not just finish it, but edit it structurally so that it flowed better. One of the last pieces of fanfic I wrote was an even longer, Nancy Wheeler from ST story which had a very limited audience and required a whole lot of research. Didn’t matter. I *needed* to get closure on it before I could start writing original fiction and apply to graduate school.

This is helping me now that I’ve transferred my creative energy from fanfic to original fiction. Folks, writing a novel is a giant fucking pain in the ass that I do not recommend. And unlike fanfic, I have no guarantees that someone will eventually read it and love it.* Having practice finishing large projects is very helpful (“I know I can do this!”), as is my bull-headed** determination to cross an item off my to-do list.

(For me!) finishing a project is one of the best ways to learn and improve. The sense of satisfaction! The confidence boost! Unparalleled.

* Which eventually happened with both my fanfic novels. Not many people, but I write for niche audiences. :P

** Did I mention that I’m a Taurus and was born in the year of the ox?

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/bazinga-2026

Everybody sing!

Squashed kitties

Shorn kitties

Mangy balls of fur!

Crappy kitties

Creepy...kitties?

STILL BETTER THAN A DOG.

Thanks to Laura T., Gina P., Celeste B., Chris S., Jesse S., and Anony M., for starting our day with a Big Bang.

******

P.S. In case you prefer the "right" version:

Soft Kitty Fridge/Car Magnet

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/bazinga-2026

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-actin-wavefronts-cell-receptors-endocytosis.html

Every time our body encounters a new disease-causing agent, a crucial defense system called adaptive immunity comes into play. T cells, the top agents in this system, survey the internal environment of infected cells and start eliminating the pathogen. T cells are extremely dynamic, capable of changing their structure and makeup when making contact with other cells.

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-actin-wavefronts-cell-receptors-endocytosis.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-diversity-chemical-communication-ecosystems.html

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Kiel have provided experimental evidence showing that reducing plant species diversity alters plant chemical signals across whole communities and within individual plants.

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-diversity-chemical-communication-ecosystems.html

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highlyeccentric

November 2025

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Page Summary

thewayne - Thank you, AI data centers! Now conventional hard drive prices are up 46%!
bella_luugosi - Snowflake challenge prompt 8
feng_shui_house - Warning for Word Play Lovers
thewayne - Security researchers hack electric wheelchair via Bluetooth
oursin - Possibly scraping around for someone
susandennis - And the year is coming together
phys_breaking_feed - Revealing the cell's nanocourier at work
phys_breaking_feed - Honeycomb lattice sweetens quantum materials development
phys_breaking_feed - Sharks are famous for fearsome teeth, but ocean acidification could make them weaker
vivdunstan - Lord of the Rings trick-taking card game #2
james - Morning I guess
gywomod in getyourwordsout - Membership Closed
phys_breaking_feed - Tiny titans of recovery: Fossil burrows reveal resilient micro-ecosystem after global mass extinctio
tozka - watched: wake up dead man (2026)
mount_oregano - ‘Semiosis’ in Ukrainian
mdlbear - Thankful Friday (addendum)
nyctanthes - Snowflake Challenge #7-8
cakewrecks_feed - Bazinga!
phys_breaking_feed - How actin wavefronts rescue T cell receptors from endocytosis
phys_breaking_feed - Plant diversity shapes chemical communication in ecosystems

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Style: Sea and Salt for Nouveau Oleanders by branchandroot
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Thank you, AI data centers! Now conventional hard drive prices are up 46%!

Snowflake challenge prompt 8

Warning for Word Play Lovers

Security researchers hack electric wheelchair via Bluetooth

Possibly scraping around for someone

And the year is coming together

Revealing the cell's nanocourier at work

Honeycomb lattice sweetens quantum materials development

Sharks are famous for fearsome teeth, but ocean acidification could make them weaker

Lord of the Rings trick-taking card game #2

Morning I guess

Admin Post: Membership Closed

Tiny titans of recovery: Fossil burrows reveal resilient micro-ecosystem after global mass extinctio

watched: wake up dead man (2026)

‘Semiosis’ in Ukrainian

Thankful Friday (addendum)

Snowflake Challenge #7-8

Bazinga!

STILL BETTER THAN A DOG.

How actin wavefronts rescue T cell receptors from endocytosis

Plant diversity shapes chemical communication in ecosystems

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November 2025

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