I woke on Monday to hear that the Pope had died. I don’t follow that team closely, but he seemed fairly liberal for a pope. That might seem like a qualification that practically negates the original statement, but of the previous two incumbents I remember, one was close to Ronald Reagan, whilst the next had actually been in the Hitler Youth.

Francis wrote in support of the environment and against inequality and consumerism, and moved a lot further on LGBTQ+ issues than any of his predecessors.

Like millions of other people, we felt that the appropriate thing to do was to watch Conclave (2024). It’s a gripping film that manages to turn what sounds like a dry subject into something completely absorbing. I’m now an expert on a fictionalised version of the papal election.

Seguite sempre un papa grasso con sottile. I assume the worst, that the next one will be more regressive.

I was hoping for a relaxed start to work on Tuesday to ease back in after the four-day Easter weekend. This was not the case: a security incident obliged me to spend a couple of days rotating secrets, filling in forms, and trying to keep everyone updated.

I’m not quite sure what my job really is: endless chaos, multiple competing and ever-changing priorities, and too much time managing, fixing, and firefighting to do any actual development, but I think I might actually be enjoying it. I don’t even mind all the meetings so much any more. Maybe I’m entering my corporate era.

I looked into upgrading the hard drives on my NAS. I checked the original order, and I paid about £90 each for the 3 TB drives (from different manufacturers to reduce the risk of simultaneous failure) ten years ago. I must be able to get much more for my money a decade later, I thought.

Nope. 3 TB drives still cost about £90, and larger ones are even more.

I got up in time on Sunday to see the beginning of the Marathon as it went past the end of our road. I saw the wheelchair racers go past, then the elite women, then the first of the men. A small dog barked at every wheelchair that went past. Why do small dogs harbour such an antipathy towards wheels?

The women’s race was preceded by a car with elapsed time. From that and the known distance near where I was, I calculated that they must have been doing nearly 19 km/h, a phenomenal speed over such a long distance.

Two women running a marathon together with their pacers. A wheelchair racer passes by in the background.

The fastest of the elite women

Links:

  • Enhance! A comic strip.
  • This internet poll is breaking men’s brains! “This is what we get when male fitness standards clash with female preferences.”
  • Evertop is an e-ink IBM XT clone with solar power, ultra low power consumption, and ultra long battery life. It can run DOS, Minix, and Windows 3.0.
  • Docs is an open source alternative to Notion or Outline built by the French and German governments.
  • I’m queer and Keir Starmer’s trans rights U-turn chills me to the bone. “But it’s not the fault of minorities that everyone’s lives are feeling hard right now. Believing that is to give into the same venal reflex that has let fascism sneak in to struggling nations throughout history.”