Today is World Obesity Day.
(Weird Al’s Song can only be played on YouTube)
All posts by bakern
Keen Men
One of the most-read books in New Zealand was published on this day in 1960, A good keen man established Barry Crump’s reputation as an iconic ‘Kiwi bloke’.
Crump’s 20-odd books capturing the humour and personalities of rural New Zealand had sold more than a million copies by the time he died in 1996.
Tungsten Mining
Test – Blueprint for Tungsten Mining on Vulcanus (Image and string)
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Tapo Light
After the success of the plug, I tried the Tapo L530B bulb. It’s features include:
- Multicolor – Easily design scenarios for your daily routine or activities by customizing brightness, light temperature, and colors–with millions of hues to choose from.
- 60-watt equivalent – LED bulb produces up to 806 lumens of white brightness and has a dimming range from 1% to 100%.
- Preset for Convenience – Found your favorite lighting for watching movies? Save it as a setting you can simply select for future movie nights.
- Schedule & Timer –Create schedules and count plans to turn on/off with the brightness/color you set.
- Sunrise and Sunset Modes – Automatically activate your light according to your time zone.
- No Hub Required – Connect the L530B light to your home wifi, then you are all set.
- Remote Control – Take your phone out of your pocket and open the Tapo app to control your light remotely.
- Away Mode – Automatically simulate someone being at home to frighten away unwanted visitors.
- Restore Last Light State– the bulb automatically returns to its previous power-off state.
The main purpose for this is being the light behind my head when using the computer. Too dull and the room is too dark. Too bright and you get reflections off the monitor. A light with a dimmer should do the trick.
Installation was not as easily as the plug. Had to try several times before realizing I was missing a vital step. The colours are new and weird, but it does what is required. Now I just need more of them.
Tapo Switch
TP-Link is a Chinese technology company that manufactures network equipment and smart home products. The company was established in 1996 in Shenzhen. It has subsidiaries operating globally and owns several brands, including Deco, Tapo, Omada, Omada Pro, VIGI, Aginet, Kasa Smart, and Mercusys.
The company has been investigated by the governments of India and the United States, citing national security risks.
In a first start into home automation, I got this plug. It allows me to schedule my electric blanket to always come on at a prescribed times
The setting up was simple, and within 20 minutes I had it turning on and off with the phone.
Type History
Times New Roman was commissioned by The Times of London in 1929 and first used in 1932 to replace an outdated, spindly font with a more legible, compact, and efficient design. Designed by Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent based on the 16th-century Plantin typeface, it was engineered for high readability and tight space-saving on newspaper print.
Arial is a sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style. The typeface was designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, for Monotype Typography It is metrically compatible with Helvetica, enabling documents to use either typeface without affecting the visual layout.
Calibri is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Dutch designer Lucas de Groot between 2002 and 2004, commissioned by Microsoft for the ClearType font collection. Released with Windows Vista in
Atkinson Hyperlegible is a freely available typeface built around a grotesque sans-serif core, intended to be optimally legible for readers who are partially visually impaired, with all characters maximally distinguishable from one another. It won Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award for Graphic Design in 2019 and was shortlisted for a graphic design award by Dezeen in 2020.
Atkinson
After awarding Consolas the winner, I came across the variable width Atkinson…
Atkinson Hyperlegible is a freely available typeface built around a grotesque sans-serif core, intended to be optimally legible for readers who are partially visually impaired, with all characters maximally distinguishable from one another.
It was developed by the Braille Institute of America in collaboration with Applied Design Works and is available under the SIL Open Font License.
It won Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award for Graphic Design in 2019 and was shortlisted for a graphic design award by Dezeen in 2020.
Consolas Rules
I recently had to pause to determine the difference between a lowercase ‘L’ and an upper case ‘i’ in an acronym. If you look carefully at the common fonts, Calibri and Arial you can see that in both typefaces, the two are identical.
So, I went looking for a typeface that better distinguished between the two. It would also be helpful if there was clear difference between a ZERO an ‘O’. And the only typeface (variable) I could find was Consolas.
AI Music ?
I just noticed that (LUX) has returned to Bandcamp. Several weeks ago, all the albums just disappeared. But they were still on Tidal.
On January 13, 2026, Bandcamp announced that any music or audio created “wholly or in substantial part by AI” is prohibited on its platform, marking the first major music distribution service to implement such a policy. The ban also extends to AI deepfakes or tools used to mimic other artists’ voices or styles, aligning with existing rules against impersonation and intellectual property infringement.
I can only conclude that the artist was accused of using AI, but persuaded Bandcamp they didn’t.
HOWEVER
AST REC, had these albums (and others) disappear from Bandcamp:
Nostalgic EXpanse – Edges of Electronic Music 3
Nostalgic EXpanse – Edges of Electronic Music 4
Crystal Labyrinth – Labyrinth of Light
But now they are back, with four new albums from Jan 20 2026.
and all the back-catalogue gone. I can only conclude that the earlier
material was marked as AI and removed.
3 Minutes
Somewhere in 1940’s America an explosion shatters the night. Everyone wakes up with a jolt. Where are they? Who are they? It turns out that whatever blew up in the desert seems to have done more than just wipe their memories clean.
You can see where this game gets its inspiration, Lucas Arts, Monkey Island, Sierra (all those 1990’s classic adventures). And for a large part it succeeds. Main protagonist Berry is snarky, witty and a danger to all around her. You get to control her through most of the game. About 50-60 percent of the puzzles are logical and solvable.
But then, near the end things get worse. One puzzle kept me halted for days. They designed the game to have multiple solutions, but some are very obscure without a walkthrough. Then there is a long fight sequence that I followed according to the walkthrough but kept failing, without explanation
In the end, I could not complete the game. Most frustrating.