Tootfinder

"""
[…] Paradoxically, the more a population grew, the more precious it became, as it offered a supply of cheap labour, and by lowering costs allowed a greater expansion of production and trade. In this infinitely open labour market, the ‘fundamental price’, which for Turgot meant a subsistence level for workers, and the price determined by supply and demand ended up as the same thing. A country was all the more commercially competitive for having at its disposal the virtual wealth that a large population represented.
Confinement was therefore a clumsy error, and an economic one at that: there was no sense in trying to suppress poverty by taking it out of the economic circuit and providing for a poor population by charitable means. To do that was merely to hide poverty, and suppress an important section of the population, which was always a given wealth. Rather than helping the poor escape their provisionally indigent situation, charity condemned them to it, and dangerously so, by putting a brake on the labour market in a period of crisis. What was required was to palliate the high cost of products with cheaper labour, and to make up for their scarcity by a new industrial and agricultural effort. The only reasonable remedy was to reinsert the population in the circuit of production, being sure to place labour in areas where manpower was most scarce. The use of paupers, vagabonds, exiles and émigrés of any description was one of the secrets of wealth in the competition between nations. […]
Confinement was to be criticised because of the effects it had on the labour market, but also because like all other traditional forms of charity, it constituted a dangerous form of finance. As had been the case in the Middle Ages, the classical era had constantly attempted to look after the needs of the poor by a system of foundations. This implied that a section of the land capital and revenues were out of circulation. In a definitive manner too, as the concern was to avoid the commercialisation of assistance to the poor, so judicial measures had been taken to ensure that this wealth never went back into circulation. But as time passed, their usefulness diminished: the economic situation changed, and so did the nature of poverty.
«Society does not always have the same needs. The nature and distribution of property, the divisions between the different orders of the people, opinions, customs, the occupations of the majority of the population, the climate itself, diseases and all the other accidents of human life are in constant change. New needs come into being, and old ones disappear.» [Turgot, Encyclopédie]
The definitive character of a foundation was in contradiction with the variable and changing nature of the accidental needs to which it was designed to respond. The wealth that it immobilised was never put back into circulation, but more wealth was to be created as new needs appeared. The result was that the proportion of funds and revenues removed from circulation constantly increased, while that of production fell in consequence. The only possible result was increased poverty, and a need for more foundations. The process could continue indefinitely, and the fear was that one day ‘the ever increasing number of foundations might absorb all private funds and all private property’. When closely examined, classical forms of assistance were a cause of poverty, bringing a progressive immobilisation that was like the slow death of productive wealth:
«If all the men who have ever lived had been given a tomb, sooner or later some of those sterile monuments would have been dug up in order to find land to cultivate, and it would have become necessary to stir the ashes of the dead in order to feed the living.» [Turgot, Lettre Š Trudaine sur le Limousin]
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness)

Day 6: Kamome Shirahama
Before I wander much father afield, I'd be remiss not to include at least one Mangaka (I've got 8 on my planning list; if you think Manga is pushing it just wait until you see what the next few days have in store).
I'm currently following "Witch Hat Atelier," and it's absolutely amazing in several dimensions: first class world-building, deep philosophical themes, nuanced diverse cast, tightly-constructed interwoven plots, deep mysteries that keep everything churning and show up in unexpected places, absolutely stellar art both in terms of in-panel depictions and page layouts (some are Watchmen-quality), especially if you are sartorially inclined, and general kindness of its core messages. This is a series I wish every programmer would read, because it includes excellent advice about software design in multiple ways (did I mention there's an intricate and logical magic system within which the main character innovates in legible-to-the-reader-as-innovation ways?). Also, I bet I would have enjoyed this just a much as a 10-year-old as I'm enjoying it in my 30's, which is something that takes well-honed skill to pull off.
Shirahama is a master of her craft, and I'm honestly kinda surprised to see Witch Hat is only her second series. Definitely thinking how I can get my hands on her earlier work in English.
#20AuthorsNoMen

Sometimes hacking a computer means a whole different thing...
In this use, I'm actually hacking (with a hacksaw) the case apart to add an I/O shield (custom made) so I can fit an older motherboard that was not designed for this case.
And thank you to Gateway for making me do this by not using a removable shield and instead stamping every hole they needed and covering them with a sticker if they weren't on this model. 🤦‍♂️

Update on the Sony PVM-2530: probably should use RGB before diagnosing color issues (e.g. luma). I did have to get in my custom CMPTR board to do it, but everything lined up perfectly. I do need to fix the geometry a bit, but for right now I think I'll be playing a few games after work.
#electronics

Current ethnic cleansing in US is making some a lot of money, while destroying others.
“When ICE takes…person…system around them…built to swallow everything they ever touched.”
“Towing companies profit. State agencies profit. &…people who once lived in…homes & drove…cars & held…IDs are left w/nothing but…clothes on their backs. This is not a broken system.”
“…system functioning exactly as…designed.”

When ICE Takes a Person, Why Do Their Possessions Vanish Too?
An investigative expose. Forty-one percent of migrants say their belongings never returned from ICE custody, and the items left behind at the moment of arrest disappear just as quietly.

Fingerprinting Organic Molecules for the Inverse Design of Two-Dimensional Hybrid Perovskites with Target Energetics
Yongxin Lyu, Yifan Zhou, Yu Zhang, Yang Yang, Bosen Zou, Qiang Weng, Tong Xie, Claudio Cazorla, Jianhua Hao, Jun Yin, Tom Wu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25728

Fingerprinting Organic Molecules for the Inverse Design of Two-Dimensional Hybrid Perovskites with Target Energetics
Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted workflows have transformed materials discovery, enabling rapid exploration of chemical spaces of functional materials. Endowed with extraordinary optoelectronic properties, two-dimensional (2D) hybrid perovskites represent an exciting frontier, but current efforts to design 2D perovskites rely heavily on trial-and-error and expert intuition approaches, leaving most of the chemical space unexplored and compromising the design of hybrid materials with desired…

The MUG-10 Framework for Preventing Usability Issues in Mobile Application Development
Pawel Weichbroth, Tomasz Szot
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21914 https://

The MUG-10 Framework for Preventing Usability Issues in Mobile Application Development
Nowadays, mobile applications are essential tools for everyday life, providing users with anytime, anywhere access to up-to-date information, communication, and entertainment. Needless to say, hardware limitations and the diverse needs of different user groups pose a number of design and development challenges. According to recent studies, usability is one of the most revealing among many others. However, few have made the direct effort to provide and discuss what countermeasures can be applied…

Report: OpenAI has considered building glasses, a digital voice recorder, and a pin and signed a deal with Luxshare to assemble at least one of its devices (Marcus Mendes/9to5Mac)
https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/19/openai-and-jony-…

OpenAI and Ive poach Apple designers, target suppliers for hardware push - 9to5Mac
A new report details OpenAI and Jony Ive's plans and efforts for its AI-powered hardware push. Here are the details.

@… Agreed with the complaints. But in the context of… everything. I just can’t bring myself to be fired up about any of it right now.
Maybe when Tim stops sucking up to facist dictators, I will have spare energy to critique his design department.
(That doesn’t mean I think anyone is “wrong” for expending the energy there, you do you! - I just can’t right…

The Vergecast of October 31. («God will be declared by a panel of experts») has a bit funny and very good discussion of the bizarre joint press release between Microsoft and OpenAI and the insanity of the panel that is to verify if AGI has been achieved or not.
A choice quote about the problems of finding people to put on such a panel:
“A bunch of the world's best drunks have verified that you made whiskey is not a thing that you can do.”