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Prisfald på boliger
19 May 2022 - permalink
Jeg har tænkt lidt mere på hvad den stigende rente og inflationen gør ved boligpriser og afdragsbyrde. I dag er den faste rente på et 30-årigt obligationslån steget til 4% (rd.dk) fra 1,5% tidligere i år. Det betyder at et rent annuitetslån er blevet godt 1200,- dyrere om måneden pr. million før skat. For at ramme samme ydelse, skal lånebeløbet falde med ca. 25% (før rentefradrag)!
Det ser ud til at også bankerne er ved at melde det ud, i første omgang Handelsbanken (Finans.dk 18. maj):
Vi venter således som udgangspunkt, at huspriserne på landsplan vil falde med i omegnen af 10-15 pct. over det kommende års tid, og vi vil bestemt ikke udelukke mere markante prisfald i de dyreste områder som for eksempel lejlighedsmarkedet i København.
Og Nordea Kredit og Jyske Realkredit (Finans.dk 19. maj):
I kommuner, hvor boligpriserne er uændrede i forhold til 1. januar 2021, skal boligkøbere forhandle et afslag på 16 pct. hjem, før de er kompenseret for de sidste 16 måneders stigende renter.
Samtidig er prisen steget på både varme, transport og fødevarer, så rådighedsbeløbet udhules. Det er længe siden vi har været i sådan en økonomisk situation.
A Quadra in the Browser
18 May 2022 - permalink
More nostalgia :) Mihai Parparita:
I wondered what it would take to extend the Basilisk II support to have a macintosh.js-like experience in the browser, and ideally go beyond it.
Experience the classic Mac with System 7 or MacOS 8 right in the browser! I love it!
Google Search is Dying
08 May 2022 - permalink
DKB:
Why are people searching Reddit specifically? The short answer is that Google search results are clearly dying. The long answer is that most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust.
In addition to being offended by their privacy invading practices, it seems to me that the results have been deteriorating over the years. And the ads take up ever more space.
I switched to DuckDuckGo some years ago and while I can’t say I haven’t looked back, I prefer it for many search terms.
Robot Finds Remains of Another
29 Apr 2022 - permalink
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter spots debris from Perseverance’s landing equipment.
Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s team lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California:
“Every time we’re airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve. Mars Sample Return’s reconnaissance request is a perfect example of the utility of aerial platforms on Mars.”
Stunning and otherworldly images taken, incredibly, by a robotic helicopter on Mars!
The Web is Thriving Again
27 Apr 2022 - permalink
Anil Dash:
It is still truly possible for one person to make a website, without asking permission of any of the giant tech companies, and create an experience that touches millions of people. Maybe it’s to share a meaningful experience, or a fun game, or a weird obsession, or just to tell a story — the web was born to make these things possible.
I would absolutely love if the wild creativity from the early days of the web came back.
HyperCard Art Bits
27 Apr 2022 - permalink
Classic bitmaps extracted from the old HyperCard stack “Art Bits” by Apple! Really brings back memories :)
ISDS Abused
26 Jul 2021 - permalink
The Guardian reports:
Italy could be forced to pay millions of pounds in damages to a UK oil company after banning new drilling near its coast.
The case has sparked outrage at the secretive international tribunals at which fossil fuel companies can sue governments for passing laws to protect the environment – amid fears that such cases are slowing down action on the climate crisis.
This is outrageous but expected. The ISDS is being used to let the fossil industry continue unabated. It never belonged in healthy countries with well established institutions and rule of law.
Against surveillance-based advertising
19 Apr 2021 - permalink
We need legislation in this area, fast.
Every day, consumers are exposed to extensive commercial surveillance online. This leads to manipulation, fraud, discrimination and privacy violations. Information about what we like, our purchases, mental and physical health, sexual orientation, location and political views are collected, combined and used under the guise of targeting advertising. […]
Together with 55 organizations and more than 20 experts, NCC is asking authorities on both sides of the Atlantic to consider a ban.
Inferential Statistics is not Inferential
25 Mar 2019 - permalink
Valentin Amrhein:
A small p-value indicates that something is wrong with the model, but it does not indicate what is wrong.
Symbol of Life
07 Oct 2014 - permalink
Jamie Davies, professor of experimental anatomy at the University of Edinburgh in Aeon:
If we recognise that genes do not make body features, they make the machines that organise body features adaptively, that shift in perspective does much to lay to rest the long debates about nature versus nurture.
Very good.
Lost in translation, space edition
11 Feb 2014 - permalink
Emily Lakdawalla from Planetary Society:
A big question is whether we even still know how to communicate with the spacecraft. It was built in the 1970s, at the same time as the Voyagers. But we’ve been in continuous communication with the Voyagers since their launch; the same isn’t true of ICE.
[…] in the 30 years since it departed Earth we’ve lost the ability to speak its language.
The Patent Protection Racket
04 Apr 2013 - permalink
Joel Spolsky on software patent trolls:
It is organized crime, plain and simple. It is an abuse of the legal system, an abuse of the patent system, and a moral affront.
Indeed.
The Internet is a surveillance state
17 Mar 2013 - permalink
Bruce Schneier on surveillance online:
All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it’s efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.
The Trouble with Social News
17 Mar 2013 - permalink
In social news, the front page is king. Most users never go beyond the first or second page of top stories. […]
The effect of this is that we’re looking at a fast-flowing river of information through a pinhole.
Leopardize your internet
21 Mar 2012 - permalink
Small Safari extension I wrote inspired by this XKCD that “improves” the internet by replacing all occurrences of keyboard with leopard.
You Are Not Ruthless Enough
25 Feb 2012 - permalink
In the next release a new feature will be impossible to implement because class A has intimate, incestuous, biblical knowledge about class B. It seemed to work but the child of this relationship is going to cause you problems for the rest of its life even if you manage to separate the star-crossed classes and send them back to their families.
Here’s the thing: you are not ruthless enough.
Do it right the first time or you’ll have a “Giger-esque state-driven nightmare”.
Facebook is gaslighting the web
21 Nov 2011 - permalink
Anil Dash:
Facebook has moved from merely being a walled garden into openly attacking its users’ ability and willingness to navigate the rest of the web. The evidence that this is true even for sites which embrace Facebook technologies is overwhelming, and the net result is that Facebook is gaslighting users into believing that visiting the web is dangerous or threatening.
In this post I intend to not only document the practices which enable this attack, but to also propose a remedy.
Credit Rating
07 Aug 2011 - permalink
Paul Krugman on the S&P rating downgrade:
It’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies. The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really?
Stanley Kubrick interview
06 Aug 2011 - permalink
Stanley Kubrick interview in Playboy, 1968:
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
The One Rule
05 Aug 2011 - permalink
Michael Lopp on context switches, creativity and OS X Lion:
Let’s talk about the Zone […]. This is that magical place where you’ve managed to fit the entire context of your current project in your head. With all this content in there, you can perform superhuman acts of productivity and creativity because you have the complete problem space at your mental disposal.
The Zone is a sacred place. Staying or even getting there is difficult and OS X Lion really does help.