Sometimes nerds just have to explain something

Last week I created an article for the ecomyca card: ecomyca (えこまいか) is a rechargeable contactless smart card issued by the Toyama Chihō Railway in Japan since 2010. The name is a portmanteau of “ecology” and “my card”, and is a play on the Toyama dialect “ikomaika” (行こまいか) which translates to “let’s go”. This was a lot of fun to research, and...

I saw that date under the title of my previous post as I was drafting it, and did a double-take. We’re almost into the second month of 2025. Already. What the fsck(8)? We’d better get the Xmas decorations down soon. I’m proud that Clara and I had five key objectives for the year, and we’ve now achieved one of them this month. We should be done by...

Last year I was the Main Character™ on Linux Mastodon for suggesting that some people need to run Windows, irrespective of whether they want to. Therefore, a blanket retort such as “just run Linux” isn’t just a waste of time, it misreads the room. That’s the lack of self-awareness people point to when they ironically use the phrase “year of the...

Remember when I waxed lyrical about the Atari ST last year, describing it as my favourite 16-bit computer series? Even leaving aside their unique technical capabilities and stunning industrial design, I said the ST machines had “so much home computer history soldered into their DNA that I can’t help read and write about them”. I wear my emotions...

I’ve talked here about my preference for split keyboards, though I currently don’t use one. I loved my family’s original Microsoft Natural Keyboard in particular, and I used the 2019 model for several years in spite of its mushy keys. Kinesis, known for their ergonomic kit, has announced a mechanical board with a similar split design to the...