Advent of Code is an annual programming challenge. Every night at midnight EST from December 1st through 25th, a new problem is posted to the website, along with a participant-specific input file. Participants can use any programming language they want to solve the problem, using their input, and see if the output of their program matches the ( Read more... )

A popular casual topic of discussion the last few weeks has been that the Front Range has never gone this long without getting the first snow. Since October we've had two or three overnight dustings without any measurable accumulation. We've had far more unseasonably warm days, with plenty of "Mid-sixties and sunny" T-shirt weather in mid- ( Read more... )

Ain't found a way to kill me yet
Spicy food still makes me sweat
Every weekend I just go nowhere
Safe at home with my new pet
Hydroxychloroquine was no safe bet
Spike proteins assail me from somewhere

Here they come to give the booster
Yeah, here come the booster
You know I ain't gonna die
No, no, no, you know I ain't gonna die

Here they come to stab the ( Read more... )

I wrote previously asking people to write or call their Senators to include carbon pricing in the reconciliation bill. Now it's crunch time. If you're willing to do me a favor, please go to cclusa.org/take-action and make a couple calls to your elected representatives. It will take less than five minutes and help the U.S. achieve a 50% reduction ( Read more... )

Amateur radio enthusiasts sometimes organize a "fox hunt." A radio transmitter in an undisclosed location periodically broadcasts a signal on some frequency and participants use a directional antenna, a compass, and other tools to triangulate the transmitter's location.

Yesterday, the Boulder Amateur Radio Club organized a bit of a "reverse fox ( Read more... )

For many years I've assumed that when I turned 42 I would throw a big party, invite a bunch of hoopy froods, and see if everyone knew where their towel was. As it turned out this week, I had about 2000 people at my birthday party, I didn't have to plan the event, and I didn't see many towels.

Element 11 is a long-standing regional Burning Man event ( Read more... )

After over a decade, the time has finally come…
someone sent me an email encrypted with my PGP public key.

Based on the timestamp on my website, I set up GnuPG in 2007, which is two computers and about four hard drives ago. And while I'm a digital pack rat, those were the days that "copy your entire old computer to your new computer" would still ( Read more... )

I’d like to ask you for a favor. Feel free to say no :-)
Please take five minutes to email or call your two U.S. Senators and ask them to support carbon pricing. If you don’t have your senators on speed dial, a group I volunteer with has a tool to make this an easy contact. Just visit cclusa.org/senate

If you’re contacting a Democratic senator, ( Read more... )

When communicating over a noisy voice channel, like a two-way radio or a poor phone connection, it's useful to using a spelling alphabet to make key words extra clear. While many people on the phone use the first English name that comes to mind ("P as in Peter, H as in Harold, O as in Olivia, N as in Nancy, E as in Eve"), the lack of a standard ( Read more... )

In April, Burning Man announced that Black Rock City would not be built in 2021. I'd been holding out hope that the COVID recovery would be looking promising enough to make the event possible, and I'd been mentally preparing to spend a couple weeks wearing fashionable dust masks and experimenting with post-pandemic community creation.

My first ( Read more... )