The Citadel

I spent last weekend driving a rented Hyundai Ioniq5.

<snip>
This caused me to over-estimate how far the car would go on the trip and left me searching for a charging station.
<snip>


The game-changer for me is to have an EV which has an effective "trip planning" function.

A neighbor recently ...

my-car.png

I actually had this feeling the other day in a rental car that was managing cruise control through a traffic jam. If the car can't find the car in front of it... how is that my fault? The answer of course is that I'm supposed to be the one driving.


Reminds me of the many stories ...

Fallout 4 is a game I can't stay away from for too many months at a time.

It rarely fails to reward, and the other day I ran into this enterprising settler.

He had 4 Bottlecaps for sale. Price? One Bottlecap each.

It's damned hard making a decent living in the wasteland
.

For a couple of months now, I've been almost totally distracted from video gaming because I'm having too much fun with Codex.

I'm starting this topic in case there are like minded people on this forum who would like to share experiences.

I've learned a lot. And have produced stuff I like. I NEVER ...

I'm playing my own, work-in-progress, home-grown, re-imagining of the 1978 Apple II classic "Star Trek" style game.

The original was written in AppleSoft Basic. This is written in SwiftUI for the Mac, using OpenAI's Codex.

The fun bit is playing the Product Manager role and directing my AI Agents ...

Today was one of those VERY rare days when I managed to make zero mistakes (unlike @danoff :D )

AND it's a 4/5 difficulty day according to NYT, so I'm chuffed.

Connections
Puzzle #987
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪

Skill 95/99
Uniqueness 1 in 34

PS you can infer approximate origins and age from my use of ...

Danoff wrote: Thu Feb 05, 2026 3:20 pm <SNIP> Electronics usually drops like a rock in terms of price. <SNIP>

Back when I started working in the computer industry, a megabyte of disk storage cost ~ $5,700

Inflation adjusted, an 8TB disk drive today should cost ~ $476,520,000,000 assuming no price increase or decrease

One of the words was very parochial today, very NY

Strands #704
“Quint-essential”

Connections
Puzzle #967






Skill 89/99
Uniqueness 1 in 124

Does this mean Strands has contributed 6 months to my mortality?
.

Just when I am reaching total frustration with Connections, I get handed unexpected wins with perfect scores, one of them being a 5/5 difficulty. There must be some strange neuron wiring in my head.

In other success news, I received an email from NYT saying my subscription rate was being raised ...

Spangram Centenarian at last?

Ok, I'll bite.

My '08 FX35 is getting long in the tooth. I'll probably need something newer in the next year or two. I have a bring-a-trailer alert for any FX45s coming in to auction. I'd want an 08 or older. But I'd consider an EV for this vehicle. Here's what the vehicle needs:

- Decent ...

I felt very sharp when I found today's SpanGram

Strands #656
“On the chopping block”

I'm still kicking myself for taking a hint, however I like the symbols they used in this one
.
(better than how it comes out in text)...
Strands #652
“Palette episodes”

The bottom right hand corner threw me for a couple of sixes

Strands #649
“Shakespearean titles”

A 5/5 difficulty in which the purple one jumps out at me is really rare.

Connections
Puzzle #912





Skill 97/99
Uniqueness 1 in 96

Interesting science news with significant implications involving the discovery of sugars, a mysterious “gum-like” substance, and an unusually high abundance of supernova dust in samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

The sugars, including ribose and glucose, are essential for life on Earth ...

Today was a 5/5 difficulty which should have disqualified me

Connections
Puzzle #904





Skill 95/99
Uniqueness 1 in 2,278

Back into Assassins Creed: Shadows

After hundreds of hours, today I discovered that in Photo Mode, one can change to time of day and thereby choose the lighting.

As a byproduct of this, it reveals the actual in-game time of day.

Small details in an absolutely huge game

For example, it was night ...