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alChandler's Halls
Wrestling With Firefox
In April I removed Gemini from Chrome on my desktop and my phone. I'm an old man and I didn't want to fall into the trap of using an AI to search the web for me, much less help me compose emails. And there things stood until May when Google downloaded a file called weights.bin to Chrome during an update. It's in preparation for Google's new Gemini Nano AI. It's a 4GB file and (I presume) it will be waiting there just in case I change my mind about Google's AI features.
Chrome has been my browser of choice for some time now. I would flirt with browsers like Firefox or Opera but I always came back to Chrome, however it annoyed me that Google would steal 4GB of space on my drive for features I told them I didn't want. So I installed Firefox on Kosh and my phone, transferred my bookmarks on both places and deleted Chrome. On Kosh it was a simple transition, on my phone there was a bit of a hassle. Firefox on Android does not allow you to access the bookmark menu from the browser directly. Instead you have to tap a down arrow, tap again on a folder called Bookmarks and there are your bookmarks. And because my bookmarks were imported from Chrome there were two more layers of folders before I could actually access them, a pain in my fucking ass.
Since I was pissed at Google and since its search engine has made a massive pivot toward talking to AI agents, I used DuckDuckGo to figure out how to make my bookmarks more accessible. So I no longer have to travel the Oregon Trail to access my bookmarks on my phone.
Mission accomplished, I have successfully replaced Chrome on Kosh and my phone with Firefox and have stopped using Google on both devices, although on a Google phone you can't replace the Google searchbar with DuckDuckGo (or another search engine of your choice) but you can make a shortcut to your favorite alternate search engine.
Or continue to use Chrome and Google if you're happy with them. If you find Google's new direction helpful, that's great, I'm not trying to launch the Thirty Years War here. In my case I didn't want it and that resulted in the biggest change to the way I access information in over a decade (I don't really embrace change).
May 25, 2026
My Favorite ST:TOS Episode
And remember the first rule of time travel, you always kill Hitler as a baby if you get the chance.
May 23, 2026
Erik Satie - Gnossienne in Asia Minor. interpreted by Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra
You're Welcome.
May 18, 2026
Jack in Old Age
When Jack turned 12 he began spending time behind Kosh, he enjoyed the heat Kosh vented. One time I saw him as he was going to his spot, ducking under some wires and stepping over others. Newton couldn't do that even if he tried, he's bigger then Jack was. Then there's the eating wires thing.
Anyway, that's my favorite photo of Jack.
May 17, 2026
The Most Cyberpunk Headline I've Seen in a While
Someone on Slashdot has been waiting their entire life to do a headline like this.
May 16, 2026
The Great When
On 5/25 Alan Moore's new novel, I Hear a New World will be released. It's the second novel in a projected five book series called Long London. Since my memory of the first book, The Great When, was almost nonexistent, I decided to reread it. I don't remember what my opinion of the book was in 2024 but it had to be favorable since I preordered the second book. I can tell you that on the second read it was a delight.
Some people never reread books, I reread them all the time. In some cases I reread them because I love the style, others to jog my memory (actually at 70 my memory is slightly better but that's a story for another time). Then there are books like The Lord of the Rings, The Zimiamvian Trilogy (and its predecessor The Worm Ouroboros), The Gormenghast Trilogy and The Book of the New Sun; they're all big parts of my life and I go to them again and again. The point is, I reread on a regular basis.
As far as the Long London series goes, I'm not sure if I'll be rereading it, or even if I'll finish it. I'm 70. Moore is 72 and there are three more book to go. I'm sort of a pessimist you know.
But in the mean time, from now until 5/25 I'll be reading short books like Arthur Machen's The Three Imposters.
May 14, 2026
Diablo IV
Wow, got my ass kicked by the very first boss. So that's it for Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. What can I say? Shit Happens.
May 10, 2026
AI and Schools
In the 90s there were many politicians and educators screaming that kids in schools had to learn programming and how to use computers themselves or else they'd be unemployable. As it turned out they did not have to learn programming unless they were interested in the subject and as far as learning how to use computers in general, they were already using them. How were you going to use a Doom WAD unless you knew how to find it on the internet and how to install it? Hell, a friend from work fucked up the family computer so many times by going to dodgy sites and downloading shit that his kid finally got tired of cleaning up the mess that Dad made, so he mad himself the administrator and revoked Dad's installation privileges.
And that's why I'm skeptical about educators and politicians screaming that kids have to be taught how to use AI. If Mom and Dad have ChatGPT on the family computer their kid already know how to use it and she may be far more skeptical about its output than her parents are. It would be far better to try to teach adults that a LLM is on a HAL 9000 and a lot of its information is bullshit and that while vibe programming may get you a quick and dirty database app but it's not safe to use unless you run it by someone who knows what they're doing. Perhaps their kid knows somebody.
May 9, 2026
Mouse PI for Hire
I made it to the 10th mission when I threw in the towel, there were just too many puzzles. I didn't realize that when I bought the game but for what it's worth I had a pretty good time with it. Waiting in the wings is Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. One nice thing about the Diablo series, it's good old hack and slash. Although in my case my undead minions do the hacking and slashing while I stand aside smoking a cigarette (I'm a necromancer you see).
May 7, 2026
4GB AI Model
I'm not forgiving when it comes to Kosh, desktop or phone. Back in the days when I still had an iPhone I installed Facebook on it. I then learned that FB would trawl your address book so it could send them FB spam. It's why I don't have FB or Instagram on my phone years later. I don't forgive that shit.
Last year an update to Chrome installed their AI, Gemini. Google made it easy to remove, that's what I did and that should have been the end of things. A security researcher, Alexander Hanff, found out that Google has been installing 4GB of AI model files on people's computers. And while it's possible to remove them, Hanff discovered they turn up again when Chrome updates.
From time to time I've replaced Chrome with Firefox but I'd always go back after a few weeks, I'm used to Chrome and I don't particularly like Firefox's interface, but this is bloody war as far as I'm concerned. As folks say, your mileage may vary but I've removed from Kosh and my phone and it isn't coming back.
May 7, 2026
Happy May 4th
May 4, 2026
Pluto
Twenty years ago astronomers revised the definition of what constitutes a planet. A planet must meet the following criteria:
It must be round.
It must orbit its star.
It must have cleared the debris in its orbital path left over from planetary formation.
Pluto met the first two conditions but it didn't meet the third, so instead of being a planet, for the last 20 years it's been classified as a dwarf planet. In fact it's the largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt.
This has miffed Jared Isaacman, NASA's administrator who said the NASA is working on papers that he hopes will persuade astronomers to restore Pluto's planetary status. Of course Isaacman isn't an astronomer so his opinion is worthless but perhaps he'd like to hear my opinion on solid rocket boosters.
May 3, 2026
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Any questions or comments can be directed to kaliban13@comcast.net.
Logo courtesy of Mrs. Silverman.