h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

Postgres is adding a "unique nulls not unique" index, which prevents duplicate nulls. Normally a unique index allows duplicates if any column is null, so duplicate values of (123, null) are allowed. https://blog.rustprooflabs.com/2022/07/postgres-15-unique-improvement-with-null

A story from early days of Excel https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/

One-Time Passcodes may be too phishable for real security
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/08/how-1-time-passcodes-became-a-corporate-liability/

UK Air Traffic Control is observing a 2 minute silence for the Queen tomorrow https://www.notaminfo.com/explain?id=1854672/0

Tonight! The IgNobel prizes! 6pm US Eastern Time is 11pm British Summer Time. Be there or be a regular quadrilateral! https://improbable.com/ig/2022-ceremony/?amp=1

Delayed Gratification gives the full story. The huge volcano eruption in March has finished, and the number of casualties and risk of another eruption are known.
https://www.slow-journalism.com/long-reads/hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai-volcano-erupts

Paddle Steamer Waverley is back in London and the Thames between 23 September and 9 October. Always exciting to travel by steam ship! https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk/

Never underestimate archivists and librarians – as Donald Trump is discovering – The Law and Policy Blog
https://davidallengreen.com/2022/08/never-underestimate-archivists-and-librarians-as-donald-trump-is-discovering/

The trouble with 64-bit DMA
https://lwn.net/Articles/904210/

Measuring Worth calculates inflation if you want to know the value of commodities, the percentage of the economy, or the cost of labour of a price from the past.
https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/

Today is Anti-Pancake Day, the tuesday 6 months on from Pancake Day. You can celebrate Anti-Pancake Day by eating pancakes again. Why eat pancakes just once a year?

Vending machines
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/14/a-day-in-the-life-of-almost-every-vending-machine-in-the-world

The rest of the story: the bird flu worries from April have reduced to the stage where restrictions are being lifted. Chickens will be allowed outdoors again (the free range ones, anyway). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu

A look at git hashes, including why the hash of a blob isn't the sha1sum of the original file. https://dbatley.com/blog/2022/08/how-git-works.html

Amazing star map Stellarium has an online web version https://stellarium-web.org/

The history of modem sounds https://youtu.be/ckc6XSSh52w

The sentient Google AI story certainly reads like the first chapter in a Charles Stross novel ... Or is it just optimized to give the responses the creator wants to hear?
https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917

Xylothek — GM Word of the Week
https://www.gmwordoftheweek.com/home/xylothek